Update (02.10.2020):

The slides used in the presentations held during this workshops can be downloaded from the links included in the program below.

The entire session has been recorded and is available here.

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Workshop: Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence using Social Simulation (Chairs: Melania Borit, UiT The Artic University of Norway & Bruce Edmonds, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom)

Topic: Agent-based simulation can be related to qualitative as well as quantitative data. For example, qualitative input might be used to inform the micro-level specification of agent behaviour in simulations that are then run and compared to aggregate quantitative data. However using qualitative data can seem daunting, partly because there are no established methods for doing this. The goal of this SSW2020 session is to discuss methods for integrating qualitative and quantitative data in agent-based models, with reference to worked examples.

Program:

10:00-10:05 Welcome

10:05-10:25 Bruce Edmonds (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) – “An introduction to using qualitative data for informing simulation design”

10:25-10:55 Keynote speaker: Juliette Rouchier (Université Paris-Dauphine, France) – “Quali and quanti research walking hand in hand”

10:55-11:00 Break

11:00-11:20 Stephanie Dornschneider (University College Dublin, Ireland) “Building bridges: Connecting ethnography to agent-based modelling”

11:20-11:40 Martin Neumann (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany) – “Hermeneutic interpretation of simulation results”

11:40-11:45 Break

11:45-12:05 Sukaina Bharwani (Oxford Centre, UK) – “Adding value to social simulation models using qualitative evidence”

12:05-12:25 Patrycja Antosz (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) – “Juggling quant, qual and simulation: lessons learned in the SMARTEES project” [Co-author: Wander Jager]

12:25-12:45 Fishbowl discussion, moderator: Melania Borit (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway)

12:45-13:00 Plan future events, moderators: Melania Borit and Bruce Edmonds

Besides registering for the
Social Simulation Week 2020, please register for your participation in this workshop by September 10th using this link:
https://forms.gle/1MUTSYGA4BxYD3DX7.

About the keynote:

Juliette Rouchier has been writing
simulation models for the last 25 years, first working on individual
learning and then on diffusion models. The first point she will make in
her talk is general and concerns any scientific research,
not just agent-based modelling (ABM): making a difference between
qualitative research and quantitative is interesting, but conceptually
poor, as they depend on each other all along the development of any
theory / new knowledge. Examples can be given on the
limitation of the separation. When it comes to ABM, another issue adds
to this: in most cases, although one wants to take a qualitative
approach, the need to use numbers is central – thus there is a
dependence to numeric expression (and then, interpretation
of numeric regularities has to be qualitative). Also what is of
interest in ABM is to be able to practice numerous repetition with
comparison – which is typically dealt with thanks to quantitative
approaches. Examples will be used to show diverse processes
that can take place there as well.

About the speakers:

Patrycja Antosz is a sociologist and a
psychologist specializing in social scientific research methods and data
analysis techniques. Since 2010 she has been working in cooperation
with policy-makers and public administration at supra-national,
national, and local levels to provide evidence for public policies. Her
colleague, Wander Jager is a social scientist interested in social
complex phenomena. A key theme in his work is studying the dynamics of
human behaviour in environmental contexts. His
scientific orientation is interdisciplinary, and his work is aimed at
contributing to a societal transition towards a sustainable society.

Sukaina Bharwani:An
interdisciplinary senior researcher at SEI Oxford, Sukaina has a
background in social anthropology and computer science, which allows her
to use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to understand
drivers of behaviour and decision-making in the field of climate change
adaptation.

Stephanie Dornschneider is Assistant
Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at
University College Dublin. Previously, she was Junior Research Fellow at
Durham University and visiting fellow at Stanford University
and the University of Oxford. Her research explores political
resistance in the Middle East by combining qualitative and computational
methods. She is the author of two monographs published by Oxford
University Press and the University of Pennsylvania Press,
and various articles, which have occurred in the Journal of Conflict
Resolution, Cognitive Science, and the International Political Science
Review.

Bruce Edmonds is the director of the Centre
for Policy Modelling and professor of social simulation at the
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Bruce’s research focuses on
agent-based social simulation, including numerous applications,
theory, methodology, and philosophy.

Martin Neumann: After studying social
sciences, mathematics, and philosophy Martin obtained a PhD in
Philosophy with a thesis on history of probability theory. Subsequently
he awarded a postdoc scholarship on the epistemology of
social simulation. Since then he worked in various social simulation
projects, including projects on the theory of norms, norms in organized
crime or on opinion dynamics. Currently Martin is research associate at
the institute for sociology at the Johannes
Gutenberg University Mainz.

