3,359 research outputs found
Managed Forgetting to Support Information Management and Knowledge Work
Trends like digital transformation even intensify the already overwhelming
mass of information knowledge workers face in their daily life. To counter
this, we have been investigating knowledge work and information management
support measures inspired by human forgetting. In this paper, we give an
overview of solutions we have found during the last five years as well as
challenges that still need to be tackled. Additionally, we share experiences
gained with the prototype of a first forgetful information system used 24/7 in
our daily work for the last three years. We also address the untapped potential
of more explicated user context as well as features inspired by Memory
Inhibition, which is our current focus of research.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, preprint, final version to appear in KI -
K\"unstliche Intelligenz, Special Issue: Intentional Forgettin
"Meaning" as a sociological concept: A review of the modeling, mapping, and simulation of the communication of knowledge and meaning
The development of discursive knowledge presumes the communication of meaning
as analytically different from the communication of information. Knowledge can
then be considered as a meaning which makes a difference. Whereas the
communication of information is studied in the information sciences and
scientometrics, the communication of meaning has been central to Luhmann's
attempts to make the theory of autopoiesis relevant for sociology. Analytical
techniques such as semantic maps and the simulation of anticipatory systems
enable us to operationalize the distinctions which Luhmann proposed as relevant
to the elaboration of Husserl's "horizons of meaning" in empirical research:
interactions among communications, the organization of meaning in
instantiations, and the self-organization of interhuman communication in terms
of symbolically generalized media such as truth, love, and power. Horizons of
meaning, however, remain uncertain orders of expectations, and one should
caution against reification from the meta-biological perspective of systems
theory
The Politics of Reorganizing Connecticut State Government: Altering Administrative Structures in the Land of Steady Habits
Despite numerous attempts to reorganize state government aimed at streamlining, reducing, and creating greater efficiencies, the size and scope of Connecticutâs administrative apparatus has grown considerably over a fifty year period. This study will trace the political history of previous reorganization efforts with a particular emphasis on more recent attempts such as the Gengras (1970), Filer (1976), Thomas (1991), and Hull and Harper Commissions (1992). Observed trends follow national patterns: 1) reorganization commissions are cyclical in nature more likely to be undertaken in the wake of similar efforts at the federal level and 2) they are more likely to be undertaken during periods of state fiscal retrenchment. A movement away from comprehensive reform efforts to incremental approaches is another cross-national pattern that has been detected in recent reform efforts. A review of Connecticutâs experience with state reorganization demonstrates that despite the concerted effort by both the executive and legislative branches to alter administrative structures, reorganization recommendations are seldom implemented due to the opposition of the state legislature and interest groups
Upright posture and the meaning of meronymy: A synthesis of metaphoric and analytic accounts
Cross-linguistic strategies for mapping lexical and spatial relations from body partonym systems to external object meronymies (as in English âtable legâ, âmountain faceâ) have attracted substantial research and debate over the past three decades. Due to the systematic mappings, lexical productivity and geometric complexities of body-based meronymies found in many Mesoamerican languages, the region has become focal for these discussions, prominently including contrastive accounts of the phenomenon in Zapotec and Tzeltal, leading researchers to question whether such systems should be explained as global metaphorical mappings from bodily source to target holonym or as vector mappings of shape and axis generated âalgorithmicallyâ. I propose a synthesis of these accounts in this paper by drawing on the species-specific cognitive affordances of human upright posture grounded in the reorganization of the anatomical planes, with a special emphasis on antisymmetrical relations that emerge between arm-leg and face-groin antinomies cross-culturally. Whereas Levinson argues that the internal geometry of objects âstripped of their bodily associationsâ (1994: 821) is sufficient to account for Tzeltal meronymy, making metaphorical explanations entirely unnecessary, I propose a more powerful, elegant explanation of Tzeltal meronymic mapping that affirms both the geometric-analytic and the global-metaphorical nature of Tzeltal meaning construal. I do this by demonstrating that the âalgorithmâ in question arises from the phenomenology of movement and correlative body memoriesâan experiential ground which generates a culturally selected pair of inverse contrastive paradigm sets with marked and unmarked membership emerging antithetically relative to the transverse anatomical plane. These relations are then selected diagrammatically for the classification of object orientations according to systematic geometric iconicities. Results not only serve to clarify the case in question but also point to the relatively untapped potential that upright posture holds for theorizing the emergence of human cognition, highlighting in the process the nature, origins and theoretical validity of markedness and double scope conceptual integration
