This Festschrift is published in honor of Alex C. Michalos, a great scholar and inspiration to many upcoming and famous academics and practitioners. The Festschrift celebrates his lifelong, outstanding scientific and cultural contribution to Quality of Life Research. It contains contributions written by the most prestigious and renowned scholars in the field of social indicators research and quality of life studies. Taken together, the contributions from scholars around the world reflect Michalos' stance that even though there may be differences in individual scientific positions, the language in the field of quality of life has no limits and boundaries.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain stood at the forefront of science and statistics and had a long and respected tradition of social investigation and reform. But it still did not yet have a 'science of society.' When, in the early 1900s, a small band of enthusiasts got together to address this situation, the scene was set for a grand synthesis. No such synthesis ever took place and, instead, British sociology has followed a resolutely non-statistical path. Sociology and Statistics in Britain, 1833-1979 investigates how this curious situation came about and attempts to explain it from an historical perspective. It uncovers the prevalence of a deep and instinctive distrust within British sociology of the statistical methodology and mindset, resulting in a mix of quiet indifference and active hostility, which has persisted from its beginnings right up to the present day. While British sociology has thrived institutionally since the post-war expansion of higher education, this book asks whether or not it is poorer for having failed to recognise that statistics provides the foundations for the scientific study of society and for having missed opportunities to build upon those foundations. Ultimately, this important, revealing and timely book is about British sociology's refusal to come to grips with a modern scientific way of thinking which no discipline that aspires to an effective study of society can afford to ignore.

The crime drop is one of the most important puzzles in contemporary criminology: since the early-1990s many countries appear to exhibit a pronounced decline in crime rates. While there have been many studies on the topic, this book argues that the current crime drop literature relies too heavily on a single methodological approach, and in turn, provides a new method for examining the falling rates of crime, based on ideas from political science and comparative historical social science. Farrall's original new research forwards an understanding of trends in crime and responses to them by questioning the received theoretical assumptions. The book therefore encourages a 'deepening' in the nature of the sorts of studies which have been undertaken so far. Firmly grounded in Political Science, this innovative study is a must read for scholars of Critical Criminology, Criminological Theory, and Politics.

This timely study examines the increasing importance of the Sunbelt and its megastates--Florida, California, and Texas--in the U.S. election process. The purpose of the work is to provide a longitudinal analysis of partisan and gender election success and incumbency in the elections of 1986, 1988, 1992, and the realignment of 1994 (bringing up to date some of the classic studies from the 1970s and 1980s). In tracing the pattern of partisan success, the effect of incumbency, and the success of males and females in each party, the author is able to project the likely success of the two parties in the 1996 and subsequent elections in each megastate. This important election-year book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of politics.

This book focuses on the reality of China's modern judiciary, systematically demonstrating and discussing the judicial philosophy and judicial ethics as applied by Chinese courts and judges. In order to illustrate the methods of jurisprudence and sociology of law in the context of China's judicial practice and practicability of applicable laws, it also addresses judicial methodology and Chinese judges' trial methods. Based on comparative study and aiming at global judicial reform, the book provides valuable guidance and insights for readers pursuing a detailed understanding of modern Chinese judiciary, Chinese judges and Chinese rule of law. The book is intended to primarily serve the need of legal professionals around the world, in particular those who are interested in China's judicial system.

A brilliant and daring piece of scholarship, this book will raise eyebrows and spark much debate. It does not simply break new ground, it breaks all the rules ultimately compelling us to examine and embrace scholarship in fresh, innovative ways. Seeing Red is based on Pauline Sameshima's doctoral dissertation, Winner of the 2007 Arts Based Educational Research (ABER) Outstanding Dissertation Award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). This award is for the best dissertation that explores, is an exemplar of, and pushes the boundaries of arts based educational research. The book showcases a PhD dissertation written in the form of an epistolary bildungsroman a didactic novel of personal developmental journeying. The work is a fiction (letters from a graduate student to the professor she is in love with) embedded in developmental understanding of living the life of a teacher researcher. The work shares the possibilities of how artful research informs processes of scholarly inquiry and honours the reader's multi-perspective as integral to the research project's transformative potential. Parallax is the apparent change of location of an object against a background due to a change in observer position or perspective shift. The concept of parallax encourages researchers and teachers to acknowledge and value the power of their own and their readers and students' shifting subjectivities and situatedness which directly influence the constructs of perception, interpretation, and learning. The novel format ties themes and characters together just as storytelling can bind theory and practice. Norman Denzin (2005) supports the pedagogical and libratory nature of the critical democratic storytelling imagination. He hails this book as ..". bold, innovative, a wild, transformative text, ... almost unruly, a new vision for critical, reflexive inquiry." The love story and issues of teacher/learner role boundaries are controversial and largely unspoken of in educational settings and the letter format is voyeuristic. In this sense, the audience is being given a peek, a look at the unrevealed. One of the advantages of the epistolary novel is its semblance of reality and the difficulty for readers to distinguish the text from genuine correspondence (Wurzbach, 1969). The genre allows the reader access to the writing character's intimate thoughts without perceived interference from the author's manipulation and conveys events with dramatic and sensational immediacy (Carafi, 1997).

