This editorial paper presents the articles published in a special issue devoted to active particle methods applied to modeling, qualitative analysis, and simulation of the collective dynamics of large systems of interacting living entities in science and society. The modeling approach refers to the mathematical tools of behavioral swarms theory and to the kinetic theory of active particles. Applications focus on classical problems of swarms theory, on crowd dynamics related to virus contagion problems, and to multiscale problems related to the derivation of models at a large scale from the mathematical description at the microscopic scale. A critical analysis of the overall contents of the issue is proposed, with the aim to provide a forward look to research perspectives.

中文翻译：

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科学与社会的集体动力

这篇社论论文介绍了发表在特刊上的文章，这些文章专门讨论了应用于科学和社会中相互作用的生物实体的大型系统的集体动力学的建模、定性分析和模拟的主动粒子方法。建模方法是指行为群体理论的数学工具和活性粒子的动力学理论。应用集中于群体理论的经典问题，与病毒传染问题相关的人群动力学问题，以及与从微观尺度的数学描述推导大规模模型相关的多尺度问题。提出了对该问题的整体内容的批判性分析，旨在提供对研究观点的前瞻性。