Nos pasan por Psyart noticia sobre este congreso organizado por DARPA (sí, la agencia militara americana, antes ARPA de ARPAnet, los que crearon Internet - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)—Esta vez se interesan sobre la importancia de las historias, de las narraciones, del análisis narrativo y de la narratividad, en especial como instrumento ideológico o factor que afecta a la seguridad y a los conflictos. Aquí la noticia que daba NetworkWorld, y aquí la convocatoria de DARPA:
Special Notice DARPA-SN-11-20: Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies (STORyNET): Analysis and Decomposition of Narratives in Security Contexts
WORKSHOP DATE: February 28, 2011
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: February 23, 2011, 4:00 PM ET
TECHNICAL POC: Lt Col William Casebeer, DARPA/DSO
Email: DARPA-SN-11-20@darpa.mil
URL: http://www.darpa.mil/dso/solicitations/solicit.htm
Stories exert a powerful influence on human thoughts and behavior. They consolidate memory, shape emotions, cue heuristics and biases in judgment, influence in-group/out-group distinctions, and may affect the fundamental contents of personal identity. It comes as no surprise that these influences make stories highly relevant to vexing security challenges such as radicalization, violent social mobilization, insurgency and terrorism, and conflict prevention and resolution. Therefore, understanding the role stories play in a security context is a matter of great import and some urgency.
Ascertaining exactly what function stories enact, and by what mechanisms they do so, is a necessity if we are to effectively analyze the security phenomena shaped by stories. Doing this in a scientifically respectable manner requires a working theory of narratives, an understanding of what role narratives play in security contexts, and examination of how to best analyze stories—decomposing them and their psychological impact systematically.
To encourage and stimulate discussion and research on these issues, the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting a workshop, Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies (STORyNET): Analysis and Decomposition of Narratives in Security Contexts. This workshop is intended as a precursor to exploring the neurobiological mechanisms which undergird narrative processing so as to establish fertile ground for connecting our understanding of the neuropsychology of stories with models, simulations and sensors salient to security concerns. To this end, the workshop will focus on surveying theories of narrative, understanding what role they play in security domains, and establishing the state of the art in story analysis and decomposition frameworks.
This STORyNET workshop has three goals:
1.
To survey narrative theories. These empirically informed theories should tell us something about the nature of stories: what is a story? What are its moving parts? Is there a list of necessary and sufficient conditions it takes for a stimulus to be considered a story instead of something else? Does the structure and function of stories vary considerably across cultural contexts or is there a universal theory of story?
2.
To better understand the role of narrative in security contexts. What role do stories play in influencing political violence and to what extent? What function do narratives serve in the process of political radicalization and how do they
influence a person or group’s choice of means (such as violence) to achieve political ends? How do stories influence bystanders’ response to conflict? Is it possible to measure how attitudes salient to security issues are shaped by stories?
3.
To survey the state of the art in narrative analysis and decomposition tools. How can we take stories and make them quantitatively analyzable in a rigorous, transparent and repeatable fashion? What analytic approaches or tools best establish a framework for the scientific study of the psychological and neurobiological impact of stories on people? Are particular approaches or tools better than others for understanding how stories propagate in a system so as to influence behavior?
The workshop will be held at the Boar’s Head Inn, 200 Ednam Drive, Charlotesville, VA, 22903. The workshop will include brief presentations by representatives in the domains of concentration, but these are intended mainly to facilitate communication, interaction and collaborative discussion; please indicate if you desire to present your findings as a plenary presentation. Workshop details including registration, meeting location and lodging are given on the registration website at
http://www.sa-meetings.com/STORyNET.
Website Login Information –
Username: DARPA
Password (case sensitive): STORyNET
There is no fee for the workshop. Registration is limited (maximum 100 people with a limit of 2 representatives per organization) by the venue capacity. The registration cutoff date is 4:00PM ET, Wednesday February 23, 2011, and early registration is strongly recommended.
Additional workshops focusing on neurobiological mechanisms, and on modeling/simulation/sensor tools, will take place at a later date. We hope that literary theorists, communications analysts, media analysts, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, quantitative social scientists, representatives from academia and industry, and other interested parties will join us for this first workshop.
Further administrative questions should be addressed to DARPA-SN-11-20@darpa.mil. Please refer to the STORyNET Workshop (DARPA-SN-11-20) in all correspondence. This announcement is not a request for proposals; any so sent will be returned.
Point of Contact
Lt Col William Casebeer, Program Manager, DARPA/DSO;
Email: DARPA-SN-11-20@darpa.mil.
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