"Understanding Complex Urban Systems" takes as its point of departure the insight that the challenges of global urbanization and the complexity of urban systems cannot be understood let alone managed by sectoral and disciplinary approaches alone. But while there has recently been significant progress in broadening and refining the methodologies for the quantitative modeling of complex urban systems, in deepening the theoretical understanding of cities as complex systems, or in illuminating the implications for urban planning, there is still a lack of well-founded conceptual thinking on the methodological foundations and the strategies of modeling urban complexity across the disciplines.

Bringing together experts from the fields of urban and spatial planning, ecology, urban geography, real estate analysis, organizational cybernetics, stochastic optimization, and literary studies, as well as specialists in various systems approaches and in transdisciplinary methodologies of urban analysis, the volume seeks to advance the discussion on multidisciplinary approaches to urban modeling. While engaging with the state of the art in their respective fields, the contributions are specifically written for both experts from a broad range of disciplines as well as for urban practitioners who feel the need for new approaches given the uncertainty of current developments.

"Comparative Social Policy" provides students with an introduction to cross-national social policy research, conveying the fascinating and challenging issues involved in conducting research of this kind. The book examines the theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches, discusses prevailing concepts and reflects on methodological difficulties. The authors use examples from a wide range of social policy analysis to illustrate what can be gained by conducting comparative social policy research.

The first part of the book provides a broad overview of the growing interest in comparative welfare state research and a discussion of major theoretical and methodological aspects relevant to comparative social research in general. Part II provides readers with an understanding of previous work in the subject, major approaches, important concepts and theories as well as methodological difficulties within comparative research in particular policy fields (health, housing, family policy, social care, social security, labour market policy).

The final section addresses particular themes and issues across these fields and highlights the essential components of comparative social policy research, particularly the need to explore these issues carefully to gain awareness of subtle cross-national differences and thus avoid misleading results.

The book includes differing country samples and sizes and takes examples from Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. All the chapters reflect on relevant conceptual and methodological approaches, each is written for the student reader and concludes with a guide to further reading.

This edited volume presents examples of social science research projects that employ new methods of quantitative analysis and mathematical modeling of social processes. This book presents the fascinating areas of empirical and theoretical investigations that use formal mathematics in a way that is accessible for individuals lacking extensive expertise but still desiring to expand their scope of research methodology and add to their data analysis toolbox. Mathematical Modeling of Social Relationships professes how mathematical modeling can help us understand the fundamental, compelling, and yet sometimes complicated concepts that arise in the social sciences. This volume will appeal to upper-level students and researchers in a broad area of fields within the social sciences, as well as the disciplines of social psychology, complex systems, and applied mathematics.

This book develops a philosophico-methodological analysis of prediction and its role in economics. Prediction plays a key role in economics in various ways. It can be seen as a basic science, as an applied science and in the application of this science. First, it is used by economic theory in order to test the available knowledge. In this regard, prediction has been presented as the scientific test for economics as a science. Second, prediction provides a content regarding the possible future that can be used for prescription in applied economics. Thus, it can be used as a guide for economic policy, i.e., as knowledge concerning the future to be employed for the resolution of specific problems. Third, prediction also has a role in the application of this science in the public arena. This is through the decision-making of the agents - individuals or organizations - in quite different settings, both in the realm of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Within this context, the research is organized in five parts, which discuss relevant aspects of the role of prediction in economics: I) The problem of prediction as a test for a science; II) The general orientation in methodology of science and the problem of prediction as a scientific test; III) The methodological framework of social sciences and economics: Incidence for prediction as a test; IV) Epistemology and methodology of economic prediction: Rationality and empirical approaches and V) Methodological aspects of economic prediction: From description to prescription. Thus, the book is of interest for philosophers and economists as well as policy-makers seeking to ascertain the roots of their performance. The style used lends itself to a wide audience.

In this book, Fattorello addresses the differences between contingent and non-contingent information. The theory is translated into English for the first time and is contextualized and put into a historical framework by Prof. Ragnetti's additional text.

This book contains original research chapters related to the interdisciplinary field of complex networks spanning biological and environmental networks, social, technological, and economic networks. Many natural phenomena can be modeled as networks where nodes are the primitive compounds and links represent their interactions, similarities, or distances of sorts. Complex networks have an enormous impact on research in various fields like biology, social sciences, engineering, and cyber-security to name a few. The topology of a network often encompasses important information on the functionality and dynamics of the system or the phenomenon it represents. Network science is an emerging interdisciplinary discipline that provides tools and insights to researchers in a variety of domains. NetSci-X is the central winter conference within the field and brings together leading researchers and innovators to connect, meet, and establish interdisciplinary channels for collaboration. It is the largest and best known event in the area of network science. This text demonstrates how ideas formulated by authors with different backgrounds are transformed into models, methods, and algorithms that are used to study complex systems across different domains and will appeal to researchers and students within in the field.

This book addresses problems and challenges that face educational measurement at a time when multipurpose usage of observational data from educational assessments, tests and international surveys has become a growing global trend. While the construction of educational measures and use of educational data offer many opportunities, they also require awareness of the numerous threats to validity and methods of reducing such threats. Written by leading international scholars, the book demonstrates the complexity of educational measurement by addressing three broad and interrelated topics. The first part discusses cognitive abilities, including studies on fluid intelligence, its improvement and its links to aptitude tests for admission to higher education. The second part focuses on the effects of school and teacher-related factors on school outcomes at individual and group levels, and uses international studies to analyze causes. The third part presents analytical techniques and measurement methods to improve reliability, for example factor analysis using Bayesian estimators, bi-factor analysis, model misfit and solutions, and discusses balance issues in reporting test results. The book provides examples of state-of-the-art analytical techniques for pursuing fundamental research problems, and the latest advances in measurement methods, with a focus on validity improvement. Eminent researchers discuss and provide insights into questions such as: Is it possible to train individuals to think at a higher level than normal for their age? What determines prospective preschool teachers' skill to perceive mathematics-related preschool situations? Can international indicator design and instruments be improved to use trends and national context variables more efficiently? Can indicator data at national, school and class levels be compared easier? Are value-added measures of teacher effectiveness valid when it comes to hiring and promoting teachers? Is money better spent on teacher training than on smaller class-size? How do theory and empirical statistical data intertwine in building structures of understanding? This book is inspired by the career and personal influence of the Swedish scholar Professor Jan-Eric Gustafsson, renowned for his research on individual differences, especially the structure of cognitive abilities, and on the effects of education on knowledge and skills.

What are some of the most distinctive features of the crisis characterising the social sciences learning today? Can a crisis of this deep-rooted and extremely wide-ranging nature be delimitated to a few specific areas? Can the social sciences diverse dilemmas be reduced to the feature of crisis alone? This book argues that the social sciences are in a deep state of crisis. Kleber Ghimire analyzes how some of the basic problems began from the very inception: uncritical use of empiricism and experimentation methods emulating the natural sciences, internal fragmentation of knowledge along narrow disciplinary lines, and near-exclusive emphasis on the experience of industrial societies. As these difficulties persist, more recent evolutions have brought additional troubles. With a focus on Europe, North America and Asia, Kleber Ghimire examines the effects of university reforms that give prominence to expertise-oriented research, economic rationality and occupational skill development, leading to a widespread marginalisation of the social and human studies. The book ends with a call to reflect upon opening a new horizon for these fields of learning, especially by inventing a new era of social sciences pedagogy, leaving natural sciences for humanities and recognizing the value of culture as a crucial reservoir of social knowledge.

This international, edited collection brings together personal accounts from researchers working in and on conflict and explores the roles of emotion, violence, uncertainty, identity and positionality within the process of doing research, as well as the complexity of methodological choices. It highlights the researchers' own subjectivity and presents a nuanced view of conflict research that goes beyond the 'messiness' inherent in the process of research in and on violence. It addresses the uncomfortable spaces of conflict research, the potential for violence of research itself and the need for deeper reflection on these issues. This powerful book opens up spaces for new conversations about the realities of conflict research. These critical self-reflections and honest accounts provide important insights for any scholar or practitioner working in similar environments.

This volume examines pluralism in light of recent music education research history and pluralistic approaches in practice. Pluralistic research holds the potential to blend frameworks, foundations, methods, and analysis protocols, and leads to a sophisticated understanding of music teaching and learning. This blending could take place in a range of contexts that may span an individual study to a lifelong research agenda. Additionally, pluralistic ideals would guide the addressing of questions as a community. The volume also illuminates the work of innovative music education researchers who are constructing pluralistic research studies and agendas, and advocate for the music education profession to embrace such an approach in order to advance shared research goals. The ramifications of this transformation in music education research are a subject of discussion, including the implications for researcher education and the challenges inherent in conducting and disseminating such research.

