Introduction: Multimodal interaction

That human social interaction involves the intertwined cooperation of different modalities is uncontroversial. Researchers in several allied fields have, however, only recently begun to document the precise ways in which talk, gesture, gaze, and aspects of the material surround are brought together to form coherent courses of action. The papers in this volume are attempts to develop this line of inquiry. Although the authors draw on a range of analytic, theoretical, and methodological traditions (conversation analysis, ethnography, distributed cognition, and workplace studies), all are concerned to explore and illuminate the inherently multimodal character of social interaction. Recent studies, including those collected in this volume, suggest that different modalities work together not only to elaborate the semantic content of talk but also to constitute coherent courses of action. In this introduction we present evidence for this position. We begin by reviewing some select literature focusing primarily on communicative functions and interactive organizations of specific modalities before turning to consider the integration of distinct modalities in interaction

Reconstructing Rawls and exposing the implicit social embeddedness of theories of justice

This essay prods moral philosophy towards more explicit attention to the political constructions of injustice. I do not appeal to practical or political relevance, but advance a particular kind of constructivist interpretation of moral argumentation (constructivism+) in which our interpretive horizons are extended to include the implicit views of social action, broadly construed—from the macro- to the micro-social, and from the past to the present and the possible—built into philosophical arguments. I challenge the idea that, in order to oppose injustice, we must first articulate and justify a coherent conception of justice and then theorize the social, constitutional, legal, or cultural arrangements through which such justice could be implemented. My argument moves through three levels: 1. contesting the separability of these steps by demonstrating that views of social action are embedded in, not merely derivable from, the well-known formulations of John Rawls in A Theory of Justice. (Thus reconstructed, Rawls is more coherent than most moral philosophers have considered him to be); 2. giving priority to moral justification while leaving the social context in the background, scarcely analyzed, burdens our thinking about in/justice; 3. in order to oppose injustice, it is not the case that we must first articulate and justify a coherent conception of justice

The relationships between technology and open education in the development of a resilient higher education

The place of technology in the development of coherent educational responses to environmental and socio-economic disruption is here placed under scrutiny. One emerging area of interest is the role of technology in addressing more complex learning futures, and more especially in facilitating individual and social resilience, or the ability to manage and overcome disruption. However, the extent to which higher education practitioners can utilise technology to this end is framed by their approaches to the curriculum, and the socio-cultural practices within which they are located. This paper discusses how open education might enable learners to engage with uncertainty through social action within a form of higher education that is more resilient to economic, environmental and energy-related disruption. It asks whether open higher education can be (re)claimed by users and communities within specific contexts and curricula, in order to engage with an uncertain world

Technology, open education and a resilient higher education

The place of technology in the development of coherent educational responses to environmental and socio-economic= disruption is here placed under scrutiny. One emerging area of interest is the role of technology in addressing more complex learning futures, and more especially in facilitating individual and social resilience, or the ability to manage and overcome disruption. However, the extent to which higher education practitioners can utilise technology to this end is framed by their approaches to the curriculum, and the socio-cultural practices within which they are located. This paper discusses how open education might enable learners to engage with uncertainty through social action within a form of higher education that is more resilient to economic, environmental and energy-related disruption. It asks whether open higher education can be (re)claimed by users and communities within specific contexts and curricula, in order to engage with an uncertain world

