Centre for Research on Simulation in the Social Sciences

CRESS is organising and supporting the following activities in order to achieve this aim:

• Reviews of the potential of simulation in selected areas of the social sciences

  A set of reviews of existing work are being commissioned. These will also identify areas for further research. It is expected that the reviews will focus on work using simulation in health management, town planning, science policy, environmental change, cultural change, business processes etc., and that they will be published in a special issue of the American Behavioural Scientist in late 1998. Contact the Centre if you are interested in being involved. Limited funding is available.

• Short courses on simulation in the social sciences

  Courses introducing the main approaches to simulation will be offered. The first will be held on 10 December 1997 at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Bursaries towards the cost of attendance will be available. Places must be reserved before the end of November, but are limited in number so early application is advisable. Contact the Centre for details.

• Workshop on the potential of simulation in the social sciences

  A two day workshop with guest lectures from European and American scholars is being arranged for 14-15 January 1998. A call for papers which illustrate the range of applications of computer simulation in the social sciences will be issued in July.

• Web site and email distribution list

  To encourage the distribution of information about simulation, an email distribution list is being established. To join, send a message to

  mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk

  
  containing the line:
  

  join simsoc First-name Surname

  
  substituting your own name. A Web site with links to sites related to social simulation around the world has been created.

• Advice and consultancy

  The Centre is able to offer a limited amount of advice about the use of simulation in social science research. It can also act as a 'broker' putting those who might be able to offer advice or (paid) technical assistance in touch with those who need it. Contact the Centre if you are offering or needing such services.

• Other activities

  Let us know if there are other activities which would help promote the use of social simulation in your field, and if you would like to contribute to the review series or take part in the workshop.

CRESS data

Edmund Chattoe is Associate Director.

Karen Ovenden is CRESS Administrator.

CRESS is located at

Department of Sociology,
School of Human Sciences,
University of Surrey,
Guildford GU2 5XH,
United Kingdom.
Tel: + 44 (0) 1 483 259458
Fax: + 44 (0) 1 483 306290
Email: cress@soc.surrey.ac.uk.
Web: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/research/cress

Advisory Board

CRESS research

1. A distributed artificial intelligence simulation of budgetary decision making, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 1994-7.

   The project aimed to understand more about how people manage their money by interviewing them about how their budgeting and building a simulation model which represents a formalisation of what they tell us.

2. IMAGES: Improving agri-environmental policies : a simulation approach to the role of the cognitive properties of farmers and institutions, funded by the FAIR programme of the Commission of the European Communities, 1997-2000

   This collaborative project with partners in France and Italy is studying the factors which influence farmers in deciding whether to adopt environmental improvements and building a simulation which will help policy-makers formulate more effective environmental improvement programmes.

3. Computer simulation for the social sciences.

   This textbook, co-authored by Nigel Gilbert and Klaus Troitzsch (Koblenz-Landau University, Germany), is to be published by the Open University Press in 1998 and will be the first text on this topic.

4. Teaching simulation in Economics and Social Science, funded by the European Union under the TACIS programme, 1997-8

   This project is enabling researchers from the Ukraine, Germany and CRESS to meet together and develop courses on simulation in social science.

5. Self-organisation of the European Information Society, funded by the Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) programme of the Commission of the European Communities, 1998 - 2000

   This collaborative project with partners in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy is exploring the dynamics of the emergent information society.

Last updated November 8, 1997