期刊名称:Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
印刷版ISSN:1460-7425
出版年度:2020
卷号:23
期号:3
页码:1-26
DOI:10.18564/jasss.4282
出版社:University of Surrey, Department of Sociology
摘要:This paper introduces the MBSSM (Mechanism-Based Social Systems Modelling) software architecture that is designed for expressing mechanisms of social theories with individual behaviour components in a unified way and implementing these mechanisms in an agent-based simulation model. The MBSSM architecture is based on a middle-range theory approach most recently expounded by analytical sociology and is designed in the object-oriented programming paradigm with Unified Modelling Language diagrams. This paper presents two worked examples of using the architecture for modelling individual behaviour mechanisms that give rise to the dynamics of population-level alcohol use: a single-theory model of norm theory and a multi-theory model that combines norm theory with role theory. The MBSSM architecture provides a computational environment within which theories based on social mechanisms can be represented, compared, and integrated. The architecture plays a fundamental enabling role within a wider simulation modelbased framework of abductive reasoning in which families of theories are tested for their ability to explain concrete social phenomena.
关键词:Agent-Based Modelling; Social Simulation; Software Architecture; Analytical Sociology; Abductive Reasoning