This concise reflection seeks to comprehensively interconnect the well-established theoretical and methodological logic of self-organization with a new reflexive ethos and aesthetic of epistemic modesty and humility. A brief elaboration on the issue of unpredictability further encourages a suitable and sustainable analytic framework for generating, developing and cultivating a radical ethics/aesthetics of epistemological weakness, as well as a sense of less strong and more reflexive sociological/philosophical worldview.
Homo Virtualis is the conception of a humanity of sciences, cultures and socialities powered by the communicative technological innovations. Cyborgs, robots, avatars and virtual communities imagine, construct and create their lives within new technosocial or sociotechnical environments. [...]
This special issue contains selected papers that cover a broad range of current trends and interdisciplinary approaches in the social research on Blockchain and disruptive technologies.
This paper investigates the aspects of regional digital convergence, i.e. the capability of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among all people living in the peripheral areas of a country, in relation to the ICT applications into the transport sector, known as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). It also examines the interdependent relationships between the digital and physical accessibility. Firstly, the ICT infrastructures and their access via the households and enterprises set the conditions for the use of ITS. On the other hand, the expansion of transport networks and decentralization of transport flows can contribute to the widespread adoption of ITS and ICTs in general, and the higher specialization and diversification of digital services. These interactions are analyzed in Greece, through investigating the spatial allocation of public expenditure, at a regional level, for the Information Society and the transport sector, during 2000-2009. The findings indicate that the increased concentration of public investments in road projects in peripheral areas does not imply the bridging of the digital gap between the metropolitan areas (Athens and Thessaloniki) and the rest of Greece. The need for designing a comprehensive regional investment policy is suggested to jointly reinforce the digital convergence and physical accessibility.
This paper focuses on the conceptual model of an academic course inspired by complexity theory. In the proposed conceptual model, the aim of teaching is to form a learning organization: a knowledge community with emergent properties that cannot be reduced to any linear combination of the properties of its parts. In this approach, the learning of the participants depends not so much on their individual action, as on being the coevolving parts of a self-organized whole. In this design, the role of the educator is to catalyze emergence and to facilitate bottom-up knowledge production. To achieve this, we present a systematic way to orchestrate in-class face-to-face activities in small groups while utilizing common web technologies to facilitate online collective action.
Collaborative work in small groups offers participants the opportunity to learn not only through the multilayered processing of a particular subject of a given body of knowledge but also through the spontaneous and unprompted communication of the different perspectives, allowing for a multivoiced understanding of the subjective lived experience. Additionally, reflective practice allows participants to revisit, understand more thoroughly, and revise their lived experiences, and, by doing so, redefine in a more empowering way their personal narratives. Online blogging in public interconnected spaces forms the necessary techno-social background for supporting the development of specialized micro-networks of practice and empowerment for all the participants. In this work, we combine these three pillars, (a) group work, (b) reflective practice, and (c) online blogging, into a university teaching model that exploits synergies and creates a context of trust and commitment to share and learn in groups. The innovation in the proposed model lies in the utilization of the individual reflections on the participants’ blogs to extend online a meaningful face-to-face group process that takes place in the here and now of the weekly group meetings. The first results from the pilot application of this model in higher education settings are presented and discussed.
Straipsnyje siekiama visapusiškai sujungti pripažintas teorines ir metodologines saviorganizacijos ir sudėtingumo sąvokas su bendrosiomis socialinės teorijos problemomis (tokiomis kaip žinojimas, subjektyvumas, veikmė ir numatymas), taip pat su naujuoju episteminio nuosaikumo bei kuklumo etosu ir estetika. Kitaip sakant, bendroji saviorganizacijos teorija yra tinkamas ir patvarus analitinis karkasas kurti ir plėtoti radikalią epistemologinio silpnumo etiką/estetiką bei silpnesnę ir refleksyvesnę sociologinę/epistemologinę pasaulėžiūrą.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: žinojimas, saviorganizacija ir kompleksiškumas, epistemologija ir etika, refleksyvumas ir socialinė teorija.Self-Organization and Epistemological WeaknessCharalambos Tsekeris, Ioannis Katerelos, Konstantinos Koskinas SummaryThis paper seeks to comprehensively and critically interconnect the well-established theoretical and methodological conceptions of self-organization, complexity and chaos with more general issues and dilemmas in the contemporary field of social theory (such as knowledge, objectivity/subjectivity, structure/agency and prediction), as well as with a new reflexive ethos (practice) and aesthetic (style) of epistemic modesty and humility. In other words, a general theory of self-organization seems to be a suitable and sustainable analytic framework for generating, developing and cultivating a radical ethics/aesthetics of epistemological weakness, as well as a sense of less strong and more reflexive sociological/epistemological worldview.Keywords: knowledge, self-organization and complexity, epistemology and ethics, reflexivity and social theory.
Gambling and gambling disorders have received solicitous attention by clinicians and researchers during the past three decades. The majority of existing psychometric instruments relevant to problem gambling are based on the clinical evaluation of symptomatology. The aim of this study was the development and evaluation of a self report instrument that comprehends elements based on three main factors: a. psychological, b. biological, c. sociological. In the first phase of this research, structured and semi-structured interview was conducted in 16 individuals. In the second phase, a pilot inventory that consisted of 227 items, was administered in 91 individuals of general population. In the last phase of this study participated 200 individuals from the community and completed the short form of the inventory that included 148 items. Factor analysis was conducted in all items and 115 statistically significant questions were derived which comprise the final form. The present instrument, which has demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, provides a first step in self evaluation of problem and pathological gambling in Greece and aims at effective counseling in order to reduce or even prevent addictive gambling behaviors.
The film Onslaught produced in 2007 for the Dove beauty products company and directed by Tim Piper is meant to show the pressures on young girls and women to fit an artificial body ideal, the pressure to be "perfect" no matter the cost paid. This chapter focuses on demonstrating the application of sequential analysis method to study the dynamics of an online discussion. Content analysis can be used for analyzing the content of a discussion: what is it at stake, what arguments are articulated, the concepts that emerge, even how the individuals may be experiencing their own active participation. The continued use of the sequential analysis method could be instrumental in analyzing comments exchange in other YouTube videos or in different social media platforms, where threaded virtual interactions are thriving. Sequential analysis can be used as a building block to the development of a methodological research toolkit for understanding virtual social interactions.
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