Empirical studies into IT governance have considerably advanced our understanding of the mechanisms and practices used by contemporary organisations to govern their current and future use of IT. However, despite the progress made in identifying the various elements employed by contemporary IT governance arrangements, there has been relatively little research into the formulation of a holistic model of IT governance that integrates the growing collection of parts into a coherent whole. To further advance the concept of IT governance, the Viable Governance Model (VGM) is proposed. The VGM is a theoretical model of IT governance within a corporate setting that is based on the laws and principles of cybernetics as embodied in Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM). Cybernetics, the science of control and communication in biological and artificial systems, establishes a firm theoretical foundation upon which to design a system that directs and controls the IT function in a complex enterprise. The VGM is developed using an approach based on design science. Given the theoretical nature of the artefact that is being designed, the development and evaluation activities are primarily conceptual in nature. That is, the development activity involves the design of a theoretical model of IT governance using theoretical concepts and constructs drawn from several reference disciplines including cybernetics, organisation theory, and complexity theory. The conceptual evaluation of the VGM indicates that the model is sufficiently robust to incorporate many of the empirical findings arising from academic and professional research. The resultant model establishes a "blueprint", or set of design principles, that can be used by IS practitioners to design and implement a system of IT governance that is appropriate to their organisational contingencies. Novel aspects of this research include: the integration of corporate and IT governance; the reinterpretation of the role of the enterprise architecture (EA) within a complex enterprise; the exposition of the relationship between the corporate and divisional IT groups; and the resolution of the centralisation versus decentralisation dilemma that confront designers of IT governance arrangements.

The home is a physical place that provides isolation, comfort, access to essential needs on a daily basis, and it has a strong impact on a person’s life. Computational and media technologies (digital and electronic objects, devices, protocols, virtual spaces, telematics, interaction, social media, and cyberspace) become an important and vital part of the home ecology, although they have the ability to transform the domestic experience and the understanding of what a personal space is. For this reason, this work investigates the domestication of computational media technology; how objects, systems, and devices become part of the personal and intimate space of the inhabitants. To better understand the taming process, the home is studied and analysed from a range of perspectives (philosophy, sociology, architecture, art, and technology), and a methodological process is proposed for critically exploring the topic with the development of artworks, designs, and computational systems. The methodology of this research, which consists of five points (Context, Media Layers, Invisible Matter, Diffusion, and Symbiosis), suggests a procedure that is fundamental to the development and critical integration of the computationally enhanced home. Accordingly, the home is observed as an ecological system that contains numerous properties (organic, inorganic, hybrid, virtual, augmented), and is viewed on a range of scales (micro, meso and macro). To identify the “choreographies” that are formed between these properties and scales, case studies have been developed to suggest, provoke, and speculate concepts, ideas, and alternative realities of the home. Part of the speculation proposes the concept of DomoNovus (the “New Home”), where technological ubiquity supports the inhabitants’ awareness, perception, and imagination. DomoNovus intends to challenge our understanding of the domestic environment, and demonstrates a range of possibilities, threats, and limitations in relation to the future of home. This thesis, thus, presents methods, experiments, and speculations that intend to inform and inspire, as well as define creative and imaginative dimensions of the computationally-enhanced home, suggesting directions for the further understanding of the domestic life.

Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-29T13:30:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudio Amorim.pdf: 1225394 bytes, checksum: 5a359a8fec7ef979e8d5691067f51e29 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora Lopes(silopes@ufba.br) on 2013-06-10T19:05:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudio Amorim.pdf: 1225394 bytes, checksum: 5a359a8fec7ef979e8d5691067f51e29 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-10T19:05:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudio Amorim.pdf: 1225394 bytes, checksum: 5a359a8fec7ef979e8d5691067f51e29 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Apoiando-se no instrumental teórico e técnico da matemática, da eletrônica e da computação, a cibernética estabeleceu-se com uma das forças que modelam o mundo contemporâneo. Um dos aspectos da nossa herança cibernética, a automação, ao diversificar substancialmente as formas possíveis das relações de produção, propõe novos e urgentes desafios, na mesma medida em que oferece oportunidades inéditas para a emancipação da humanidade. Até o presente, a automação tem servido sobretudo à concentração e abuso do poder político e econômico. Também tem contribuído para o desemprego e para a desqualificação da dos trabalhadores. Favorecendo a produção em altíssima escala, a automação contribui ainda para a exacerbação do consumismo, e conseqüentemente, da alienação. Nesse contexto, o uso dos sistemas automatizados como força transformadora, a serviço do bem-estar social, requer o reposicionamento das competências humanas, ora desafiadas pelos avanços diários da tecnologia, que se materializa por meio de dispositivos e sistemas cada vez mais complexos e autônomos. Apoiado no estudo da automação na indústria e nas aeronaves, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo elucidar os principais desafios educacionais rumo à cooperação significativa e conseqüente entre pessoas e autômatos. Com base na visão de Vieira Pinto de tecnologia como instrumento de emancipação, e na visão de Paulo Freire de educação como emancipação, propõe-se que novas práticas educacionais são necessárias para formar pessoas capazes de compreender, conceber e operar sistemas cibernéticos cada vez mais eficazes, para o bem da humanidade. Embora os seres humanos cooperem com os autômatos, tanto no âmbito teórico como em tarefas práticas, apenas os humanos são seres da práxis, intencionais, sociais e comprometidos uns com os outros. Sugere-se que o desenvolvimento de pessoas plenamente competentes fundamente-se na integração de três virtudes intelectuais aristotélicas: epistéme (conhecimento teórico), tékhne (savoir-faire) e phrónesis (sabedoria prática, ou bom senso). / Salvador

abstract: Modern and contemporary African American writers employ science fiction in order to recast ideas on past, present, and future black culture. This dissertation examines Afrofuturism’s cultural aesthetics, which appropriate devices from science fiction and fantasy in order to revise, interrogate, and re-examine historical events insufficiently treated by literary realism. The dissertation includes treatments of George Schuyler, Ishmael Reed, Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, Nalo Hopkinson, and Chicana/ofuturism. The original contribution of this research is to highlight how imagination of a posthuman world has made it possible for African American writers to envision how racial power can be re-configured and re-negotiated. Focusing on shifting racial dynamics caught up in the swirl of technological changes, this research illuminates a complex process of literary production in which black culture and identity have been continuously re-interpreted. In the post-war and post-Civil Rights Movement eras African American writers began reflecting on shifting racial dynamics in light of technological changes. This shift in which black experience became mechanized and digitized explains how technology became a source of new African American fiction. The relationships between humans and their external conditions appear in such futuristic themes as trans-human anamorphosis, cyberspace, and digital souls. These thematic devices, which explore humanity outside its phenotypic boundaries, provide African American writers with tools to demystify deterministic views of race. Afrofuturism has responded to the conceptual transformation of humanity with a race-specific scope, locating the presence of black culture in a high-tech world. Techno-scientific progress has provided important resources in contemporary theory, yet these theoretical foci too seldom have been drawn into critical race discourses. This discrepancy is due to techno-scientific progress having served as a tool for the legitimation of scientific racism under global capitalism for centuries. Responding to this critical lacuna, the dissertation highlights an under-explored field in which African American literature responds to techno-culture’s involvement in contemporary discussions of race. Rather than repeat nominal assumptions of Eurocentric modernity and its racist hegemony, this dissertation theorizes how modern techno-culture’s outcomes—such as information science, genetic engineering, and computer science—shape minority lives, and how minority groups appropriate these outcomes to enact their own liberation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2017

