Modeling the Transformational Dynamism of Civil Society

• In Event: New Approaches to Voluntary Sector Studies

Abstract

The civil society entities’ modelling and simulation creates numerous challenges. The very concept of civil society, volunteering and social capital is rather elusive not to mention challenges related to their measurement and quantification. The limited size and non-homogenous character of available data, the limitations - and frequent lack - of reliable sources may turn model building into ‘non-standard exercise’. One can capitalize on ‘less traditional’ solutions and sources, including open data, log analysis, accession of survey and poll results.
Since the civil society organizations possess transformational dynamism emerging through feedbacks among multidimensional changes aggregating into interplaying loops its modelling can capitalize on Dynamic Simulation Hybrid Models (Misuraca and Kucsera 2016). The combined deployment of System Dynamics and Agent Based Modelling Simulation enables to analyse phenomena characterized by non-linearity and retroactions, emergence unfolding through aggregation of multidimensional changes and process feedbacks. The methodological pluralism (Van de Ven and Pool, 2005) can facilitate analytic and causal description of the transformational dynamism as feed backing and resultant dynamics and also its broad, also societal (level) transformational effects. The deployment of pluralist approaches enable to analyse the “Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems …[which] belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems”(Forrester, 1995:2).
Deployment of ‘pluralist’ approach enables to explore the transformational dynamism in five clusters of 21 case-communities serving as sample cases of the civil society organizations’ broad array. The causal loops and stock and flow diagrams can facilitate to analyse sources, mechanisms and effects of the communities’ transformational dynamism. These can also facilitate to clarify key variables, related data characteristics and potential sources by allowing following a recursive analytic logic. I.e. the model building can facilitate either ‘retroactive’ fine-tuning of analytic tasks and tools, selection of variables and ways of their quantification and measuring, as well as identification the relevance of further data and their sources. This allows follows multilevel and modular approach while building and running more extended simulation model(s). For example the analysis of the community members’ self-communication, social-capital and trust (re-)generation, and resource enactment can capitalize on exploration of both the identified patterned process feedbacks and the interplay of their modules.
The paper also assumes that the effective exploration of the emergent dynamism of social changes which the civil society organizations, they transformational impacts catalyse can consider also the effects of time distribution and check the relevance of metamodeling.

Author

• Jozsef Veress, Corvinus University Budapest