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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Power in corporate aggregation and bundling

Introduction
This wikibook sheds light on the issue of power associated with the increasing trend towards aggregation that corporations are following. Aggregation refers to a company offering a variety of unrelated services. Throughout this wikibook, we also refer to “bundling”, which is defined as “the offering of multiple non-substitutable products for a single, combined price”. Here we focus on both and their benefits for corporations and their effects on consumers.

Behavioural economics
According to Hogg, “behavioural economics is the study of economic decision making in the light of advances in psychology”. By focusing on “idiosyncratic psychological ways people make decisions, '' this interdisciplinary field has found that people have bounded rationality when faced with complex situations and will attempt to simplify the decision-making process. Service bundling frequently caters towards that propensity.

Firstly, bundling provides convenience and facility when purchasing services. Due to cognitive limitations, including how collecting and processing all relevant information during decision-making is neither realistic nor efficient for the consumer, humans tend to adopt simple heuristics. Rather than making the most economically optimal decision, consumers simplify the process by only focusing on either price, style etc., because “complex decisions are costly in time and effort”. Bundling offers only “one decision point” that is the easiest and quickest choice and one provider to deal with which requires the least amount of effort. There is only one transaction taking place which is more favourable to consumers since “payments are associated with negative emotions”. Behavioural economics stresses that “consumers are prone to inertia” because of a tendency to exert “least effort to comprehend and evaluate”. Therefore, customers become susceptible to bundling as it simplifies the “mental accounting” process.

Secondly, for customers, categorising their purchases clarifies their financial budgeting, makes the purchase more attractive and ensures the compatibility of the items. During a purchase, the client focuses  their attention on the most important product of the bundling  but evaluates the total cost  by adjusting with the other items. Even if the bundle price isn’t much cheaper than the combined prices of separate items, consumers prefer bundled products. Moreover, discounted prices on bundling encourage the customer to buy sooner than they otherwise would have.

Finally, when a customer builds trust with the supplier and has his products bundled, the customer is less likely to change his providers. By becoming familiar with the products of the brand, instinctively the client is not going to change his consumer habits due to the "status quo". They prefer to stick to old habits and not risk a new brand. However, paradoxically, a person with less experience with the products of a brand is more likely to buy a bundle than a regular buyer.

Information economics
Information economics explores how information affects markets and institutions and, in particular, how imperfect information creates asymmetry, which, in general terms, theorises that inefficient and sub-optimal outcomes in certain markets arise due to an imbalance in information. Companies and corporations then leverage their information to gain further economic power over the consumer and market power over their competitors.

One such example is explored in United States v. Loew's Inc: A Note on Block-Booking. The Supreme Court at the time banned block-booking, which was the practice of bundling films of varying popularity and selling them together to exhibitors, under the grounds that this would be compounding monopolies by using the popularity of more successful films to convince exhibitors to also buy the less successful films. Stigler points out that block-booking does not necessarily force exhibitors to pay more, disputing the Supreme Court's decision. He concludes that pricing by block is instead used to garner more profit.

Something similar happens in corporate aggregation when companies bundle services under a one-time fee or paid subscription. Notably, Amazon has done this with their Prime membership, adding more and more services since they introduced Prime in 2005. Consumers and Amazon have information asymmetry, which Amazon exerts on the consumer, as the consumer has to find pricing for all of Amazon's services separately to overcome the imbalance.

Psychology
Psychology focuses on the key strategy of personalisation which is often employed through the companies’ different aggregated services to ‘trap’ consumers. There are two theories in which psychology argues the merits of aggregation: sense of control and information overload. As psychology advocates, due to the unique nature of personalisation, consumers almost feel special and in control of their own experience. The need for control is felt within everyone, but particularly the consumer who is often at a loss in the exchange of goods. Moreover, the apparent choice of surrendering data further convinces consumers of a sense of control and power, playing into the intended psychological effects desired by corporations. Information overload, whilst less prevalent in aggregation, is still an influential psychological concept. Firms limit the choices within services available, which psychologists claim reduces stress on consumers, and makes them more likely to interact with a corporation’s services giving corporations power over what consumers can literally see and use.

Analysis of power from an interdisciplinary perspective
Between economics and psychology, the effects of aggregation are well explored. But more broadly, economics seems to focus on the companies and markets rather than the individual consumer, which psychology covers. This means that, naturally, economics holds more relevance for businesses in terms of practical and quantitative understanding. In general, economics holds greater power in this topic than psychology from the perspective of businesses, which is the primary perspective as only businesses can decide which services to aggregate or products to bundle and the consumer is left relatively powerless.

However, the combination of economics and psychology provides a powerful modelling of human economic behaviour and shows that both disciplines are pertinent in this topic. Bringing psychology to bear on economics issues introduces new concepts such as prospect theory which explains that consumer’s decisions are not always optimal. Another important theory is the dual-conform theory which emphasises that consumers' judgements don't always have rational expectations and thus the cognitive biases in consumer’s decision-making need to be taken into account for a realistic prediction of behaviours. Hence, behavioural economics, as an interdisciplinary field, becomes a powerful tool in understanding “actual consumer behaviour” as it offers a nuanced approach to economic theory and rational behaviour.

Further power is created between the two disciplines, in particular through the oft-ignored similarities that they share, specifically on consumer behaviours. Framing effects and information overload belong in both disciplinary fields and modern researchers are increasingly highlighting this fact. Especially with consumer behaviour, firms may use “price complexity” or provide consumers with insufficient/too much information to make “an appropriate comparison” among bundled services. This helps firms massively cultivate power as they manipulate the ideas within the disciplines to exploit consumers in the consumer-driven world today.

Aggregation is the future business model that firms are steadily adopting. This interdisciplinary approach recognises that consumers are not a monolith and thus, provides firms with the power of corporate aggregation.


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User talk:Dino Bronto Rex

This is my user talk page. If you have anything to say, please start a new talk,a new discussion, and don’t just write it here. That way, your comments will be visible also on mobile view, and you will get a reply sooner (much sooner).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Dino Bronto Rex


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Micronations/List of already existing micronations/Aerican Empire

The Aerican Empire (conventionally referred to in short form as Aerica) is a micronation founded in May 1987, which has no sovereign territory of its own and has never been recognized by any other sovereign state as existing. The name is cultured from the term "American Empire". In 2000 The New York Times described its website as "one of the more imaginative" micronation sites.

Its members claim sovereignty over a vast disconnected territory, including a square kilometer of land in Australia, a house-sized area in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (containing the "Embassy to Everything Else"), several other areas of the Earth, a colony on Mars, the northern hemisphere of Pluto, and an imaginary planet.

Their flag is similar to the flag of Canada, with a large yellow smiley face instead of the red maple leaf in the white square (although the red rectangles on the sides have different side length ratios).

History
The Aerican Empire was founded on May 8, 1987 by Canadian Eric Lis and a group of friends. For the first ten years the Empire was almost wholly fictional, claiming sovereignty over a vast galaxy of planets and engaging in wars against other micronations. After the advent of the Internet, through which the founders discovered other micronations similar to their own, the Empire slowly abandoned most fictional elements and worked towards becoming a political entity rather than a hobby. In 1997, the Empire created a website.

In 2007, Aerica first issued "novelty passports." The first issued passport was exhibited in the Palais de Tokyo 2007 Micronational art exhibition.

The Aerican Empire first issued coinage in November 2009, and a second coin was minted to celebrate Aerica's 25th anniversary in 2012. Banknotes were issued for the first time in 2017.

Aerica issued stamps for the first time in 2015.

Status
The Empire's mission statement is: "The Empire exists to facilitate the evolution of a society wherein the Empire itself is no longer necessary." It claims to be organized as a parliamentary democracy, with various elected bodies and offices, under the oversight of an Emperor (currently the founder, Eric Lis). Lis, who founded the Aerican Empire as a child, obtained his M.D., C.M. from McGill University and has been published in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and Weird Tales magazine.

The group's activities are permeated by a great deal of humour and a love of science fiction and fantasy, with recurrent references to Star Wars, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and similar works. Annually, the Empire holds story-writing contests, role-playing and wargaming days, and such events as the Dog-Biscuit Appreciation Day Scavenger Hunt. It also developed a "religion" called Silinism, the worship of the Great Penguin; originally intended as a joke, but which the group claims to have thirty practitioners worldwide. It has holidays and "niftydays" (such as 2 January Procrastinator's Day, 27 February *Oops* Day, 19 March What the Heck is That Day, and 26 October Topin Wagglegammon, The Niftiest Day of the Year).

Offline activities
While Internet-based activities in the Empire are more well-documented and facilitate interaction between members in different countries, a major focus has always been local physical events. Members gather for weekly meetings in Montreal, Springvale, New York and other centers, and a twentieth anniversary convention was held in July 2007.

Delegations from the Aerican Empire were in attendance at the Polinations academic conference in London in 2012 and the MicroCon micronations convention in Atlanta in 2017.


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LMIs in Control/pages/LMI for Mixed H2 Hinf Output Feedback Controller

LMI for Mixed $$H_{2}/H_{\infty}$$ Output Feedback Controller

The mixed $$ H_{2}/H_{\infty}$$ output feedback control has been known as an example of a multi-objective optimal control problem. In this problem, the control feedback should respond properly to several specifications. In the $$ H_{2}/H_{\infty}$$ controller, the $$H_{\infty}$$ channel is used to improve the robustness of the design while the $$H_{2}$$ channel guarantees good performance of the system.

The System
We consider the following state-space representation for a linear system:

$$ \begin{align} \dot{x} &= Ax + Bu \\ y &= Cx + Du \end{align} $$

where $$ A $$, $$ B$$, $$ C$$, and $$D $$ are the state matrix, input matrix, output matrix, and feedforward matrix, respectively.

