The non-anthropocentric informational agents: Codes, software, and the logic of emergence in cybersecurity

Many theoretical approaches to cybersecurity adopt an anthropocentric conceptualisation of agency; that is, tying the capacity to act to human subjectivity and disregarding the role of the non-human in co-constructing its own (in)security. This article argues that such approaches are insufficient in capturing the complexities of cyber incidents, particularly those that involve self-perpetuating malware and autonomous cyber attacks that can produce unintentional and unpredictable consequences. Using interdisciplinary insights from the philosophy of information and software studies, the article counters the anthropocentrism in the cybersecurity literature by investigating the agency of syntactic information (that is, codes/software) in co-producing the logics and politics of cybersecurity. It specifically studies the complexities of codes/software as informational agents, their self-organising capacities, and their autonomous properties to develop an understanding of cybersecurity as emergent security. Emergence is introduced in the article as a non-linear security logic that captures the peculiar agential capacities of codes/software and the ways in which they challenge human control and intentionality by co-constructing enmity and by co-producing the subjects and objects of cybersecurity.

Falling Towers: A Letter to my Child’s Teacher

Using the epistolary genre, this editorial is embedded in a fictional letter written to a teacher. The discussion is spurred by a teacher writing a mark in bold felt pen directly on a student’s drawing of the Eiffel Tower. This reflexive inquiry laments the deep wounding of the joy of learning by metrics, measurements and efficiency, while registering the imperative to change this path. Using the metaphor of the “tower” to theorize current damaging curricular practices, this editorial questions how, amidst the uncontrol and fear in a global pandemic, the challenging truths of unmarked graves, devastating climate disasters, global food insecurity, among other sufferings, teachers can imagine hope-inspired, healing-centred pedagogies and ”assertive mutuality . . . [through] co-action, interconnection . . . [and] the capacity to act and implement as opposed to the ability to control others” (Kreisberg, 1992, p. 86). The task of recognizing, naming and dismantling towers—in essence, leaving one’s home, and building new relational frames, while the world is falling—requires extraordinary hope, as shown in the articles in this issue.

Leadership-Powerlessness and Workplace Governance: A Managerial Behavior Context

The growth, sustainability and success of a corporate entity is largely predicated on its framework of interconnecting operational mechanisms, relationships, and processes. As a norm, statutory functions and institutions are enacted in firms to ensure that corporate obligated responsibilities, to themselves as well as their stakeholders, are carried out in a manner that bequeaths enormous benefits. It is a commonsensical expectation that persons saddled with the responsibility to drive these processes, possess requisite and commensurate capacity to act in positive organizational result-oriented directions. However, Executive functionaries in corporate entities seem incapacitated to the extent that the desirable outcomes are not achieved. This work was to determine the contextual behavioral implications of powerlessness in persons occupying leadership positions with a view to highlighting the psychological promptings of the leaders as well as the intruding influences militating against them. This will give a broad knowledge of the issues at stake and a clearer understanding of the solutions proffered. The apparent unencouraging outcomes of corporate entities in Nigeria gave the impetus to this Paper to explore Leadership-powerlessness as a function of the empowerment capacity levels of executive functionaries vis-à-vis workplace governance. This paper regards workplace governance as an end indicative of outcomes that make for growth, sustainability, and survival of corporate entities. The study also suggested ways forward that will mitigate the leadership-powerlessness quagmire.

The International Activity of Ordo Iuris. The Central European Actor and the Global Christian Right

Much of the research dedicated to recent political changes in Poland emphasises the conservative agenda pursued by the ruling Law and Justice party. Many of the articles briefly mention Ordo Iuris (OI). This non-governmental organisation, established in 2013, deserves a proper analysis as it presents a rare success story of an actor pursuing a pro-life agenda from Poland which is not officially affiliated with the local Catholic Church. Ordo Iuris is not only able to influence domestic socio-political dynamics but has also developed a capacity to act beyond Poland’s borders. This paper focuses on OI’s international activity with two goals in mind. Firstly, it shows how OI—with its narrative, methods and actions—fits into the broader phenomenon of the Global Christian Right. In this regard, the paper draws attention to the similarities as well as the specificities of this Central European NGO. Secondly, it discusses the consequences of entanglement in politics for Ordo Iuris’s agenda.

Agency in ensemble interaction and rehearsal communication

Agency refers to the capacity to act and act upon, to initiate and carry out actions either for their own sakes or to influence and affect others. The concept is often invoked in music studies, but the nature and types of actions and agents are defined differently in various research frameworks. This study integrates sociocultural and metaphorical approaches to investigate the interactions between work and performer agencies in the verbal communication and gestural exchanges that take place during ensemble rehearsal. The chapter begins with an overview of current theories of musical agency and traces their implications for research on ensemble music-making. Next, using conversational segments drawn from two empirical case studies of professional string quartets as illustrations, the chapter considers agential roles and ascriptions that are not accounted for in current paradigms. In closing, the chapter explores the theoretical implications of the research outcome and proposes a new critical perspective.

BIERNA STRONA ZDOLNOŚCI DO CZYNNOŚCI PRAWNYCH

The paper elaborates the problem of the passive side of capacity to act which consists in the ability to receive (or to be an addressee of) the will declarations. Given the absence of an explicit regulation in the Polish civil code, the passive side of capacity to act has lost its attribute of a doctrinal evidence. However, the capacity to act should not be understood in a popular way limiting this concept to its active side only. Such an understanding generates in fact a grievous gap in the Polish civil law.

Teacher Agency Through Collaborative Expertise-building

Drawing on teacher agentive acts in the process of collaborative expertise-building in selects tertiary institutions in Southeast Asia, this paper maps out the conceptual configurations of teacher agency. In doing so, it avoids both the overly deterministic and individualistic views of agency by locating it within structuring conditions where individual acts are also mobilized. However, while most socially constructive views of agency focus on situated and institutional constraints of agency, this paper conceptualizes teacher agency in its broadest possible sense as historical, cultural and ideological phenomenon, arguing that agentive acts cannot merely be seen as either working for or against educational reform and transformation; rather teachers must take control of the process of knowledge production because it is by doing so that teachers can take ownership over their everyday classroom tactics and practices. Teacher agency in this sense is not simply a capacity to act but, in fact, an accomplishment of acts of producing knowledge for one’s professional practice.