1,721,086 research outputs found
L'impact de facteurs socio-cognitifs dans la modulation de l'effet d'accentuation: une analyse exploratoire
No full textDoctorat en sciences psychologiquesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
Contribution à une approche pragmatique de l'expression des stéréotypes
No full textDoctorat en sciences psychologiquesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
The psychological distinction between social entities and social categories =: La distinction psychologique entre entités sociales et catégories sociales
No full textDoctorat en sciences psychologiquesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
L’économie du changement climatique et le changement de climat en économie – Implications de l’adoption d’une perspective « évolutionniste » sur la gestion politique en matière climatique
Get PDF1. Contextual outline of the PhD Research
Climate change is today often seen as one of the most challenging issue that our civilisation will have to face during the 21st century. This is especially so now that the most recent scientific data have led to the conclusion that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming (IPCC 2007, p. 5) and that continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming (IPCC, 2007 p. 13). This unequivocal link between climate change and anthropogenic activities requires an urgent, world-wide shift towards a low carbon economy (STERN 2006 p. iv) and coordinated policies and measures to manage this transition.
The climate issue is undoubtedly a typical policy question and as such, is considered amenable to economic scrutiny. Indeed, in today’s world economics is inevitable when it comes to arbitrages in the field of policy making. From the very beginning of international talks on climate change, up until the most recent discussions on a post-Kyoto international framework, economic arguments have turned out to be crucial elements of the analysis that shapes policy responses to the climate threat. This can be illustrated by the prominent role that economics has played in the different analyses produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the impact of climate change on society.
The starting point and the core idea of this PhD research is the long-held observation that the threat of climate change calls for a change of climate in economics. Borrowing from the jargon used in climate policy, adaptation measures could also usefully target the academic discipline of economics. Given that inherent characteristics of the climate problem (e.g. complexity, irreversibility, deep uncertainty, etc.) challenge core economic assumptions, mainstream economic theory does not appear as appropriately equipped to deal with this crucial issue. This makes that new assumptions and analyses are needed in economics in order to comprehend and respond to the problem of climate change.
In parallel (and without environmental considerations being specifically the driving force to it), the mainstream model in economics has also long been (and still is) strongly criticised and disputed by numerous scholars - both from within and outside the field of economics. For the sake of functionality, these criticisms - whether they relate to theoretical inconsistencies or are empirically-based - can be subsumed as all challenging part of the Cartesian/Newtonian legacy of economics. This legacy can be shown to have led to a model imprinted with what could be called “mechanistic reductionism”. The mechanistic side refers to the Homo oeconomicus construct while reductionism refers to the quest for micro-foundations materialised with the representative agent hypothesis. These two hypotheses constitute, together with the conjecture of perfect markets, the building blocks of the framework of general equilibrium economics.
Even though it is functional for the purpose of this work to present them separately, the flaws of economics in dealing with the specificities of the climate issue are not considered independent from the fundamental objections made to the theoretical framework of mainstream economics. The former only make the latter seem more pregnant while the current failure of traditional climate policies informed by mainstream economics render the need for complementary approaches more urgent.
2. Overview of the approach and its main insights for climate policy
Starting from this observation, the main objective of this PhD is thus to assess the implications for climate policy that arise from adopting an alternative analytical economic framework. The stance is that the coupling of insights from the framework of evolutionary economics with the perspective of ecological economics provides a promising way forward both theoretically as well as on a more applied basis with respect to a better comprehension of the socioeconomic aspects related to the climate problem. As claimed in van den Bergh (2007, p. 521), ecological economics and evolutionary economics “share many characteristics and can be combined in a fruitful way" - which renders the coupling approach both legitimate and promising.
The choice of an evolutionary line of thought initially stems from its core characteristic: given its focus on innovation and system change it provides a useful approach to start with for assessing and managing the needed transition towards a low carbon economy. Besides, its shift of focus towards a better understanding of economic dynamics together with its departure from the perfect rationality hypothesis renders evolutionary economics a suitable theoretical complement for designing environmental policies.
The notions of path-dependence and lock-in can be seen as the core elements from this PhD research. They arise from adopting a framework which is founded on a different view of individual rationality and that allows for richer and more complex causalities to be accounted for. In a quest for surmounting the above-mentioned problem of reductionism, our framework builds on the idea of ‘multi-level selection’. This means that our analytical framework should be able to accommodate not only for upward but also for downward causation, without giving analytical priority to any level over the other. One crucial implication of such a framework is that the notion of circularity becomes the core dynamic, highlighting the importance of historicity, feedbacks and emergent properties.
More precisely, the added value of the perspective adopted in this PhD research is that it highlights the role played by inertia and path-dependence. Obviously, it is essential to have a good understanding of the underlying causes of that inertia prior to devising on how to enforce a change. Providing a clear picture of the socio-economic processes at play in shaping socio-technical systems is thus a necessary first step in order to usefully complement policy-making in the field of energy and climate change. In providing an analytical basis for this important diagnosis to be performed, the use of the evolutionary framework sheds a new light on the transition towards low-carbon socio-technical systems. The objective is to suggest strategies that could prove efficient in triggering the needed transition such as it has been the case in past “lock-in” stories.
