Separated by a Common Language: How the Nature of Code Differences Shapes Communication Success and Code Convergence

Coordinated action within and beween organizations is easier when individuals share communication codes—mappings between stimuli and labels. Because codes are specific to the groups within which they arise as conventions, collaboration across organizational units that have developed their own distinctive codes is often difficult. However, not all code differences are equal in their implications for communication difficulty and the capacity of individuals starting out with different codes to develop a shared code. Using computational models, we develop a theory about the nature of differences in initial communication codes and how they impact convergence on a common code. Our results show that the difficulty of code convergence lies not as much in learning new codes as in unlearning existing ones. The most severe challenges to communication stem from “code clashes” where codes contain different mappings between the same labels and stimuli. Furthermore, clashes that arise when agents have developed their individual codes in different task environments but draw on a common set of labels are likely to be the hardest to recover from, reflecting the perils of being “separated by a common language.” This paper was accepted by Lamar Pierce, organizations.

‘International Paretianism’ and the Question of ‘Feasible’ Climate Solutions

Proponents of International Paretianism (IP)—the principle that international agreements should not make any state worse-off and should make some at least better off—argue that it is the only feasible approach to reducing the harms of climate change (see, especially, Posner and Weisbach 2010). They draw on some key assumptions regarding the meaning of ‘feasibility’ and the nature of the Pareto improvements associated with coordinated action on climate change. This chapter challenges these assumptions, in effect weakening the case for IP and allowing for broader thinking about what counts as a ‘feasible’ climate solution.

Control of Leaf Vein Patterning by Regulated Plasmodesma Aperture

To form tissue networks, animal cells migrate and interact through proteins protruding from their plasma membranes. Plant cells can do neither, yet plants form vein networks. How plants do so is unclear, but veins are thought to form by the coordinated action of the polar transport and signal transduction of the plant hormone auxin. However, plants inhibited in both pathways still form veins. Patterning of vascular cells into veins is instead prevented in mutants lacking the function of the GNOM (GN) regulator of auxin transport and signaling, suggesting the existence of at least one more GN-dependent vein-patterning pathway. Here we show that pathway depends on the movement of an auxin signal through plasmodesmata (PDs) intercellular channels. PD permeability is high where veins are forming, lowers between veins and nonvascular tissues, but remains high between vein cells. Impaired ability to regulate PD aperture leads to defects in auxin transport and signaling, ultimately leading to vein patterning defects that are enhanced by inhibition of auxin transport or signaling. GN controls PD aperture regulation, and simultaneous inhibition of auxin signaling, auxin transport, and regulated PD aperture phenocopies null gn mutants. Therefore, veins are patterned by the coordinated action of three GN-dependent pathways: auxin signaling, polar auxin transport, and movement of an auxin signal through PDs. We have identified all the key vein-patterning pathways in plants and an unprecedented mechanism of tissue network formation in multicellular organisms.

Pushing Social Philosophy to Its Democratic Limits

Roberto Frega’s Pragmatism and the Wide View of Democracy reformulates the question of democracy posed by our current historic conjuncture using the resources of a variety of pragmatic thinkers. He brings into the contemporary conversation regarding democracy’s fortunes both classical and somewhat neglected figures in the pragmatic tradition to deal with questions of power, ontology, and politics. In particular, Frega takes a social philosophical starting point and draws out the consequences of this fundamental shift in approach to questions of democratic and political theory. This turn to social philosophy as a theoretically more sufficient conceptual vocabulary, extended in detail by Frega, raises questions regarding the work that a social ontology does in clarifying the role of economic and political approaches to democracy that are worth further exploration. Likewise, the practical proposals for moving beyond methodological nationalism with respect to forming publics for the sake of problem-solving, while providing a clarifying and fresh starting point, are still too beholden to models of agency and expressions of coordinated action that themselves are the very fruit of those systems which undermine democratic power in the first instance.

Integrative prevention and coordinated action toward primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in workplaces: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Integrated approaches are valued in several occupational health strategic programmatic orientations. A better understanding of the use of integrative prevention in coordinating measures is needed to develop its use in workplaces. OBJECTIVE: Identify workplace integrative prevention approaches and definitions of prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary) in the literature. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted following Arksey and O’Malley (2005). The literature search was carried out in three databases without date restrictions. In order to be retained, the articles needed to address at least two levels of prevention using an integrative approach in a workplace setting. A qualitative analysis was conducted. RESULTS: The review yielded 16 published articles between 1995 and 2017. The articles addressed mental health, musculoskeletal disorder prevention and comprehensive approaches. Integrative prevention approaches are diverse and are not always named as such. Prevention definitions are not homogenous. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified some of the integrative prevention characteristics aimed at coordinated action for prevention in the workplace and to clarify measures taken at different levels of prevention. Further studies are needed to elaborate on the implementation of integrative prevention in the workplace

Potent connections, mystery-work and the relational nature of retreat-going

Retreat-going has mostly been understood through the lens of the self. Retreat-goers abscond from their obligations and relationships, their jobs and family duties, in order to spend time working on themselves, steeped in discourses and practices which prioritize self-discovery and self-mastery. But accounts given by retreat-goers often also emphasize the relationships and connections with others. Recent theoretical developments in the sociology of personal life provide useful tools to describe these relationships. Drawing data from interviews ( N = 27) with people who went on retreat, in this article I explore retreat-goers’ relationships via Jennifer Mason’s concept of ‘potent connection’. Specifically, I outline the ways in which uncertainty, surprise and mysteriousness characterize the relationships people made on retreat. Then, noting the importance of coordinated action in retreat-goers’ accounts, I describe how potent connections appear to be collectively produced, rather than just encountered – what I call ‘mystery-work’. This article extends the existing literature on retreats by adding further detail to the relational picture. Additionally, it suggests the generation of intense or ineffable relationships via mystery-work is a dimension of personal life that may be encountered in other contexts and that this is worth further study.

Global health and global bioethics

Covid-19 is not merely a national or regional threat but a global one. It requires coordinated action of the global community. Such action, as argued in this paper, should primarily focus on the question how to prevent the next pandemic. Humankind has been warned multiple time for emerging diseases and the risks of pandemics, although no preparatory responses have been undertaken. Preventive interventions are possible since it is known how and where infectious diseases emerge. Such interventions proceed on the basis of shared vulnerability and responsibility for global health. The fact that they have been inadequate thus far, can be considered as a serious moral failure.

The people behind the papers: Toby Andrews and Elia Benito-Gutierrez

A fundamental question of developmental biology is how the coordinated action of various cells gives rise to distinct tissue morphologies that are reproducible across members of the same species. A new paper in Development now addresses this question by performing single-cell morphometrics to study notochord formation in amphioxus. To hear more about the story, we chatted to first author and postdoctoral researcher Toby Andrews, and his PhD supervisor Elia Benito-Gutiérrez, Group Leader in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge.