Dynamical Networks of Social Influence: Modern Trends and Perspectives

Dynamics and control of processes over social networks, such as the evolution of opinions, social influence and interpersonal appraisals, diffusion of information and misinformation, emergence and dissociation of communities, are now attracting significant attention from the broad research community that works on systems, control, identification and learning. To provide an introduction to this rapidly developing area, a Tutorial Session was included into the program of IFAC World Congress 2020. This paper provides a brief summary of the three tutorial lectures, covering the most “mature” directions in analysis of social networks and dynamics over them: 1) formation of opinions under social influence; 2) identification and learning for analysis of a network’s structure; 3) dynamics of interpersonal appraisals.