Integrating social power into the decision-making of cognitive agents

AbstractSocial power is a pervasive feature with acknowledged impact in a multitude of social processes. However, despite its importance, common approaches to social power interactions in multi-agent systems are rather simplistic and lack a full comprehensive view of the processes involved. In this work, we integrated a comprehensive model of social power dynamics into a cognitive agent architecture based on an operationalization of different bases of social power inspired by theoretical background research in social psychology. The model was implemented in an agent framework that was subsequently used to generate the behavior of virtual characters in an interactive virtual environment. We performed a user study to assess users' perceptions of the agents and found evidence supporting both the social power capabilities provided by the model and their value for the creation of believable and interesting scenarios. We expect that these advances and the collected evidence can be used to support the development of agent systems with an enriched capacity for social agent simulation

A universal theory of social groups: the actor-system-dynamics approach to agents, rule regimes, and interaction processes

Drawing on multi-level, dynamic systems theory in sociology which has been developed and applied in institutional, organizational, and societal analyses, we formulate a general theory of social groups. This social systems approach has not been previously applied in the group area. We claim that this particular systems approach can be systematically and fruitfully applied to small as well as large groups to understand and analyze their functioning and dynamics. In this article, we refer to a group as an aggregation of persons/social agents that is characterized by (1) shared group identity, (2) a shared rule regime (collective culture) shaping and regulating their roles and role relationships and group behavioral outputs (3) its bases of membership and adherence or commitment to the group, its identity and rule regime, (4) its technologies and material resources used in group interactions, 2 performances, and productions (5) it shared places (situations for interaction), and (6) its times for gathering and interacting. The theory identifies three universal bases on which any human group or social organization, including small groups, depends and which motivate, shape and regulate group activities and productions (Section II). The bases are group requisites – necessary for group “functioning” and interacting in more or less orderly or coherent ways, realizing group as well as possibly members’ goals and maintaining and reproducing the group. The group bases consist of, first, a rule regime or social structural base; second, an agential base of group members socialized or partially socialized carriers of and adherents to the group’s rule regime; of importance here are involvement/participation factors motivating member to adhere to, accept, and implement the rule regime; third, there is a resource base, technologies and resources self-produced and/or obtained from the environment, which are essential to key group activities. In the theory presented here in Section II, a social group is not only characterized by its three universal bases but by its universal functions, group actions and outputs -- its interactions and productions/performances and their outcomes and developments including the impact of their productions on the group itself (reflexivity) and on its environment (see Figure 1). These outputs, among other things, maintain/adapt/develop core group Bases (or possibly unintentionally undermine/destroy them). Thus, groups can be understood as action/interaction systems producing goods, services, incidents and events, experiences, developments, etc. for themselves and possibly for the larger environment on which they depend for resources, recruits, goods and services, legitimation, etc. The theory identifies the six (6) universal system functions of groups. A major distinctive feature in our systems approach is the theory of rule regimes, specifying the finite universal rule categories (ten distinct categories) that characterize every functioning social group or organization. A rule regime, while an abstraction is carried, applied, adapted, and transformed by concrete human agents, who interact, exchange, exercise power, and struggle within the group, in large part based on the rule regime which they maintain, adapt, and transform. We emphasize not only the systemic character of all functioning groups – universally their three bases and their six output functions together with feedback dynamics -- but also the differentiating character of any given group’s particular rule configuration. The article ends with a discussion of two major theoretical implications: (1) the identification and analyses of any given group’s particular rule configuration which characterize that group and is sustained under relatively stable internal and external conditions (Section III); for illustrative purposes we present in Section IV a selection of few simple rule configurations that characterize several diverse types of groups. (2) the transformation of group bases and their interaction/production functions. The theory enables from a single framework the systematic description and comparative analysis of a wide diversity of groups, as illustrated in Sections III and IV