Emotional inferences by pragmatics

It has for long been taken for granted that, along the course of reading a text, world knowledge is often required in order to establish coherent links between sentences (McKoon & Ratcliff 1992, Iza & Ezquerro 2000). The content grasped from a text turns out to be strongly dependent upon the reader’s additional knowledge that allows a coherent interpretation of the text as a whole. The world knowledge directing the inference may be of distinctive nature. Gygax et al. (2007) showed that mental models related to human action may be of a perceptual nature and may include behavioral as well as emotional elements. Gygax (2010), however, showed the unspecific nature of emotional inferences and the prevalence of behavioral elements in readers' mental models of emotions. Inferences are made in both directions; emotional inferences based on behavior and vice versa. Harris & de Rosnay (2002) and Pons et al. (2003) proved that different linguistic skills –in particular lexicon, syntax and semantics are closely related to emotion understanding. Iza & Konstenius (2010) showed that additional knowledge about social norms affects the participants’ prediction about would be inferred as the behavioral or emotional outcome of a given social situation. Syntactic and lexical abilities are the best predictors of emotion understanding, but making inferences is the only significant predictor of the most complex components (reflective dimension) of emotion comprehension in normal children. Recently, Farina et al. (2011) showed in a study that the relation between pragmatics and emotional inferences may not be so straight forward. Children with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (AS) present similar diagnostic profiles, characterized by satisfactory cognitive development, good phonological, syntactic and semantic competences, but poor pragmatic skills and socio-emotional competencies. After training in pragmatics a descriptive analyses showed the whole group to display a deficit in emotion comprehension, but high levels of pragmatic competences. This indicates a further need to study the relationship between emotion and inference in normal subjects too. We also suggest that while behavioral elements may indeed be of perceptual nature and the inference between emotion and behavior less culturally dependent especially when concerned with basic emotions -the inference concerned with social norms may be more complex and require elaborative inference. We suggest that in further studies a distinction between basic emotions and non basic emotions, social settings and non-social settings should be made. The cognitive models concerned with social action may be of more complex nature, but with recognizable features on lexical and syntactic levels.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Mitigation and adaptation to climate change

Climate change produces significant social and economic impacts in most parts of the world, thus global action is needed to address climate change. In this chapter, the different possibilities of mitigation are explored from different points of view, and analyse the possibilities of adaptation to climate change. First, substantial reduction of GHG emission is needed, on the other hand adaptation action must deal with the inevitable impacts. According to the assessment of the chapter, it is essential that coordinated actions be taken at an EU level. In our argumentation, a macroeconomic model is used for the cost- benefit analysis of GHG gas emissions reduction. The GHG emission structure is analysed on European and global level. Even in the case of a successful mitigation strategy there rest the long-term effects of climate change which will need a coherent adaptation strategy to be dealt with. Although certain adaptation measures already have been taken, these initiatives are still very modest, and insufficient to deal with the economic effects of climate change properly

The Significance of Metaphysical Presuppositions in Yoruba Punitive System

Within the notion of punishment in the Yoruba culture, the physical and non-physical aspects of human existence are reconciled to arrive at a justifiable punitive action. The metaphysical presuppositions in Yoruba punitive system reflect a coherent interconnection among social structure, law and belief system for the harmonious human well-being of the individual and the community. Furthermore, the judicious imposition of punitive measures on the offender establishes the significance of attributing responsibility for every human action without antagonism and animosity. Nevertheless, the offender, within the tradition, is restitutively reconciled with himself, the victim and the community at large. The social order based on these principles creates and modifies the contemporary understanding of penology and penal practice

Class action and financial markets: Insights from law and economics

According to the law and economics approach, pure economic loss is a private loss that is not socially relevant but simply implies a redistribution of wealth. Consequently, wrongful behavior that induces reallocation of costs and benefits with no consequences on social welfare is not considered socially harmful, so is not necessarily subject to compensation. Since pure economic loss is very often financial, the above reasoning also applies to financial markets. However, the same law and economics arguments suggest that in financial markets, the policy of internalizing pure economic loss by means of class actions can be more far-sighted than simply compensating the victims: the liability system has the particular feature of producing deterrence and driving the market towards an efficient outcome. In this vein, the paper argues that class action intended as a complementary ex-post regulatory device can play a significant role in addressing a failure that ex-ante regulation has not. This is coherent with the law and economics tradition that interprets tort law remedies as a solution for internalizing externality and providing the correct incentive to the markets.class action, pure economic loss, regulation, liability, deterrence