There will be a dedicated session to papers about using qualitative evidence to inform social simulation design at SSC 2019 in Mainz,  23 – 27 September 2019.

Title: Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules in agent-based models

Chairs: Melania Borit (UiT – The Arctic University of Norway (University of Tromsø), Norway), Bruce Edmonds (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

Description:
Many academics consider qualitative evidence (e.g. texts gained from transcribing oral data or observations of people) and quantitative evidence to be incommensurable.  However, agent-based simulations are a possible vehicle for bridging this gap. Narrative textual evidence often gives clues as to the in-context behavior of individuals and is thus a natural source for behaviors to inform the specification of corresponding agent behavior within simulations. The texts will not give a complete picture, but will provide some of “menu” of behaviors people use. During this session we hope to further the understanding of how to improve this. Those interested to present their work in this session have to make sure that their submission explicitly addresses the use of qualitative data in their modelling endeavor. The session is open to all approaches that seek to move from qualitative evidence towards a simulation in a systematic way.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Approaches based in Grounded Theory.
• Tools for facilitating such a process.
• Participatory processes that result in a simulation
• Frameworks for aiding the analysis of text into rules.
• Elicitation techniques that would aid the capture of information in an appropriate structure.
• Models and ideas from psychology to aid in the above process.
• Insights and tools from Natural Language Processing that may help this process.
• Agent architectures that will facilitate the programming of agents from such analyses.
• Philosophical or Sociological critiques of this project, pointing out assumptions and dangers.
• Examples of where this approach has been tried.

To submit a paper go to: https://ssc2019.uni-mainz.de/call-for-submissions/

Call for expression of interest
Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence Using Social Simulation
A proposal for a NIAS-Lorentz Workshop

Topic
It is a principle of science that evidence should not be ignored without an extremely good reason. Thus, researchers are under an obligation to take note of both qualitative and quantitative evidence. However, integrating different kinds of evidence is far from easy, as both kinds of evidence have their own characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. As such, translations between qualitative and quantitative representations is fraught with traps, including the inclusion of hidden assumptions, the addition of systematic bias and cross-context misapplication. However, agent-based social simulation offers a well-founded way of doing this translation by using narrative accounts to inform the specification of agent behaviour and comparing macro-level measures on runs of the simulation with numerical data. In this approach, the simulation forms a kind of bridge between the micro-level qualitative behaviours and the macro-level aggregate outcomes. Following a special issue on this topic in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/1/) and several sessions at the Social Simulation Conference (2014, 2016, 2017), we feel that there is the time to get together researchers who are (or want to) contribute to this endeavour, in order to design a strategy for structuring and developing the field. We would like to gather these researchers together for a NIAS-Lorentz Workshop (http://www.nias-lorentz.nl/workshops-.html) during which we will: identify the key challenges, difficulties, and opportunities of the field; design an action plan to address these challenges and difficulties and follow the opportunities; exchange practices and identify possible collaborations; establish a strategy for consolidating the nascent community of academics in this topic.

Target Dates for Workshop
We would like the workshop to happen during the period 06-10 May 2019, with possible alternatives 19-23 August 2019 and 02-06 September 2019 (dates might change depending on the availability of the venue).

NIAS-Lorentz Workshops
Lorentz workshop (http://lorentzcenter.nl) are very special and highly productive events where a group of (in this case 25) people interact over a whole week. Thus it is essential that participants stay for the duration. Usually various papers, grant proposals and other collaborations come out of these workshops.

The Costs etc
Lunches, tea/coffee, the evening welcome reception and workshop dinner are all provided. There is a deal for a local nice hotel at €85 a night. There will be some monetary support for early stage researchers who can not otherwise afford this (hotel + up to €300 travel).

What you have to do
If you wish to attend you need to write a few paragraphs explaining your relevant research, position and interest in this topic.  Please send this to Melania Borit <melania.borit@uit.no> by the 283rd May.

Organisers:

• (Coordinator) Melania Borit, Associated professor of Social Simulation and Game-Based Learning, at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT (University of Tromsø) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway. melania.borit@uit.no
• Stephanie Dornschneider, Assistant professor, University College Dublin, Ireland, stephanie.dornschneider@ucd.ie
• Bruce Edmonds, Director of the Centre for Policy Modelling and Professor of Social Simulation, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. bruce@edmonds.name
• Magnús Josefsson, Research Program Manager, Reykjavik SMART City, Iceland, Magnus.Yngvi.Josefsson@reykjavik.is
• Sarah Mehryar, PhD candidate, University of Twente, the Netherlands, s.mehryar@utwente.nl.
• Nanda Wijermans, Researcher, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden. nanda.wijermans@su.se

We were very pleased to have papers for two sessions at the Social Simulation Conference 2017 in Dublin (where we have had mostly good weather so far!). The papers are:

