Fiction and Social Research brings together writers from a variety of disciplines to explore and illustrate the possibilities of new narrative forms in social research. At the intersections of fiction, ethnography, and cultural studies, these essays demonstrate narratives that simultaneously enrich fieldwork and enliven research reporting. By arranging this volume into four areas of concern, this volume demonstrates how fiction can express issues of representation, subjectivity, critique and postmodern discourse. This volume is unique in its accessibility and will prove a valuable tool to the veteran scholar and beginning ethnographer alike.

This timely collection of original papers explores the vital but largely unrecognized connections between leadership and dissent. In an era when leadership failures can mean homelessness and even death for countless flood victims, losses of life savings for employees of bankrupt corporations, civilian deaths and ravaged societies in the Middle East and incalculable suffering among refugees in central Africa, the studies presented here offer analysis and correctives based on new understandings of the dissent-leadership relationship.The book examines how dissent is implicated in problems plaguing theory development in leadership studies. Topics explored within this framework include dissent in corporate discourses of control, real and manufactured crises, cross-generational perceptions, women leaders' personal and work lives, the professionalization of journalism, religious institutions, activist public relations and fear-based cultures. It concludes with new proposals for legitimating dissent as a unique instrument for advancing social development and avoiding failures of leadership. Examining dissent as the critical factor that differentiates leadership failures and successes from interdisciplinary perspectives, this illuminating book will be of great interest to advanced students and teachers of leadership studies, as well as corporate executives, policymakers and other leaders aware of the need to improve leadership practices.

This timely collection of original papers explores the vital but largely unrecognized connections between leadership and dissent. In an era when leadership failures can mean homelessness and even death for countless flood victims, losses of life savings for employees of bankrupt corporations, civilian deaths and ravaged societies in the Middle East and incalculable suffering among refugees in central Africa, the studies presented here offer analysis and correctives based on new understandings of the dissent-leadership relationship.The book examines how dissent is implicated in problems plaguing theory development in leadership studies. Topics explored within this framework include dissent in corporate discourses of control, real and manufactured crises, cross-generational perceptions, women leaders' personal and work lives, the professionalization of journalism, religious institutions, activist public relations and fear-based cultures. It concludes with new proposals for legitimating dissent as a unique instrument for advancing social development and avoiding failures of leadership. Examining dissent as the critical factor that differentiates leadership failures and successes from interdisciplinary perspectives, this illuminating book will be of great interest to advanced students and teachers of leadership studies, as well as corporate executives, policymakers and other leaders aware of the need to improve leadership practices.

Linear, Time-varying Approximations to Nonlinear Dynamical Systems introduces a new technique for analysing and controlling nonlinear systems. This method is general and requires only very mild conditions on the system nonlinearities, setting it apart from other techniques such as those - well-known - based on differential geometry. The authors cover many aspects of nonlinear systems including stability theory, control design and extensions to distributed parameter systems.

Many of the classical and modern control design methods which can be applied to linear, time-varying systems can be extended to nonlinear systems by this technique. The implementation of the control is therefore simple and can be done with well-established classical methods. Many aspects of nonlinear systems, such as spectral theory which is important for the generalisation of frequency domain methods, can be approached by this method.