This important volume by Edward W. Ellsworth examines the conflicting interests, programs, and goals which influenced the emergence of Anglo-Indian social purpose and scientific organizations between 1780 and 1880. The intellectual energy that promoted the growth of these multi-racial associations and their efforts toward reform was often diverted by British government structures, financial limitations, and Indian resistance. Ellsworth's study traces how, despite these obstacles, these Anglo-Indian groups became the foundation for both the official and reformist programs which were integral to the formation of the Indian Congress at the end of the 19th century. After a brief historical introduction, Ellsworth offers an overview of social science ideology from British and Anglo-Indian perspectives with specific emphasis on the progressive intellectual development, both social and personal, advanced by members of the Bengal, Bombay, and Punjab associations. The author traces government involvement in select areas of science associational research and the relationship of that research to official policies and regulations, agribusiness goals and the commonweal. He also deals with key elements of Anglo-Indian science associational programs shaped by needs of the community but also by the British science world and British and Anglo-Indian economic interests. The creation of a colonial science is thus outlined. Concluding with a selected bibliography and full index, the book proves a comprehensive account of an intellectually vital period in Indian history.

This twenty-seventh volume of Research in Organizational Behavior carries forward the tradition of high-level scholarship on a broad array of organizational topics. Like many previous volumes, this collection is truly interdisciplinary, with chapters ranging from personality and decision making in organizations, to interpersonal dynamics such as helping and group process, to organizational-level analyses of legitimization and change. Each of the essays is well-reasoned, thoughtful, and provocative-- proving, once again, that the field of organizational behavior is flourishing in both its depth and scope. *Interdisciplinary with a wide range of subjects discussed by experts in their fields *Addresses personality development, empowerment, creativity, dysfunctional groups, institutionalization, and more

The study of poverty dynamics is important for effective poverty alleviation policies because the changes in income poverty are also accompanied by changes in socioeconomic factors such as literacy, gender parity in school, health care, infant mortality, and asset holdings. In order to examine the dynamics of poverty, information from 1,212 households in 32 rural villages in Bangladesh was collected in December 2004 and December 2009. This book reports the analytical results from quantitative and qualitative surveys from the same households at two points of time, which yielded the panel data for understanding the changes in situations of poverty. Efforts have been made to include the most recent research from diverse disciplines including economics, statistics, anthropology, education, health care, and vulnerability study. Specifically, findings from logistic regression analysis, polychoric principal component analysis, kernel density function, income mobility with the help of the Markov chain model, and child nutrition status from anthropometric measures have been presented. Asset holdings and liabilities of the chronically poor as well as those of three other economic groups (the descending non-poor, the ascending poor, and the non-poor) are analyzed statistically. The degrees of vulnerability to poverty are examined by years of schooling, landholding size, gender of household head, social capital, and occupation. The multiple logistic regression model was used to identify important risk factors for a household's vulnerability. In 2009, some of the basic characteristics of the chronically poor were: higher percentage and number of female-headed households, higher dependency ratio, lower levels of education, fewer years of schooling, and limited employment. There was a low degree of mobility of households from one poverty status to another in the period 2004-2009, implying that the process of economic development and high economic growth in the macroeconomy during this time failed to improve the poverty situation in rural Bangladesh.

This book stimulates discussions on cultural and educational exchanges between rival states and societies, raises awareness of the potential positive and negative impacts of such exchanges, and serves as a basis for future research and program design. Cultural and educational exchanges in various forms have existed for millennia. Yet it was not until the unprecedented human devastation of two world wars catalyzed a sense of urgency around the world that a new era of cultural and educational exchange programs emerged as a means of easing tensions between rival states and societies. This book is motivated by the need for critical research that can contribute to building a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at stake. It begins with a historical overview of cultural and educational exchanges between rival societies, an assessment of their positive and negative impacts, and a review of some of the most prominent theories in relevant fields. It then presents a diverse set of case studies, in which authors consider not only the real or expected benefits of such exchanges but also the potentially negative impacts, challenges faced along the way, and broader effects on the rival societies at large. The states and societies considered include North Korea and the West, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and the Palestinian territories, India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, Cuba and the US, and China and the US. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate that exchanges have observable impacts on the individuals and institutions involved. Moreover, they reveal that exchanges have the capacity, in some cases, to affect broader social and political change at the family, community, society, or state level, but these impacts are indirect and typically require long-term concerted efforts by those involved.

