- Table View
- List View
Artifact and Artifice: Classical Archaeology and the Ancient Historian
by Jonathan M. HallIs it possible to trace the footprints of the historical Sokrates in Athens? Was there really an individual named Romulus, and if so, when did he found Rome? Is the tomb beneath the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica home to the apostle Peter? To answer these questions, we need both dirt and words—that is, archaeology and history. Bringing the two fields into conversation, Artifact and Artifice offers an exciting excursion into the relationship between ancient history and archaeology and reveals the possibilities and limitations of using archaeological evidence in writing about the past. Jonathan M. Hall employs a series of well-known cases to investigate how historians may ignore or minimize material evidence that contributes to our knowledge of antiquity unless it correlates with information gleaned from texts. Dismantling the myth that archaeological evidence cannot impart information on its own, he illuminates the methodological and political principles at stake in using such evidence and describes how the disciplines of history and classical archaeology may be enlisted to work together. He also provides a brief sketch of how the discipline of classical archaeology evolved and considers its present and future role in historical approaches to antiquity. Written in clear prose and packed with maps, photos, and drawings, Artifact and Artifice will be an essential book for undergraduates in the humanities.
Artifact Classification: A Conceptual and Methodological Approach
by Dwight W ReadArchaeologists have been developing artifact typologies to understand cultural categories for as long as the discipline has existed. Dwight Read examines these attempts to systematize the cultural domains in premodern societies through a historical study of pottery typologies. He then offers a methodology for producing classifications that are both salient to the cultural groups that produced them and relevant for establishing cultural categories and timelines for the archaeologist attempting to understand the relationship between material culture and ideational culture of ancient societies. This volume is valuable to upper level students and professional archaeologists across the discipline.
Artifact Classification: A Conceptual and Methodological Approach
by Dwight W ReadArchaeologists have been developing artifact typologies to understand cultural categories for as long as the discipline has existed. Dwight Read examines these attempts to systematize the cultural domains in premodern societies through a historical study of pottery typologies. He then offers a methodology for producing classifications that are both salient to the cultural groups that produced them and relevant for establishing cultural categories and timelines for the archaeologist attempting to understand the relationship between material culture and ideational culture of ancient societies. This volume is valuable to upper level students and professional archaeologists across the discipline.
Artifacts: How We Think and Write about Found Objects
by Crystal LakeIn the eighteenth century, antiquaries—wary of the biases of philosophers, scientists, politicians, and historians—used old objects to establish what they claimed was a true account of history. But just what could these small, fragmentary, frequently unidentifiable things, whose origins were unknown and whose worth or meaning was not self-evident, tell people about the past?In Artifacts, Crystal B. Lake unearths the four kinds of old objects that were most frequently found and cataloged in Enlightenment-era England: coins, manuscripts, weapons, and grave goods. Following these prized objects as they made their way into popular culture, Lake develops new interpretations of works by Joseph Addison, John Dryden, Horace Walpole, Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, among others. Rereading these authors with the artifact in mind uncovers previously unrecognized allusions that unravel works we thought we knew well. In this new history of antiquarianism and, by extension, historiography, Lake reveals that artifacts rarely acted as agents of fact, as those who studied them would have claimed. Instead, she explains, artifacts are objects unlike any other. Fragmented and from another time or place, artifacts invite us to fill in their shapes and complete their histories with our imaginations. Composed of body as well as spirit and located in the present as well as the past, artifacts inspire speculative reconstructions that frequently contradict one another. Lake's history and theory of the artifact will be of particular importance to scholars of material culture and forms. This fascinating book provides curious readers with new ways of evaluating the relationships that exist between texts and objects.
