Turn-taking is a fundamental process that governs social interaction. When humans interact, they naturally take initiative and relinquish control to each other using verbal and nonverbal behavior in a coordinated manner. In contrast, existing approaches for controlling a robot's social behavior do not explicitly model turn-taking, resulting in interaction breakdowns that confuse or frustrate the human and detract from the dyad's cooperative goals. They also lack generality, relying on scripted behavior control that must be designed for each new domain. This thesis seeks to enable robots to cooperate fluently with humans by automatically controlling the timing of multimodal turn-taking. Based on our empirical studies of interaction phenomena, we develop a computational turn-taking model that accounts for multimodal information flow and resource usage in interaction. This model is implemented within a novel behavior generation architecture called CADENCE, the Control Architecture for the Dynamics of Embodied Natural Coordination and Engagement, that controls a robot's speech, gesture, gaze, and manipulation. CADENCE controls turn-taking using a timed Petri net (TPN) representation that integrates resource exchange, interruptible modality execution, and modeling of the human user. We demonstrate progressive developments of CADENCE through multiple domains of autonomous interaction encompassing situated dialogue and collaborative manipulation. We also iteratively evaluate improvements in the system using quantitative metrics of task success, fluency, and balance of control.

Argumentation in interaction: The sequential structure of accounts in television debates Abstract This dissertation concentrates on the sequential structure of argumentation in spoken interaction. The point of departure is the concept of argumentation as linguistic action based on accounting for a controversial position with the purpose of convincing listeners of its acceptability or in order to defend it when it is challenged. The dissertation's specific aim is to describe the interactional context of argumentation using material from TV debates. The study utilizes ethnomethodological conversation analysis combined with elements of argumentation theory. The objects of empirical analysis are the types of linguistic action in argumentation interaction (e.g. the call for argumentation or the challenge to a position or argument) and the means of signaling argumentation. The research focuses on the analysis of the sequential organization of the TV debate, including the system of turn-taking, and on describing the sequential contexts of the argumentation in this genre. Attention is devoted to so-called argumentative sequences, i.e. series of mutual argumentative responses (problematizations) by the debate participants. Also examined are other types of linguistic action which initiate argumentation by...

Cette thèse de doctorat s’inscrit dans le domaine des finances publiques et des choix publics et s’articule autour des questions de polarisation idéologique, décentralisation et conflit. Elle est composée de trois chapitres qui peuvent être lus de façon indépendante. Dans le premier chapitre l’accent est mis sur l’importance de la polarisation idéologique entre mais aussi à l’intérieur des partis politiques sur le niveau et la composition des dépenses publiques cantonales. L’analyse est menée au niveau des parlements cantonaux suisses et repose sur l’exploitation et le traitement économétrique d’une base de données très riche.Nous avons fait deux contributions à la littérature sur l’impact de fragmentation politique sur les dépenses publiques.Premièrement, nous avons montré que la dispersion idéologique à l’intérieur des partis politiques est associée à des dépenses publiques plus élevées alors que la dispersion entre partis est associée avec moins de dépenses publiques. Cette constatation implique que le mode d’organisation et la discipline au sein des partis politiques ont de l’importance. Ce résultat est particulièrement intéressant car la littérature précédente a fait abstraction de la dispersion idéologique au sein des partis. Ensuite, nous avons montré que la dispersion idéologique est principalement pertinente pour les dépenses de fonctionnement. Le deuxième chapitre s’intéresse au conflit d’objectifs qui peut exister entre agents économiques dans le cadre d’un jeu en deux étapes avec paiements asymétriques. La littérature a montré que les défaillances de coordination sont fréquentes dans les jeux en une étape et que la communication peut aider les individus à se coordonner par l’emploi de stratégies de take turn pour réduire l’inégalité des gains à long terme. Notre contribution a été d’étudier si la communication a la même capacité dans un jeu en deux étapes où l’équilibre parfait en sous-jeux exige que les deux joueurs fassent des choix opposés aux deux étapes du jeu et acceptent des gains inégaux. Nos résultats montrent que les défaillances de coordination se produisent la moitié du temps et que 18% des paires utilisent la stratégie de take turn. La communication augmente considérablement la coordination sur l’équilibre parfait en sous-jeux car elle augmente la capacité des sujets à amorcer