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A biography of one of America's most famous and important molecular biologists.
Critical Political Ecology brings political debate to the science of ecology. As political controversies multiply over the science underlying environmental debates, there is an increasing need to understand the relationship between environmental science and politics. In this timely and wide-ranging volume, Tim Forsyth uses an innovative approach to apply political analysis to ecology, and demonstrates how more politicised approaches to science can be used in environmental decision-making. Critical Political Ecology examines: *how social and political factors frame environmental science, and how science in turn shapes politics *how new thinking in philosophy and sociology of science can provide fresh insights into the biophysical causes and impacts of environmental problems *how policy and decision-makers can acknowledge the political influences on science and achieve more effective public participation and governance.
The problem of cooperation is one of the core issues in sociology and social science more in general. The key question is how humans, groups, organizations, institutions, and countries can avoid or overcome the collective good dilemmas that could lead to a Hobbesian "war of all against all". The chapters in this book provide state of the art examples of research on this crucial topic. These include theoretical, laboratory, and field studies on trust and cooperation, thereby approaching the issue in three complementary and synergetic ways. The theoretical work covers articles on trust and control, reputation formation, and paradigmatic articles on the benefits and caveats of abstracting reali...
The present study exploratively investigated the role of organizational culture in performance management practices in Kenyan higher education institutions. Specifically, the influence of organizational culture on the purpose and extent to which performance information is used was explored. Qualitative interviews were conducted followed by quantitative surveys, which were filled out by teaching and non-teaching staff in various universities in Kenya. The findings provide evidence of linkages between performance information use, diversity of measure and organizational culture. It has been established that, depending on whether flexibility or control values are dominant in the culture of an institution; performance information is used in varying ways. Institutions where flexibility values were dominant in their organizational cultures used performance information for attention focus, monitoring and decision making to a higher extent than universities where control values were dominant. Institutions where Flexibility values were dominant also showed a more diverse set of performance measures than in those where control values were dominant.
A pragmatic vision of how democratic socialism can overcome the economic, workplace, political, environmental, social, and international crises that we face today.
In more recent times, the essence of the gatekeeper's role has moved to the 'boundary spanner' - a systems thinker who understands the specific needs and interests of the organization and whose greatest asset is their ability to move across and through the formal and informal features of the modern organization. There are many types of boundaries associated with an organization, for example, horizontal, (function and expertise), vertical (status, hierarchy), geographic, demographic, and stakeholder. Boundaries are "the defining characteristic of organizations and, boundary roles are the link between the environment and the organization" (Aldrich & Herker, 1977) with functions crucial to the ...
1. The Idea behind the workshop was that of calling attention to the necessity of studying long term tendencies In economic growth. We believe that actual growth processes In capitalistic economies are not smooth phenomena and also that the evolution of the economy Is characterized by long term fluctuations as well as by trade cycles. It Is now common place to argue that this point of view was revived after 1973 In consequence of the economic difficulties experienced by Industrialized countries while It has a much older origin as Its roots can be pushed back at least to the Great Depression of the 1930's. In preparing this workshop we selected two main approaches (as reflected In the title of this book) that have been proposed In the last ten years to deal with the causes of long term fluctuations, namely the ··technologlcal"' (or neo SchumpeterlanLapproach and the "'social"' approsch. What follows Is simply a rough characterization of the existing theoretical positions and It Is not meant to be an exhaustive one. The Interested reader will Immediately see that there are many differentiated positions by looking at the arguments contained In each contribution.
An overview of engineering systems that describes the new challenges posed for twenty-first-century engineers by today's highly complex sociotechnical systems. Engineering, for much of the twentieth century, was mainly about artifacts and inventions. Now, it's increasingly about complex systems. As the airplane taxis to the gate, you access the Internet and check email with your PDA, linking the communication and transportation systems. At home, you recharge your plug-in hybrid vehicle, linking transportation to the electricity grid. Today's large-scale, highly complex sociotechnical systems converge, interact, and depend on each other in ways engineers of old could barely have imagined. As ...
"This book takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Third Wave coffee to uncover what makes a great coffee. Traders stress the material conditions of terroir and botany, but just as important are the social, moral, and political values that farmers, roasters, and consumers attach to the beans. Third Wave roasters earnestly pursue a craft, searching for new flavors, while smallholding Maya farmers in Guatemala see coffee as part of a cycle of agricultural regeneration, as well as a source of extra income. This book connects the quest for quality among Third Wave tastemakers in the United States to the lives and internet-fueled aspirations of Maya producers, showing how profits are made by artfully combining coffee's material and symbolic qualities"--