Policymakers prepare society for the future and this book provides a practical toolkit for preparing pro-active, future-proof scientific policy advice for them. It explains how to make scientific advisory strategies holistic. It also explains how and where biases, which interfere with the proper functioning of the entire science-policy ecosystem, arise and investigates how emotions and other biases affect the understanding and assessment of scientific evidence. The book advocates explorative foresight, systems thinking, interdisciplinarity, bias awareness and the anticipation of undesirable impacts in policy advising, and it offers practical guidance for them. Written in an accessible style, the book offers provocative reflections on how scientific policy advice should be sensitive to more than scientific evidence. It is both an appealing introductory text for everyone interested in science-based policy and a valuable guide for the experienced scientific adviser and policy scholar. "This book is a valuable read for all stakeholders in the scientific advisory ecosystem. Lieve Van Woensel offers concrete methods to bridge the gap between scientific advice and policy making, to assess the possible societal impacts of complex scientific and technological developments, and to support decision-makers' more strategic understanding of the issues they have to make decisions about. I was privileged to see them proove their value as I worked with Lieve on the pilot project of the Scientific Foresight unit for The European Parliament's STOA panel." - Kristel Van der Elst, CEO, The Global Foresight Group; Executive Head, Policy Horizons Canada "A must-read for not only scientific policy advisers, but also those interested in the ethics of scientific advisory processes. Lieve Van Woensel walks readers through a well-structured practical toolkit that bases policy advice on more than scientific evidence by taking into account policies' potential effects on society and the environment." - Dr Paul Rubig, Former Member of the European Parliament and former Chair of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology

A comprehensive guide to the alternative sociology originating in the work of Dorothy E. Smith, this Handbook not only explores the basic, founding principles of institutional ethnography (IE), but also captures current developments, approaches, and debates. Now widely known as a "sociology for people," IE offers the tools to uncover the social relations shaping the everyday world in which we live and is utilized by scholars and social activists in sociology and beyond, including such fields as education, nursing, social work, linguistics, health and medical care, environmental studies, and other social-service related fields. Covering the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of IE, recent developments, and current areas of research and application that have yet to appear in the literature, The Palgrave Handbook of Institutional Ethnography is suitable for both experienced practitioners of institutional ethnography and those who are exploring this approach for the first time.

This book assesses the life and success of the writer Paulo Coelho, one of the most fascinating and contemporary writers in the world, through new lenses. It applies a positive psychology perspective and contributes to using innovative theories in psychobiographical studies. This study explores the development of holistic wellness (HWM) and faith development (FDT) throughout the writer's life. It presents radical changes in spirituality, self-direction, love and faith across the life span. Further, it analyses the development of Coelho's relationship with God and the creation of meaningfulness through his belief and writing. This study contributes to a new era of psychobiographical works within the positive psychology framework.

Researched and written by a collaborative team of Americans and Russians, "Marriages in Russia" explores the myths and realities of how the first years of market transformation have affected Russian family life. The research project, in which 2418 individual interviews of randomly sampled heterosexual couples are used, was initiated to determine if the relationships between gender attitudes and the relative social statuses of spouses--based on such factors as education, occupational prestige, and income--influence the marital quality spouses experience. Whether these variables are linked to domestic violence, as data show they are in the United States, is also examined. The results are surprising in that they often contradict general beliefs about Russian gender attitudes and gender attributes, and the analysis of these findings is ultimately a fascinating look at the post-Cold War realities of family life in Russia.

Formulating effective responses to the global challenges of mitigating climate change and securing a sustainable energy future requires a clear understanding of the interdependent causalities between institutions, local decision making, strategic alliances and eco-innovations, as well as policies. It has been acknowledged that the linear "Manhattan project" model is not an adequate governance model for mastering the dynamic complexity of socio-technical transitions; therefore this book aims at advancing research on systematic transition management models. It offers qualitative and quantitative analyses of socio-technical transitions in road transportation and housing, bringing together tailored theorizing on sustainability transitions and applied system dynamics modeling. It highlights the interconnected causal feedbacks that are required to overcome the lock-in situation in road transportation and housing fueled by fossil energies. Showing which concerted actions and framework conditions are required in the transition phases in order to initiate and sustain socio-technical transition, it serves as a guide to model-based strategy making, policy design and analyses in support of sustainable futures.

