An advertising executive and sociologist who has studied alcoholism at length analyzes worldwide theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between mass media and advertising and alcohol consumption and abuse. Dr. Fisher pulls together findings from content analyses, experiments, quasi-experiments, econometric studies, and evaluations of advertising restrictions and warning labels to determine how advertising works and affects human behavior.

This book offers a unique and much-needed interrogation of the broader questions surrounding international performance research which are pertinent to the present and the future of Theatre and Performance studies. Marking the completion of eight years of the Erasmus Mundus MA Programme in International Performance Research (MAIPR) - a programme run jointly by the universities of Warwick (UK), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Helsinki/Tampere (Finland), Arts in Belgrade (Serbia), and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) - the essays in this volume take stock of the achievements, insights and challenges of what international performance research is or ought to be about. By reflecting on the discipline of Performance Studies using the MAIPR programme as a case study in point, the volume addresses the broader question of the critical link between the discipline of Performance Studies and humanities education in general, examining their interactions in the contemporary university in the context of globalisation.

A practical overview for health students and health professionals embarking on an applied research project using a qualitative approach.Successful Qualitative Health Research offers a thorough introduction to the field, written in a very clear and concise fashion. Emphasising the rigorous approach required in health research, it provides a step by step guide to designing a research project using qualitative methods, and to collecting, analysing and presenting different types of data.Hansen provides essential insights into the ideas and arguments underpinning different qualitative methods, and highlights the links between theory and practice. She also explains the importance of choosing the most appropriate form of data analysis. Each chapter features real life examples from experienced researchers from a wide range of health fields. These examples show how researchers have overcome common problems and offer inspiration and guidance. Applied qualitative research is increasingly being used to explore a range of issues in health, both on its own and as an adjunct to quantitative research. This book offers a clear, no-nonsense approach that will be invaluable to students and professionals in nursing, medicine, allied health and public health.'I strongly recommend this book to all those looking to undertake ethical and rigorous qualitative research in the field of health and health care.' - Dr Jon Adams, Director, Qualitative Research Laboratory, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle'From thinking about theory to writing for publication, this text covers a massive amount of ground in a fresh and dynamic way. It will enthuse the beginner and refresh the old hand ...' - Associate Professor Jane Gunn, Research Director, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne

Program Evaluation 3rd edition has the hallmarks of thoroughness, insight and fluency of other editions but brings us up to date with a map of the evaluation territory new travelers will find invaluable.'Professor Murray Saunders, UK and European Evaluation Societies John Owen's Program Evaluation helps practitioners clarify distinctions between what we evaluate, the various motivations for conducting evaluation, and the approaches attendant to each. Timely evaluation examples liberally sprinkled throughout this book make it exceptionally useful and helpful to practitioners. I highly recommend Program Evaluation.'Professor Marvin Alkin, UCLA Graduate School of Education + Information StudiesEveryone involved with policy and program development and delivery is being asked to plan more carefully, reflect more critically and justify their decisions. The key to this is evaluation. Program Evaluation offers a conceptual yet straightforward and practical overview of the evaluation process for both beginners and experienced practitioners. It shows evaluators how to identify appropriate forms, approaches and methods, using an original framework. John Owen examines the contributions of evaluation to program provision, and offers proven techniques for involving stakeholders in the planning process and for disseminating the evaluation findings.This third edition has been thoroughly revised to incorporate recent research on evaluation and new examples of good practice. It includes sections of management of evaluation, negotiating evaluation plans, program logic and ex ante evaluation, evidence based practice, performance management and accountability.With international examples from a range of health, education, welfare, community and other settings, Program Evaluation is an essential reference for anyone involved in evaluation in both the public and private sectors.

