The Development of the European Administration: Fundamental Concepts and Approaches

The study approaches in an unitary manner, the fundamental concepts of the theoretical and practical accomplishment of an European public administration: the European Administrative Space, the convergence and the administrative dynamics and the Europeanization. In the absence of a specific acquis communautaire, the European administration includes all the experiences and evolutions with relevant impact at national level, connected to the principles of a responsible and transparent administration, founded on the grounds of efficiency and efficacy. Particularly agreed upon within the constituent treaties of the European Union, these principles might form the general standards not only for the process of acceding to the European Union, but also for the convergence towards an European model of public administration. The efforts of analysts and specialists to describe the real evolution process of national administrations are with no doubt, extremely important, even though at some point, contradictory. The model of European administration makes use of the systemic analysis and offers the conceptual framework needed for covering the diverse problematic it encompasse

Picturing the System: Counter-Institutional Practices in British Art of the 1970s

This dissertation examines a range of politicized artistic practices in Great Britain during the 1970s, a decade marked by economic decline and social fragmentation. The artists I primarily focus on in the pages that follow—William Furlong, Stephen Willats, Mary Kelly, and Conrad Atkinson—all appeared on Audio Arts, a “spoken magazine” distributed on audiocassette that was founded by Furlong in 1973. During the 1970s, Furlong, Willats, Kelly and Atkinson renegotiated their relationship to art institutions, expanded the role of the artist in society, and conceived of art as a form of political praxis, and this dissertation explores the strategies these artists devised to connect to publics outside the elite, bourgeois audience of art

The development of the European administration: fundamental concepts and approaches

The study approaches in an unitary manner, the fundamental concepts of the theoretical and practical accomplishment of an European public administration: the European Administrative Space, the convergence and the administrative dynamics and the Europeanization. In the absence of a specific acquis communautaire, the European administration includes all the experiences and evolutions with relevant impact at national level, connected to the principles of a responsible and transparent administration, founded on the grounds of efficiency and efficacy. Particularly agreed upon within the constituent treaties of the European Union, these principles might form the general standards not only for the process of acceding to the European Union, but also for the convergence towards an European model of public administration. The efforts of analysts and specialists to describe the real evolution process of national administrations are with no doubt, extremely important, even though at some point, contradictory. The model of European administration makes use of the systemic analysis and offers the conceptual framework needed for covering the diverse problematic it encompasses

Merging the Natural with the Artificial: The Nature of a Machine and the Collapse of Cybernetics

This thesis is concerned with the rise and fall of cybernetics, understood as an inquiry regarding the nature of a machine. The collapse of this scientific movement, usually explained by external factors such as lack of funding, will be addressed from a philosophical standpoint. Delving deeper into the theoretical core of cybernetics, one could find that the contributions of William Ross Ashby and John von Neumann shed light onto the particular ways in which cybernetics understood the nature and behavior of a machine. Ross Ashby offered an account of the nature of a machine and then extended the scope of “the mechanical”. This extension would encompass areas that will later be shown to be problematic for mechanization, such as learning and adaptation. The way in which a machine-ontology was applied would trigger effects seemingly contrary to cybernetics’ own distinctive features. Von Neumann, on the other hand, tinkered with a mechanical model of the brain, realizing grave limitations that prompted him to look for an alternative for cybernetics to work on. The proposal that came out of this resulted in a serious blow against the theoretical core of cybernetics. Why did cybernetics collapse? The contributions coming from both thinkers, in their own ways, spelled out the main tenets of the cybernetic proposal. But these very contributions led to cybernetics’ own demise. The whole story can be framed under the rubric of a serious inquiry into the metaphysical underpinnings of a machine. The rise and fall of cybernetics could thus help us better understand what a machine is from a philosophical standpoint. Although a historical component is present, my emphasis relies on a philosophical consideration of the cybernetic phenomenon. This metaphysical dissection will attempt to clarify how a machine-based ontology remained at the core of cybernetics. An emerging link will hopefully lead towards establishing a tri-partite correlation between cybernetics’ own evolution, its theoretical core, and its collapse. It will hopefully show how cybernetic inquiries into the nature of a machine might have proved fatal to the very enterprise at large, due to unsolvable theoretical tensions

Inevitable decline versus predestined stability : the structure of disciplinary explanations of the evolving transatlantic order