Artifacts and Ideas: Essays in Archaeology
by Bruce TriggerPrehistoric archaeologists cannot observe their human subjects nor can they directly access their subjects' ideas. Both must be inferred from the remnants of the material objects they made and used. In recent decades this incontrovertible fact has encouraged partisan approaches to the history and method of archaeology. An empirical discipline emphasizing data, classification, and chronology has given way to a behaviorist approach that interprets finds as products of ecologically adaptive strategies, and to a postmodern alternative that relies on an idealist, cultural-relativist epistemology based on belief and cultural traditions.In Artifacts and Ideas, Bruce G. Trigger challenges all partisan versions of recent developments in archaeology, while remaining committed to understanding the past from a social science perspective. Over 30 years, Trigger has addressed fundamental epistemological issues, and opposed the influence of narrow theoretical and ideological commitments on archaeological interpretation since the 1960s. Trigger encourages a relativistic understanding of archaeological interpretation. Yet as post-processual archaeology, influenced by postmodernism, became increasingly influential, Trigger countered nihilistic subjectivism by laying greater emphasis on how in the long run the constraints of evidence could be expected to produce a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the past.In recent years Trigger has argued that while all human behavior is culturally mediated, the capacity for such mediation has evolved as a flexible and highly efficient means by which humans adapt to a world that exists independently of their will. Trigger agrees that a complete understanding of what has shaped the archaeological record requires knowledge both of past beliefs and of human behavior. He knows also that one must understand humans as organisms with biologically grounded drives, emotions, and means of understanding. Likewise, even in the absence of data supplied in a linguistic format by texts and oral traditions, at least some of the more ecologically adaptive forms of human behavior and some general patterns of belief that display cross-cultural uniformity will be susceptible to archaeological analysis.Advocating a realist epistemology and a materialist ontology, Artifacts and Ideas offers an illuminating guide to the present state of the discipline as well as to how archaeology can best achieve its goals.
Artifacts and Ideas: Essays in Archaeology
by Bruce G. TriggerPrehistoric archaeologists cannot observe their human subjects nor can they directly access their subjects' ideas. Both must be inferred from the remnants of the material objects they made and used. In recent decades this incontrovertible fact has encouraged partisan approaches to the history and method of archaeology. An empirical discipline emphasizing data, classification, and chronology has given way to a behaviorist approach that interprets finds as products of ecologically adaptive strategies, and to a postmodern alternative that relies on an idealist, cultural-relativist epistemology based on belief and cultural traditions.In Artifacts and Ideas, Bruce G. Trigger challenges all partisan versions of recent developments in archaeology, while remaining committed to understanding the past from a social science perspective. Over 30 years, Trigger has addressed fundamental epistemological issues, and opposed the influence of narrow theoretical and ideological commitments on archaeological interpretation since the 1960s. Trigger encourages a relativistic understanding of archaeological interpretation. Yet as post-processual archaeology, influenced by postmodernism, became increasingly influential, Trigger countered nihilistic subjectivism by laying greater emphasis on how in the long run the constraints of evidence could be expected to produce a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the past.In recent years Trigger has argued that while all human behavior is culturally mediated, the capacity for such mediation has evolved as a flexible and highly efficient means by which humans adapt to a world that exists independently of their will. Trigger agrees that a complete understanding of what has shaped the archaeological record requires knowledge both of past beliefs and of human behavior. He knows also that one must understand humans as organisms with biologically grounded drives, emotions, and means of understanding. Likewise, even in the absence of data supplied in a linguistic format by texts and oral traditions, at least some of the more ecologically adaptive forms of human behavior and some general patterns of belief that display cross-cultural uniformity will be susceptible to archaeological analysis.Advocating a realist epistemology and a materialist ontology, Artifacts and Ideas offers an illuminating guide to the present state of the discipline as well as to how archaeology can best achieve its goals.
Artifacts from American Fashion (Daily Life through Artifacts)
by Heather Vaughan LeeClothing and fashion accessories can serve as valuable primary sources for learning about our history. This unique book examines daily life in 20th-century America through the lens of fashion and clothing.This collection explores fashion artifacts from daily life to shed light on key aspects of the social life and culture of Americans in the 20th century. Artifacts from American Fashion covers forty-five essential articles of fashion or accessories, chosen to illuminate significant areas of daily life and history, including Politics, World Events, and War; Transportation and Technology; Home and Work Life; Art and Entertainment; Health, Sport, and Leisure; and Alternative Cultures, Youth, Ethnic, Queer, and Counter Culture. Through these artifacts, readers can follow the major events, social movements, cultural shifts, and technological developments that shaped our daily life in the U.S.A World War I soldier's helmet opens a vista onto the horrors of trench warfare during World War I, while the dress of a typical 1920's "flapper" speaks volumes about America women's changing role during Prohibition and the Jazz Age. Similarly, a homemade feedsack dress illuminates the world of the Great Depression, while the bikini ushers us into the Atomic Age. Here, such artificacts tell the story of twentieth-century daily life in America.
