Why questions like 'do networks matter?' matter to methodology: how Agent-Based Modelling makes it possible to answer them
Why questions like 'do networks matter?' matter to methodology: how Agent-Based Modelling makes it possible to answer them
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DOI：
10.1080/13645579.2020.1801602
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发表时间：
2020-07-31
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Chattoe-Brown, Edmund
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Chattoe-Brown, Edmund
本文演示了一种名为“基于代理的建模”的技术如何解决有效跨学科性的重大挑战。不同的学科和研究方法对于令人满意的解释需要什么做出不同的断言。然而，如果没有一个统一的框架来系统地分析这些差异的影响，争论就无法超越单纯的相互竞争的主张。通过使用一系列示例，我证明基于代理的建模提供了这样一个统一的框架，方法是展示模型对如何在仅在（例如）包括社交网络方面有所不同时显示定量上不同的行为。量化因模型应包含哪些内容的不同假设而产生的差异的能力使它们受到实证评估（而不仅仅是争论）。尽管本文使用社交网络示例进行易于理解的演示，但构建配对模型的方法非常通用，因此可以阐明其他重大的社会科学争议（例如理性的作用和民族志细节的重要性）。
This article demonstrates how a technique called Agent-Based Modelling can address a significant challenge for effective interdisciplinarity. Different disciplines and research methods make divergent assertions about what a satisfactory explanation requires. However, without a unified framework analysing the implications of these differences systematically, debate cannot transcend mere competing assertion. Using a sequence of examples, I demonstrate that Agent-Based Modelling provides such a unified framework by showing how pairs of models may display quantitatively distinct behaviours when differing only in (for example) including a social network. The ability to quantify differences arising from divergent assumptions about what models should include makes them subject to empirical evaluation (rather than mere contention). Although the article uses social network examples for accessible presentation, the approach of building paired models is quite general and can, therefore, illuminate other significant social science controversies (like the role of rationality and the importance of ethnographic detail).