These are the system (plant) matrices that can be shown as $$ P = (A, B, C, D) $$.

The Data
We assume that all the four matrices of the plant, $$ A, B, C, D $$, are given.

The Optimization Problem
In this problem, we use an LMI to formulate and solve the optimal output-feedback problem to minimize both the <> and <> norms. Giving equal weights to each of the norms, we will have the optimization problem in the following form:

$$ \begin{align} \text{min} \quad ||S(P,K)||_{H_{2}}^{2} + ||S(P,K)||_{H_{\infty}}^{2} \end{align} $$

The LMI: LMI for mixed $$H_{2}$$/$$H_{\infty}$$
Mathematical description of the LMI formulation for a mixed $$H_{2}$$/$$H_{\infty}$$ optimal output-feedback problem can be written as follows:

$$ \begin{align} &\text{min} \quad \gamma_{1}^{2} + \gamma_{2}^{2} \\ &\text{s.t.} \\ &\begin{bmatrix} X_{1}     & I \\ I         & Y_{1} \end{bmatrix} > 0 \\ &\begin{bmatrix} AY_{1}+Y_{1}A^{\text{T}}+B_{2}C_{n}+C_{n}B_{2}^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} \\ A^{\text{T}}+A_{n}+(B_{2}D_{n}C_{2})^{\text{T}} & X_{1}A+A^{\text{T}}+B_{n}C_{2}+C_{2}^{\text{T}}B_{n}^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} \\ (B_{1}+B_{2}D_{n}D_{21})^{\text{T}} & (X_{1}B_{1} + B_{n}D_{21})^{\text{T}} & -\gamma I & *^{\text{T}}\\ C_{1}Y_{1}+D_{12}C_{n} & C_{1}+D_{12}D_{n}C_{2} & D_{11}+D_{12}D_{n}D_{21} & -\gamma I\\ \end{bmatrix} < 0 \\ &\begin{bmatrix} Y_{1}  & I & (C_{1}Y_{1}+D_{12}C_{n})^{\text{T}} \\ I & X_{1} & (C_{1}+D_{12}D_{n}C_{2})^{\text{T}}\\ (C_{1}Y_{1}+D_{12}C_{n}) & (C_{1}+D_{12}D_{n}D_{21} & Z\\ C_{1}Y_{1}+D_{12}C_{n} & C_{1}+D_{12}D_{n}C_{2} & D_{11}+D_{12}D_{n}D_{21} & -\gamma I\\ \end{bmatrix} > 0 \\ &\begin{bmatrix} AY_{1}+Y_{1}A^{\text{T}}+B_{2}C_{n}+C_{n}\text{T}B_{2}\text{T} & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} \\ (A^{\text{T}}+An+(B_{2}*D_{n}*C_{2})^{\text{T}})  & X_{1}A+A^{\text{T}}X_{1}+B_{n}C_{2}+C_{2}^{\text{T}}B_{n}^{\text{T}}  & *^{\text{T}} & *^{\text{T}} \\ (B_{1}+B_{2}D_{n}D_{21})^{\text{T}}  & (X_{1}B_{1}+B_{n}D_{21})^{\text{T}} & -\gamma_{2}^{2}I  & *^{\text{T}} \\ (C_{1}Y_{1}+D_{12}C_{n}) &  (C_{1}+D_{12}D_{n}C_{2}) & (D_{11}+D_{12}D_{n}*D_{21}) & -I \\ \end{bmatrix} < 0 \\ & \text{trace}(Z) < \gamma_{1}^{2} \\ & D_{11} + D_{12}D_{n}D_{21} = 0 \end{align} $$

where $$ \gamma_{1}^{2} $$ and $$\gamma_{1}^{2}$$ are defined as the $$ H_{2}$$ and $$ H_{\infty}$$ norm of the system:

$$ \begin{align} &||S(P,K)||_{H_{2}}^{2} = \gamma_{1}^{2} \\ &||S(P,K)||_{H_{\infty}}^{2} = \gamma_{2}^{2} \end{align} $$

Moreover, $$X_{1} $$, $$ Y_{1}$$, $$ A_{n}$$, $$ B_{n}$$, $$ C_{n}$$, and $$ D_{n}$$ are variable matrices with appropriate dimensions that are found after solving the LMIs.

Conclusion:
The calculated scalars $$ \gamma_{1}^{2} $$ and $$ \gamma_{2}^{2} $$ are the $$ H_{2}$$ and $$ H_{\infty}$$ norms of the system, respectively. Thus, the norm of mixed $$ H_{2}$$/$$ H_{\infty}$$ is defined as $$ \beta = \gamma_{1}^{2} + \gamma_{2}^{2}$$. The results for each individual $$ H_{2}$$ norm and $$H_{\infty} $$ norms of the system show that a bigger value of norms are found in comparison with the case they are solved separately.

Implementation
A link to Matlab codes for this problem in the Github repository:

https://github.com/asalimil/LMI_for_Mixed_H2_Hinf_Output_Feedback_Controller

Return to Main Page
LMIs in Control/Tools


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LMIs in Control/pages/LMI for System H2 Norm

$${H_2}$$-norm of System

The $${H_2}$$-norm is conceptually identical to the Frobenius (aka Euclidean) norm on a matrix. It can be used to determine whether the system representation can be reduced to its simplest form, thereby allowing its use in performing effective block-diagram algebra.

The System
Suppose we define the state-space system$$G: {L_2}\rightarrow{L_2}\text{ by }y=Gu$$ if:

\begin{align} \dot x(t)&=Ax(t)+Bu(t)\\ y(t)&=Cx(t)+Du(t)\\ \end{align}$$ where $$A\in\mathbb{R}^{mxm}$$, $$B\in\mathbb{R}^{mxn}$$, $$C\in\mathbb{R}^{pxm}$$, and $$D\in\mathbb{R}^{qxn}$$ for any $$t\in\mathbb{R}$$. Then the $${H_2}$$-norm of the system can be determined as described below.

The Data
In order to determine the $${H_2}$$-norm of the system, we need the matrices $${A}$$, $${B}$$, and $${C}$$.

The Optimization Problem
Suppose we wanted to to infer properties of the system behaviour (which is represented in the form (A,B,C,D)). Then it becomes necessary to ensure that the overall system forms an algebra, as the standard use of block-diagram algebra would otherwise be invalid. The only way this is possible is by calculating $${H_2}$$ and/or $${H_\infty}$$-norms - both of which are signal norms that (in a certain sense) measure the size of the transfer function.

The LMI: The $$H_2$$ Norm
Assuming that $$\hat{P}(s)=C(sI-A)^{-1}B$$, this means that the following are equivalent:

 * $$ 1)\quad A\text{ is Hurwitz and }||\hat{P}||^2_{H_2}<\gamma$$

2) \begin{align} \begin{cases} trace(CXC^T )&<\gamma\\   AX+XA^T +BB^T &<0\\    X&>0 \end{cases} \end{align}$$

Conclusion:
The LMI can be used to minimize the $${H_2}$$-norm of the system. It is worth noting that a finite $${H_2}$$-norm does not guarantee finite $${H_\infty}$$-norm, and that in order for the block diagram algebra to be valid, $${H_\infty}$$-norm must be finite.

Implementation

 * Example Code - A GitHub link that contains code (titled "H2Norm.m") that demonstrates how this LMI can be implemented using MATLAB-YALMIP.

Related LMIs

 * $H_2$-Filtering - LMI for $$H_2$$-Filtering
 * Discrete-Time $H_2$ Norm - LMI for $$H_2$$-norm in the Discrete-Time case.


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LMIs in Control/pages/Stability of Lure systems

The System

\begin{align} \dot x(t)&=Ax(t)+B_pp(t)+B_ww(t),\\ z(t)&=C_zx(t)\\ p_i(t)&=\phi_i(q_i(t)), i=1,\dots, n_p\\ q&=C_qx,\\ 0 &\leq \sigma \phi_i(\sigma) \leq \sigma^2 \ \forall \sigma \in \mathbb{R} \end{align}$$

The Data
The matrices $$ A,B_p,B_w,C_q,C_z $$.

The LMI: The Lure's System's Stability
The following feasibility problem should be solved as sufficient condition for the stability of the above Lur'e system.

\begin{align} \text{Find} \; &P>0,\Lambda=diag(\lambda_1,\dots,\lambda_{n_p})\succeq 0, T=diag(\tau_1,\dots,\tau_{n_p}) \succeq 0:\\ &\begin{bmatrix} A^\top P+PA & PB_p+A^\top C^\top_q \Lambda +C^\top_q T \\ B^\top_p P + \Lambda C_qA+TC_q & \Lambda C_q B_p+B^\top_p C^\top_q \Lambda-2T \end{bmatrix} \prec 0\\ \end{align}$$

Implementation
https://codeocean.com/capsule/0232754/tree

Conclusion
If the feasibility problem with LMI constraints has solution, then the Lure's system is stable.

Remark
The LMI is only a sufficient condition for the existence of a Lur’e Lyapunov function that proves stability of Lur'e system. It is also necessary when there is only one nonlinearity, i.e., when $$ n_p = 1 $$.


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LMIs in Control/pages/hinfinityoptimalobserver

$$ H\infin $$-Optimal observers yield  robust  estimates  of  some  or  all  internal  plant states  by  processing  measurement  data. Robust observers are increasingly  demanded in industry  as they  may provide state  and  parameter  estimates  for  monitoring  and  diagnosis purposes even in the presence of large disturbances such as noise etc. It is there where Kalman filters may tend to fail. State observer is a system that provides estimates of internal states of a given real system, from measurements of the inputs and outputs of the real system. The goal of $$ H_\infin$$ -optimal state estimation is to design an observer that minimizes the $$ H_\infin $$ norm of the closed-loop transfer matrix from w to z.

