Friday, 19 March
Day 3 – Friday March, 19
11:15 – 12:45
In this workshop, we want to stimulate the exchange on the use of the social identity approach (SIA) in agent-based models. SIA is a promising approach from the social sciences that describes how people behave while being part of a group, how groups interact and how these interactions and ‘appropriate group behaviours’ can change over time. Enriching social simulation models with SIA can address the need to integrate social context and its influence on agents’ behaviours. We regard the combination of SIA & ABM a powerful combination that can enable pushing the frontiers in the understanding of human (group) behaviour in its social environment. The workshop will consist of a) a short introduction by the chairs, also containing information on the related SIAM network; b) three short (up to 10 minutes) presentations of ABMs including SIA work (in progress); and c) breakout group discussions on topics that come up during the previous discussions.
TRACK TWO
Mechanism-based social systems modelling: a hands-on tutorial
Robin Purshouse
Jen Boyd
Tuong Vu
11:15 – 12:45
The Mechanism-Based Social Systems Modelling (MBSSM) architecture is a rigorous new approach to the unified development of agent-based modelling (ABM) components using middle-range theory. In this hands-on session, participants will be introduced to the MBSSM architecture. Using a tutorial agent-based modelling problem, participants will be taken steadily through the process of representing the ABM as a realisation of middle-range theory, and implementing the ABM in the MBSSM architecture in C++. Participants will have access to the software via a ready-to-run virtual machine and have the opportunity to see their simulations running by the end of the session.
12.45 – 13:30
Lunch Break
13.30 – 15.00
The lives of people, from cleaners to leaders, are full of drama, and this has consequences for the fates of countries and companies. Power struggles, political manoeuvring, loyalties and love affairs, sympathies and anxieties rule the day. Practitioners know that the social world shows many patterns repeat themselves at national level, in groups, between factions. Can we social simulation adepts cope with this relational logic in our models? Can we create, not artificial intelligence, but artificial sociality?
TRACK TWO
Mechanism-based social systems modelling: a hands-on tutorial
Robin Purshouse
Jen Boyd
Tuong Vu
13.30 – 15.00
The Mechanism-Based Social Systems Modelling (MBSSM) architecture is a rigorous new approach to the unified development of agent-based modelling (ABM) components using middle-range theory. In this hands-on session, participants will be introduced to the MBSSM architecture. Using a tutorial agent-based modelling problem, participants will be taken steadily through the process of representing the ABM as a realisation of middle-range theory, and implementing the ABM in the MBSSM architecture in C++. Participants will have access to the software via a ready-to-run virtual machine and have the opportunity to see their simulations running by the end of the session.
15:00 – 15:15
Break
15:15 – 16:45
INSPIRATION
By Marco Almada
Simulations can provide new ways to study the ethical and legal dimensions of social phenomena. However, their use might itself have ethical or legal consequences, as the outputs of simulations influence decision- and policy-making processes. This activity invites participants to discuss how the simulation design process can become sensitive to ethics and the law: what are the factors that must be examined? What can simulation designers do about ethical and legal demands? Are current design practices well equipped for that purpose? By debating these and other questions, we conclude the Fest with an examination of the broader implications of social simulation.