• The Venezuelan System of Potato Production: a simulation model to understand roots of deficiencies — Oswaldo Terán, Christophe Sibertin-Blanc, Ravi Rojas, and Liccia Romero
• Qualitative Data in the Service of Model Building — the Case of Structural Shirking — Patrycja Antosz and Harko Verhagen
• A simulation model for assessing social empowerment: the case of the Southern Rural
  Territory of Sergipe, Brazil — Marcos A. S. d. Silva and Pascal Roggero

Extended abstracts available within: https://sim2017.mira.cx/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2016/12/ESSA@Work-1.zip

• An Empirically Informed Practice-centric Approach to Model Demand Response in Households — Kavin Narasimhan, Nigel Gilbert and Aimie Hope
• WHETHER TO PROTEST. A computational analysis of mobilization for the Arab
  Spring — Stephanie Dornschneider
• Ontological politics in a world of political ontologies — Lia ní Aodha.

Extended abstracts available within: https://sim2017.mira.cx/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2016/12/ESSA@Work-2.zip

Enjoy!

Monday the 25th of September 2017. Duration: 90 minutes, @ Social Simulation Conference 2017, Dublin, Ireland. ESSA SIG Using qualitative data to inform behavioural rules

Scholarships: Two scholarships, each of maximum 500 euro, are awarded to cover transport and accommodation costs in connection with this workshop for young researchers in the field of using qualitative data to inform agent-based models. The two scholarships are awarded on competitive basis. Send your CV, letter or interest, and short description of your research project to Melania Borit (melania.borit@uit.no) by the 31^st of May 2017. The final decision will be taken by mid-June 2017.

Everybody is invited to submit a paper for two special sessions at the 2017 Social Simulation Conference (SSC): SIG Qual2Rule – Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules and Modelling Social Science Aspects of Fisheries. The conference will take place in the period 25-29 September in Dublin, Ireland and the current deadline for full papers, extended abstracts and posters is set to April 16^th.

Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules

Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsø (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Bruce Edmonds, Centre for Policy Modelling, MMU, UK

Many academics consider qualitative evidence (e.g. texts gained from transcribing someone talking or observations of people) and quantitative evidence to be incommensurable. However agent-based simulations are a possible vehicle for bridging this gap. Narrative textual evidence often gives clues as to the in-context behavior of individuals and is thus a natural source for behaviors to inform the specification of corresponding agent behavior within simulations. They will not give a complete picture of this, but they will provide some of “menu” of behaviors that people use. During this session we hope to further understanding of how to do this better. It is open to all approaches that seek to move from qualitative evidence towards a simulation in a systematic way. This includes, but is not limited to:

* Approaches based in Grounded Theory.
* Tools for facilitating such a process.
* Participatory processes that result in a simulation.
* Frameworks for aiding the analysis of text into rules.
* Elicitation techniques that would aid the capture of information in an appropriate structure. * Models and ideas from psychology to aid in the above process.
* Insights and tools from Natural Language Processing that may help this process.
* Agent architectures that will facilitate the programming of agents from such analyses.
* Philosophical or Sociological critiques of this project, pointing out assumptions and dangers.
* Examples of where this approach has been tried.

Modelling social science aspects of fisheries

Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsø (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Samaneh Heidari, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Overall, world fisheries are unsustainable, with almost 90% of stocks being over exploited or fully exploited. Improved and innovative management solutions are required if this critical situation is to be remedied. Since management is about people, not fish, integrating social sciences aspects into the modelling of fisheries as a socio-ecological complex system might be such a new way of thinking about fisheries management. We are interested in solutions that look at fisheries as socio-ecological complex systems, with a focus on the social behavior components of the system. Submissions focusing on any aspects of fisheries management are welcome, including (but not restricted to): social norms and self-organization of fishers, applications of Ostrom´s work on managing social commons, compliance with rules under changing management regimes, culture and trust, simulations that combine complex representations of society and complex ecological models, simulations as public educational tools, participatory simulations of fisheries. This session is a SAF21 initiative.

Everybody is invited to submit a paper for two special sessions at the 2016 Social Simulation Conference (SSC): SIG Qual2Rule – Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules and Modelling Social Science Aspects of Fisheries. The conference will take place in the period 19-23 September in Rome, Italy and the current deadline for full papers, extended abstracts and posters is set to April 4^th.

Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules

Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsø (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Roman Seidl, Institute for Environmental Decisions, Switzerland

Many academics consider qualitative evidence (e.g. texts gained from transcribing someone talking or observations of people) and quantitative evidence to be incommensurable.  However agent-based simulations are a possible vehicle for bridging this gap.  Narrative textual evidence often gives clues as to the in-context behavior of individuals and is thus a natural source for behaviors to inform the specification of corresponding agent behavior within simulations.  They will not give a complete picture of this, but they will provide some of “menu” of behaviors that people use. During this session we hope to further understanding of how to do this better.  It is open to all approaches that seek to move from qualitative evidence towards a simulation in a systematic way.  This includes, but is not limited to:

*  Approaches based in Grounded Theory.
*  Tools for facilitating such a process.
*  Participatory processes that result in a simulation.
*  Frameworks for aiding the analysis of text into rules.
*  Elicitation techniques that would aid the capture of information in an appropriate structure. *  Models and ideas from psychology to aid in the above process.
*  Insights and tools from Natural Language Processing that may help this process.
*  Agent architectures that will facilitate the programming of agents from such analyses.
*  Philosophical or Sociological critiques of this project, pointing out assumptions and dangers.
*  Examples of where this approach has been tried.

Modelling social science aspects of fisheries

Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsø (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Cezara Pastrav, Matis, Iceland

Overall, world fisheries are unsustainable, with almost 90% of stocks being over exploited or fully exploited. Improved and innovative management solutions are required if this critical situation is to be remedied. Since management is about people, not fish, integrating social sciences aspects into the modelling of fisheries as a socio-ecological complex system might be such a new way of thinking about fisheries management. We are interested in solutions that look at fisheries as socio-ecological complex systems, with a focus on the social behavior components of the system. Submissions focusing on any aspects of fisheries management are welcome, including (but not restricted to): social norms and self-organization of fishers, applications of Ostrom´s work on managing social commons, compliance with rules under changing management regimes, culture and trust, simulations that combine complex representations of society and complex ecological models, simulations as public educational tools, participatory simulations of fisheries. This session is a SAF21 initiative.

The Social Simulation Conference (SSC2015) submission deadline was extended to the 27^th of April!

Everybody is invited to submit a paper for two special sessions at the 2015 Social Simulation Conference (SSC): SIG Qual2Rule – Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules and Modelling Social Science Aspects of Fisheries. The conference will take place from September 14-18 in Groningen, The Netherlands and the current deadline for full papers, extended abstracts and posters is set to April 13^th.

ESSA Special Interest Group Qual2Rule – Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules

More details about the SIG can be found here.

Modelling social science aspects of fisheries

Fisheries worldwide are in a bad shape, with almost 90% of the stocks being overexploited or fully exploited. This critical situation requires a new way of thinking about fisheries management. Integrating social sciences aspects into the modelling of fisheries as a socio-ecological complex system might be such a direction. Fisheries management is about managing people and not fish, therefore analyzing social behavior in the fisheries context might result in better management solutions. Submissions focusing on any aspects of fisheries management are welcome, including (but not restricted to): social norms and self organization of fishers, applications of Ostrom’s suggestions for managing social commons, simulations that combine complex representations of society and complex ecological models, simulations as public educational tools, participatory simulations of fisheries

Your contribution to any these two sessions is welcome! When submitting your work on any of these topics in Easychair, you are kindly asked you to select one of these sessions. You can do so by ticking the relevant box at the end of the submission form.

This special issue of JASSS is now published! See http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/1 for a more permenant but less nicely formatted link).

The introduction to the special issue is:

Using Qualitative Evidence to Inform the Specification of Agent-Based Models by Bruce Edmonds (The introduction to the issue at: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/1/18.html)

Contents:

• Grounded Simulation by Martin Neumann
• Structuring Qualitative Data for Agent-Based Modelling by Amineh Ghorbani, Gerard Dijkema and Noortje Schrauwen
• From Participants to Agents: Grounded Simulation as a Mixed-Method Research Design by Ozge Dilaver
• Heads and Hearts: Three Methods for Explicating Judgment and Decision Processes by Warren Thorngate
• Exploring Transitions Towards Sustainable Construction: The Case of Near-Zero Energy Buildings in the Netherlands by Jesús Rosales-Carreón and César García-Díaz
• Identifying Salient Drivers of Livelihood Decision-Making in the Forest Communities of Cameroon: Adding Value to Social Simulation Models by Sukaina Bharwani, Mònica Coll Besa, Richard Taylor, Michael Fischer, Tahia Devisscher and Chrislain Kenfack
• Interactive Simulations with a Stylized Scale Model to Codesign with Villagers an Agent-Based Model of Bushmeat Hunting in the Periphery of Korup National Park (Cameroon) by Christophe Le Page, Kadiri Serge Bobo, Towa Olivier William Kamgaing, Bobo Fernanda Ngahane and Matthias Waltert
• A Context- and Scope-Sensitive Analysis of Narrative Data to Aid the Specification of Agent Behaviour by Bruce Edmonds

The process for this special issue has been a bit slow.  We are now aiming at the January 2015 issue of JASSS for the special issue (mostly derived from the ESSA 2013 papers).