ComMod : a Companion Modelling Approach

Since 2000, some researchers working in the field of renewable resource management have been using various tools, particularly Agent-Based Models and Role-Playing Games, to tackle issues regarding decision processes, common property, co-ordination among actors, etc. Dealing with models and games has been a mean to cross disciplines boundaries and to acknowledge the complex nature of the systems under study. This choice led us to formalise our relation to modelling within what we called a companion modelling approach.

At a time when models and simulations to tackle complexity and for decision support are flourishing, this group of researchers found important to specify the contents of this approach, which should be understood as a scientific posture more than a modelling handbook. Modelling is merely an intermediary object facilitating our collective and interdisciplinary thought.

A charter, written in April 2004, presents the posture and the main principles in a text that has to be taken as a starting point for further discussions.

A project on sustainable development and agriculture founded by the french National Agency for Research recently led to the publication by QUAE editions of a collective book.

If you share the scientific posture expressed in the charter and if you are willing to participate to the collective work of the group, you are welcome to join the ComMod association. Additionally, you can also subscribe to a mailing list related to companion modelling.

Last update : May 09, 2011