The book studies the existing and potential connections between Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) by showing how standard SNA techniques, usually based on graph theory, can be supplemented by FCA methods, which rely on lattice theory. The book presents contributions to the following areas: acquisition of terminological knowledge from social networks, knowledge communities, individuality computation, other types of FCA-based analysis of bipartite graphs (two-mode networks), multimodal clustering, community detection and description in one-mode and multi-mode networks, adaptation of the dual-projection approach to weighted bipartite graphs, extensions to the Kleinberg's HITS algorithm as well as attributed graph analysis.

This book systematically assesses the value systems of active Muslims around the globe. Based on a multivariate analysis of recent World Values Survey data, it sheds new light on Muslim opinions and values in countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Due to a lack of democratic traditions, sluggish economic growth, escalating religiously motivated violence, and dissatisfaction with ruling elites in many Muslim countries, the authors identify a crisis and return to conservative values in the Muslim world, including anti-Semitism, religious and sexual intolerance, and views on democracy and secularism, business and economic matters. Based on these observations, they offer recommendations for policymakers and civil societies in Muslim countries on how to move towards tolerance, greater democratization and more rapid economic growth.

This book examines the concept of meaning and our general understanding of reality in a legal and philosophical context. Starting from the premise that meaning is a matter of linguistic and other forms of articulation, it considers the inherent philosophical consequences. Part I presents Klages', Derrida's, Von Hofmannsthal's and Wittgenstein's explorations of silence as a source of articulation and meaning. Debates about 20th century psychologism gave the attitude concept a pivotal role; it illustrates the importance of the discovery that a word is globally qualified as 'the basic unit of language'. This is mirrored in the fact that we understand reality as a matter of particles and thus interpret the real as a component of an all-embracing 'particle story'. Each chapter of the book focuses on an aspect of legal semiotics related to the chapter's theme: for instance on the meaning of a Judge's 'Saying for Law', on law students training in varying attitudes or on the ties between law and language. Part II of the book illustrates our general understanding of reality as a matter of particles and partitioning, and examines texts that prove that particle thinking is basic for our meaning concept. It shows that physics, quantum theory, holism, and modern brain research focusing on human linguistic capabilities, confirm their ties to the particle story. In contrast, the book concludes that partitions and particles are neither a fact in the history of the cosmos nor a determinant of knowledge and the sciences, and that meaning is a process: a constellation rather than a fixation. This is manifest once one understands meaning as the result of continuously changing attitudes, which create our narratives on cosmos and creation. The book proposes a new key for meaning: a linguistic occurrence anchored in dimensions of human narrativity.

The representation of abstract data and ideas can be a difficult and tedious task to handle when learning new concepts; however, the advances of emerging technology have allowed for new methods of representing such conceptual data. The Handbook of Research on Maximizing Cognitive Learning through Knowledge Visualization focuses on the use of visualization technologies to assist in the process of better comprehending scientific concepts, data, and applications. Highlighting the utilization of visual power and the roles of sensory perceptions, computer graphics, animation, and digital storytelling, this book is an essential reference source for instructors, engineers, programmers, and software developers interested in the exchange of information through the visual depiction of data. The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: Electronic Media Mathematical Thinking Multisensory Applications Sensory Extension

Students of psychology have long faced the problem of tracking down original research articles, which are generally scattered in hard-to-find journals or presented in watered-down form in text books. In Introducing Psychological Research, Philip Banyard and Andrew Grayson have resolved this dilemma once and for all by providing detailed summaries and background information for sixty-three of the most influential studies in psychology.

The studies included in this remarkable reference illustrate the breadth of psychological research covering the areas of biological psychology, comparative psychology, social psychology, human diversity, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and health psychology. Among the ground- breaking trials highlighted are Piaget's cognitive approach; the jigsaw technique; the prison simulation; the Robbers' Cave; and the Minimal Group Studies. Contributors to this collection include Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, Henry Tajfel, B. F. Skinner, Niko Tinbergen, Sandra Bem, Carol Gilligan, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Bandura.

