Implementing Norms that Govern Non-Dialogical Actions

The governance of open multi-agent systems is particular important since those systems are composed by heterogeneous, autonomous and independently designed agents. Such governance is usually provided by the establishment of norms that regulate the actions of agents. Although there are several approaches that formally describe norms, there are still few of them that propose their implementation. In additions, only one that provides support for implementing norms deals with non-dialogical actions since the others only deal with dialogical actions, i.e., actions that provide the interchange of messages between agents. In this paper we propose the implementation of norms that govern non-dialogical actions by extending one of the approaches that regulate dialogical ones. Non-dialogical actions are not related to the interactions between agents but to tasks executed by agents that characterize, for instance, the access to resources, their commitment to play roles or their movement into environments and organizations

07122 Abstracts Collection -- Normative Multi-agent Systems

From 18.03.07 to 23.03.07, the Dagstuhl Seminar 07122 ``Normative Multi-agent Systems\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Institutional Balance, Civic Virtue and Dialogue: A Republican Balancing Act for the EU Constitutional Order

Non-domination is a central tenet of republicanism and a foundational principle of the EU constitutional order. Republicanism, however, has often been overlooked as a legitimating principle in the EU. This article explores the EU from a non-dominating paradigm. It shows that the institutional balance, as opposed to the separation of powers, has descriptive and normative force in the EU. Additionally, this analysis provides a systematic reinterpretation of the EU analysing its institutional balance from a dialogical perspective that emphasizes republican values linked with civic virtue. This highlights that intergovernmental,supranational, the peoples, interest group, and technocratic actors are vital players ‘free and equal’ to exert influence that shapes and reshapes the institutional balance to reflect their own vision of the public good. The republican model presented in this article provides for the active participation and limitation of each actor that can – and should – be understood as enhancing the democratic nature and legitimation of the EU

Narratives of social inclusion in the context of Roma school segregation

Despite a series of judgements from the European Court of Human Rights and the enactment of the EU Racial Equality Directive, the educational segregation of Roma pupils persists in several European states. State action plans submitted pursuant to the European Framework for Roma Integration rarely provide clear targets and do not commit to inclusive schooling. Taking education as a principle indicator of social inclusion, this article identifies that structural inequality and entrenched discriminatory attitudes are the main obstacles to Roma inclusion. This can only be addressed through the diffusion of legal and social norms that mainstream equality. Focusing on the legal obligations, it is argued that the European Commission must be more decisive and effective in the enforcement of non-discrimination rules. A closer dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the EU institutions, grounded in a non-targeted social inclusion frame, could provide a platform for European consensus which may help to secure meaningful change

Beyond Research Ethics: Dialogues in Neuro-ICT Research

open access articleThe increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help facilitate neuroscience adds a new level of complexity to the question of how ethical issues of such research can be identified and addressed. Current research ethics practice, based on ethics reviews by institutional review boards (IRB) and underpinned by ethical principlism, has been widely criticized. In this article, we develop an alternative way of approaching ethics in neuro-ICT research, based on discourse ethics, which implements Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) through dialogues. We draw on our work in Ethics Support, using the Human Brain Project (HBP) as empirical evidence of the viability of this approach

IS Serving the Community: The Pragmatic, the Ethical and the Moral Questions

Public sector information systems (IS) may produce unintended negative consequences that are challenging to predict in advance. In this paper we seek to answer the following critical research questions: How does a democratic society identify and deal with ethically and morally problematic effects of public sector IS? What does it mean for public sector IS to be ethically and morally justified? What principles and norms should govern the discourse in a society to ensure resolution (and prevention) of these ethically and morally problematic effects? We answer these questions by providing empirical and theoretical argument, based on our investigation of My School – an Australian Government portal providing performance data about more than 9500 schools. By drawing from Habermas’ discourse ethics we identify problems in the current discourse on My School and propose principles for conducting public discourse to ensure resolution of pragmatic, ethical and moral concerns through a democratic process

Constructive Type Theory and the Dialogical Approach to Meaning

In its origins Dialogical logic constituted one part of a new movement called the Erlangen School or Erlangen Constructivism. Its goal was to provide a new start to a general theory of language and of science. According to the Erlangen-School, language is not just a fact that we discover, but a human cultural accomplishment whose construction reason can and should control. The resulting project of intentionally constructing a scientific language was called the Orthosprache-project. Unfortunately, the Orthosprache-project was not further developed and seemed to fade away. It is possible that one of the reasons for this fading away is that the link between dialogical logic and Orthosprache was not sufficiently developed - in particular, the new theory of meaning to be found in dialogical logic seemed to be cut off from both the project of establishing the basis for scientific language and also from a general theory of meaning. We would like to contribute to clarifying one possible way in which a general dialogical theory of meaning could be linked to dialogical logic. The idea behind the proposal is to make use of constructive type theory in which logical inferences are preceded by the description of a fully interpreted language. The latter, we think, provides the means for a new start not only for the project of Orthosprache, but also for a general dialogical theory of meaning

A Critical Reflection on the Role of Dialogue in Communicating Ethical Corporate Social Responsibility through Digital Platforms

Organizations are under increasing pressure to communicate their position on social responsibility in a changing environment whereby more critical demanding citizens are using digital platforms to express their opinions about the actions of corporations. These changes, demand a corporate culture of listening, management commitment, responsible action and more effective forms of CSR communication with stakeholders. The emergence of digital platforms such as Facebook or Twitter provide managers with a mechanism for a dialogue with stakeholders to communicate their CSR initiatives and policies. While these digital platforms have the potential for corporations to listen and respond to stakeholder concerns in an open and honest discourse, frequently CSR communication are perceived as serving instrumental goals. This chapter argues that CSR communication through digital platforms grounded in the ethical premise of responsibility and the concept of dialogue could change this perception. The implications for organizations are that they can enact an ethical premise of CSR using digital platforms if managers adopt a dialogic mindset, and listen and respond to the views of stakeholders. The chapter makes recommendations for an implementation process of the ethical premise of CSR. Finally, our critical reflection provides researchers with a conceptual lens for future empirical studies