Karl Popper's Social Technology and the Personal Element

2017 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
Maarten Derksen
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-430
Author(s):  
Brett Considine ◽  
John Peter Krahel ◽  
Margarita M. Lenk ◽  
Diane J. Janvrin

ABSTRACT Seven short cases highlight the need for organizational control of the use of social technology. Executives now consider the management of social technology strategies and risks to be their fourth highest priority, investing significant resources to develop effective social technology use policies (Carrick et al. 2013; Deloitte 2012; Feltham and Nichol 2012). Moreover, organizations vary their social technology investment choices depending on their objectives and their target audiences (AICPA 2013; Gallaugher and Ransbotham 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). A wide variety of case learning objectives involve applying internal control models, and developing and justifying opinions about how social technology uses and abuses affect operational, financial reporting and regulatory compliance objectives, risks, controls, and performance-monitoring activities. Instructors may utilize one or more of these cases at a time, either individually or in student groups, and in undergraduate or graduate financial accounting, accounting information systems, governance, or auditing courses.


Author(s):  
Valery G. Grebennikov ◽  

The article aims to examine one of the most interesting, in the authors’ opinion, applications of the two-sector model of social technology to identify the relationship between the trajectories of the relative price and the relative share of the product in the total output based on the concept of Pareto optimal, or “efficient”, trajectories of economic growth (i.e. trajectories, each point of which belongs to the surface of production opportunities). Within the framework of this concept, the ratio of prices of individual products corresponds to the marginal rates of these products’ substitution. The rates depend on the product (sectoral) structure of GDP, on the one hand, and on the available labor resources and production assets, on the other. The relationship between the investment component of the output and the growth of funds gives rise to a family of efficient trajectories, in the sense indicated above. Each of the trajectories is characterized by the joint dynamics of industry and price proportions; therefore, the main problem of the study is to examine the general properties of such trajectories. The main feature of the model under consideration is the nonlinear production functions of industries. Even the simplest Cobb–Douglas specification generates the dynamics of the main variables of the model described by a nonlinear differential equation of the second order, which cannot be integrated in general form. Therefore, the analysis of the properties of effective trajectories (at least when specific parameters of trajectories are of interest, and not just general criteria for existence and stability) required the development of a program of numerical experiments on a computer, designed for a fairly extensive test of hypotheses and the convenience of presenting and analyzing the results. To begin with, a variant of the twosector model was chosen, in the future it is planned to expand it to a significantly larger number of sectors. The properties of effective trajectories with constant parameters were analyzed: the marginal rate of product substitution (constant price ratio), constant marginal rate of resource substitution (constant ratio of factor payment rates), constant ratio of net output of industries, constant share of investments in GDP, etc. General conclusions are obtained about the conditions for the convergence of such “iso-trajectories” to trajectories with a constant GDP growth rate and about the characteristics of stationary trajectories. Of greatest interest, in the author’s opinion, is the conclusion that the existence and stability of stationary trajectories is determined by the intersectoral ratio of the elasticities of the output with respect to the funds of the sectors under consideration: for an industry producing investment products, this parameter should be of lesser importance. The derived equation, which can be interpreted as an expression of a trend that determines the form of the relationship between the proportions of industry outputs and prices in the economy, opens the way to a meaningful macroeconomic analysis of the relationships between these proportions, depending on the configuration of the parameters of social technology Ai, αi, aij, B and scenarios of their changes over time.


