Edmund Chattoe-Brown

Why Sociology Should Use Agent Based Modelling

Although Agent Based Models (hereafter ABM) are now regularly reported in sociology journals, explaining the approach, describing models and reporting results leaves little opportunity to examine wider implications of ABM for sociological practice. This article uses an established ABM (the Schelling model) for this. The first part argues that ABM integrates qualitative and quantitative data distinctively, provides novel tools for understanding social causes and offers a significantly different perspective on theory building. The second part shows how the emerging ABM methodology is compatible with existing sociological practice while undermining several criticisms of ABM perceived to limit its sociological relevance.

Using Agent Based Modelling to Integrate Data on Attitude Change

This article has two goals. Firstly, it shows how a relatively novel technique (Agent Based Modelling, hereafter ABM) can integrate different data types that are often used only in separate strands of research (interviews, experiments and surveys). It does this by comparing a well-known ABM of attitude dynamics with an alternative model using data from surveys and experiments. Secondly, the article explains ABM methodology and why it is important to the distinctiveness of ABM as a research method. In particular, the ramifications of differing approaches to ABM calibration and validation are discussed using the two different ABM as examples. The article concludes by showing how ABM might provide a progressive research strategy for integrating different data types and thus different disciplines in attitude research.

Understanding Consumption: What Interviews with Retired Households Can Reveal About Budgetary Decisions

This paper uses interview data from retired households to inform a discussion about economic models of consumption. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, the economic models are described. The paper then discusses several different types of reasons for finding them unhelpful in explaining consumption. The second part of the paper considers the role of ‘middle range’ theories in developing plausible models of household behaviour. Phenomena which the interviews suggest are important in explaining consumption, such as time allocation, the labour supply decision, the ubiquitous durability of goods and the structure of the household, are not typically supported by middle range theory in current models. Without the constraints of such theory, it is very hard to distinguish models providing genuine explanation from those that merely fit the data. The latter part of the paper also discusses aspects of a new middle range theory of consumption suggested by the interviews.

Combining Ethnography and Game Theory Using Simulation: A Critique and Development of ‘Can Norms Account for Strategic Interaction?’ by S. Gezelius

In a 2007 article in Sociology, Gezelius offers an account of information exchange between Norwegian fishermen using game theoretic analysis of ethnographic data. In this article, I consider what his analysis reveals about using game theory in sociology. To be effective, this must combine systematic use of ethnography with effective application of game theory. In addition, the methods of simulation and evolutionary game theory are important tools to explain rich sets of norms and practices observable ethnographically.

How do we convince agent-based modeling agnostics?

rituals. In H. Whitehouse & R.N. McCauley (Eds.), Mind and religion: Psychological and cognitive foundations of religiosity (pp. 127 145). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W.S. (1979). Of churches, sects, and cults: Preliminary concepts for a theory of religious movements. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 18, 117 31. Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whitehouse, H. (1992). Memorable religions: Transmission, codification, and change in divergent Melanesian contexts. Man (NS), 27(3), 777 797. Whitehouse, H. (1995). Inside the cult: Religious innovation and transmission in Papua New Guinea. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whitehouse, H. (2000). Arguments and icons: Divergent modes of religiosity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whitehouse, H. (2004). Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Whitehouse, H. (2008). Cognitive evolution and religion: Cognition and religious evolution. In J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, E. Harris, R. Genet, C. Genet, & K. Wyman (Eds.), The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques. Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press. Whitehouse, H., & Hodder, I. (2010). Modes of religiosity at Catalhoyuk. In I. Hodder (Ed.), Religion in the emergence of civilization: Catalhoyuk as a case study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Whitehouse, H., & Laidlaw, J.A. (Eds.) (2004). Ritual and memory: Towards a comparative anthropology of religion. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Whitehouse, H., & Laidlaw, J.. (2007). In H. Whitehouse & J. Laidlaw (Eds.), Religion, anthropology and cognitive science. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. Whitehouse, H., & Martin, L.H. (Eds.) (2004). Theorizing religions past: Archaeology, history, and cognition. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Whitehouse, H., & McCauley, R.N. (Eds.) (2005) Mind and religion: Psychological and cognitive foundations of religiosity. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Worsley, P. (1957). The trumpet shall sound: A study of ‘‘cargo cults’’ in Melanesia. London: MacGibbon & Kee. Xygalatas, D. (2007). Firewalking in Northern Greece: A cognitive approach to high-arousal rituals (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Developing agent-based models of complex health behaviour.

&NA; Managing non‐communicable diseases requires policy makers to adopt a whole systems perspective that adequately represents the complex causal architecture of human behaviour. Agent‐based modelling is a computational method to understand the behaviour of complex systems by simulating the actions of entities within the system, including the way these individuals influence and are influenced by their physical and social environment. The potential benefits of this method have led to several calls for greater use in public health research. We discuss three challenges facing potential modellers: model specification, obtaining required data, and developing good practices. We also present steps to assist researchers to meet these challenges and implement their agent‐based model. HighlightsABM is effective for modelling health behaviour embedded within the environment.Key challenges are: formulating rules, obtaining process data, and acquiring skills.Experience from other disciplines may be adapted for public health research.The potential benefits of ABM warrant the effort required.

Features of Agent-based Models

The design of agent-based models (ABMs) is often ad-hoc when it comes to defining their scope. In order for the inclusion of features such as network structure, location, or dynamic change to be justified, their role in a model should be systematically analysed. We propose a mechanism to compare and assess the impact of such features. In particular we are using techniques from software engineering and semantics to support the development and assessment of ABMs, such as graph transformations as semantic representations for agent-based models, feature diagrams to identify ingredients under consideration, and extension relations between graph transformation systems to represent model fragments expressing features.

How Should Agent-Based Modelling Engage With Historical Processes?

This chapter consists of two main parts. After an introduction, the first part briefly considers the way that historical processes have been represented in ABM to date. This makes it possible to draw more general conclusions about the limitations of ABM in dealing with distinctively historical (as opposed to merely dynamic) processes. The second part of the chapter presents a very simple ABM in which three such distinctively historical processes are analysed. These are the possible significance of unique individuals—the so-called Great Men, the invention and spread of social innovations from specific points in time and the creation of persistent social structures (also from specific points in time). The object of the chapter is to advance the potential applicability of ABM to historical events as understood by historians (rather than anthropologists or practitioners of ABM.)