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Seeds of change: How current structure shapes the type and timing of reorganizations
Research Summary: This article develops theory on how an organization's structure affects future reorganizations. I highlight that a firm's structure shapes not only the locus of decision-making power (i.e., centralization and decentralization) but also the employees' interaction structure. I develop microlevel theory that connects the firm's structure to the interactions among its employeesâfor instance, its influence on the time employees spend adjusting their behavior after a reorganization. This theory predicts that some structures are more likely than others to promote a reorganization to occur sooner. I use a unique, hand-collected data set of reorganizations in the cell-phone manufacturing industry to test and find directional support for this theory. Managerial Summary: I examine the effect of a firm's current structure on its corporate reorganization decisions, which are defined as the addition and/or removal of business units. I posit that the way employees are grouped into those business units may affect both the type and timing of subsequent reorganizations; the reason is that employees of similar (resp. different) backgrounds should need less (resp. more) time to achieve effective collaboration. Using data on the reorganizations of cell-phone manufacturing firms during 1983â2008, I find directional support for the theory. This result implies that managers may need to watch closely any reorganization that shifts the firm toward more heterogeneous interaction structuresâbecause its implementation may well require additional time
The dimensions of space : metaphorical poetics
La langue nâest pas quâun outil de communication, mais aussi un moyen pour explorer, un raccourci efficace dans lâexpansion des connaissances humaines et l'exploration de la sociĂ©tĂ© humaine. En analysant la poĂ©tique mĂ©taphorique des deux poĂštes dĂ©constructionnistes canadiens, Robert Kroetsch et Erin Moure, cette thĂšse vise Ă examiner comment la mĂ©taphore, la mĂ©tonymie et la catachrĂšse travaillent ensemble pour engendrer des constructions mĂ©taphoriques, qui peuvent produire de nouvelles connaissances et une Ă©thique fĂ©ministe.
La mĂ©taphore, la mĂ©tonymie et la catachrĂšse sont gĂ©nĂ©ralement Ă©tudiĂ©es comme des dispositifs littĂ©raires qui augmentent l'attrait artistique des Ćuvres littĂ©raires. Cependant, dans la poĂ©sie mĂ©taphorique, ils sont considĂ©rĂ©s comme des outils cognitifs pour dĂ©construire une comprĂ©hension rigide de l'histoire humaine et de la sociĂ©tĂ©. Dans The Stone Hammer Poems, la mĂ©taphore et la mĂ©tonymie servent Ă dĂ©voiler l'existence du savoir perdu, dĂ©limitant un espace imaginaire, composĂ© de crĂ©atures et de civilisations anĂ©anties. De mĂȘme, dans O CidadĂĄn, les deux dispositifs constituent une structure mĂ©taphorique qui accentue le respect du statut naturel des ĂȘtres humains. Pendant ce temps, au lieu de former une rhĂ©torique satirique, la catachrĂšse dans les deux Ćuvres devient de vĂ©ritables connaissances du temps et des personnes perdus. Par consĂ©quent, en utilisant une approche cognitive pour effectuer une Ă©tude littĂ©raire sur The Stone Hammer Poems et O CidadĂĄn, cette thĂšse vise Ă Ă©tudier comment la mĂ©taphoricitĂ© fonctionne comme une ressource de comprĂ©hensions post-structuralistes de l'historicitĂ© et comme porteuse de l'Ă©thique fĂ©ministe.Language is more than a communicative tool. It is a practical means of inquiry, a functional device to expand human knowledge and to explore human society. By analyzing the metaphorical poetics of two Canadian deconstructionist poets Robert Kroetsch and Erin Moure, this thesis aims to examine how metaphor, metonymy, and catachresis work together to engender metaphorical constructions that can produce new knowledge and feminist ethics. Metaphor, metonymy, and catachresis are usually studied as literary devices that increase the artistic appeal of literary works. However, in metaphorical poetry, they function as cognitive tools to deconstruct rigid understanding regarding human history and society. In The Stone Hammer Poems, metaphor and metonymy serve to unveil the existence of the lost knowledge, delineating an imaginative space consisting of annihilated creatures and civilizations. Similarly, in O CidadĂĄn, the two devices construct metaphorical constructions that accentuate the respect of the natural status of human-beings. Meanwhile, instead of forming satirical rhetoric, catachresis in both works become the real knowledge regarding the lost time and people. Therefore, employing a cognitive approach to perform a literary study on The Stone Hammer Poems and O CidadĂĄn, this thesis studies how metaphoricity operates as the resource of post-structuralist understandings on historicity and as the carrier of feminist ethics
