Method to analyze a local community as a complex adaptive system for resident-centered local community vitalization

A community is a system that cannot exist without the involvement of self-motivated people, and it is composed of humans, “Mono,” “Koto”, and their relationality. “Mono” in Japanese denotes a physically perceived entity (tangible), while “Koto” denotes a cognitively conceived entity (intangible). In other words, a local community is a typical example of a complex adaptive system, and it can be simulated by a suitable model such as multi-agent systems approach; this implies that it is possible to develop a local community as a complex adaptive system using appropriate design and analysis. In this paper, we investigated the methods to analyze a local community. We visualized the day-wise relationships among the experimental participants using the passing-each-other data collected from them. As a result, we confirmed that each participant formed clusters that varied day-wise. We could also confirm several features which helped establish that a local community is a complex adaptive system. Furthermore, the results were strikingly different for a weekday compared to a holiday.