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Rationality

About: Rationality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 20459 publications have been published within this topic receiving 617787 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explain the significance of a political sociology approach to public policy instruments in accounting for processes of public policy change, since it reveals a (fairly explicit) theorization of the relationship between the governing and the governed.
Abstract: Public policy instrumentation and its choice of tools and modes of operation are treated either as a kind of evidence (governing means making regulations, taxing, entering into contracts, communicating, etc.) or as if the questions it raises (the properties of instruments, justifications for choosing them, their applicability, etc.) are part of a rationality of methods without any autonomous meaning. This paper aims to explain the significance of a political sociology approach to public policy instruments in accounting for processes of public policy change: (1) public policy instrumentation is a major issue in public policy, since it reveals a (fairly explicit) theorization of the relationship between the governing and the governed: every instrument constitutes a condensed form of knowledge about social control and ways of exercising it; and (2) instruments at work are not neutral devices: they produce specific effects, independently of the objective pursued (the aims ascribed to them), which structure public policy according to their own logic.

993 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Flyvbjerg as discussed by the authors showed that rationality is context-dependent and that the crucial context is determined by decision-makers' power, and he demonstrated that modern "rationality" is but an ideal when confronted with real rationalities involved in decision making by central actors in government, economy, and civil society.
Abstract: "It's like the story of Little Town," an influential actor says in Rationality and Power when choosing a metaphor to describe how he manipulated rationality to gain power, "The bell ringer . . . has to set the church clock. So he calls the telephone exchange and asks what time it is, and the telephone operator looks out the window towards the church clock and says, 'It's five o'clock.' 'Good,' says the bell ringer, 'then my clock is correct.'" In the Enlightenment tradition, rationality is considered well-defined, independent of context; we know what rationality is, and its meaning is constant across time and space. Bent Flyvbjerg shows that rationality is context-dependent and that the crucial context is determined by decision-makers' power. Power blurs the dividing line between rationality and rationalization. The result is a rationality that is often as imaginary as the time in Little Town, yet with very real social and environmental consequences. Flyvbjerg takes us behind the scenes to uncover the real politics—and real rationality—of policy-making, administration, and planning in an internationally acclaimed project for environmental improvement, auto traffic reduction, land use, and urban renewal. The action takes place in the Danish city of Aalborg, but it could be anywhere. Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding power and what it means for our more general concerns of social and political organization. Policy-making, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader is a firsthand witness to the classic, endless drama that defines what democracy and modernity are, and what they can be. The result is a fascinating narrative that is both concrete and general, current and timeless. Drawing on the ideas of Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Habermas, Flyvbjerg reads the Aalborg case as a metaphor of modernity and of modern politics, administration, and planning. Flyvbjerg uncovers the interplay of power and rationality that distorts policy deliberation. He demonstrates that modern "rationality" is but an ideal when confronted with the real rationalities involved in decision making by central actors in government, economy, and civil society. Flyvbjerg then elaborates on how this problem can be dealt with so that more fruitful deliberation and action can occur.

993 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the presence of fallacies in reasoning is evaluated by referring to normative criteria which ultimately derive their own credentials from a systematisation of the intuitions that agree with them.
Abstract: The object of this paper is to show why recent research in the psychology of deductive and probabilistic reasoning does not have "bleak implications for human rationality," as has sometimes been supposed. The presence of fallacies in reasoning is evaluated by referring to normative criteria which ultimately derive their own credentials from a systematisation of the intuitions that agree with them. These normative criteria cannot be taken, as some have suggested, to constitute a part of natural science, nor can they be established by metamathematical proof. Since a theory of competence has to predict the very same intuitions, it must ascribe rationality to ordinary people.Accordingly, psychological research on this topic falls into four categories. In the first, experimenters investigate conditions under which their subjects suffer from genuine cognitive illusions. The search for explanations of such performance errors may then generate hypotheses about the ways in which the relevant information-processing mechanisms operate. In the second category, experimenters investigate circumstances in which their subjects exhibit mathematical or scientific ignorance: these are tests of the subjects' intelligence or education. In the third and fourth categories, experimenters impute a fallacy where none exists, either because they are applying the relevant normative criteria in an inappropriate way or because the normative criteria being applied are not the appropriate ones.

993 citations

Reference EntryDOI
15 Jan 2006
TL;DR: For example, Simon as discussed by the authors proposed a model of bounded rationality in decision-making and problem-solving, and won the 1978 Nobel Prize for economics for this model of rationality.
Abstract: Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) was an American scientist whose research ranged broadly over the cognitive and social sciences, computer science, economics, and the philosophy of science. For his fundamental, innovative, and penetrating contributions he received the highest research awards in the fields of economics, psychology, computer science and artificial intelligence, including the 1978 Nobel Prize for Economics for his model of bounded rationality in decision-making and problem-solving. Keywords: decision-making; problem solving; artificial intelligence; bounded rationality; Nobel Price in Economics

984 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Comprehensiveness is a measure of rationality and is defined as the extent to which organizations attempt to be exhaustive or inclusive in making and integrating strategic decisions as mentioned in this paper, and it can be defined as:
Abstract: Comprehensiveness is a measure of rationality and is defined as the extent to which organizations attempt to be exhaustive or inclusive in making and integrating strategic decisions. Results from a...

961 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023921
20221,963
2021645
2020689
2019682
2018753