Open Research Repository

The Open Research Repository (ORR) is the official institutional repository of the Central European University. The repository provides access to the research output of the CEU community by collecting open access versions of scholarly works authored or co-authored by CEU faculty and students.

For more information, please contact us at: scholcom@ceu.edu

Recent Submissions

  • ItemOpen Access
    A predictive processing framework for joint action and communication
    (2026-07) Pezzulo, Giovanni; Knoblich, Günther; Maisto, Domenico; Donnarumma, Francesco; Pacherie, Elisabeth; Hasson, Uri; Department of Cognitive Science
    Humans act together to achieve feats they could never achieve alone and communicate to ensure alignment of meaning and understanding across different individuals. Explaining the unique human joint action and communication abilities poses an enormous challenge because it requires a systematic account of how people go beyond their own individual perceptions, thoughts, and needs to achieve joint outcomes and align their understanding. Here, we advance a new theoretical framework for explaining joint action and communication. It builds upon influential predictive processing architectures, extending them from individual cognition to multiagent, interactive settings. We assume that joint action and communication involve using and updating agent-neutral models that enable co-agents to predict collective outcomes of interactions regardless of who achieved them. This contrasts with previous frameworks postulating that agent-specific models predict action outcomes for self and others. We discuss three key claims derived from our framework: 1) Co-agents use agent-neutral predictive frameworks during joint action; 2) Co-agents update agent-neutral models interactively by shaping others' predictions through verbal and non-verbal communication; and 3) Agent-neutral models enable dynamic role allocation during joint action. We highlight how these three claims stem from our proposal, what evidence currently favors or disfavors them, and what novel experiments could be conducted to test them further. Our agent-neutral predictive processing framework will provide a new perspective for understanding the individual basis of human sociality, which closely links theories of joint action and communication to principles of computational neuroscience.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Perversity, futility, complicity:Should democrats participate in autocratic elections?
    (2026-02) Miklosi, Zoltan; Department of Political Science
    Electoral authoritarianism is receiving increasing attention from political scientists, yet it has been mostly ignored by political philosophers. This paper aims to fill some of this gap by considering whether it is morally permissibly for democrats to participate in autocratic elections as candidates or voters. Autocratic elections allow meaningful multiparty competition but are systematically unfair and partly unfree, and therefore, arguably, normatively illegitimate. The paper considers three objections to participation in autocratic elections. These objections hold, respectively, that participation has bad consequences for democratization, that it is normatively futile, and that it is morally wrong in itself. The paper argues that the objections are not decisive, and that participation is usually morally permissible and even preferable over alternative forms of challenge. However, the objections establish that the normative superiority of electoral challenge over the alternatives is only a matter of degree, and that participants often dirty their hands.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Getting the Best of “Unwanted Recognition”
    (2026-02-25) Pető, Andrea; Department of Gender Studies; Democracy Institute
    This article examines systematic attacks on Gender Studies as part of broader anti-gender campaigns within illiberal states, using the personal experience at Central European University as a case study. When Gender Studies was deleted from Hungary’s accredited study list in 2017 without consultation, CEU was forced to relocate from Budapest to Vienna in 2020, demonstrating how attacks on academic freedom occur within EU member states rather than distant authoritarian regimes. These attacks transform Gender Studies into “popular science”, where politicians and public intellectuals make authoritative statements without relevant training, paradoxically occurring during renewed public trust in scientific expertise following the pandemic. Illiberal states exploit neoliberal evaluation systems, replacing international peer-reviewed journals with pro-government local publications and reorienting scientific discourse from the Global North toward Russia and China — a twisted form of decolonization that reduces democratic inclusivity. The article argues that European scientific infrastructure remains unprepared for illiberal scientific institutions that appear legitimate but operate fraudulently using neoliberal language of excellence and impact. Resistance strategies include finding alternative sites for knowledge production, redefining scholarly identities, constituting support networks, and mobilizing internationally.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Emplois verts, transitions sur le marché du travail et protection sociale:analyse longitudinale pour le Viet Nam
    (2026-03-02) Duman, Anil; Ananian, Sévane; Department of Political Science
    Les auteurs examinent les transitions vers l’emploi vert sur le marché du travail du Viet Nam ainsi que leur relation avec la protection sociale. À partir d’une approche fondée sur les tâches et des données d’une enquête longitudinale sur les forces de travail, ils constatent que les emplois verts restent limités et ne représentent que 15 pour cent de l’emploi total. Les taux de transition varient beaucoup en fonction des caractéristiques démographiques, les jeunes travailleurs et les femmes ayant plus de difficultés à accéder aux emplois verts. Le niveau d’éducation est aussi un facteur déterminant: les personnes ayant fait des études supérieures sont plus susceptibles d’accéder à des métiers verts. Quant à la couverture sociale, elle est positivement associée aux transitions d’un emploi brun ou neutre vers un emploi vert chez ceux qui ont fait des études supérieures, et négativement liée à la probabilité de passer d’un emploi vert à un emploi brun. En revanche, elle ne semble pas faciliter les transitions vers des professions vertes pour les travailleurs ayant un faible niveau d’éducation. Ces résultats soulignent la nécessité de mettre en place des cadres politiques intégrés combinant la protection sociale et l’éducation afin de promouvoir des transitions vertes inclusives dans les pays en développement. This article examines labour market transitions towards green employment in Viet Nam and their relationship to social protection. Using a task-based approach and longitudinal labour force survey data, we find that green jobs remain limited, accounting for only 15 per cent of total employment. Transition rates vary significantly by demographic characteristics: younger workers and women face greater difficulties in accessing green employment. Educational attainment is a key determinant, such that individuals with tertiary education are more likely to move into green occupations. Social insurance coverage is positively associated with transitions from brown or neutral jobs to green jobs among those with tertiary education, and negatively linked to the likelihood of moving from green to brown occupations. In contrast, it does not appear to facilitate transitions to green occupations for workers with lower levels of education. These findings highlight the need for integrated policy frameworks that combine social protection and education to promote inclusive green transitions in developing countries.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Representing relations between individual contributions:when does joint action planning facilitate task performance?
    (2026-04) Friebe, Kassandra; Sebanz, Natalie; Knoblich, Günther; Department of Cognitive Science
    Understanding how individuals plan, predict and adapt their actions is central to understanding the high degree of coordination involved in joint action. While previous research has examined the role of joint action plans in linking individual action representations in a two-person joint action plan, the specific conditions and representations associated with these plans are less well understood. In this study, we investigated when and how joint action plans that specify the relations between individual contributions facilitate performance in a joint task. We hypothesized that joint action plans serve to organize individual contributions to a joint action by specifying the relations between them. Pairs of participants performed a joint computer task that required flipping blocks to produce a joint pattern. We manipulated the availability and information provided by two types of pre-cues: joint cues specified the relation between individual contributions and individual cues specified each participant’s individual part. The results of three experiments showed that information regarding the relation between individual contributions helped co-actors integrate representations of their individual contributions. This is evidenced by faster response times when a joint cue was presented together with a cue specifying the partner’s action. Moreover, joint cues could be used to compensate for the lack of information about individual contributions, as evidenced by faster response times when a joint cue was presented in trials without information about individual contributions. We conclude that joint action plans that specify the relations between individual contributions serve to organize representations of individual contributions and thereby help co-actors infer their own underspecified contribution to a joint action.
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