une stratégie de take turn et à la maintenir. Elle leur permet d’établir une stratégie de long terme qui accroît l’efficacité tout en diminuant les écarts de paiements, induits par les gains asymétriques, en échangeant leurs positions relatives d’une manière équitable. Nos résultats montrent que la communication peut résoudre les conflits de coordination, même dans des situations plus complexes que dans les jeux en une étape généralement étudiés jusqu’à présent. Le dernier chapitre s’intéresse à un type de conflit particulier : la sécession politique. Plus précisément il traite du lien entre sécession, décentralisation et identité de groupe. Nous essayons de déterminer, au moyen d’une expérience de laboratoire, si décentraliser l’offre de biens publics permet de réduire la probabilité de faire sécession. Nous mettons en exergue l’importance de l’identité au niveau local. Le protocole expérimental ne permet évidemment pas de reproduire l’ensemble des arbitrages auxquels les mouvements séparatistes font face dans le monde réel. Il permet, néanmoins, de capturer deux forces essentielles: la proximité avec le bien public qui réduit les phénomènes de passagers clandestins et rapproche le bien public des préférences du citoyens et l’importance des identités locales. Nos résultats indiquent que la décentralisation augmente les contributions aux biens locaux et diminue la probabilité de sécession aussi lorsque l’identité locale est rendue saillante. En fait, une forte identité locale augmente la probabilité de sécession seulement lorsque les membres des groupes locaux sont des coopérateurs et qu’ils contribuent aux bien publics locaux. / This PhD thesis falls within the fields of public finance and public choice. It studies the following issues: ideological polarization, decentralization and conflict. It consists of three chapters can be read independently. In the first chapter the focus is on the importance of ideological polarization between but also within political parties on the level and composition of cantonal public spending. The analysis is on Swiss cantonal parliaments and is based on the use and econometric treatment of a very rich database. We made two contributions to the literature on the impact of political fragmentation on public spending. First, we showed that ideological dispersion within political parties is associated with higher public spending while the dispersion between political parties is associated with less public spending. This finding implies that the mode of organization and discipline within political parties are both important. This result is particularly interesting given that previous literature has completely abstracted from ideological dispersion within political parties. Lastly, we showed that ideological dispersion between and within political parties is mainly relevant for current expenditures. The second chapter focuses on the conflict of objectives that may exist between economic agents in a two-stage game with asymmetric payoffs. The literature showed that coordination failures are frequent in one-stage games and that communication can help individuals coordinate with the use of take turn strategies that allow for a reduction in the payoffs’ inequality in the long run. Our contribution was to study whether communication has the same capacity in a two-stage game where the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium requires both players to make opposite choices at both stages of the game and accept unequal payoffs. Our results show that coordination failures occur half of the time and that 18% of the pairs use the take turn strategy. Communication significantly increases coordination on the subgame perfect Nash equi librium because it increases the ability of subjects to initiate a take turn strategy and to maintain it. Thus, communication allows subjects to establish a long-term strategy that increases efficiency and reduces payments differences, induced by the asymmetry in payoffs, by exchanging their relative positions in a fair way. Our results show that communication can solve coordination conflicts, even in more complex situations than in one-stage games usually studied until now. The last chapter focuses on a particular type of conflict: political secessions. Specifically, it addresses the link between secessions, decentralization and group identity. We aim at determining, by means of a laboratory experiment, if decentralizing the provision of public goods reduces the likelihood of secession. We emphasize the importance of local identity. Our experimental design, obviously, do not reproduce all the trade-offs that separatist movements face in the real world. It allows, however, capturing at least two key forces that drive these movements: the proximity to public goods that reduces the phenomena of free-riding and brings public goods closer to citizens’ preferences and the importance of local identities. Our results indicate that the Decentralization treatment increases contributions to local public goods and decreases the likelihood of secessions also when identity is made more salient. If fact, reinforcing local group identity increases the likelihood of secession only when local group members are cooperators.