Show business is a multimillion dollar business, and its celebrities and sports figures are the most famous people on earth. Yet, most entertainers are neither rich nor famous. In "Life upon the Wicked Stage," author Jacqueline Boles provides an academic portrait of live performers and offers insight into their unique world.

Based on the biographies and autobiographies of one hundred and seventeen American show people, "Life upon the Wicked Stage" delves into the lives of entertainers-musicians, singers, dancers, comics, and variety artists. This sociological study first shares the history of show business from its beginnings to present-day, where the public's fascination with entertainers and celebrities is avid. Then, Boles analyzes the entertainers and their family backgrounds, investigates their reasons for choosing entertainment, and explores their career patterns. This study also shows the affects that show business has on family and relationships, and it discusses the costs and rewards of life as a performer.

"Life upon the Wicked Stage" illustrates that live entertainment has changed dramatically over the last one hundred and fift y years while remaining remarkably unchanged. Boles communicates that the show must go on.

Facilitating research on Middle Eastern and North African politics, this volume is a major reference work. A series of chapters describe the post-World War II research on the politics of the states and of the Palestinians of the region. The literature on international relations of the region is reviewed and the approach to political economy is discussed. Written by the foremost experts on their respective subjects, the chapters also identify the gaps in the literature and fruitful areas for future research. The chapter references constitute a bibliographical treasure for those seeking to study the politics of the region. Annotations enable the reader to better select works for further research. This volume provides a complete analysis of the state of the field, an agenda for future research, and a detailed, annotated bibliography of the best research published.

In How Language Informs Mathematics Dirk Damsma shows how Hegel's and Marx's systematic dialectical analysis of mathematical and economic language helps us understand the structure and nature of mathematical and capitalist systems. More importantly, Damsma shows how knowledge of the latter can inform model assumptions and help improve models. His book provides a blueprint for an approach to economic model building that does away with arbitrarily chosen assumptions and is sensitive to the institutional structures of capitalism. In light of the failure of mainstream economics to understand systemic failures like the financial crisis and given the arbitrary character of most assumptions in mainstream models, such an approach is desperately needed.

The second edition of this guide to basic reference sources in the social sciences contains 2200 entries. In addition to revising and substantially enlarging the chapters on reference sources, the author has added a chapter on geography and one on business that is distinct from economics. Since the publication of the first edition, there have been two obvious developments in information storage and retrieval: the rapid development of online databases and the development of CD-ROM. Instead of devoting a separate chapter to these developments, the book incorporates online databases, CD-ROM and other forms of data sources into the text. In addition, there is a brief introduction to these developments. Although the general deadline for inclusion in the volume was December 1988, quite a few titles published in 1989 are included. The volume consists of two parts: the social sciences in general, dealing with the nature of the social sciences, bibliographical needs and usage of social scientists, research resources and reference sources in the social sciences in general; and sub-disciplines of the social sciences, including cultural anthropology, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology. Reference sources for each sub-discipline in part two (and some chapters in part one) are broadly classified into four sections: access to sources, sources of information, periodicals, and additional reference sources. Each secion is further divided as follows. Under the access to sources section, headings start with guides, followed in general by bibliographies of bibliographies, bibliographies, theses and dissertations, reviews, indexes, abstracts, and contents reproduction. In the sources of information section, headings are arranged in the following sequence: primary sources, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, directories, biographies, statistical sources, and handbooks, yearbooks and the like. Headings may be further divided by subject, depending on the number of sources. Titles under each heading and sub-heading are arranged alphabetically by title. All titles are suppled with ISBN and/or ISSN number, if known.

This book presents a multi-disciplinary investigation into extortion rackets with a particular focus on the structures of criminal organisations and their collapse, societal processes in which extortion rackets strive and fail and the impacts of bottom-up and top-down ways of fighting extortion racketeering. Through integrating a range of disciplines and methods the book provides an extensive case study of empirically based computational social science. It is based on a wealth of qualitative data regarding multiple extortion rackets, such as the Sicilian Mafia, an international money laundering organisation and a predatory extortion case in Germany. Computational methods are used for data analysis, to help in operationalising data for use in agent-based models and to explore structures and dynamics of extortion racketeering through simulations. In addition to textual data sources, stakeholders and experts are extensively involved, providing narratives for analysis and qualitative validation of models. The book presents a systematic application of computational social science methods to the substantive area of extortion racketeering. The reader will gain a deep understanding of extortion rackets, in particular their entrenchment in society and processes supporting and undermining extortion rackets. Also covered are computational social science methods, in particular computationally assisted text analysis and agent-based modelling, and the integration of empirical, theoretical and computational social science.

