This book introduces exchange process-driven social networks as a foundation for the core operational structures of the particular type of multi-agent systems we call agent societies. The core operational structures of agent societies encompass, in hierarchies of exchange process-driven social networks, all the behaviors and interactions that organizational actors (social roles, organizational units and social subsystems) perform in those societies, as well as the behaviors and interactions of the regulation and structuration mechanisms operating in those core operational structures. The variational basis of the overall framework, introduced in the book, allows for the systematic explanation of the regulation and structuration processes of core operational structures of agent societies, from the populational and micro-organizational to the macro-organizational level.
This book shall be useful to people developing computational applications based on the concept of agent societies and for those applying the concept of agent societies to the formal modeling and simulation of human and animal societiesAutorentext
Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa is Electronic Engineer, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, all at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Is a founding member of the Interest Group in Artificial Intelligence of the Brazilian Computer Society. He retired as associate professor from the Centro de Ciências Computacionais of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG), Brazil. He currently acts as an invited thesis advisor at the Graduate Programme in Computing (PPGComp) at FURG.
Inhalt
1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
1.2 Structure of the book
1.3 A Note about the Terminology
2 The Three Conceptual Frameworks
2.1 The System-Theoretic Framework
2.2 The Social-Theoretic Framework
2.3 The Constructivist Framework
3 Agent Societies and their Core Operational Structures
3.1 Formal Concept of Agent Society
3.2 Agent Societies as CESM Systems
3.3 Agent Societies as Discrete Event Dynamic Systems
3.4 The Concept of Social Actor3.5 The Concept of Core Operational Structure of an Agent Society
3.6 The Regulation of Core Operational Structures of Agent Societies
4 Operatory Aspects of the Core Operational Structures of Agent Societies
4.1 Basic Sets
4.2 Actions and Behaviors Performed by Social Actors
4.3 Exchange Processes Performed by Social Actors
4.4 Social Functions Performed by Social Actors
4.5 Exchange Processes, in Detail
5 Structural Aspects of the Core Operational Structures of Agent Societies
5.1 Exchange Links5.2 Networks of Social Actors
5.3 Hierarchies of EPD-Networks, Formally Defined
6 Functional Aspects of the Core Operational Structures of Agent Societies
6.1 The Interactional Concept of Social Function
6.2 Functional Aspects of Exchange Links
6.3 Functional Aspects of Networks of Social Actors
6.4 Functional Aspects of Hierarchies of Networks of Social Actors
6.5 Functional Equilibrium and Disequilibrium of Core Operational Structures of Agent Societies
7 Regulation Operations
7.1 General Remarks about Regulation Operations7.2 The Organization of the Chapter
7.3 The Regulation of EPD-Networks and EPD-Hierarchies, Considered in General
7.4 The Regulation of Operational Levels of Core Operational Structures
8 Regulation Processes
9 Examples of Regulation Processes
9.1 Example: The Operational Regulation of an Exchange Process
9.2 Example: The Construction and Structural Regulation of a Hierarchy of EPD-Networks
9.3 Example: The Functional Regulation of the EPD-Hierarchy Constructed in Sect. 9.2
10 Regulation Mechanisms
10.1 Regulation Mechanisms, Formally Defined10.2 Regulation Mechanisms and the Regulation of the Temporal Evolution of Core Operational Structures
10.3 The Architectural Location of Regulation Mechanisms
11 Examples of Regulation Mechanisms
12 Discussion
13 Conclusion
References