(Non) Status quo Attitudes with NetLogo

Overview

Have you ever wondered what is behind different cultural traits and attitudes towards the status quo? Or more broadly, what influences the Zeitgeist of a society? Generally speaking, when it comes to changing (or not) the current spirit and state of affairs of a given society or community, some people show themselves as idealists, and they can even inspire others. At the same time, some other people are traditionalists, and some are just neutral about how things are. In this guided-project you will develop an agent-based model using NetLogo that tries to use these personas to touch and generate insights around theses questions. And while doing so, you will gain some hands-on knowledge on model building and debugging. Note: This project works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

Syllabus

(Non) Status quo Attitudes with NetLogo

This model attempts to investigate what influences general attitudes towards going about life and creating new things in the world. That is, how people approach (and attempt to change) the status quo in society or in their communities. This is done through the modeling of four different types (breeds) of agents (idealists, traditionalists, neutrals, and inspired) interacting among them in a networked fashion, as well as with their immediate environment. By re-creating such an abstract model in a rather a non-linear way (just like real-life programming), you'll gain broad and practical skills that will help you model a wide range of other complex phenomena. So I hope you will enjoy the journey ahead.