On Agent Based Modelling and Computational Social Science

An integrated variant, which takes after ABM, reconciling it with the quantitative one, is proposed as a fundamental requirement for a new program of the CSS.

Abstract

In the first part of the paper, the field of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) is discussed focusing on the role of generative theories, aiming at explaining phenomena by growing them. After a brief analysis of the major strengths of the field some crucial weaknesses are analysed. In particular, the generative power of ABM is found to have been underexploited, as the way back processes from the macroscopic effects of interaction to the modification of generating rules have been poorly investigated. In the second part of the paper, the renewal of interest for Computational Social Science (CSS) is focused upon, and several variants of it deductive, generative, and complex CSS, are identified and described. In the concluding remarks, an integrated variant, which takes after ABM, reconciling it with the quantitative one, is proposed as a fundamental requirement for a new program of the CSS.