|
|
|
|
Subject: Fwd: CfP : SIMULATION Special Issue on: Applications of Agent-Based Simulation to Social and Organisational Domains
From: BARRETEAU Olivier (Olivier.Barreteau@montpellier.cemagref.fr)
Date: Fri Dec 05 2003 - 09:12:55 CET
>
>Call for Papers for:
>
> SIMULATION:
> The Transactions of the Society for Modelling and
> Simulation International
>
>A Special Issue on:
>
> Applications of Agent-Based Simulation to
> Social and Organisational Domains
>
>Web page:
> http://cfpm.org/simulation
>
>Introduction
>
>The coming together of agent-based simulation technology and computational
>social simulation over the last decade has started to produce
>results. The recent formations of NAACSOS (North American Association for
>Computational Organisational and Social Science) in the US and ESSA
>(European Social Simulation Association) in Europe are testaments to this
>fact. The results are in the form of useful applications of agent-based
>social simulation to organisational and other social issues, for example
>in the FIRMA project. However much of this work has not reached the wider
>simulation community. This Special Issue of SIMULATION aims to help
>rectify this, providing a showcase for such applications.
>
>The topic
>
>An agent-based social simulation is: where actors in a social or
>organisational domain are represented explicitly by entities with
>(complex) mental properties (i.e. their internal information processing
>capabilities) and modes of interaction between them, so that these
>entities and their interactions are meaningfully interpretable as the
>cognition and actions of those actors. This approach allows for a more
>direct and descriptive approach to social simulation so that the content
>and design of simulations are easier to criticise and correct by both
>experts and stakeholders. The relative disagregation of such simulations
>allows for the testing of assumptions used in more traditional statistical
>(or other aggregate) modelling.
>
>Many of the well-known social simulations are very abstract (e.g. Axtell
>and Epstein\'s Sugarscape) and are perhaps closer to an analogy to help
>think about social processes rather than attempting to represent observed
>social systems. In this special issue we aim to address the other end of
>the spectrum, by focusing on more applied simulations that seek to
>represent social phenomena in a more direct way. Such applied agent-based
>social simulation has started to appear in a number of fields including:
>environmental management; land-use studies; traffic management; crowd
>control; and urban settlement patterns.
>
>Thus we will solicit papers that meet the following criteria:
>
> * That report upon an agent-based simulation and its
> results (it has to be working)
> * That are applied to a specific social or
> organisational problem
> * That does so in a way that is (or would be)
> credible to domain experts or involved stakeholders
> * And are broadly consistent with known data about
> the target domain
>
>Issues that are important to explicate include:
>
> * How was the internal structure (e.g. mental
> properties) of the represented actors and their
> interaction modelled and explained to the reader
> (especially for broader simulation community)?
> * How was validation of the simulation attempted?
> * In what way was this approach useful?
> * What did agent-based simulation do that other kinds
> of simulation could not?
> * How was the simulation used?
> * In what ways was the approach taken different and
> similar to other approaches?
>
>The submitted papers should be accessible to the broad range of Simulation
>readers, so that any special issues, methods or technologies that are
>particular to agent-based social simulation or the chosen application
>domain need to be clearly explained.
>
>Deadlines
>
>Full paper submission February 29, 2004
>Reviews sent April 30, 2004
>Final version of manuscripts June 30, 2004
>Expected date of publication November 2004
>Submissions for full paper review
>
>Submission instructions to be found at the special issue web page at:
> http://cfpm.org/simulation
>
>For questions contact either of the editors at:
>
>Bruce Edmonds
>bruce@cfpm.org
>Centre for Policy Modelling
>Manchester Metropolitan University
>
>
>Michael Möhring
>moeh@uni-koblenz.de
>Computer Science Applications in the Social Sciences
>University of Koblenz-Landau