The First ESSA Summer School in Social Simulation

University of Brescia, Department of Social Sciences, 13-17 September 2010

Website: http://www.eco.unibs.it/essasummer/

Email: essasummer@eco.unibs.it

Social simulation is a research field that applies agent-based computational models to the study of social phenomena, such as the emergence of social norms, the spatial segregation of ethnic groups in urban cities and the formation of collective opinion. Its raison d’être is to help social scientists to understand and explain complex social phenomena by looking at agent interaction in given social structures.

By providing room for concrete collaborations between cognitive scientists, computer scientists, natural scientists, economists and social scientists, social simulation crosses the gap between the descriptive approach that dominates the social sciences and the formal approach that characterizes the hard sciences. In doing so, it advances the knowledge frontier on crucial social puzzles that traditional approaches and disciplines dramatically fail to explain.

Organized by the GECS-Research Group of the Brescia University, chaired by Flaminio Squazzoni and sponsored by ESSA, University of Brescia and SIMIAN: Simulation Innovation: a Node, the first ESSA Summer School in Social Simulation aims to provide a comprehensive educational programme on the basics of this new field. Lectures span from epistemological to methodological issues, from examples of real world applications to policy implications, and are joined with modelling exercises, student papers and research projects discussion, and tutoring sessions.

The faculty includes Riccardo Boero (University of Torino, Italy), Giangiacomo Bravo (University of Torino, Italy), Rosaria Conte (CNR, Rome, Italy), Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey, UK), Bridget Rosewell (Volterra Consulting, UK), Juliette Rouchier (GREQAM Marseille, France), and Klaus G. Troitzsch (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany). The invited lecturer of this first edition is Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, director of the Center for Social Complexity, George Mason University, Washington, USA.

By the end of this school, each student is expected to:

· Learn what is social simulation and why it is crucial to do innovative social science in many fields
· Learn the basics to design social simulation models
· Learn how to develop his/her model and to base an innovative and robust research strategy upon it

· Learn possible applications of social simulation models to the social reality.

Participants
MA and PhD students, post-doc fellows, researchers, and professionals.

Application Procedure

Send your CV, a one page description of your dissertation/research project and a letter of support from your supervisor (please, attach a pdf scanned version to the email) to essasummer@eco.unibs.it by 15 June 2010 at the latest

Fees
Information available soon

Deadlines

For application: 15 June 2010
For acceptance: 30 June 2010
For regular registration: 15 July 2010

Information and contacts

For any further detail, please visit www.eco.unibs.it/essasummer and/or contact essasumm@eco.unibs.it