Corey
Schimpf and I presented our work as part of the Computational
Diplomacy and Policy Workshop July 3rd, Prague, 2023, for the International Conference on
Computational Science. The workshop was run by Michael Lees,
Bastien Chopard, and me.
TITLE
The complexities of policy, data and computational methods:
Charting a new, case-based, social science grounded, AM-Smart methods approach
Co-authors, in addition to Corey and me, include Peter
Barbrook-Johnson, Lasse
Gerrits, and Christopher
Caden
ABSTRACT
In the globalized worlds in which we live, governments
cannot escape the uncertainty, interdependence, and complexity of current public
policy. Nor can they escape the urgent need for sweeping policy reform –
infrastructural, political, environmental, social – to address this complexity,
including the coordinating local, national, and international policies and
stakeholders. Governments are also confronted presently with a big-data flood
of information and the promised ‘sales pitch’ of computational science – from
modelling and simulation to data science and artificial intelligence – to
correctly guide decision-making. While such complexities of policy, data and
methods is not an entirely new problem, what is of critical importance is how
rather ineffective it has all been. The promise of complexity and computation
has struggled to live up to expectation. A shift has emerged in the policy landscape,
albeit minor, involving a ‘social science turn’ in complexity and computational
modelling. This ‘turn’ involves using the theories, concepts, methods and
empirical insights of social science to inform the complexity and computational
sciences. In terms of specifics, leading areas of research includes
co-production for simulation; participatory design; rigorous stakeholder
engagement; a resurgence in systems mapping; mixed-methods development, such as
qualitative comparative analysis and agent-based modelling; addressing issues
of power and inequalities in the policy landscape, including grounding policy
in a complexities of place approach; adopting a case-based perspective; and
co-designing more easily accessible computational modelling platforms, called
AM-Smart methods.
Our presentation will seek to outline this ‘social science’
turn in complexity and computational modelling and its implications for
improving public policy. This outline will include (1) a brief overview of the
above advances; (2) a quick introduction to a methods platform we developed,
COMPLEX-IT, which has incorporated many of the social science turn advances
into its design; and (3) critically reflect on the strengths and weakness of
the social science turn, including barriers to and levers for advancing the
utility of this approach across team members with distinct roles, perspectives,
and intersections with public policy work. All with the goal of helping to
advance the field of computational policy/diplomacy.
CLICK
HERE TO ACCESS COMPLEX-IT
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS
CECAN
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS PRSM –
PARTICIPATORY SYSTEMS MAPPER
CLICK HERE FOR
OPEN ACCESS BOOK, SYSTEMS MAPPING
CLICK HERE FOR POLDER CENTER AT UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
CLICK HERE FOR DURHAM RESEARCH METHODS CENTRE
CLICK HERE for
the PDF of our Workshop Introduction
HERE ARE THE OTHER PRESENTATIONS FROM OUR TWO-PART SESSION