Workshop on “Agent-Based Computational Modelling. An Instrument for Analysing Complex Adaptive Systems in Demography, Economics and Environment” at the Vienna Institute of Demography, December 4–6, 2004

Abstract

Agent-based models are increasingly used in different fields when studying com plex adaptive systems. Micro-level interaction between heterogeneous agents is at the heart of recent advances in modelling within sociology, demography and related disciplines well economics, ecology and environmental sciences. Different keywords are used to denote approaches that have common focus on modelling from the bottom up: social simulation, artificial societies, individual-based model ling in ecology, agent-based computational economics (ACE) and economics with heterogeneous interacting agents, agent-based computational demography (ABCD), to name just some of them. Scientific journals and even societies have flourished accompanying the scientific debate, where the core question usually raised at interdisciplinary workshops, such the one we organised, is related to agents: should agents be simple or should they be complex? Proponents of the sim plicity of agents (the so-called keep-it-simple-and-stupid, or KISS principle, pushed by Robert Axelrod) point out that the most interesting analytical results are obtained when complexity at the macro level is produced by simple micro-level dynamics. In this approach, the analogy is with mathematical models where complex dynamics may arise from simple rules. Proponents of the complexity of agents obtain their ar guments especially from the fields of sociology and cognitive psychology, and emphasise, using the words of Conte, the idea that agents should be kept as simple suitable. This debate continuously pervaded the workshop held at the Vienna Institute of Demography, which was certainly lively, and also truly interdisciplinary. The workshop was opened by Wolfgang Lutz and Thomas Fent (who acted the main local organiser), both of whom welcomed the idea that this fascinating topic was hosted by the VID. Francesco Billari and Alexia Prskawetz kicked off the debate from a user's perspective, describing their experience in stimulating scholars inter ested in demography ever since workshop held at the Max Planck Institute for De