Scope note

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This class comprises recognizable groups or organizations of persons that have the potential of acting as a unit to produce some intentional result of bibliographic interest for which they can be collectively considered responsible.

A group of people becomes an instance of F55 Collective Agent when it identifies itself by a name that identifies it within an appropriate context and exhibits sufficient organizational characteristics to permit it to perform actions that reflect agency. Groups that are constituted as meetings, conferences, congresses, expeditions, festivals, fairs, etc. are examples of F55 Collective Agent as long as they self-identify by a specific name, rather than being referred to by a generic description of the gathering, and can act as a unit (such as by publishing their proceedings, or approving a report). These collective actions may be performed by representatives selected by the whole, rather than by all individual members acting together.

Collective Agents may be members of other Collective Agents, although directly or indirectly all Collective Agents are composed of persons. The membership of many types of Collective Agents will continue to evolve over time. A Collective Agent may continue to exist even if it has no members for a time (for example, a committee whose members all resign prior to the expiration of their terms but then a new complement of members is appointed).

Instances of F55 Collective Agent include instances of its subclass F11 Corporate Body: commercial or corporate entities and other legally registered bodies, as well as organizations and associations, musical, artistic or performing groups, governments, and any of their sub-units.

Married couples and other concepts of family (instances of F39 Family) are are instances of a subclass of F55 Collective Agent.

In the wider sense, this class also comprises holders of official positions viewed collectively, independent of the current holder of the office, such as the president of a country. In such cases, it is possible that the instance of F55 Collective Agent has only ever had a single member.

A group of persons known by/using a joint pseudonym (i.e., a name that seems indicative of an individual but that is actually adopted as a persona by two or more people acting together) is a case of F55 Collective Agent.

Language

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