Reasoning with Conflicting Information in Artificial Intelligence and Database Theory

We develop C4 a logic for reasoning with information containing non-logical conflicts, where the information is encoded in the form of normal logic programs and the conflicts are represented using a construct called "contestation." We prove that the C4 logic is inferentially conflict-free in the sense that the set of entailments of a normal logic program augmented with a set of contestations are guaranteed to be free of the conflicts specified by the set of contestations. We provide a sound and complete procedure for answering ground queries to a ground and finite normal logic program augmented with a set of ground contestations. We show that C4 provides a new semantics for normal logic programs that subsumes both the stable model semantics and the well-founded semantics for normal logic programs. We use C4 to provide a new account of integrity constraint satisfaction for databases that may be inconsistent with their integrity constraints. We extend C4 to C5, a five valued logic, which is used to provide a new semantics for extended logic programs. We show that C5 can be used to provide an inferentially conflict-free logic for reasoning with information containing both logical and non-logical conflicts

The algorithmic regulation of security: An infrastructural perspective

This article contributes to debates on algorithmic regulation by focusing on the domain of security. It develops an infrastructural perspective, by analyzing how algorithmic regulation is enacted through the custom‐built transatlantic data infrastructures of the EU‐U.S. Passenger Name Records and Terrorism Financing Tracking Program programs. Concerning regulation through algorithms, this approach analyzes how specific, commercial data are rendered transferable and meaningful in a security context. Concerning the regulation of algorithms, an infrastructural perspective examines how public values like privacy and accountability are built into international data infrastructures. The creation of data infrastructures affects existing modes of governance and fosters novel power relations among public and private actors. We highlight emergent modes of standard setting, thus enriching Yeung's (2018) taxonomy, and question the practical effects of operationalizing public values through infrastructural choices. Ultimately, the article offers a critical reading of algorithmic security, and how it materially, legally, and politically supports specific ways of doing security

The Social Construction of Self-Sovereign Identity: An Extended Model of Interpretive Flexibility

User-centric identity management systems are gaining momentum as concerns about Big Tech and Big Government rise. Many of these systems are framed as offering Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). Yet, competing appropriation and the social embedding of SSI have resulted in diverging interpretations. These vague and value-laden interpretations can damage the public discourse and risk misrepresenting values and affordances that technology offers to users. To unpack the various social and technical understandings of SSI, we adopt an ‘interpretive flexibility’ lens. Based on a qualitative inductive interview study, we find that SSI’s interpretation is strongly mediated by surrounding institutional properties. Our study helps to better navigate these different perceptions and highlights the need for a multidimensional framework that can improve the understanding of complex socio-technical systems for digital government practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers

Reviewing research evidence and the case of participation in sport and physical recreation by black and minority ethnic communities

The paper addresses the implications of using the process of systematic review in the many areas of leisure where there is a dearth of material that would be admitted into conventional Cochrane Reviews. This raises important questions about what constitutes legitimate knowledge, questions that are of critical import not just to leisure scholars, but to the formulation of policy. The search for certainty in an area that lacks conceptual consensus results in an epistemological imperialism that takes a geocentric form. While clearly, there is a need for good research design whatever the style of research, we contend that the wholesale rejection of insightful research is profligate and foolhardy. A mechanism has to be found to capitalise on good quality research of whatever form. In that search, we draw upon our experience of conducting a review of the material available on participation in sport and physical recreation by people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper concludes with a proposal for a more productive review process that makes better use of the full panoply of good quality research available. © 2012 © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Organizations, state and power struggles in the age of digitalization and datafication