Submitted by VIVIANE HENGLER CORRÊA CHAVES null (viviane.hcc@bol.com.br) on 2016-10-19T15:16:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_norbert_wiener.pdf: 1686773 bytes, checksum: ca5f2d9e600132270f3a972edb9b0b6a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-10-25T13:48:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 chaves_vhc_dr_rcla.pdf: 1686773 bytes, checksum: ca5f2d9e600132270f3a972edb9b0b6a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-25T13:48:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 chaves_vhc_dr_rcla.pdf: 1686773 bytes, checksum: ca5f2d9e600132270f3a972edb9b0b6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-19 / Esta tese parte do seguinte problema de pesquisa - quais conhecimentos e experiências levaram o matemático Norbert Wiener a desenvolver a sua teoria cibernética e quais as consequências decorrentes desse modo sistêmico de pensamento? Como objetivo geral pretendeu-se elaborar uma reconstituição histórica do surgimento e evolução da Teoria Cibernética, por meio da história de seu idealizador, Norbert Wiener, de modo a compreender as ideias que o levaram à construção de sua teoria. Integra o escopo deste trabalho entender a lógica matemática que levou Wiener a conceber sua teoria cibernética e, também, a sua teoria da comunicação; relacionar os aspectos técnicos e sua abrangência, bem como a problemática, social e científica, que a Cibernética impõe ao mundo contemporâneo. O locus temporal desta pesquisa delimita-se, historicamente, entre 1894 e 1964, anos relativos ao nascimento e morte de Norbert Wiener, respectivamente. Busca-se construir uma história não se atendo somente às obras e documentos de Wiener, os fatos descritos, mas também compreender as relações que se deram por meio dos fatos, suas problematizações e seu contexto histórico. Para tanto, utilizou-se da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental baseada nas obras e documentos de Norbert Wiener. Em síntese, as considerações finais apontam que a cibernética tem como característica fundamental a interdisciplinaridade e abrange todo o campo da teoria do comando, controle e transmissão de informações. Destaca-se, ainda, a influência marcante da trajetória profissional e pessoal de Wiener para o desenvolvimento da sua Teoria Cibernética. / This thesis of the following research problem - what knowledge and experiences have led the mathematician Norbert Wiener to develop their cybernetic theory and what the consequences of systemic way of thinking? As a general objective was intended to establish a historical reconstruction of the emergence and evolution of Cybernetics Theory, through the story of its creator, Norbert Wiener, so as to understand the ideas that led to the construction of his theory. The scope of this paper too search understand the mathematical logic that led Wiener to design their cybernetic theory and also its communication theory; relate the technical aspects and its comprehensiveness as well as the problems, and social science, the cybernetics require the contemporary world. The temporal locus of this research is delimited historically, between 1894 and 1964, years for the birth and death of Norbert Wiener, respectively. Seeks to build a story, not only attend to the works and Wiener documents, the facts described, but also understand the relationships that occurred through the facts, their problematizations and its historical context. For that, we used the bibliographical and documentary research based on the works and documents of Norbert Wiener. In summary, the conclusions point cybernetic has the fundamental characteristic the interdisciplinarity and comprise the entire field of the theory of command, control and transmission of information. It is noteworthy also the strong influence of the personal and professional trajectory of Wiener to the development of its Cybernetics Theory.

The affinity between the work of the Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek and the approach of Complexity Economics is widely recognized by the literature. In spite of this, there still is a lack of studies that seek to analyze in depth the relationship between Hayek and complexity. This dissertation is a contribution to the filling of this large gap in the literature. In the first part of the work, we analyze the various periods in the development of Hayek\'s vision of complexity, showing that this vision is strongly present in his works on knowledge, competition, methodology, evolution, and spontaneous order. In the second part, we explore how Hayek was influenced by two of the main precursors of modern complexity theory - cybernetics and general system theory - from the time he was working on his book on theoretical psychology, The Sensory Order (1952), until the end of his intellectual career. / A afinidade entre a obra do economista austríaco Friedrich A. Hayek e a abordagem da Economia e Complexidade é amplamente reconhecida pela literatura. Apesar disso, ainda há grande carência de estudos que busquem analisar de forma aprofundada a relação entre Hayek e a complexidade. Esta dissertação é uma contribuição para o preenchimento dessa grande lacuna na literatura. Na primeira parte do trabalho, os diversos períodos no desenvolvimento da visão de complexidade de Hayek são analisados, evidenciando-se como tal visão está fortemente presente em seus trabalhos sobre conhecimento, competição, metodologia, evolução e ordem espontânea. Na segunda parte, exploramos como Hayek foi influenciado por dois dos principais precursores da moderna teoria da complexidade - a cibernética e a teoria geral do sistema - desde o período em que estava trabalhando no seu livro sobre psicologia teórica, The Sensory Order (1952), até o final de sua carreira intelectual.

