This book illustrates the potential for computer simulation in the study of modern slavery and worker abuse, and by extension in all social issues. It lays out a philosophy of how agent-based modelling can be used in the social sciences. In addressing modern slavery, Chesney considers precarious work that is vulnerable to abuse, like sweat-shop labour and prostitution, and shows how agent modelling can be used to study, understand and fight abuse in these areas. He explores the philosophy, application and practice of agent modelling through the popular and free software NetLogo. This topical book is grounded in the technology needed to address the messy, chaotic, real world problems that humanity faces—in this case the serious problem of abuse at work—but equally in the social sciences which are needed to avoid the unintended consequences inherent to human responses. It includes a short but extensive NetLogo guide which readers can use to quickly learn this software and go on to develop complex models. This is an important book for students and researchers of computational social science and others interested in agent-based modelling.
Author(s): Thomas Chesney
Series: Frontiers in Sociology and Social Research, 5
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 171
City: Cham
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
Part I Philosophy
1 Computing Slavery
1.1 Agent Modelling
1.2 Slavery
1.3 What Can Agent Models Offer?
1.4 A Simple Model of Employment
1.5 Employment Model Code
Further Reading
References
2 A Philosophy of Agent-Based Modelling
2.1 Context
2.2 Social Science
2.3 Statement of Agent Modelling Philosophy
2.4 Simulation as Experiment
2.5 Agents as Subjects
2.6 The Role of Theory and Data
2.7 Revisiting What Agent Models Can Offer
2.8 What Agent Models Can Offer in the Fight Against Slavery
2.9 Scale
Further Reading
References
3 The Emergence of Slavery
3.1 Ajani's Choice
3.2 The Agent Modelling Paradox
3.3 Implementing Ajani's Choice
3.4 A Philosophy of Agent Coding
3.5 Boundaries
3.6 The Wonky Die
3.7 Analyses
3.8 Ajani's Choice Code
3.9 Extensions
Further Reading
References
4 A Culture of Acceptance
4.1 Benefactors or Slavers?
4.2 Modelling Culture
4.3 The Importance of Being Discrete
4.4 A Culture of Slavery
4.5 The Nature of Culture
4.6 Culture Code
4.7 Diffusion of Good Working Conditions
4.8 Namrata's Family
4.9 A Diffusion Mechanism
4.10 Implementing Namrata's Family
4.11 Analysis
Further Reading
References
Part II Application
5 Human Trafficking
5.1 The People Trade
5.2 Hoping for Arrest
5.3 Modelling Grooming
5.4 Nonlinear Functions
5.5 Model Rules
5.6 The Scale of Mathematics
5.7 Implementing Hoping for Arrest
5.8 Results
5.9 Moving Between Brothels
5.10 Moving Between Brothels Code
5.11 Analysis and Discussion
Further Reading
References
6 Identifying Abuses
6.1 Shadow Accounts
6.2 Approach
6.3 Clean and Wax
6.4 The Clean and Wax Model
6.5 Analysis
6.6 Discussion
6.7 Clean and Wax Code
Further Reading
References
7 How to Free a Slave
7.1 Unchained Supply
7.2 Modelling the Fair Food Program
7.3 Exploratory Research
7.4 Exploring the Fair Food Program Model
7.5 Discussion
7.6 Fair Food Program Code
Further Reading
References
Part III Practice
8 Designing an Agent Model
8.1 Overview
8.2 Process of Design
8.3 Verification
8.4 Validation and Semantic Errors
Further Reading
References
9 `Statistics-for' and `Statistics-with' Agent Models
9.1 `Statistics-for'
9.2 Sampling
9.3 `Statistics-with'
9.4 Investigating National Differences
9.5 Bespoke Statistical Tests
9.6 Effect Size
9.7 Multiple Variables
9.8 A Summary of Running Experiments on Agent Models
Further Reading
References
10 Final Thoughts
Further Reading
References
A NetLogo Language Guide
Environment
Comments
Global Variables
Breeds
Agent Attributes
Housekeeping
Creating Agents
Asking Agents and Agentsets
Moving Agents Around Their Environment
Removing Agents
Conditions
Loops
Agent Memory
Local Variables
Procedures
Output to File
BehaviorSpace
Links
Seed Number
Who Number
The R Extension
Built in Agent Attributes
Getting Help
B R Code for the Bespoke Statistics Test
Reference
Index
