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 Actor 3.5 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 Links 5.2 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 Operations 7.2 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 Defined 10.2 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
About the Author: 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.
