Klaus G. Troitzsch - Böcker

Model building in the social sciences can increasingly rely on well elaborated formal theories. At the same time inexpensive large computational capacities are now available. Both make computer-based model building and simulation possible in social science, whose central aim is in particular an understanding of social dynamics. Such social dynamics refer to public opinion formation, partner choice, strategy decisions in social dilemma situations and much more. In the context of such modelling approaches, novel problems in philosophy of science arise which must be analysed - the main aim of this book. Interest in social simulation has recently been growing rapidly world- wide, mainly as a result of the increasing availability of powerful personal computers. The field has also been greatly influenced by developments in cellular automata theory (from mathematics) and in distributed artificial intelligence which provided tools readily applicable to social simulation. This book presents a number of modelling and simulation approaches and their relations to problems in philosophy of science.It addresses sociologists and other social scientists interested in formal modelling, mathematical sociology, and computer simulation as well as computer scientists interested in social science applications, and philosophers of social science.

Das vorliegende Buch ist aus Notizen und Skripten zu einer Vorlesung "Modellbildung und Simulation III den Sozialwissenschaften" hervorgegangen, die ich in der hier dokumentierten Form 1m Sommersemester 1988 zum vierten Male vor Informatik-Studenten mit dem Nebenfach Sozialwissenschaft am Diplom-Studiengang Informatik an der EWH Koblenz gehalten habe. Verschiedene Vorausversionen des vorliegenden Buches sind von den Studenten neben der Vorlesung benutzt worden, die letzte zusätzlich von den Teilnehmern des ZUMA-Workshops "Theorie dynamischer Systeme", den ich im März 1988 beim Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen e.V. in Mannheim durchgeführt habe und an dessen Zustandekommen vor allem Herr Privatdozent Dr.Dr. Ulrich Mueller maßgeblich mitgewirkt hat, wofür ich ihm herzlich danke. Den Teilnehmern dieses Workshops, aber vor allem mehreren Studentenjahrgängen und meinen Freunden und Mitarbeitern Dr. Andreas Engel und Dipl.-Inform. Michael Möhring verdanke ich eine Vielzahl von kritischen Hinweisen auf sprachliche, inhaltliche und mathematische Unstimmigkeiten. Ich hoffe, daß ich diese Unstimmigkeiten beseitigt habe und daß Text und mathematische Ableitungen nun für Sozialwissenschaftler, die über gute Abiturkenntnisse in Mathematik vedügen, ohne große Mühe nachzuvollziehen sind. Der Text ist mit dem von meinem Kollegen Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Giesen entwickelten Dokumentenverarbeitungssystem SCRIPT aufbereitet worden. Das Programm PIC, mit dessen Hilfe alle Graphiken in den Text integriert worden sind, stammt ebenfalls von ihm. Ich danke ihm für die Bereitschaft, meinen Sonderwünschen an SCRIPT und PIC manchmal über Nacht nachzukommen.

The articles collected in this volume have two features in common: they seek to integrate economics, demographics and geography, and they seek to overcome the stationary approach in modelling in favour of a dynamic one. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on economic evolution, Part 2 on geographical development and the final section on demographic change. The volume provides a new look at this triangle in view of the classical background of discussions by introducing new research ideas in nonlinear dynamics and stochastic modelling. Thus, the main purpose of the book is to make a contribution to the interdisciplinary work needed to integrate the efforts between these three research fields and to serve as a research source in demonstrating the current state of the art in dynamic modelling. The book is addressed to social scientists in general, and those in particular with a background in economics, geography and demographics. It should also be of interest to mathematicians, physicists, and systems analysts interested in model building and applications of nonlinear dynamics.

This book gives an overview of the state of the art in five different approaches to social science simulation on the individual level. The volume contains microanalytical simulation models designed for policy implementation and evaluation, multilevel simulation methods designed for detecting emergent phenomena, dynamical game theory applications, the use of cellular automata to explain the emergence of structure in social systems, and multi-agent models using the experience from distributed artificial intelligence applied to special phenomena. The book collects the results of an international conference which brought together social scientists and computer scientists both engaged in a wide range of simulation approaches for the first time.

This book gives an overview of the state of the art in five different approaches to social science simulation on the individual level. The volume contains microanalytical simulation models designed for policy implementation and evaluation, multilevel simulation methods designed for detecting emergent phenomena, dynamical game theory applications, the use of cellular automata to explain the emergence of structure in social systems, and multi-agent models using the experience from distributed artificial intelligence applied to special phenomena. The book collects the results of an international conference which brought together social scientists and computer scientists both engaged in a wide range of simulation approaches for the first time.

This book provides an overview of soical science simulation as a tool for modelling and theory building. It is shown how simulation may be applied to the analysis of social and economic problems using techniques such as multi-agent simulation, cellular automata and multi-level modelling. Particular attention is paid to the sensitivity analysis of model parameters. The book also describes the architecture and user interfaces of several simulation tools. The book is based on an international conference that brought together social scientists and computer scientists engaged in a wide range of simulation approaches. It represents a report on the state of the art in social science simulation.