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Author: William Rasch Publisher: U of Minnesota Press ISBN: 1452903921 Category : Languages : en Pages : 318
Book Description
The rubric of systems theory brings together conceptual models and approaches in the sciences and social sciences that study complexity. It attempts to provide a coherent means of describing all systems, whether organic or inorganic, and offers a theory of knowledge that can account for the integration of humans in the social, informational, and ecological systems in which we are enmeshed. An introduction to the major concepts and foremost thinkers of systems theory, this book brings systems theory into interaction with the major figures of postmodern theory. The format is multiplex and open -- a rich montage, including interviews, exemplary essays, and staged dialogues. Throughout, the writers' aim is not to solidity theory but to provide a thorough explication and an open-ended exploration of how systems theory can address, in a fresh and productive way, theoretical questions that too often have led to impasses between different schools of postmodern theory.
Author: William Rasch Publisher: U of Minnesota Press ISBN: 1452903921 Category : Languages : en Pages : 318
Book Description
The rubric of systems theory brings together conceptual models and approaches in the sciences and social sciences that study complexity. It attempts to provide a coherent means of describing all systems, whether organic or inorganic, and offers a theory of knowledge that can account for the integration of humans in the social, informational, and ecological systems in which we are enmeshed. An introduction to the major concepts and foremost thinkers of systems theory, this book brings systems theory into interaction with the major figures of postmodern theory. The format is multiplex and open -- a rich montage, including interviews, exemplary essays, and staged dialogues. Throughout, the writers' aim is not to solidity theory but to provide a thorough explication and an open-ended exploration of how systems theory can address, in a fresh and productive way, theoretical questions that too often have led to impasses between different schools of postmodern theory.
Author: Rudolf F. Geyer Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 0313074275 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
In an effort to shed light on recent developments in sociocybernetic research, this volume represents recent and advanced thinking in this rapidly developing field. The authors address the core problems in social science caused by increasing societal complexity and analyze the inadequacy of many of the methodological tools still used for grappling with nonlinear, self-organizing systems. Together, the 18 contributors propose elements of a new methodology based on sociocybernetic principles aimed at describing and explaining the growth of societal complexity, the contribution of autopoiesis of societal subunits to more societal complexity, and the new simulation-based methodology needed to observe complex social systems. This unique volume contributes to a greater understanding of sociocybernetics and its uses as a method for researching modern problems of increasing complexity and interdependence. The first part of the book deals with increasing societal complexity and contains chapters on its overall development, the complexity of brain-environment interaction loops, organizational change, the development of human values, and the increasing interpenetration of societal subsystems. The second part concentrates on a current issue in sociocybernetics: autopoiesis, or self-production. The chapters included in Part II concentrate on embodied cognition, on the applicability of autopoiesis to business firms, on its roots in Aristotelian philosophy, and on the possibility of societal control and steering in democratic societies. Part III, more focused on methodology, discusses the difficulties inherent in observing complex social systems. The chapters deal with the problems of cross-cultural comparative research, simulation of the evolution of social systems, longitudinal simulation of education systems, and the methodological difficulties associated with analyzing the unexpected complexities of mutually interacting nonlinear systems.
Author: Bob Jessop Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 0745657672 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
Bob Jessop presents an up-to-date account of his distinctive approach to the dialectics of structure and strategy in the exercise of state power. While his earlier work critically surveys other state theories, this book focuses on the development of his own strategic-relational approach. It introduces its main sources, outlines its development, applies this approach to four case studies, and sketches a strategic-relational research agenda. Thus the book presents a comprehensive theoretical statement of the approach and guidelines for its application. Key features of the book include: an account of the authors theoretical development; a review of recent developments in state theory and the cultural turn in political economy; critical strategic-relational re-readings of major state theorists Marx on political representation, Gramsci on the spatiality of state power, Poulantzas on the state as a social relation, and the later Foucault on statecraft; applications of the strategic-relational approach to important issues concerning the contemporary state: its gendered selectivity, the future of the national state, the states temporal sovereignty, and the relevance of multi-scalar meta-governance in Europe for the more general future of the state. The book concludes with recommendations for future strategic-relational research in political economy and state theory.
Author: Neil Johnson Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1780740492 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 295
Book Description
The new branch of science which will reveal how to avoid the rush hour, overcome cancer, and find the perfect date What do traffic jams, stock market crashes, and wars have in common? They are all explained using complexity, an unsolved puzzle that many researchers believe is the key to predicting - and ultimately solving - everything from terrorist attacks and pandemic viruses right down to rush hour traffic congestion. Complexity is considered by many to be the single most important scientific development since general relativity and promises to make sense of no less than the very heart of the Universe. Using it, scientists can find order emerging from seemingly random interactions of all kinds, from something as simple as flipping coins through to more challenging problems such as predicting shopping habits, the patterns in modern jazz, and the growth of cancer tumours.