Esta tese discute a ideia de máquina como Outro comunicativo. Atualizando a compreensão cibernética sobre a relação entre humanos e máquinas, pensadores como o sociólogo francês Bruno Latour propõem uma ontologia pós-humanista em que humanos e não humanos sejam nivelados do ponto de vista social. Com base nessa perspectiva, ganha força já há alguns anos na área da comunicação a ideia de que devemos atribuir a máquinas como o computador a designação de Outro comunicativo. Mas há outras interpretações possíveis para o mesmo fenômeno. Considerada precursora da maior parte das perspectivas críticas ao desenvolvimento tecnológico, a fenomenologia do filósofo alemão Martin Heidegger parece fornecer elementos também para o debate sobre essa questão. Embora situado em meados do século 20 e, portanto, anterior aos desdobramentos recentes da técnica, seu pensamento tem apoiado diversos empreendimentos teóricos que se propõem a interpretar o contexto tecnológico atual, caracterizado pelo aprofundamento da digitalização e informatização da vida humana. Diante disso, esta tese discute o seguinte problema de pesquisa: Como a ideia de máquina como Outro comunicativo deve ser compreendida à luz da fenomenologia de Martin Heidegger? A hipótese é a de que, desse ponto de vista, a atribuição da qualidade de Outro comunicativo também à máquina seja vista como uma manifestação radicalizada do reducionismo tecnológico do real em curso na história do pensamento ocidental. O objetivo do trabalho é, portanto, propor uma alternativa à interpretação cibernética com base na fenomenologia do filósofo alemão. Para tanto, a tese adotou metodologia de base exclusivamente teórica. Primeiro, apresenta as bases da perspectiva cibernética atualizada, a partir de textos fundamentais de autores como Bruno Latour e Arno Bammé e de representantes mais específicos da comunicação, como Erick Felinto, André Lemos, Massimo di Felice e David Gunkel. Em seguida, a tese introduz os conceitos básicos da fenomenologia de Heidegger, em especial a respeito do sentido do ser, com base em obras seminais do autor e em intérpretes como Karl Leidlmair, Peter Trawny, Andreas Luckner e Dieter Mersch. No passo seguinte, a tese aborda a compreensão de Heidegger sobre técnica e tecnologia, relacionando-a com a questão sobre o sentido do ser, apoiada também nas principais obras do pensador e nos intérpretes já citados, além de Günter Seubold. Com base nesses fundamentos, a tese propõe uma conceituação fenomenológica do Outro comunicativo, em diálogo ainda com as concepções de alteridade de Emmanuel Levinas e do seu intérprete Amit Pinchevsky, que discute explicitamente a relação entre o Outro e a comunicação. Por meio dessa metodologia, a tese busca apresentar uma interpretação alternativa à perspectiva cibernética para a questão da máquina como Outro comunicativo, contribuindo, assim, para o enriquecimento do debate em torno desse tema fundamental para o futuro da área da comunicação. / This thesis discusses the idea of machine as a communicative Other. Reconsidering the cybernetic understanding of the relationship between humans and machines, thinkers such as the French sociologist Bruno Latour propose a post-humanist ontology in which humans and nonhumans are socially leveled down. Based on this perspective, the idea that we should assign the designation of communicative Other to machines like the computer has recently gained strength in the field of communication. But there are other possible interpretations for the same phenomenon. Considered to be the forerunner of most of the critical perspectives of technological development, the phenomenology of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger seems to provide elements for the debate on this issue as well. Although established in the middle of the 20th century, and thus prior to the recent developments of technology, his thinking has supported several theoretical projects that aim at interpreting the current technological context, characterized by the deepening of the digitalization and computerization of human life. In view of this, this thesis discusses the following research problem: How can the idea of the machine as communicative Other be understood in the light of Martin Heidegger\'s phenomenology? The hypothesis is that, from this point of view, the ascription of the quality of communicative Other to the machine should be seen as a radicalized manifestation of the technological reductionism of the real undergoing the history of Western thought. The objective of this work is, therefore, to propose an alternative to the cybernetic