The future of NATO has been a hotly debated topic at the center of IR debates ever since the end of the Cold War. It has also been a very complicated one given the discipline´s conceptual and theoretical difficulties in studying change. Most analysts now agree that NATO (and the transatlantic order more broadly) are going through some major changes. Yet while there is consensus that the depth as well as the pace of these changes is more far-reaching than in past decades it is unclear exactly how deep and how far these changes reach. In order to come to grips with these changes most of the chapters in this book are exploring the character as well as the sources of these changes. This chapter approaches the topic by examining how the discipline has dealt with the question of the evolution of the transatlantic order in the past. It argues that IR has not been very well equipped conceptually to deal with the phenomenon in question, ie. large-scale processes of change. In applying a typological framework developed by Paul Pierson the chapter discusses what types of causal accounts have dominated in the IR literature – and what this may tell us about particular strengths, biases and potential blind spots in coming to grips with the evolution of this order. In essence it argues that the structure of the most prominent explanations is often quite similar irrespective of paradigmatic descent. Inspite of major differences – inspite, even, of mutually exclusive predictions – as to the expected path of the order´s evolution realist, liberal and constructivist accounts heavily rely in equal fashion on causal arguments which emphasize large-scale causal processes which are almost always framed in rather statist structural terms even though they essentially entail slow moving causal processes. This temporal dimension of the causal processes presumably shaping the future of the transatlantic order is seldom spelled out in detail, however. Thus, if one examines the debate as a whole one sees a picture of IR scholarship which essentially oscillates between two extremes: the position that NATO (as the core institution of the transatlantic order) was (and is) certain to survive and the position that it was (and is) certain to collapse. What is more, these extremes on a spectrum of possible positions on the transatlantic order´s evolution between breakdown on the one hand and successful adaptation on the other are not hypothetical but mostly real. Thus, the debate does not gravitate towards the center (ie. a position which, for instance, envisages a loser but still cooperative relationship) after the usual give and take of exchanging scholarly arguments. Rather it mostly sticks with either of the two extreme positions. The chapter illustrates the problems associated with this point in some details and discusses potential remedies

Open Works: Between the Programmed and the Free, Art in Italy 1962 to 1972

This dissertation historicizes and theorizes a group of Italian artists who were among the first to use computers and cybernetics to make artworks, developing the genre of Arte Programmata, or Programmed Art. It argues that the artists of Arte Programmata (Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, and collectives Gruppo T and Gruppo N) turned to the generative, interactive, and probabilistic aspects of early computers not simply as new media for making art but as platforms for radically altering what it means to be a participant in an increasingly mediated and networked world. This is apparent in how each of their works deploys computers to restructure the relationship between subjects and their environment. In kinetic sculptures modeled on computer programs, the audience is invited to participate in the creation of the work; in immersive environments based on cybernetics and information theory, visitors are simultaneously activated, disoriented, and manipulated; and underlying designs for home goods is a concept of the world as an adaptable, interconnected system of subjects and space. Far from being antagonistic to liberty, Arte Programmata’s multi-faceted oeuvre demonstrates that technology supports individual’s capacity to act upon and affect their environment. Therefore I contend we should understand that programming, cybernetic systems, and even control are not categorically antithetical to individual freedom but comprise the conditions that allow for and encourage subjective agency. Bridging art history and media studies, this dissertation underscores how both art and technology are ways of visualizing and structuring social interaction, and it argues for a reassessment of the political, critical, and even visionary role of new media art like Arte Programmata

Bridging the Gap Between Soviet and American Languages and Cultures: A Basic Introduction to Troop Control for the Russian Language Translator

This thesis discusses the nature and sources of problems facing the foreign language translator in the U.S. intelligence community -- in particular, the Russian language translator -- and develops the idea of CONTEXT as a solution. CONTEXT is defined as knowledge of a particular subject area from both sides of the language and cultural barrier. It attempts to integrate the vocabulary and conceptual framework of a given subject area in a foreign language and culture (such as Soviet TROOP CONTROL) with the vocabulary and conceptual framework of the subject area in a translator's native language and culture (such as American COMMAND AND CONTROL) -- maintaining important differences where they exist and pointing out similarities. This integrated dynamic body of knowledge known as CONTEXT should be applied by a translator in analyzing foreign language data. This thesis develops a very basic CONTEXT for TROOP CONTROL and COMMAND AND CONTROL (1) to demonstrate the elements and method of building CONTEXT, and (2) to provide a basic introduction for the language analyst who is new to both subject areas.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Civilian, Department of Defens

MA

thesisMy thesis derives its impetus and its structure from the work and thought of Gregory Bateson. My aim is to demonstrate the ongoing vitality of his ecology of Mind by tracing the connections between his work and that of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Alain Badiou. Part I represents a broad overview of Bateson's major works, emphasizing his theories of abduction and recursivity as critical philosophical concepts. Bateson's notion of abduction as a third investigatory methodology suggests a means for connecting his work to that of other theorists. A pioneer of cybernetics, his probing of the recursive role of information feedback and of the pragmatic interface between organisms and their environment can be read as a meta-model for a multiperspectival approach to environmental issues and texts. Part II explores the differences and the reiterative similarities in the work of Bateson, the French writing team of Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, and contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Using mathematical notation as metaphoric semiotics, I argue that a theoretical multiplicity moves rhizomatically between and across the very permeable boundaries that may be drawn between these theorists, and that the emerging connections describe a pregnant holism. Part III moves to employ the insights of this theoretical analysis in a more pragmatic application of these shared insights and concerns. In a recent journal article. Dr. Robert Cox urged the environmental communication community to define itself as a crisis discipline. Bateson's vision for ecological holism was predicated on respecting the dangers inherent in ad hoc intervention in systems whose interconnectivity may be little perceived when defined in causal and linear terms. The dangers of rhetorically limiting the semantics of environmental communication to a heuristic rather than a holistic approach are further explored using the work of Deleuze, Guattari and Badiou. This section provides a discursive and diacritical response to Dr. Cox's proposals. My thesis concludes with the recognition of the depth of Gregory Bateson's vision and of the contemporaneity still vibrant in his perspectives. Bateson is in many ways the exemplar of an environmental humanities scholar, and I weave that thread into my concluding remarks