The European Public(s) and its Problems

I present three versions –Grimm, Offe and Streeck—of a general argument that is often used to establish that the EU-institutions meets a legitimacy-disabling condition, the so called “no demos” argument (II), embedding them in the context of the notorious “democratic deficit” suspicions against the legal system and practice of the EU (I). After examining the logical structure behind the no-demos intuition considered as an argument (III), I present principled reasons by Möllers and Habermas that show why the “no demos” argument fails to have bite in discussions of the legitimacy and status of the supranational level in the multi-level EU-architecture. These are complemented by another principled reason arising from John Dewey’s conception of the “public” as a clearer alternative for the “popular” requirement of democratic legitimation (IV). I conclude that all three conceptions together suggest that the hunt after pre-politically existing peoples as foundations of democratic legitimacy expresses no more than methodological nationalism without any footing in the material and conceptual requirements of democratic legitimation. Given the absence of a principled problem with the legitimacy of the priority and interference of supranational EU-law in the national legal and political orders, there are thus also no principled reasons to abandon or discredit the European project in the absence of a European nation or society

Intersubjective meaning and collective action in'fragile'societies : theory, evidence and policy implications

The capacity to act collectively is not just a matter of groups sharing interests, incentives and values (or being sufficiently small), as standard economic theory predicts, but a prior and shared understanding of the constituent elements of problem(s) and possible solutions. From this standpoint, the failure to act collectively can stem at least in part from relevant groups failing to ascribe a common intersubjective meaning to situations, processes and events. Though this is a general phenomenon, it is particularly salient in countries characterized by societal fragility and endemic conflict. We develop a conceptual account of intersubjective meanings, explain its relevance to development practice and research, and examine its implications for development work related to building the rule of law and managing common pool resources.Corporate Law,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Cultural Policy,Labor Policies,Population Policies

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems

Heard It through the Grapevine: Traceability, Intelligence Cohort, and Collaborative Hazard Intelligence

abstract: Designing a hazard intelligence platform enables public agencies to organize diversity and manage complexity in collaborative partnerships. To maintain the integrity of the platform while preserving the prosocial ethos, understanding the dynamics of “non-regulatory supplements” to central governance is crucial. In conceptualization, social responsiveness is shaped by communicative actions, in which coordination is attained through negotiated agreements by way of the evaluation of validity claims. The dynamic processes involve information processing and knowledge sharing. The access and the use of collaborative intelligence can be examined by notions of traceability and intelligence cohort. Empirical evidence indicates that social traceability is statistical significant and positively associated with the improvement of collaborative performance. Moreover, social traceability positively contributes to the efficacy of technical traceability, but not vice versa. Furthermore, technical traceability significantly contributes to both moderate and high performance improvement; while social traceability is only significant for moderate performance improvement. Therefore, the social effect is limited and contingent. The results further suggest strategic considerations. Social significance: social traceability is the fundamental consideration to high cohort performance. Cocktail therapy: high cohort performance involves an integrative strategy with high social traceability and high technical traceability. Servant leadership: public agencies should exercise limited authority and perform a supporting role in the provision of appropriate technical traceability, while actively promoting social traceability in the system.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Business Administration 201

Planning theory - a critical review of the dominant planning models in 21st century and proposed reconstruction

The entire work is based on the assumption that the root of the planning crisis at the global level is largely found in the inadequate development of planning theory. The purpose of this research is to find a theoretical basis that would allow better theory and practice linking within a more efficient planning system. By applying the method of analysis and synthesis, historical and descriptive method, the development of theoretical thinking about problems and issues in the planning is presented, then the current state of theory in view of the dominant models and their "critical" points. In this paper, namely, it is pointed out that because of these points, planning, as a mechanism of state intervention, still does not respond adequately to current and future challenges and demands of society. Accordingly, and with the realization of the basic objectives and applying the method of induction and deduction, planning theory reconstruction has been proposed, which is the main result of the work

The Secret Life of Methods

This paper addresses two questions: (1) How do Methods of language teaching differ from one another? (2) What factors are responsible for the spread of Nethods? I hope to demonstrate that while fundamental differences between methods often relate to different views of the nature of language, or to different instructional theories, the reasons for the rise and fall of Methods are often independent of either of these factors. To understand the role of language theory, instructional theory and implementation factors in Methods, is to know their Secret Life

Examining Communibiology During Adrenal Stress Scenario Training in Feminist Self-Defense: An Experimental Study

In communication episodes featuring heightened stress, interactions that are perceived as threatening and evoke a sense of powerlessness often predict a cycle of victimization. Meanwhile, social interactions which affirm safety and agency amidst stress foster empowerment. This study utilized Hoplology, which studies stress inoculation against aggression and posttraumatic stress, and Communibiology, the study of neurobiology as an antecedent and outcome of communication, to explore (a) whether Adrenal Stress Scenario Training in Feminist Self-Defense (ASST-FSD) produces a physiological response to promote stress inoculation, (b) how anxiety impacts physiological response, and (c) reports of mental toughness. A 4-day ASST-FSD training pilot study was conducted to collect saliva samples to measure stress response via the hormone cortisol and pre-post self-report surveys to measure cognitive markers of stress-coping (mental toughness). Findings suggest ASST-FSD may require more extensive training features to promote a physiological behavior change, and future research with a larger sample could benefit from exploring stress adaptations and recovery, particularly with marginalized populations likely to experience interpersonal violence

The perspectives of the EU‘s specialization in civilian crisis management under the CSDP mechanism: discursive institutionalist analysis

1Dottorato di ricerca in Political Theory (XXVIII ciclo), LUISS Guido Carli, Roma, 2016. Relatore: Prof. Mario Telò.openInstitutionalist approaches to crisis management: discursive institutionalism: CSDP, NATO and EU as a regional and global actor. A long story of a young CSDP: European “puissance” in practice. Case studies: theory under Test.openDottorato di ricerca in Political TheoryIBRAHIMOVA, SAMIRAIbrahimova, Samir

Rational Coordination in Multi-Agent Environments

We adopt the decision-theoretic principle of expected utility maximization as a paradigm for designing autonomous rational agents, and present a framework that uses this paradigm to determine the choice of coordinated action. We endow an agent with a specialized representation that captures the agent's knowledge about the environment and about the other agents, including its knowledge about their states of knowledge, which can include what they know about the other agents, and so on. This reciprocity leads to a recursive nesting of models. Our framework puts forth a representation for the recursive models and, under the assumption that the nesting of models is finite, uses dynamic programming to solve this representation for the agent's rational choice of action. Using a decision-theoretic approach, our work addresses concerns of agent decision-making about coordinated action in unpredictable situations, without imposing upon agents pre-designed prescriptions, or protocols, about standard rules of interaction. We implemented our method in a number of domains and we show results of coordination among our automated agents, among human-controlled agents, and among our agents coordinating with human-controlled agents.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44002/1/10458_2004_Article_272540.pd