This book sheds light on 'hidden' aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of 'good behaviour' - and hence of 'bad behaviour' - implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs - leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy.

This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualization of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge. The book collectively argues that transnational institution building is one of the most striking features of the current period of internationalization. As a consequence, debates concerning globalization and global governance have to be reformulated. The authors posit that globalization is not threatening governance, but in fact globalization reflects a particular type of governance. The dilemma, therefore, is not between globalization and institutions, but between different meanings of governance and the balance that should be reached between them. Globalization and Institutions will be of special interest to academics and scholars of institutional economics, globalization and management. However, with its focus on two key debates for which there is clearly rising interest, many social scientists will find the book of interest.

The study of narrative-the object of the rapidly growing discipline of narratology-has been traditionally concerned with the fictional narratives of literature, such as novels or short stories. But narrative is a transdisciplinary and transmedial concept whose manifestations encompass both the fictional and the factual. In this volume, which provides a companion piece to Tobias Klauk and Tilmann Koeppe's Fiktionalitat: Ein interdisziplinares Handbuch, the use of narrative to convey true and reliable information is systematically explored across media, cultures and disciplines, as well as in its narratological, stylistic, philosophical, and rhetorical dimensions. At a time when the notion of truth has come under attack, it is imperative to reaffirm the commitment to facts of certain types of narrative, and to examine critically the foundations of this commitment. But because it takes a background for a figure to emerge clearly, this book will also explore nonfactual types of narratives, thereby providing insights into the nature of narrative fiction that could not be reached from the narrowly literary perspective of early narratology.

This book provides a de?nition and study of a knowledge representation and r- soning formalism stemming from conceptual graphs, while focusing on the com- tational properties of this formalism. Knowledge can be symbolically represented in many ways. The knowledge representation and reasoning formalism presented here is a graph formalism - knowledge is represented by labeled graphs, in the graph theory sense, and r- soning mechanisms are based on graph operations, with graph homomorphism at the core. This formalism can thus be considered as related to semantic networks. Since their conception, semantic networks have faded out several times, but have always returned to the limelight. They faded mainly due to a lack of formal semantics and the limited reasoning tools proposed. They have, however, always rebounded - cause labeled graphs, schemas and drawings provide an intuitive and easily und- standable support to represent knowledge. This formalism has the visual qualities of any graphic model, and it is logically founded. This is a key feature because logics has been the foundation for knowledge representation and reasoning for millennia. The authors also focus substantially on computational facets of the presented formalism as they are interested in knowledge representation and reasoning formalisms upon which knowledge-based systems can be built to solve real problems. Since object structures are graphs, naturally graph homomorphism is the key underlying notion and, from a computational viewpoint, this moors calculus to combinatorics and to computer science domains in which the algorithmicqualitiesofgraphshavelongbeenstudied, asindatabasesandconstraint networks

The 'narrative turn' in the humanities, which expanded the study of narrative to various disciplines, has found a correlate in the 'medial turn' in narratology. Long restricted to language-based literary fiction, narratology has found new life in the recognition that storytelling can take place in a variety of media, and often combines signs belonging to different semiotic categories: visual, auditory, linguistic and perhaps even tactile. The essays gathered in this volume apply the newly gained awareness of the expressive power of media to particular texts, demonstrating the productivity of a medium-aware analysis. Through the examination of a wide variety of different media, ranging from widely studied, such as literature and film, to new, neglected, or non-standard ones, such as graphic novels, photography, television, musicals, computer games and advertising, they address some of the most fundamental questions raised by the medial turn in narratology: how can narrative meaning be created in media other than language; how do different types of signs collaborate with each other in so-called 'multi-modal works', and what new forms of narrativity are made possible by the emergence of digital media.

