Simulation for the Social Scientist

* What can computer simulation contribute to the social sciences?

* Which of the many approaches to simulation would be best for my social science project?

* How do I design, carry out and analyse the results from a computer simulation?

Simulation for the Social Scientist is a practical textbook on the techniques of building computer simulations to assist understanding of social and economic issues and problems.

Interest in social simulation has been growing very rapidly world-wide as a result of increasingly powerful hardware and software and also a rising interest in the application of ideas of complexity, evolution, adaptation and chaos in the social sciences. This authoritative book outlines all the common approaches to social simulation at a level of detail which will give social scientists an appreciation of the literature and allow those with some programming skills to create their own simulations.

Social scientists in a wide range of fields will find this book an essential tool for research, particularly in sociology, economics, anthropology, geography, organizational theory, political science, social policy, cognitive psychology and cognitive science. It will also appeal to computer scientists interested in distributed artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and agent technologies.

Nigel Gilbert is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey. He is editor of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation and has used simulation as a research method on projects in sociology, social psychology, economics and archaeology.

Klaus G. Troitzsch is Professor of Social Science Informatics at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. He has written extensively in sociology and political science, and pioneered the application of simulation to the social sciences in Germany.