ABSTRACT This paper introduces and analyses the idea of the binding structure of a social interaction scheme. Binding structures are proposed as means to model the binding power that an interaction scheme imposes on agents interacting according to the scheme, in a social context. The paper considers the case of a basic interaction scheme, namely, the basic Producer-Consumer scheme, to explain the way the binding structure builds on the operational structure of that scheme, in particular how the binding structure is constructed in terms of binding relations. In addition, the non-reducibility of binding structures to their component binding relations is established. The importance of a detailed analysis of the derivation scheme of binding structures from operational structures of interaction schemes, including the role that legal and moral norms may play in such derivation, is briefly indicated. The relevance of the ideas introduced in the paper for the concrete representation of macro-level social structures as macro-level artifacts in social simulation is also indicated