This book sheds light on 'hidden' aspects of management theory by questioning its moral foundations: ethical and moral principles tend to become over time, deeply embedded, if not buried, in the intellectual and disciplinary subfields of management, particularly when the latter vie for scientific status. In the process, they often become invisible or indecipherable both to those who advance and diffuse knowledge as well as to those who receive, interpret and apply it. The contributors to this book explore in various subfields of management thought a number of important moral and ethical issues. What is the definition of 'good behaviour' - and hence of 'bad behaviour' - implicit behind the theories we use and produce? Can we find, historically, a trace of moral and ethical dilemmas and debates in those intellectual subfields that tend to posture today as morally neutral? What is the conception of human nature and social reality embedded in modern management thought and theories? How do those implicit and hidden cognitive schemes influence the development of research and knowledge in those various subfields? How do they prevent certain issues from emerging? How do they shape debates, practices and beliefs - leaving little room to approach the world differently and to depart from mainstream perspectives? This unique treatment of the moral foundations of knowledge management will provide a stimulating read for academics, students and professionals focusing on business and management, business administration, sociology, organizational behaviour and moral philosophy.

"Computing Action" takes a new approach to the phenomenon of narrated action in literary texts. It begins with a survey of philosophical approaches to the concept of action, ranging from analytical to transcendental and finally constructivist definitions. This leads to the formulation of a new model of action, in which the core definitions developed in traditional structuralist narratology and Greimassian semiotics are reconceptualised in the light of constructivist theories. In the second part of the study, the combinatory model of action proposed is put into practice in the context of a computer-aided investigation of the action constructs logically implied by narrative texts. Two specialised literary computing tools were developed for the purposes of this investigation of textual data: EVENTPARSER, an interactive tool for parsing events in literary texts, and EPITEST, a tool for subjecting the mark-up files thus produced to a combinatory analysis of the episode and action constructs they contain. The third part of the book presents a case study of Goethe's "Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten". Here, the practical application of theory and methodology eventually leads to a new interpretation of Goethe's famous Novellenzyklus as a systematic experiment in the narrative construction of action - an experiment intended to demonstrate not only Goethe's aesthetic principles, but also, and more fundamentally, his epistemological convictions.

This volume provides a selection of the most significant papers presented at the Second Conference on Fish Telemetry in Europe in La Rochelle, France, in April 1997. The conference was attended by 100 scientists from 18 countries. The contributions are grouped under the following headings: Methodology and New Developments, Tagging Procedures, Behavioural and Physiological Ecology, Fish Migration, Stock Management and Conservation. Particular emphasis was put on tag miniaturisation, multiple functions and sampling strategies. Papers concerned the effects of tags on fish for consolidating behavioural or original physiological investigations noticeably more open to the marine environment. Methods were essentially applied to study the relationships between fish and their natural environment. Besides providing up-to-date information on the state of fish telemetry, the book illustrates the increase in spatial and temporal scales and the number of tracked fish which gives a statistical basis for field study in behavioural ecology.

At this time when many have lost hope amidst conflicts, terrorism, environmental destruction, economic inequality and the breakdown of democracy, this beautifully written book outlines how to rethink and reform our key institutions - markets, corporations, welfare policies, democratic processes and transnational governance - to create better societies based on core principles of human dignity, sustainability, and justice. This new vision is based on the findings of over 300 social scientists involved in the collaborative, interdisciplinary International Panel on Social Progress. Relying on state-of-the-art scholarship, these social scientists reviewed the desirability and possibility of all relevant forms of long-term social change, explored current challenges, and synthesized their knowledge on the principles, possibilities, and methods for improving the main institutions of modern societies. Their common finding is that a better society is indeed possible, its contours can be broadly described, and all we need is to gather forces toward realizing this vision.

The past several decades have seen an explosion of interest in narrative, with this multifaceted object of inquiry becoming a central concern in a wide range of disciplinary fields and research contexts. As accounts of what happened to particular people in particular circumstances and with specific consequences, stories have come to be viewed as a basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process, and change. However, the very predominance of narrative as a focus of interest across multiple disciplines makes it imperative for scholars, teachers, and students to have access to a comprehensive reference resource.