The new research method presented in this book ensures that all economic theories are falsifiable and that irrefutable theories are scientifically sound. Figueroa combines the logically consistent aspects of Popperian and process epistemologies in his alpha-beta method to address the widespread problem of too-general empirical research methods used in economics. He argues that scientific rules can be applied to economics to make sense of society, but that they must address the complexity of reality as well as the simplicity of the abstract on which hard sciences can rely. Furthermore, because the alpha-beta method combines approaches to address the difficulties of scientifically analyzing complex society, it also extends to other social sciences that have historically relied on empirical methods. This groundbreaking Pivot is ideal for students and researchers dedicated to promoting the progress of scientific research in all social sciences.

Relevant to, and drawing from, a range of disciplines, the chapters in this collection show the diversity, and applicability, of research in Bayesian argumentation. Together, they form a challenge to philosophers versed in both the use and criticism of Bayesian models who have largely overlooked their potential in argumentation. Selected from contributions to a multidisciplinary workshop on the topic held in Sweden in 2010, the authors count linguists and social psychologists among their number, in addition to philosophers. They analyze material that includes real-life court cases, experimental research results, and the insights gained from computer models.

The volume provides, for the first time, a formal measure of subjective argument strength and argument force, robust enough to allow advocates of opposing sides of an argument to agree on the relative strengths of their supporting reasoning. With papers from leading figures such as Michael Oaksford and Ulrike Hahn, the book comprises recent research conducted at the frontiers of Bayesian argumentation and provides a multitude of examples in which these formal tools can be applied to informal argument. It signals new and impending developments in philosophy, which has seen Bayesian models deployed in formal epistemology and philosophy of science, but has yet to explore the full potential of Bayesian models as a framework in argumentation. In doing so, this revealing anthology looks destined to become a standard teaching text in years to come. "

This text offers an in-depth examination of the influence of culture on welfare states. It suggests new ways in which cross-national differences in culture might be measured and, using a range of approaches, utilizes these measures to explore the role culture plays in shaping differences in social policy frameworks across high income countries.

The authors challenge psychological perspectives on happiness and subjective wellbeing. Highlighting the politics of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, case studies across continents explore wellbeing in relation to health, children and youth, migration, economics, religion, family, land mines, national surveys, and indigenous identities.

This book introduces a novel approach for examining language and communication in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - discourse and conversation analysis. The authors offer a set of very different perspectives on these complex issues than are typically presented in psychological and clinical work. Emerging from a range of social scientific fields, discourse and conversation analysis involve fine-grained qualitative analysis of naturally-occurring, rather than laboratory-based, interaction, enabling broad applications. Presented in two parts, this innovative volume first provides a set of pedagogical chapters to develop the reader's knowledge and skills in using these approaches, before moving to showcase the use of discursive methods through a range of original contributions from world-leading scholars, drawn from a range of disciplines including sociology, academic and clinical psychology, speech and language therapy, critical disability studies and social theory, and medicine and psychiatry.

This handbook provides a comprehensive view of the field of the sociology of gender. It presents the most important theories about gender and methods used to study gender, as well as extensive coverage of the latest research on gender in the most important areas of social life, including gendered bodies, sexuality, carework, paid labor, social movements, incarceration, migration, gendered violence, and others. Building from previous publications this handbook includes a vast array of chapters from leading researchers in the sociological study of gender. It synthesizes the diverse field of gender scholarship into a cohesive theoretical framework, gender structure theory, in order to position the specific contributions of each author/chapter as part of a complex and multidimensional gender structure. Through this organization of the handbook, readers do not only gain tremendous insight from each chapter, but they also attain a broader understanding of the way multiple gendered processes are interrelated and mutually constitutive. While the specific focus of the handbook is on gender, the chapters included in the volume also give significant attention to the interrelation of race, class, and other systems of stratification as they intersect and implicate gendered processes.

