Agent-Based Computational Sociology

Agent-Based Computational Sociology PDF Author: Flaminio Squazzoni
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119941636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Most of the intriguing social phenomena of our time, such as international terrorism, social inequality, and urban ethnic segregation, are consequences of complex forms of agent interaction that are difficult to observe methodically and experimentally. This book looks at a new research stream that makes use of advanced computer simulation modelling techniques to spotlight agent interaction that allows us to explain the emergence of social patterns. It presents a method to pursue analytical sociology investigations that look at relevant social mechanisms in various empirical situations, such as markets, urban cities, and organisations. This book: Provides a comprehensive introduction to epistemological, theoretical and methodological features of agent-based modelling in sociology through various discussions and examples. Presents the pros and cons of using agent-based models in sociology. Explores agent-based models in combining quantitative and qualitative aspects, and micro- and macro levels of analysis. Looks at how to pose an agent-based research question, identifying the model building blocks, and how to validate simulation results. Features examples of agent-based models that look at crucial sociology issues. Supported by an accompanying website featuring data sets and code for the models included in the book. Agent-Based Computational Sociology is written in a common sociological language and features examples of models that look at all the traditional explanatory challenges of sociology. Researchers and graduate students involved in the field of agent-based modelling and computer simulation in areas such as social sciences, cognitive sciences and computer sciences will benefit from this book.

Agent-Based Computational Sociology

Agent-Based Computational Sociology PDF Author: Flaminio Squazzoni
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119941636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
Most of the intriguing social phenomena of our time, such as international terrorism, social inequality, and urban ethnic segregation, are consequences of complex forms of agent interaction that are difficult to observe methodically and experimentally. This book looks at a new research stream that makes use of advanced computer simulation modelling techniques to spotlight agent interaction that allows us to explain the emergence of social patterns. It presents a method to pursue analytical sociology investigations that look at relevant social mechanisms in various empirical situations, such as markets, urban cities, and organisations. This book: Provides a comprehensive introduction to epistemological, theoretical and methodological features of agent-based modelling in sociology through various discussions and examples. Presents the pros and cons of using agent-based models in sociology. Explores agent-based models in combining quantitative and qualitative aspects, and micro- and macro levels of analysis. Looks at how to pose an agent-based research question, identifying the model building blocks, and how to validate simulation results. Features examples of agent-based models that look at crucial sociology issues. Supported by an accompanying website featuring data sets and code for the models included in the book. Agent-Based Computational Sociology is written in a common sociological language and features examples of models that look at all the traditional explanatory challenges of sociology. Researchers and graduate students involved in the field of agent-based modelling and computer simulation in areas such as social sciences, cognitive sciences and computer sciences will benefit from this book.

Agent-based Models and Causal Inference

Agent-based Models and Causal Inference PDF Author: Gianluca Manzo
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 9781119704478
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Explore the issue of causal inference in agent-based computational models in a first-of-it’s-kind volume Agent-based Models and Causal Inference delivers an insightful investigation into the conditions under which different quantitative methods can legitimately hold to be able to establish causal claims. The book compares agent-based computational methods with randomized experiments, instrumental variables, and various types of causal graphs. It goes on to explain why there is no strong argument to believe that observational and experimental methods are qualitatively superior to simulation-based methods in their capacity to contribute to establishing causal claims. Organized in two parts, Agent-based Models and Causal Inference connects the literature from various fields, including causality, social mechanisms, statistical and experimental methods for causal inference, and agent-based computation models to help show that causality means different things within different methods for causal analysis, and that persuasive causal claims can only be built at the intersection of these various methods. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough comparison between agent-based computation models to randomized experiments, instrumental variables, and several types of causal graphs. A compelling argument that observational and experimental methods are not qualitatively superior to simulation-based methods in their ability to establish causal claims Practical discussions of how statistical, experimental and computational methods can be combined to produce reliable causal inferences Perfect for academic social scientists and scholars in the fields of computational social science, philosophy, statistics, experimental design, and ecology, Agent-based Models and Causal Inference will also earn a place in the libraries of PhD students seeking a one-stop reference on the issue of causal inference in agent-based computational models.

Agent-Based Computational Modelling

Agent-Based Computational Modelling PDF Author: Francesco C. Billari
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9783790816402
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 684

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Book Description
The present book describes the methodology to set up agent-based models and to study emerging patterns in complex adaptive systems resulting from multi-agent interaction. It offers the application of agent-based models in demography, social and economic sciences and environmental sciences. Examples include population dynamics, evolution of social norms, communication structures, patterns in eco-systems and socio-biology, natural resource management, spread of diseases and development processes. It presents and combines different approaches how to implement agent-based computational models and tools in an integrative manner that can be extended to other cases.

Agent-Based Models

Agent-Based Models PDF Author: Nigel Gilbert
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412949645
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Aimed at readers with minimal experience in computer programming, this brief book provides a theoretical and methodological rationale for using ABM in the social sciences. It goes on to describe some carefully chosen examples from different disciplines, illustrating different approaches to ABM. It concludes with practical advice about how to design and create ABM, a discussion of validation procedures, and some guidelines about publishing articles based on ABM.

