Re: CAS Modeling Projects

[Ed Swanstrom]

Thank you very much!!!

Ed Swanstrom


At 04:21 PM 6/10/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>>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
>>
>>
>>
>>                  ==================================
>>   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.
>>                  ==================================
>
>__________________________________________________
>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.
>                  ==================================
>
>



Ed Swanstrom
OOCL and OOCL-BPR  Listserver Host
http://www.agiliscorp.com/ooclforum.html



                  ==================================
   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.
                  ==================================