A comparative survey which discusses how national leaders in six Western democracies, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, are nominated for the highest office in their country. The combinations of methods each country utilizes to nominate their leaders are described. The text emphasizes that most national leaders have served a long apprenticeship in various public offices--sometimes having made several attempts--before actually being nominated to the nation's highest public office. Increasingly, the text shows that opinion polls, television, and professional campaign management are playing a greater role in the leadership selection process in all six countries. This book will be of interest to upper-level college and graduate students and faculty in comparative government, political parties, and public affairs and academic as well as public libraries.

Hispanic Americans make up the largest ethnic group in the country, and this volume accurately reflects their concerns, interests, and issues. By providing easy access to over 300 statistical charts, graphs, and tables, the book allows novice and professional researchers to easily locate statistics on: demographics, immigration, naturalization, social characteristics, education, health, politics, labor force, and economic conditions. The Statistical Handbook on U.S. Hispanics also includes a glossary of terms and a list of sources to be consulted for more information or additional statistical data. An extensive subject index makes it simple to locate specific tables and charts.

This is volume 15 of a series which aims to provide details of advances in stratification research from various, international, points of view.

The 'European project' is in a state of perpetual crisis in which the root cause is a lack of identification by ordinary citizens with Europe and European institutions. The Evolution of European Identities employs state of the art analysis of in-depth interviews by renowned practitioners to give a unique 'bottoms up' perspective on the development (or its lack) of a sense of 'European mental space'. Linking conceptual findings with case studies, the book provides unique insights into groups that have been especially sensitized by their life experiences to question what it means to be European in the twenty-first century. The groups explored in this book include: adults who experienced European education exchanges when young; transnational workers; civil society organization activists; persons involved in cross-border intimate relationships; farmers who are subject to European markets, regulations and subsidies; and migrants into 'fortress Europe'.

This collection explores the contested meanings and diverse practices of social research in the context of contemporary theoretical debates in cultural and social theory, addressing fundamental questions facing those working in the social and human sciences today.

This book uses mathematics of uncertainty to examine how well countries are achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the members of the United Nations, with a focus on climate change, human trafficking and modern slavery. Although this approach has never been used before, mathematics of uncertainty is well suited to exploring these topics due to the lack of accurate data available. The authors place several scientific studies in a mathematical setting to pave the way for future research on issues of sustainability, climate change, human trafficking and modern slavery to using a wide range of mathematical techniques. Moreover, the book ranks countries in terms of their achievement of not only the SDGs, but in particular those SDGs pertinent to climate change, human trafficking, and modern slavery, and highlights the deficiencies in the foster care system that lead to human trafficking. As such it is an excellent reference resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and the social sciences, as well as for researchers and teachers.

This book focuses on the methodology and analysis of state and local population projections. It describes the most commonly used data sources and application techniques for four types of projection methods: cohort-component, trend extrapolation, structural models, and microsimulation. It covers the components of population growth, sources of data, the formation of assumptions, the development of evaluation criteria, and the determinants of forecast accuracy. It considers the strengths and weaknesses of various projection methods and pays special attention to the unique problems that characterize small-area projections. The authors provide practical guidance to demographers, planners, market analysts, and others called on to construct state and local population projections. They use many examples and illustrations and present suggestions for dealing with special populations, unique circumstances, and inadequate or unreliable data. They describe techniques for controlling one set of projections to another, for interpolating between time points, for sub-dividing age groups, and for constructing projections of population-related variables (e.g., school enrollment, households). They discuss the role of judgment and the importance of the political context in which projections are made. They emphasize the "utility" of projections, or their usefulness for decision making in a world of competing demands and limited resources. This comprehensive book will provide readers with an understanding not only of the mechanics of the most commonly used population projection methods, but also of the many complex issues affecting their construction, interpretation, evaluation, and use.

This guide to information-finding sources and techniques is attuned to the needs of researchers in all the social and behavioral sciences with a particular focus on public administration and related fields. This guide is unique in its analyses of how to design the research process in an evolving manner using approaches that reflect combinations of models, methods, and data sources. This guide is also comprehensive in its coverage of a broad spectrum of the important primary and secondary source materials in all their current forms. Students and researchers in the policy sciences, especially at the graduate level, will find this research and reference guide an essential one.

