Implementing Social Practices for Agent Systems

In this report I discuss the sociological theory of social practices and its application to agent systems. The central question that this report attempts to answer is whether it is possible to provide a concrete and precise description of the vague concepts related to social practices. The central concepts of the theory are discussed at length and some issues concerning their implementation are explored, based on a representational model proposed by Dignum and Dignum (2014). These ideas are further elaborated upon, leading to an investigation of two particular processes: recognition (or activation) of a social practice and deliberation based on social practices. Finally, a partial architecture for agents systems using social practices is proposed, including some limiting conditions for the remainder of the architecture