The Ontological Properties of Social Roles: Definitional Dependence, Powers and Roles Playing Roles

In this paper we address the problem of defining social roles in MAS. Social roles provide the basic structure of social institutions and organizations. We start from the properties attributed to roles both in the MAS and the Object Oriented community, and we use them in an ontological analysis of the notion of social role. We thus identify as the main properties of social roles being definitionally dependent on the institution they belong to, attributing powers to the agents playing them, and allowing roles to play roles. The methodology we use to model roles is the agent metaphor: social roles, in the same way as social institutions, like normative systems and organizations, are attributed mental attitudes to explain their behavior.