Decomposability and Relative Invariance: the Structural Approach to Network Complexity and Resilience

Economic complexity highlights the relationship between interdependence (a positional characteristic of elements belonging to a given network or structure) and connectivity (a functional characteristic of elements belonging to a given field of interaction). Positional interdependence (as the one between pieces in a jigsaw puzzle) is central to studies investigating the architecture of a complex system (Simon) while connectivity is central to the analysis of responsiveness patterns in social networks and strategic action fields. This paper discusses the fundamentals of a structural approach to economic and spatial complexity by highlighting the hierarchical arrangement of network elements as a distinctive feature of system identity. The positional distribution of network elements is a fundamental characteristic of complex networks and a central condition constraining the dynamics of those networks through the principle of relative structural invariance. The paper investigates the role of this principle by connecting it with the aggregation criterion followed in assigning network elements to specific subsystems. The type of aggregation is essential in determining the resilience properties of the network with respect to specific dynamic impulses. The paper concludes highlighting the need to combine the investigation of positional interdependence with the analysis of connectivity since positional interdependence is fundamental in determining which patterns of connection are more likely to arise (and which ones are excluded), due to the role of alternative properties of relative invariance constraining the feasible transformations in the positions of network elements.

Issues of the Legitimate Procedure Establishment in Ideas by T. Parson and the Modern Issues of State and Law Legitimation

The purpose of this article is a philosophical and legal analysis of the concept of T. Parsons in the context of modern problems of the legitimation of the state and rights, since legitimization requires the existence of a social system of symbols, which allows substantiating the identity and solidarity of society, as well as the beliefs and rituals in which the symbolic system is embodied. The question of building a legitimate state and law remains the central condition for maintaining the stability of society and making its development predictable, which in turn in the modern world is possible only when taking into account and reproducing the common system of values on which they are based.

Mediation of information in medicine: possibilities for dialogue among knowledge scientific, professional and sociocultural

ABSTRACT The mediation process takes place through the interrelationship of technical devices, human, environmental, and semiotic systems that enable knowledge sharing and construction. In discussing information mediation, we must consider the various mechanisms and communication strategies aimed at reaching not only the receiver of information, but also to develop cultural, specific, ethical and aesthetic values. In mediation of medical information, the doctor maters the specialized field of scientific knowledge, built from research activities performed by subjects in a given time, obeying the rules and protocols of research, formalization and dissemination of results, defined by the scientific community, with recognition and legitimacy, which puts him on the central condition of the legitimate mediator of the medical information. However, he cannot, alone, with his scientific answer, to meet both objective and subjective demands that come from patient-receptor. He needs to establish a dialogue with a range of other knowledge "voices" transiting through other knowledge, including the professional information, which interferes and act on complex interactive process in search of procedures for the maintenance and quality of living.

Gender Advantages and Gender Normality in the Views of Estonian Secondary School Students

The aim of the study on Estonian secondary school students was to obtain an overview of the gender-related views and experiences of the everyday school life by students, and to analyse the school-related factors in the development of gender roles and gender-related expectations. We view gender equality as a central condition for social sustainability. In the article, we focus on the perceptions and interpretations of the so-called normal boy and girl and the advantages of both genders at school. We analyse the experiences and the views of young people regarding their gender positioning in everyday school life vis-à-vis their views on gender equality. The survey used in the study consisted of 50 questions, mainly open-ended. It was conducted in 10 basic and secondary schools in grades 7, 9, 10 and 12, with a total number of 649 respondents. The open answers were analysed by applying the method of thematic qualitative content analysis. The findings reveal that the perceived advantages of both genders at school and the behaviour considered as normal at school are strongly related to traditional gender stereotypes. At the same time, students claim that they are primarily people with equal opportunities. We conclude that the belief in the ideology of gender equality outweighs personal gender-related experiences.

