Simulating Social Complexity

by Edmonds, Bruce; Meyer, Ruth

• ISBN13: 9783540938125
• ISBN10: 3540938125
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-17
• Publisher: Springer-Nature New York Inc

Summary

Social Simulation is the study of natural and artificial society-like structures through the use of computational tools (along with analytic techniques). The behaviour of individual agents and interactions among the agents defined on the basis of experiment, observation and, increasingly, engagement with decision-makers and domain experts. Simulations explore emergent outcomes that result from the interactions among the individuals. Examples include: the formation of opinions in human societies, feeding patterns in ant colonies, the change in land-use, the evolution of animal ecologies, the emergence of ethical behaviour, the emergence and adaptation of social institutions. The present handbook comprehensively covers methodology, mechanisms and simulation tools. It provides a broad, yet concise, survey of those fields where this approach has been applied with success and documented. An introduction and extensive glossary will assist nonspecialists and graduate students in entering this necessarily interdisciplinary field while the surveys themselves will be useful to specialists expanding their range of techniques and designs.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Methodology

Mechanisms

Computational and Formal Tools

Applications

Prospects

Appendices

Glossary

Index/bibliography

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