Developing teleonics as a process-based systems method for psychological practice
This dissertation is a response to the call for theoretically coherent practical methods which encourage and facilitate systemic thinking in psychology (Boden, 1972; Jordaan & Jordaan, 1984; Lazarus, 1990; Norcross & Grencavage, 1990; Von Bertalanffy, 1968; Winburn, 1991). Teleonics is a developing ecology of process-based systems ideas, where process is foregrounded relative to structure. From a teleonics perspective, structure and process are viewed as inextricably linked, while the foregrounding of process is viewed as having significant implications for how meaning is constructed from observations. Given the dominance of the structure-based orientation to psychology during the modern period, a process-based systems approach is a contribution to the development of postmodern thinking in psychology. Through a process of reviewing the systems thinking literature, and illuminating those premises that point to a distinction between process- and structure-based thinking, the following process-based systems premises are punctuated: * life is essentially of a process nature, * nature is approximate rather than definite, * organization in nature is dynamic, * systems function according to principles of autonomy and integration, * creation is a process of emergence and * teleos is a character of living systems. By relating these premises to the field of psychology, further premises of governance and the union of opposites are punctuated. A review of selected psychological literature is provided to draw distinctions about how the abovementioned process-based systems premises relate to psychological theory and practice. In line with the postmodern trend to coherence between theory and practice, teleonics is proposed as a contribution not only to creative theory building but, also to application. In support of coherence between theory and practice in psychology, epistemological tools and tasks for systemic intervention are discussed. The methodological approach of this dissertation is consistent with the conceptual theorist style (Reason & Rowan, 1981 a). A systems methodology, namely that of double description (Bateson, 1979; Keeney, 1983) is used to connect the theoretical and the applied aspects of this study. The theoretical aspect of the double description was formulated by a review, synthesis and integration of the literature. The applied aspect was formulated by means of a report on fieldwork undertaken in the form of a series of case studies. A particular contribution of this dissertation is the specification and illustration of three teleonics maps namely, spiral mapping, teleos mapping and telentropy tracing. The application of these maps is presented via an elaborated format case study of an individual adult therapy case, and four further cases presented in a circumscribed format (Carlson-SabeIli & Sabelli, 1984). The circumscribed case studies include a single session intervention and a health enhancement workshop. The methodology of this dissertation can be located in new paradigm (postmodern) research. The soundness of endeavour (Reason, 1988c) of this dissertation can be appreciated in relation to validity in terms of the philosophical ideas supporting new paradigm research. Other contributions are that it promotes convergence and informed divergence in psychological theory, is an example of the development of systems theory at the level of micropractice, explores the concept of levels in psychology, and contributes to the further development of teleonics as a process-based systems ecology of ideas. The introduction of visual maps, as practical non-verbal tools for the communication of concepts and observations in psychological practice, is a particularly useful contribution. In this dissertation, teleonics is demonstrated as a process-based systems model which facilitates the practical operationalizing of process-based systems thinking
Schumpeter on money, banking and finance: An institutionalist perspective
In this paper, we provide an institutional interpretation of Schumpeter's analysis of money, banking and finance. This interpretation is founded on an overall investigation into Schumpeter's writings addressing those issues from different perspectives.In section 1, we discuss the widespread evolutionist interpretation of Schumpeter and rather assert an institutionalist perspective. In support of our interpretation, we highlight the specific role played by economic sociology in Schumpeter's methodological approach. Economic sociology, indeed, provides the foundations of a theory of institutions and institutional change, which is often undermined by the usual evolutionary interpretation. We believe, however, that taking this dimension seriously into account may have implications for our understanding of economic and institutional change in Schumpeter. Section 2 illustrates this general statement by focusing on Schumpeter's analysis of money, banking and finance, and their respective roles in the process of economic development.Schumpeter; Money; Credit, Financial system, Institutional change; Economic sociology
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