Putting human capabilities to work

2015 ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Alexander Gloss ◽  
Scott McCallum ◽  
Lori L. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Human Capabilities

Music Downtown Eastside

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klisala Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Urban Neighborhoods ◽  
Community Centers ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Downtown Eastside ◽  
Therapy Sessions

Music Downtown Eastside explores how human rights are at play in the popular music practices of homeless and street-involved people who feel that music is one of the rare things that cannot be taken away of them. It draws on two decades of ethnographic research in one of Canada’s poorest urban neighborhoods, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Klisala Harrison takes the reader into popular music jams and therapy sessions offered to the poorest of the poor in churches, community centers and health organizations. There she analyzes the capabilities music-making develops, and how human rights are respected, promoted, threatened, or violated in those musical moments. When doing so, she also offers new and detailed insights on the relationships between music and poverty, a type of social deprivation that diminishes people’s human capabilities and rights. The book contributes to the human rights literature by examining critically how human rights can be strengthened in cultural practices. Harrison’s study demonstrates that capabilities and human rights are interrelated. Developing capabilities can be a way to strengthen human rights.

The Changing Nature of Knowledge and Service Work in the Age of Intelligent Machines

2020 ◽  
pp. 343-368
Author(s):  
Crispin Coombs ◽  
Donald Hislop ◽  
Stanimira Taneva ◽  
Sarah Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Impact

One of the most significant recent technological developments concerns the application of intelligent machines to jobs that up to now have been considered safe from automation. These changes have generated considerable debate regarding the impacts that the widespread adoption of intelligent machines could have on the nature of work. This chapter provides a thematic review, across multiple academic disciplines, of the current state of academic knowledge regarding the impact of intelligent machines on knowledge and service work. Adopting a work-practice perspective, the chapter reviews the extant literature concerning changing relations between workers and intelligent machines, the adoption and acceptance of intelligent machines, and ethical issues associated with greater machine human collaboration. A key finding is that much of the research discusses intelligent machines complementing and extending human capabilities rather than removing humans from work processes. The concept of augmentation of humans and human work, rather than wholesale replacement from automation, flows through the literature across a range of domains. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the main gaps in existing knowledge and ways in which future research may provide a deeper understanding of how people (currently and in the near future) experience intelligent machines in their day-to-day work practice. These include the need for multi-disciplinary research, the role of contexts, the need for more and better empirical research, the changing relationships between humans and intelligent machines, the adoption and acceptance of the technology, and ethical issues.

scholarly journals Theoretical, Measured, and Subjective Responsibility in Aided Decision Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Nir Douer ◽  
Joachim Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Intelligent System ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Causal Responsibility ◽  
Quantification Model ◽  
Human Responsibility

When humans interact with intelligent systems, their causal responsibility for outcomes becomes equivocal. We analyze the descriptive abilities of a newly developed responsibility quantification model (ResQu) to predict actual human responsibility and perceptions of responsibility in the interaction with intelligent systems. In two laboratory experiments, participants performed a classification task. They were aided by classification systems with different capabilities. We compared the predicted theoretical responsibility values to the actual measured responsibility participants took on and to their subjective rankings of responsibility. The model predictions were strongly correlated with both measured and subjective responsibility. Participants’ behavior with each system was influenced by the system and human capabilities, but also by the subjective perceptions of these capabilities and the perception of the participant's own contribution. A bias existed only when participants with poor classification capabilities relied less than optimally on a system that had superior classification capabilities and assumed higher-than-optimal responsibility. The study implies that when humans interact with advanced intelligent systems, with capabilities that greatly exceed their own, their comparative causal responsibility will be small, even if formally the human is assigned major roles. Simply putting a human into the loop does not ensure that the human will meaningfully contribute to the outcomes. The results demonstrate the descriptive value of the ResQu model to predict behavior and perceptions of responsibility by considering the characteristics of the human, the intelligent system, the environment, and some systematic behavioral biases. The ResQu model is a new quantitative method that can be used in system design and can guide policy and legal decisions regarding human responsibility in events involving intelligent systems.

scholarly journals The Impact of Employment Quality and Housing Quality on Human Development in the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 969
Author(s):  
Marina Checa-Olivas ◽  
Bladimir de la Hoz-Rosales ◽  
Rafael Cano-Guervos
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Housing Quality ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Employment Quality ◽  
The Impact

This study aims to contribute new information on how and through which factors employment quality and housing quality can be improved from a human development approach so that people can live the life they want. Using the human capabilities approach as a theoretical reference framework, the article analyses the effect of involuntary part-time employment and overcrowded housing on the Human Development Index (HDI). The empirical analysis is based on the panel data technique, which is applied to data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the 28 member countries of the European Union. The results shed new evidence on how involuntary part-time work and overcrowded housing limit or hinder people from living the lives they want, at least in the dimensions measured by the HDI.