The System
Consider the continuous-time generalized plant $$ P $$ with state-space realization

\begin{align} \dot x&=Ax+B_1w,\\ y&=C_2x+D_{21}w\\ \end{align}$$

The Data
The matrices needed as input are $$ A,B_1,B_2,C_2,D_{21},D_{11} $$.

The Optimization Problem
The observer gain $$ L $$ is to be designed such that the $$ H\infin $$ of the transfer matrix from w to z, given by

\begin{align} T(s) = C_1(s1-(A-LC_2))^{-1}(B_1-LD_{21})+D_{11}\\ \end{align} $$ is minimized. The form of the observer would be:

\begin{align} \dot{\hat{x}}=A\hat{x} + L(y - \hat{y}),\\ \hat{y} = C_2\hat{x}\\ \end{align}$$

The LMI: $$ H_\infin $$ Optimal Observer
The $$H\infin $$-optimal observer gain is synthesized by solving for $$ P \in \mathbb{S} ^{n_x}, G \in \mathbb{R} ^{n_x \times n_y} $$, and $$ \gamma \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} $$ that minimize $$ \zeta(\gamma) = \gamma $$ subject to $$ P>0 $$ and

\begin{align}

\begin{bmatrix} PA+ A^TP-GC_2-{C_2}^TG^T && PB_1-GD_{21} && C_1\\ \star && -\gamma1 && {D_{11}}^T\\ \star && \star && -\gamma1 \end{bmatrix} <0\\ \end{align}$$

Conclusion:
The $$ H_\infin$$ -optimal observer gain is recovered by $$ L = P^{-1}G $$ and the $$ H_\infin $$ norm of T(s) is $$ \gamma$$.

Implementation
Link to the MATLAB code designing $$ H\infin $$- Optimal Observer

https://github.com/Ricky-10/coding107/blob/master/HinfinityOptimalobserver

= External Links =

 * LMI Methods in Optimal and Robust Control - A course on LMIs in Control by Matthew Peet.
 * LMI Properties and Applications in Systems, Stability, and Control Theory - A List of LMIs by Ryan Caverly and James Forbes.
 * LMIs in Systems and Control Theory - A downloadable book on LMIs by Stephen Boyd.
 *
 *


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Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Truth in the Prison System

Meeting Summary Nov 16th  All present. We all discussed and brainstormed possible topics for our wiki book chapter. We narrowed down 2 possible topics that we were all interested in and were tasked to complete readings on each topic for next week to discuss and decide what topic we would like to explore as well as brainstorm possible disciplines that would be relevant. Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 10:56, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Meeting Summary Nov 19th: All present. We decided on the topic of truth in punishment focusing on the prison system. As a group we decided that the 3 disciplines we wanted to focus on would be Sociology, Economics, and Psychology as they were all relevant to the topic of punishment and rehabilitation in the prison system, but also were different enough to allow us to highlight possible tensions in the versions of truth that each discipline held in relation to the efficacy of the prison system. For the next meeting, we decided that we would all do some readings on each discipline and make notes based on our research. Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 10:56, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Meeting Summary Nov 24th:  All present. We shared our thoughts and research that we did for each of our 3 disciplines. We then spent some time afterward doing some research together, particularly focussing on adding more research for the disciplines of economics and psychology. For our next meeting, we are aiming to have a draft of our introduction and first discipline (sociology). Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 10:56, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Meeting Summary Nov 28th: All present. Yesterday we met to discuss the progress of our work so far. We have all, for the most part, completed the required research needed to understand what each discipline perceives the prison system and rehabilitation methods to be. We assigned each member to start on one section. Vanessa contributed to the sociology paragraph while Shagun began the introduction and economics section. We used this meeting to consolidate our ideas and highlight the important tensions that our chosen disciplines displayed in terms of truth in the prison system. While we were initially worried about finding enough differences between sociology and psychology, we found several significant ones.19vanessat (discuss • contribs) 11:01, 8 December 2019 (UTC) Below is an outline that we all contributed to which highlights the main clashes that we are aiming to discuss in our evaluation.

Sociology and Psychology
 * Sociology focuses more on reforming the group, while psychology advocates for an individual approach
 * In sociology, Wheeler theorized that inmates experienced more conformity (aka good behavior) prior to release, but psychology adds more depth to this perspective by highlighting the poor mental health consequences
 * Here we see different constructions of truth by different disciplines whereby one (sociology) focuses on good behavior (externally seen), while psychology has an inherent focus on the wellbeing of individual (internal, psychological)
 * Leads to clash in relation to the effect and rehabilitation of the prison system
 * clashes between Sociology’s social constructionism and psychology’s interpretivism
 * How is social constructionism different from traditional psychology? Burr, V. (2003) Social constructionism. Routledge, London.

Economics vs Psychology
 * Rehabilitation for the sake of reintegration into the workforce rather than to be mentally healthy and truly reformed

Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 10:20, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

Meeting Summary Dec 1st: In this meeting, we collaboratively worked on the evaluation/conclusion portion of our chapter. Shagun focused on explaining the tensions in different variations of truth provided by sociology and psychology. Vanessa explored how epistemological theories of truth were different in these 2 disciplines as well. Selina explored the variations in truth in economics compared to the other disciplines. Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 12:52, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

Meeting Summary Dec 8th: We edited the evaluation for clarity, specifically the part about social constructionism and psychology's methodology and economics vs. other disciplines. We also added new headings that are more detailed to polish up our organisation. 19vanessat (discuss • contribs) 11:08, 8 December 2019 (UTC) Here is the link to the google document that we used to organize our research and notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mMk8FqMCH4wVkI0qRG2FouWJ37CwQaBwdrwXrV5ji9I/edit?usp=sharing Sdhaliwal19 (discuss • contribs) 10:55, 26 November 2019 (UTC)


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User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar)/Group 2/Power/Power of political theories

A powerful tool for analyzing events and humans behaviors
Theories are leading and shaping the world of politics. Realism, liberalism, Marxism - all these theories can help us to understand and analyse events and human interactions from a specific viewpoint. Confronting and comparing different theories, being able to understand their different opinion from different view angles, help us to have a global comprehension of the world politics. As Stephen Walt (1998) states “Competition between theories helps reveal their strengths and weaknesses and spurs subsequent refinements, while revealing flaws in conventional wisdom.” In fact, understanding the attitudes and the position of different countries or international actors by comparing their respective policies enable us to have a holistic nature of the issue at stake.

The power of prediction
Subsequently, different from a simple perspective, a theory reinforces the ability of analysts and decision makers to interpret and predict events and human behaviors. Like mathematical models with probabilities, theories are able, depending on the global environment, to predict how humans are going to react. Robert Cox (1981), suggests that theories exist purposefully and can be divided into two categorizes:  the “problem-solving theory” , whose purpose is to maintain “smooth” relationship between actors by resolving troubles and the “critical theory” which calls into question the current system and its possible evolution. In fact, the critical theory “seeks to understand the process of change”.

A strategic tool to plan state policies
Theories are pathways for reaching a specific aim and for planning actions.


text: Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/The History of Monogamy


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Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Power in Film Production

First Meeting 21/11/19 - all present
We first formed our group based on the common idea that we all wanted to focus on power. Created a google doc to share our ideas and brainstorm flexibly whenever it was most convenient. We all came to agree on including aspects of marketing, film and economics for our project

Meeting 30/11/19 - all present
We began piecing together our research to decide on a final topic and allocate roles between us. Our topic focused on the power between the following disciplines: biology, politics and economics, within the interdisciplinary field of marketing when viewing research into individual film preferences. Next, we set times for our next 3 meetings, one where we would drop in during our seminar leader’s office hours, and a final meeting the night before the project deadline. Agreed to all finish a first draft by 5 Dec 2019.

Meeting 05/12/19 - Terence not present due to illness
We met with our seminar leader after her seminar to receive more guidance and assurance concerning our first draft. Apparently, our work focused rather too heavily on power at the case study level instead of the overarching disciplines, so we had to regather our thoughts and rewrite a few sections of the Wikibook. We refined our plan and reallocated roles.


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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Power in Film Production

Introduction
This article discusses power within the interdisciplinary field of marketing, using research into individual film preferences as a case study. Marketing outlines and provides logical ground for the techniques that merchants use to sell their products. Specifically, social marketing is “the adaptation...of commercial marketing...as a means to induce behavioural change in a targeted audience on a temporary or permanent basis to achieve a social goal” [1] In the most extreme case, it can be argued that propaganda is a form of marketing of political ideas. Therefore, due to its natural dependency on power, marketing, as a discipline, can be better understood by analyzing the power dynamics within it through exploring people’s film preferences from different political, economic, and biological backgrounds.

Artist and the Studio
Conflict: artistic concept vs profitability

 * Artist also may create politically sensitive material - The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)
 * Experimental films are hardly profitable
 * Avant-Garde, Punk, Alternative cinema

Synergy: High profits allow artist to continue idea through sequels, more confidence in artist so more freedom is given

 * James Cameron's Titanic (1997) then Avatar (2008)

Artist and the Consumer

 * Conflict: Artist normally doesn't care about consumer
 * Artist may create something too “deep” for the crowd to perceive - experimental films
 * Punk films - aimed to enrage the audience / make the audience uncomfortable
 * Synergy: Both want a good quality film

The Studio and the Consumer

 * Conflict: Over-marketing / marketing in the wrong direction
 * Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) by Bi Gan Synergy: Studio provides according to consumer trends and likes
 * Synergy: studio are trying to provide what the consumers like
 * Frozen 2 (2019) and other series movies
 * Marvel, DC, etc.

