Simulation for the Social Scientist (UK Higher Education OUP Humanities & Social Sciences Sociology)

An invaluable guide to the complex and increasingly vital study of social simulation This is a revised, completely updated edition of the practical textbook that examines the techniques of building computer simulations to assist understanding of social and economic issues and problems. Interest in social simulation has been growing rapidly worldwide as a result of increasingly powerful hardware capabilities and software programs. The focus on this area of expertise is also influenced by a rising interest in the application of ideas of complexity, evolution, adaptation, and chaos in the social sciences. This authoritative book details all of the common approaches to social simulation, to provide social scientists with an appreciation of the literature and allow those with some programming skills to create their own simulations. New for this edition are a chapter on how to use simulation as a tool, as well as a chapter on multi-agent systems to explain why and how multi-agent modeling has become the preferred approach to simulation.