Just published: New issue of JASSS: Vol. 4(2)

[Nigel Gilbert]

The second issue of volume four of the Journal of Artificial 
Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) was published on March 31st.

JASSS is an electronic, refereed journal devoted to the exploration 
and understanding of social processes by means of computer 
simulation.  It is located at <http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/>. 
It is freely available, with no subscription.

=================

The new issue is largest ever published by JASSS, with 8 refereed 
articles, 3 commentaries, a Forum piece and 4 book reviews.  The 
issue has the theme "Agent-based modelling, game theory and natural 
resource management issues" and has been guest edited by François 
Bousquet and colleagues.

Refereed articles

In their editorial, the editors note that the research questions 
addressed in research on environmental resource management are very 
often questions of collective decision-making. Several actors have to 
coordinate the sharing of a common environment and manage the 
externalities generated by individual decisions. Game theoretic 
modelling has been developed since the end of 1950s to understand 
strategic interactions between actors. More recently, agent-based 
models have been proposed to simulate interactions between agents. 
For many researchers, it is not clear whether it is better to  use 
game theory or a multi-agent system (MAS). Are the underlying 
concepts and hypothesis different? What are the possible linkages 
between these methods?  The papers in this issue address these 
questions and provide some illustrations of what can be achieved with 
MAS in this field.

The articles in this issue are:

* Wolfang Balzer, Karl R. Brendel and Solveig Hofmann
  Bad Arguments in the Comparison of Game Theory and
        Simulation in Social Studies

* Scott Moss
  Game Theory: Limitations and an Alternative

* O. Thébaud and B. Locatelli
  Modelling the emergence of resource-sharing conventions:
        An agent-based approach

* Jim Doran
  Intervening to Achieve Co-operative Ecosystem Management:
        Towards an Agent Based Model

* Olivier Barreteau, François Bousquet, Jean-Marie Attonaty
  Role-playing games for opening the black box of multi-agent systems:
        Method and lessons of its application to
        Senegal River Valley irrigated systems

* Sophie Thoyer, Sylvie Morardet, Patrick Rio, Leo Simon, Rachel
        Goodhue and Gordon Rausser
  A Bargaining Model to Simulate Negotiations between Water Users

  -  Bruce Edmonds
     Commentary
  -  S. Thoyer, S. Morardet, P. Rio
     A short answer to Bruce Edmonds' commentary

* Rosaria Conte and Frank Dignum
  From Social Monitoring to Normative Influence

* Juliette Rouchier, Martin O'Connor, François Bousquet
  The creation of a reputation in an artificial society organised
        by a gift system

  -  Frédéric Gannon
     Commentary


Forum

In Forum section, Pietra Terna reflects on the lessons to be learned 
from the Sugarscape "bottom-up" style of modelling

*  Pietro Terna
   Creating Artificial Worlds: A Note on Sugarscape and Two Comments


Reviews

There are book reviews of:

*  Emergent Actors in World Politics: How States and Nations Develop
     Lars-Erik Cederman
   Reviewed by David Lazer

*  Modelling and Simulation in the Social Sciences from a Philosophy
   of Science Point of View
       Edited by Rainer Hegselmann, Ulrich Mueller and Klaus G. Troitzsch
   Reviewed by Leslie Henrickson

*  Artificial Life VI: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference
   on Artificial Life
       Edited by Christoph Adami, Richard K. Belew, Hiroaki Kitano and
           Charles E. Taylor
   Reviewed by Itzhak Benenson

*  Multi-Agent System: An Introduction to Distributed Artificial
   Intelligence
       Jacques Ferber
   Reviewed by Juliette Rouchier


The new issue can be accessed through the JASSS home page: 
http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html



--
_______________________________________________________________________
Professor Nigel Gilbert,  Editor, Journal of Artificial Societies and
   Social Simulation, <http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/>.
Centre for Research on Simulation in the Social Sciences (CRESS),
   Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
  Tel:+44 1483 259173  Fax:+44 1483 259551  address@hidden
Simulation resources at <http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/research/simsoc/>


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