Conclusion
Conclusion


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User:Camilleheneine/sandbox

Power in climate action
question: How does the concept of power within the discipline of International relations, sociology and economics makes it difficult to coordinate global action against climate change?

Introduction
Just introduce in three sentences the three disciplines we are going to talk about (for now: IR, economics, sociology or social sciences)

Power play between nations in IR
(my part)

Nowadays, we can say that the world is split in two, the Northern hemisphere, usually viewed as the developed part, containing countries like France, Germany, the United States of America, and the Southern hemisphere, viewed as the developing part, with countries like Mexico, Brazil, African nations and India.

Concerning climate change, we have seen that well developed countries have had their industrialisation and enriched themselves at the expense of the environment, and now they are pressuring the developing countries to go environmental friendly.

However, some of the large emerging economies like the BRICS are catching up. China, the world's factory, is the second largest economy in the world by nominal GDP (Gross Domestic product) and has the world's second-highest number of billionaires with total wealth of $996 billion. Thus, they feel it is their turn to enrich themselves and are more reluctant to place hurdles to economic growth in the shape of environmental regulations.

The power struggle between nations is illustrated by all the failed environmental treaties and negotiations such as the 1992 Kyoto Protocol or the 2009 Copenhagen Summit

It took 40 years for the global community to reach a common accord on climate actions, which culminated in the 2015 Paris agreement

As Laurie Laybourn-Langton, as associate fellow at London's Institue for Public Policy Research says :" No country on Earth is doing what is required to make sure we get toward an economic system capable of confronting the twin challenges of ecological collapse and climate change"

Power in sociology
not developed yet (maybe removed)

Cultural differences: The rural from the urban people: they have different views on it Ex: rural people are more affected by the urban people actions and are more pro climate actions.

Education: Education is a powerful tool and effective with younger generations because it's happening at school: Young people are more keen on changing our way of life because they are more affected by climate change and want to change their future vs. older generations that don't really want too change anything, they feel they will be gone before major climate change impact

Power of politics
(not developed yet, maybe removed)

There is on one side: big corporations that pay or convince congressmen (trough lobbies) to reduce the environmental regulations in order for them to continue their business without losing money

On the other side: the extinction rebellion actions trying to convince people to join their movement (it is a kind of lobbying) they are trying to mobilise voters

Power of political demonstration and actions. The power of voters

Power of economics/ money
(my part)

Economics is the most powerful factor linked to climate change. It is a real arm wrestling between money and the environment. Protecting the environment costs money through regulations on fossil fuels (carbon tax ) for example, policies and norms such as the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act.

For some countries, the regulations can be even more costly because of their geography. Indeed, some can be blessed with ample hydro electric resources while others sit on a massive pile of cheaply extracted coal. It goes as well for countries that naturally have more sun, wind... For example, it will be incredibly costly and inefficient if Russia goes for a solar source of power.

The ultimate dilemma would be the Saudis that have the world sunniest location and at the same time, they sit on top of the world's largest oil reserve.

Those costs are designed to alter people's behaviour. Doing so voluntarily because of one's conviction about climate action is much harder, because it consists eventually of reducing the consumption of various goods such as plastic, or even living in colder room temperature at home or giving up on air conditioning during summer. As Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of global investment manager GMO wrote "We face a form of capitalism that has hardened its focus to short-term profit maximisation with little or no apparent interest in social good".

Economics is at the base of all decision making. It is hard to convince people that additional cost today should be seen as an investment for the future generations, it is also utopic to believe that large corporations will trade their quarterly profits for a badge of honour on climate action. It is equally difficult to expect emerging economies trying to pull their population out of poverty to start acting in a noble fashion to protect the environment.

Conclusion
(not fully developed yet)

We could summarise by saying some people think that we should change our habits and way of living to help this crisis, but others, like Peter Diamantis in his book Abundance, say that we should not worry about the scarcity of our resources, since in a near future, technological advancements will resolve all our problems. (I think it is a quite interesting opening to the subject)

+ finish other parts (Cordelia or Stella) +images

-Group Thinking/ Final touch: removing the sociology and politics part. My addition: Talk about Stella's ethnicity/racial problems (indigenous people having no/little voice) into a new sub-chapter/ discipline called social sciences. Stella's post-colonialism part: talk about it in the IR sub-chapter (with the two sides = enough)

title: User:Camilleheneine/sandbox


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User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar)/Group 2/Power/Power of political theories in IR

A powerful tool for analyzing events and humans behaviors
Theories are leading and shaping the world of politics. Realism, liberalism, Marxism - all these theories can help us to understand and analyse events and human interactions from a specific viewpoint. Confronting and comparing different theories, being able to understand their different opinion from different view angles, help us to have a global comprehension of the world politics. As Stephen Walt (1998) states “Competition between theories helps reveal their strengths and weaknesses and spurs subsequent refinements, while revealing flaws in conventional wisdom.” In fact, understanding the attitudes and the position of different countries or international actors by comparing their respective policies enable us to have a holistic nature of the issue at stake.

The power of prediction
Subsequently, different from a simple perspective, a theory reinforces the ability of analysts and decision makers to interpret and predict events and human behaviors. Like mathematical models with probabilities, theories are able, depending on the global environment, to predict how humans are going to react. Robert Cox (1981), suggests that theories exist purposefully and can be divided into two categorizes:  the “problem-solving theory” , whose purpose is to maintain “smooth” relationship between actors by resolving troubles and the “critical theory” which calls into question the current system and its possible evolution. In fact, the critical theory “seeks to understand the process of change”.

A strategic tool to plan state policies
Theories are pathways for reaching a specific aim and for planning actions.


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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Power of the Unconscious in Court Trials

Introduction
The idea of the unconscious mind came up at the beginning of the twentieth century with the foundation of psychoanalysis by the scientist Sigmund Freud. He was the first to define it as the ‘reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories outside of our conscious awareness’. He pointed out that this obscure part of the mind could justify, explain and dictate most of human behaviours stating that ‘the ego is not master in its own house’. Since then, many studies focused on the influence of the unconscious mind in decisions making. It is important to highlight that the decision making process being ‘the basic cognitive processes of human behaviors by which a preferred option or a course of actions is chosen from among a set of alternatives based on certain criteria’, is surely made unconsciously. Different criteria are taken into account by our brain in the complex process of decision making. These range from past experiences to the actual context of the situation, hence making decision-making a biased procedure. The aim of this wikibook is to explore the power and the influences of the unconscious mind within the judicial system centering our work around these questions : Are trial judgements fair ? Could we affirm that judgements are unconsciously biased ?


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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Truth in the advertisement of tobacco

Introduction
The truth of the advertisement of tobacco in the 20th century should be viewed through interdisciplinary lenses. The particular issue of truth is that we have to consider the problem of objective truth, supported by evidence, and subjective truth that is unique to an individual and goes beyond mere facts.

The advertisement of tobacco products has been continuously subjected to false information about potential effects on health - due to lack of research or due to tobacco firms trying to hide or mitigate the truth in order to attract more costumers. To accurately assess the complexity and the importance of the truth in the advertisement of tobacco, we have to view it from a medical and psychological perspective.

Medical Approach
First we view the truth of advertisement in the tobacco industry through the lens of medicine. Medicine as a discipline aims for objective truth - particularly how smoking affects health. It uses a positivist approach in its research to gather evidence to determine whether health-related claims in the advertisements are true or false.

In the first half of the 20th century medical research about negative effects of tobacco products was still in its early stages, leaving room for many false claims used in the advertisement. The latter not only failed to address the negative health effects of smoking, but also professed false claims about positive, beneficial effects of smoking - from cigarettes that help reduce throat irritation to cigarettes as a way of treating asthma, hay fever or cold.

Filters Myth
One of the most prominent examples of inaccurate facts used in the advertisement of tobacco was the so called "filter myth". The tobacco industry promoted filters as "the greatest health protection in cigarette history ". Chemists were aware that filters actually removed no additional tar or nicotine - proving a deliberate decision to advertise false information for economic gain. These health claims boosted Viceroy cigarette sales and new filter cigarette brands started flooding the market. In 1952 Kent introduced filters made of crocidolite asbestos, which was later discovered to cause many health-related problems, including mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer. However, here one can argue that false claims were made as a consequence of lack of research or evidence.

Smoking is “the most extensively documented cause of disease ever investigated”. With increased medical research through the century, more negative health effects related to smoking were discovered. Medicine contributed to the issue of truth in advertising of tobacco with its efforts for objective truth in the matter - disproving the claims made in ads of positive effects on health.

However, it is important to note that while medicine aims for objective truth, there are still subjective components present (biases in research). We can also see that the truth of medicine is not in any way absolute and is constantly changing due to new research, evidence - and will continue to do so in the future.

Psychological Approach
Second we view the truth of advertisement of tobacco through a psychological approach. Truth in psychology differs importantly from that of medicine - while medicine is concerned with objective truth, psychology focuses more on the subjective truth of each individual. In other words, psychology's primary concern is not whether the claims about health effects of cigarettes are objectively true or false, but rather how different marketing techniques influenced people's perception of truth - essentially, why people believed those claims, how different social groups responded to them and how their subjective truth was changed.

Prominent Public Figures in Advertisement
The tobacco industry has used entertainers, politicians, doctors, dentists and other prominent figures in their advertising. Their common feature is that people trust them and their judgement that smoking is good for them. Even though the ad might not contained false information, which is an issue of objective truth, it subtly influenced people's own subjective truth. By using a certain public figure, that is regarded as responsible, trustworthy, or admirable, tobacco firms created a perception that smoking is something desirable, socially acceptable and essentially healthy and good for the targeted consumer.

