Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

A polyocular framework for research on multifunctional farming and rural development

The paradox of multifunctionality is that, on the one hand, the specialized functionalities of agriculture only arise because of the functional differentiation of social systems and scientific disciplines and, on the other hand, multifunctionality can only enter as a way to mediate between conflicts, interests and fragmented knowledge when different functions and observations of functions combine. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a theoretical and methodological platform for multidisciplinary research on multifunctional farming. With the notions of polyocular cognition and polyocular communication we introduce a second order, interdisciplinary communication process that can meet the challenge of creating a shared view on multifunctional farming. Polyocular communication must be based on other rules than the rules of the involved disciplines. Whereas disciplinary communication is about providing consistent, efficient and precise knowledge in the context of a sharply delimited research world, polyocular communication is about extending a multidimensional space of understanding

Is Work System Theory a Practical Theory of Practice?

This paper describes an exploration of whether ideas related to pragmatism, practical theory, and practice theory provide potentially useful directions for extending work system theory (WST), which is an outgrowth of an attempt to develop the work system method (WSM), a flexible systems analysis method for business professionals. After summarizing WST’s basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper uses a positioning map to explain reasons for considering relationships between WST and a number of topics related to practical issues and practice theory. Based on that positioning map, the subsequent sections discuss relation-ships between WST and UML, Goldkuhl’s workpractice theory, and the more general notion of practice theory. A concluding section briefly addresses a set of questions related to whether WST is a practical theory of practice. This paper\u27s comparisons of WST with the three theoret-ical perspectives for describing and understanding systems could be a step toward greater practical application of IS research related to the nature and evolution of activities, processes, routines, and practices involving the use of technology in organizational settings

Organization as A Multi-dimensional Network of Actants Mediated by An Organized and Organizing Network of Cultural Rules

Programme du colloque : www.groupelog.umontreal.ca/anglais/LOGConferenceProgram.pdfThis paper aims to provide a complementary perspective to the Montreal School's conceptual framework on the organizing properties of communication. The network metaphor is used to address two issues of this theory: how to link entities with variable ontologies together and how to explain that entities are objects (inherent ontology) and mediators (relational ontology) at the same time? Networks are considered both as material structures (directed graphs seen as topological objects) and as abstracted ones (matrixes). Complex networks display structural properties when they emerge as structures. However, the emergence of structure is only considered as a realization of one of the virtual states and possible patterns of a meta-network made up of at least three networks on several dimensions: a material network of actants, a cognitive network and a cultural network of rules. The latter network is linked to human entities only. Cultural rules are seen as habitus, i.e. kinds of force fields that guide but do not determine action. Human agency is constrained by cultural rules so that human beings are able to reproduce social systems. Agency is also seen as continuous modification and displacement. It modifies the structure of the network of actants and that of the network of rules. The network of actants makes the network of rules evolve through feedback loops. The network of rules generates calculations in the cognitive network. Sensemaking results from the continuous process of reproduction-modification of the cognitive structure.Pas de résumé en françai