Socionics: Scalability of Complex Social Systems

Klaus Fischer, Michael Florian (auth.), Klaus Fischer, Michael Florian, Thomas Malsch (eds.)3540307079, 9783540307075

This book includes contributions from an interdisciplinary field of research we call Socionics. Based on a close cooperation between sociologists and researchers from distributed artificial intelligence and multiagent systems, Socionics deals with the exploration of the emergence and dynamics of artificial social systems, agent societies, as well as hybrid man-machine societies. The aim is both to develop intelligent computer technologies by picking up theoretical concepts and methods from sociology and to improve sociological models of societies and organizations by using advanced computer technology.

The 15 articles in this state-of-the-art survey combine selected contributions from sociology and informatics on the modeling, construction, and study of complex social systems with special regard to the problem of scaling multiagent systems. The discussion focuses on four specific research areas: multi-layer modeling, organization and self-organization, emergence of social structures, and paths from an agent-centered to a communication-centered perspective in modeling multiagent systems.

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Table of contents :
Front Matter….Pages –
Contribution of Socionics to the Scalability of Complex Social Systems: Introduction….Pages 1-14
From “Clean” Mechanisms to “Dirty” Models: Methodological Perspectives of an Up-Scaling of Actor Constellations….Pages 15-35
Sociological Foundation of the Holonic Approach Using Habitus-Field-Theory to Improve Multiagent Systems….Pages 36-50
Linking Micro and Macro Description of Scalable Social Systems Using Reference Nets….Pages 51-67
Building Scalable Virtual Communities — Infrastructure Requirements and Computational Costs….Pages 68-83
Organization: The Central Concept for Qualitative and Quantitative Scalability….Pages 84-103
Agents Enacting Social Roles. Balancing Formal Structure and Practical Rationality in MAS Design….Pages 104-131
Scalability, Scaling Processes, and the Management of Complexity. A System Theoretical Approach….Pages 132-154
On the Organisation of Agent Experience: Scaling Up Social Cognition….Pages 155-175
Trust and the Economy of Symbolic Goods: A Contribution to the Scalability of Open Multi-agent Systems….Pages 176-198
Coordination in Scaling Actor Constellations….Pages 199-217
From Conditional Commitments to Generalized Media: On Means of Coordination Between Self-Governed Entities….Pages 218-241
Scalability and the Social Dynamics of Communication. On Comparing Social Network Analysis and Communication-Oriented Modelling as Models of Communication Networks….Pages 242-262
Multiagent Systems Without Agents — Mirror-Holons for the Compilation and Enactment of Communication Structures….Pages 263-288
Communication Systems: A Unified Model of Socially Intelligent Systems….Pages 289-313
Back Matter….Pages –