Re: CAS Modeling Projects

[L. Thomas Vest, Jr.]

>I am trying to compile a list of as many CAS modeling projects as possible.

I'm game:

>Please provide:

>The name of the project

Globalization and Cultural Change: Lessons from Los Angeles and the Pacific Rim

>The purpose

Match up multi-agent simulations embodying theories about group
socioeconomic dynamics against empirical GIS data for a large, diverse
metropolitan area (Los Angeles County).

(dissertation, USC School of International Relations)

>Perhaps an abstract

Abstract


Questions about the impact of cultural factors on aggregate economic
outcomes have been
extensively researched in several disciplines, but institutional,
methodological, and technological impediments have conspired to keep
insights from these research programs segregated. In
combination, these diverse insights suggest a novel approach to
operationalizing cultural variation in
terms of two dimensions, recognition and responsibility. These dimensions
represent, respectively,
the synthesis and parametric representation of theoretical and empirical
debates pitting (a)
"modernists" against "postmodernists" and (b) "liberals" against
"communitarians." Cultural groups
will be assigned values in both of these dimensions based on a comparison
of social and economic
data drawn from (relatively) monocultural home environments. Parameter
values are then tested
against evidence of economic performance in interactive, multicultural
settings, with the city of Los
Angeles serving as the primary test environment. Using SWARM, a multi-agent
computer modeling
platform developed at the Santa Fe Institute, temporal variations in
spatial and aggregate economic
patterns at the metropolitan level are revealed as emergent phenomena
arising from the dynamic
interaction and reciprocal influence of groups with different sets of
cultural attributes.

Using parameter values that are shown to be plausible individual-level
determinants of aggregate
level social and economic behavior in both mono- and multi-cultural
settings, simulation results are
tested for distributional and relational equivalence against empirical data
on the Los Angeles microcosm. Based on the values that satisfy this
three-step curve-fitting exercise, alternative trajectories of future
cultural evolution at the global level are simulated using the SWARM
platform. These simulations are expected to shed some empirical light on
the debate between communitarian, cosmopolitan, and critical theorists
about the character of social life in an increasingly integrated global
economy. These long-term projections will gain an added measure of
plausibility if, as expected, they yield accurate relational predictions of
the demographic and spatial data embodied in the 2000 Census of Los
Angeles.

>a URL link if possible

http://www.usc.edu/~vest/       (forthcoming)

>Thanks in advance
>
>
>
>Ed Swanstrom
>OOCL Listserver Host
>http://www.agiliscorp.com/ooclforum.html
>
>
>
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__________________________________________________
L. Thomas Vest, Jr.                           Conflict Early Warning Systems
Pacific Council on Int'l Policy         A Carnegie Corporation Project
Los Angeles, California 90089-0035             address@hidden
Fax (213) 740-9498                                          Fax (818) 349-2910
__________________________________________________




                  ==================================
   Swarm-Modelling is for discussion of Simulation and Modelling techniques
   esp. using Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp. [un]subscribing),
   please send a message to <address@hidden> with "help" in the
   body of the message.
                  ==================================