@article{ref1,
title="How to punch someone and stay friends: an inductive theory of simulation",
journal="Sociological theory",
year="2006",
author="Hoffman, Steve G.",
volume="24",
number="2",
pages="170-193",
abstract="One way to study ontology is to assess how people differentiate real activities from others, and a good case is how groups organize simulation. However, social scientists have tended to discuss simulation in more limited ways, either as a symptom of postmodernism or as an instrumental artifact. Missing is how groups organize simulations to prepare for the future. First, I formulate a definition of simulation as a group-level technique, which includes the qualities of everyday ontology, playfulness, risk and consequence reduction, constrained innovation, and transportability. Next, I use ethnographic data collected at an amateur boxing gym to argue that simulations simplify the most risky, unpredictable, and interpersonal aspects of a consequential performance. The problem is that a simulation can rarely proceed exactly like the reality it is derived from. For example, boxers hold back in sparring but should not in competition. The effectiveness of a simulation therefore depends on how robust the model is and how well members translate the imperfect fit between the contextual norms of the simulation and its reality.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0735-2751",
doi="10.1111/j.0735-2751.2006.00287.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0735-2751.2006.00287.x"
}