The potential for research evidence to improve educational policy and practice is immense. Yet internationally, research used by teachers and governments is currently sporadic rather than systematic. In response, this book brings together seven chapters that encompass a range of research projects and ideas in relation to evidence-informed policy and practice (EIPP) in education. These projects and ideas all share a single overarching purpose: providing insight into how EIPP in education can be achieved. Underpinning each chapter is the notion that the world is complex. If we are to introduce change in any meaningful way into it, we therefore have to understand and respond to this complexity. This means then that we cannot simply assume that, because it seems rational or common sense for teachers and policy-makers to use research to help improve their decision making or acts of praxis, that they will do so. Correspondingly, the book represents a holistic journey of discovery and experimentation: of an engagement with the work of thinkers and authors from Eco to Flyvbjerg, via Habermas, Foucault and Aristotle; of ideas ranging from phronesis to trust and social relations; and with diverse research methodologies, including social network analysis and decision tree predictive modelling. The result is both descriptive and prescriptive: as well as outlining the research and its findings, practical suggestions and strategies for achieving evidence use both in educational policy and practice are provided throughout.

This book was written mainly during the Spring periods of 2008 and 2009, when the ?rst author was visiting Maastricht University. Financial s- port both from the Dutch Science Foundation NWO (grants 040. 11. 013 and 0. 40. 11. 082) and from the research institute METEOR (Maastricht Univ- sity) is gratefully acknowledged. Jerusalem Bezalel Peleg Maastricht Hans Peters April 2010 v Contents Preview to this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Part I Representations of constitutions 1 Introduction to Part I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. 1 Motivation and summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. 2 Arrow's constitution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. 3 Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and its implications. . . . . . . . . 4 1. 4 Ga ]rdenfors's model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. 5 Notes and comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2 Constitutions, e?ectivity functions, and game forms . . . . . . 7 2. 1 Motivation and summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2. 2 Constitutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. 3 Constitutions and e?ectivity functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2. 4 Game forms and a representation theorem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. 5 Representation and simultaneous exercising of rights. . . . . . . . 19 2. 6 Notes and comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3 Nash consistent representations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3. 1 Motivation and summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3. 2 Existence of Nash consistent representations: a general result 22 3. 3 The case of ?nitely many alternatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 3. 4 Nash consistent representations of topological e?ectivity functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3. 5 Veto functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3. 5. 1 Finitely many alternatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3. 5. 2 Topological veto functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3. 6 Liberalism and Pareto optimality of Nash equilibria. . . . . . . . . 40 3. 7 Notes and comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 vii viii Contents 4 Acceptable representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 4. 1 Motivation and summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."

This book was written for those who need to know how to collect, analyze and present data. It is meant to be a first course for practitioners, a book for private study or brush-up on statistics, and supplementary reading for general statistics classes. The book is untraditional, both with respect to the choice of topics and the presentation: Topics were determined by what is most useful for practical statistical work, and the presentation is as non-mathematical as possible. The book contains many examples using statistical functions in spreadsheets. In this second edition, new topics have been included e.g. within the area of statistical quality control, in order to make the book even more useful for practitioners working in industry.

Using citation analysis, this study examines the influence and prestige of scholars, journals, and university departments in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. In the tradition of Marvin E. Wolfgang's "Evaluating Criminology," the authors apply this quantitative method to evaluate the impact of individuals and their research efforts on two fields and to identify interconnections among scholars and their publications. This examination of the most-cited scholars, works, and topics in major American and international journals from 1986 to 1990 and from 1991 to 1995 provides valuable and unbiased feedback for researchers and practitioners.

The nine chapters of this book detail a wide range of findings in both criminology and criminal justice. After an introduction to the methodology, chapters two, three, and four divide recent scholarship into two periods, 1986 to 1990 and 1991 to 1995, in order to consider the most-cited scholars, works, and topics. Chapter five provides a longitudinal analysis of scholars in the discipline since 1945. Chapters six and seven provide a system of prestige-ratings for relevant journals as well as page coverage analysis of the most influential scholars. The continuing controversy over whether the two fields are converging or diverging is the subject of chapter eight, and the work concludes with a prescription for further research.