Occupazioni e rinnovamento urbano: l'interazione tra i movimenti degli squatter e le strategie di ristrutturazione urbana a Berlino

Squatting as a housing strategy and as a tool of urban social movements accompanies the development of capitalist cities worldwide. We argue that the dynamics of squatter movements are directly connected to strategies of urban renewal in that movement conjunctures occur when urban regimes are in crisis. An analysis of the history of Berlin squatter movements, their political context and their effects on urban policies since the 1970s, clearly shows how massive mobilizations at the beginning of the 1980s and in the early 1990s developed in a context of transition in regimes of urban renewal. The crisis of Fordist city planning at the end of the 1970s provoked a movement of ‘rehab squatting' (Instandbesetzung), which contributed to the institutionalization of ‘cautious urban renewal' (behutsame Stadterneuerung) in an important way. The second rupture in Berlin's urban renewal became apparent in 1989 and 1990, when the necessity of restoring whole inner-city districts constituted a new, budget-straining challenge for urban policymaking. Whilst in the 1980s the squatter movement became a central condition for and a political factor of the transition to ‘cautious urban renewal', in the 1990s largescale squatting - mainly in the eastern parts of the city - is better understood as an alien element in times of neoliberal urban restructuring.

Super-Computers, Evolution and the Fabrication of Life

As biology moves into the digital realm, new ways of representing, manipulating, and appropriating life are emerging. In this paper, the authors examine systems and synthetic biology and map imaginaries of the making of life. The authors present how they have worked with scientists in three different laboratories in Europe and the U.S. by exploring those imaginaries with them. Focusing on scientific images, methods, and scientific traditions through a number of dialogic sessions, three imaginaries became apparent: living systems as networks, life as building blocks, and living systems as circuits. By working in this way, the authors could explore how scientists imagine their relations with nature (i.e., in terms of ownership) and their role as scientist. Exploring imaginaries of the making of life can open plural and broadly oriented and normative debates on nature, society, technology, and their relations. This kind of dynamic, interactive, and reflexive societal talk is, from the authors’ point of view, a central condition for possible sustainable futures.

Directional collisions during a route-following task

Neurologically normal people tend to collide with objects on the right side more frequently than with objects located on the left side of space. This phenomenon could be attributable to pseudoneglect wherein individuals selectively attend to the left field. The current study investigated this effect using a virtual route-following task that was presented centrally, in the lower field, and in the upper field. Handedness was also examined. Fifty-two participants (four left handed) completed this task, and when presented in the lower field, more left-side collisions emerged. In the upper condition, this bias reversed direction to the expected rightward bias. In the central condition, there was no significant directional bias in collision behavior. An interaction between handedness and presentation condition indicated that left-handed participants experienced more right-side collisions in the central condition. Collectively, these results suggest that directional biases (i.e., left vs. right) in collision behavior are modulated by both location in the visual field (central, upper, or lower) and handedness. (JINS, 2009, 15, 225–230.)

Implicit sequence learning in a search task

This study investigated the effects of selection demands on implicit sequence learning. Participants in a search condition looked for a target among seven distractors and responded on the target identity. The responses followed a deterministic sequence, and sequence learning was compared to that found in two control conditions in which the targets were presented alone, either at a central location or over a series of unpredictable locations. Sequence learning was obtained in all conditions, and it was equivalent for the two variable location conditions, regardless of the perceptual demands. Larger effects of learning were observed in the central location, both on the indirect measures and on the measures taken from a cued-generation task. The expression of learning decreased selectively in this condition when the sequence validity was reduced over a test block. These results are consistent with the claims that implicit and explicit learning are mixed in this central condition and that implicit learning is not affected by selection difficulty.

The Roles of Scientific and Non-Scientific Types of Knowledge in the Improvement of Practice

This article discusses the problems posed for an adequate understanding of the multiple inputs into knowledge by the continuing epistemological dominance of scientific knowledge. This dominance is matched by the institutional dominance of academics in relation to practitioners. Practitioner knowledge is to be seen as part of the wider activity of social problem solving, which we would undertake more intelligently if we were able to identify and value the non-scientific knowledge inputs on which it depends as much as on the input of science. The article sees a more inclusive and ‘non-scientistic’ map of knowledge as the central condition for developing genuine partnership and exchange between academics, practitioners, and ordinary knowers. Action research is located as a valuable contribution which science can make to the improvement of practice, but it is not accepted as adequately taking up the non-scientific knowledge components of practice in particular, and social problem solving in general.