So here it is, our little “manifesto for qualitative agent-based simulation” is finally out on the now Sage-published Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique. It is just worth stressing the importance of this article in our present research: our effort has been to really provide a comprehensive framework for underdestanding what it means to adopt an ethnographic-informed approach to agent-based modelling – as opposed to both abstract modelling and statistically-informed modelling.
What the article does not say – and what we will hopefully develop at a later stage – is the significance of this kind of approach in order to undertake an actual ideal-type building, in the weberian sense. ABM is not only about designing alternative scenarios or popping new hypotheses, and it is definitely not about approximating social processes. It is a tool for carrying out thought experiments (Gedankenexperimente) and, as Weber himself would have said, for arranging “unified analytical constructs” (Gedankenbilder).
Tubaro, P., & Casilli, A. A. (2010). ”An Ethnographic Seduction”: How Qualitative Research and Agent-based Models can Benefit Each Other Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 106 (1), 59-74 DOI: 10.1177/0759106309360111
So if you want to dig deeper into it, here’s a link to Paola’s blogpost, taking an economist stance on the article. And, if you are looking for a preprint version of the article, just scroll down my personal webpage.