Artifacts from American Fashion (Daily Life through Artifacts)
Clothing and fashion accessories can serve as valuable primary sources for learning about our history. This unique book examines daily life in 20th-century America through the lens of fashion and clothing.This collection explores fashion artifacts from daily life to shed light on key aspects of the social life and culture of Americans in the 20th century. Artifacts from American Fashion covers forty-five essential articles of fashion or accessories, chosen to illuminate significant areas of daily life and history, including Politics, World Events, and War; Transportation and Technology; Home and Work Life; Art and Entertainment; Health, Sport, and Leisure; and Alternative Cultures, Youth, Ethnic, Queer, and Counter Culture. Through these artifacts, readers can follow the major events, social movements, cultural shifts, and technological developments that shaped our daily life in the U.S.A World War I soldier's helmet opens a vista onto the horrors of trench warfare during World War I, while the dress of a typical 1920's "flapper" speaks volumes about America women's changing role during Prohibition and the Jazz Age. Similarly, a homemade feedsack dress illuminates the world of the Great Depression, while the bikini ushers us into the Atomic Age. Here, such artificacts tell the story of twentieth-century daily life in America.
Artifacts in Behavioral Research: Robert Rosenthal and Ralph L. Rosnow's Classic Books
by Robert Rosenthal Ralph L. RosnowThis new combination volume of three-books-in-one, dealing with the topic of artifacts in behavioral research, was designed as both introduction and reminder. It was designed as an introduction to the topic for graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and younger researchers. It was designed as a reminder to more experienced researchers, in and out of academia, that the problems of artifacts in behavioral research, that they may have learned about as beginning researchers, have not gone away. For example, problems of experimenter effects have not been solved. Experimenters still differ in the ways in which they see, interpret, and manipulate their data. Experimenters still obtain different responses from research participants (human or infrahuman) as a function of experimenters' states and traits of biosocial, psychosocial, and situational origins. Experimenters' expectations still serve too often as self-fulfilling prophecies, a problem that biomedical researchers have acknowledged and guarded against better than have behavioral researchers; e.g., many biomedical studies would be considered of unpublishable quality had their experimenters not been blind to experimental condition. Problems of participant or subject effects have also not been solved. We usually still draw our research samples from a population of volunteers that differ along many dimensions from those not finding their way into our research. Research participants are still often suspicious of experimenters' intent, try to figure out what experimenters are after, and are concerned about what the experimenter thinks of them.
Artifacts in Behavioral Research: Robert Rosenthal and Ralph L. Rosnow's Classic Books
by Robert Rosenthal Ralph L. RosnowThis new combination volume of three-books-in-one, dealing with the topic of artifacts in behavioral research, was designed as both introduction and reminder. It was designed as an introduction to the topic for graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and younger researchers. It was designed as a reminder to more experienced researchers, in and out of academia, that the problems of artifacts in behavioral research, that they may have learned about as beginning researchers, have not gone away. For example, problems of experimenter effects have not been solved. Experimenters still differ in the ways in which they see, interpret, and manipulate their data. Experimenters still obtain different responses from research participants (human or infrahuman) as a function of experimenters' states and traits of biosocial, psychosocial, and situational origins. Experimenters' expectations still serve too often as self-fulfilling prophecies, a problem that biomedical researchers have acknowledged and guarded against better than have behavioral researchers; e.g., many biomedical studies would be considered of unpublishable quality had their experimenters not been blind to experimental condition. Problems of participant or subject effects have also not been solved. We usually still draw our research samples from a population of volunteers that differ along many dimensions from those not finding their way into our research. Research participants are still often suspicious of experimenters' intent, try to figure out what experimenters are after, and are concerned about what the experimenter thinks of them.