In A Need for Religion: Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World Francesco Molteni tries to answer one of the broadest questions for scholars of religion: why is religiosity declining in developed countries? He does so by inspecting all the different nuances of the insecurity theory, which links the feeling of security typical of modern societies with the diminished need for religion as source of reassurance, support and predictability. In this respect, he notes that much of the evidence is far less clear than expected and that secularization processes are at an advanced stage only in a rather small group of worldwide countries.

For the social sciences, the approach and processes in research are quite different. The type of evidence that social scientists can collect is often very dependent on the method that has been used to gather the data. The type of findings that can be discussed are often not straightforward at all, and no easy comparison can be made with the natural sciences, although this is not impossible. The methodology in the social sciences has the same role as technology and lab techniques in the natural sciences as these need to be developed rapidly to account for the increasing complexity of the natural objects to be studied. The methodologies in the social sciences need to go through an intense period of critique, reflection, and reformulation to consider the complexity of social issues under investigation. Therefore, the area of social sciences research and methodologies should continually be studied to advance the field. Approaches and Processes of Social Science Research presents new research methodologies in the social science field and aims at providing a broad introduction to the methodology of social research in its main theoretical foundations as well as in its practical applications. Readers will develop a critical thinking attitude about social problems which in turn will sharpen their analytic approach to research. This book includes four main parts: philosophical perspectives, strategies for conducting research, common approaches for handling and collecting data, and critical aspects of research writing throughout the process. While highlighting topics such as critical theory in research, ethical issues, research processes, data analysis, and more, this book is ideal for researchers in the social sciences and practitioners, stakeholders, academicians, and students interested in deepening their understanding of the ideas and the practices of social science research.

A volume in Educational Design and Technology in the Knowledge Society Series Editors Stewart Marshall and Wanjira Kinuthia The field of educational technology is one that requires a high level of problem solving critical thinking, and interpersonal skills to solve problems that are often complex and multi-dimensional. Analyzing cases provides an opportunity to explore professional issues through an environment that allows action researchers, practitioners and students to analyze and reflect on relevant theories and techniques to understand a real problem, ponder solutions and consequences, and develop responses. Hence, this book seeks to provide relevant authentic and realistic cases for such exploration. This book is guided by the premise that the cases presented will serve as a platform for researchers, practitioners and students to share experiences and best practices in both developing and developed contexts, in an endeavor to bridge the knowledge divide. Throughout the book, various challenges are addressed and educational technology tools and strategies are subsequently employed in an effort to minimize the issues. Notwithstanding, the book also highlights successes and accomplishments in areas and contexts in which educational technology is being harnessed, including reaching more learners, providing more affordable options, and building capacity. Because of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of the field and the cases, this book is useful not only in educational technology, but also in other fields. A "Facilitator Guide" is provided for each chapter for educators with their learners.

The book presents the lectures delivered during a short course held at Urbino University in summer 2015 on qualitative theory of dynamical systems, included in the activities of the COST Action IS1104 "The EU in the new economic complex geography: models, tools and policy evaluation". It provides a basic introduction to dynamical systems and optimal control both in continuous and discrete time, as well as some numerical methods and applications in economic modelling. Economic and social systems are intrinsically dynamic, characterized by interdependence, nonlinearity and complexity, and these features can only be approached using a qualitative analysis based on the study of invariant sets (equilibrium points, limit cycles and more complex attractors, together with the boundaries of their basins of attraction), which requires a trade-off between analytical, geometrical and numerical methods. Even though the early steps of the qualitative theory of dynamical systems have been in continuous time models, in economic and social modelling discrete time is often used to describe event-driven (often decision-driven) evolving systems. The book is written for Ph.D. and master's students, post-doctoral fellows, and researchers in economics or sociology, and it only assumes a basic knowledge of calculus. However it also suggests some more advanced topics.

Migrant Capital covers a broad range of case studies and, by bringing together leading and emerging researchers, presents state-of-the-art empirical, theoretical and methodological perspectives on migration, networks, social and cultural capital, exploring the ways in which these bodies of literature can inform and strengthen each other.