University of Surrey, UK
Institute of Advanced Studies


Call for papers: Modeling Urban Social Dynamics

7 - 8 April 2005

Policymakers and academic researchers have a longstanding interest in 
understanding how cities evolve and change. However, conventional 
methods of modeling urban development have not been able to capture the 
complexities and historical particularities of urban social 
dynamics. Recently, new forms of computational modeling, including 
agent-based modeling, have begun to be used, but as yet there is no 
agreement about how such models should be constructed and evaluated, 
and the kinds of task for which they are best suited. This 
inter-disciplinary workshop aims to provide a forum for current work in 
this area, bringing together the leading social scientists, computer 
scientists, physicists and policy specialists to discuss these exciting 
developments.

Contributions to the workshop are invited on the topics of:

•       Approaches to modeling using complex adaptive systems
•       Agent-based modeling of urban development and change
•       Modeling residential mobility and residential segregation
•       Modeling political divisions and coalition formation in cities
•       Modeling cultural divisions and the construction of urban 
categories and distinctions
•       The use of social simulations in understanding cities and 
influencing policy
•       The roles of stakeholders in urban simulations
•       Tools for computational modeling of cities (e.g. combining MAS 
and GIS)
•       Visualizing urban development
•       Empirical evaluations of simulation models

Contributors should submit a abstract of the work that they wish to 
present, of about 2-3000 words, by 1 December 2004. Authors of accepted 
abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper (4 -7000 words) by 1 
February 2005. A selection of the papers will be published in a special 
section of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.

The workshop will be held at the University of Surrey, in Guildford, 
UK. Guildford is a market town in the Green Belt surrounding London and 
is located about 35 minutes by train from central London and within 
easy reach of London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

As a consequence of support from the European Commission’s EXYSTENCE 
Network of Excellence and the University of Surrey, we are able to 
offer contributors of accepted papers free registration, meals and a 
grant towards their travel costs.  Partial support may also be 
available for other attendees.

Registration, accommodation in en-suite rooms and all meals (midday 
meal, dinner on 7th; breakfast and mid-day meal on 8th April) is £150 
(equivalent to about US$ 275 or €230). 

The workshop is organized by: Elizabeth Bruch, UCLA, USA and Nigel 
Gilbert, University of Surrey, UK. 

Abstracts should be sent to Nigel Gilbert ([log in to unmask]) 
by 1 December 2004, as anonymous PDF files attached to an email 
including full contact details.

Requests for participation and financial support should be sent to the 
same address by the same date.

For further details see: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ias/musd.htm

Program committee:

Itzak Benenson (Tel Aviv)
Elizabeth Bruch (UCLA)
Nigel Gilbert (Surrey)
David O’Sullivan (Auckland)
Nicolaas Vriend (Queen Mary College, London)
Paul Waddell (Washington)

_______________________________________________________________________
Professor Nigel Gilbert,  Editor, Journal of Artificial Societies and
      Social Simulation, <http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/>
         Centre for Research on Social Simulation (CRESS)
    Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
        Tel:+44 1483 689173   [log in to unmask]
                        <http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/>