scholarly journals Algorithmic Accountability in Context. Socio-Technical Perspectives on Structural Causal Models

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaus Poechhacker ◽  
Severin Kacianka
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Causal Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
Algorithmic Accountability ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
New Form ◽  
Automated Decision Making

The increasing use of automated decision making (ADM) and machine learning sparked an ongoing discussion about algorithmic accountability. Within computer science, a new form of producing accountability has been discussed recently: causality as an expression of algorithmic accountability, formalized using structural causal models (SCMs). However, causality itself is a concept that needs further exploration. Therefore, in this contribution we confront ideas of SCMs with insights from social theory, more explicitly pragmatism, and argue that formal expressions of causality must always be seen in the context of the social system in which they are applied. This results in the formulation of further research questions and directions.

Power Systems

2017 ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Fink
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Power Systems ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Communist Country ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Cooperative Management ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Systemic Constraints

Three major power systems are described: The ‘inclusive' totalitarian system, the ‘non-inclusive' bureaucratic system, and the ‘exclusive' plan targeting system. The totalitarian system is aiming at controlling the whole population of a social system and based on resource exploitation. The bureaucratic system is aimed at information collection and decision making according to pre-established rules. The post-Taylor plan targeting system is aimed at determining and controlling the operative work of individual workers. As previous communist country experiences have shown, all three systems suffer from systemic constraints, that even if the three power systems are woven together, they are finally leading to the demise of a social system. Hope for change may come from moves towards cooperative management practices, as e.g. suggested by William Edwards Deming, and more complex theories with higher levels of integrity and complexity, as e.g. suggested by Steven Wallis, Foundation for the Advancement of Social Theory.

The Politics of Consultation

1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Dion
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Forces

THE DIVERSIFICATION IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AND the growth of the political system have increased the number of instances of decision-making and intensified the relations between social and political forces. Parties and pressure groups are not enough in themselves to channel the interests, ideologies, and stresses, originating in the social system, into the political system. Nevertheless, during the last forty years, other, less familiar channels have broadened considerably and of these it is what we call the consultative councils which have made the greatest impact. So much has their importance grown in recent years that they must be considered as a mechanism of systemic interaction, comparable in weight to those of the pressure groups or parties. The consultative councils have, in fact, become a major cog in the political system and any attempt to exclude them is doomed to failure.

scholarly journals Artificial intelligence for team sports: a survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Beal ◽  
Timothy J. Norman ◽  
Sarvapali D. Ramchurn
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Outcome Prediction ◽  
Team Sports ◽  
Fantasy Sports ◽  
Sports Teams ◽  
Injury Prediction ◽  
Tactical Decision ◽  
Research Questions

Abstract The sports domain presents a number of significant computational challenges for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). In this paper, we explore the techniques that have been applied to the challenges within team sports thus far. We focus on a number of different areas, namely match outcome prediction, tactical decision making, player investments, fantasy sports, and injury prediction. By assessing the work in these areas, we explore how AI is used to predict match outcomes and to help sports teams improve their strategic and tactical decision making. In particular, we describe the main directions in which research efforts have been focused to date. This highlights not only a number of strengths but also weaknesses of the models and techniques that have been employed. Finally, we discuss the research questions that exist in order to further the use of AI and ML in team sports.

The “Actors” of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Meyer ◽  
Ronald L. Jepperson
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The Core ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Social

Much social theory takes for granted the core conceit of modern culture, that modern actors—individuals, organizations, nation states—are autochthonous and natural entities, no longer really embedded in culture. Accordingly, while there is much abstract metatheory about “actors” and their “agency,” there is arguably little theory about the topic. This article offers direct arguments about how the modern (European, now global) cultural system constructs the modern actor as an authorized agent for various interests via an ongoing relocation into society of agency originally located in transcendental authority or in natural forces environing the social system. We see this authorized agentic capability as an essential feature of what modern theory and culture call an “actor,” and one that, when analyzed, helps greatly in explaining a number of otherwise anomalous or little analyzed features of modern individuals, organizations, and states. These features include their isomorphism and standardization, their internal decoupling, their extraordinarily complex structuration, and their capacity for prolific collective action.

