Summary
To build an agent-based computational model of a specific socioenvironmental system requires that answers be found to several important questions including: what social actors and contextual entities are to be modelled as software agents? With what mental functions must these software agents be equipped? What standard design or designs should be used to create the software agents? This paper concentrates upon the last of these questions. The currently available range of agent designs is considered, along with their limitations and inter-relationships. How best to choose a design to meet the requirements of a particular modelling task is discussed and illustrated by reference to the task of designing an informative agent-based model of a segmented, polycentric and integrated network (“SPIN”) organisation of the type analysed by Gerlach in the context of environmental activism.
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Doran, J. (2006). Agent Design for Agent-Based Modelling. In: Billari, F.C., Fent, T., Prskawetz, A., Scheffran, J. (eds) Agent-Based Computational Modelling. Contributions to Economics. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7908-1721-X_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7908-1721-X_11
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