ABSTRACT
Throughout history, mankind has experienced fundamental social transformations induced by changes in the political, social, and economic landscape. Some of these changes occur not gradually but so rapidly that they cast into question the notion of social dynamics and equilibrium convergence discussed in earlier chapters. Some social systems exhibit a sophisticated interplay of their components leading to complex behaviour and emergent properties. These systems cannot be easily studied using the earlier approaches in this book.
This chapter introduces readers to agent-based modelling. This computational method can replicate the complex interdependencies in social systems and generate numerical solutions and predictions. It can model the feedback effects that cause emergent behaviour by linking individual actions and institutions at various levels of aggregation. The chapter employs agent-based modelling to study two broad systems that exhibit criticality. In these systems, individual actions influence peers and cause localised externalities that can amplify over time and cause rapid system-wide transformations and complex reactions after reaching a breaking point.
Among the concepts discussed are: discrete cellular automata, spatial segregation, recursive dynamics, semi-autonomous, adaptive, and heterogeneous agents, and self-organised criticality.