The example with health professionals advertising tobacco products is even more significant. It combined false claims of positive health benefits (objective truth) with doctors' authority and social status that made people believe those claims (subjective truth). "The physician constituted an evocative, reassuring figure to include in their advertisements"

Advertisement Aimed at Women
At the beginning of the 1920s, tobacco industries started targeting women in their advertisement to expand their market. They advertised smoking as an act of "emancipation, stylishness, sophistication, and sexual allure". They captured women's attention and encouraged them to associate cigarettes with their fight for greater emancipation and independence. The strategy and aim of such advertising was to persuade women to adopt this "truth" promoted by tobacco industry. Women believed that they could obtain social popularity, respect and confidence by smoking. By promoting this notion of independence and desirability of women smoking, advertisers succeeded in influencing the individual's perception of how cigarettes help you to achieve that goal.

As with the medical approach it is important to recognise that while psychology is largely concerned with the subjective truth of each individual, it still conducts its research in the most objective manner possible, as well as it aims for objective truth as to how to advertise to target different social groups, employing both positivist as well as normative approach in its research.

Conclusion
Truth was an issue in the advertisement of tobacco for a large part of the 20th century, because of the lack of medical research that allowed tobacco firms to incorporate misleading and untruthful claims in their advertisement to appeal to consumers. Medical approach to advertising of smoking focuses on the so called objective truth, in particular how advertisement used false claims about health effects of smoking. With increased medical research through the century, medicine provides empirical evidence to disprove such inaccurate claims. However, to accurately assess the issue of truth in the advertisement of tobacco, one has to also consider the subjective truth of each individual - in our case the consumer who believed those claims. Psychology focuses on this issue, and studies how marketing techniques in advertising influenced people's subjective truth, and essentially made them believe the tobacco industry's claims.

In conclusion, to assess the complexity and the importance of the truth in the advertisement of tobacco, we are required to use an interdisciplinary approach. By studying how different disciplines, in our case medicine and psychology, approach and see the truth, we are provided with a more complete picture and more accurate view of the actual truth in the advertisement of tobacco.


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Micronations/List of past micronations/Operation Atlantis

Operation Atlantis was a project started by Werner Stiefel in 1968 aiming to establish a new, libertarian nation in international waters. The operation launched a ferro-cement boat on the Hudson River in December 1971 and piloted it to an area near the Bahamas. Upon reaching its destination, it sank in a hurricane. After a number of subsequent failed attempts to construct a habitable sea platform and achieve sovereign status, the project was abandoned.

Origin
Werner Stiefel was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1921. His family established a soap manufacturing business in Germany, but were driven from the country by Nazis. In 1942, Stiefel, his father, and his brother set up a new business in the United States, Stiefel Medicinal Soap Company. As of 2006, Stiefel Laboratories was the largest privately owned dermatological company in the world, with over 2,500 employees and offices in more than 100 countries. Lubriderm was one of their best-known products. Werner remained president and CEO until his retirement in 2001.

He was inspired by the works of Ayn Rand, particularly Atlas Shrugged. Despite his relative liberty in the United States, Stiefel was convinced that postwar America was on the same road to socialism which had strangled free enterprise in Europe and the Asia. To preserve his own liberty and that of other like-minded and capable people, Stiefel sought to "test the hypothesis that a free, capitalist society can exist and flourish in today's world" by physically building a libertarian nation in the Caribbean. Operation Atlantis was thus born.

The Plan
1). Gather Libertarians in a single location where they can work together to build an integrated community (Motel = Atlantis I).

2). Acquire an ocean vessel and declare it to be an independent craft sailing under the flag of this new country while in international waters (Ship = Atlantis II).

3). Using this vessel and possibly an island, create a sovereign country as close to U.S. shores as possible. (Ship + Island = Atlantis III)

Starting a community – Atlantis I (1968–70)
His first move was to form the Atlantis Development Company, under which he would purchase the land and equipment necessary for the construction of a new country. Operating out of the Sawyerkill Motel in Saugerties, New York, near one of his soap-making plants, Stiefel began assembling a team of enthusiastic young libertarians. In order to attract individuals from across the United States, he wrote The Story of Operation Atlantis under the pseudonym Werner K. Stevens, and published it via his own Atlantis Publishing Company. The book was a call to action for entrepreneurial libertarians to seek an exit from established states and build a polity based on liberty.

In March, 1969, Stiefel traveled to the Caribbean in search of a base for Operation Atlantis. In his monthly bulletin, The Atlantis News, Stiefel announced a promising location known as the Prickly Pear Cays in the Leeward Islands. These seamounts were owned by the Anguillan government, which declined to sell them to Atlantis.

As the community at the motel steadily grew, Stiefel continued his search. By the spring of 1970, the Atlanteans settled on the Silver Shoals Cays, claimed by both Haiti and the Bahamas, as a suitable location for a shoal landfill and a habitable sea platform. By May of that year, Stiefel visited the region to take aerial photos and plan the settlement.

Building Atlantis II (1970–71)
By the end of summer 1970, Stiefel and the Atlantis community were satisfied with the choice of Silver Shoals for Atlantis III. They were ready to begin phase two of their plan, and proceeded to ready the materials for the construction of a ferrocement seagoing vessel, Atlantis II. Under a geodesic dome next to the motel to protect their construction site from the elements, building the 38 foot ship occupied the members of Operation Atlantis for a full year. With the aid of independent contractors, Atlantis II was finally completed in December 1971.

Atlantis III and Decline (1971–73)
Once Atlantis II was finished, Stiefel and the Atlanteans were eager to launch the craft before the Hudson River froze for the winter. The ferrocement boat was launched into the river at high tide, but as the tide receded, the boat capsized and lay sideways in the mud, while a kerosene lamp broke inside and partially ruined the interior. But the concrete and steel hull survived, and the boat began its voyage down the east coast of the U.S. towards Silver Shoals. After a number of mishaps, including a broken propeller shaft, Atlantis II was able to reach the Bahamas. This success did not last, however, as a hurricane caused the boat to sink soon after.

Despite this loss, the members of Operation Atlantis did not quit. Stiefel bought a new boat and moved the Operation to Tortuga Island, where the Atlanteans prepared to build Silver Shoals into dry land. The Haitian government was highly suspicious of their plans, and Operation Atlantis was subsequently driven off Tortuga and forced to advance its construction of Atlantis III at Silver Shoals. After dredging sand for a new island and even recovering silver coins from a nearby shipwreck, they had high hopes that Stiefel's dream for a libertarian polity might soon be real.

Nevertheless, operating on local reports that pirates were diving for shipwrecks in the area, a Haitian gunboat happened upon Atlantis' construction site. Mistaking them for robbers, its captain ordered the Atlanteans: leave or be shot. With no arms to defend themselves and not seeking an international incident, Stiefel and his allies were forced to abandon Silver Shoals.

After this fiasco, most of Operation Atlantis' members returned to the United States. To revive the project, Stiefel purchased an oil rig which he planned to tow and deposit at the Misteriosa Banks between Honduras and Cuba. Like the others, this craft failed as well when it was blown out to sea by a hurricane, and destroyed. Stiefel's final attempt to create a libertarian nation was to buy an island off the coast of Belize with the intention of gaining freeport status from the Belizean government. Finally, growing old and tired of working with the bureaucracy, he put the island up for sale. This marked the end of Operation Atlantis.


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Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Truth in Abortion

The abortion debate is one of the most polarising everyday controversies, dichotomizing people into being either "pro-choice" or "pro-life". "Pro-choice" insists that women should be able to choose whether or not to abort, whereas "pro-life" prioritises the life of the embryo.

The abortion debate is considered to be a moral dilemma, as views on the matter typically stem from opinions on the following:
 * When life begins. Is an embryo alive upon conception or at its first heartbeat?
 * Whether or not life implies "personhood" . Killing a person is considered murder, whereas killing a fish isn't. Is an embryo a person or not? Hence, is abortion murder?
 * Whether one's quality of life is or isn't a factor. Is knowing that an embryo could have a poor quality of life sufficient reason for abortion? Should a mother be able to terminate if completing the pregnancy would worsen her quality of life?

A short case study: Professor Lejeune's Dilemma

Jerome Lejeune was a twentieth-century Catholic geneticist. In 1958 he discovered an abnormal chromosome on the 21st pair, proving a relationship between mental disability and a chromosomal anomaly. Whilst his work earned him numerous scientific awards, he was troubled that his research was used to identify disabilities including Down Syndrome with the aim of terminating pregnancy due to the difficult life that awaited such children. As pro-abortion movements began growing in size, Lejeune's theological understanding of truth prevailed; he gave anti-abortion conferences worldwide, arguing that pregnant women weren't given enough information and foresight about a life with disabled children.

Developmental Biology & Psychology
Through an objective approach, developmental biology models an accurate account of the growth of organisms, using methods of experimentation. It is especially concerned with embryonic development, and hence pertinent in understanding reproduction: the first cell formed after fertilisation, the zygote, contains all the necessary material to sustain life and develop into a complete individual. Thus, from this perspective, life begins at conception. However, whilst a zygote is a form of life, so are parents' germ cells and billions of other cells we lose everyday. In this case, is killing a sperm cell abortion?

Similarly, psychologists seek to understand the relationship between the human minds and behaviors. A fetus is considered a subject in psychology and therefore "alive" at 32 weeks when its brain develops the ability to reason. Psychologists also argue that personhood begins at 18 months, where a newborn develops self-awareness, which is arguably, as stated by René Descartes, the main characteristic of a person: "I think therefore I am".

Studies have classically shown that abortion can lead to depression and anxiety for women, but recent research has also shown that unwanted pregnancy, terminated or not, may cause negative side effects.

Empirical scientists often have narrow perceptions of truth: they create a constantly-growing field of evidence for other disciplines to then draw their own conclusions. Science isn’t concerned with the abortion debate as much as it seeks to deepen our knowledge about life itself.

