An ethnographic seduction: How qualitative research and agent-based models can benefit each other

We provide a generaI anaIyticaI framework for empiricaIIy informed agent-based simuIations. That this methodoIogy provides present-day agent-based modeIs with a sound and proper insight as to the behavior of sociaI agents — an insight that statisticaI data often faII short of providing at Ieast at a micro IeveI and for hidden and sensitive popuIations. In the other direction, simuIations can provide quaIitative researchers in socioIogy, Corresponding author: Corresponding Author: PaoIa Tubaro, Room QA359, Department of InternationaI Business and Economics, University of Greenwich, Business SchooI, OId RoyaI NavaI CoIIege, Park Row, London SE10 9LS EmaiI: [email protected] 2 Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique 106(01) anthropoIogy and other fieIds with vaIuabIe tooIs for: (a) testing the consistency and pushing the boundaries, of specific theoreticaI frameworks; (b) repIicating and generaIizing resuIts; (c) providing a pIatform for cross-discipIinary vaIidation of resuIts. Mots clé s Donne’ es quaIitatives, Ethnographie, Mode’ Iisation par agents, TransdiscipIinarite’