The SIG on Building ResilienCe with Social Simulations (BRICSS) focuses on social simulation as an approach for modeling complex crises and developing a better understanding of their effects on societies. Crises as diverse as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change related events (heat waves, floods, wildfires, droughts, etc) and different disasters (from earthquakes to tsunamis) illustrate the need for multi-level, flexible, and iterative approaches to effectively reduce the risks of disasters and their impact. BRICSS aims to bring together a multidisciplinary community of scholars interested in modeling and simulating different crises, from disasters to conflict and political unrest, but also in extending current theoretical, methodological, and empirical approaches to capture the specificity of crises situations (urgency, uncertainty, changing circumstances).

By establishing this SIG, we aim to build up a community that will contribute to advancing scholarly knowledge on social simulation for crises and to the establishment of social simulation as a relevant and trusted tool for decision makers in regards to crises. We seek to implement this vision through: 1) helping structuring the field, the science, the methodologies, and domain-specific responses (e.g. involved contributors, existing contributions, critical topics raised by the community, coordinating joint efforts); 2) bridging the social simulation community with other scholarly communities working on the topic; 3) establishing a connection with technological development and training that can serve or benefit the field (e.g. software platforms, summer schools); 4) developing vision and visibility with and towards communities of practice (e.g. general public, policy actors, crisis responders).

Coordinators – If you want to join this SIG, please contact any of them:

Francesca Giardini (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

Loïs Vanhée (Umeå University, Sweden)

Christian Kammler (Umeå University, Sweden)