Writing Assistants Should Model Social Factors of Language

Intelligent writing assistants powered by large language models (LLMs) are more popular today than ever before, but their further widespread adoption is precluded by sub-optimal performance. In this position paper, we argue that a major reason for this sub-optimal performance and adoption is a singular focus on the information content of language while ignoring its social aspects. We analyze the different dimensions of these social factors in the context of writing assistants and propose their incorporation into building smarter, more effective, and truly personalized writing assistants that would enrich the user experience and contribute to increased user adoption.Comment: 2 pages, Accepted to In2Writing Workshop (CHI 2023

"Doing" cultural geography/"being" a cultural geographer – reflections by an "accidental geographer" on practising cultural geography in the Netherlands

In this article, I explore Dutch social geography in the context of "the cultural turn". In so doing, I extensively draw on writing from the Anglo-American context which somewhat complicates the matter. Barnett (1998) implied that the "cultural turn" is not a "coherent and singular process" (379) which will emerge from my reflections as well. But even though the disciplines have undergone different ways of becoming, Dutch geographies are, formally, valued and assessed by procedures that have developed alongside, if not as a part of, the cultural turn(s) in the United Kingdom. In the Netherlands, different Departments have been a part of (or apart from) the cultural turn in different ways. In this article, I draw on some of the similarities and differences but will focus to a large extent on my own institutional context at the University of Groningen

Contemporary Art Exhibitions as Places of Learning About Reflexive Food System Localization

[From first paragraph] This paper describes the role of socially engaged art practices in opening up our pedagogical imaginations to foster reflexive and creative approaches to building the local food movement. These contemporary artistic engagements with local food or ‘food system localization’ are in the genre of what has been called social practice artwork or, in other words, art practices that focus less on the production of a singular aesthetic object and more on the relational and experiential aspects of participatory interaction in a creative process (e.g., Kester; Finkerpearl). In this context, I examine social practice artworks that create experimental communities built around shared practices of growing and eating locally grown food in cities; such as FARM:shop in Dalston, UK, or Edible Estates, on suburban front lawns around the world

Pronominal Choice as an Interpersonal Strategy

This paper offers a review of the main aspects of address theory and examines the main interpersonal strategic functions of terms of address. In order to illustrate these issues I have chosen some examples from political discourse. Specifically, I selected three political interviews which took place around the same time (21st April 2003, 16th November 2003 and 30th May 2004), and with the same worldwide conflict in the background (the Iraqi war), but which featured three different interviewees of three different nationalities. Nonetheless, these interviewees share a common characteristic: they held the highest political office in their countries at the time. These interviewees are: Mr. José M. Aznar (President of Spain), Mr. George W. Bush (President of the USA) and Mr. Tony Blair (Prime Minister of the UK). I will try to relate the choice of specific pronominal references to the pragmatic nature of the questions being asked. For this purpose, I will borrow the terms “CC (communicative conflict) question” and “equivocation” from Bavelas, Black, Chovil and Mullett (1990

Law in other contexts: stand bravely brothers! a report from the law wars

This essay argues against the two pillars of current research on law and globalisation, from the perspective of legal theory and political philosophy: first, the distinction between ‘well-ordered’ and ‘not so well-ordered’ societies; second, the sociological model of the subject as pacified, fearful and isolated (to sum up, in harmony). It is argued that mainstream legal theory and political philosophy merely reflects the actual rules of the game of competition, dispute and conflict. In contrast, this essay takes sides with the anthropological and philosophical tradition that conceives the subject as antagonistic and in state of lack, profoundly concerned with the other, whom she imitates and whose standpoint she must be able to share if she is to make sense of the world. Furthermore, it is argued that transitivity or imitation lies at the very origin of conflict and dispute; lack and antagonism remain thus at the core of society, in spite of the surface appearance of harmony that characterises post-modern societies. Because of this, any general theory of law and society that wishes to be relevant at the time of globalisation must make the experience of antagonism and violence, motivated by imitation and envy, and its containment, its object of study. To do this, it must abandon the dualist conception of subjects and societies expressed in the distinction between ‘well-ordered’ (more violent) and ‘not-so-well-ordered’ (less violent) societies that has informed its investigation to this day, in order to declare in the most general terms a critique of violence from the standpoint of the victim, as of a piece with its demand for global social and political justice. Description from publisher website at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=IJC&volumeId=4&issueId=02&iid=243936

Reconstructing nation, state and welfare: The transformation of welfare states

About the book: This edited volume provides new empirical evidence of far-reaching changes to welfare states globally, which have changed the boundaries of the 'public' and 'private' domain within the mixed economies of welfare. Various modes of policy intervention are investigated, providing a nuanced account of reforms in the past decade