New Perspectives in Advanced Learning Technology.- R&D on Advanced Learning Technologies in the New Framework Programme.- Cognitive and Educational Problems of the New Learning Technologies.- Educational Requirements of Vocational Training Using Expert Systems.- The Learner's View of Hypermedia.- Deep-Knowledge Acquisition for Learner Modelling in Second Language Learning.- Communications-Centred Multi-Media Learning Systems.- A Functional Architecture for Intelligent Simulation Learning Environments.- An Overview of Key Issues to the Development of a "Learning Services based on Technology" European Market.- The Integration of Advanced Learning Technologies in Corporate Training Activities.- Pro-DELTA Portuguese Research on Delta.- The Influence of Public Policies on the Structure, Conduct and Performance of the Advanced Learning Technology Market.- Flexible Distance Learning; Barriers to Growth.- Computer-Based Training Producers: A Market for Delta R&D Products.- Educational Technologies for SME's; Problems & Ways towards solutions.- State of the art in the application of telecommunications to learning.- Eurostep: An Experiment of Crucial Importance for the Developement of Distance Education by Satellite in Europe.- Flexible Distance Learning Education for Doctors - The SATDOC Project.- Communications Infrastructure for Interactiv Video Using DBS and ISDN.- An 'Intelligent' Database System of Audio-Visual Material.- XTEC Online In-Service Teacher Training Project.- Multimedia Interactive applications & ISDN for Distant Learning.- Telecommunication in Distance Education: User-Demands and Technological Possibilities.- Learner Places for European Learning - the LAT Approach to Deriving Functions.- Information Retrieval and Interactive Learning in a Broadband Information System.- EPOS: Telecommunication in Computer-Delivered Training and Education.- Telecommunication Aspects of OLE.- Video Conferencing in a Learning Context.- Tools for Building Learner Models.- The ECAL Teaching Engine: Pragmatic AI for Education.- Artificial Intelligence: The Key to Open Learning.- Experiments on Knowledge Acquisition for Learner Modelling.- NOBILE: An Object-Based User Model Acquisition Shell.- Student Modelling Toolkits.- An Adaptive Environment for Open Learning in DELTA.- Generation and Maintenance of Computational Viewpoints in Student Models.- Belief-Based Bounded User Modelling.- Connectionist Models for Dialogue Systems.- Connectionist Models for the Simulation of Student Mistakes in Learning a Foreign Language.- Hypermedia: How Will The Author Cope?.- The I.C.A.T. Project (ILVA Computer Aided Training).- An Object-Oriented Data Model for Hypermedia Systems.- Multilingual Aspects of a Multimedia Database of Learning Materials.- Perpetuating the Myth.- Next Generation Authoring Systems: Integration of Multiple Methodologies and Tools.- On the Concept of Reusability in Educational Design.- A Framework for Authoring Tool Integration.- The Relationship between PETE and PCTE.- Multi-Strategy Authoring Toolkit for Intelligent Courseware: Better Courses for Less.- Generic Tool for Courseware Authoring.- The CAMCE Project: An Environment for Cooperative and Distributed Authoring.- The DEEP Methodology for Authoring.- Authoring for Intelligent Simulation Based Instruction: A Model Based Approach.- Authoring for Intelligent Tutoring Systems.- Intelligent Multimedia Authoring: Advancing Towards Users in a European Context.- A Courseware Production Model which Integrates the Results of the Development Systems.- Transferring Knowledge in a Cross-Cultural Perspective.- Sociological Questions in Open Learning Standards and the Learner Environment.- Video Conference: Intercultural Learning in the Virtual Classroom.- Issues in Instructional Design for CAL: Problems and Possible Solutions.- Delta and the Back of Beyond.- European School Project: On Cultural Conversations.

