Data and model operations in computational sciences. The examples of computational embryology and epidemiology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-47
Author(s):  
Fabricio Li Vigni
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Computational Epidemiology ◽  
Computational Sciences ◽  
Energy Consuming ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
Political Decision Making

Abstract Computer models and simulations have become, since the 1960s, an essential instrument for scientific inquiry and political decision making in several fields, from climate to life and social sciences. Philosophical reflection has mainly focused on the ontological status of the computational modeling, on its epistemological validity and on the research practices it entails. But in computational sciences, the work on models and simulations are only two steps of a longer and richer process where operations on data are as important as, and even more time and energy-consuming than modeling itself. Drawing on two study cases – computational embryology and computational epidemiology –, this article contributes to fill the gap by focusing on the operations of producing and re-using data in computational sciences. The different phases of the scientific and artisanal work of modelers include data collection, aggregation, homogenization, assemblage, analysis and visualization. The article contributes to deconstruct the ideas that data are self-evident informational aggregates and that data-driven approaches are exempted from theoretical work. More importantly, the paper stresses the fact that data are constructed and theory-laden not only in their fabrication, but also in their reusing.

The Manila Galleon, Macao and international maritime and commercial relations, 1500–1700

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Amândio Jorge Morais Barros
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Informal Trade ◽  
Global Connections ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Spanish Archives ◽  
Political Decision Making

Formal and informal trade were key elements in the establishment of global connections. Using data collected from Portuguese and Spanish archives, as well as the secondary literature, this article examines the early modern Southeast Asian Iberian communities of Macao and Manila, their weakness and resilience. Far from the centres of political decision-making they relied on their own resources and abilities to manage maritime connections with China, Japan and Spanish America through the voyages of the ‘Macao Ship’ and the ‘Manila Galleon’. The rarely mentioned intervention of the Macanese traders in the Manila Galleon route constitutes a central part of this research.

scholarly journals Automatic Leviathan: Cybernetics and politics in Carl Schmitt’s postwar writings

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-146
Author(s):  
Nicolas Guilhot
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Political Decision Making

This article questions the current vogue of Carl Schmitt among political theorists who read him as an antidote to the depoliticizing force of economics and technology in the age of neoliberalism and its algorithmic rationalities. It takes Schmitt’s sparse reflections about cybernetics and game theory as paradigmatic of the theoretical and political problems raised by any theory positing the autonomy of the political. It suggests that this ultimately misunderstands the role of cybernetic representations of political decision-making in shoring up in the 1960s and 1970s the autonomy of the political that Schmitt so vehemently defended.

The Meaning and Measure of Policy Metaphors

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Schlesinger ◽  
Richard R. Lau
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Domain ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Apparent Ability ◽  
Public Share

The apparent ability of the American public to form coherent assessments of policy options—while being largely ignorant of political institutions, actors, and ideology—remains a persistent puzzle for political science. We develop a theory of political decision making that helps resolve this puzzle. We postulate that both the public and political elites comprehend complex policies in part through “reasoning by policy metaphor,” which involves comparisons between proposed alternative policies and more readily understood social institutions. Using data from 169 intensive interviews, we test claims about metaphorical reasoning for a particularly complex policy domain: health care reform. We demonstrate that our hypothesized policy metaphors are coherent to both elites and the general public, including the least sophisticated members of the public. We further show that elites and the public share a common understanding of the relevant policy metaphors, that metaphorical reasoning differs from other forms of analogic reasoning, and that metaphorical cognition is distinct from ideological orientation.

Genetics and Heritability Research on Political Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levente Littvay
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Political Decision Making

In 2005, political scientists claimed that parent-child similarities, in addition to parenting, socialization, or shared social factors by the family, are also driven by genetic similarity. This claim upended a century of orthodoxy in political science. Many social scientists are uncomfortable with this concept, and this discomfort often stems from a multitude of misunderstandings. Claims about the genetics and heritability of political phenomena predate 2005 and wave of studies over the decade that followed swept through political science and then died down as quickly as they came. The behavior genetic research agenda faces several challenges within political science, including (a) resistance to these ideas within all of the social sciences, (b) difficulties faced by scholars in the production of meaningful theoretical and empirical contributions, and (c) developments in the field of genetics and their (negative) impact on the related scholarship within the study of politics.