Most notably, the evolutionary framework allows us to depict the presence of two sources of inertia (i.e at the levels of individuals through “habits” and at the level of socio-technical systems) that mutually reinforce each other in a path-dependent manner. Within the broad perspective on path dependence and lock-in, this PhD research has first sketched the implications for climate policy of applying the concept of ‘technological lock-in’ in a systemic perspective. We then investigated in more details the notion of habits. This is important as the ‘behavioural’ part of the lock-in process, although explicitly acknowledged in the pioneer work of Paul David (David, 1985, p. 336), has been neglected in most of subsequent analyses. Throughout this study, the notion of habits has been studied at both the theoretical and applied level of analysis as well as from an empirical perspective.
As shown in the first chapters of the PhD, the advantage of our approach is that it can incorporate theories that so far have been presented opposite, partial and incomplete perspectives. For instance, it is shown that our evolutionary approach not only is able to provide explanation to some of the puzzling questions in economics (e.g. the problem of strong reciprocity displayed by individual in anonymous one-shot situations) but also is very helpful in bringing a complementary explanation with respect to the famous debate on the ‘no-regret’ emission reduction potential which agitates the experts of climate policy.
An emission reduction potential is said to be "no regret" when the costs of implementing a measure are more than offset by the benefits it generates such as, for instance, reduced energy bills. In explaining why individuals do not spontaneously implement those highly profitable energy-efficient investments , it appears that most prior analyses have neglected the importance of non-economic obstacle. They are often referred to as “barriers” and partly relate to the ‘bounded rationality’ of economic agent. As developed in the different chapters of this PhD research, the framework of evolutionary economics is very useful in that it is able to provide a two-fold account (i.e. relying on both individual and socio-technical sources of inertia) of this limited rationality that prevent individuals to act as purely optimising agents.
Bearing this context in mind, the concept of habits, as defined and developed in this study, is essential in analysing the determinants of energy consumption. Indeed, this concept sheds an insightful light on the puzzling question of why energy consumption keeps rising even though there is an evident increase of awareness and concern about energy-related environmental issues such as climate change. Indeed, if we subscribe to the idea that energy-consuming behaviours are often guided by habits and that deeply ingrained habits can become “counter-intentional”, it then follows that people may often display “locked-in” practices in their daily energy consumption behaviour. This hypothesis has been assessed in our empirical analysis whose results show how the presence of strong energy-consuming habitual practices can reduce the effectiveness of economic incentives such as energy subsidies. One additional delicate factor that appears crucial for our purpose is that habits are not fully conscious forms of behaviours. This makes that individuals do not really see habits as a problem given that it is viewed as easily changed.
In sum, based on our evolutionary account of the situation, it follows that, to be more efficient, climate policies would have to both shift the incumbent carbon-based socio-technical systems (for it to shape decisions towards a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and also deconstruct habits that this same socio-technical has forged with time (as increased environmental awareness and intentions formulated accordingly are not sufficient in the presence of strong habits).
Accordingly, decision-makers should design measures (e.g. commitment strategies, niche management, etc.) that, as explained in this research, specifically target those change-resisting factors and their key features. This is essential as these factors tend to reduce the efficiency of traditional instruments. Micro-level interventions are thus needed as much as macro-level ones. For instance, it is often the case that external improvements of energy efficiency do not lead to lower energy consumption due to the rebound effect arising from unchanged energy-consuming habits. Bearing this in mind and building on the insights from the evolutionary approach, policy-makers should go beyond the mere subsidisation of technologies. They should instead create conditions enabling the use of the multi-layered, cumulative and self-reinforcing character of economic change highlighted by evolutionary analyses. This means supporting both social and physical technologies with the aim of influencing the selection environment so that only the low-carbon technologies and practices will survive.De nos jours, la science économique est devenue une discipline incontournable dans le domaine de l’analyse politique. Les politiques environnementales, et notamment la politique de lutte contre le réchauffement climatique, n'échappent pas à la règle. Or, la théorie économique traditionnelle repose sur des postulats fortement contestés par de nombreux auteurs, tant du point de vue théorique que du point de vue empirique.
Dans ce contexte, l’idée de la thèse est de voir quelles seraient les implications de l’adoption d’une grille de lecture économique alternative sur le processus de décision dans le domaine de la politique climatique. Le choix d’un autre modèle s’est porté logiquement sur l’économie évolutionniste dans la mesure où, d’une part, ce courant s’est construit sur l’idée qu’il fallait réconcilier la caractérisation de l’agent économique avec l’abondante littérature empirique et, d’autre part, il a opté pour la logique biologique, plus en phase les rythmes écologiques, comme métaphore inspiratrice.
De par la nature même de la réflexion sous-tendant ses fondements théoriques, l’économie évolutionniste s’intéresse aux dynamiques économiques résultant des processus d’innovation, sélection et accumulation. En fait, ce qui est considéré comme exogène dans le modèle traditionnel, constitue le « cœur conceptuel » du modèle évolutionniste. Le choix de cette nouvelle grille de lecture a inévitablement comme conséquence d’envisager d’une autre manière l’économie politique portant sur les questions environnementales.
