Ebook: Consensual Processes

The word consensus has been frequently used for centuries, perhaps millenia. People have always deemed it important that decisions having a long lasting impact on groups, countries or even civilizations be arrived at in a consensual manner. Undoubtedly the complexity of modern world in all its social, technological, economic and cultural dimensions has created new environments where consensus is regarded desirable. Consensus typically denotes a state of agreement prevailing in a group of agents, human or software. In the strict sense of the term, consensus means that the agreement be unanimous. Since such a state is often unreachable or even unnecessary, other less demanding consensus-related notions have been introduced. These typically involve some graded, partial or imprecise concepts. The contributions to this volume define and utilize such less demanding - and thus at the same time more general - notions of consensus. However, consensus can also refer to a process whereby the state of agreement is reached. Again this state can be something less stringent than a complete unanimity of all agents regarding all options. The process may involve modifications, resolutions and /or mitigations of the views or inputs of individuals or software agents in order to achieve the state of consensus understood in the more general sense. The consensus reaching processes call for some soft computational approaches, methods and techniques, notably fuzzy and possibilistic ones. These are needed to accommodate the imprecision in the very meaning of some basic concepts utilized in the definition of consensus as a state of agreement and as a process whereby this state is to be reached. The overall aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of the issues related to consensus states and consensual processes.

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The word consensus has been frequently used for centuries, perhaps millenia. People have always deemed it important that decisions having a long lasting impact on groups, countries or even civilizations be arrived at in a consensual manner. Undoubtedly the complexity of modern world in all its social, technological, economic and cultural dimensions has created new environments where consensus is regarded desirable. Consensus typically denotes a state of agreement prevailing in a group of agents, human or software. In the strict sense of the term, consensus means that the agreement be unanimous. Since such a state is often unreachable or even unnecessary, other less demanding consensus-related notions have been introduced. These typically involve some graded, partial or imprecise concepts. The contributions to this volume define and utilize such less demanding - and thus at the same time more general - notions of consensus. However, consensus can also refer to a process whereby the state of agreement is reached. Again this state can be something less stringent than a complete unanimity of all agents regarding all options. The process may involve modifications, resolutions and /or mitigations of the views or inputs of individuals or software agents in order to achieve the state of consensus understood in the more general sense. The consensus reaching processes call for some soft computational approaches, methods and techniques, notably fuzzy and possibilistic ones. These are needed to accommodate the imprecision in the very meaning of some basic concepts utilized in the definition of consensus as a state of agreement and as a process whereby this state is to be reached. The overall aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of the issues related to consensus states and consensual processes.

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The word consensus has been frequently used for centuries, perhaps millenia. People have always deemed it important that decisions having a long lasting impact on groups, countries or even civilizations be arrived at in a consensual manner. Undoubtedly the complexity of modern world in all its social, technological, economic and cultural dimensions has created new environments where consensus is regarded desirable. Consensus typically denotes a state of agreement prevailing in a group of agents, human or software. In the strict sense of the term, consensus means that the agreement be unanimous. Since such a state is often unreachable or even unnecessary, other less demanding consensus-related notions have been introduced. These typically involve some graded, partial or imprecise concepts. The contributions to this volume define and utilize such less demanding - and thus at the same time more general - notions of consensus. However, consensus can also refer to a process whereby the state of agreement is reached. Again this state can be something less stringent than a complete unanimity of all agents regarding all options. The process may involve modifications, resolutions and /or mitigations of the views or inputs of individuals or software agents in order to achieve the state of consensus understood in the more general sense. The consensus reaching processes call for some soft computational approaches, methods and techniques, notably fuzzy and possibilistic ones. These are needed to accommodate the imprecision in the very meaning of some basic concepts utilized in the definition of consensus as a state of agreement and as a process whereby this state is to be reached. The overall aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of the issues related to consensus states and consensual processes.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages -
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Distance-Based Aggregation Theory....Pages 3-22
On Penalty-Based Aggregation Functions and Consensus....Pages 23-40
Ranking Alternatives in Group Decision-Making with Partial Information: A Stable Approach....Pages 41-52
Opinion Changing Aversion Functions for Group Settlement Modeling....Pages 53-63
Statistical Preference as a Tool in Consensus Processes....Pages 65-92
Front Matter....Pages 93-93
Consensus with Oneself: Within-Person Choice Aggregation in the Laboratory....Pages 95-121
The Social Choice Approach to Group Identification....Pages 123-134
Consensus versus Dichotomous Voting....Pages 135-143
On a Priori Evaluation of Power of Veto....Pages 145-156
Front Matter....Pages 157-157
Settings of Consensual Processes: Candidates, Verdicts, Policies....Pages 159-177
Consensus Perspectives: Glimpses into Theoretical Advances and Applications....Pages 179-193
Measuring Consensus: Concepts, Comparisons, and Properties....Pages 195-211
Measuring Consensus in Weak Orders....Pages 213-234
A Qualitative Reasoning Approach to Measure Consensus....Pages 235-261
On Consensus in Group Decision Making Based on Fuzzy Preference Relations....Pages 263-287
Supporting Consensus Reaching Processes under Fuzzy Preferences and a Fuzzy Majority via Linguistic Summaries and Action Rules....Pages 289-314
Front Matter....Pages 315-315
Consensual Processes Based on Mobile Technologies and Dynamic Information....Pages 317-337
Building Consensus in On-Line Distributed Decision Making: Interaction, Aggregation and the Construction of Shared Knowledge....Pages 339-355
A Web-Based Consensus Support System Dealing with Heterogeneous Information....Pages 357-381
A Fuzzy Hierarchical Multiple Criteria Group Decision Support System – Decider – and Its Applications....Pages 383-403
Back Matter....Pages -
Product Design Compromise Using Consensus Models....Pages 405-423