Sociology & Law
Sociology follows a deflationary, interpretive approach, observing patterns in order to understand of the development of human society. There are, however, less common sociologists who seek positivist truth through research and methodical testing. Sociology plays a crucial role in the abortion debate due to its influence on law-making. The Roe v. Wade, 1973 case provides a framework to consider the legal position on abortion.

Roe v. Wade

Positivist studies proving that premature birth survival rates increase exponentially after the third trimester fostered the court’s understanding of when life begins. The court inferred, that abortion should be legal during the first trimester and legal only if necessary to protect the mother's health during the second and third, implying a fetus is considered “more alive” in the later trimesters.

As of 1971, there were no legal cases where a fetus was considered a person. This was an argument made by the plaintiff, Jane Doe, who used the pattern-seeking nature of sociological truth to conclude that a fetus must therefore not be a person. Quality of life wasn't mentioned as a factor in the case, but the verdict maintained that a woman's right to privacy, stated under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, fostered her right to an abortion on any grounds whatsoever during the first trimester.

Biblical Theology
Biblical theology is the study of God according to the Bible. Pontius Pilate asked "What is truth?", to which Jesus replies "I am the way, the truth and the life". Theological truth isn't quantifiable, nor existentially relevant; it is the "self-expression of God", following the coherence theory of truth, with God as the fixed system against which truth is measured.

The cornerstone of Biblical theology is the Ten Commandments, one of which is "You shall not kill". Theologists might follow the biological view that human life begins at conception, thus concluding that Biblical doctrines that forbid abortion should be universally accepted, even if the life of the woman is at stake. On the other hand, a theologist could argue that the portrait of personhood starts with Adam & Eve in the New Testament, not with an objective explanation of conception. A person is portrayed as a complex being, with the ability to make irrational decisions: to kill, to lie, among others, as "God created men to be an image of his own eternity". Following this line of reasoning, a fetus is not a person, but a pregnant woman is. If a fetus is not to be considered as a person until it matches the description of Adam & Eve, the life and well-being of a woman should be placed above that of an unborn child.

Interdisciplinary views & Conclusion
Whilst biologists recognise the beginning of life as conception, ignoring the concepts of personhood and quality of life, psychologists specifically focus on the mind and its two significant milestones, resulting in a divergent conclusion: life begins at 32 weeks and personhood 18 months after birth. It applies its positivism to consider the quality of life and how abortion may affect it. Sociology, from its deflationary point of view, doesn't have one specific point at which it considers life to have begun and demonstrates interpretivism in its conclusion, in the Roe v. Wade case, that a fetus isn't a person and that quality of life is immensely significant. Theology establishes, through the coherence theory, that personhood begins at a much later point than the other disciplines. God is eternal and has no beginning, hence we cannot determine the point at which life begins, nor whether quality of life matters.

The overlap in views from many different disciplines makes abortion a never-ending debate. But by breaking down the disciplines' conception of truth, it allows us to look past the abortion controversy as being strictly binary and to better understand where differing views stem. In his case, Lejeune wasn't able to reconcile his theological understanding of truth with his scientific one, ultimately choosing to prioritize the former. The dilemma he faces is one of many examples showing how different definitions and interpretations of truth within disciplines can play out in global issues.


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Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Truth in Abortion

To whom this may concern,

We first met as a group on the 19th of November, and discussed a wide range of global issues which we thought of as being 'interdisciplinary'. We discussed Lejeune's Dilemma but quickly came to realize that it would be difficult to construct an entire wiki book chapter on it, so we focused more largely on abortion. As a group, a couple days later, we discussed how the debate of abortion played out at the level of disciplines, and how truth was an interdisciplinary issue in this debate. We separated our research task as follows:

Omotara - research on truth in abortion through the disciplines of Sociology/Law. Charline - research on truth in abortion through the discipline of Biology. Loic - research on truth in abortion through the discipline of Theology.

A couple days later, Gleb joined our group and decided to research truth in abortion through the discipline of Psychology. When we met again, we all brought our ideas to the table and figured out the ways in which they were related. Omotara proposed that we organized our wiki book with each discipline anwering three main questions that led to varying points of view on abortion; these are now in our introduction.

Finally, after having redrafted our disciplines accordingly, we met again on the sixth of december and started to cut down all parts as a group. After having kept only the information that we believed to be relevant to our exact topic, we decided that we needed a paragraph to discuss why the interdisciplinary view vary in this way (we planned the section together & Omotara typed it up) and a short conclusion (Loic). We also needed to check and rephrase all references (Gleb) and structure our article in a nicer way, adding pictures and hyperlinks (Charline).

We met a final time on the eight of december and cut down the article to under 1200 words.

Best wishes,

Omotara, Charline, Loic, Gleb


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Micronations/Micronational war/Francian-Gustavian Civil War

Well however small this micronation had two political parties and well one family the francias family said they were the rightful rulers the other wealthy family claimed independence with 27 casualties (2 from suicidal thoughts) but then the fighting was 2 battles in with the francias family lost


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Visual Basic for Applications/Array Output Transfers

Summary
'''This VBA code module demonstrates four basic methods of array display. It is intended to run in MS Excel, though with the exception of the first method, transfer to the worksheet, it could be adapted easily for MS Word or other MS Office applications that run VBA.'''

Code Notes

 * The code first loads an array with selected random data.  Then the entire array is transferred to the worksheet.   The data is further formatted and displayed in the immediate window, in well spaced columns.   An additional copy of the formatted output is passed to the clipboard for further external use, and it is also sent to a text file to illustrate the method.
 * RndDataToArr can load an array with random data. The data types can be set as parameters, and further limits can be found within the procedure itself. Alpha, integer, decimal, dates, and mixed data are available, most random in both length and content.
 * Arr1Dor2DtoWorksheet can transfer either a one-dimensional or two dimensional array to a worksheet. It can be positioned at any location.   It checks that an array exists,that it is allocated, and its number of dimensions in setting the transfer range.
 * DispArrInImmWindow formats and displays a 2D array in the immediate window of the VBA editor.  It takes account of all data length in setting the well aligned columns.    There are parameters to set maximum decimal places and the choice of decimal point alignment or raw data.  The layout can handle mixed columns of text and numbers, though it has best appearance when all data of a column is of the same type.  The whole array's formatted output is available as a single string for external use, useful for arrays beyond 199 rows, as too big for the immediate window.
 * CopyToClip is used to pass a string to the clipboard.  It is used here to upload the formatted array string. The clipboard will retain the contents only until the calling application (Excel) closes.   It should be noted that other clipboard procedures in this series retain their content until the Windows platform closes.
 * GetFromClip retrieves the contents of the clipboard. It is used here purely for demonstration.  It passes the entire formatted string of the array to a text file.
 * WriteToFile opens and writes to a named text file.  It completely replaces any text that it already contains.  If the file does not exist the procedure makes it, in the same directory as the Excel file itself.

The VBA Code Module
Copy the entire code listing into an Excel VBA module, and run the top procedure to test the four array transfer methods. Save the file as type xlsm. The code writes to Sheet1, and to the immediate window of the VBA editor. Further array listings will be found on the clipboard and in a text file made for the purpose.


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User:Midas7g

My name is Justin Gilman and I am a software engineer. I have been programming since 1999 and I am a domain expert in multiple industries and across several languages.

You can contact me by editing my Talk page.

title: User:Midas7g


text:
User talk:Midas7g

Please leave any messages here if you want to contact me.

title: User talk:Midas7g


text:
User:Joedf

Same person as on wikipedia: wiki/User:Joedf

title: User:Joedf


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OERlabs Openbook

Dear Readers,

the OERlabs have experienced a lot. Much of it can hardly be put into words, because project experience is unique and the experiences are closely interwoven with the situation. This makes it all the more difficult to write a technical project report for a project like the OERlabs. Where should we start, where would we stop?

For this reason, we decided early on to document our experiences and results of the project in the form of an "OpenBook". So we prefer to offer readers an 'open book': Open in two ways: Of course, we borrow from the Open debate by giving insights into our everyday research, work and project life, i.e. our practice. On the other hand, it should also be clearly understood in a sense that we are not interested in a glossy final report, but rather in giving clear insight into the process and our development, with all its ups and downs. Because a principle like "Copy&Paste" does not work in practice, not even in connection with OER. It is important to take a very close look at how practice presents itself (in our case at universities or schools).

Not only because of this, there is a certain similarity between our OpenBook and the idea of field notes in qualitative research. There too, notes are made during a situation itself in order to describe it. But they also serve as an opportunity to talk about the situation or to get into discussions about it. The OpenBook of the OERlabs also contains many notes, text, image and audio snippets that have already been published during the course of the project and documented in this way. These are no longer presented chronologically, but arranged thematically, so that a collage (i.e. content buffet) is created. In addition, there are new notes on topics which, from our media pedagogical point of view, are relevant for the (subsequent) sketch of a context, a project and concrete measures or tying our experiences back to the theoretical discourse. These have mainly emerged in the last third of the project, i.e. after the conclusion of the so-called Multi-Stakeholder dialogues. Irrespective of how the notes came about in detail: They give outsiders an insight into our concrete work and our (preliminary) reflections at different (abstraction) levels. This is one of the reasons why the thematic structure of the OpenBook describes the special features of the two universities in Cologne and Kaiserslautern first separately and then together. Various reference theories are used to explain facets of the project on the research side and to make them connectable to discourses in media pedagogy and university research.