Abstract:

Abstract This chapter shows how qualitative data can inform building compu-
tational models. The general issue is illustrated with the example of a model
of structural shirking in organisations, i.e. insufficient time and effort stemming
from the structure of the performed work. The first attempt to build a model of
shirking with the use of assumptions present in social scientific theories displayed
many shortcomings. Thus, a mixed-methods approach was chosen to inform the
development of a second computational model. Conceptualising the second model
began with performing individual IDIs with managers and lower-level employees
and augmenting them with analyses of Polish legislation regulating employment
relationships. Initial findings were enriched with theoretical assumptions. The
complete concept of the mechanism of structural shirking was operationalised as a
computational model. Having developed both models, we discuss the phenomenon
of shirking informing theories and real-world practices, as well as ways to study
these practices in novel forms.

Keywords Shirking · Work performance · Mixed methods · Empirical-based model · Theory-based model

In: H. Verhagen et al. (eds.), Advances in Social Simulation – looking in the mirror, Springer Proceedings in Complexity, pp. 33-45.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34127-5_4

Due to the measures put in place to handle the COVID-19 situation, we are sorry to announce that we have decided to cancel the 3rd Workshop Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence using Social Simulation, 28-29 May 2020, Southampton, UK (announced below). The event will be rescheduled as soon as the situation allows it. We are sorry for any inconvenience this cancellation might cause.

Agent-based models thrive in part due to the consideration of diverse information sources (e.g., theory and data) in the modelling process. However, practices for integrating data in agent-based models are diverse and depend on the disciplinary background that informs the nature of the collected data. A large number of models thus rely on qualitative data, in addition or as an alternative to quantitative input. As part of the ESSA Special Interest Group Qual2Rule, we aim to develop a better understanding of the current approaches for the inclusion of *qualitative data* undertaken within the community. We thus invite the agent-based modelling community (understood here in a loose sense) to offer some insight into their practices as part of an anonymous survey linked below, the results of which we are planning to discuss as part of this year’s Social Simulation Conference (SSC 2020) in Milan (http://ssc2020.behavelab.org/).

Note that the used survey tool is GDPR compliant, but may occasionally show some ads above or below the questionnaire items. We apologise for this inconvenience in advance.

Link to the survey: https://eSurv.org?u=qual2abm

In case of any questions or comments regarding this survey, please contact, Christopher Frantz (christopher.frantz@ntnu.no).

On behalf of the Qual2Rule ESSA SIG organisers, I am happy to inform you the 3rd Workshop on Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence using Social Simulation will be organised in the period 28-29 May 2020, in Southampton, UK. This is a 2-day event following-up a 1st workshop organised in April 2019, at the Lorentz Centre, the Netherlands and a 2nd workshop organised in November 2019, at the Centre for Policy Modelling, MMU, UK.

The workshop will be preceded on the 27th of May by a half day public seminar/panel discussion simulation community outside our group on a topic to be announced in February.

There will be no charge for the workshop, but advance registration will be required. If you intend to participate in this workshop, please send an email to melania.borit@uit.no by the 29th of February. First-come, first-accepted principle applies.

Lunch & refreshments during breaks will be provided free of charge.

The main objectives of this workshop are:

to facilitate face to face interaction in order to continue or start collaboration on specific projects (focused publication, grant proposals,

journal special issue, further workshops etc.);

to provide an arena where work progress,

results or preliminary drafts of work can be presented in order to receive feedback;

to further the strategical development of the field.

The venue details:

University of Southampton,

Highfield Campus, Building 100 (or Centenary Building) Room 5017,

Southampton SO17 1BJ

Travel information:

The nearest airport is Southampton Airport which is served by a direct UniLink bus U1C from in front of the airport to Highfield bus interchange which is 100 meters from Building 100.

The nearest train station is Southampton Airport Parkway, which is in front of the airport. Hence, it is served by the same bus U1C from the airport.

On a normal traffic, the bus journey takes about 20 minutes from the airport to Highfield campus.

Contact

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Melania (melania.borit@uit.no).

* Thomas Feliciani, Pablo Lucas, Junwen Luo and Kalpana Shankar – Building a data-driven model of peer review: the case of Science Foundation Ireland

* Stephanie Dornschneider and Bruce Edmonds – Building a bridge from qualitative analysis to a simulation of the Arab Spring protests

* Nanda Wijermans, Harko Verhagen, Davide Natalini, Stephanie Dornschneider, Mathew Senga and Ananya Mukherjee – Animal farm – species of a different kind flock together

* Edmund Chattoe-Brown – Un Drôle De Type: The Schelling Model, Calibration, Specification, Validation and Using Relevant Data

* Peer-Olaf Siebers, Sebastian Achter, Cristiane Palaretti Bernardo, Melania Borit and Edmund Chattoe-Brown  – First Steps Towards RAT: A Protocol for Documenting Data Use in the Agent-Based Modeling Process

* Sara Mehryar, Swenja Surminski and Bruce Edmonds – Participatory Agent-Based Modelling for Flood Risk Insurance

Second Workshop on Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence Using Social Simulation

Center for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

November 21st and 22nd 2019

OVERVIEW:

The main aim of this workshop is to design collectively a strategy for structuring and developing the field, while stimulating research and technological advancements on this topic, providing a forum for the reporting and discussion of current approaches, and facilitating the development of subsequent collaborative work within the field and across fields. This is a 2-day event following-up the Lorentz Center workshop on “Integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence using social simulation”, April 2019 (http://bit.ly/2niwYB8).