ORGANIZAÇÕES EM REDE E TEORIA DA ESTRUTURAÇÃO: O CASO DE UMA REDE COLABORATIVA EM FORMAÇÃO

This case study investigated the motivations for the formation of a Collaborative Network, its structuring bases, and the influences of this Network in the local contexto highlighting the role, in society, of collaborative networks as sociocultural strategies capable of promoting Social Innovation (IS). This research highlights how the adoption of collaboration networks influences IS? The relevance of this study is to open a space for multidisciplinary reflection, articulating theoretical bases of Structuring Theory (TE) and IS. It was tried to bring to the centrality of the debate the role of the agents and the socio-creative processes in the local development. As a result of the discussions, agency power emerges. This power identified in the social integration of the Network, presented as legitimate presuppositions constructs related to the memory, identity and representation of intangible cultural elements linked to both the local cultural history and the network’s final objectives. It is also necessary to clarify that for TE, the theoretical lens chosen for the analysis, agency power is not the actor’s individual experience, nor any form of social totality but “social practices ordered in time and space” (GIDDENS, 2009). It is suggested as future studies the investigation of the level of consciousness of these agents about the agency power they hold, and of how this theoretical-empirical appropriation could influence the behavior of the agents to maximize the Network’s performance in promoting IS.Este estudo de caso investigou as motivações para a formação de uma Rede Colaborativa, suas bases estruturantes, e as influências dessa Rede no contexto local, destacando o papel, na sociedade, das redes colaborativas como estratégias sociocriativas capazes de promover a Inovação Social (IS). A partir dessas reflexões, esta pesquisa destaca como a adoção de redes de colaboração influencia a IS?A relevância deste estudo é abrir um espaço de reflexão multidisciplinar, articulando bases teóricas da Teoria da Estruturação (TE) e da IS. Buscou-se trazer para a centralidade do debate o papel dos agentes e dos processos sociocriativos no desenvolvimento local. Como resultado das discussões, emerge o poder de agência. Esse poder identificado na integração social da Rede, apresentou como pressupostos legitimadores construtos relacionados à memória, identidade e representação de elementos culturais intangíveis vinculados tanto a história cultural local quanto aos os objetivos finalísticos da Rede. É necessário ainda esclarecer que para a TE, lente teórica escolhida para as analises, o poder de agência não é experiência individual do ator, nem qualquer forma de totalidade social e sim “práticas sociais ordenadas no tempo e espaço” (GIDDENS,2009).  Sugere-se como estudos futuros a investigação sobre o nível de consciência desses agentes sobre o poder de agência que detêm, e de como essa apropriação teórico-empírica poderia influenciar o comportamento dos agentes para maximizar o desempenho da Rede em promover a IS

From Obama to Samara: What changes do the Spanish education system and the Roma movement have to make so that one day it will be possible for a Roma woman to be president?

The American civil rights movement was started by an African American woman who was a participant in a popular education centre. This centre played a key role in the social transformations that led us to elect an African American president in the primary great world power. The Spanish education system needs progressive transformations which will contribute to overcoming the segregation and school failure of female Roma children. Roma women, as the driving force behind transformation in their population, are active agents when deciding on the type of schooling they want for the future of their children. Through associations, and hand in hand with the educational theories and practices provided by the international scientific community, in this article we present the transformations which many schools in Spain are carrying out in order to overcome the social exclusion of the Roma population. In this article we provide the foundations to build a movement of female Roma university graduates who, by including the voices of all of the women in their community, continue to be the driving force behind social transformation. In this way one day education and society in this country will have improved to such an extent that it will be possible for a Roma woman to be president.El movimiento por los derechos civiles fue iniciado por una mujer afroamericana participante de un centro de educación popular cuyo papel ha sido clave en las transformaciones sociales que nos han llevado hasta contar con un presidente afroamericano de la primera potencia mundial. El sistema educativo español requiere de transformaciones progresistas que contribuyan a superar la segregación y el fracaso escolar de las niñas gitanas. Las mujeres gitanas como motor de la transformación de su pueblo son agentes activos para decidir qué sistema educativo quieren para el futuro de sus hijos e hijas. Desde el movimiento asociativo y de la mano de las teorías y prácticas educativas que propone la comunidad científica internacional, presentamos en este artículo las transformaciones que muchos centros educativos en España están realizando para superar la exclusión social del pueblo gitano. En este artículo planteamos las bases para constituir un movimiento de mujeres gitanas universitarias que incluyendo las voces de todas las mujeres de su pueblo, sigan siendo motor de transformación social para que algún día la educación y la sociedad de este país haya mejorado tanto como para que sea posible una presidenta gitana.The INCLUD-ED Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education (2006-2011) project is an integrated project from the European Commission’s VI Framework Programme

What are Transitions For? Atrocity, International Criminal Justice, and the Political

