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A social system has communication and social structures and represents the environment of individuals to interact (Pieters, 2017). Such individuals are denominated citizens. Being a citizen has been linked with the idea of being a member of a well-structured community or with belonging to a political community (Bratitsis et al., 2016). In such societies, social development is regulated by the interaction between social leaders and the citizens. Under this foundation, some initiatives have been carried out to develop frameworks for promoting the development of citizenship competences, like the framework for the key citizenship competences from Europe (Wreurope, 2015). Moreover, local, and international institutions also foster the development of citizenship competences. For instance, one of the educational targets from UNESCO is citizenship education for sustainable development through the adoption of sustainable lifestyles, human rights, equity, culture and peace, global citizenship, and culture, among others (UNESCO, 2016). In the local context (Colombia), the Educational Ministry defined a citizenship competences model, which focuses on human rights, democracy, diversity, and freedom (MEN, 2011).
The assessment of the acquisition of citizenship competences and how these contribute to the dynamics of the social systems is not straightforward. A standard method to evaluate competences is to use questionnaires. Ten Dam et al. (2011) conducted a study for measuring citizenship competences in which young people answered a questionnaire based on four social tasks considered as citizenship practices, namely: acting democratically, acting in a democracy responsible manner, dealing with differences, and dealing with conflicts. However, few studies deal with the dynamics of citizenship competences in society. For instance, Mejía et al. (2011) present a multiuser game in which players take individual decisions to advance in the game, focusing on peaceful interaction, participation, and respect. Another example is a videogame focused on citizenship competences in which the gamer acts as the mayor of the city by solving social conflicts (Acosta-Medina et al., 2021). Both studies have the participation of real people interacting in a virtual world. In line with this idea of virtual worlds, the Agent-Based Social Simulation (ABSS) approach is another perspective that allows the creation of virtual worlds. Still, people can be simulated as autonomous entities that interact among them (Caballero et al., 2011).
In this context, this study extends previous research on citizenship competences and conflicts resolution by providing insights into how people might deal with conflicts and how citizenship competences can play an active role when people face different conflicts and make decisions based on their conflict resolution styles. Thus, this study explores, through a simulation scenario, how is the dynamic of a social system when people make decisions to solve a conflict considering citizenship competences and conflict resolution styles. Besides that, both the citizenship competences and the conflict resolution styles were represented using an ontology which is a tool for semantically enriching a context (Sváb-Zamazal, 2020) such as the simulation scenario. On the one hand, citizenship competences are based on the model proposed by Chaux et al. (2004), and the conflict resolution styles are based on the Thomas and Kilmann Instrument (TKI)(Thomas & Kilmann, 2008).
A study about citizenship education states that “quality education and capacity building, notably on citizenship, conflict transformation and human rights are topical in developing peaceful societies” (Parliamentary assembly, 2018). Moreover, Lucey & Giannangelo (2016) point out that simulations have a great potential for teaching about citizenship. In this regard, simulations like the one introduced in this study may help policy leaders or other stakeholders understand the dynamics in a complex system in which people should solve conflicts and identify strategies that favor citizenship education.