Truth after post-truth: for a Strong Programme in Discourse Studies

Contemporary post-truth discourses put the constructivist foundations of Discourse Studies to a test. According to critical observers, discourse analysts have been playing into the hands of Trump, Brexit and right-wing populists by politicising scientific knowledge and undermining the idea of scientific truth. In order to respond to these concerns, this article outlines a Strong Programme in Discourse Studies. While the Strong Programme insists on truths as discursive constructions, in no way does it claim that all ideas have the same truth value or that an idea can become true because somebody wants it to be true. The Strong Programme makes the case for discourse research that is constructivist (it asks how truths are constructed practically) without being relativist (all ideas do not have the same normative quality). Taking inspiration from debates in Science and Technology Studies of the 1970s, the Strong Programme formulates principles for discourse researchers dealing with conflicting truth claims. Discourse analytical explanations of truths of first-order participants and of second-order observers should be symmetrical, heterogeneous, multi-perspectival and reflexive. The Strong Programme discourse research is grounded in the founding traditions of ?French? and ?Critical? Discourse Studies, which have struggled over questions of truth and reality since the beginning. While critically interrogating the structuralist heritage of these strands, the Strong Programme insists on the practices of making and unmaking ideas through language use no matter whether they appear as true or false to participants and observers. Discourse Studies are encouraged to critically reflect on how hierarchies between knowledges are not only represented but, through their representation, also constituted through discursive practices

Project Situations Aggregation to Identify Cooperative Problem Solving Strategies

International audienceThe knowledge engineering offers a rational framework allowing a representation of knowledge obtained through the experiences. This technique found a great application in knowledge management and especially to capital ize knowledge. In fact, the rational representation of knowledge allows their exploitation and their re-use. It is a necessary condition to allow a re-use and a knowledge appropriation. The knowledge management must take into account this dimension, since its first concern is to make knowledge persistent, ready to be re-used. In this paper, we study the traces classifications of the design pro ject achievements in order to have a knowledge aggregation and to thus provide a representation of handled knowledge: directives and competences organiza tion as well as negotiation strategies and cooperative problems solving

Cognition et information en société

Érigée en question de société, l'information mérite d'être réexaminée à la lumière de recherches récentes qui explorent les questions suivantes. Celle de la variété des « formats » de l'information, et leur inscription dans des équipements informatiques, ou plus généralement, dans un environnement matériel. Celle de la relation entre information et action impliquée dans la découverte, l'apprentissage et l'usage de connaissances, selon des agencements différents - jugements publics, pratiques épistémiques, savoir-faire personnel, etc. Celle de l'insertion de l'information dans diverses figures du collectif qui dépendent des coordinations et coopérations en vigueur, conduisant à des représentations communes ou à des connaissances distribuées. Celle, enfin, de l'engagement de systèmes d'information dans des formes de normativité et de gouvernement, via des indicateurs et des classifications statistiques, des qualités normalisées, une saisie informatique locale des activités individuelles. L'examen de ces questions donne corps à une certaine approche sociale et politique de la cognition et de l'information, qui est présentée à partir de travaux internationaux sur l'État, la science, l'organisation, le travail et le jeu

On virtual communities: individual motivations, reciprocity and we-rationality

Virtual communities, Individual motivation, Reciprocity, Strategic interaction, We-rationality, D2, D7, L0, M2, O3,