Research project: Micro vs macro: social consequences of individual behaviour

elective courses

Students should have some basic knowledge of MS Excel (or similar).

The course is addressed primarily to students who have not yet had the opportunity for a deeper look at the theories of rational choice (eg game theory, social choice theory).

Classroom

Why ghettos appear in tolerant societies? Is it profitable to be an egoist? Why are we doomed to exploit our natural environment? Is ‘an eye for an eye’ politics a way to achieve world peace? We will try to work out the answers for these questions during this course, using diverse computational models and simulations. These models will be used to identify the relations between individual behaviour and their – often unexpected and surprising – results, the macrosocial phenomena. The aim of this course is to acquaint participants with a choice of examples that illustrate opportunities of practical application of rational choice theory to description and analyses of real social phenomena, processes and problems. There is no requirement to use complex mathematics – it will be replaced by application of computer programmes (e.g. NetLogo library).

Many of seemingly simple social processes are far more complex than they seem. Macro-scale phenomena are not just a simple result of individuals’ actions. Society will is understood as a system of different elements interacting with each other in such manner that its dynamics creates thoroughly new characteristics at an aggregated level. The dynamics and emergent features of society are in the centre of attention. We will deal with social results of individual behaviour that are not easily concluded from knowledge of the actions of indivuduals.Therefore, the main task for sociologist is to identify the rules of interactions and to study how they lead to certain emergence on a macrosocial level. Rational choice theory will help us complete these task.

The roots of rational choice theory include economics, sociology, political science and psychology, but nowadays, the theory is widely used in diverse disciplines. Its main distinguishing feature is ‘rationality’ that refers to the assumption that actors make their decisions in order to achieve the best possible outcome on the basis of the knowledge about the situation of choice-making. Nevertheless, theory is not limited to description of classic homo oeconomicus’s behaviour, as in its scope there are such phenomena as norms, group dynamics and social control. Behaviour of such homo sociologicus will be our main subject. We will study how his decisions lead to interesting social consequences.

Aim:

Main aim of this course is to acquaint the attendants with a selection of rational choice theory applications and with opportunities that the theory provides for sociologists. During the course a stress will be put on practical application of presented theoretical perspective, especially for description and analyses of real social phenomena, processes and problems. We would also like to underline that for the needs of this course the more sophisticated mathematical operations will be replaced by application of computer programmes.

Application of computer programmes (e.g. examples of computer simulations) has a significant practical advantage – thanks to simple computer tools it is possible to study complex relations between individual behaviour and social phenomena in macro-scale. It enables us to show such complex relations to a broad audience in a comprehensible manner. As a consequence it provides us with an opportunity to present broad range of possible applications of social choice theory to the course attendants and to de-mythologise this theoretical perspective. We hope this form of presenting the scope of rational choice theory will encourage the students to study it deeper – both individually and during more specialised courses from this discipline.

Questions: Models examples:

Why ghettos appear in tolerant societies? Spatial segregation model (Schelling)

Is it profitable to be an egoist? Prisoner’s Dillema

Why are we doomed to exploit our natural environment? Tragedy of the Commons

‘An eye for an eye’ as a way to achieve world peace? Axelrod tournament, evolutionary models

Why are we conformists? Three Types of Institutions Theorem (Swistak)

The course will be lead in a form of a workshop and will include a lecture of the basic theoretical concepts along with working in groups on solving problems that illustrate a discussed issue. Because of the workshop character of the course a maximum number of participants is 15 and each of the students needs an access to a PC.

Axelrod, R (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books

Axelrod, R. (2003) Advancing the Art of Simulation in the Social Sciences, Japanese Journal for Management Information System, Special Issue on Agent-Based Modeling, 12(3).

Baczko-Dombi, A. i Komendant-Brodowska, A. (2013). Teoria racjonalnego wyboru - integracja nauk społecznych. Zastosowanie diagramu Jamesa Colemana w analizie zjawisk społecznych. W: P. Ścigaj, i B. Krauz-Mozer (red.), Podejścia badawcze i metodologiczne w nauce o polityce (s. 339-348). Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka.

Coleman,J Foundations of Social Theory

Dixit A., Skeath S. (2004). Games of Strategy, 2nd edition. New York/London: W.W. Norton &Company

Lalman, D., Oppenheimer, J., & Swistak, P. (1994). Formalna teoria wyboru racjonalnego. Kumulatywne nauki polityczne. Studia Socjologiczne, 3-4(134-135), 14-68.

Lissowski, G. (2002). Teoria racjonalnego wyboru. Encyklopedia socjologii (4th ed., pp. 194-198). Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa.

Nowak, A., Szamrej, J., Latane', B. (1990) From private attitude to public opinion: A dynamic theory of social impact. Psychological Review, 97, s. 362-376.

Schelling, T. (1978) Micromotives and Macrobehavior, New York: Norton.

Steward, J. (1994) Czy Bóg gra w kości? Nowa matematyka chaosu, Warszawa: PWN.

Straffin P. D. (2001) Teoria gier. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo naukowe „Scholar” (tłum. Jacek Haman)

Swistak P.(2004) Ewolucyjne podstawy instytucji społecznych, „Decyzje” 1, 11-33

Watson J. (2002) Strategia. Wprowadzenie do teorii gier. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowo-Techniczne (tłum. Andrzej Wieczorek)

Winkowska-Nowak, K., Batorski, D., Peitgen, H. (2003) Wprowadzenie do dynamiki społecznej, Warszawa: SWPS.

Young, P. H. (1998) Individual Strategy and Social Structure: An Evolutionary Theory of Institutions, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

K_W07 Has in-depth knowledge of selected methods and techniques of social research, their limitations, specificity and areas of application

K_W08 Is aware of the importance of a reflective and critical approach to the results of social research, analyses and research procedures

K_W09 Knows how to plan and carry out complex qualitative and quantitative empirical research; is aware of the consequences of methodological choices

K_U01 Can identify causes and predict potential effects of past and current social events; can form critical judgments about current and past social events

K_U02 Can critically select information and materials for academic work, using various sources in Polish and a foreign language as well as modern technologies

K_U03 Can independently form and verify judgments about the causes of selected social phenomena

K_U04 Can use theoretical categories and research methods in the description and analysis of social and cultural changes in modern societies, as well as their consequences

K_U05 Can plan and carry out a social study using advanced quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques of social research

K_U10 Can prepare a presentation of a selected problem or study in Polish and in a foreign language

K_K01 Can initiate, plan, organize and manage work of a task team

K_K03 Can gather, find, synthesize and critically assess information about social sciences

K_K04 Can argue a thesis using scientific evidence

K_K05 Can undertake independent activity in public or personal interest

K_K06 Actively searches for new ways and sources to broaden his/her knowledge and improve professional competences

K_K08 Is aware of the existence of social dilemmas related to the work of the sociologist

K_K09 Is open to various theoretical and methodological perspectives of social research

K_K10 Takes responsibility for planned and performed tasks

Active participation (weight - 50%) and short assignments on a selected topic (weight - 50%).

Assignments will be prepared in 3-4 person groups, will have the format of a scientific poster.

Rules for correcting negative assessment: preparation of the corrected version of the poster.

Maximum number of absences: 2