Agent-based Modelling: A New Way of Exploring Social Phenomena

Agent-based modelling is a new research method that allows the complexity, emergency and nonlinearity of many social processes to be managed in a simple way. In this paper we define agent-based modelling-and its different classes on the basis of a classic example: the Schelling model of urban segregation, which seeks to explain how it is possible that ghettos can arise in cities where citizens have no racial prejudices. Finally, some of its possible applications are considered: developing, formalising and assessing sociological theories; deciding amongst rival theories about the same social phenomenon; integrating different theories in a common setting; explaining social dynamics through their micro-mechanisms; carrying out experiments in a virtual world; assessing social policies and their a priori results; and predicting certain social phenomena.