Studien ”Kvinnor kan också prata hockey” ämnar undersöka C Mores expertstudio för hockeysändningar. Syftet är att undersöka hur maktbalansen ser ut i två studiosamtal utifrån samtalsstrukturen. Materialet som analyseras i studien är två samtal tagna från C More Hockey som sänder den svenska hockeyligan [SHL] under hösten 2021. Teorierna som vi har använt oss av i studien är makt, samtalsanalys och genus. Allt material har transkriberats och för att kunna avläsa innehållet har vi använt oss av metoden samtalsanalys. Vidare kommer vårt analysschema hjälpa oss att identifiera studiosamtalens samtalsstruktur, vilka maktstrategier som används av deltagarna och ifall det finns några skillnader baserat på köns olika samtalsstilar.    Resultatet av analysen visade att samtalen i expertstudion på C More följer en speciell struktur. De samtalsstarstrategier som användes för att ta makt var: turindelningar, samtalstid, uppbackning, avbrott och argumentation. Genom ämneskontroll behöll både den manliga och kvinnliga samtalsledaren makten genom att styra samtalet på ett intelligent sätt. Samtalsstilen följde i de båda samtalen de typiska dragen utefter samtalsledarens normativa kön. Anmärkningsvärt var att det visade sig i slutsatsen att de kulturella och sociala föreställningarna om det normativa könet utmanades i samtal 1 med en kvinnlig samtalsledare och att de upprätthölls i samtal 2 med en manlig samtalsledare. / The study ”Women can also talk hockey” aims to examine C Mores expert studio for ice hockey. The purpose is to investigate what the balance of power looks like in two studio conversations based on the structure of talk. The material analyzed in this essay is two conversations taken from C More Hockey, which broadcasts the Swedish hockey league [SHL] during autumn of 2021. The theories that we use in this essay is power, conversation analysis and gender. All material has been transcribed and to be able to understand the content, we have used the method of conversation analysis. Our analysis scheme will help us identify the structure of the studio conversations, which power strategies are used by the participants and if we can distinguish any differences based on genders´ conversational styles.     The results of the analysis showed that the conversations in the expert studio at C More follow a special structure. The conversation strategies used to seize power were turn divisions, talking time, agreements, interruptions and argumentation. Through subject control, both the male and female conversation leaders retained power by controlling the conversation in an intelligent way. In both conversations, the conversation style followed the typical features along the conversation leader's normative gender. It was remarkable that it turned out in the conclusion that the cultural and social notions of the normative gender were challenged in conversation 1 with a female conversation leader and that they are maintained in conversation 2 with a male conversation leader.

Text in English, Tswana and siSwati / This dissertation examines the multiplicity of social positions within which African women in the postcolonial era find themselves. It focuses on how the dramatic dialogue depicts the positions of women in Zakes Mda’sThe Nun’s Romantic Story, And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses and You Fool, How can the Sky Fall. The study is intended to explore the dramatic dialogue in these plays and to show whether there is any evidence of change in women’s positions. It seeks to demonstrate the extent to which the positions of women have changed and also how the dramatic dialogue in the selected plays of Zakes Mda indicates the change in women’s positions. / Thutopatlisiso eno e tlhatlhoba maemo a loago a mantsintsi a basadi ba maAforika ba ba tshelang mo motlheng wa morago ga puso ya bokoloniale ba iphitlhelang ba le mo go ona. E tota ka moo puisano ya terama e bontshang maemo a basadi ka gona mo The Nun’s Romantic Story, And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses le You Fool, How can the Sky Fall tsa ga Zakes Mda. Maikaelelo a thutopatlisiso ke go sekaseka puisano ya terama mo metshamekong eno go bontsha gore a go na le bosupi bope jwa diphetogo mo maemong a basadi. E batla go bontsha ka moo maemo a basadi a fetogileng ka gona le ka moo puisano ya terama mo metshamekong e e tlhophilweng ya ga Zakes Mda e bontshang diphetogo mo maemong a basadi ka gona. / Ledisetheshini ihlolisisa tikhundlanyenti tetenhlalo bomake base-Afrika labatitfola bakuto ngemuva kwesikhatsi sembuso webukolonali (umbusobucalu). Igcile ekutsini inkhulumomphendvulwane emidlalweni yaZakes Mda itikhombisa kanjani letikhundla tabomake; i-The Nun’s Romantic Story [Indzaba yelutsandvo yemasisitela], ne-Girls in their Sunday Dresses [Emantfombatana etingutjeni tawo teLisontfo] ne-You Fool [Wena Silima], How can the Sky Fall [Singawa kanjani Sibhakabhaka]. Lolucwaningo lwentelwe kuhlolisisa inkhulumomphendvulwane kulemidlalo kanye nekukhombisa kutsi ingabe bukhona yini bufakazi bengucuko etikhundleni tabomake. Ifuna kukhombisa kutsi tikhundla tabomake tigucuke kangakanani kanye nekutsi inkhulumomphendvulwane emidlalweni lekhetsiwe yaZakes Mda ikukhombisa kanjani kugucuka kwetikhundla tabomake. / English Studies / M.A.(Theory of Literature)