Social theory and the cognitive-emotional brain

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Verweij ◽  
Timothy J. Senior
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
The Brain

AbstractPessoa's (2013) arguments imply that various leading approaches in the social sciences have not adequately conceptualized how emotion and cognition influence human decision making and social behavior. This is particularly unfortunate, as these approaches have been central to the efforts to build bridges between neuroscience and the social sciences. We argue that it would be better to base these efforts on other social theories that appear more compatible with Pessoa's analysis of the brain.

scholarly journals The Genesis of the Dialectical Connection of Law and Social Theory. Transformation of social — from right to power

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
A.A. Kovalev ◽  
◽  
V.L. Mrochko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Legal Institution ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Modern Era

The author draws a parallel between social and legal studies. Using the laws of logic and achievements of thinkers of XIX — XX centuries, the author analyzes the complementarity of law and social, when social creates its jurisdiction, and the law provides the structure of social. The integration of legal pluralism into social theory is considered, the atrophy of social theory is shown, as well as the fluidity of thinking systems and theories of society in the post-modern era, according to research by leading theorists. The author designates questions about the revision of the nature and scope of law, about the opposition of law and governance. Noting the stability of the legal institution to complex societies in modern theories, the author concludes the congruence of law and morality in the social system.

scholarly journals Risk and Social Theory in Environmental Management

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Risk And Uncertainty ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Solid Foundation

Risk and Social Theory in Environmental Management marks a timely contribution, given that environmental management is no longer just about protecting pristine ecosystems and endangered species from anthropogenic harm; it is about calculating and managing the risks to human communities of rapid environmental and technological change. Firstly, the book provides a solid foundation of the social theory underpinning the nature of risk, then presents a re-thinking of key concepts and methods in order to take more seriously the biophysical embeddedness of human society. Secondly, it presents a rich set of case studies from Australia and around the world, drawing on the latest applied research conducted by leading research institutions. In so doing, the book identifies the tensions that arise from decision-making over risk and uncertainty in a contested policy environment, and provides crucial insights for addressing on-ground problems in an integrated way.

Using large-scale experiments and machine learning to discover theories of human decision-making

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 372 (6547) ◽  
pp. 1209-1214
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Peterson ◽  
David D. Bourgin ◽  
Mayank Agrawal ◽  
Daniel Reichman ◽  
Thomas L. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Power Machine ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Gradient Based

Predicting and understanding how people make decisions has been a long-standing goal in many fields, with quantitative models of human decision-making informing research in both the social sciences and engineering. We show how progress toward this goal can be accelerated by using large datasets to power machine-learning algorithms that are constrained to produce interpretable psychological theories. Conducting the largest experiment on risky choice to date and analyzing the results using gradient-based optimization of differentiable decision theories implemented through artificial neural networks, we were able to recapitulate historical discoveries, establish that there is room to improve on existing theories, and discover a new, more accurate model of human decision-making in a form that preserves the insights from centuries of research.

Social Work, Risk, Power

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Smith
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Related Material ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relational Domains ◽  
The Individual

Contemporary ideas and strategies of both ‘risk’ and ‘power’ are significant and dynamic influences in social theory and social action, and they can therefore be expected to have a substantial impact on the ways in which social work is constituted, practiced and evaluated. In this article, I shall articulate distinct conceptualisations and debates about each of these, before considering their inter-relationships and the implications of these for our thinking about what social work is, and what it should be. Firstly, I will consider social work's contested and problematic place within the broader welfare domain. It is recognised as being a form of activity which inhabits an ambiguous and uncertain position at the interface between the individual and the social, and between the marginalised and the mainstream. Building on this, ‘power’ will be shown to infuse social work ideas and practices in a number of distinct dimensions, linking and bridging ‘personal’, ‘positional’ and ‘relational’ domains. This discussion will be juxtaposed with a discussion of ‘risk’ and the part it has come to play in shaping and infusing social work practices, especially but not exclusively with children. The deconstruction of contemporary understandings and uses of risk as a central and ‘authoritative’ feature of assessment and decision-making will inform the argument that it can be viewed as a vehicle for the maintenance and legitimation of power relations which disenfranchise and oppress those who are most vulnerable. In conclusion, I will summarise the ways in which conventional understandings and inter-related material realities of power and risk are often hierarchical, uni-directional and oppressive; and on this basis, how they can be laid open to challenge. The reconceptualisation and remaking of power relations will be shown to have direct consequences for the ways in which risk is defined and addressed as a social work ‘problem’.

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