Taught by Daniel Mayerhoff, the Digicomlab hosted a workshop providing a soft introduction to agent-based modeling using the user-friendly software NetLogo. The workshop was aimed at social scientists without extensive programming knowledge seeking to use simulated data alongside empirical research.
Social simulations can be used at the hypothesis formation stage, applied for analyzing cases that are difficult to study in an ethically acceptable way, or can help to fill gaps in the causal inferences. Hence, they are increasingly popular among social scientists and can be a valuable tool to add to their toolkit!