Sovereignty as new beginnings: Action beyond the liberal subject, among undercover police investigators in Europe, for example

This article argues that Schmitt's “state of exception” is only one expression of the deeper sovereign phenomenon, specifically the human capacity to inaugurate new beginnings in shared space. Sovereign action thus includes anything from Schmitt's vertically-imposed state of exception, which eliminates political subjecthood, to the thrill of horizontally-arranged movements, which enable it. To make this argument, the article foregoes the idea of the bounded, internally coherent liberal subject in favor of a relational subject, who is both internally divided and inherently tied to others. The subject's instability and relationality make new beginnings possible and renders sovereign action promising, even if risky. An unexpected example of this fuller view of sovereignty appears in an undercover police team in southern Europe that investigates global human smuggling and trafficking rings. Based on extensive ethnographic research, this article shows how they often act on their own ethical judgments, reached by considering the standpoints of people tied to their investigations, rather than through obedience to law, policy, or superior command. Acting outside constitutional order, these investigators, (re)constitute themselves as particular persons through their joint actions and simultaneously constitute modest sovereign spaces, however tentatively.

Decentralized Multiagent Actor-Critic Algorithm Based on Message Diffusion

The exponential explosion of joint actions and massive data collection are two main challenges in multiagent reinforcement learning algorithms with centralized training. To overcome these problems, in this paper, we propose a model-free and fully decentralized actor-critic multiagent reinforcement learning algorithm based on message diffusion. To this end, the agents are assumed to be placed in a time-varying communication network. Each agent makes limited observations regarding the global state and joint actions; therefore, it needs to obtain and share information with others over the network. In the proposed algorithm, agents hold local estimations of the global state and joint actions and update them with local observations and the messages received from neighbors. Under the hypothesis of the global value decomposition, the gradient of the global objective function to an individual agent is derived. The convergence of the proposed algorithm with linear function approximation is guaranteed according to the stochastic approximation theory. In the experiments, the proposed algorithm was applied to a passive location task multiagent environment and achieved superior performance compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.

European semester–spring package: recommendations for Poland on the socio-economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Extraordinary circumstances, and the COVID-19 outbreak undoubtedly meets this criterion, therefore require extraordinary solutions, including in the EU and national decision-making process to prevent their escalation. Out of concern for the stability of the economic systems of European Union Member States, it has become necessary to introduce procedures to effectively counteract the effects of COVID-19, including in the area of economic activity. An important role in monitoring these initiatives is now played by the European Semester procedure, which allows Member States to discuss their policies, exchange best practices and agree on joint actions for the future to counteract the effects of COVID-19. This paper aims to present the recommendations for Poland, which were formulated in the framework of the 2020 Spring European Semester.

Evidence of joint commitment in great apes' natural joint actions

Human joint action seems special, as it is grounded in joint commitment—a sense of mutual obligation participants feel towards each other. Comparative research with humans and non-human great apes has typically investigated joint commitment by experimentally interrupting joint actions to study subjects’ resumption strategies. However, such experimental interruptions are human-induced, and thus the question remains of how great apes naturally handle interruptions. Here, we focus on naturally occurring interruptions of joint actions, grooming and play, in bonobos and chimpanzees. Similar to humans, both species frequently resumed interrupted joint actions (and the previous behaviours, like grooming the same body part region or playing the same play type) with their previous partners and at the previous location. Yet, the probability of resumption attempts was unaffected by social bonds or rank. Our data suggest that great apes experience something akin to joint commitment, for which we discuss possible evolutionary origins.

What is new with Artificial Intelligence? Human-agent interactions through the lens of social agency

The introduction of automated systems, and more broadly of Artificial Intelligence (AI), into many domains has profoundly changed the nature of human activity, as well as the subjective experience that agents have of their own actions and their consequences – an experience that is commonly referred to as "sense of agency" (SoA). In this review, we propose to examine the empirical evidence supporting this impact of automation on individuals’ sense of agency, and hence on measures as diverse as operator performance, system explicability and acceptability. Because of some of its key characteristics, AI occupies a special status in the artificial systems landscape. We suggest that this status prompts us to reconsider human-AI interactions in the light of human-human relations. We therefore approach the study of joint actions in human social interactions to deduce what are the key features necessary to develop a reliable SoA in a social context. We suggest that the study of social interactions and the development of SoA in joint actions can help determine the content of relevant explanations to be implemented in AI to make it "explainable". Finally, we propose possible directions to improve human-AI interactions and, in particular, to restore the SoA of human operators, improve their confidence in the decisions made by artificial agents, and increase the acceptability of such agents.

Case Report: Scientific Dissemination as a Mediator of the Research Consolidation Process: Proposals for Institutionalization

Introduction Communicating science is one of the main steps in the research process. However, the method of communication must be aligned with the audience for the message. This is especially evident in institutions that promote teaching, research, and extension, especially when considering joint actions that promote a dialogue between themselves and the community. Methods In light of this need, this study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the main documents guiding the policies and institutional actions related to research at the two federal institutes based in the state of Goiás/Brazil: Institution A and Institution B and proposing ways to include scientific dissemination as a mediator of the research consolidation process. This is a bibliographic, documentary study with a descriptive, qualitative approach based on a case study. Results and Discussion The analyses indicate that research must be consolidated as institutional policy and that a policy to encourage research must be implemented. This has yet to be achieved at these institutions, although scientific dissemination is explicitly addressed by institutional documents guiding the development and dissemination of pedagogical practices, especially in teaching and extension. Scientific journalism and scientific dissemination are mediators and facilitators of this endeavor.

Braiding together student and supervisor aspirations in a struggle to decolonize

In this study, we explore a student-supervisor relationship and the development of relational and reflexive research identities as joint actions towards decolonizing management knowledge and practice. We frame a specific case of PhD supervision through he awa whiria the braided rivers metaphor, which emerges from Māori traditions. This metaphor recognizes a plurality of knowledge streams that can start from different sources, converge, braid and depart again, from the mountains to the sea. In this metaphor, each stream maintains its own autonomy and authority, but knowledge is created at an interface in partnership. We use this framing metaphor to illustrate the tensions between co-creating knowledge with an Indigenous community that a research student has kinship ties with and feels a strong affinity to, and navigating the institutional requirements for a PhD within a UK university. We surface two contributions that open up future possibilities for supervision, research and practice. The first is the use of the metaphor to frame the student-supervisor partnership and strategies for decolonizing management knowledge more broadly. The second is the requirement for relational and reflexive research identities in decolonizing management knowledge.