Instructional technology and decision making

If a new technology does not fit comfortably in the scheme of things or seems powerful enough to pose a threat, it is resisted until it can be reshaped into a tool

The Making of Cultural Heritage

How does an artefact enter the corpus of national cultural heritage? The answer to this question offers a pragmatic understanding of the reasons why the expansion of national corpuses has been so widespread, generation after generation and especially during the last one. Of course, there are alsomore general “societal” or “cultural” reasons for such a worldwide phenomenon: a number of explanations have already been proposed by philosophers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists. However, one should not underestimate the effects of the inventorial techniques and methods of description used by the specialists of heritage, in that they tend to elevate the level of precision and of specialisation, hence to enlarge the criteria and to increase the number of artefacts worth entering their corpus. A close study of these actual criteria, through a survey conducted according to what is now called “pragmatic sociology” in France, allows us a deeper understanding of what defines cultural heritage, and of the effective values on which it relies: that is, the axiology of cultural heritage. Switching from “why” to “how&rdquo

Ground Risk Assessment Service Provider (GRASP) Development Effort as a Supplemental Data Service Provider (SDSP) for Urban Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Operations

NASAs Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) project aims to enable the integration of new aviation paradigms such as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) while providing the necessary infrastructure for future concepts such as On-Demand Mobility (ODM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS). In order to do so, the UTM project has developed an architecture to allow communication among UAS operators, UAS Service Suppliers (USS), Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP), and the public. As part of this framework, the Supplemental Data Service Providers (SDSP) are envisioned as model and/or data based services that disseminate essential or enhanced information to ensure safe operations within low-altitude airspace. These services include terrain and obstacle data, specialized weather data, surveillance, constraint information, risk monitoring, etc. This paper highlights the development efforts of a non-participant casualty risk assessment SDSP called Ground Risk Assessment Service Provider (GRASP) which assists operators with preflight planning. GRASP is based on the previously introduced UTM Risk Assessment Framework (URAF) and allows UAS operators to simulate and visualize potential non-participant casualty risks associated with their proposed flight. The risk assessment capability also allows operators to revise their flight plans if the casualty risks are determined to be above acceptable thresholds. GRASP is configured to account for future improvements including servicing airborne aircraft as part of NASAs System-Wide Safety (SWS) project

Les valeurs scientifiques au travail

Cet article a pour objet les valeurs ayant cours aujourd’hui dans le monde de la science européenne, dégagées à partir d’entretiens semi-directifs avec des lauréats d’un grand prix de médecine et de biologie. Centrée sur la question, particulièrement révélatrice, des prix scientifiques et de leurs effets sur la vie professionnelle, relationnelle ou privée, cette enquête visait la socialisation de la vie scientifique, dans la perspective d’une sociologie compréhensive et empirique des valeurs. L’analyse inductive du corpus nous a permis de distinguer deux grands couples d’oppositions : d’une part, entre « valeurs fondamentales » et « valeurs contextuelles » et, d’autre part, entre « valeurs publiques » (susceptibles d’être publiquement revendiquées, en tant que valeurs de références) et « valeurs privées » (qui orientent effectivement l’action mais d’une façon difficilement revendicable en public). L’article présente un répertoire des valeurs contextuelles, sous la forme d’une quinzaine de couples de qualificatifs opposés (du type individuel/collectif), dont le statut axiologique varie selon les contextes.This article addresses the values prevailing today in the sphere of European science, identified through semi-directive interviews with the winners of a grand prize in medicine and biology. Focussing on the particularly revealing question of scientific prizes and their effects on professional, relational or private life, this survey addressed the socialization of scientific life from the perspective of a comprehensive and empirical sociology of values. An inductive analysis of the data revealed two main pairs of oppositions — on the one hand, between ‘fundamental values’ and ‘contextual values’ and, on the other, between ‘public values’ (that can be publicly proclaimed, as reference values) and ‘private values’ (which effectively guide the action but can hardly be proclaimed publicly). The article presents a list of contextual values in the form of some fifteen pairs of opposites (e.g. individual/collective) whose axiological status varies according to context.Este artículo tiene por objeto los valores que tienen curso hoy en el mundo de la ciencia europea, logrados a partir de entrevistas semidirigidas con laureados de un gran premio de medicina y biología. Centrada en la cuestión, especialmente reveladora, de los premios científicos y de sus efectos sobre la vida profesional, relacional o privada, esta investigación contemplaba la socialización de la vida científica, en la perspectiva de una sociología comprensiva y empírica de los valores. El análisis inductivo del corpus nos permitió distinguir dos grandes pares de oposiciones : por una parte, entre “valores fundamentales” y “valores del contexto” y, por otra parte, entre “valores públicos” (susceptibles de reivindicarse públicamente, como valores de referencia) y “valores privados” (que orientan efectivamente la acción pero de una manera difícilmente reivindicables en público). El artículo presenta un repertorio de los valores del contexto, en forma de una quincena de pares de calificativos opuestos (del tipo individual /colectivo), cuyo estatuto axiológico varía según los contextos

When is Artification?

How do people do or make things that come to be seen as works of art? In other words, when is there artification? The answer to this question is simultaneously symbolic, material, and contextual. It has to do with meanings, objects, interaction, and institutions. We seek to define not what art is nor how it should be considered, but how and under what circumstances it comes about by way of methodical observation and inquiry in a variety of fields. Circus acrobats, breakdancers, fashion designers, chefs, graffiti artists, printers, photographers, and jazz musicians are some of the examples we explore. This pragmatic and empirical perspective enables us to present a typology of forms of artification and examine its sources as well as the questions of de-artification and obstacles to artification

When is Artification?

