[PDF] Methodos eBook

Author : David Lane
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 26,98 MB
Release : 2009-02-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1402096631

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Innovation is nowadays a question of life and death for many of the economies of the western world. Yet, due to our generally reductionist scientific paradigm, invention and innovation are rarely studied scientifically. Most work prefers to study its context and its consequences. As a result, we are as a society, lacking the scientific tools to understand, improve or otherwise impact on the processes of invention and innovation. This book delves deeply into that topic, taking the position that the complex systems approach, with its emphasis on ‘emergence’, is better suited than our traditional approach to the phenomenon. In a collection of very coherent papers, which are the result of an EU-funded four year international research team’s effort, it addresses various aspect of the topic from different disciplinary angles. One of the main emphases is the need, in the social sciences, to move away from neo-darwinist ‘population thinking’ to ‘organization thinking’ if we want to understand social evolution. Another main emphasis is on developing a generative approach to invention and innovation, looking in detail at the contexts within which invention and innovation occur, and how these contexts impact on the chances for success or failure. Throughout, the book is infused with interesting new insights, but also presents several well-elaborated case studies that connect the ideas with a substantive body of ‘real world’ information.

Author : Federica Russo
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 16,98 MB
Release : 2008-09-18
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1402088175

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This investigation into causal modelling presents the rationale of causality, i.e. the notion that guides causal reasoning in causal modelling. It is argued that causal models are regimented by a rationale of variation, nor of regularity neither invariance, thus breaking down the dominant Human paradigm. The notion of variation is shown to be embedded in the scheme of reasoning behind various causal models. It is also shown to be latent – yet fundamental – in many philosophical accounts. Moreover, it has significant consequences for methodological issues: the warranty of the causal interpretation of causal models, the levels of causation, the characterisation of mechanisms, and the interpretation of probability. This book offers a novel philosophical and methodological approach to causal reasoning in causal modelling and provides the reader with the tools to be up to date about various issues causality rises in social science.

Author : Denise Pumain
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 28,78 MB
Release : 2006-02-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1402041276

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Hierarchy is a form of organisation of complex systems that rely on or produce a strong differentiation in capacity (power and size) between the parts of the system. It is frequently observed within the natural living world as well as in social institutions. According to the authors, hierarchy results from random processes, follows an intentional design, or is the result of the organisation which ensures an optimal circulation of energy for information. This book reviews ancient and modern representations and explanations of hierarchies, and compares their relevance in a variety of fields, such as language, societies, cities, and living species. It throws light on concepts and models such as scaling laws, fractals and self-organisation that are fundamental in the dynamics and morphology of complex systems. At a time when networks are celebrated for their efficiency, flexibility and better social acceptance, much can be learned about the persistent universality and adaptability of hierarchies, and from the analogies and differences between biological and social organisation and processes. This book addresses a wide audience of biologists and social scientists, as well as managers and executives in a variety of institutions.

Author : Daniel Courgeau
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 16,39 MB
Release : 2012-02-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9400728794

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This work examines in depth the methodological relationships that probability and statistics have maintained with the social sciences from their emergence. It covers both the history of thought and current methods. First it examines in detail the history of the different paradigms and axioms for probability, from their emergence in the seventeenth century up to the most recent developments of the three major concepts: objective, subjective and logicist probability. It shows the statistical inference they permit, different applications to social sciences and the main problems they encounter. On the other side, from social sciences—particularly population sciences—to probability, it shows the different uses they made of probabilistic concepts during their history, from the seventeenth century, according to their paradigms: cross-sectional, longitudinal, hierarchical, contextual and multilevel approaches. While the ties may have seemed loose at times, they have more often been very close: some advances in probability were driven by the search for answers to questions raised by the social sciences; conversely, the latter have made progress thanks to advances in probability. This dual approach sheds new light on the historical development of the social sciences and probability, and on the enduring relevance of their links. It permits also to solve a number of methodological problems encountered all along their history.

Author : Jakub Bijak
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 44,10 MB
Release : 2021-12-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 303083039X

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This open access book presents a ground-breaking approach to developing micro-foundations for demography and migration studies. It offers a unique and novel methodology for creating empirically grounded agent-based models of international migration – one of the most uncertain population processes and a top-priority policy area. The book discusses in detail the process of building a simulation model of migration, based on a population of intelligent, cognitive agents, their networks and institutions, all interacting with one another. The proposed model-based approach integrates behavioural and social theory with formal modelling, by embedding the interdisciplinary modelling process within a wider inductive framework based on the Bayesian statistical reasoning. Principles of uncertainty quantification are used to devise innovative computer-based simulations, and to learn about modelling the simulated individuals and the way they make decisions. The identified knowledge gaps are subsequently filled with information from dedicated laboratory experiments on cognitive aspects of human decision-making under uncertainty. In this way, the models are built iteratively, from the bottom up, filling an important epistemological gap in migration studies, and social sciences more broadly.

Author : Daniel Little
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 41,13 MB
Release : 2010-08-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9048194105

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Insights developed in the past two decades by philosophers of the social sciences can serve to enrich the challenging intellectual tasks of conceptualizing, investigating, and representing the human past. Likewise, intimate engagement with the writings of historians can deepen philosophers’ understanding of the task of knowing the past. This volume brings these perspectives together and considers fundamental questions, such as: What is historical causation? What is a large historical structure? How can we best conceptualize “mentalities” and “identities”? What is involved in understanding the subjectivity of historical actors? What is involved in arriving at an economic history of a large region? How are actions and outcomes related? The arguments touch upon a wide range of historical topics -- the Chinese and French Revolutions, the extension of railroads in the nineteenth century, and the development of agriculture in medieval China.

Author : Jean TSHIBANGU
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 10,22 MB
Release : 2015-04-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1329095863

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Jean TSHIBANGU, as Doctor, gives us not only the diagnosis of demonic powers, but also spiritual prescription. When you live a life of endless deadlocks, of continuous drought, the chronically ill, the abortions or regular miscarriages, repeated accidents, fines and breakdowns pop-up, when you deploy many efforts, but you give birth a mouse, poverty has found home in the family, divorce or generalized celibacy; do not hesitate to see the spiritual doctors. The author tries to answer by this book to many questions commonly asked thereon when darkness taking over on the light, and nights of misery are choking the lives of some. When the ordinary becomes extraordinary, the world seems to turn upside down, man in distress needs help, the consolation which can only come from the comforter. In this book, the author expounds the methodology of wrestle against these forces.

Author : Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 37,9 MB
Release : 1992
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780801481383

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"Fichte's Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy is highly relevant to ongoing discussions of the relationship of consciousness to human freedom and to current debates concerning foundationalism. Philosophers interested in German idealism and others working in the history of philosophy, German literature, and intellectual history will welcome this translation."--BOOK JACKET.