Agent-Based Models of Social Life
Fundamentals

This Element sets out the fundamentals of agent based modeling, focusing on a well-known model of housing segregation.

Michael Laver (Author)

9781108796200, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 April 2020

75 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 0.8 cm, 0.21 kg

Social interactions are rich, complex, and dynamic. One way to understand these is to model interactions that fascinate us. Some of the more realistic and powerful models are computer simulations. Simple, elegant and powerful, tools are available in user-friendly free software to help you design, build and run your own models of social interactions that intrigue you, and do this on the most basic laptop computer. Focusing on a well-known model of housing segregation, this Element is about how to unleash that power, setting out the fundamentals of what is now known as 'agent based modeling'.

1. Introduction
2. Social segregation: basics
3. Social segregation: power user
4. Social segregation: extending the model
5. Social segregation: stochastic models
6. Trading realism against intuition.

Subject Areas: Social research & statistics [JHBC], Society & social sciences [J], Coding theory & cryptology [GPJ]