How do people do or make things that come to be seen as works of art? In other words, when is there artification? The answer to this question is simultaneously symbolic, material, and contextual. It has to do with meanings, objects, interaction, and institutions. We seek to define not what art is nor how it should be considered, but how and under what circumstances it comes about by way of methodical observation and inquiry in a variety of fields. Circus acrobats, break-dancers, fashion designers, chefs, graffiti artists, printers, photographers, and jazz musicians are some of the examples we explore. This pragmatic and empirical perspective enables us to present a typology of forms of artification and examine its sources as well as the questions of de-artification and obstacles to artification

Creating and Testing Simulation Software

The goal of this project is to learn about the software development process, specifically the process to test and fix components of the software. The paper will cover the techniques of testing code, and the benefits of using one style of testing over another. It will also discuss the overall software design and development lifecycle, and how code testing plays an integral role in it. Coding is notorious for always needing to be debugged due to coding errors or faulty program design. Writing tests either before or during program creation that cover all aspects of the code provide a relatively easy way to locate and fix errors, which will in turn decrease the necessity to fix a program after it is released for common use. The backdrop for this paper is the Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) Simulation Computer Software Configuration Item (CSCI), a project whose goal is to simulate a launch using simulated models of the ground systems and the connections between them and the control room. The simulations will be used for training and to ensure that all possible outcomes and complications are prepared for before the actual launch day. The code being tested is the Programmable Logic Controller Interface (PLCIF) code, the component responsible for transferring the information from the models to the model Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), basic computers that are used for very simple tasks

Les limites de la fiction

RésuméÀ partir d’un petit corpus de controverses advenues récemment en France à propos de fictions littéraires ou cinématographiques, mettant l’accent sur les fortes restrictions encadrant actuellement la censure, cet article – inscrit dans la perspective d’une sociologie des valeurs dont sont tout d’abord explicitées les règles énonciatives – se propose: premièrement, de comprendre les principes qui poussent les acteurs à limiter l’espace imparti à la fiction; deuxièmement, d’examiner la façon dont la narratologie a traité cette question des limites, les principes qui s’en dégagent et les instruments qui méritent d’être retenus; troisièmement, de réfléchir aux raisons pour lesquelles il peut être nécessaire de limiter soit axiologiquement, soit ontologiquement, la fiction; et quatrièmement, d’expliquer pourquoi les chercheurs ont intérêt à en élargir les limites, de manière à éviter plusieurs types de réductions – logiciste, esthète, herméneutique, scientiste. L’article se termine par une tentative de solution aux controverses précitées, en forme d’avis d’expert outillé par cette analyse des limites de la fiction.AbstractUsing a small corpus of recent controversies in France about fiction in literature or the cinema that have emphasized the tight restrictions now on censorship, this approach in terms of a sociology of values starts by examining the rules governing speech acts about this topic. First of all, how to understand the principles that lead to limiting the room allowed for fiction? Secondly, how has narratology dealt with this question of limits? What principles can be identified, and what instruments are worth using? Thirdly, what reasons might make it necessary to limit fiction either axiologically or ontologically? Finally, the attempt is made to explain why researchers have an interest in broadening these limits so as to avoid several types (logical, aesthetic, hermeneutic, scientific) of «reduction». The attempt is made to provide a solution to the aforementioned controversies, a solution in the form of advice from an expert who uses the tools drawn from this analysis

Pour une sociologie axiologique

Ayant proposé à la discussion de ses collègues un résumé en dix points de son livre Des valeurs. Une approche sociologique, Nathalie Heinich répond aux commentaires de Laurence Kaufmann et Philippe Gonzalez, de Danilo Martuccelli, et de Louis Quéré, ainsi qu’au compte rendu publié dans la même livraison de Questions de communication par Hervé Glevarec. Sont ainsi abordées successivement neuf thématiques : les questions de vocabulaire, les questions de pertinence ou de non-pertinence de certaines problématiques (la nature, la religion), la question des émotions, le statut ontologique de l’attribution de valeur, le statut de la « grammaire » axiologique et sa visée explicative ou compréhensive, l’historicité des valeurs et la prise en compte des contextes, la place de la sociologie des rapports de force, la prise en compte des comportements et de l’observabilité empirique, et, enfin, la controverse sur la neutralité axiologique.Having proposed a ten-point summary of her book Des valeurs. Une approche sociologique, Nathalie Heinich responds to the comments of Laurence Kaufmann and Philippe Gonzalez, Danilo Martuccelli, and Louis Quéré, as well as to Hervé Glevarec’s review published in the same issue of Questions de communication. Nine themes are successively addressed: issues of vocabulary, relevance or irrelevance of certain problems (nature, religion), the issue of emotions, the ontological status of valuation, the epistemological status of the “axiological grammar” and its explanatory or comprehensive purpose, the historicality and contextuality of values, the place of the sociology of power relations, the issue of behaviour and empirical observability, and, finally, the controversy on “axiological neutrality”

Brigitte Derlon et Monique Jeudy-Ballini, La Passion de l’art primitif. Enquête sur les collectionneurs

En enquêtant sur les collectionneurs d’art primitif dans le monde occidental, Brigitte Derlon et Monique Jeudy-Ballini ont délibérément tourné le dos aux objets traditionnels de leur recherche – les cultures non occidentales – pour porter leurs regards vers ceux qui regardent ces objets : « objets » étant à prendre alors au double sens du terme, comme la visée de l’investigation autant que comme la chose matérielle, ce qu’on appelle l’« objet d’art primitif » (ou « premier », « tribal », etc...