Monthly Archive for April, 2010

The World Bank Data: Open Data Access Can be Beautiful

Published on April 30, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From information aesthetics

The Worldbank, an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to developing countries for capital programs has just released data.worldbank.org, a website that provides free, open and easy access to statistics and indicators about development. While the idea is not particularly novel (think of UNData, Google Public Data, data.gov and many others) the World Bank Data website seems unique by the combination of offering free datasets and indicators as well as a compelling visual interface for open data exploration. Many indicators are also available to developers to create new data applications and visualizations through an Application Programming Interface (API). worldbank_data1

The visual dashboard in particular shows a surprising level of visual sophistication and detail, and gives access to economically relevant topics like Education or CO2 emission, or country-specific statistics of countries ranging from the U.S. to Rwanda.

The fact that the information architecture and visual style is contemporary and consistent, that even the smallest data widget offers a direct link to the actual data source, and that the interface is offered in different languages demonstrates the amount of dedication put in this project. However, the vertical axis labels seem to be missing, and the amount of space dedicated to specific data attributes that are almost always “not available” seem to be annoying oversights.

To Read More…

Neurocapitalism

Published on April 22, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

From Ewa Hess and Hennric Jokeit, Eurozine

Today, the phenomenology of the mind is stepping indignantly aside for a host of hyphenated disciplines such as neuro-anthropology, neuro-pedagogy, neuro-theology, neuro-aesthetics and neuro-economics. Their self-assurance reveals the neurosciences’ usurpatory tendency to become not only the humanities of science, but the leading science of the twenty-first century. The legitimacy, impetus and promise of this claim derive from the maxim that all human behaviour is determined by the laws governing neuronal activity and the way it is organised in the brain. blanco

Whether or not one accepts the universal validity of this maxim, it is fair to assume that a science that aggressively seeks to establish hermeneutic supremacy will change everyday capitalist reality via its discoveries and products. Or, to put it more cautiously, that its triumph is legitimated, if not enabled, by a significant shift in the capitalist world order.

There is good reason to assert the existence, or at least the emergence, of a new type of capitalism: neurocapitalism. After all, the capitalist economy, as the foundation of modern liberal societies, has shown itself to be not only exceptionally adaptable and crisis-resistant, but also, in every phase of its dominance, capable of producing the scientific and technological wherewithal to analyse and mitigate the self-generated “malfunctioning” to which its constituent subjects are prone. In doing so – and this too is one of capitalism’s algorithms – it involves them in the inexorably effective cycle of supply and demand.

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Latest Social Science Journal Papers

Published on April 22, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

The latest issue, Volume 4, Number 12, of The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences includes:

David Carmel on Consciousness

Published on April 20, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Five Books

Your first choice, Introducing Consciousness by David Papineau and Howard Selina, is presumably trying to make a very complex topic accessible by presenting it using graphic art?five_books_home_main_image-4

Yes, it’s part of the Introducing… series that presents various topics in graphic form, a bit like a comic book. What I liked about this one is that it takes a very complex issue and shows that you do not need to be a great philosopher, or have a very deep understanding of the science, to understand why it’s a complex issue and what the fundamental questions we’re dealing with are. And the truth is that with consciousness we’re still at the point of raising the interesting questions, as philosophers have done for the last 2,000 years, rather than at the interesting, complex, answers stage. Despite being highly approachable, this book is a serious piece of work that gives a great overview of past and current thinking about consciousness, especially from the philosophical perspective. Most books or articles will look at the issue of consciousness from a different angle, and I’ve tried to balance that out in my choices. This particular book was written by a professor of philosophy, David Papineau, in conjunction with an illustrator. So it’s mostly about the philosophy of mind, with particular reference to consciousness, and while it mentions science here and there, that’s really not the main focus: where it mentions the science, this is done to describe potential methodologies with which to address the philosophical questions that have been raised.

To Read More…

Who’s Counting: Jobs, Health Care, and Twitter

Published on April 16, 2010 in News, Newsletter and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

From John Allen Paulos, ABCNews

nm_statistics_100305_mnAs usual, simple arithmetic is crucial to understanding many of the biggest, most important news stories (as well as those, like the Tiger Woods saga, that are of no public significance). What follows is a collage of some of these stories.

