Modeling Social Mechanisms: Mechanism-Based Explanations and Agent-Based Modeling in the Social Sciences

نویسنده

  • Cyril Hédoin
چکیده

An increasing number of philosophers of social sciences and of social scientists are getting interested in the relevance of mechanism-based explanations (MBE) in the social sciences. According to MBE, we explain a phenomenon by revealing the mechanism(s) responsible for its occurrence. In the social sciences, MBE has been particularly endorsed by analytical sociology. According to several proponents of analytical sociology but also to scholars from other disciplines, agent-based models (ABM) are a particularly relevant tool to produce MBE. Indeed, it is sometimes argued that to build an ABM and to use a mechanismbased reasoning is the same thing. This article evaluates the relevance of ABM to representing (social) mechanisms. It emphasizes the difficulties surrounding the representation of a particular form of social mechanisms I call “institutional mechanisms”, where the behavior of the social system and of its components (the social agents) are determined by institutional objects such as norms or conventions. I show that the implementation of the downward effect of an institutional element in an ABM calls for particular scrutiny. In particular, a theory of social institutions independent of the model is likely to be needed to implement the institutional object through the microspecifications of the model. I conclude that agent-based modeling cannot fully substitute to social theory.

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تاریخ انتشار 2013