Sociology of Agents in Sustainable Development

Abstract

10 years after the Rio Declaration on Agenda 21, there is still a methodological deficit in the support of active information systems and information systems for action that comprehend the holistic view on the terms information, communication and cooperation. Since participation as a specific type of cooperation is one of the essential differences between pure environmental information processes and the processes required in the Agenda 21, sustainable development in the sense of the Agenda 21 document is to be modeled in terms of behavioral science to a much larger extent compared with recent developments. The role of communication in the different modes and technical realization of interaction of agents in sustainable development is analyzed and structured as well as synthesized in different situations. One mayor advantage of such an approach is the fact, that the completeness of information system models becomes an objective measure at the same time. The formal representations involved are commented with respect to their practical relevance in different situations that require communication of (natural, organizational, artificial etc.) agents. This contribution shows the potential of considering methods and results from behavioral sciences in formalizing information systems for participation and cooperation as required in the Rio Agenda 21 document.