Abstract
AbstractSocial kinds are heterogeneous. As a consequence of this diversity, some authors have sought to identify and analyse different kinds of social kinds. One distinct kind of social kinds, however, has not yet received sufficient attention. I propose that there exists a class of social-computation-supporting kinds, or SCS-kinds for short. These SCS-kinds are united by the function of enabling computations implemented by social groups. Examples of such SCS-kinds arereimbursement form,US dollar bill,chair of the board. I will analyse SCS-kinds, contrast my analysis with theories of institutional kinds, and discuss the benefits of investigating SCS-kinds.
Highlights
The present paper identifies a specific kind of social kinds, and rivals other accounts that have identified institutional kinds as a prominent subset of social kinds
One aspect of the function of the kind departmental reimbursement form is to figure in the cognitive processes of agents instantiating social computations
Which formalisms for describing digital computations are applicable to describe roles in organisations? Where do the abstractions fail? New research directions and methodological challenges are waiting for those willing to view social kinds from a computational perspective. Because it has neglected the role of social computations, the debate on social and institutional kinds has failed to acknowledge an important kind of social kinds
Summary
One aspect of the function of the kind departmental reimbursement form is to figure in the cognitive processes of agents instantiating social computations. A social kind, K, is an SCS-kind if and only if instances of K have a function that for a social computational process P: (1) The instance is represented as K in subprocesses of P by realising agents. In the remainder of this section, I will unpack the analysis of SCS-kinds by first discussing the notion of function at play, providing more details about the role of social computations, and discussing the requirement of representation by realising agents.
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