1,721,272 research outputs found
Technological Citizenship and the Ethical Guidance of Digitalisation
No full textVerbeek, P.P. (2020). ’. In: J. Rabaey, R. van Est, P.P. Verbeek, J. Vandewalle, Societal values in digital innovation: who, what and how? – KVAB Thinkers’ Programme 2019, KVAB Position paper 66 b, ISBN 978 90 656 919 72, pp. 35-4
Some Misunderstandings About the Moral Significance of Technology
Get PDFThe discussion about moral agency and technology is troubled by some severe misunderstandings. Too often, the claim that technologies are involved in moral agency is misread for the claim that technologies are moral agents themselves. Much of the discussion then focuses on the question whether not only humans but also technologies can have intentionality, freedom, responsibility, and, ultimately, moral agency. From the perspective of mediation theory, this discussion remains caught in a dualist paradigm that locates human beings and technological artifacts in two separate realms, humans being intentional and free, technologies being instrumental and mute. Against the question to what extent technologies can be moral agents, mediation theory makes it possible to investigate how intentionality, freedom, and agency are in fact the result of intricate connections and interactions between human beings and technological artifacts. Rather than checking if technologies can meet a pre-given criterion of moral agency, we need to re-conceptualize the phenomenon of moral agency itself in order to understand the roles of technologies in our daily lives
Introduction: The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts
Get PDFIn recent decades, discussions about the question of how to morally assess technology and its influence on human beings have taken a new, intriguing twist. Issues about the moral status of technology -in the sense of whether technology itself or its influence on human life may be evaluated as morally good or bad- have a long history. But recently, various proposals have been put forward to ascribe some form of moral agency to technology, more in particular to technical artefacts
Technology and users:a conceptual map
Get PDFThe goal of the first part of this book was to identify concepts, conceptual frameworks and methods in various disciplines and areas of application that are used to describe and measure features of the interaction between technology and users. From the previous chapters it is clear that many scientific domains contain relevant knowledge for studying this relationship. However, they also show that the information is scattered and often unknown outside of a particular field. By providing an overview, this part of the book aims to take a first step towards a deepening of the understanding of user-technology interaction. The unveiling of different frameworks to conceptualize apparently similar phenomena may stimulate reflection and hopefully even invite co-operation. In the end, this may produce design guidelines that serve an easier, safer and sustainable use of technology and the well-being of its users. The following synopsis attempts to outline the various concepts and frameworks, their differences and their mutual associations by using the metaphor of a map. This 'conceptual map' also serves to identify areas that are covered and fallow land. Before we draw the map, some introductory remarks are required. The first concerns the selection of concepts and frameworks in this part of the book. They emanate from scientific disciplines (environmental and social psychology, philosophy of technology, science and technology studies) and some specific areas of application (action theory, safety studies, and household and consumer science). This selection does not imply that other disciplines or fields do not have appropriate information: it is the result of a search that was extensive and, simultaneously, limited because of practical reasons (e.g. authors willing to participate) and the coherence of the book as a whole (some insights have a special bearing on a particular subject and are presented in other parts). We are confident, however, that most of the primary concepts are covered here. Secondly, we would like to stress that this chapter does not offer an integrated conceptual model, nor an elaborated view of the interaction process between users and technology itself. The matter at hand is far too complex for that purpose. The frameworks in the various chapters of this part of the book all have their own bearing, specific mechanisms and evolutionary history. We aim at relating these frameworks, not molding them together. As a consequence of leaving out the interaction process, global input variables (technology and user characteristics) and results (e.g. efficiency or pay-off on the side of technology and satisfaction or well-being on the user side) are not discussed either, although we recognize that these results are crucial for the reiteration of the process. We do hope, however, that the overview will contribute to future efforts to develop such a model. And thirdly, the map to be drawn does not represent an overview of the determinants of interaction. We focus on concepts that are useful to describe and analyze relations between users and technology. These concepts may be determinants, but they may also be research methods or analytical terms that encompass more or less complex issues. In the next section we will describe the metaphor of the conceptual map. Sections 3 and 4 explain the arrangement of the concepts on the map, their theoretical backgrounds, and their main differences and associations. Conclusions, including the identification of fallow land, are discussed in section 5.</p
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
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