On economic bicameralism

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2004."September 2004."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-104).(cont.) for both economic profitability and democratic justice, is explored after the roots of the idea of economic bicameralism in socio-economic history and existing socio-economic institutions (such as Works Councils) are reviewed. Economic bicameralism is thus an original form of governance of the firm with regards to both its philosophy and its institutions. It is founded on the recognition that two quests take place within the context of the firm, each of which is pursued primarily by one of the firm's two major agents, capital and labor. In the structure of economic bicameralism, two chambers, one representing each group of agents, govern the firm jointly. The Chamber of Capital assembles the investors in capital, who value an instrumental rationality while seeking profit as their foremost objective; and the Chamber of Labor assembles the investors in person, who display a political rationality and are best understood as seeking democratic justice as their primary goal. While investors in capital remain the sole legal shareholders of the bicameral firm, the governance of the firm is managed by these two chambers, which occupy an equal footing and are consequently bound to cooperate in order to allow the firm to function efficiently. The collaboration hence induced between investors in capital and investors in labor enables the firm to effectively respect the aspiration towards democratic justice that infuses the work experience with the objective of economic profitability that motivates first the investors in capital.This study contributes to normative democratic theory by exploring the relevance of the democratic ideal within the context of the capitalist economic system. It reviews the five traditional arguments for economic democracy before advancing a sixth, original argument, which both encompasses and surpasses its predecessors, based on the political meaning of the work experience. This provides for an understanding of the "political rationality" that animates workers, who, in investing their own person in the firm, experience work as an expressive, political experience that places them in a public space where their conceptions of the just are challenged in complying with the rules of the workplace. In the traditional capitalist shareholder firm, where workers are not entitled to take part in setting those rules, this political rationality also involves a normative content: an aspiration towards democratic justice within the context of the firm, embodied in the idea that every investor-in person as well as in capital- should have a say in the decisions that concern the organization. Consequently, after reviewing the limits of the traditional models of the shareholder firm and the stakeholder firm, this study introduces a theory of the firm capable of reflecting the two rationalities that animate the firm: on the one hand, the traditional rationality of the capitalist firm which is instrumental, displayed by the shareholders (the investors in capital), which is tied to the quest for economic profitability, and on the other hand the political rationality, displayed by the workers (the investors in person), informed by a quest for democratic justice. The scheme of the bicameral firm, whose institutions are conceived in order to jointly address the questsby Isabelle Ferreras.S.M

Työ on demokratisoitava

Julkaisemme tässä tarkastetun suomennoksen ”Work: Democratize, Decommodify, Remediate” -manifestista. Arto Laitisen ja Olli Herrasen suomennos julkaistiin alun perin lyhennettynä Helsingin Sanomissa 16.5.2020 sekä lyhentämättömänä Osallisuusmedian verkkosivulla

Cold Atom Space Payload Atmospheric Drag Mission (CASPA-ADM)

To gain better understanding of the upper atmospheric dynamics requires more accurate determination of the mass density distribution in the thermosphere. Improved measurements of drag, by means of satellite accelerometery, can be used to more precisely determine this distribution. In addition, atmospheric drag in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is particularly of interest for climate modelling, weather forecasting and satellite orbit prediction. RAL Space, Teledyne-e2v and the University of Birmingham are developing a Cold Atom Space Payload Atmospheric Drag Mission (CASPA-ADM). The aim of the project, supported by the UK Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), is to develop a technology demonstrator based on Cold Atom Interferometry (CAI) to take sensitive measurements of atmospheric drag. The underlying CAI technology has been previously flown on the Chinese Space Station, the International Space Station, and in sounding rockets. However, it has not yet been used as the fundamental sensor technology in a free flight space mission. The team is producing a space-suitable accelerometer that can be embedded in small satellites such as 16U CubeSats and are addressing the engineering challenges associated with space qualification and miniaturisation, while keeping the performance level of systems with larger Size, Weight and Power (SWaP)

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.publishedVersio

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies

Democratizing the Corporation. Examining Ferreras’ proposal

3-day conference on Ferreras’ proposal hosted by the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm with funding from the Rijksbankens Jubileumsfond (Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences) and the Havens-Wright Center for Social Justice at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference focused in details on Ferreras’ proposal to democratize corporations, with key figures in the social sciences discussing Ferreras’ work, including economist Marc Fleurbaey (Princeton/Paris School of Economics), sociologist Bo Rothstein (Oxford/University of Gothenburg), economist and mathematician David Ellerman (University of California, Riverside), political philosopher Gustaf Arrhenius (Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm), political scientist Joel Rogers (University of Wisconsin -Madison), and legal scholar Benjamin Sachs (Harvard)