La première partie de la recherche est consacrée à une analyse approfondie des critiques formulées à l’encontre du modèle économique traditionnel. Cette analyse, dont l’objectif est de contribuer à l’élaboration du cadre conceptuel de la thèse, consiste en l’exploration parallèle du champ de recherche concernant le fonctionnement des agents économiques et de la philosophie évolutionniste en général.
Cette investigation conjointe, doublée d’un cadrage portant sur l’histoire et l’évolution de la science économique, permet d’aborder de front les deux faiblesses principales du modèle traditionnel, à savoir l’irréalisme empirique du paradigme de l’Homo Oeconomicus et le problème de la simple agrégation sous la forme de l’agent représentatif. Cette phase aboutit à la formulation d’un schéma analytique alternatif fondé sur le concept de « rationalité limitée » articulé dans un cadre reposant sur la notion d’évolution, définie comme un processus à causalité cumulative, double (ascendante et descendante) et interactive illustrant l’importance jouée par le niveau de groupe pour expliquer le fonctionnement des individus.
Ce cadre et les préceptes qui en découlent seront utilisés d’une part, pour tenter d’apporter un éclairage différent sur la question du « paradoxe énergétique » et, d’autre part, pour analyser l’évolution technologique, élément central de la problématique du climat. Par exemple, la notion de causalité cumulative et interactive appliquée à la question de l’évolution technologique met lumière celle de « dépendance du sentier » qui exprime l’idée selon laquelle des évènements aléatoires insignifiants influencent fortement la direction et l’orientation d'une trajectoire technologique. De même, l’importance de la contingence historique et des interdépendances systémiques, qui découlent de notre choix d’adopter une approche évolutionniste, servent à expliquer le processus via lequel on a abouti à ce que l’on peut appeler le « carbon lock-in », selon lequel notre économie serait enfermée dans un régime sociotechnique « carbone » tant nos habitudes, nos institutions et nos réseaux technologiques sont adaptés à l’utilisation de combustibles fossiles (principale cause du problème de l’effet de serre).
Cette notion d’enfermement technologique à laquelle notre analyse a mené est importante dans le sens où elle requiert des décideurs politiques de mettre en œuvre des mesures propres à déverrouiller nos trajectoires technologiques, si on veut respecter les engagements pris dans le cadre du Protocole de Kyoto.
En conclusion, l’adoption d’une approche évolutionniste est susceptible de faire évoluer sensiblement le type de politiques et instrument utilisés pour lutter contre le problème du réchauffement. Notamment, elle questionne la pertinence des instruments économiques actuels, comme l’échange de quotas d’émissions, qui proviennent du modèle traditionnel (mettant l’accent sur l’efficience et reposant sur la parfaite rationalité des acteurs), dans la mesure où ils ne traitent pas des barrières structurelles responsables de l’enfermement technologique dans la filière fossile. Comme le souligne notre recherche, les politiques climatiques devraient plutôt créer un environnement permettant d’utiliser la nature cumulative et auto-renforçante de l’évolution des technologies
Modeling Immigrant Language Acquisition and Integration: Toward an Integrated Micro-Macro Modeling
No full textThis thesis aims to address the following key question: “What affects immigrants to acquire capital and how is it generated?” This can be addressed by the following: (1) identifying micro-level determinants of immigrant language acquisition and integration; (2) assessing macro-level effects and micro-macro joint effects on immigrant language acquisition; and (3) reassessing the overall empirical findings based on theoretically derived micro-macro interactive mechanisms in the integration process. The research literature concerned with the determinants of immigrant/second language acquisition is reviewed to bring classic theories and models from economics and psychology together and initiate the construction of an economic-psychological modeling frame for immigrant language acquisition. Based on the modeling frame, an empirically testable model of immigrant language acquisition is formulated to identify the determinants of destination language proficiency. Furthermore, conceptually locating immigrants’ integration outcomes as the consequences of their language acquisition in a theoretical modeling framework, a model of immigrant integration is devised with three sub-models: (1) a model of immigrant economic integration; (2) a model of immigrant citizenship acquisition; and (3) a model of immigrant political integration. The models are tested using OLS regression and data from the Multicultural Democracy and Immigrants’ Social Capital in Europe: Participation, Organisational Networks, and Public Policies at the Local Level (LOCALMULTIDEM). Analysis results suggest that the economic model is robust in predicting immigrant language acquisition and integration outcomes. Educational attainment is found to be the most critical and consistent predictor of outcomes across cities and empirical models. Although the psychological model has relatively weak power in explaining the variation in language proficiency, the presumed mediating effect via attitudinal factors is detected in some cases. However, such mediation effect is barely identified in the sub-models of immigrant integration with an exception of political integration. Destination language proficiency is found to be the most consistent mediator that positively influences all of the integration outcomes. In the concluding chapters, further analyses and (re)interpretations are conducted as an overarching summary of the multivariate regression analyses to examine the role of institutions and propose a micro-macro integrative model that could suggest options for institutional design and directions for future research.Doctorat en Sciences politiques et socialesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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