A model for the individual empowerment using intrinsic personalization of crowdsourcing tasks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Dennis Paulino
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Financial Compensation ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
Task Description ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Phd Thesis

Crowdsourcing is a paradigm of outsourcing work that is done using human capabilities through the Internet. Given the various possibilities of overcoming cultural and social barriers, crowdsourcing provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to have a financial compensation and help them feel realised. In crowdsourcing, people with disabilities face problems related with the lack of task description or usability. This article it is presented the main threads for my PhD thesis which main goal is to prove, that it is possible to map crowdsourcing tasks effectively to each individual, focusing particularly on the cognitive abilities.

scholarly journals EDUCATING WOMEN FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE ARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2005 AND THE PROBLEM WITH WOMEN'S CHOICES

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 122a-122a
Author(s):  
Fida J. Adely
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Women's Development ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Global Capital ◽  
Human Development Report ◽  
Women And Education ◽  
Shed Light

The Arab Human Development Report 2005, the fourth in a series that has received much acclaim and stirred much controversy, takes up the issue of women's development in the Arab world. Through a careful reading and analysis of sections of the report that address education and economic participation, this paper offers a critique of the human capabilities framework that frames this report. I highlight critical tensions between the claim that providing education is an essential element of expanding choices and the assumptions embedded in discussions about women and education regarding which choices are acceptable and/or desirable. These tensions point to the persistence of values derived from the mandates of global capital, albeit in the new language of neoliberal choice, revealing that ‘human development’ does not represent a significant departure from earlier conceptualizations of development. I draw on my ethnographic research in Jordan as one example to interrogate such assumptions and to shed light on the ambiguities built into the educational project for young women today.

An Ergonomics Perspective on Safety in the Oilfield

1989 ◽  
Vol 33 (15) ◽  
pp. 999-1003
Author(s):  
Ron W. Wardell
Keyword(s):  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Moving Objects ◽  
Complete Solution ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Industry Structure ◽  
Work Situation ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Conceptual Changes ◽  
Drilling Operations ◽  
Drilling Rigs

Safety analyses of drilling operations are often written from the perspectives of regulation, economics, industry structure, etc. The ergonomic perspective on safety emphasizes that equipment and operations should be designed in light of human capabilities and limitations. To demonstrate this approach a scenario analysis was performed on records for 134 safety incidents on oilwell drilling rigs. The characteristics of the most critical scenarios were then considered to determine the extent to which the ergonomics of environment, equipment, and work methods might have contributed. Ergonomic data was collected at four drilling sites, including a prototype semi-automated rig. From both ergonomic and safety perspectives, the work situation of operators on a conventional rig floor is most in need of remediation. Mechanical pipe handling would provide the most complete solution to this unpleasant and unsafe environment, its strenuous and over-extending tasks, and the risks inherent in putting people near heavy moving objects. Significant improvements can be made at the detail level and at minimum cost in some tasks. Improvement in other tasks requires basic conceptual changes in rig systems and architecture. To realize their potential, new rig concepts must be carefully and systematically designed, and ergonomics should be considered throughout their design.

Performance Evaluation Tests for Environmental Research (Peter): Evaluation of 114 Measures

1986 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 683-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvah C. Bittner ◽  
Robert C. Carter ◽  
Robert S. Kennedy ◽  
Mary M. Harbeson ◽  
Michele Krause
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Environmental Studies ◽  
Acceptable Level ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Task Definition ◽  
And Task

The goal of the Performance Evaluation Tests for Environmental Research (PETER) Program was to identify a set of measures of human capabilities for use in the study of environmental and other time-course effects. 114 measures studied in the PETER Program were evaluated and categorized into four groups based upon task stability and task definition. The Recommended category contained 30 measures that clearly obtained total stabilization and had an acceptable level of reliability efficiency. The Acceptable-But-Redundant category contained 15 measures. The 37 measures in the Marginal category, which included an inordinate number of slope and other derived measures, usually had desirable features which were outweighed by faults. The 32 measures in the Unacceptable category had either differential instability or weak reliability efficiency. It is our opinion that the 30 measures in the Recommended category should be given first consideration for environmental research applications. Further, it is recommended that information pertaining to preexperimental practice requirements and stabilized reliabilities should be utilized in repeated-measures environmental studies.

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