The post-Macy paradox,information management and organising: Good intentions and a road to hell?

Between 1946 and 1953, leading scientists met in New York in the context of the so-called Macy conferences, often linked to the emergence of cybernetics. They hankered for a new vision of mind and society. The traumatism of WW2 was implicit but omnipresent, and the Cold War was beginning. Macy key tools and concepts about information, the value of information, and computer artefacts have finally produced a new world, in particular an organisational world, which is far removed from their original dreams. Organisational members are now involved in difficult situations in terms of organising, that is, new modes of performativity which are difficult to comprehend and deal with; a transformation of meaning and knowledge in collective activity; and a threat to well-being and happiness as mental activities, cognition and bodies are increasingly disconnected. We use the Macy conferences as an entry point to reflect on the ‘longue durée’ evolution of the material underpinnings of information and their relationship with organising. We first explore the new conceptualisations at the core of the Macy conferences, information, value of information, and computer artefacts. We then put the Macy conferences into a socio-historical perspective by means of two theoretical approaches, iconographical and semiotic; this involves a historical comparison between the ‘screen-images’ or our Information Age and the ‘object-images’ of medieval cathedrals. We show that there are important disruptions in organising grounded in a new semiosis, which emerged over the longue durée of collective activity, and was articulated further during the Macy conferences. We describe this long-term evolution as the post-Macy paradox.     

皮尔斯符号过程中不明推论的美学维度与艺术表达研究

皮尔斯的符号学是认知的符号学,人们通常关注其认知方面的问题,而忽略了其与美学相关的问题.其实,皮尔斯符号过程中的不明推论这一认知步骤,就显现出了美学的维度,它是艺术表达的基础.皮尔斯从实用主义与其符号学的关联开始,美学维度在不明推论环节显现,其包含的本质要素是符号的冲突,进而以此为基础阐释艺术和艺术作品的表达,显示了皮尔斯符号学的美学价值,可以深化对其符号学的认识.     

Semiosis,thought and codes: A theoretical framework for social knowledge

I present a theoretical social psychological framework for social knowledge based mainly on the triadic concept of sign relations and the process of semiosis. The framework is based on concepts from authors aligned with interpretative semiotic approaches, such as Peirce, Deely and Eco. After defining signs and sign relations, I propose to conceive social knowledge as sign relations happening in communication processes, and employ the notion of code to account for socially shared group conventions. I suggest that the analysis of code properties such as content, social acknowledgment and history can identify differences in social knowledge forms and the concrete contexts that sustain them. The framework is discussed in comparison with other social and cultural psychological approaches based on semiosis. Finally, methodological implications are commented.     

From coherence to coheritization: explaining the rise of policy coherence in EU external policy

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, the external policy of the European Commission has become increasingly entangled by the notion of policy coherence. Previously ‘siloed’ policy areas such as trade, agriculture, and development are increasingly approached as challenges only effectively resolved by addressing their positive and negative interlinkages. While the EC is critical of fundamental incoherencies between different policy areas, it simultaneously calls to harness synergies between them. To explain this ambiguous approach, we combine insights from speech act theory and cultural political economy. We aim for methodological triangulation by employing social network analysis, an explanatory narrative, and expert interviews. We argue that the Commission’s approach towards coherence can be understood as a process that reshapes the actor landscape around the discourse on coherence. By gradually pushing out the most outspoken actors, the Commission discursively resolves the inherent contradictions of reconciling free trade and development of the Global South.     

分岔性与层控性:新闻文本中的符号衍义

新闻文本包含事实和价值二维,从其价值之维出发,新闻文本可被视为一种"符号表意系统",因之,新闻文本的生产和收受也遵从符号表意的基本规律。以"福建南平砍杀案"系列报道为例,探析了新闻文本中的符号衍义问题,并认为:首先,新闻文本的符号衍义可向多个方向上开展符号表意,具有分岔性;其次,新闻文本的符号衍义主要可在三个层级上进行:报道新闻事实要素的对象指称层,解释、预测和评价新闻事实的元语言层,以及解释、评价新闻文本话语的元元语言层,具有层控性。     

功能语言学视角下的多模态语篇符号间的衔接研究

以功能语言学理论为基础,对多模态语篇中视觉符号和文字符号之间的衔接关系进行了的总结和扩充。扩大了多模态语篇中不同符号之间衔接范围,把人际意义衔接和语境衔接纳入符号间的衔接范围。并且对人际意义衔接和语境衔接分别进行了详细的阐述。对人际意义衔接的阐述主要从语气结构和态度系统两个方面,对语境衔接主要从文化语境和上下文语境两个方面阐述。     

Why and how ontology matters: A cartography of neoliberalism(s) and neoliberalization(s)

In this article, I discuss the importance of ontology and its implications, demonstrated in the examples of different approaches to neoliberalism. The lack of careful ontological considerations leads to confusing and often contradictory usages of the term ‘neoliberalism’, obfuscating its usefulness. Instead, I suggest a cartography which consists of integrating two ontological debates - structure-agency and material-ideational - through the interplay between the problematiques of structuration and semiosis, and the operational debate on ideas/interests. In so doing, this cartography can provide readers with various heuristic devices to understand the making of theories, why and how conceptualizations of neoliberalism differ between and within theories and pinpoint the thematic implications of these differences. The translation of this cartography helps to achieve two things, (1) to move beyond the static analyses of neoliberalism and endorse the dynamic understand of neoliberalization processes, (2) to understand why systemic process-based understandings of neoliberalization can create distinctions between analytical understandings of neoliberalism in terms of either the commodification of marketization processes or the marketization of commodification processes.     

皮尔斯对当代传播学研究的理论贡献

由皮尔斯开创的实用主义具有悠久的传播研究的历史传统,不过,实用主义的传播观念在现实中表现为交流的形式。皮尔斯理论体系中所蕴含的交流思想表现为三方面：其一,科学方法的认知论。它是研究我们在交流中如何认知事物本质的方法;其二,实用主义及其观念论。它研究我们在交流中如何拥有清楚的观念,自我如何通过交流达到社群经验的共享;其三,符号学思想。皮尔斯的符号学理论为我们提供了一个与拉斯韦尔不同的交流模式。在当代传播学遭遇理论困境的局面下,或许我们可以从皮尔斯的交流思想与交流模式中获取新的理论源头。     

信息概念的层级性质

信息哲学中存在的许多争议，大都是因为“信息”一词在不同使用语境中指称的现象不同导致的。香农将“信息”概念的形式缩减为通信媒介的统计属性，这使得它在以解释功能和指称为特色的领域中丧失了有用性。建议可以从区分媒介或信号属性、指称属性以及规范或功能属性的角度，更准确地描述信息概念。由此，基于符号媒介的内在统计特性所提供的功能可供性，信息理论可以对符号载体和指称对象的必要过程结构进行描述。