interpretation based on the phenomenology of the German philosopher. In order to achieve that, the methodology adopted in this thesis is exclusively theoretical. Firstly, it presents the basics of this revised cybernetic perspective according to elementary texts by authors such as Bruno Latour and Arno Bammé and more specific representatives from the area of communication, such as Erick Felinto, André Lemos, Massimo di Felice and David Gunkel. The thesis then introduces the basic concepts of Heidegger\'s phenomenology, especially the meaning of being, based on seminal works by the author and interpreters such as Karl Leidlmair, Peter Trawny, Andreas Luckner and Dieter Mersch. In the next step, the thesis deals with Heidegger\'s understanding of technique and technology, relating it to the question of the meaning of being, supported also in the main works of the philosopher and the interpreters already mentioned, besides Günter Seubold. Based on these foundations, the thesis proposes a phenomenological conceptualization of the communicative Other, also in dialogue with the conceptions of alterity in Emmanuel Levinas and his interpreter Amit Pinchevsky, who explicitly discusses the relationship between the Other and communication. Through this methodology, the thesis aims to present an alternative interpretation to the cybernetic perspective regarding the question of the machine as communicative Other, thus contributing to the enrichment of the debate around this fundamental theme for the future of the area of communication.

Tanto a paralisia quanto a amputação são características corporais que tendem a resultar em estigma, ou seja, a mera percepção de sua existência pode depreciar a identidade social daquele que a tem. Entretanto, o surgimento de tecnologias prostéticas que habilitam amputados a competirem em nível olímpico contra pessoas sem deficiência tem produzido reações que contrariam a regra geral segundo a qual se evita expor aquilo que causa estigma. Mais do que isso, vem ganhando cada vez mais projeção midiática a imagem de amputados estereotipados como a realização do sonho do ciborgue: o corpo orgânico potencializado pela sua hibridação com sistemas cibernéticos. No bojo desse imaginário, a tecnologia do exoesqueleto robótico, derivada da indústria bélica, emerge como a solução que promete reestabelecer os movimentos de pessoas com lesão medular. Porém, a obsessão em encapsulá-los dentro de corpos robóticos supranumerários, em detrimento de outras tecnologias e terapias, parece muito mais motivada pelo simbolismo de um bipedismo simulado, que busca apagar a diferença entre os deficientes e os normais, do que pela reabilitação efetiva. A deficiência física e as tecnologias biocibernéticas de reconstrução e reabilitação corporais expõem não só a dimensão social irredutível do corpo, como também evidenciam que mesmo na mentalidade técnico-científica opera uma lógica simbólica, disfarçada nos recortes e classificações supostamente objetivos. Não é por acaso que a restauração do bipedismo em pessoas com paralisia tenha tanta afinidade com a imagem do milagre bíblico, pois o corpo-máquina, do qual a biocibernética é a evolução, e o corpo da cosmologia cristã, oriundo da Idade Média, não são completamente excludentes. De fato, apesar de constituírem sistemas de significação antagônicos, ambas as concepções de corpo compartilham as mesmas estruturas simbólicas inconscientes e, acima de tudo, atendem ao mesmo imperativo de dar sentido a uma realidade que a razão por si só não explica na sua totalidade. É sobre estes temas que esta tese procura refletir. / Both paralysis and amputation are body characteristics that tend to result in stigma, which means, in other words, that the mere perception of their existence may depreciate the social identity of those who have these traits. However, the emergence of prosthetic technologies enabling amputees to compete at the Olympic level against people without disabilities are provoking reactions that contradict the general rule pursuant to which one usually avoids exposing characteristics that cause stigma. Moreover, amputees stereotyped images have been increasingly reaching more media exposure as a cyborg dream that comes true: the organic body enhanced through its hybridization by means of cybernetic systems. In the midst of this imagery, the robotic exoskeleton technology derived from military industry emerges as a solution that promises to reestablish the movements of persons with spinal cord injuries. However, the obsession with their encapsulation inside supernumerary robotic bodies, to