Author: Marc Baus Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9401100659 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 669
Book Description
Observation, Prediction and Simulation of Phase Transitions in Complex Fluids presents an overview of the phase transitions that occur in a variety of soft-matter systems: colloidal suspensions of spherical or rod-like particles and their mixtures, directed polymers and polymer blends, colloid--polymer mixtures, and liquid-forming mesogens. This modern and fascinating branch of condensed matter physics is presented from three complementary viewpoints. The first section, written by experimentalists, emphasises the observation of basic phenomena (by light scattering, for example). The second section, written by theoreticians, focuses on the necessary theoretical tools (density functional theory, path integrals, free energy expansions). The third section is devoted to the results of modern simulation techniques (Gibbs ensemble, free energy calculations, configurational bias Monte Carlo). The interplay between the disciplines is clearly illustrated. For all those interested in modern research in equilibrium statistical mechanics.
Author: Kees van Kooten Niekerk Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000888088 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 181
Book Description
Originally published in 2004. Thanks to computer simulations science is beginning to understand complex natural processes such as the weather, earthquakes and the evolution of life. The Significance of Complexity deals with the importance of the sciences of complexity - for the humanities and theology. First, three scientists explain the science of complexity and illustrate it with concrete examples. Second, two scholars consider the concept of complexity and possible applications of complexity theory within the humanities, e.g. as a tool to understand the interplay between the artist, the work of art and the user in interactive art. Finally, three theologians ask what can be learned from the science of complexity for a religious understanding of humankind and the world. The Significance of Complexity is a pioneering work exploring the import of a fascinating new branch of science for human self-understanding. It caters for all those who are interested in relating science to the quest for the meaning of life.
Author: Hector Cuadra-Montiel Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand ISBN: 9535107097 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 314
Book Description
The book Globalization - Approaches to Diversity takes the ambitious undertaking of presenting a series of global issues that range from historic to contemporary, from transnational to local, and from cultural to institutional. It consists of twelve chapters divided into three sections: Globalization Agendas, Globalization Policies, Globalization Experiences. Its authors embody a global research culture. One that is plural, growing and dynamic, as it is evidenced in their respective agendas and methodological approaches. The value of this book lies in its diversity, and its merit will be appreciated by a global community of scholars.
Author: Harald Atmanspacher Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 3642486479 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 418
Book Description
In our daily lives we conceive of our surroundings as an objectively given reality. The world is perceived through our senses, and ~hese provide us, so we believe, with a faithful image of the world. But occ~ipnally we are forced to realize that our senses deceive us, e. g. , by illusions. For a while it was believed that the sensation of color is directly r~lated to the frequency of light waves, until E. Land (the inventor of the polaroid camera) showed in detailed experiments that our perception of, say, a colored spot depends on the colors of its surrounding. On the other hand, we may experience hallucinations or dreams as real. Quite evidently, the relationship between the "world" and our "brain" is intricate. Another strange problem is the way in which we perceive time or the "Now". Psychophysical experiments tell us that the psychological "Now" is an extended period of time in the sense of physics. The situation was made still more puzzling when, in the nineteen-twenties, Heisenberg and others realized that, by observing processes in the microscopic world of electrons and other elementary particles, we strongly interfere with that world. The outcome of experiments - at least in general - can only be predicted statistically. What is the nature ofthis strange relationship between "object" and "observer"? This is another crucial problem of the inside-outside or endo-exo dichotomy.
Author: Erika Cudworth Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317041917 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 458
Book Description
Posthumanism represents a significant new research direction both for International Relations and the social sciences. It emerges from questions about inter-species relations which challenge dominant perceptions of what it means to be human. Rather than seeing the human species as ‘in nature’ posthumanist thinking considers the species as ‘of nature’. The work of posthumanist thinkers has sought to dispute accepted notions of what it means to be human, raising profound questions about our relations with the rest of nature. The volume commences with an overview of the influence thinkers have had on the development of posthumanist thinking. Key ideas in International Relations are interrogated and reconceptualised and specific case studies are presented with a focus on inter-species relations. The work allows for a consideration of the limits of the posthumanist move and provides space for critics to argue that such an approach opens the discipline up to a biological determinism, and that a focus on inter-human relations should mark the boundaries of the discipline. The essays collected in this volume provide an overview of contributions from posthumanist thinkers with the particular intention of providing a succinct introduction to the area and should appeal to scholars and students in Politics, IR and philosophy.
Author: Rika Preiser Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG ISBN: 1501502611 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
This book is a collection of all the single authored essays by Paul Cilliers, published between 1990-2011. Being one of few authors who approached the study of complexity from a philosophical perspective, the main themes in these papers explore: - Qualitative characterization of complexity and the normative implications of studying complex adaptive systems, - the philosophical and conceptual similarity to post-structural approaches - how any engagement with complexity leads to a critical engagement with how we do science and design interventions - critical and normative implications for how to engage with complex socio-political concerns in the world. What makes this book unique is that it consolidates a body of work that is distributed over a wide range of academic journals. Although his book "Complexity and Postmodernism" (Routledge, 1998) remains a cornerstone in the field of complexity studies, Cilliers’ journal essays really explore the application of the theoretical concepts in more depth. His ground-breaking ideas conceptualized in these essays have served as a continual source of novelty and inspiration in the process of applying complexity thinking to other fields of study.
Author: William Rasch
Author: William Rasch
Author: Rudolf F. Geyer
Author: Bob Jessop
Author: Neil Johnson
Author: Marc Baus
Author: Kees van Kooten Niekerk
Author: Hector Cuadra-Montiel
Author: Harald Atmanspacher
Author: Erika Cudworth
Author: Rika Preiser