Artifacts (PDF): How We Think and Write about Found Objects
by Crystal LakeIn the eighteenth century, antiquaries—wary of the biases of philosophers, scientists, politicians, and historians—used old objects to establish what they claimed was a true account of history. But just what could these small, fragmentary, frequently unidentifiable things, whose origins were unknown and whose worth or meaning was not self-evident, tell people about the past?In Artifacts, Crystal B. Lake unearths the four kinds of old objects that were most frequently found and cataloged in Enlightenment-era England: coins, manuscripts, weapons, and grave goods. Following these prized objects as they made their way into popular culture, Lake develops new interpretations of works by Joseph Addison, John Dryden, Horace Walpole, Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, among others. Rereading these authors with the artifact in mind uncovers previously unrecognized allusions that unravel works we thought we knew well. In this new history of antiquarianism and, by extension, historiography, Lake reveals that artifacts rarely acted as agents of fact, as those who studied them would have claimed. Instead, she explains, artifacts are objects unlike any other. Fragmented and from another time or place, artifacts invite us to fill in their shapes and complete their histories with our imaginations. Composed of body as well as spirit and located in the present as well as the past, artifacts inspire speculative reconstructions that frequently contradict one another. Lake's history and theory of the artifact will be of particular importance to scholars of material culture and forms. This fascinating book provides curious readers with new ways of evaluating the relationships that exist between texts and objects.
The Artifactual Nature of Law (IVR Studies in the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy)
This thought-provoking book develops and elaborates on the artifact theory of law, covering a wide range of related theoretical and practical topics. Offering a range of perspectives that flesh out the artifact theory of law, it also introduces criticisms of previous formulations of the theory and inquires into its potential payoffs.Featuring international contributions from both noted and up-and-coming scholars in law and philosophy, the book is divided into two parts. The first part further explores and evaluates the concept of law as an artifact and analyses the background and theoretical basis of the theory. The second part comprises three sections on legal ontology, semantics and legal normativity, specifically in relation to law’s artifactual nature.Providing cutting-edge insights at the intersection of law and philosophy, this book will appeal to scholars and students in philosophy of law, empirical legal studies, social ontology and the philosophy of society.
Artifak: Cultural Revival, Tourism, and the Recrafting of History in Vanuatu
by Hugo DeBlockIn Vanuatu, commoditization and revitalization of culture and the arts do not necessarily work against each other; both revolve around value formation and the authentication of things. This book investigates the meaning and value of (art) objects as commodities in differing states of transit and transition: in the local place, on the market, in the museum. It provides an ethnographic account of commoditization in a context of revitalization of culture and the arts in Vanuatu, and the issues this generates, such as authentication of actions and things, indigenized copyright, and kastom disputes over ownership and the nature of kastom itself.
Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions
by Catherine KeyserIn Artificial Color, Catherine Keyser examines the early twentieth century phenomenon, wherein US writers became fascinated with modern food--global geographies, nutritional theories, and technological innovations. African American literature of the 1920s and 1930s uses new food technologies as imaginative models for resisting and recasting oppressive racial categories. In his masterwork Cane (1923), Jean Toomer follows sugar from the boiling-pots of the South to the speakeasies of the North. Through effervescent and colorful soda, he rejects the binary of black and white in favor of a dream of artificial color and a new American race. In his serial science fiction, Black Empire (1938-39), George Schuyler associates hydroponics and raw foods with racial hybridity and utopian futures. The second half of the book focuses on white expatriate writers who experienced local food cultures as sensuous encounters with racial others. Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein associate regional European races with the ideal of terroir and aspire to transplantation through their own connoisseurship. In their novels set in the Mediterranean, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald both dramatize the white body's susceptibility to intoxicating and stimulating substances like wine and coffee. For Scott Fitzgerald, the climatological and culinary corruption of the South produces the tragic fall of white masculinity. For Zelda, by contrast, it exposes the destructiveness and fictitiousness of the white feminine purity ideal. During the Great Depression and the Second World War, African American writers Zora Neale Hurston and Dorothy West exposed the racism that shaped the global food industry and the precarity of black labor. Their engagement with food, however, insisted upon pleasure as well as vulnerability, the potential of sensuous flesh and racial affiliation. In its embrace of invention and interconnection, Catherine Keyser contends, this modern fiction reveals that, far from being stable, whiteness may be the most obviously artificial color of them all.
Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions
by Catherine KeyserIn Artificial Color, Catherine Keyser examines the early twentieth century phenomenon, wherein US writers became fascinated with modern food--global geographies, nutritional theories, and technological innovations. African American literature of the 1920s and 1930s uses new food technologies as imaginative models for resisting and recasting oppressive racial categories. In his masterwork Cane (1923), Jean Toomer follows sugar from the boiling-pots of the South to the speakeasies of the North. Through effervescent and colorful soda, he rejects the binary of black and white in favor of a dream of artificial color and a new American race. In his serial science fiction, Black Empire (1938-39), George Schuyler associates hydroponics and raw foods with racial hybridity and utopian futures. The second half of the book focuses on white expatriate writers who experienced local food cultures as sensuous encounters with racial others. Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein associate regional European races with the ideal of terroir and aspire to transplantation through their own connoisseurship. In their novels set in the Mediterranean, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald both dramatize the white body's susceptibility to intoxicating and stimulating substances like wine and coffee. For Scott Fitzgerald, the climatological and culinary corruption of the South produces the tragic fall of white masculinity. For Zelda, by contrast, it exposes the destructiveness and fictitiousness of the white feminine purity ideal. During the Great Depression and the Second World War, African American writers Zora Neale Hurston and Dorothy West exposed the racism that shaped the global food industry and the precarity of black labor. Their engagement with food, however, insisted upon pleasure as well as vulnerability, the potential of sensuous flesh and racial affiliation. In its embrace of invention and interconnection, Catherine Keyser contends, this modern fiction reveals that, far from being stable, whiteness may be the most obviously artificial color of them all.
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Pelican Books)
by Melanie MitchellNo recent scientific enterprise has been so alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. How intelligent are the best of today's AI programs? To what extent can we entrust them with decisions that affect our lives? How human-like do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us in most, if not all, human endeavours? From leading AI researcher and award-winning author Melanie Mitchell comes a knowledgeable and captivating account of modern-day artificial intelligence. Flavoured with personal stories and a twist of humor, Artificial Intelligence illuminates the workings of machines that mimic human learning, perception, language, creativity and common sense. Weaving together advances in AI with cognitive science and philosophy, Mitchell probes the extent to which today's 'smart' machines can actually think or understand, and whether AI requires such elusive human qualities in order to be reliable, trustworthy and beneficial. Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans provides readers with an accessible, entertaining, and clear-eyed view of the AI landscape, what the field has actually accomplished, how much further it has to go, and what it means for all of our futures.
Artificial Intelligence: Evolution, Ethics and Public Policy
by Saswat Sarangi Pankaj SharmaWhat will the future be? A dystopian landscape controlled by machines or a brave new world full of possibilities? Perhaps the answer lies with Artificial Intelligence (AI)—a phenomenon much beyond technology that has, continues to, and will shape lives in ways we do not understand yet. This book traces the evolution of AI in contemporary history. It analyses how AI is primarily being driven by "capital" as the only "factor of production" and its consequences for the global political economy. It further explores the dystopian prospect of mass unemployment by AI and takes up the ethical aspects of AI and its possible use in undermining natural and fundamental rights. A tract for the times, this volume will be a major intervention in an area that is heavily debated but rarely understood. It will be essential reading for researchers and students of digital humanities, politics, economics, science and technology studies, physics, and computer science. It will also be key reading for policy makers, cyber experts and bureaucrats.
