Artificial Societies

This article introduces a general sociological readership to multiagent systems (MAS), a new computer simulation technology that has increasingly been used to describe and explain sociological phenomena. The author uses the term artificial societies to refer to social simulations using MAS and he describes MAS technology and contrasts it with other social simulation technologies. The author argues that MAS have attained a level of maturity where they can be useful tools for sociologists, and he shows how MAS provide new perspectives on contemporary discussions of the micro-macro link in sociological theory by focusing on three aspects of the micro-macro link: micro-to-macro emergence, macro-to-micro social causation, and the dialectic between emergence and social causation.