21 Aug 2018

Slides from my plenary "How social simulation could help social science deal with context"

An invited talk at Social Simulation 2018

This points out how context-sensitivity is fundamental to much human social behaviour, but largely bypassed or ignored in social science. I more formal social science, it is usual to assume or fit universal models, even if this covers a lot of different contexts. In qualitative social science context is almost deified, and any generalisation across contexts is passed on to those that learn from it. Agent-based modelling allows for context-sensitive models to be developed and hence the role of context explored and better understood. The talk discussed a framework for analysing narrative text using the Context-Scope-Narrative-Elements (CSNE) framework. It also illustrates a cognitive model that allows for context-dependent knowledge to be implemented wthin an agent in a simulation. The talk ends with a plea to avoid uncecessary or premature summarisation (using averages etc.).

Slides at: https://www.slideshare.net/BruceEdmonds/how-social-simulation-could-help-social-science-deal-with-context