This monograph analyzes Nicholas Rescher's system of pragmatic idealism. It also looks at his approach to prediction in science. Coverage highlights a prominent contribution to a central topic in the philosophy and methodology of science. The author offers a full characterization of Rescher's system of philosophy. She presents readers with a comprehensive philosophico-methodological analysis of this important work. Her research takes into account different thematic realms: semantic, logical, epistemological, methodological, ontological, axiological, and ethical. The book features three, thematic-parts: I) General Coordinates, Semantic Features and Logical Components of Scientific Prediction; II) Predictive Knowledge and Predictive Processes in Rescher's Methodological Pragmatism; and III) From Reality to Values: Ontological Features, Axiological Elements, and Ethical Aspects of Scientific Prediction. This insightful analysis offers a critical reconstruction of Rescher's philosophy. The system he created is often characterized as pragmatic idealism that is open to some realist elements. He is a prominent representative of contemporary pragmatism who has made a great deal of contributions to the study of this topic. This area is crucial for science and it has been little considered in the philosophy of science.

The author focuses on the research-policy nexus in development studies, highlighting reciprocal orientations and interactions between the domains of social research and of policy and politics. He looks at instances where these domains are complementary and geared towards common objectives, but also with others marked by opposing rationales.

Over the past 50 years, scholars across the social sciences have employed critical juncture analysis to understand how social orders are created, become entrenched, and change. In this book, leading scholars from several disciplines offer the first coordinated effort to define this field of research, assess its theoretical and methodological foundations, and use a critical assessment of current practices as a basis for guiding its future. Contributors include stars in this field who have written some of the classic works on critical junctures, as well as the rising stars of the next generation who will continue to shape historical comparative analysis for years to come. Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies will be an indispensable resource for social science research methods scholars and students.

Hoy mas que nunca las Instituciones de Educacion Superior (IES) admiten lo determinante que es tener, informacion oportuna y acertada del desempeno y ubicacion laboral de sus egresados, pues son ellos los que representan la universidad y su plan de estudio que los formo. En el trascurrir del tiempo a los programas de seguimiento de egresados se les ha llegado a considerar una excelente estrategia para analizar si estan siendo o no pertinentes las diferentes competencias en la formacion profesional de sus egresados, con respecto las necesidades que demanda el campo laboral. Estar al tanto del impacto que tiene la educacion superior en nuestro entorno, ofrece a la Universidad indicadores para la toma de decisiones en el progreso institucional y en la calidad de sus procesos de docencia, investigacion, vinculacion, tutorias, gestion; atendiendo las demandas sociales asi como del mercado laboral que le permitan cumplir con su mision y vision como institucion de educacion superior. La presente gestion rectoral, de la Universidad Veracruzana, consciente de la importancia que tiene el vinculo entre la universidad y sus egresados, el aseguramiento de la calidad y la competitividad con estandares internacionales, el mejoramiento del bienestar y fortalecimiento de la identidad de los universitarios, con el proposito de asegurar una oferta educativa de calidad, pertinente y estrechamente relacionada con el entorno local y global. Actualiza y mejora el Programa Institucional de Desarrollo y Seguimiento de Egresados UV (PIDSE UV), en el que se fundamenta este libro: "Seguimiento de Egresados una excelente estrategia para garantizar una educacion de calidad," el cual tiene dos propositos; uno de ellos es dar conocer las bases teoricas en que se fundamentan los estudios de seguimientos de egresados para la toma de decisiones que garanticen una educacion de calidad. El otro proposito es dar a conocer el programa de seguimientos de egresados de la facultad de Psicologia de la Universidad Veracruzana, campus Veracruz, asi como sus avances.

Analyzing the Gross National Product (GNP) and other national economic statistics is one way to look at the financial well being of a country. Another more revealing and more interesting way is to analyze the variety and amount of goods and services consumed by citizens, businesses, and the various levels of government. The "Handbook" presents a systematic and statistical portrait of consumption and wealth, allowing readers to better understand America's economic, political, and cultural landscape. This handbook focuses on the latest statistical information available on U.S. spending habits by exploring a wide range of economic, demographic, and geographic variables.

