*** Apologies for cross-posting.***
*** Please forward to anybody who might be interested. ***
Dear colleagues,
Please consider submitting abstracts to these three special sessions to be organized during the
Social Simulation Conference 2016
in Rome - http://www.ssc2016.cnr.it/sessions/?pg=2 .
Modelling social science aspects of fisheries
Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsų (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Cezara Pastrav, Matis, Iceland
Overall, world fisheries are unsustainable, with almost 90% of stocks being over exploited or fully exploited. Improved and innovative management solutions are required if this critical situation
is to be remedied. Since management is about people, not fish, integrating social sciences aspects into the modelling of fisheries as a socio-ecological complex system might be such a new way of thinking about fisheries management. We are interested in solutions
that look at fisheries as socio-ecological complex systems, with a focus on the social behavior components of the system. Submissions focusing on any aspects of fisheries management are welcome, including (but not restricted to): social norms and self-organization
of fishers, applications of Ostrom“s work on managing social commons, compliance with rules under changing management regimes, culture and trust, simulations that combine complex representations of society and complex ecological models, simulations as public
educational tools, participatory simulations of fisheries. This session is a
SAF21 initiative.
ESSA Special Interest Group
Qual2Rule - Using qualitative data to inform behavioral rules
Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsų (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Roman Seidl, Institute for Environmental Decisions, Switzerland
Many academics consider qualitative evidence (e.g. texts gained from transcribing someone talking or observations of people) and quantitative evidence to be incommensurable. However agent-based
simulations are a possible vehicle for bridging this gap. Narrative textual evidence often gives clues as to the in-context behavior of individuals and is thus a natural source for behaviors to inform the specification of corresponding agent behavior within
simulations. They will not give a complete picture of this, but they will provide some of “menu” of behaviors that people use. During this session we hope to further understanding of how to do this better. It is open to all approaches that seek to move from
qualitative evidence towards a simulation in a systematic way. This includes, but is not limited to:
* Approaches based in Grounded Theory.
* Tools for facilitating such a process.
* Participatory processes that result in a simulation.
* Frameworks for aiding the analysis of text into rules.
* Elicitation techniques that would aid the capture of information in an appropriate structure.
* Models and ideas from psychology to aid in the above process.
* Insights and tools from Natural Language Processing that may help this process.
* Agent architectures that will facilitate the programming of agents from such analyses.
* Philosophical or Sociological critiques of this project, pointing out assumptions and dangers.
* Examples of where this approach has been tried.
ESSA Special Interest Group
SSSG
– Social simulation and serious games
Session chairs:
Melania Borit, University of Tromsų (UiT) – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Harko Verhagen, Stockholm University, Sweden
This special session focuses on the interplay between social simulation and serious games. We wish to bring together researchers working on both fields to a crossroads at which synergies will be
created between the two areas. In SSSG, we investigate how the fields of social simulation and serious games are linked. In particular, we focus on the following topics:
* Serious game design. Which level of abstraction is chosen for a serious game? Will it be close to a strict simulation or will it incorporate extensive metaphors? What are the factors based on which
this choice is to be made? Which (serious) game mechanics are useful?
* Modelling the social situation. Which approach captures the situation with sufficient granularity? How should a choice be made to include specific theories and models that describe the situation?
For example, using a data-driven methodology, how can the steps be made from data to theory to application (and game mechanics)? For agent-based modelling, how can artificially intelligent agents be made that act according to a specified model?
* Example implementations. Stories of success and failure: which elements in a serious game that includes social interaction turn out to be useful and which are counter-productive to the game’s goal?
Which elements of social simulations can be used in the design of serious games?
Best regards,
Melania.
_____
Melania Borit, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow,
SAF21 Project Coordinator,
Norwegian College of Fishery Science,
Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics,
UiT – The Arctic University of Norway (University of Tromsų)
Mobile: +47 91352814
Web: uit.no/melania.borit
SAF21:
Web: www.saf21.org
FaceBook:
The Daily Fish
Twitter: @saf21esr