We believe that the book-like, but multimedia and not necessarily 'stubborn' linear approach will help our readers find their way through and to the OERlabs. Thus, all participants have used very different ways to deal with OER, (university) school and (formalised) education in the course of one and a half years of project funding by the BMBF. At the same time there is the opportunity to comment on our experiences. Such feedback is again important in order to move from situational experiences to design principles. In addition, it might be helpful to relate one's own institution or practices to those that were usually in the foreground in the OERlabs. How do they fit together (or not)? What presents itself differently? How would you solve the problem? And what is the connection?

We wish you a pleasant read and look forward to numerous comments from your practice!

The OERlabs Team

title: OERlabs Openbook


text:
OERlabs Openbook/Project (MSD)

MSD Kickoff at the UoC, issues and topic priorities
The concept of the MSD under the title "OER meets good teaching" will take place from 14.12.2017 to 05.07.2018. The four dates deal with:

Methods, "rules" and work processes
All our MSD took place on the premises of the University of Cologne and usually lasted for about 4 hours (from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.). Since the MSD was not intended to be a well-structured conference, but rather a space for discussion, we have arranged for an external moderation. At the beginning all participants will be informed about the photo documentation and are free to choose whether they want to be seen on the photos or not. Our dialogue event is connected to the Chatham House rule so that the information received can be freely used without revealing the identity of the other participants. To warm up, we invite our guests to talk to an unknown person. As working methods for our participants we planned to work in small groups with the focus on networking. The introduction to the topics will be simplified with the three MSD Impulse lectures. Finally, in order to give room for feedback and suggestions, we use the "One Minute Paper" method (with 2-3 questions). We document and digitize all results afterwards. For the presentation of the final project results we work with the Speed Geeking Method, which makes it possible to visualize the complete results of all parts of the project in a short time. The sketch method serves very well to loosen up the questions and to answer them quickly. The presentation of a student project underlines the importance of student participation. Keynote lecture and Panel discussion (with student participation) also find their place in our final MSD. A presentation helps us to a better visualisation and a coffee break with cake is always seen as a good networking opportunity.

Participants
We select our participants according to pre-defined criteria and invite them personally to the MSD. It is important for us to invite stakeholders who can bring their diverse perspectives into the dialogue and exchange ideas with each other. In order to develop possible solutions for open practices and OER in the context of teacher training during the process, our participants come from the following areas:

 * the prorector for teaching and studies and patron of our project (Professor Dr. Stefan Herzig).
 * Head of the Department of Education and Social Sciences,
 * The Intermedia Student Council,
 * the research management,
 * our lecturers for the BFP seminars at the Centre for Teacher Education,
 * the Head of Digital Studies at the UoC,
 * The Faculty of Law,
 * Students, especially teacher training students,
 * Cologne University and City Library,
 * our partners from Kaiserslautern,
 * the scientific personnel development of the UoC,
 * the Centre for Teacher Education,
 * the Center Network Media with the sister project "OERinForm",
 * Regional Computer Centre (RZZK) UoC,
 * Prorector for scientific personnel and junior staff,
 * Graduate School UoC,
 * Institute for Art & Art Theory,
 * Competence centre for legal learning and teaching,
 * CompetenceCenter E-learning, UoC,
 * Center for University Didactics,
 * Personnel Development UoC,
 * School Research Division,
 * UoC Press & Communication,
 * Mercator Institute for Language Promotion and German as a Second Language
 * Other (snowball principle)

Results and documentation
The information and results about our MSD are documented in detail and can be read on our website. A report is written for each core MSD date and a podcast is produced for three of them as a reflection.

Report MSD 1 (in German): Utopia of a school: What should a school on Mars look like? Podcast. Episode 12 (in German): We have a LIFT-OFF (MSD1 Cologne)

Report MSD 2 (in German): How does knowledge flow in the teaching profession? Podcast. Episode 13 (in German): The Recognition of the Knowledge Flow (MSD2 Cologne)

Report MSD 3 (in German): Solutions wanted: problems, strategies and solutions Podcast. Episode 19 (in German): review, preview and everything in between.

Report MSD 4 (in German): Conclusion of the multi-stakeholder dialogue at the University of Cologne. (MSD No. 4) Podcast. Episode 22 (in German): Welcome to the Matrix.

All reports (except photos), blog posts and podcasts are licensed under CC-BY and may be edited, supplemented and reused. One of the most important results that emerges in the course of the MSD process is the Impact/Effort Matrix, which contains solutions proposed by the participants in the dialogue on openness and OER at the University of Cologne.

Project organisation side-notes

 * During the organisational phases of all core appointments, the team faced a number of challenges: Room occupancy and reaching the participants. Room occupancy at the University of Cologne is not an easy matter for the organisation, as the appropriate rooms are not available in large numbers and are quickly booked out. The application process involves a great deal of bureaucracy and must be planned in advance. Another challenge is the acquisition of participants. In the time immediately before an MSD the follow-up takes place, in order to have a larger number of the stakeholders at the event. The participants will be reminded of the event and asked to confirm their participation by telephone.
 * The student perspective and participation in the dialogue process is of great importance in our project. The keynote lecture by Sebastian Arz, a student teacher at the University of Cologne, was very well received and left a lasting impression. Sebastian Arz presents not only his seminar product - OER instruction series to the topic friction digital test protocol, and explained that the independent familiarization into the topic OER is possible. This lecture clarifies again what students are able to carry out, if the possibility is given to them.
 * Colleagues from an institution see the format of the MSD as a suitable form for their working methods and would like to make use of this format.
 * An appropriate range of catering (drinks and snacks) may set it apart from other university events and contribute to a friendly and relaxed (working) atmosphere.

Technical University Kaiserslautern
Based on the preliminary conceptual considerations (cf. Instruments // MSD // Field Notes: What is the setting? the employees of the TUK oriented themselves based on planned steps of an MSD (Hemmati, 2002; Dodds & Benson, o.J):
 * 1) Initiating the process
 * 2) Generating the main themes and actors
 * 3) Preparing and conducting dialogues
 * 4) Follow-Up phase.

Initiating the process
The project is under the patronage of the Vice President for Studies and Teaching, therefore, based on the preliminary considerations at the OER regulars' table both the initial planning and implementation is discussed with him and the definition of stakeholders is agreed upon by him as well. In addition, it is determined that the invitation will be issued by him. In the stakeholder analysis all relevant persons of the TUK are identified. This is expanded according to the topic of the Round Table. The extension applies in particular to representatives of teacher education institutions as well as (teacher training) students and pupils.

Generating the main topics
Based on the claim to promote OER in teacher education and thus to address the teacher education chain, the topics OER in the university, OER in teacher education and OER in the region are set. As shown in the preliminary conceptual considerations, these are intensively linked with the OERlabs and the OER events.

Preparation and implementation of the events
These took place in the rotunda of the TUK, the "good room" of the TU. Through both measures (invitation by the vice president as well as a special event room) the round tables gained a certain visibility within the university. The Round Tables took place in the afternoons and lasted between 2 and 3 hours. The structure of the Round Tables was similar: After a welcome by the Vice President for Studies and Teaching, Dr. Löhrke, there was a thematic input, followed by an exchange and work phase for those present. The results of the work were collected and subsequently summarised and made available to all those present by e-mail as documentation. Only in the last event was a presentation of the materials produced in the OERlabs supplemented.

The first round table took place in December 2017 with a focus on higher education in general. Stakeholders from the TUK and its institutes as well as other universities were invited. Prof. Dr. Jäckel, President of the University of Trier, was invited as a keynote speaker. After a short input on the topic of OER at the university, three thematic tables were offered. The topic complexes at the tables form "guard rails" in which (higher) school fields OER can have an effect. However, they should be open enough to absorb the participants' associations and thoughts.
 * The first theme table on the topic of "Openness: Marketing or Branding" discussed the motives for developing openness at the university and especially in teaching. Legal and structural hurdles were discussed, but also the chances for an educational institution to deepen and establish open practices were pointed out.
 * At the table for media production, the desire and will to create diverse didactic materials became apparent. Obvious hurdles were identified, which make such a creation more difficult. Approaches to problem solving with the support of OER were also discussed.
 * OPEN KIOSK: At the cooperation kiosk, the "customers" were able to place strategic conditions, such as runners or target group analysis, in their shopping bags in order to illustrate successful cooperation approaches. In addition, incentive structures were discussed for potential partners* to participate.

The second round table took place on the subject of teacher training. In addition to the participants of the first round table, representatives of teacher training were also invited (e.g. teacher training institutes, ministries, teachers, head teachers, trainee teachers, pupils, etc.). The aim was to get as many actors as possible from the teacher training chain into conversation under multi-perspectivity. After first looking back at first year process of the project and summarising where successes and pitfalls lie in the implementation of OER in teacher training, Mandy Schiefner-Rohs's keynote speech also highlighted perspectives on OER and teaching that had previously received little attention. On the one hand, a variety of media is already being used in the teaching context, which also refers to interactive and online materials. Here the teachers do not begin from scratch. On the other hand, it is about more than just the production of new materials (keywords: opening up teaching, designing learning spaces, etc.). As a result, the audience was invited to think and participate: through teaching/learning cooperations, through the negotiation of evaluation criteria for materials and the question of error culture in schools, through the passing on of knowledge in colleges and much more.

The third round table opened up and the topic for the region and the question of what OER can contribute in educational landscapes (not only for teacher education). According to the motto "What can we do already - What do we still need", Dr. Martin Verlage, Managing Director of KL.digital GmbH, will present which measures and projects have already been developed in the region and what educational projects have been implemented in Kaiserslautern beyond the university(s) before the role of OER in the region was discussed: from teacher education and school development to the opening of the university and equal opportunities in an educational landscape. At the end of the event, the guests had the opportunity to gather impressions of the various "OER locations" created within the framework of the project, placed on pin boards. On symbolic dandelions, ideas and comments were recorded, which will be processed by the OER team of the TUK and should contribute to a further investigation of the topic.