One problem is that people often view numbers as providing decoration rather than information. Over the last couple of weeks, for example, I performed a little experiment with people I randomly met.

If our idle conversation turned to current events, I mentioned a headline I claimed to have just read proclaiming, “Experts Fear Annual Housing Costs in the U.S. (Rent, Mortgage Payments) May Top $2 Billion.” I followed up with, “Imagine that — more than 2 billion dollars per year.”

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Tug of War

Published on April 14, 2010 in Books and Newsletter. 0 Comments

tug-of-war-perfect-low_frontTug of War by Tony English is now available from The Social Sciences imprint.

Tony English wrote Tug of War for negotiation experts and others who might be interested in a fresh analytical method which draws on the literature of negotiation but delves into many other disciplines, including international relations, fine arts, philosophy, management, anthropology and psychology. The book focuses on international negotiation but is relevant to negotiation in general. Tony interviewed many veteran negotiators in diplomacy, hostage release and business. He weaves the rich character, skills and experience of individual veterans into the book, and presents two cases in  fine detail.

The informants include: Hugh Davies, lead British negotiator for the return of Hong Kong to China; Sir Alan Donald, British Ambassador to China and several other countries; Terry Waite, of Beirut kidnap fame; Meg McDonald, Australian Ambassador for the Environment and team leader for the greenhouse gas negotiations at Kyoto; Malcolm Lyon, Australia’s lead negotiator for the Torres Strait Treaty with Papua New Guinea; Don Kenyon, Australian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union, and former Chairman of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body; Doug Anderson, Managing Director of P & O Ports; Sam Passow, Research Director of London’s Centre for Dispute Resolution; Geoff  Goon, a major exporter of fruit and vegetables from Australia to the Middle East; Steven Hochman and Kirk Wolcott, dispute resolution advisers to President Jimmy Carter; and a few others who needed anonymity. Tony also draws on his own experience in several countries.

At the core of the book is the tension, which comprises complementary phenomena, both physical and abstract, that compete for influence over our behaviour. Profuse forces generate tensions. Tony presents a model of negotiation context that comprises tensions and the forces generating them. Expert negotiators are expert tension managers and therefore have high ‘contextual intelligence’, a variation on Robert Sternberg’s concept of Successful Intelligence in cognitive psychology. Tony links contextual intelligence with seven traits identified in his veterans. Some writers refer to the tension but neglect its nuances and miss its generic value in analyzing negotiations and other human activity as people try to impose manageable order on chaotic information. We are all tension managers, whether or not we are aware of it.

Social Sciences Journal, Volume 4, Number 12 now available

Published on April 14, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

social-sciences-cover

The final issue of Volume 4 of The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences has been published.

Volume 4, Number 12 includes:

Continue reading ‘Social Sciences Journal, Volume 4, Number 12 now available’

2010 Social Sciences Conference Accomodation at Cambridge- Now Available

Published on April 8, 2010 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Stay on-site and book your accommodations for the conference at Murray Edwards College.  You may book your reservation during registration or through the conference secretariat .p4080651

5th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Published on April 6, 2010 in Conference and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Fifth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
2-5 August 2010
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

www.SocialSciencesConference.com

Plenary Speakers

http://thesocialsciences.com/conference-2010/plenary-speakers/

  • Rom Harre, Distinguished Research Professor, Psychology Department, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA
  • Juliet Mitchell, Professor, Department in Social and Political Sciences, University  of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • The Energy Cultures Team: Dr. Janet Stephenson, Professor Rob Lawson, Professor Gerry Carrington, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Jack Goody, Fellow, St. John’s College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
  • Patrick Baert, Fellow, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Call for Papers

If you intend to present a paper at the Conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options, see: http://thesocialsciences.com/conference-2010/call-for-papers/#ppt. To submit a proposal, see: http://thesocialsciences.com/conference-2010/call-for-papers/. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the Conference.

Registration

Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. For registration options, or to register for the 2010 Social Sciences Conference, see: http://thesocialsciences.com/conference-2010/register/.

Themes

http://thesocialsciences.com/ideas/themes/