Generative Social Science
Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling
Published on 28. January 2007
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-691-12547-3 (ISBN)
Description
Agent-based computational modeling is changing the face of social science. In Generative Social Science, Joshua Epstein argues that this powerful, novel technique permits the social sciences to meet a fundamentally new standard of explanation, in which one "grows" the phenomenon of interest in an artificial society of interacting agents: heterogeneous, boundedly rational actors, represented as mathematical or software objects. After elaborating this notion of generative explanation in a pair of overarching foundational chapters, Epstein illustrates it with examples chosen from such far-flung fields as archaeology, civil conflict, the evolution of norms, epidemiology, retirement economics, spatial games, and organizational adaptation. In elegant chapter preludes, he explains how these widely diverse modeling studies support his sweeping case for generative explanation. This book represents a powerful consolidation of Epstein's interdisciplinary research activities in the decade since the publication of his and Robert Axtell's landmark volume, Growing Artificial Societies.
Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.
Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.
Reviews / Votes
"It should be noted that having all these contributions in one place is not only useful but pleasing...Epstein's book is a concise and well articulated defense of agent-based modeling. Generative Social Science is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the foundations and the practice of agent-based modeling."--Daniel Diermeier, Science "Epstein's Generative Social Science ... is to be regarded as a success. It is a highly professional book, comestible also by non-experts without giving up scientific rigour. Probably because the author is fond of its subject matter, and manages to transfer his enthusiasm into the reader, the book may be read all at once, as a narrative... In sum, there are good reasons to expect that the community of simulators will welcome this book with enthusiasm, and that other supporters will be recruited."--Rosaria Conte, JASSS "Epstein's generative manifesto is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in explaining social life."--Michael Macy, American Journal of SociologyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
68 color plates. 2 halftones. 51 line illus. 23 tables.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
936 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-12547-3 (9780691125473)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2012
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
from
€128.95
Available for download
Person
Joshua M. Epstein is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, a founding member of the Brookings-Johns Hopkins Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, and a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. He is the coauthor of "Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up" and the author of "Nonlinear Dynamics, Mathematical Biology, and Social Science".
Content
Introduction xi Prelude to Chapter 1: The Generativist Manifesto 1 Chapter 1: Agent-Based Computational Models and Generative Social Science by Joshua M. Epstein 4 Prelude to Chapter 2: Confession of a Wandering Bark 47 Chapter 2: Remarks on the Foundations of Agent-Based Generative Social Science by Joshua M. Epstein 50 Prelude to Chapter 3: Equilibrium, Explanation, and Gauss's Tombstone 72 Chapter 3: Non-Explanatory Equilibria: An Extremely Simple Game with (Mostly) Unattainable Fixed Points by Joshua M. Epstein and Ross A. Hammond 75 Appendix to Chapter 3: Large Effect of a Subtle Rule Change 86 Prelude to Chapters 4-6: Generating Civilizations: The 1050 Project and the Artificial Anasazi Model 88 Chapter 4: Understanding Anasazi Culture Change through Agent-Based Modeling Jeffrey S. Dean, George J. Gumerman, Joshua M. Epstein, Robert L. Axtell, Alan C. Swedlund, Miles T. Parker, and Stephen McCarroll 90 Chapter 5: Population Growth and Collapse in a Multiagent Model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley by Robert L. Axtell, Joshua M. Epstein, Jeffrey S. Dean, George J. Gumerman, Alan C. Swedlund, Jason Harburger, Shubha Chakravarty, Ross Hammond, Jon Parker, and Miles Parker 117 Chapter 6: The Evolution of Social Behavior in the Prehistoric American Southwest by George J. Gumerman, Alan C. Swedlund, Jeffrey S. Dean, and Joshua M. Epstein 130 Prelude to Chapter 7: Generating Patterns in the Timing of Retirement 144 Chapter 7: Coordination in Transient Social Networks: An Agent-Based Computational Model of the Timing of Retirement by Robert L. Axtell and Joshua M. Epstein 146 Prelude to Chapter 8: Generating Classes without Conquest 175 Chapter 8: The Emergence of Classes in a Multi-Agent Bargaining Model by Robert L. Axtell, Joshua M. Epstein, and H. Peyton Young 177 Prelude to Chapter 9: Generating Zones of Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game 196 Chapter 9: Zones of Cooperation in Demographic Prisoner's Dilemma by Joshua M. Epstein 199 Appendix to Chapter 9: Generating Norm Maps in the Demographic Coordination Game 222 Prelude to Chapter 10: Generating Thoughtless Conformity to Norms 225 Chapter 10: Learning to be Thoughtless: Social Norms and Individual Computation by Joshua M. Epstein 228 Prelude to Chapter 11: Generating Patterns of Spontaneous Civil Violence 245 Chapter 11: Modeling Civil Violence: An Agent-Based Computational Approach by Joshua M. Epstein 247 Prelude to Chapter 12: Generating Epidemic Dynamics 271 Chapter 12: Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror: An Individual-Based Computational Approach by Joshua M. Epstein, Derek A.T. Cummings, Shubha Chakravarty, Ramesh M. Singha, and Donald S. Burke 277 Prelude to Chapter 13: Generating Optimal Organizations 307 Chapter 13: Growing Adaptive Organizations: An Agent-Based Computational Approach by Joshua M. Epstein 309 Coda 345 Index 349