Simulating Multi-Agent Interdependencies. A Two-Way Approach to the Micro-Macro Link

In this paper, a DAI system called DEPNET, conceived of for managing problems of communication and coordination in a distributed environment, will be applied to examine some issues of social theory. In particular, it will be applied to show how complex structures of interdependencies emerge from agents endowed with simple architectures and situated in a common world, and how in turn these structures determine other properties of the system at both the individual level (agents’ inequalities and negotiation powers) and the collective level (the emergence of coalitions and organisational structures; etc.).