SEMIRA: Simulating the EMergent Impact of Regulations Across cultures

The SEMIRA project studies the interaction between emerging normative behaviour and new regulations in different cultures and different countries. The goal is to support the preparation of new regulations of different government bodies. A theoretical framework will be developed based on work done on emerging norms on the one hand and formal frameworks on norm enforcement on the other hand. Two types of agent-based simulation tools will be developed based on it. One tool will validate the theoretical framework with actual people. The other will do large scale simulations based on emergent behaviour.

The project is a cooperation between world leading research groups in this area; Hofstede (Wageningen), Conte (Rome), Paiva (Lisbon) and Dignum (Utrecht).

The project started on January the 1st 2011.