In the field of risks and crises, both the access to relevant information and its circulation are seen as crucial factors. Based on a new integrated theoretical model focusing on the stakeholder, the book proposes analysis of information reformulation and circulation in risk environments and crisis situations.

Simply circulating the information does not mean that it will be picked up by those who could benefit from it. This has been amply demonstrated by the various crises and catastrophes that have shaken the planet in recent years. In order to be able to deal with risk situations and crises, it must be possible for information when it circulates to be understood and interpreted by a wide range of stakeholders, working in fields such as health and natural or environmental risks. By observing closely, in three very different situations, the way in which information is gathered, processed, distributed and used, this book examines the countless reformulations, redefinitions and even reorientations to which all information is subjected. This multiple reformatting, at least according to the hypothesis put forward in this book, is an important element in ensuring that the information produced circulates and reaches those for whom it is intended. The intention is then to analyze the way in which information circulates in situations of risk and crisis. In order to do it, the authors propose a new theoretical model based on different approaches. This model is anchored in the trend of research that has been oriented towards a wider understanding of risks and their territorial and social consequences. These ideas question the approach to risk which focuses primarily on technical aspects and probability. The model also draws from approaches to risk that focus on the stakeholders involved in the debates and the need for an integrated vision of risks. Risks are thus considered heterogeneous, plural and transcalar. The information flow about risks was studied first in the SHOC Room of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, a central place through which passes all information destined to managing world-wide epidemic risks. Then the research team monitored the constitution and the reception of a field library about risks management and reduction sent to Madagascar, an island systematically hit by cyclones. This following process has permitted the analysis of information dissemination during a crisis situation. The third field work was done in Cameroun to observe the use and transmission of information in two NGO specializing in sanitary risks prevention using traditional and biomedical conceptualization of health and illness. The book ends with a practical tool to assess and help the information circulation in risk and crisis situations."

Alarming news reports point to an almost incomprehensible problem of violence in America. Understanding this problem requires timely and accurate information about the magnitude and scope of violence, the effect of violence on our society, and society's perceptions of violence. "Statistical Handbook on Violence in America" is the authoritative source of data gathered from widely scattered sources, both published and unpublished, and assembled in a single volume for accurate and efficient access. Featuring 377 tables and figures, this volume reveals data on victims and offenders, as well as the association of violence with: the home, health care, individual attitudes, the workplace, the economy, and public policy issues.

This book proposes theoretical models and practical strategies for tackling the widespread social exclusion faced by people diagnosed mentally ill. Based primarily on research in the US and UK but with reference to other international examples, it analyses evidence of discrimination and the effectiveness of different remedies: disability discrimination law, work to re-frame media and cultural images, grassroots inclusion programmes, challenges to the 'nimby' factor. It places the growing user/survivor and disability movements as central to achieving any radical change.

According to current understanding, Malthus was hostile to an excess of population because it caused social sufferings, while Marx was favourable to demographic growth in so far as a large proletariat was a factor aggravating the contradictions of capitalism. This is unfortunately an oversimplification. Both raised the same crucial question: when considered as an economic variable, how does population fit into the analysis of economic growth? Even though they started from the same analytical standpoint, Marx established a very different diagnosis from that of Malthus and built a social doctrine no less divergent. The book also discusses the theoretical and doctrinal contribution of the liberal economists, writing at the onset of the industrial revolution in France (1840-1870), and those of their contemporary, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who shared with Marx the denunciation of the capitalist system. By paying careful attention to the social, economic, and political context, this book goes beyond the shortcomings of the classification between pro- and anti-populationism. It sheds new light over nineteenth century controversies over population in France, a case study for Europe.

The faculty at the University of Houston's program in Futures Studies share their comprehensive, integrated approach to preparing foresight professionals and assisting others doing foresight projects. Provides an essential guide to developing classes on the future or even establishing whole degree programs.

This book provides a benchmark treatise on the relationship between ethnography and interpretive approaches to research in the social sciences by accomplishing four specific objectives. First, it situates ethnography as a research method within a broader field of methodologies, contrasting ethnography conducted and written within an interpretive methodology against ethnography conducted and written within a positivist methodology. Second, it maps the range of approaches to ethnography within an interpretive methodology with a specific emphasis on the stances interpretive ethnographies implicitly or explicitly take on issues of truth and power. Third, it provides readers of interpretive ethnography with major evaluative criteria while simultaneously offering practitioners of interpretive ethnography guidelines for conducting and writing interpretive ethnography. And fourth, it draws on the unique strengths of interpretive ethnography to advance a series of provocations and questions about broader tendencies in mainstream social science research.

