Exploring the use of agent-based modelling (ABM) in mixed methods research

Abstract

Agent-based modeling (ABM) is in many ways an outsider in social research methods, but I will here argue that it has an important role to play in combination with other methods and approaches. ABM can be used in ways that offer unique benefits to social science researchers, but due to the abstract nature of the gained insights, this requires the employment of various methodologies in combination with ABM. Mixed methods (MM) is an approach that has become quite popular, and I show that even if ABM naturally may seem like a natural ingredient in research where methods are mixed, there exists some peculiarities within MM that may make it less accommodating to ABM that one may assume.