Discussion: View Thread

Call for Papers: Simulation and dissimulation

Guest editors:

Steffen Roth, Full Professor of Management, La Rochelle Business School, France, and Adjunct Professor of Economic Sociology, University of Turku, Finland. Corresponding proponent: roths@excelia-group.com and steffen.roth@utu.fi

Michael Grothe-Hammer, Associate Professor of Sociology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Jari Kaivo-oja, Research Director of Futures Studies, University of Turku, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of Planning and Management Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Kristof van Assche, Full Professor of Planning, Governance, and Development, University of Alberta, Canada

Harry F. Dahms, Full Professor of Sociology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States of America

Background

This special issue focuses on the often precarious relationship between evidence and simulation, a topic that has been in need of close examination at least since the early 1970s, when the pioneers of futures studies developed or replicated the first global system dynamics models and computer simulations such as the "World3" model of Meadows et al. (1972).

Ever since, simulations have been applied to a broad spectrum of areas and topics, ranging from business strategy development, to aerospace and aviation engineering, traffic management.

On the one hand, simulations clearly help explore alternatives scenarios (Booth et al., 2009), theorise long waves (Forrester, 1976), anticipate or avoid undesirable short-, medium- or even long-term developments, or replace tests and experiments that would otherwise be unfeasible or dangerous. For example, simulations of nuclear weapons have been deemed sufficiently strong, reliable, and predictive to replace the testing of those weapons.

On the other hand, the 2007-2008 financial crisis had already underscored the tremendous impact and risks of economic models and financial simulations, and simulations also have played a key-role in the 2020 coronavirus crisis, with the results of model or simulation applications often having been confused with, or deliberately presented as evidence. More concretely, in the current crisis, simulations have been or are being used to

• Detect, define, and assess the risk/extent of the COVID-19 pandemic,
• Guide and justify the selection and implementation of the risk mitigation strategies, and
• Assess the efficiency of the risk mitigation strategies.

In situations where problem definition, method choice, and success measurement are all based on simulations, however, we are confronted with the question of how we can at all distinguish between a simulated and an actual crisis … 

Read the full CFP at http://derroth.com/2020/09/15/cfp-simulation-and-dissimulation/ 

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Prof. Dr. Dr. habil. Steffen Roth

Full Professor of Management, La Rochelle Business School, France
Adjunct Professor of Economic Sociology, University of Turku, Finland
URL: http://derroth.org
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8502-601X
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SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION. Call for papers to a special issue of Futures: https://wp.me/pvO07-1wk
EAST OF NATURE. Accounting for the environments of social sciences @Ecol Econ: https://wp.me/pvO07-1u0
COVID-19. Scenarios of a superfluous crisis @Kybernetes: https://wp.me/pvO07-1t0
BIG DATA INSIGHTS into social macro trends (1800–2000): A replication study @TFSC: https://wp.me/pvO07-1oy
WEAK EVIDENCE FOR STRONG PANDEMIC INTERVENTIONS. A 2019 Who Warning for the Current Covid-19 Crisis @Kybernetes: https://wp.me/pvO07-1tc
HARNESSING BIG DATA for a multifunctional theory of the firm @EMJ: https://wp.me/pvO07-1m5
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIAL THEORY. A research update @TFSC: https://wp.me/pvO07-1kH
CSR BEYOND ECONOMY AND SOCIETY. A post-capitalist approach @J Bus Ethics: https://wp.me/pvO07-1gv
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