ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by briefly defining computer simulation and distinguishing it from two related techniques. The following section discusses existing uses of computer simulation in understanding family practices. Three main approaches can be identified: microsimulation for demography and policy analysis; rule-based models in anthropology; and agent-based models of the emergence of social complexity. I will use these three cases to discuss the implications of the computer simulation approach in more detail. In particular, I shall try to show how simulation avoids the excessive simplifying assumptions of other formal approaches like rational choice while managing to make effective use of rich qualitative data. In doing this, I hope to suggest that formality and excessive abstraction need not be synonymous. In the next section, I will list aspects of family behaviour that seem essential to plausible simulation and argue that current modelling explores these only in a fragmentary way. The final section will then illustrate the requirements of an integrated simulation of family behaviour using the theory of gendered moral rationalities (Duncan and Edwards 1999) as a case study.