La digitalització i la datificació han esdevingut recentment una important línia de recerca en l'estudi de les organitzacions. Això és degut al fet que les tecnologies digitals no només són omnipresents a l'esfera social, sinó que tenen un profund impacte en la reconfiguració d'organitzacions i societat en general. En aquest sentit, la literatura acadèmica recent ja ha problematitzat prou el costat fosc de la digitalització, remarcant el creixent poder de les corporacions i el progressiu desempoderament de la ciutadania davant de les pràctiques extractives de les primeres. Partint del reconeixement de la influència creixent de la digitalització a la societat, aquesta tesi busca descobrir el paper de diferents actors tant en l'organització com en la resistència al poder a l'era de la digitalització. La pregunta que guia la recerca és doncs la següent: com s'organitzen les relacions de poder i resistència entre empreses, estat i ciutadans en relació amb la digitalització? Si la introducció construeix la base argumental per analitzar la nova distribució de poder a l'era de la digitalització; el segon capítol aporta una anàlisi qualitativa sobre com es mostra la resistència organitzada a la datificació organitzada per les grans corporacions. El tercer capítol explora críticament el paper de l'Estat en la protecció de la privadesa digital a través de la regulació. Finalment, el quart capítol mostra una anàlisi empírica de cas on es presenta l'activisme de l'estat en la promoció de la digitalització i on agents econòmics i elits tecnològiques actuen conjuntament per promoure l'agenda digital. En conjunt, aquesta tesi busca aportar algunes idees centrals sobre com la resistència organitzada a la datificació i com l'acció estatal poden desafiar i alhora sostenir el poder de les pràctiques extractives de dades de les grans corporacions. Finalment, la naturalesa socialment construïda i organitzada de la digitalització sobresurt com un espai actiu tant de persuasió com de contestació per part dels actors involucrats.La digitalización y la datificación se han convertido recientemente en una importante línea de investigación en el estudio de las organizaciones. Esto se debe al hecho de que las tecnologías digitales no sólo son omnipresentes en la esfera social, sino que tienen un profundo impacto en la reconfiguración de organizaciones y sociedad en general. La literatura académica reciente ha problematizado suficientemente el lado oscuro de la digitalización, remarcando el creciente poder de las corporaciones y el progresivo desempoderamiento de la ciudadanía ante las prácticas extractivas estas. Partiendo del reconocimiento de la influencia creciente de la digitalización en la sociedad, esta tesis busca descubrir el papel de diferentes actores tanto en la organización como en la resistencia al poder en la era de la digitalización. La pregunta que guía la investigación es, pues, la siguiente: ¿cómo se organizan las relaciones de poder y resistencia entre empresas, estado y ciudadanos en relación con la digitalización? Si la introducción construye la base argumental para analizar la nueva distribución de poder en la era de la digitalización; el segundo capítulo aporta un análisis cualitativo sobre cómo se muestra la resistencia organizada a la datificación ejercida por parte de las corporaciones. El tercer capítulo explora críticamente el papel del Estado en la protección de la privacidad digital a través de la regulación. Por último, el cuarto capítulo muestra un análisis empírico de caso donde se presenta el activismo del estado en la promoción de la digitalización, donde agentes económicos y élites tecnológicas actúan conjuntamente para promover la agenda digital. En conjunto, esta tesis busca aportar algunas ideas centrales sobre cómo la resistencia organizada a la datificación y como la acción estatal pueden a la vez desafiar y sostener el poder de las prácticas extractivas de datos de las grandes corporaciones. Finalmente, la naturaleza socialmente construida y organizada de la digitalización sobresale como un espacio activo tanto de persuasión como de contestación por parte de los actores involucrados.Digitalization and its related datafication processes have become an important line of inquiry in organizational research. This is owed to the fact digital technologies are becoming ubiquitous in the social sphere, and have a profound impact on shaping organizations, fields, and society alike. Recent literature is also problematizing the dark side of digitalization, which contributes to the growing power of corporations while subjecting citizens to disempowering positions. In acknowledging its growing influence across society, this thesis seeks to uncover the role of societal actors in both organizing and resisting the power of digitalization by exploring the following: how are relations of power and resistance organized between business, state, and citizens in relation to digitalization? After briefly making the case for such investigation in the introductory chapter, the second chapter undertakes a qualitative content analysis to uncover how resistance is organized against the datafication practices of corporations, as well as the efficacy of such challenges. The third chapter explores the role of the state in protecting citizens’ online privacy through regulatory measures. The fourth chapter adopts a historical case study analysis to present a different side of the state, one which acts in tandem with economic actors and tech elites to promote digitalization in society. Taken together, this thesis reveals insights regarding how organized resistance and state action can both challenge and sustain the power of private corporations’ datafication practices. Furthermore, the socially constructed nature of organizing digitalization is highlighted as an active site of persuasion and contestations between the involved actors

Ways of seeing: Conflicting rationalities in contested urban space - the N2 Gateway in the context of Langa

Includes bibliographic references.In 2005 the South African Department of Housing announced the launch of the N2 Gateway – a housing ‘megaproject’ to pilot the Breaking New Ground (BNG) housing plan in Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, the oldest African township in Cape Town. This historically contextualised retroductive case study asks what can be learnt from the paradigmatic N2 Gateway to propose to planning theory why such projects, planned with the aim of improving the quality of life of poor and marginal urban residents of the post-apartheid city, so often fail to realise their planned improvements and result in conflict and unintended consequences. A conceptual framework provides the theoretical basis for examining how planning and implementation of the N2 Gateway exposes the underlying rationalities shaping relations amongst and between organs of state and key non-state development actors. Although the BNG policy made provision for in situ upgrading of informal settlements, in practice the state declared war on shacks and through the N2 Gateway set out to eradicate Joe Slovo and replace it with a mix of social and subsidy housing. The case provides the basis for analysis of the clash of rationalities amongst state actors who, together with their intermediaries, sought to exercise their ‘wills to govern and improve’ on the basis of simplifications of perceived problems and their solutions. These were countered by competing ‘wills to survive and thrive’ amongst groupings of Langa residents, which in Joe Slovo were closely bound to the logics of informality. Methodologically the study draws on research methods which embrace the ‘visual turn’, utilising satellite images and photographic compilations as narrative triggers for storytelling by residents, officials and civil society actors. The study draws on more than sixty image-led interview narratives which surface the multiple iv dimensions of the case, including complex interconnections between rural and urban spaces which shape social and spatial geographies of life in Langa. These expose multifaceted struggles within and between ‘molar structures’ of the state in the implementation of the megaproject, highlighting the switch points and reversals of power in state encounters with the micropolitics of local claims on space, place and belonging. The narratives reveal how diverse and concurrent resistance pathways including ‘quiet encroachment’, street protests, ‘elite capture’ and legal proceedings which went to the Constitutional Court disrupted, diverted and redirected the state’s schemes of improvement. The findings examine how the discourses and practices of the aspirant South African ‘developmental state’ show little understanding of or regard for the deep-rooted contestations and social differentiation within Langa between ‘Cape borners’ and generations of rural migrants known as amagoduka or ‘those who return home’. The conflicting rationalities and deep differences amongst and between state agents and within the broad cast of social actors in Langa extend far beyond the simple binary of state and ‘community’. The narratives highlight the fragmented and opaque nature of the state and the bifurcated Langa socialities stratified by the micropolitics of territory, differentiation and belonging. The case study speaks back to planning theory in order to provide important cautions against homogenisation and simplification at the intersection between the apparatus of biopolitics and governmentality and the strategies of struggle of groupings of the poor and not so poor to survive and thrive. It foregrounds a contingent yet historically embedded politics of encounter which eschews homogenising notions of community and a rules-governed communicative rationality in favour of more situated sense-making through agonistic conceptions of planning and development rooted in ‘the geography of what happens’