We invite all participants of the Lorentz workshop as well as other interested persons to join this follow-up workshop in Manchester; more news: http://cfpm.org/qual2rule/. The event will provide an opportunity for participants to:

Present their work progresses, results or preliminary drafts of their work and receive feedback from other participants;

Discuss the next steps i.e. continuing the planned work and/or initiating new work (e.g. grant application, focused publication, further workshops, journal special issue etc.).

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Professor Alicia O’Cathain, University of Sheffield, UK (http://bit.ly/2mHwmog)

Title: “Various ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative data in mixed-methods research”

LOCATION:

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, All Saints Campus, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6BH, UK. More information: http://cfpm.org/contact/37/cfpm

REGISTRATION:

There is no charge for the workshop, but advance registration is required via http://shorturl.at/BHJQZ. There is limited space available for 25 participants. Lunch & coffee will be provided free of charge.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Deadline for registration: 24th October 2019

Workshop itself: 9 AM 21st to 4 PM 22nd November 2019

ORGANIZERS:

Melania Borit (Norway)

Stephanie Dornschneider (Ireland)

Bruce Edmonds (UK)

Magnús Josefsson (Iceland)

Sara Mehryar (UK)

Nanda Wijermans (Sweden)

SPONSORS:

Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

Norwegian College of Fisheries Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

ESSA SIG Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules in ABM (http://cfpm.org/qual2rule/)

Thomas Feliciani, Pablo Lucas, Junwen Luo and Kalpana Shankar  – Building a data-driven model of peer review: the case of Science Foundation Ireland

Stephanie Dornschneider and Bruce Edmonds – Building a bridge from qualitative analysis to a simulation of the Arab Spring protests

Nanda Wijermans, Harko Verhagen, Davide Natalini, Stephanie Dornschneider, Mathew Senga and Ananya Mukherjee – Animal farm – species of a different kind flock together

Edmund Chattoe-Brown – Un Drôle De Type: The Schelling Model, Calibration, Specification, Validation and Using Relevant Data

Peer-Olaf Siebers, Sebastian Achter, Cristiane Palaretti Bernardo, Melania Borit and Edmund Chattoe-Brown  – First Steps Towards RAT: A Protocol for Documenting Data Use in the Agent-Based Modeling Process

Sara Mehryar, Swenja Surminski and Bruce Edmonds – Participatory Agent-Based Modelling for Flood Risk Insurance

The Lorentz workshop on “Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence using Social Simulation” happened this week in Leiden this week (8th-12th April 2019).

The work in this split up into different sub-projects:

QualML4ABM. 3 different ways of using Machine Learning (ML), (1) to derive insights from large and complex data sets (2) to allow greater flexibility in agent behaviours (more complex and data derived than traditional rule-base approaches), and (3) using ML to understand the simulations analysing the output from many runs in many dimensions. They are writing a review paper for how and why ML might be used to help  simulation modelling. Contact Timo <timo.szczepanska@uit.no>.

Descriptive approaches (The ‘other group’). Doing a survey on the different approaches to using qualitative (or mixed methods) methods for informing the design of simulation models. Starting with a literature view of cases where this is done and then assessing these on a variety of dimensions – how are they used, their function. If interested pleas contact Patrycia <p.p.antosz@rug.nl>.

Animal Farm. Working on a common language to integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence (in the context of  simulation models). Looked at how each person would approach a particular case study, seeing the variety of approaches. If interested please contact Nanda <nanda.wijermans@su.se>. They also talked about a grant application.

NetLogo Extensions. Nicolas Payette <nicolas.payette@ouce.ox.ac.uk> is considering what NetLogo extensions or other tools could  be helpful for this kind of work. In particular, he is considering a tool to aid in rule provenance (the links between parts of the simulation code and the qualitative data and/or analysis it relates to). We plan to have a session at the Social Simulation conference in Mainz (2019) on this.

Are we done yet?. Looked at how one decides when to know to stop adding new details into a simulation. They are planning a pilot study/experiment with students to assess how students decide when a model has enough data sources ideas for processes. The hypothesis is that different students (hence people) are different in how they formulate questions, decide the granularity, interpret a model etc. If interested please contact Thomas <thomas.feliciani@gmail.com>.

RAT (Rigour and Transparency) group. Looking to standards and methods to improve the rigour and transparency of simulation development. Developing a protocol/framework that would could be applied to a wide variety of kinds and purposes of modelling. They have developed a road map of the process which will be developed into a protocol. If interested please contact Melania <melania.borit@uit.no>.

There is a private blog where ideas, results pictures from the workshop are published. If  you want access to this please email, me <bruce@edmonds.name>

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/