Follow-up
The experiences of the respective Round Tables were summarised in two- to three-page PDF documents and made available to the participants by e-mail. In addition, a podcast or a video was produced for the round tables, in which the experiences were brought together again and the reflection was stimulated.

title: OERlabs Openbook/Project (MSD)


text:
OERlabs Openbook/3 questions 3 answers (People)

Feedback Questions
After all events were finished we asked the participants to give us feedback to three questions. Some of those answers were quite short others quite extensive. The following part gives a wordcloud visualization and a tabellaric view of the answers for each question.

Question 2 - In one sentence: how did you benefit personally from the OERlabs?

==Question 3 - The OERlabs lived from the cooperation of the University of Cologne, the TU Kaiserslautern, schools and many more partners: in your opinion, what can your institution learn from the OERlabs?==


text:
OERlabs Openbook/Higher education between researching and designing (Design Principles)

What remains of the OERlabs? A question like this inevitably arises in project-oriented research when the beginning and end of a project are determined by time limits (critical Zierer, 2011 ) and the field in the current constellation must also be left again. Thus, after the end of the project, the personal memories of the OERlabs and the experiences made in connection with the various activities (cf. epilogue Reinmann in Dürnberger/Hofhues/Sporer, 2011 ), but also the one or other newly established connections remain. In addition, we assume that the 'spirit of the OERlabs' lives on at the respective universities and beyond: dialogical formats have already been copied and reused elsewhere (#mixingpossible); student participation was perceived as helpful and not as permanently critical; (media) laboratories were physically initiated if they were lacking in organization, to name just a few examples.

In a practice and development project that aims to sensitize individual actors in higher education and teacher training and ultimately to cultural change ("Change", Walter & Riegler, 2016 ) in schools and universities, the examples mentioned are already considerable successes. However, they manifest themselves less in (externally) visible structures and can be summarised under the headings of communication and phenomenal networking. Because we have been in dialogue with many actors in teacher education and all media- and teaching-related institutions in various forms (from dialogue formats and open lab formats to the social web in Twitter and Podcast) for over a year and a half, we now know comparatively exactly where the shoe pinches. It also became clear that the actual challenges in cooperation lie behind the phenomena currently under discussion: it is not (only) about OER, but (also) about questions of cooperative teaching development. In such cases, we have encouraged actors to become active themselves or to join forces and form so-called OERhubs as nodes. Because expertise is available in many places in the organisations, it "only" has to be disclosed and bundled.

We see OERhubs as nodes in the network of those actors who were involved in the OERlabs or who joined forces in a network-like form on the basis of thematically similar ideas and interests. OERhubs are currently virtual hubs that can change. The approach of the project allows actors to seek decentralised problem solutions themselves and to institutionalise their hubs in this way.

In this way, a central principle can be extracted which in our opinion is helpful for the research and design of schools and universities: With the OERlabs, we have made an attempt not to start from the (qualification or competence) deficits of the actors, but to address their individual knowledge and skills as well as their subjective attitudes as essential for the design of schools or universities. In our application for funding it says:

However, it is not so much the handling of OER as an information resource or educational material that students or lecturers need to learn. In our opinion, the joint creation and dissemination/processing of OER is more challenging for those involved: Our OER-related courses reveal, among other things, how well or poorly students, lecturers or teachers can cooperate, how much or little they know about media and in particular media technology and media law issues, and that media are rarely seen as part of a didactic arrangement, but rather as "add-ons" to motivate or activate learners, etc. (...)

Accordingly, we do not assume that teacher training students, teachers or multipliers lack a specific design competence for OER; instead, we use the experience and knowledge or action resources to quickly become effective in the OERlabs and to successively transfer OER-related findings into existing or new training and further education programmes beyond the end of the project.

The pedagogical principle of empowerment goes hand in hand with inspiring the actors above all for their own actions or offering them a possibility for (systematic) reflection in their own actions (cf. Den Ouden in Dürnberger/Hofhues/Sporer 2011 ). This seems particularly appropriate for dealing with current phenomena and the media, as the actors are encountered at eye level. Both the way in which we meet in the OERlabs and the goal of networking for cooperative or collaborative problem-solving find anchor points and correspondences in the research literature. Our focus is not only on the experiences of each participant in the OERlabs, but also on the organisation and specific forms of organisation within and between traditional ideas of organisation (on relational university development see Hofhues, Pensel & Möller, 2018 ).

In this respect, the OERlabs, with their anchoring in two (media-)pedagogically/didactically oriented professorships, make it clear that, on the one hand, the transfer of scientific findings into practice through reflection and communication is possible and, on the other hand, research can also take place in development projects. Without our own understanding of research as co-design (cf. Hofhues et al., i.Dr. ) this path would be difficult to follow. From our perspective, the principles of action of the OERlabs also address the specifics of the educational organisations school and university: the importance of adaptive-evolutionary innovations has been discussed here for years (Altrichter et al.; 1st synergy contribution by OERlabs ). We are therefore not interested in implementing a trend topic or a technical innovation per se, or a technical innovation that bypasses people's needs, but rather in addressing social innovations by adopting certain (communication and action) practices. Those changes are visible and we can anecdotally report about them. How (higher) school practice will present itself in the further course would have to be researched more closely with reconstructive procedures of empirical social research (reference You(r) Study).

So do we complete the project and move out of the field by closing the doors of the OERlabs in their specific project form? Or do we take the field metaphor seriously and have first cultivated the field to cultivate it together and to see how the seeds grow because we have been able to consider various possibilities of arable farming and social space design? So do the results of a project have to be available by the end of the project or is sustainability only apparent when something can be created? The perspectives on this vary depending on the perspective on a project, on research as (one's own) work within a knowledge-based organisation, on the contribution of research to shaping practice or on the skills that we have (further) developed in the course of such a project. So nobody could have guessed in the run-up to the project how important, for example, an appealing and pleasant catering offer would become for all participants (see MSD Cologne) or why we were repeatedly exposed as a fan community (see MSD Cologne). What might present itself with a smile to readers, projects the project reality into OpenBook and makes it possible that we necessarily have to get away from it. After all, we only want to deal with bee sting during breaks and otherwise rather think about questions of (media) education.

That's also why it's fitting to close the OpenBook with an image that has been circulating in the project for a long time and fits the lab metaphor: With the OERlabs we have stirred up all sorts of topics and potential new projects under the carpet of digital media and the (formal) organisation of education (cf. blog post patchwork carpet OER). Research and design are therefore inextricably linked, even beyond the OERlabs.

That's also why it's a good idea to close the OpenBook with a picture that we've already touched on above: With the OERlabs we have discovered all sorts of topics and potential new projects in the wide corridor of the university organization, which otherwise tend to grow wild. What has become visible, however, is that continuous observation of the field is needed, that communication and the design of experiential spaces function like a fertilizer - research and design are therefore inseparably linked, even beyond the OERlabs.


text:
OERlabs Openbook/Wanting to change higher education institutions (Design Principles)

Getting in the field
How many projects at universities aim to bring about concrete changes? This is an exciting question that probably cannot be answered with a "black-and-white" answer, because projects as well as universities and colleges are nuanced in their processes. In principle, one always finds freedom, independence and opportunities in the university environment (or in science). However, both sides (project vs. university system) have their own routines for action (project logic vs. administrative logic). In order to be able to bring about change at the desired level, it is first necessary to familiarise oneself with the existing processes. Now one could argue that not every university level is open and receptive to new projects or ideas and processes. When it comes to the administrative apparatus, one is probably confronted with difficulties at one point, be it filling out specific forms, communicating and planning projects or organising open work processes. On this level it cannot (or should not) be the claim to encourage the university to be more open, although this would make sense from the point of view of a digital and open project.

This acknowledgement is important, as changes at this level should not be triggered by the actions of a few project members, but by a common goal on the part of the whole organisation. Of course, this sounds very vague, because how do you communicate with the "whole organization"? As a project in the OERlabs we had the opportunity to initiate many thought and work processes and to roll them up anew or to confront people with other possibilities. Here the demand for change manifests itself on a basic level of an organization, because what effects would a concrete position paper and future concept of OERlabs on openness actually have on thought processes? It was much more important to hold in-depth discussions (or dialogues) with people and gradually introduce them to new routines of action. This work could also be described as a "grassroots" movement, since change is not brought about from one semester to the next, but rather in small steps, in certain institutes, in some seminars and with certain teachers and administrative staff.

Working the field
Previously, a small treasure map was sketched in which the way to the buried "open" drawer is not marked by a straight arrow, but by many small steps and leads past certain people who help you in your search, e.g. with their knowledge, or their (institutional) possibilities. However, a university has a very specific reaction to the demands of projects. First, the structural hurdle of the project duration has to be overcome, because as soon as a university realises that a project "only" has a duration of 12 to 18 months, i.e. 2 to 3 semesters, it is quickly put on the side, as it is difficult to reach a broad mass of university actors during this time, as well as to perform sustainable work. On the other hand, although the financing and the planning is quite concrete (e.g. through the project application or the funding line of the ministry), this planning must always be done according to the actual university requirements. This leads to the fact that a certain balancing act is necessary in order to do justice to both the project and the university structure.

This is the challenge as well as the solution of such a project. Every organisation consists of institutions, which in turn are always made up of individual people. Although it is clear that in all cases certain processes have established themselves in the organisation, in most cases these processes are ultimately supported by these individual people. The claim cannot therefore be to want to change the whole organisation at once, but to get into conversation with individual people and to change their thinking and working processes. Organizations cannot be forced to their luck, however humans can co-determine the direction of an organization by their attitude. Deep discussions, networking with people in similar (university) situations, open discussion occasions offer a special breeding ground for the further development of organisations.