Generative Social Science

Generative Social Science PDF Author: Joshua M. Epstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400842875
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Agent-based computational modeling is changing the face of social science. In Generative Social Science, Joshua Epstein argues that this powerful, novel technique permits the social sciences to meet a fundamentally new standard of explanation, in which one "grows" the phenomenon of interest in an artificial society of interacting agents: heterogeneous, boundedly rational actors, represented as mathematical or software objects. After elaborating this notion of generative explanation in a pair of overarching foundational chapters, Epstein illustrates it with examples chosen from such far-flung fields as archaeology, civil conflict, the evolution of norms, epidemiology, retirement economics, spatial games, and organizational adaptation. In elegant chapter preludes, he explains how these widely diverse modeling studies support his sweeping case for generative explanation. This book represents a powerful consolidation of Epstein's interdisciplinary research activities in the decade since the publication of his and Robert Axtell's landmark volume, Growing Artificial Societies. Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.

Agent-Based Computational Demography

Agent-Based Computational Demography PDF Author: Francesco C. Billari
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3790827150
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Agent-Based Computational Demography (ABCD) aims at starting a new stream of research among social scientists whose interests lie in understanding demographic behaviour. The book takes a micro-demographic (agent-based) perspective and illustrates the potentialities of computer simulation as an aid in theory building. The chapters of the book, written by leading experts either in demography or in agent-based modelling, address several key questions. Why do we need agent-based computational demography? How can ABCD be applied to the study of migrations, family demography, and historical demography? What are the peculiarities of agent-based models as applied to the demography of human populations? ABCD is of interest to all scientists interested in studying demographic behaviour, as well as to computer scientists and modellers who are looking for a promising field of application.

The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation

The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation PDF Author: Francesca Giardini
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190494093
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
Gossip and reputation are core processes in societies and have substantial consequences for individuals, groups, communities, organizations, and markets.. Academic studies have found that gossip and reputation have the power to enforce social norms, facilitate cooperation, and act as a means of social control. The key mechanism for the creation, maintenance, and destruction of reputations in everyday life is gossip - evaluative talk about absent third parties. Reputation and gossip are inseparably intertwined, but up until now have been mostly studied in isolation. The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation fills this intellectual gap, providing an integrated understanding of the foundations of gossip and reputation, as well as outlining a potential framework for future research. Volume editors Francesca Giardini and Rafael Wittek bring together a diverse group of researchers to analyze gossip and reputation from different disciplines, social domains, and levels of analysis. Being the first integrated and comprehensive collection of studies on both phenomena, each of the 25 chapters explores the current research on the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of the gossip-reputation link in contexts as diverse as online markets, non-industrial societies, organizations, social networks, or schools. International in scope, the volume is organized into seven sections devoted to the exploration of a different facet of gossip and reputation. Contributions from eminent experts on gossip and reputation not only help us better understand the complex interplay between two delicate social mechanisms, but also sketch the contours of a long term research agenda by pointing to new problems and newly emerging cross-disciplinary solutions.

Trends in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology

Trends in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology PDF Author: Dhinaharan Nagamalai
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642240429
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, CCSEIT 2011, held in Tirunelveli, India, in September 2011. The 73 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 400 initial submissions. The papers feature significant contributions to all major fields of the Computer Science and Information Technology in theoretical and practical aspects.

Agent-based Models

Agent-based Models PDF Author: Nigel Gilbert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781506355580
Category : Multiagent systems
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Agent-based simulation has become increasingly popular as a modeling approach in the social sciences because it enables researchers to build models where individual entities and their interactions are directly represented. The Second Edition of Nigel Gilbert's Agent-Based Models introduces this technique; considers a range of methodological and theoretical issues; shows how to design an agent-based model, with a simple example; offers some practical advice about developing, verifying and validating agent-based models; and finally discusses how to plan an agent-based modelling project, publish the results and apply agent-based modeling to formulate and evaluate social and economic policies. An accompanying simulation using NetLogo and commentary on the program can be downloaded on the book's website: https://study.sagepub.com/researchmethods/qass/gilbert-agent-based-models-2e.

The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology

The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology PDF Author: Peter Hedström
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191615234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 795

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Book Description
Analytical sociology is a strategy for understanding the social world. It is concerned with explaining important social facts such as network structures, patterns of residential segregation, typical beliefs, cultural tastes, and common ways of acting. It explains such facts by detailing in clear and precise ways the mechanisms through which the social facts were brought about. Making sense of the relationship between micro and macro thus is one of the central concerns of analytical sociology. The approach is a contemporary incarnation of Robert K. Merton's notion of middle-range theory and presents a vision of sociological theory as a tool-box of semi-general theories each of which is adequate for explaining certain types of phenomena. The Handbook brings together some of the most prominent sociologists in the world. Some of the chapters focus on action and interaction as the cogs and wheels of social processes, while others consider the dynamic social processes that these actions and interactions bring about.