A formalism for the study of highly interacting electronic systems is presented. The proposed scheme is based on two key concepts: composite operators and algebra constraints. Composite field operators, that naturally appear as a consequence of interaction, are promoted to the rank of basic fields in terms of which a perturbation formulation is set up. The formalism is based on the use of Green’s function and equation of motion method. The use of composite operators requires a revisitation of the Green’s function formulation, where the representation is determined by means of algebra constraints which are a manifestation at macroscopic level of the algebra rules and symmetry properties obeyed at microscopic level. © 2003 American Institute of Physics