Wegvoeringen en weggevoerden tijdens de meidagen van 1940

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Risky Business ◽  
Political Decision Making

Met dit boek levert Frank Seberechts een nagenoeg volledige studie af van een van de minder fraai kanten van de Belgische samenleving in 1940: de administratieve arrestatie en de wegvoering naar Frankrijk van enkele duizenden personen (de ‘verdachten’), Belgen of in België verblijvende vreemdelingen. De extreem-rechtse en pro-Duitse arrestanten hebben na hun vrijlating dit feit politiek in hun voordeel uitgebaat, waardoor volledig in de schaduw kwam te staan dat de overgrote meerderheid van de weggevoerden joodse mensen waren die in de jaren voor de oorlog naar België waren gevlucht. Dat het beeld van de wegvoeringen niet volledig is, is grotendeels te wijten aan het feit dat de meeste archieven die hierop betrekking hebben tijdens de meidagen van 1940 vernietigd werden. Met name de politieke besluitvorming over de wegvoeringen vertoont nog steeds schemerzones, zodat het vastleggen van verantwoordelijkheden ook vandaag nog een gewaagde onderneming is.________Deportations and the deported during the Maydays in 1940 By means of this book Frank Seberechts provides an almost complete study of one of the less admirable sides of Belgian society in 1940: the administrative arrest and the deportation to France of some thousands of people (‘the suspects’), Belgians or foreigners residing in Belgium. The extreme-right and pro-German detainees politically exploited this fact after they had been freed, but this completely overshadowed the point that the large majority of the deported people were Jews who had fled to Belgium during the years preceding the war. This incomplete portrayal of the deportations is mainly due to the fact that most of the archives relating to the events had been destroyed during the Maydays of 1940. The history of the political decision-making about the deportations in particular still shows many grey areas and it is therefore still a risky business even today to determine which people should be held accountable.

Institutionalizing the Liberal Creed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronen Mandelkern
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneurship ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
Ministry Of Finance ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
Long Term Trend ◽  
Political Decision Making

This chapter analyzes the role Israeli economists have played as purveyors of pro-market economic ideas and political entrepreneurs of economic liberalization in Israel. Israeli economists were strongly committed to economic liberalism already in the 1950s, but they were lacking decisive political influence. Two mechanisms increased their power over policy. First, long-term institutional changes gradually eroded “political” decision-making mechanism and opened the way to greater involvement of professional economists. This long-term trend was joined and reinforced by economists’ institutional entrepreneurship at the height of the 1980s economic crisis, when they initiated changes of macroeconomic governance. These changes enhanced the political power of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel and supported the institutionalization of neoliberalism in Israel.

scholarly journals A survey of methods for evaluating mini-publics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeuchi Ayano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Decision Making

AbstractPublic participation has become increasingly necessary to connect a wide range of knowledge and various values to agenda setting, decision-making and policymaking. In this context, deliberative democratic concepts, especially “mini-publics,” are gaining attention. Generally, mini-publics are conducted with randomly selected lay citizens who provide sufficient information to deliberate on issues and form final recommendations. Evaluations are conducted by practitioner researchers and independent researchers, but the results are not standardized. In this study, a systematic review of existing research regarding practices and outcomes of mini-publics was conducted. To analyze 29 papers, the evaluation methodologies were divided into 4 categories of a matrix between the evaluator and evaluated data. The evaluated cases mainly focused on the following two points: (1) how to maintain deliberation quality, and (2) the feasibility of mini-publics. To create a new path to the political decision-making process through mini-publics, it must be demonstrated that mini-publics can contribute to the decision-making process and good-quality deliberations are of concern to policy-makers and experts. Mini-publics are feasible if they can contribute to the political decision-making process and practitioners can evaluate and understand the advantages of mini-publics for each case. For future research, it is important to combine practical case studies and academic research, because few studies have been evaluated by independent researchers.

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