Description
Acronym: STACCO
Full title: (The civil status of contradictions: conceptual analysis of institutions by means of critical situations)
Typology: Post Doc 2011
Duration: 02/05/2012 to 01/11/2015
PAT contribution: Euro 147,000
Coordinating subject: Laboratory of Applied Ontology, Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, National Research Council, Trento, Italy
Project leader: Emanuele Bottazzi
Thematic area: Philosophy
Project objectives
STACCO is a research project on the dynamics of social interaction in technology-intensive social systems. The project is oriented towards analysing the crises and contradictions of these systems, with research methods from analytical philosophy and cognitive science, and with modelling techniques from applied ontology and knowledge representation.
The main objective of the project is to propose an ontology of social institutions that takes into account institutional contradictions and is also compatible with analytical philosophy. The thesis of the project is that all states of affairs among human beings are contradictory. This means that they are inherently and necessarily critical, whether these states of affairs are social or, more specifically, institutional.
The main contributions of the project are to question current philosophical theories of social reality, to show the potential dangers of merely technical (or at best science-driven) solutions to critical situations in technology-intensive social systems and, finally, to explore different possible strategies for a collective management of these critical situations.
State of the art before the project and innovations introduced by STACCO
The project reviewed the current literature with an emphasis on the debate in the analytical philosophy of social reality. In this debate, the STACCO project introduced several developments. Methodologically, an innovative, interdisciplinary contribution was made, ranging from empirical research (e.g. ethnography, security in organisations) to formal research (logic, formal ontology). Furthermore, new solutions were proposed in the specific ongoing debates (on collective intentionality, rules and social objects).
Finally, new research topics have been introduced that have been completely neglected in the current literature (as in the case, for example, of a philosophy of the rhythm of social interaction).
Methodology and project management
The main methodology adopted was philosophical. In addition, other methodologies adopted by the project came from AI, logic, cognitive science, legal theory and ethnography.
For each of these disciplines, specific collaboration was undertaken with an expert in the field and, in addition, with
specific institutions (e.g. European University Institute, University of Trento and University Vita-Salute del San Raffaele).
Results
All project tasks were carried out through collaborations, publications, participation in (and organisation of) national and international conferences. The main result of STACCO is that, in order to avoid catastrophic drifts in technology-intensive social systems, it is crucial to collectively distribute executive powers among all the actors involved in these systems. This implies that, in all these systems, the power of roles and figures specifically and solely dedicated to decision-making and management must be reduced.
Impact
STACCO is a philosophical research project; it is not intended to have an immediate practical impact.
On the other hand, it is based on empirical research and, moreover, integrates methodologies and orientations from ontology, seen as a sub-field of computer science and artificial intelligence.
If further developed in further research activities and collaborations, these aspects could be promising in the development of application models to mitigate crises and avoid catastrophes of complex socio-technical systems.
Keywords
Social Ontology, Socio-technical Systems, Social Dynamics, Contradictions, Crisis.