Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation Applied to Environmental Management

Abstract

This chapter examines how a specific type of social constraint operates in Artificial Societies. The investigation concentrates on bottom-up behaviour regulation. Freedom of individual action selection is constraint by some kind of obligations that become operative in the individual decision making process. This is the concept of norms. The two-way dynamics of norms is investigated in two main sections of the chapter: the effect of norms on a social macro-scale and the operation of social constraints in the individual agent. While normative modelling is becoming useful for a number of practical purposes, this chapter specifically addresses the benefits of this expanding research field to understand the dynamics of human societies. For this reason, both sections begin with an elaboration of the problem situation, derived from the empirical sciences. This enables to specify questions to agent-based modelling. Both sections then proceed with an evaluation of the state of the art in agent-based modelling. In the first case, sociology is consulted. Agent-based modelling promises an integrated view on the conception of norms in role theoretic and individualistic theories of society. A sample of existing models is examined. In the second case, socialisation research is consulted. In the process of socialisation the obligatory force of norms become internalised by the individuals. A simulation of the feedback loop back into the mind of agents is only in the beginning. Research is predominantly on the level of the development of architectures. For this reason, a sample of architectures is evaluated.