8 Apr 2019 through 12 Apr 2019, Lorentz Centre, Leiden, NL. For more about this see http://cfpm.org/qual2rule/eoi-lorentz-workshop/ and http://lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2019/1116/info.php3?wsid=1116&venue=Snellius
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 aim to: 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.
Scientific organizers:
- Melania Borit (Tromsø, Norway)
- Stephanie Dornschneider (Dublin, Ireland)
- Bruce Edmonds (Manchester, UK)
- Magnús Josefsson (Reykjavik, Iceland)
- Sara Mehryar (Enschede, The Netherlands)
- Nanda Wijermans (Stockholm, Sweden)
Workshop participation is by invite only, but if you want to be added to the reserve list contact the Lorentz Centre via their link.