Artificial Intelligence: Evolution, Ethics and Public Policy
by Saswat Sarangi Pankaj SharmaWhat will the future be? A dystopian landscape controlled by machines or a brave new world full of possibilities? Perhaps the answer lies with Artificial Intelligence (AI)—a phenomenon much beyond technology that has, continues to, and will shape lives in ways we do not understand yet. This book traces the evolution of AI in contemporary history. It analyses how AI is primarily being driven by "capital" as the only "factor of production" and its consequences for the global political economy. It further explores the dystopian prospect of mass unemployment by AI and takes up the ethical aspects of AI and its possible use in undermining natural and fundamental rights. A tract for the times, this volume will be a major intervention in an area that is heavily debated but rarely understood. It will be essential reading for researchers and students of digital humanities, politics, economics, science and technology studies, physics, and computer science. It will also be key reading for policy makers, cyber experts and bureaucrats.
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain for Social Impact: Social Business Models and Impact Finance
by Wolfgang Spiess-KnaflArtificial Intelligence and Blockchain for Social Impact provides an accessible overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies, and explores their applications for social enterprise and impact investing. The opening chapter introduces the impact space, exploring different social business models, the role of technology, the impact investing market and general problems in the space. The remainder of this book falls into two paths: the first focusing on AI and the other looking at the blockchain technology. Providing introductions to each of these technologies and their histories, the author goes on to examine them from the perspectives of social business models and impact finance. A concluding chapter explores AI and cryptocurrencies in the impact space in the future. Readers are supported with international case studies and other student-friendly features. Situated at the intersection between technology, fintech, social enterprise, impact investing and social impact, this book is a valuable resource for upper-level courses across all these areas. It also offers an introduction to this emerging topic for researchers and business professionals. Online teaching resources to accompany this book include instructor lecture slides and data sets.
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain for Social Impact: Social Business Models and Impact Finance
by Wolfgang Spiess-KnaflArtificial Intelligence and Blockchain for Social Impact provides an accessible overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies, and explores their applications for social enterprise and impact investing. The opening chapter introduces the impact space, exploring different social business models, the role of technology, the impact investing market and general problems in the space. The remainder of this book falls into two paths: the first focusing on AI and the other looking at the blockchain technology. Providing introductions to each of these technologies and their histories, the author goes on to examine them from the perspectives of social business models and impact finance. A concluding chapter explores AI and cryptocurrencies in the impact space in the future. Readers are supported with international case studies and other student-friendly features. Situated at the intersection between technology, fintech, social enterprise, impact investing and social impact, this book is a valuable resource for upper-level courses across all these areas. It also offers an introduction to this emerging topic for researchers and business professionals. Online teaching resources to accompany this book include instructor lecture slides and data sets.
Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation (Comparative Policy Evaluation)
by Steffen Bohni Nielsen, Francesco Mazzeo Rinaldi and Gustav Jakob PeterssonArtificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation is a groundbreaking exploration of how the landscape of program evaluation will be redefined by artificial intelligence and other emerging digital technologies.In an era where digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly evolving, this book presents a pivotal resource for evaluators navigating the transformative intersection of their practice and cutting-edge technology. Addressing the dual dimensions of how evaluations are conducted and what is evaluated, a roster of distinguished contributors illuminate the impact of AI on program evaluation methodologies. Offering a discerning overview of various digital technologies, their promises and perils, they carefully dissect the implications for evaluative processes and debate how evaluators must be equipped with the requisite skills to harness the full potential of AI tools. Further, the book includes a number of compelling use cases, demonstrating the tangible applications of AI in diverse evaluation scenarios. The use cases range from the application of GIS data to advanced text analytics. As such, this book provides evaluators with inspirational cases on how to apply AI in their practice as well as what pitfalls one must look out for.Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation is an indispensable guide for evaluators seeking to not only adapt to but thrive in the dynamic landscape of evaluation practices reshaped by the advent of artificial intelligence.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation (Comparative Policy Evaluation)
Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation is a groundbreaking exploration of how the landscape of program evaluation will be redefined by artificial intelligence and other emerging digital technologies.In an era where digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly evolving, this book presents a pivotal resource for evaluators navigating the transformative intersection of their practice and cutting-edge technology. Addressing the dual dimensions of how evaluations are conducted and what is evaluated, a roster of distinguished contributors illuminate the impact of AI on program evaluation methodologies. Offering a discerning overview of various digital technologies, their promises and perils, they carefully dissect the implications for evaluative processes and debate how evaluators must be equipped with the requisite skills to harness the full potential of AI tools. Further, the book includes a number of compelling use cases, demonstrating the tangible applications of AI in diverse evaluation scenarios. The use cases range from the application of GIS data to advanced text analytics. As such, this book provides evaluators with inspirational cases on how to apply AI in their practice as well as what pitfalls one must look out for.Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation is an indispensable guide for evaluators seeking to not only adapt to but thrive in the dynamic landscape of evaluation practices reshaped by the advent of artificial intelligence.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Artificial Intelligence and Its Contexts: Security, Business and Governance (Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications)
by Anna Visvizi Marek BodzianyThis book offers a comprehensive approach to the question of how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts politics, economy, and the society today. In this view, it is quintessential for understanding the complex nature of AI and its role in today’s world. The book has been divided into three parts. Part one is devoted to the question of how AI will be used for security and defense purposes, including combat in war zones. Part two looks at the value added of AI and machine learning for decision-making in the fields of politics and business. Part three consists of case studies—covering the EU, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, and Poland—that discuss how AI is being used in the realms of politics, security and defense. The discussion in the book opens with the question of the nature of AI, as well as of ethics and the use of AI in combat. Subsequently, the argument covers issues as diverse as the militarization of AI, the use of AI in strategic studies and military strategy design. These topics are followed by an insight into AI and strategic communication (StratCom), including disinformation, as well as into AI and finance. The case-studies included in part 3 of the book offer a captivating overview of how AI is being employed to stimulate growth and development, to promote data- and evidence-driven policy-making, to enable efficient and inclusive digital transformation and other related issues. Written by academics and practitioners in an academically sound, yet approachable manner, this volume queries issues and topics that form the thrust of processes that transform world politics, economics and society. As such, this volume will serve as the primer for students, researchers, lectures and other professionals who seek to understand and engage with the variety of issues AI implicates.
Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents: Critiques from the Social Sciences and Humanities (Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI)
by Ariane HanemaayerOn what basis can we challenge Artificial Intelligence (AI) - its infusion, investment, and implementation across the globe? This book answers this question by drawing on a range of critical approaches from the social sciences and humanities, including posthumanism, ethics and human values, surveillance studies, Black feminism, and other strategies for social and political resistance. The authors analyse timely topics, including bias and language processing, responsibility and machine learning, COVID-19 and AI in health technologies, bio-AI and nanotechnology, digital ethics, AI and the gig economy, representations of AI in literature and culture, and many more. This book is for those who are currently working in the field of AI critique and disruption as well as in AI development and programming. It is also for those who want to learn more about how to doubt, question, challenge, reject, reform and otherwise reprise AI as it been practiced and promoted.
Artificial Intelligence and National Security
by Reza MontasariThis book analyses the implications of the technical, legal, ethical and privacy challenges as well as challenges for human rights and civil liberties regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and National Security. It also offers solutions that can be adopted to mitigate or eradicate these challenges wherever possible.As a general-purpose, dual-use technology, AI can be deployed for both good and evil. The use of AI is increasingly becoming of paramount importance to the government’s mission to keep their nations safe. However, the design, development and use of AI for national security poses a wide range of legal, ethical, moral and privacy challenges. This book explores national security uses for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Western Democracies and its malicious use. This book also investigates the legal, political, ethical, moral, privacy and human rights implications of the national security uses of AI in the aforementioned democracies. It illustrates how AI for national security purposes could threaten most individual fundamental rights, and how the use of AI in digital policing could undermine user human rights and privacy. In relation to its examination of the adversarial uses of AI, this book discusses how certain countries utilise AI to launch disinformation attacks by automating the creation of false or misleading information to subvert public discourse. With regards to the potential of AI for national security purposes, this book investigates how AI could be utilized in content moderation to counter violent extremism on social media platforms. It also discusses the current practices in using AI in managing Big Data Analytics demands. This book provides a reference point for researchers and advanced-level students studying or working in the fields of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Social Sciences, Network Security as well as Law and Criminology. Professionals working within these related fields and law enforcement employees will also find this book valuable as a reference.