Social science concepts such as norms, markets and rationality have found their way into computer science in general and agent-based research in particular where they model coordination and cooperation between largely independent autonomous computational entities. Vice versa, in the social sciences - sociology, philosophy, economics, legal science, etc. - computational models and their implementations have been used to investigate the rigour of theories and hypothesis.The use of these social science concepts in computer science is sometimes on a more metaphorical level than a detailed implementation of the "real" concept and the theories surrounding it. Equally, the computer models used in the social sciences  are not always convincing.

After a history of around 30 years of agents in computer science, the meeting of these two worlds is long overdue. This symposium aims to provide a meeting point for members of these communities to converse on principles, theories and artefacts for social coordination with the aim of facilitating future interactions and research.

The theme of social coordination was chosen because convergence is more evident in that area.