In contrast to other treatments of ethnography that either ignore or conflate the relationship between ethnography as a research method and broader interpretive and/or positivist methodologies, Pachirat explicitly emphasizes the distinction between method and methodology in order to underscore the advantages of conducting ethnography within an interpretive framework. Rather than drawing inspiration primarily from abstract philosophical literature, Ethnography and Interpretation relies throughout on discussions of actual, exemplary ethnographies in the social sciences to illustrate and animate its arguments and propositions. This concise volume will be valuable reading for teachers, students, and practitioners of ethnographic research across the social sciences.

This introductory text is devoted to exposing the underlying nature of price formation in financial markets as a predominantly sociological phenomenon that relates individual decision-making to emergent and co-evolving social and financial structures.

Two different levels of this sociological influence are considered: First, we examine how price formation results from the social dynamics of interacting individuals, where interaction occurs either through the price or by direct communication. Then the same processes are revisited and examined at the level of larger groups of individuals.

In this book, models of both levels of socio-finance are presented, and it is shown, in particular, how complexity theory provides the conceptual and methodological tools needed to understand and describe such phenomena. Accordingly, readers are first given a broad introduction to the standard economic theory of rational financial markets and will come to understand its shortcomings with the help of concrete examples. Complexity theory is then introduced in order to properly account for behavioral decision-making and match the observed market dynamics.

This book is conceived as a primer for newcomers to the field, as well as for practitioners seeking new insights into the field of complexity science applied to socio-economic systems in general, and financial markets and price formation in particular.

Mind genomics is the next level of apprehension of human behavior. It seeks to comprehend what drives consumers and people in general in their day-to-day decision making. It reaches out where surveys and focus groups are inadequate tools to help us better understand how people feel and how they will behave in a particular situation. While allowing for a more encapsulating method that works well with big data, mind genomics offers a more nuanced view of the complex societal and political reality. Applying Mind Genomics to Social Sciences presents an overview of mind genomics as applied to the food industry, commerce, business services, tourism, healthcare, and even legal service. Its focus, however, explores the new avenues of mind genomics in social and political sciences. The book offers a combination of rich data combined with a new methodological approach and fresh analytical insights, which helps us better grasp and understand the complex reality of society. Covering topics such as human thought, decision making, and cognitive science, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, business leaders, marketers, government officials, journalists, students and faculty of higher education, libraries, doctoral and postdoctoral candidates, researchers, and academicians.

Population ageing is an important trend which will be experienced in industrialized countries in the early years of the next century. This significant book examines aspects of population ageing and pensions, with an emphasis on the design and use of simple economic models to focus on particular aspects of a very broad problem. The analysis of pensions presents many complex problems. A major aim of this book is to demonstrate how reasonably simple economic models can be designed and used to shed some light on the issues involved in population growth and pension provision. The basic analytics of population growth and pension structure are first explored. Projections for Australia are examined and used to model ageing and social expenditure and to estimate the 'burden' of aged care on future workers. The author goes on to investigate pensions and pension finance, and examines several types of economic model before turning to the analysis of alternative pension arrangements using a lifetime simulation model. The results of the study suggest that both lower contribution rates and a universal pension encourage a later retirement age. This book will prove invaluable to students and scholars of public sector economics, welfare economics, social economics and public finance.

Fliegel overviews and summarizes research on the spread of innovations through rural populations. The volume begins with a look at the discovery of diffusion as a patterned process in the 1940s and examines the creation of the classical model to explain diffusion as a transfer of information. Fliegel then notes how the classical model changed to accommodate the particular socioeconomic condition when the model was applied to developing countries after 1945. He concludes by commenting on the revival of interest in diffusion research, the further development and refinement of the classical model, and the modern emphasis on conservation-oriented innovations rather than on innovations that enhance production. Fliegel overviews and summarizes research on the spread of innovations through rural populations. The volume gives detailed attention to the development and utilization of diffusion research from the 1940s to 1970 and traces the creation of the classical model for explaining the spread of innovations. Because the classical model seemed inadequate when applied to the diffusion of innovations in lesser-developed countries after World War II, the model changed to accommodate new research. The book notes the role of diffusion research in developing countries after the second world war, the change of the classical model to include socioeconomic conditions peculiar to these countries, and the growth and development of diffusion research to the present day. The first part of the book provides an historical survey of diffusion research through 1970. The chapters in this section discuss the discovery of diffusion as a patterned process, the development of the classical model to explain diffusion as an information transfer, and the implementation of diffusion research in developing countries after 1945. The second part, devoted to recent trends, includes chapters on the further development and refinement of the classical model, the revival of interest in diffusion research, and the modern emphasis on conservation-oriented innovations rather than on ones that enhance production. An extensive bibliography concludes this comprehensive study.