1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Mekki Mtewa

Large numbers are constants; the persons involved variables. The abstraction is more valid than the items on which the abstractions are based: “One person commits suicide for this reason, and another for that reason, but when you have a very large number, the accidental and personal element ceases to be of interest, and what is left is—well, what is left?” The average. But, nobody has the slightest idea what the average really is, for behind the laws of collectivity there is an assumption that the particular instance does not matter: “And the highest meaning turns out to be something that can be got at by taking the average of what is most profoundly senseless.” [Ulrich, in Musil's Man Without Qualities]


2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-355
Author(s):  
Javier Alfonso Gil

Because bioeconomics is born of the interaction between the biological activity system and its socio-economic activity system, a holistic methodological approach is essential to study the relations between them. However, it must search for increasing levels of reductionism within each discipline to delve into the ultimate nature of each one of the intervening forces, whether economic or biological. This paper explores the economic forces. Through the biological capacity to comprehend, man and by extension, society, accumulates knowledge, the fulcrum from which he is able to dominate over his natural habitat. From this ‘point d’appui’, man builds two basic tools to assist him in achieving the goal of bettering his social condition. On the one hand, he creates institutions that allow him to “live with others” and, on the other, he develops technology that helps him to “live better with others”. Institutions, also referred to as ‘social technology’, tend toward stability over time while technology or ‘material technology’, tends toward instability, which would suggest that, normally, the mechanics of change will originate in material technology and, from there, progress to social technology by way of the political market. The level of progress and development attained depends on the quantity and rate of growth of knowledge applied by a society. In the process, man and his collectivity are forced to adopt new views of their environment through new shared mental models. The concurrence of equipment and political market will ultimately become the prime mover of institutional and economic change as well as change in mentality. Both technologies must keep on an adaptive course of stable evolution since discrepancies arising between them can cause tension between the various social groups. Adequate management of technological shock is essential to avoid extreme situations of social conflict. Herein lie the most important political decisions that a government must confront over the long term.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Ferreira da Cunha

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2015v19n3p363This paper presents some proposals for social science advanced by Otto Neurath, focusing on scientific utopianism. Neurath suggests that social scientists should formulate ideals of social arrangements in utopian style, aiming at discussing scientific proposals with a community. Utopias are deemed as models of social science, in the sense proposed by Nancy Cartwright. This view is contrasted with the claim that scientism might lead to dystopian consequences in social planning, drawn from Aldous Huxley’s fiction and from Paul Feyerabend’s philosophy of science. Thus, social science displays a unusual feature: sometimes a model has to be called off, in spite of its perfect functioning, because it brings about unwanted consequences. In the planning of a free democratic society, this ambiguity of utopia and dystopia is highly desirable, for it stimulates essential debates. Social science, therefore, is to be regarded from a plural and fallibilist standpoint.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaileigh A. Byrne ◽  
Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky ◽  
Cheryl Dye ◽  
Lesley A. Ross ◽  
Kapil Chalil Madathil ◽  
...  

Loneliness, the subjective negative experience derived from a lack of meaningful companionship, is associated with heightened vulnerability to adverse health outcomes among older adults. Social technology affords an opportunity to cultivate social connectedness and mitigate loneliness. However, research examining potential inequalities in loneliness is limited. This study investigates racial and rural-urban differences in the relationship between social technology use and loneliness in adults aged 50 and older using data from the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 4,315). Social technology use was operationalized as the self-reported frequency of communication through Skype, Facebook, or other social media with family and friends. Loneliness was assessed using the UCLA Loneliness scale, and rural-urban differences were based on Beale rural-urban continuum codes. Examinations of race focused on differences between Black/African-American and White/Caucasian groups. A path model analysis was performed to assess whether race and rurality moderated the relationship between social technology use and loneliness, adjusting for living arrangements, age, general computer usage. Social engagement and frequency of social contact with family and friends were included as mediators. The primary study results demonstrated that the association between social technology use and loneliness differed by rurality, but not race. Rural older adults who use social technology less frequently experience greater loneliness than urban older adults. This relationship between social technology and loneliness was mediated by social engagement and frequency of social contact. Furthermore, racial and rural-urban differences in social technology use demonstrated that social technology use is less prevalent among rural older adults than urban and suburban-dwelling older adults; no such racial differences were observed. However, Black older adults report greater levels of perceived social negativity in their relationships compared to White older adults. Interventions seeking to address loneliness using social technology should consider rural and racial disparities.


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