Against the personification of democracy : a Lacanian critique of political subjectivity / / by Wesley C. Swedlow

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910456765603321
• Autore: Swedlow Wesley C.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York : , : Continuum, , 2010
• ISBN: 1-5013-0131-4; 1-282-59067-7; 9786612590672; 1-4411-4935-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (206 p.)
• Disciplina: 320.01
• Soggetti: Political science - Philosophy; Subjectivity; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction: Problems with Reality -- Chapter 1. Desire and Ideology in the Leviathan -- Chapter 2. Internal Externalities -- Chapter 3. The Return of the Political -- Chapter 4. The Personification of Democracy -- Conclusion: Against the Personification of Democracy -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: "Against the Personification of Democracy offers a new theory of political subjectivity that puts the dilemma of desire into the forefront. By using Lacan to read key figures in political philosophy, the book demonstrates why democratic theory -- representative or radical - is not only ineffective when it comes to the best form of political cohabitation, but also productive of destructive and self-defeating forces. The book begins with the debate between Hobbesian and Lockeian notions of subjectivity to argue that the nature of political subjectivity is a function of the problem of desire. It then considers the question of the proper structure of political cohabitation in light of Hannah Arendt's insights into what happened to the stateless in World War II, leading to a distinction between the person in a bare and unadorned form and the public persona that is represented in most forms of democracy. Lacan is used to reread the question of political ; subjectivity, but, unlike radical democratic theory, the book argues against agonistic, representative, and thus endless democracy. Such a political formation is seen as an instigation and ultimate disappointment to desire (the persona), which leads to general negative outcomes, including genocide, concentration camps, and the removal of rights. Arguing against Zizek's proposal that a radical Act can save us politically, the book proposes a universal political formation as the only way out of the dilemma of political desire. This formation is not dependent on public personas, but rooted in actual persons meeting in their locality and sovereign to no one. An indispensable text for anyone interested in political theory, political philosophy, and democratic theory, Against the Personification of Democracy critiques positive theories of sovereignty through its analysis of political subjectivity and the problem of desire. More importantly, it provides a truly universal theory of democratic cohabitation that escapes political desire and thus the scapegoats of democratic failure, not to mention the anxiety of the impossibility of the democratic promise."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Cultural Diversity for Virtual Characters : Investigating Behavioral Aspects across Cultures / / by Birgit Endrass

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910299057703321
• Autore: Lugrin Birgit
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Wiesbaden : , : Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden : , : Imprint : Springer Vieweg, , 2014
• ISBN: 3-658-04910-3
• Edizione: [1st ed. 2014.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (245 p.)
• Collana: Research Cultural diversity for virtual characters
• Disciplina: 303.482028568; 362.84
• Soggetti: Computer simulation; Artificial intelligence; Simulation and Modeling; Artificial Intelligence
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: ""Foreword""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Summary""; ""Contents""; ""1 Introduction""; ""1.1 Motivation""; ""1.2 Approach""; ""1.3 Problem Statement and Significance""; ""1.3.1 Identify operationalizeable Models of Culture and Behavioral Differences""; ""1.3.2 Extract concrete Behavioral Differences from a Video Corpus""; ""1.3.3 Build computational Models of Culture-related Behavior""; ""1.3.4 Measure Impact on Human Observers""; ""1.4 Overview""; ""2 Theoretical Background""; ""2.1 Culture""; ""2.1.1 Levels of Culture""; ""2.1.2 Dimensional Models""; ""2.1.3 Dichotomies""; ""2.2 Aspects of Human Behavior""""2.2.1 Verbal Behavior""; ""2.2.2 Communication Management""; ""2.2.3 Nonverbal and Expressive Behavior""; ""2.3 The German and Japanese Cultures""; ""2.3.1 Cultural Profiles""; ""2.3.2 Expectations on Behavioral Differences""; ""2.4 Summary""; ""3 RelatedWork""; ""3.1 From Single Agents to Multiagent Systems""; ""3.2 Culture in Virtual Agent Systems""; ""3.2.1 Overview""; ""3.2.2 Education in Cultural Awareness""; ""3.2.3 Training in Cultural Competencies""; ""3.2.4 Research Studies""; ""3.3 Integration of Behavioral Aspects""; ""3.3.1 Small Talk""; ""3.3.2 Communication Management""""3.3.3 Nonverbal and Expressive Behavior""; ""3.4 Summary""; ""4 Empirical Background""; ""4.1 Method of Utilizing a Multimodal Corpus""; ""4.2 Corpus Acquisition""; ""4.3 Annotation""; ""4.3.1 Verbal Aspects""; ""4.3.2 Nonverbal Aspects""; ""4.4 Analysis""; ""4.4.1 Verbal Aspects""; ""4.4.2 Communication Management""; ""4.4.3 Nonverbal Aspects""; ""4.4.4 Correlation of Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior""; ""4.5 Summary""; ""5 Conceptual Design and Technical Realization""; ""5.1 Procedure""; ""5.2 General Approach""; ""5.2.1 Behavior Planning""; ""5.2.2 Bayesian Networks""""5.3 Modeling Culture-related Differences""; ""5.3.1 Small Talk and Topic Selection""; ""5.3.2 Nonverbal Behavior""; ""5.4 Demonstrator""; ""5.4.1 System Overview ""; ""5.4.2 Characters and Environment""; ""5.4.3 Generation of Example Dialogs""; ""5.5 Summary""; ""6 Evaluation of Behavioral Aspects""; ""6.1 Small Talk Behavior""; ""6.1.1 Study Design""; ""6.1.2 Results and Discussion""; ""6.2 Communication Management and Nonverbal Behavior""; ""6.2.1 Study Design""; ""6.2.2 Results and Discussion""; ""6.3 Summary""; ""7 Generalization of the Approach""; ""7.1 Transferring the Approach""""7.2 Applications""; ""7.2.1 Simulation of Synthetic Cultures""; ""7.2.2 Impact of Social Relationship""; ""8 Contributions and Future Work""; ""8.1 Contributions""; ""8.1.1 Identify operationalizeable Models of Culture and Behavioral Differences""; ""8.1.2 Extract concrete Behavioral Differences from a Video Corpus""; ""8.1.3 Build computational Models of Culture-related Behavior""; ""8.1.4 Measure Impact on Human Observers""; ""8.1.5 Methodical Contribution""; ""8.1.6 Conceptual Contribution""; ""8.1.7 Technical Contribution""; ""8.2 FutureWork""; ""8.2.1 Refinement of the Models""
• Sommario/riassunto: Culture plays a crucial role in our lives. Depending on our cultural background, we judge on and react to everything that we encounter. Subtle differences in behavior can lead to misunderstandings or even culture shock. In a similar manner, virtual characters can be declined by certain user groups when showing culturally inappropriate behavior. But how can social aspects such as culture be integrated into the behavioral models of virtual characters? Birgit Endrass addresses this question by carrying out a hybrid approach that is based on theoretical background from the social sciences as well as a multimodal corpus analysis, and exemplified the approach for the German and Japanese cultures. For this purpose, different methods from artificial intelligence and multiagent systems are applied and simulated with a virtual ; character system. Contents Virtual Agents Behavioral Models Culture: The German and Japanese Cultures Target Groups Academics and practitioners in the fields of Virtual Agents, Autonomous Agents, Human Factors, Multimedia.