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Sociological Foundation of the Holonic Approach Using Habitus-Field-Theory to Improve Multiagent Systems

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Socionics

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3413))

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the most important aspects of a sociological foundation of holonic multiagent systems. Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus-field-theory forms the sociological basis for my arguments. With this theory I would like to consider the special quality of holons as autonomous and self-organising social entities with clear distinction to the simple coordination of social interactions. Holons are viewed as organisational fields, which are both “autonomous social fields” and “corporate agents”. To clarify the advantages of this approach, I introduce a matrix of mechanisms using delegation (task delegation and social delegation) as a central concept to define organisational relationships in task-assignment multiagent systems. Using the matrix of delegation as basic building block, I propose a new dimension of emergent system behaviour in a holonic multiagent system which allows new, qualitative forms of scalability in complex systems of distributed artificial intelligence.

This work is an outcome of the research-project “Modeling of Social Organisations using Habitus-Field Theory”—embedded in the German research-field of “socionics”—and was founded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under contract FL 336/1-2. I am indebted to Michael Florian, Michael Schillo, Daniela Spresny, Bettina Fley, and Klaus Fischer for many fruitful discussions in our remarkable co-operation without which this article would not have been possible.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arbeitsbereich Technikbewertung und Technikgestaltung, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg, Schwarzenbergstr. 95, 21071, Hamburg, Germany

    Frank Hillebrandt

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  1. Frank Hillebrandt
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DFKI GmbH, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Klaus Fischer

  2. Department of Technology Assessment, Hamburg University of Technology, Schwarzenbergstrasse 95, 21071, Hamburg, Germany

    Michael Florian

  3. Department of Technology Assessment, Hamburg University of Technology, Schwarzenbergstr. 95, 21071, Hamburg, Germany

    Thomas Malsch

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Hillebrandt, F. (2005). Sociological Foundation of the Holonic Approach Using Habitus-Field-Theory to Improve Multiagent Systems. In: Fischer, K., Florian, M., Malsch, T. (eds) Socionics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3413. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11594116_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11594116_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-30707-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31613-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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