This textbook focuses on the cohort change ratio (CCR) method. It presents powerful, yet relatively simple ways to generate accurate demographic estimates and forecasts that are cost efficient and require fewer resources than other techniques. The concepts, analytical frameworks, and methodological tools presented do not require extensive knowledge of demographics, mathematics, or statistics. The demographic focus is on the characteristics of populations, especially age and sex composition, but these methods are applicable estimating and forecasting other characteristics and total population. The book contains more traditional applications such as the Hamilton-Perry method, but also includes new applications of the CCR method such as stable population theory. Real world empirical examples are provided for every application; along with excel files containing data and program code, which are accessible online. Topics covered include basic demographic measures, sources of demographic information, forecasting and estimating (both current and historical) populations, modifications to current methods, forecasting school enrollment and other characteristics, estimating life expectancy, stable population theory, decomposition of the CCR into its migration and mortality components, and the utility of the CCR. This textbook is designed to provide material for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course on demographic methods. It can also be used as a supplement for other courses including applied demography, business and economic forecasting and market research.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The massive expansion of the internet into every aspect of our lives creates a challenge for social researchers: can they simply transfer their traditional methods and techniques online or do they need to reinvent research methods for the new environment? As online research becomes increasingly prevalent it becomes more important for researchers to have an answer to these questions and an approach to conducting research online. This book is a straightforward, accessible introduction to social research online. It covers the key issues and concerns for social scientists: online surveys, focus groups, interviews, ethnographies and experiments, as well as discussing the implications of social media, and of online research ethics. It provides a detailed, up-to-date glossary and bibliography for those new to the area. Short, clear case studies throughout allow students to see examples of the research in practice. Wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, What is Online Research? shows social scientists of all levels - from undergraduates to established researchers - how to engage in the online environment in appropriate ways, and points the way forward for future research.

This book introduces and applies the stochastic modeling techniques and the first exit time theory in demography through describing the theory related to the health state of a population and the introduced health state function. The book provides the derivation and classification of the human development stages. The data fitting techniques and related programs are also presented. Many new and old terms are explored and quantitatively estimated, especially the health state or "vitality" of a population, the deterioration and related functions, as well as healthy life expectancy. The book provides the appropriate comparative applications and statistics as connecting tools accompanied by the existing literature, and as such it will be a valuable source to demographers, health scientists, statisticians, economists and sociologists.

This book presents a theory as well as methods to understand and to purposively influence complex systems. It suggests a theory of complex systems as nested systems, i. e. systems that enclose other systems and that are simultaneously enclosed by even other systems. According to the theory presented, each enclosing system emerges through time from the generative activities of the systems they enclose. Systems are nested and often emerge unplanned, and every system of high dynamics is enclosed by a system of slower dynamics. An understanding of systems with faster dynamics, which are always guided by systems of slower dynamics, opens up not only new ways to understanding systems, but also to effectively influence them. The aim and subject of this book is to lay out these thoughts and explain their relevance to the purposive development of complex systems, which are exemplified in case studies from an urban system. The interested reader, who is not required to be familiar with system-theoretical concepts or with theories of emergence, will be guided through the development of a theory of emergent nested systems. The reader will also learn about new ways to influence the course of events - even though the course of events is, in principle, unpredictable, due to the ever-new emergence of real novelty.

This book discusses how to build optimization tools able to generate better future studies. It aims at showing how these tools can be used to develop an adaptive learning environment that can be used for decision making in the presence of uncertainties. The book starts with existing fuzzy techniques and multicriteria decision making approaches and shows how to combine them in more effective tools to model future events and take therefore better decisions. The first part of the book is dedicated to the theories behind fuzzy optimization and fuzzy cognitive map, while the second part presents new approaches developed by the authors with their practical application to trend impact analysis, scenario planning and strategic formulation. The book is aimed at two groups of readers, interested in linking the future studies with artificial intelligence. The first group includes social scientists seeking for improved methods for strategic prospective. The second group includes computer scientists and engineers seeking for new applications and current developments of Soft Computing methods for forecasting in social science, but not limited to this.

What can language tell us about society? Looking at a range of genres, from political speeches to internet chat, this book shows how qualitative methods are used to analyse discourses throughout the social sciences. The practical problems of designing and conducting discourse-based research are solved in this key resource for all social scientists.