What are the current trends in housing? Is my planned project commercially viable? What should be my marketing and advertisement strategies? These are just some of the questions real estate agents, landlords and developers ask researchers to answer. But to find the answers, researchers are faced with a wide variety of methods that measure housing preferences and choices. To select and value a valid research method, one needs a well-structured overview of the methods that are used in housing preference and housing choice research. This comprehensive introduction to this field offers just such an overview. It discusses and compares numerous methods, detailing the potential limitation of each one, and it reaches beyond methodology, illustrating how thoughtful consideration of methods and techniques in research can help researchers and other professionals to deliver products and services that are more in line with residents needs."

This book addresses the impacts of various types of services such as infrastructure, platforms, software, and business processes that cloud computing and Big Data have introduced into business. Featuring chapters which discuss effective and efficient approaches in dealing with the inherent complexity and increasing demands in data science, a variety of application domains are covered. Various case studies by data management and analysis experts are presented in these chapters. Covered applications include banking, social networks, bioinformatics, healthcare, transportation and criminology. Highlighting the Importance of Big Data Management and Analysis for Various Applications will provide the reader with an understanding of how data management and analysis are adapted to these applications. This book will appeal to researchers and professionals in the field.

This book provides an analysis of strategic behavior in international crises. Various aspects of crisis decision and interaction, such as initiation, misperception, deception, learning, and termination, are studied by means of a game model that incorporates psychological variables. This integrative approach is designed to narrow the gap between psychological and game-theoretical studies of crisis, which are generally considered to be incompatible. The utility of the approach is demonstrated by means of an in-depth case study of the 1967 Middle East crisis. This study will be of interest to scholars in political science and international relations and political science, crisis theory, and game theory.

A comprehensive reference work which provides a way to access research on urban politics and policy in the United States. Experts in the field guide readers through major controversies, while evaluating and assessing the subfields of urban politics and policy. Each chapter follows the same basic organization with topics such as methodological and theoretical issues, current states of the field, and directions for future research. For students, this work provides a starting place to guide them to the most important works in a particular subfield and a context to place their work in a larger body of knowledge. For scholars, it serves as a reference work for immediately familiarity with subfields of the discipline, including classic studies and major research questions. For urban policymakers or analysts, the handbook provides a wealth of information and allows quick identification of existing academic knowledge and research relevant to the problem at hand.

Designed to meet the growing demand for evaluation material, this volume fills a major gap in criminal justice literature. It details the first comprehensive, broad based, and theoretically grounded model for evaluating police management training programs. In a clear and concise style it develops a complete set of instruments for evaluation and then illustrates use of the model and the instruments on a specific program. Byron Simerson and William Markham have included all of the instruments needed to conduct a comprehensive evaluation and the instructions for their use. Alleviating the problem of haphazard evaluation, this volume was designed for police chiefs and training directors in larger jurisdictions, state criminal justice academies, the Training and Standards Divisions of State Departments of Justice, and state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Administrators are now recognizing the importance of determining training program efficiency, particularly in light of the growing concerns over legal liability. "Evaluating Police Management Development ProgramS" provides the tools and expertise needed to conduct a comprehensive program evaluation. Chapters provide: an overview of existing literature, model description, research procedures, model application to a specific police executive development program, reaction by North Carolina police chiefs, and a description of how the model can be applied to any police management development program. Appendices provide all instruments including precourse surveys, observation evaluation forms, course critiques, follow up surveys and chiefs' evaluation surveys.

This international comparison of pension plans lends great understanding to the transformation taking place in almost every nation around the world. It covers ten of the twelve countries of the European Union, as well as the United States and Japan. The project is interdisciplinary, covering a number of fields, such as economics, law, actuarial science, sociology, and political science, that contribute to the analysis of retirement income systems. The chapters vary in scope - some are comparative, some are restricted to a single country or to one type of plan in one country. Despite their diversity, the chapters share a common awareness of three aspects of pension plans: the importance of actors' roles in shaping each system, the different economic and social domains affected by retirement plans, and the interconnections between social security and supplementary plans.

This book discusses the psychological traits associated with drug consumption through the statistical analysis of a new database with information on 1885 respondents and use of 18 drugs. After reviewing published works on the psychological profiles of drug users and describing the data mining and machine learning methods used, it demonstrates that the personality traits (five factor model, impulsivity, and sensation seeking) together with simple demographic data make it possible to predict the risk of consumption of individual drugs with a sensitivity and specificity above 70% for most drugs. It also analyzes the correlations of use of different substances and describes the groups of drugs with correlated use, identifying significant differences in personality profiles for users of different drugs. The book is intended for advanced undergraduates and first-year PhD students, as well as researchers and practitioners. Although no previous knowledge of machine learning, advanced data mining concepts or modern psychology of personality is assumed, familiarity with basic statistics and some experience in the use of probabilities would be helpful. For a more detailed introduction to statistical methods, the book provides recommendations for undergraduate textbooks.