Simpson's broadly conceived guide covers sources and methods of approach to doing social science research. The book opens with an analysis of information-finding and public administration as a special and disparate series of fields for study. Subsequent chapters discuss research strategies and designs and offer annotative bibliographies evaluating the usefulness of primary and secondary sources, examining guides to the literature, the conventional library catalog, journal literature, indexing and abstracting services, computer searches, separately published bibliographies, public statistics, machine-readable data files, government documents, sources of methodology and research instruments, other sources of information, archives and other primary sources, and annual reviews. This topical and logically developed set of chapters makes the guide easy to use, and a general subject index makes this reference most accessible.

Presents the case for an exciting new research program in the social sciences based on the theory of recognition developed by Axel Honneth and others in recent years. The theory provides a frame for revealing new insights about conflicts and the potential of recognition theory to guide just resolutions of these conflicts is also explored.

This book covers all types of literature on existing trend analysis approaches, but more than 60% of the methodologies are developed here and some of them are reflected to scientific literature and others are also innovative versions, modifications or improvements. The suggested methodologies help to design, develop, manage and deliver scientific applications and training to meet the needs of interested staff in companies, industries and universities including students. Technical content and expertise are also provided from different theoretical and especially active roles in the design, development and delivery of science in particular and economics and business in general. It is also ensured that, wherever possible and technically appropriate, priority is given to the inclusion and integration of real life data, examples and processes within the book content. The time seems right, because available books just focus on special sectors (fashion, social, business). This book reviews all the available trend approaches in the present literature on rational and logical bases.

Is the behaviour of a crowd in an emergency situation predictable? Are the different patterns occurring in pedestrian flow based on common rules? How does panic change human reactions? These and other questions have been the scope of the international conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics. This book contains elaborate manuscripts written by scientists as well as practitioners from various disciplines: architecture, civil, naval and fire safety engineering, physics, computer science and mathematics. There has been considerable progress over the last decade and the central topic of human motion and behaviour has come more and more into the centre of interest, mainly due to increasing computer power and the development of new simulation models. This is the first conference dealing with modelling and simulation of pedestrian and crowd movement as well as the dynamical aspects of evacuation processes.

This book is designed to encourage and support in-service and pre-service teachers who want to conduct classroom-based action research about literacy teaching and learning. It can be used by individuals, small groups, or in education courses that include action research projects. The aim of the text is to facilitate active engagement in the process of action research. Comprehensive explanations of various research methods and approaches are not included; the content is pragmatic and provides the novice researcher with a solid, experience-based foundation for developing research knowledge and skills. It is hoped that readers, upon completing this text, will continue learning about and conducting action research, honing their skills and increasing their knowledge. Additional resources for further development are included in the final chapter of the book.

The first edition of this popular reference work was published in 1993 and received critical acclaim for its achievement in bringing together international perspectives on research and development in giftedness and talent. Scholars welcomed it as the first comprehensive volume in the field and it has proved to be an indispensable resource to researchers. Since the first edition, the scholarly field of giftedness and talent studies has expanded and developed, welcoming contributions from researchers in related disciplines. Several theoretical frameworks outlined in the first edition have now been empirically tested and a number of new trends have emerged.
The Second Edition of the International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent provides an invaluable research tool to academics, researchers and students interested in the field of giftedness and talent. The contributors are renowned in the field and the broad range of topics on giftedness that have been studied in the past century, right up to the late 1990s, are represented in this volume. It is truly international in scope, bringing together leading scholars and teachers from all around the world.
This new edition has been fully updated and rewritten and includes 22 completely new chapters. It provides a comprehensive review and critical synthesis of significant theory; a unique cross-national perspective with contributions from over 100 distinguished authors covering 24 nations; significant contributions from scholars working in related fields; an increased focus on empirically supported scholarship; and is arranged for quick and easy reference with comprehensive subject and author indexes.