Agent-based modeling can be used in a multitude of ways by researchers and teams with different scientific backgrounds all around the globe. With this workshop we intend to provide an opportunity to discuss the role of culture in agent-based modeling. Therefore we would like to invite to join the workshop the researchers whose work is based on the assumption that human beliefs and behavior are not caused solely by physical conditions and individual experiences but also by transmitted knowledge shaped in historical and social processes. We want culture to be understood in a broad sense, so that we can discuss a variety of concepts of culture and its current or potential use in agent-based modeling.
To provide the necessary timeframe for presentations and for intense discussion, the workshop will last two days. On the first day of the workshop, attendants will be given an opportunity to present their own experience with integrating culture in their research utilizing the agent-based modelling approach. Whereas the first day will be open for wider audience, during the second day the workshop participants will discuss in a closed session. The goals of the topic-focused discussions are, on the one hand, the clarification of epistemological functions of agent-based models in the social sciences and humanities, and, on the other hand, the identification of concepts and approaches that may improve incorporation of cultural complexity into agent-based models.
Potential outcome of the workshop will be moreover publication of workshop presentations and discussion in a form of a journal special issue or an edited volume.
Limited funds for travelling support will be available for invited participants from European countries other than Germany.