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Social Phenomena Simulation

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

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Glossary

Agent (or software agent):

A self-contained entity that has a state and that is situated (able to perceive and act) in an environment. In addition, agents are often assumed to be rational and autonomous.

Cellular automaton:

A mathematical structure modeling a set of cells that interact with their neighbors. Each cell has a set of neighbors and a state. All the cells update their values simultaneously at discrete time steps. The new state of a cell is determined by the current state of its neighbors according to a local function or rule.

Microlevel simulation:

A type of simulation in which the specific behaviors of specific individuals are explicitly modeled.

Definition of the Subject

Social phenomena simulation in the area of agent-based modeling and simulation concerns the emulation of the individual behavior of a group of social entities, typically including their cognition, actions, and interaction. Agent-based social simulation constitutes the intersection of three...

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Further Reading

  • Classic books in the area of simulation of social behavior include “Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up” by Epstein and Axtell (1996) and “Simulation for the Social Scientist” by Gilbert and Troitzsch (2005)

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  • More recent findings can be found in, e. g., the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk) and the proceedings of, e. g., the International Workshop series on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MABS) (http://www.pcs.usp.br/~mabs/), the series of International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (http://sbp-brims.org) and the conference of the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA) (http://www.essa.eu.org/), the Pacific-Asian Association for Agent-based Approach in Social Systems Sciences (http://www.paaa.asia/) and the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (http://www.computationalsocialscience.org)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Paul Davidsson

  2. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Borgarfjordsgatan 8, Postbox 7003, 16407, Kista, Sweden

    Harko Verhagen

Authors
  1. Paul Davidsson
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  2. Harko Verhagen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Davidsson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ramtech Ltd., Larkspur, California, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Davidsson, P., Verhagen, H. (2017). Social Phenomena Simulation. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_498-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_498-6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27737-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27737-5

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Social Phenomena Simulation
    Published:
    22 August 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_498-6

  2. Original

    Social Phenomena Simulation
    Published:
    10 October 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_498-5

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