This book explores the intersection of a number of academic areas of study that are all, individually, of growing importance: translation studies, crime fiction and world literature. The scholars included here are leaders in one or more of these areas. The frame of this volume is imagological; its focus is on the ways in which national allegories are constructed and deconstructed, encompassing descriptions of national characteristics as they play out at the level of the local or the individual as well as broader, political analyses. Its corpus, crime fiction, is shown to be a privileged site for writing the national narrative, and often in ways that are more complex and dynamic than is suggested by the genre's much-cited role as vehicle for a new realism. Finally, these two areas are problematised through the lens of translation, which is a crucial player in both the development of crime fiction and the formation, rather than simply the interlingual transfer, of national allegory. In this volume national allegories, and the crime novels in which they emerge, are shown to be eminently versatile, foundationally plural texts that promote critical rewriting as opposed to sites for fixing meaning. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Translator.

This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualization of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge. The book collectively argues that transnational institution building is one of the most striking features of the current period of internationalization. As a consequence, debates concerning globalization and global governance have to be reformulated. The authors posit that globalization is not threatening governance, but in fact globalization reflects a particular type of governance. The dilemma, therefore, is not between globalization and institutions, but between different meanings of governance and the balance that should be reached between them. Globalization and Institutions will be of special interest to academics and scholars of institutional economics, globalization and management. However, with its focus on two key debates for which there is clearly rising interest, many social scientists will find the book of interest.

In this landmark volume, J. Rodgers Hollingsworth, Karl H. Muller, and Ellen Jane Hollingsworth take a first step towards imposing order on the increasingly diverse field of socio-economics by embedding the various disciplines and sub-disciplines in a common core. The distinguished contributors in this volume show how institutions, governance arrangements, societal sectors, organizations, individual actors, and innovativeness are intertwined and, ultimately, how individuals and firms have a high degree of autonomy. By offering original suggestions and guidelines for developing a socio-economics research agenda focused on institutional analysis, Advancing Socio-Economics: An Institutionalist Perspective, will enlighten all interested in the social sciences.

Acinetobacter details the clinical aspects of this bacterium responsible for many infections in hospitalized patients. This reference explains the importance of these organisms, both from the patient's viewpoint and the economic perspective, and provides clinicians with the knowledge they need to control these bacteria.

The first English-language introduction to the developing science of endobiogeny. Dr Lapraz developed a diagnostic method that, while being rooted in modern science, allows an insight into the true causes of imbalance and disease in a patient. This innovative medical concept, based on a refined view of the neuro-endocrine system, integrates classical medicine with herbs and supplements, essential oils, and dietary and lifestyle modifications to create a truly holistic treatment approach to illness. The book sets out endobiogenic principles and methods, including the modelling system known as the Biology of Functions, and is full of remarkable case histories that attest to the efficacy of this approach. It is aimed both at the general public and at members of the health professions.

The past several decades have seen an explosion of interest in narrative, with this multifaceted object of inquiry becoming a central concern in a wide range of disciplinary fields and research contexts. As accounts of what happened to particular people in particular circumstances and with specific consequences, stories have come to be viewed as a basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process, and change.
However, the very predominance of narrative as a focus of interest across multiple disciplines makes it imperative for scholars, teachers, and students to have access to a comprehensive reference resource.

Marie-Laure Djelic explores the convergent and divergent trends in the evolution of business systems and organization in Western Europe in the post-war period, looking in particular at the influence of the American corporate model. She focuses on France, West Germany, and Italy after 1945 and the influences of the Marshall Plan. Her core argument is that the model had varying degrees of success in each of those three countries whilst, in some areas, it encountered significant resistance and adaptation.

Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This 2010 book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems, RR 2014, held in Athens, Greece in September 2014. The 9 full papers, 9 technical communications and 5 poster presentations presented together with 3 invited talks, 3 doctoral consortial papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. The conference covers a wide range of the following: semantic Web, rule and ontology languages, and related logics, reasoning, querying, searching and optimization, incompleteness, inconsistency and uncertainty, non-monotonic, common sense, and closed-world reasoning for the web, dynamic information, stream reasoning and complex event processing, decision making, planning, and intelligent agents, machine learning, knowledge extraction and information retrieval, data management, data integration and reasoning on the web of data, ontology-based data access, system descriptions, applications and experiences.