Poliarchie/Polyarchies volume 5 n. 2/2022

Poliarchie/Polyarchies is multi-disciplinary journal which aims at promoting the encounter of the social sciences and humanities, ranging from sociology and political science to history, economics, law and philosophy. The analysis of political and social change can indeed be investigated from different perspectives and with the help of a variety of methodological tools. Poliarche/Polyarchies embraces a range of contemporary issues: processes of supranational integration and democratization in the world; the transformation of contemporary societies under the pressure of immigration and environmental challenges; the crises of “electoral democracy” in Europe and the development of a deliberative model of democracy; the potential “clash of civilizations” and socio-religious conflict; the resurgence of nationalisms and micro-regionalism in Europe and in the world; the integration of policy processes into networks and of communities into new frameworks and governance systems.

The development of systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of collaborating effectively with humans is a crucial research topic in contemporary societies, where the decision-making processes are progressively being delegated to algorithms. The conception of AI as free from the flaws of human reasoning and capable of arriving at objective and neutral decisions is false from an epistemological point of view. Besides, it is dangerous from a practical point of view too as it pushes organizations and work teams towards algocratic forms of governance that impoverish the cognitive dimension of such organizations. Based on the study of the conception, design and realization of the robot Maxwell, the article attempts to outline a design philosophy for collaborative intelligent machines that abandons the myth of the infallibility of AI and develops a perspective of true integration between man and machine. This perspective is tackled both from a technical-scientific point of view, relating to how to create machines capable of interacting with humans, and a socio-organizational one, relating to the kind of impact these machines can have on human work.

The introduction of digital technologies into the workplace has been at the centre of a wide interdisciplinary debate involving different branches of study. This article focuses on the active role of workers in influencing the ways in which algorithmic technologies are embedded and used in contemporary organisations. With this aim, the article presents and discusses some of the results emerging from empirical research carried out in two work organisations in northern Italy. The findings show that the workers’ algoactivism consists in appropriating technology, and adapting algorithmic technology to their own background of beliefs. They also adapt algoactivism to the representations elaborated regarding the technology in the course of its use, as well as to the possibilities and constraints dictated by their own everyday life. Workers’ algo-activism also consists in shaping broader socio-organisational processes to monitor and manage their health conditions thanks also to technological support. The emerging organisational texture was, therefore, characterised by a continuous connection and overlap between health management, work activity, family obligations and everyday life.

The article presents the possible uses of AI in organizations, examining application options in relation to the strategies of organizational actors, their representations of the technology and their logics of use. In this context, human-machine collaboration poses certain organizational problems, in particular: a) the tension between equal interactivity and inter-passive relationships; b) the tension between knowledge refinement and the generative function of new knowledge; c) the tension between centralized and decentralized organizational configurations. The ability of organizations to increase their efficiency and quality depends on how these tensions are resolved, also responding to the needs of stakeholders and inspired by criteria of social responsibility.

When in 2015 an unprecedented number of migrants crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa towards Southern Europe, the EU was forced to update the its Migration and Asylum Policy. This article reviews the main EU responses to the so-called “Migrant crisis” from the peak of arrivals of more than 1.8 million migrants in 2015 to the end of the mandate of the Juncker Commission in 2019, right before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the drafting of the New Pact on Migration. Drawing on historical institutionalism as a theoretical background to examine the evolution and the transformation of the EU Migration and Asylum Policy, the article examines how the cumulated layers of rules and agreements produced since 2000 have contributed to the policy change or rather its continuity, also driven by the 2015 crisis. In that perspective, particular attention is paid to the EU-Turkey Statement, and the agreements with Niger and Libya.