Researchers and students who use empirical investigation in their work must go through the process of selecting statistical methods for analyses, and they are often challenged to justify these selections. This book is designed for readers with limited background in statistical methodology who seek guidance in defending their statistical decision-making in the worlds of research and practice. It is devoted to helping students and scholars find the information they need to select data analytic methods, and to speak knowledgeably about their statistical research processes. Each chapter opens with a conundrum relating to the selection of an analysis, or to explaining the nature of an analysis. Throughout the chapter, the analysis is described, along with some guidance in justifying the choices of that particular method. Designed to offer statistical knowledge to the non-specialist, this volume can be used in courses on research methods, or for courses on statistical applications to biological, medical, life, social, or physical sciences. It will also be useful to academic and industrial researchers in engineering and in the physical sciences who will benefit from a stronger understanding of how to analyze empirical data. The book is written for those with foundational education in calculus. However, a brief review of fundamental concepts of probability and statistics, together with a primer on some concepts in elementary calculus and matrix algebra, is included. R code and sample datasets are provided.

Through its research-to-practice focus, this book honors the professional contributions of Professor Barry J. Zimmerman as illustrated by the recent selfregulation applications of a highly respected group of national and international scholars. This book will serve as a valuable resource for those interested in empowering and enabling learners to successfully manage and self-direct their lives, education, and careers. In particular, K-12 educators, college instructors, coaches, musicians, health care providers, and researchers will gain invaluable insight into the nature of self-regulation as well as how they can readily apply self-regulation principles into their teaching, instruction, or mentoring. Emergent trends in education and psychology circles, such as linking self-regulated learning assessment and interventions as well as the use of technology to enhance student learning and self-regulation, are additional themes addressed in the book. The kaleidoscope of self-regulation issues addressed in this book along with the wide range of promising intervention applications should also prove to be particularly appealing to graduate students as they pursue their future research activities and seek to optimize their individual growth and development.

The core belief underlying this book is that the most useful and effective models to strengthen our intelligence are system ones, developed following the logic of Systems Thinking. Such models can explore complexity, dynamics, and change, and it is the author's view that intelligence depends on the ability to construct models of this nature. The book is designed to allow the reader not only to acquire simple information on Systems Thinking but above all to gradually learn the logic and techniques that make this way of thinking an instrument for the improvement of intelligence. In order to aid the learning and practice of the Systems Thinking discipline, the author has abandoned a rigid formal language for a more discursive style. He writes in the first person, with an ample number of citations and critical analyses, and without ever giving in to the temptation to use formal mathematics.

Sociology in Portugal provides the first English-language account of the history of sociology in Portugal from 1945 to the present day. Banned by the fascist regime until 1974, the institutionalization of sociology as an academic discipline came relatively late. Understanding academic disciplines as institutionalized struggles over meaning, Filipe Carreira da Silva gives a genealogy of sociology in Portugal from its origins in the political-administrative interstices of a dictatorship, through the 'cyclopean moment' of the political revolution of April 1974, which brought about its swift institutionalization and subsequent consolidation in the new democratic regime, to the challenges posed by internationalization since the 1990s. Attempts to define Portugal itself, he demonstrates, have been at the heart of these struggles. Analyzing agents, institutions, contexts, instruments and ideas, Carreira da Silva shows in fascinating detail how the sociological understanding of Portugal evolved from that of a developing society in the 1960s, to that of a modernizing European social formation in the 1980s, to the post-colonial or post-imperial Portugal of today.

A volume in Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue Series Editors: David J. Flinders, Indiana University Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue is the journal of the American Association of Teaching and Curriculum. The purpose of AATC as originally defined in Article 1, Section 2A and Section 2B of the AATC Constitution is: To constitute a national learned society for the scholarly field of teaching and curriculum (teaching is the more inclusive concept, curriculum is an integral part of teaching the "what to teach" aspect). In the larger universities, faculty members identified with this field of scholarly study are typically affiliated with the departments of curriculum and instruction, teacher education, and elementary secondary education. To promote the scholarly study of teaching and curriculum. All analytical and interpretive approaches that are appropriate for the scholarly study of teaching and curriculum shall be encouraged. In fulfillment of this mission, this volume addresses a range of issues across the broad fields of teaching and curriculum for all ages, grade levels, and types of programs.