the detriment of other technologies and therapies, seems more driven by the symbolism of a simulated bipedalism, which aims to erase the differences between disabled and normal person, than actual rehabilitation. The physical disability and the bio-cybernetic technologies applied to the bodys rehabilitation and reconstruction, expose, not only the irreducible social dimension of the body, but also demonstrate that even the technical and scientific thinking operates under a symbolic logic, disguised under a presumably objective selective set of scopes and classifications. It is not a coincidence that bipedal restoration of persons with paralysis is close to the biblical miracle imagery, since the body-machine from which bio-cybernetics is the evolution, and the body of Christian cosmology rooted in the Middle Age, are not completely exclusionary. In fact, although they constitute antagonistic meaning systems, both concepts of the body share the same unconscious symbolic structures and, above all, they fulfill the same imperative of giving meaning to a reality that cannot be explained in its entirety only by reason. It is to this regard that this thesis will reflect.

This thesis is entitled The Role of Management in the Turnaround Process and is presented for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration at the University of Manchester by Ian Roberts in April 2015. Inquiry into turnaround has largely has been carried forward in two broad areas of study: strategy and management. Strategy research has attempted to identify a single or limited number of strategies which apply in all turnaround situations, while management studies have concentrated on managers themselves or some of the techniques they employ. Neither school has systematically analysed how turnarounds are actually implemented in dysfunctional organisations and both schools are weak in extant theory. As a consequence, a holistic explanation of the process leading from crisis to viability is lacking. This thesis addresses these lacunae in three ways. Firstly, it provides a systematic study of how professional turnaround managers implement the turnaround process over time. Secondly, it applies a unique and complementary mix of extant theory which addresses both cognitive and organisational aspects of strategy formulation and implementation. Thirdly, it presents a holistic turnaround model based on six core constructs which are argued to be necessary and sufficient to explain the dynamics of the turnaround process. The thesis adopts a mixed-methods approach. A survey is used in order to gather data from turnaround professionals on implementation methods. This data is then subjected to statistical analysis in order to identify the most important factors for implementation. These concepts are then blended into a conceptual framework which is tested for its explanatory and predictive power on a matched pair of turnaround case studies of two mid-sized UK manufacturing companies in the household goods sector, one of which executed a successful turnaround and one of which failed in the attempt. The model is able to explain and predict the outcome in both cases. The thesis is one of only a handful of turnaround studies which employs a rigorous case study research protocol. Its principal contribution is that of a middle range turnaround theory of the causal factors leading from organisational crisis to dissolution or viability.

Today's information society is changing dramatically along with the evolution of technology, which influences our perception of every aspect related to ICT greatly. New wave of social networks changes not only the nature our perception of the internet, but also the very basics of social interaction. Some of these phenomena were described in Norbert Wiener's definition of information ethics in 1954. Another phenomenon, very actual for researched field, is described in Alienation Theories by sociocybernetics expert R. F. Geyer. The objective of this study is to analyze sociocybernetics and its possible impacts on fileds of sociology and psychology, as well as digestedly compile fragments of interactive media and social networks, which can be directly linked to negative sociological and psychological effects. The study involves the overview, comparison and issues of rating systems as well as their application in countries of EU. The study also involves trends related to ICT and the internet in czech environment. This section is based on combination of results of long-term sociological study created by Doc. PhDr. Petra Saka CSc., and results of own research.