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The word consensus has been frequently used for centuries, perhaps millenia. People have always deemed it important that decisions having a long lasting impact on groups, countries or even civilizations be arrived at in a consensual manner. Undoubtedly the complexity of modern world in all its social, technological, economic and cultural dimensions has created new environments where consensus is regarded desirable. Consensus typically denotes a state of agreement prevailing in a group of agents, human or software. In the strict sense of the term, consensus means that the agreement be unanimous. Since such a state is often unreachable or even unnecessary, other less demanding consensus-related notions have been introduced. These typically involve some graded, partial or imprecise concepts. The contributions to this volume define and utilize such less demanding - and thus at the same time more general - notions of consensus. However, consensus can also refer to a process whereby the state of agreement is reached. Again this state can be something less stringent than a complete unanimity of all agents regarding all options. The process may involve modifications, resolutions and /or mitigations of the views or inputs of individuals or software agents in order to achieve the state of consensus understood in the more general sense. The consensus reaching processes call for some soft computational approaches, methods and techniques, notably fuzzy and possibilistic ones. These are needed to accommodate the imprecision in the very meaning of some basic concepts utilized in the definition of consensus as a state of agreement and as a process whereby this state is to be reached. The overall aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of the issues related to consensus states and consensual processes.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages -
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Distance-Based Aggregation Theory....Pages 3-22
On Penalty-Based Aggregation Functions and Consensus....Pages 23-40
Ranking Alternatives in Group Decision-Making with Partial Information: A Stable Approach....Pages 41-52
Opinion Changing Aversion Functions for Group Settlement Modeling....Pages 53-63
Statistical Preference as a Tool in Consensus Processes....Pages 65-92
Front Matter....Pages 93-93
Consensus with Oneself: Within-Person Choice Aggregation in the Laboratory....Pages 95-121
The Social Choice Approach to Group Identification....Pages 123-134
Consensus versus Dichotomous Voting....Pages 135-143
On a Priori Evaluation of Power of Veto....Pages 145-156
Front Matter....Pages 157-157
Settings of Consensual Processes: Candidates, Verdicts, Policies....Pages 159-177
Consensus Perspectives: Glimpses into Theoretical Advances and Applications....Pages 179-193
Measuring Consensus: Concepts, Comparisons, and Properties....Pages 195-211
Measuring Consensus in Weak Orders....Pages 213-234
A Qualitative Reasoning Approach to Measure Consensus....Pages 235-261
On Consensus in Group Decision Making Based on Fuzzy Preference Relations....Pages 263-287
Supporting Consensus Reaching Processes under Fuzzy Preferences and a Fuzzy Majority via Linguistic Summaries and Action Rules....Pages 289-314
Front Matter....Pages 315-315
Consensual Processes Based on Mobile Technologies and Dynamic Information....Pages 317-337
Building Consensus in On-Line Distributed Decision Making: Interaction, Aggregation and the Construction of Shared Knowledge....Pages 339-355
A Web-Based Consensus Support System Dealing with Heterogeneous Information....Pages 357-381
A Fuzzy Hierarchical Multiple Criteria Group Decision Support System – Decider – and Its Applications....Pages 383-403
Back Matter....Pages -
Product Design Compromise Using Consensus Models....Pages 405-423
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