When data consist of grouped observations or clusters, and there is a risk that measurements within the same group are not independent, group-specific random effects can be added to a regression model in order to account for such within-group associations. Regression models that contain such group-specific random effects are called mixed-effects regression models, or simply mixed models. Mixed models are a versatile tool that can handle both balanced and unbalanced datasets and that can also be applied when several layers of grouping are present in the data; these layers can either be nested or crossed. In linguistics, as in many other fields, the use of mixed models has gained ground rapidly over the last decade. This methodological evolution enables us to build more sophisticated and arguably more realistic models, but, due to its technical complexity, also introduces new challenges. This volume brings together a number of promising new evolutions in the use of mixed models in linguistics, but also addresses a number of common complications, misunderstandings, and pitfalls. Topics that are covered include the use of huge datasets, dealing with non-linear relations, issues of cross-validation, and issues of model selection and complex random structures. The volume features examples from various subfields in linguistics. The book also provides R code for a wide range of analyses.

This book explores the main methods, models, and approaches of food consumer science applied to six countries of the Western Balkans, illustrating each of these methods with concrete case studies. Research conducted between 2008 and 2011 in the course of the FOCUS-BALKANS project forms an excellent database for exploring recent changes and trends in food consumption.

The current geological age has had a profound effect on the relationship between society and nature, and it raises new issues for researchers. It is important for educational research to engage with the politics of knowledge production and address the ecological, economic, and political dynamics of the Anthropocene era. Educational Research in the Age of Anthropocene is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the impact of educational research paradigms through the dynamic interaction of human society and the environment. While highlighting topics such as human consciousness, complexity thinking, and queer theory, this publication explores the historical trends of theories, as well as the context in which educational models have been employed. This book is ideally designed for professors, academicians, advanced-level students, scholars, and educational researchers seeking current research on the contestability of educational research in contemporary environments.

This text explores and celebrates imaginative and creative approaches to youth research, showcasing a wide range of innovative methods including music elicitation, mental mapping, blog analysis and mobile methods.

This collection on researching later life and ageing critically reflects upon the qualitative methods used in gaining knowledge of under-researched groups of older people and sets out future research agendas.

This book helps college instructors in all disciplines design library research projects that students will enjoy writing, and faculty will enjoy reading. It is a librarian's contribution to the literature of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement. The ideas and techniques presented are offered not as prescriptions, but as starting points for the construction of projects to meet the needs and use the resources of a wide range of curricula, students, faculty, and libraries. The book helps instructors desing appropriate undergraduate library research projects with specific practical suggestions for selecting and assigning topics and for fully utilizing available library resources. The author also suggests meaningful ways to teach scholarly documentation, and to design plagiarism-proof assignments. Appendices include tips for grading research papers, sample research worksheets, and a sample selection of topics.

The Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms of its conceptual and methodological rigor, and sets forth an agenda for future research intended to advance knowledge on the chosen topic.

This book examines research using anti-oppressive, arts-based methods to promote social change in oppressed and marginalized communities. The contributors discuss literary techniques, performance, visual art, and new media in relation to the co-construction of knowledge and positionality, reflexivity, data representation, community building and engagement, and pedagogy. The contributors to this volume hail from a wide array of disciplines, including sociology, social work, community psychology, anthropology, performing arts, education, medicine, and public health.

Drawing on fieldwork in the Herat area, Afghanistan, this book addresses migration patterns throughout three decades of war. It launches a framework for understanding the role of social networks for peoples responses to war and disaster as well as mobilizing or maintaining material resources for security and gathering information.

This book illustrates how the one-dot theory, which is a dialectical study, is well suited to describing, explaining and inferring contemporary China's past, present and future. It argues that since October 1949, the field of contemporary China studies has been dominated by modified and abandoned non-dialectical theories and models. It also challenges selected non-dialectical theories and models which were first generated in the West, such as the game theory and rational (choice) theory. With its emphasis on methodology, the book offers a valuable resource for academics, researchers and practitioners alike with an interest in logically, systematically and coherently unraveling Taiwan's and mainland China's contemporary politics and international relations.

Macrocomparative researchers use a variety of methodological approaches. This book features analyses of a single substantive topic, comparative employment performance in affluent countries, using three of the most common macrocomparative techniques: pooled cross-section time-series regression, qualitative comparative analysis, and small-N analysis.

This comprehensive collection contributes to, advances and consolidates discussions of the range of research methods in criminology through the presentation of diverse international case studies in which contributors reflect upon their experiences with powerless and powerful individuals or groups.

This work examines the conflict between movements and regimes using dynamic mathematical modeling methods. Most of the deaths from political violence in the world in this century have not been caused by war, but by conflict between governments and dissenters. It is hoped that scholars will improve their understanding of these conflicts, and thus help to reduce the costs.