This handbook presents a systematic overview of approaches to, diversity, and problems involved in interdisciplinary rating methodologies. Historically, the purpose of ratings is to achieve information transparency regarding a given body's activities, whether in the field of finance, banking, or sports for example. This book focuses on commonly used rating methods in three important fields: finance, sports, and the social sector. In the world of finance, investment decisions are largely shaped by how positively or negatively economies or financial instruments are rated. Ratings have thus become a basis of trust for investors. Similarly, sports evaluation and funding are largely based on core ratings. From local communities to groups of nations, public investment and funding are also dependent on how these bodies are continuously rated against expected performance targets. As such, ratings need to reflect the consensus of all stakeholders on selected aspects of the work and how to evaluate their success. The public should also have the opportunity to participate in this process. The authors examine current rating approaches from a variety of proposals that are closest to the public consensus, analyzing the rating models and summarizing the methods of their construction. This handbook offers a valuable reference guide for managers, analysts, economists, business informatics specialists, and researchers alike.

This is the fourteenth annual volume of the Index to International Public Opinion. It includes data from public opinion polls from more than 130 countries and geographical regions. All tables contain total sample results, and many also include analysis by various population sub-groups such as age, sex, level of education, etc. The survey questions deal with social, political, and economic issues of both contemporary and historical interest. The data are drawn from surveys that have been conducted by polling organizations of the highest scientific quality. The volume contains data from surveys conducted mainly during the period Spring 1991 through Spring 1992. Also, for trend analysis purposes, included are a number of time series tables covering a decade or longer. Starting with volume fourteen, the annual contains a new section, Changing Opinions: A 50-year Retrospective, which consists of opinion polling data gathered a half century ago in a number of countries; not surprisingly, many of the issues asked about then are still current today. As the richest ongoing reference source for public opinion data, this volume and its predecessor volumes are invaluable for scholars of social, political, and economic issues, for business leaders, journalists, and government officials.

This book sets out a new and distinctive means of conceptualising research in the field of Education: 'Freedom Research'. Freedom research is a conceptual understanding of research free from the strictures of orthodoxy; which adapts or knowingly critiques conventions about the ways in which research should be conducted. Underpinning this concept is the argument that the conventions of traditional approaches to research in education may be both confidence-sapping and constrictive to both the early career and mature educational researcher. By critiquing the boundaries of a socially constructed discipline, the researcher may then be liberated to research with freedom, creativity and innovation. This pioneering volume will assist the researcher to become more autonomous, and by extension more confident, in their own research practice. It will be of appeal to scholars, students and researchers in Education, of all stages of their career.

This book presents a new economic theory developed from physical and biological principles. It explains how technology, social systems and economic values are intimately related to resources. Many people have recognized that mainstream (neoclassical) economic theories are not consistent with physical laws and often not consistent with empirical patterns, but most feel that economic activities are too complex to be described by a simple and coherent mathematical theory. While social systems are indeed complex, all life systems, including social systems, satisfy two principles. First, all systems need to extract resources from the external environment to compensate for their consumption. Second, for a system to be viable, the amount of resource extraction has to be no less than the level of consumption. From these two principles, we derive a quantitative theory of major factors in economic activities, such as fixed cost, variable cost, discount rate, uncertainty and duration. The mathematical theory enables us to systematically measure the effectiveness of different policies and institutional structures at varying levels of resource abundance and cost.The theory presented in this book shows that there do not exist universally optimal policies or institutional structures. Instead, the impacts of different policies or social structures have to be measured within the context of existing levels of resource abundance. As the physical costs of extracting resources rise steadily, many policy assumptions adopted in mainstream economic theories, and workable in times of cheap and abundant energy supplies and other resources, need to be reconsidered. In this rapidly changing world, the theory presented here provides a solid foundation for examining the long-term impacts of today's policy decisions.

This book presents various recently developed and traditional statistical techniques, which are increasingly being applied in social science research. The social sciences cover diverse phenomena arising in society, the economy and the environment, some of which are too complex to allow concrete statements; some cannot be defined by direct observations or measurements; some are culture- (or region-) specific, while others are generic and common. Statistics, being a scientific method - as distinct from a 'science' related to any one type of phenomena - is used to make inductive inferences regarding various phenomena. The book addresses both qualitative and quantitative research (a combination of which is essential in social science research) and offers valuable supplementary reading at an advanced level for researchers.