Systematic Storytelling: Interactivity, Agency and Non-linear Narratives

In this lecture we go over the fundamentals of interactive game narratives. Defining what we mean by narrative, and placing games in context with other ergodic literature. We look at non-linear structures, agency, and the narrative paradox. Concluding with a set of mechanisms that games designers use to manage agency in their narrative games.

Works Councils: An Agency Perspective

This paper investigates the role of works councils in a simple agency framework in whichworks councils are supposed to monitor manager's information on behalf of the workforce,but they are independent agents who might pursue their private interest. First, we considerthat workers can incentivize works councils through contingent monetary payments. In orderto deter collusion, workers must pay higher compensations in states of nature where they canbe expropriated by potential coalitions among works councils and management. Collusionmakes contingent payments costly and reduces workers' payoffs. Second, when elections areused to align works councils' interest only well compensated representatives would face aninter-temporal trade-off between accepting management's transfers at first period and losingrents at the second period. Elections increase the cost of entering on collusive behaviour withmanagement and works councils will try to behave on the employees' interest.

Works councils: an agency perspective

This paper investigates the role of works councils in a simple agency framework in which works councils are supposed to monitor manager’s information on behalf of the workforce, but they are independent agents who might pursue their private interest. First, we consider that workers can incentivize works councils through contingent monetary payments. In order to deter collusion, workers must pay higher compensations in states of nature where they can be expropriated by potential coalitions among works councils and management. Collusion makes contingent payments costly and reduces workers’ payoffs. Second, when elections are the exclusive mechanisms to align works councils’ interest, only well compensated representatives would face an intertemporal tradeoff between accepting management’s transfers at first period and losing rents at the second period. Elections increase the cost of entering on collusive behavior with management and works councils will try to behave on the employees’ interest.

Proxy and agency : the rest is literature. 'Poderes y agencia : el resto es literatura'.

Resumen en español

Research based design: competition proposal for the Cyprus news agency

The paper attempts to explore the interrelation between a) the architects’ individualism and “pre-structures” b) research- based findings during the design process through experimentation and c)an integrated design approach, where morphology, construction and bioclimatic design are integrated from an early design stage. Through a thorough presentation and analysis of a competition proposal for the Cyprus News Agency, we discuss a number of important findings in relation to the present and possibly future form of the design studio. We suggest that the designer’s “prestructures” may not only be the basis for creative action, but also the basis for understanding and interpretation. Design informed and enriched at every stage by a research-based process, might well be the transmission and transformation of “prestructures”, a process of elaboration and discovery which facilitates and enhances design creativity and possibly allows for a multiplicity of approaches through a range of possibilities. Furthermore, an integrated approach from the early stages of the design process facilitates innovation in materials and systems.

Information and anti-terrorist security of Poland. A critical analysis exemplified with the tasks and activity of the Internal Security Agency

The subject matter of the analysis conducted in the text is information and anti-terrorist security of Poland, which has been presented within the context of a clash between two spheres – the state and the private sphere. Furthermore, the issues of security have been supplemented with a description of the tasks and activity of the Internal Security Agency, as well as a synthetic appraisal of a terrorist threat to Poland. The main parts of this work are concerned with: (1) the state and the private sphere, (2) " terrorism " and terrorist offences, (3) the tasks and activity of the Internal Security Agency, (4) an appraisal of a terrorist threat to Poland. Given the necessity to elaborate the research problem, the text features the following research questions: (1) To what extent does referring to a threat to security influence a limitation on rights and freedoms in Poland (with regard to the clash between the state and the private sphere)?, (2) To what extent do the tasks and activity of the Internal Security Agency influence the effectiveness of anti-terrorist security in Poland?

Poland’s internal security as exemplified by the tasks and activities of the Internal Security Agency in the period 2007–2015

The text analyses Poland's internal security illustrated with the example of the tasks and activities of one of the Polish special services, the Internal Security Agency (pol. Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego – ABW). Although the Internal Security Agency was established as a counter-intelligence service, the scope of its tasks and activities places it among the criminal intelligence services, which is poorly effective in terms of the eradication of crime targeted at the state's internal security. The analysis of the issues of state security in the context of the ISA's activity has been elaborated in the present text with the following research questions: (1) To what extent does the statutory scope of the ISA's tasks lower the effectiveness of the actions aimed at combating crime threatening state security? (2) To what extent does the structural pathology inside the ISA lower the effectiveness of the actions aimed at combating crime threatening state security? The text features an extensive analysis of three major issues: (1) the ISA's statutory tasks (with particular consideration of de lege lata and de lege ferenda regulations), (2) the dysfunctional character of the ISA's activity in relation to the scope of its statutory tasks, and (3) the structural pathology resulting from the 'politicisation' of the Internal Security Agency.