An Exploratory Examination of Agent-Based Modeling for the Study of Social Movements
This RAND report explores how information and communications technologies are reshaping the formation, mobilization, and disruption of social movements. Using case studies of the Egyptian Arab Spring, the Syrian civil uprising, and the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the authors developed an agent-based model that simulates how technology influences social movement dynamics over time. The key finding: technology accelerates the conditions for collective action by amplifying preexisting grievances and enabling faster organization. The report demonstrates that combining case-based research with computational modeling yields insights that neither method can produce alone — offering a new analytical framework for understanding how digital communications shape protest movements.