This essay offers an answer to the question of what societies afflicted by atrocities ought to transition into. The answer offered is able to better direct the evaluation of previous models and the design of new models of transitional justice. Into what, then, should transitional justice transition? I argue in this essay that transitional justice should be a transition into the political, understood in its robust liberalism version. I further argue that the most significant part of transitions ought to happen in the minds of the members of political communities, precisely where the less tangible and yet most important dimension of the political sets root. Both of these points are missing in transitional justice models and debates. In the current scenario of transitional justice models and debates, transitional justice practices and processes, as well as the normative forms of discourse that accompany them, fail to fully take the political as an end, thus failing in both transition and justice

Bringing Anglo-governmentality into public management scholarship : the case of evidence-based medicine in UK health care

The field of public administration and management exhibits a limited number of favored themes and theories, including influential New Public Management and Network Governance accounts of contemporary government. Can additional social science–based perspectives enrich its theoretical base, in particular, analyzing a long-term shift to indirect governance evident in the field? We suggest that a variant of Foucauldian analysis is helpful, namely “Anglo-governmentality.” Having reviewed the literatures, we apply this Anglo-governmentality perspective to two case studies of “post hierarchical” UK health care settings: first, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), responsible for producing evidence-based guidelines nationally, and the second, a local network tasked with enacting such guidelines into practice. Compared with the Network Governance narrative, the Anglo-governmentality perspective distinctively highlights (a) a power–knowledge nexus giving strong technical advice; (b) pervasive grey sciences, which produce such evidence-based guidelines; (c) the “subjectification” of local governing agents, herein analyzed using Foucauldian concepts of the “technology of the self” and “pastoral power”; and (d) the continuing indirect steering role of the advanced neoliberal health care State. We add to Anglo-governmentality literature by highlighting hybrid “grey sciences,” which include clinical elements and energetic self-directed clinical–managerial hybrids as local governing agents. These findings suggest that the State and segments of the medical profession form a loose ensemble and that professionals retain scope for colonizing these new arenas. We finally suggest that Anglo-governmentality theory warrants further exploration within knowledge-based public organizations

Improvising Linguistic Style: Social and Affective Bases for Agent Personality

This paper introduces Linguistic Style Improvisation, a theory and set of algorithms for improvisation of spoken utterances by artificial agents, with applications to interactive story and dialogue systems. We argue that linguistic style is a key aspect of character, and show how speech act representations common in AI can provide abstract representations from which computer characters can improvise. We show that the mechanisms proposed introduce the possibility of socially oriented agents, meet the requirements that lifelike characters be believable, and satisfy particular criteria for improvisation proposed by Hayes-Roth.Comment: 10 pages, uses aaai.sty, lingmacros.sty, psfig.st

Using agent based simulation to empirically examine complexity in carbon footprint business process

Through the critical analysis of the extant literature, it is observed that Simulation is widely used as a research method in Natural Sciences, Engineering and Social Sciences, in addition to argumentation and formalisation as the third way of carrying out research. Simulation is not so widely used in Business and Management research as it ought to have been, though this is changing for the better with the technological advances in computers and their computational power. These technological advances enhance the capability of theoretical research models, in defining a problem and their use in empirically examining a solution to the problem in simulated reality, like never before. Management journal searches for “Simulation and Complexity Theory” returned nil or zero returns, which explain that this combination is not popular in management research, though they are used individually more often. The major objective of this paper is to analyse some of the conceptual (or theoretical) and methodological (or empirical) contributions that Agent Based Simulation and Complexity Theory can make to the business and management community in their business process related research In view of this, some basic ideas are discussed of using Agent Based Simulation as a method in Business and Management Studies research and how an Agent Based Model can be applied to a business process as complex as Carbon Footprint. It is in this context that the use of Complexity as the base theory to empirically examine a business process is discussed. Throughout this article, our research on complex adaptive systems (e.g., Accounting Information System) in continuously changing organisations managing complex business processes (e.g., Carbon Footprint business process) is considered as the basis for illustrating some of the concepts. Through this article, avenues for further management research using these tools and methodology are suggested

EXODUS: Integrating intelligent systems for launch operations support

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is developing knowledge-based systems to automate critical operations functions for the space shuttle fleet. Intelligent systems will monitor vehicle and ground support subsystems for anomalies, assist in isolating and managing faults, and plan and schedule shuttle operations activities. These applications are being developed independently of one another, using different representation schemes, reasoning and control models, and hardware platforms. KSC has recently initiated the EXODUS project to integrate these stand alone applications into a unified, coordinated intelligent operations support system. EXODUS will be constructed using SOCIAL, a tool for developing distributed intelligent systems. EXODUS, SOCIAL, and initial prototyping efforts using SOCIAL to integrate and coordinate selected EXODUS applications are described