Download or read book Avoiding Social Catastrophes and Maximizing Social Opportunities written by Society for General Systems Research. North American Meeting and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Healthy Resilient and Sustainable Communities After Disasters written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-09-10 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.
Download or read book The Science of Synthesis written by Debora Hammond and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debora Hammond's The Science of Synthesis explores the development of general systems theory and the individuals who gathered together around that idea to form the Society for General Systems Research. In examining the life and work of the SGSR's five founding members-Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, James Grier Miller, and Anatol Rapoport-Hammond traces the emergence of systems ideas across a broad range of disciplines in the mid-twentieth century. Both metaphor and framework, the systems concept as articulated by its earliest proponents highlights relationship and interconnectedness among the biological, ecological, social, psychological, and technological dimensions of our increasingly complex lives. Seeking to transcend the reductionism and mechanism of classical science-which they saw as limited by its focus on the discrete, component parts of reality-the general systems community hoped to complement this analytic approach with a more holistic orientation. As one of many systems traditions, the general systems group was specifically interested in fostering collaboration and integration among different disciplinary perspectives, with an emphasis on nurturing more participatory and truly democratic forms of social organization. The Science of Synthesis documents a unique episode in the history of modern thought, one that remains relevant today. This book will be of interest to historians of science, system thinkers, scholars and practitioners in the social sciences, management, organization development and related fields, as well as the general reader interested in the history of ideas that have shaped critical developments in the second half of the twentieth century.
Download or read book A Theory of Immediate Awareness written by M. Estep and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is multi- and interdisciplinary in both scope and content. It draws upon philosophy, the neurosciences, psychology, computer science, and engineering in efforts to resolve fundamental issues about the nature of immediate awareness. Approximately the first half of the book is addressed to historical approaches to the question whether or not there is such a thing as immediate awareness, and if so, what it might be. This involves reviewing arguments that one way or another have been offered as answers to the question or ways of avoiding it. It also includes detailed discussions of some complex questions about the part immediate awareness plays in our over-all natural intelligence. The second half of the book addresses intricate and complex issues involved in the computability of immediate awareness as it is found in simple, ordinary things human beings know how to do, as weIl as in some highly extraordinary things some know how to do. Over the past 2,500 years, human culture has discovered, created, and built very powerful tools for recognizing, classifying, and utilizing patterns found in the natural world. The most powerful of those tools is mathematics, the language of nature. The natural phenomenon of human knowing, of natural intelligence generally, is a very richly textured set of patterns that are highly complex, dynamic, self-organizing, and adaptive.
Download or read book Social Psychiatry written by Vladimir Hudolin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 843 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is becoming more and more difficult to publish papers from international and world scientific meetings. The causes are partly financial; in addition the number of meetings held is so large that it is impossible to find the necessary time for the enormous amount of work involved in preparing and publishing these materials. Also the scientific and professional quality of these meetings is often poor as the same points of view as well as more or less the same papers, with only slight modifi cations, are usually presented. The educational system is also responsible since professionals are required to publish papers in order to get promoted in their pro fession and in their institutions. Overproduction of meetings and papers is often mentioned by many pro fessionals, but when we look at the professional activi ties of the critics of these meetings and papers, we can see that they also behave in the stereotypic way - they write papers, read them at congresses and publish in periodicals. The number of periodical publications of some medical branches - including psychiatry - is enor mous. In the light of such thoughts it seems opportune to evaluate the 8th World Congress of Social Psychiatry and the papers presented - the papers you are now holding in your hands. Although such an evaluation is a delicate and difficult task, I think it should be at least attempted in this Editorial.
Download or read book Cybernetic Revolutionaries written by Eden Medina and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historical study of Chile's twin experiments with cybernetics and socialism, and what they tell us about the relationship of technology and politics. In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized—Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented—but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government—which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history.
Download or read book Key Policies for Addressing the Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequities written by Matthew Saunders and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evidence indicates that actions within four main themes (early child development fair employment and decent work social protection and the living environment) are likely to have the greatest impact on the social determinants of health and health inequities. A systematic search and analysis of recommendations and policy guidelines from intergovernmental organizations and international bodies identified practical policy options for action on social determinants within these four themes. Policy options focused on early childhood education and care; child poverty; investment strategies for an inclusive economy; active labour market programmes; working conditions; social cash transfers; affordable housing; and planning and regulatory mechanisms to improve air quality and mitigate climate change. Applying combinations of these policy options alongside effective governance for health equity should enable WHO European Region Member States to reduce health inequities and synergize efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Download or read book Self Organizing Natural Intelligence written by Myrna Estep and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-12-26 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings new scientific methods to intelligence research that is still under the influence of 19th century single causal theory and method. The author describes a rigorous and exhaustive classification of natural intelligence while demonstrating a more adequate scientific and mathematical approach than current statistical and psychometric approaches construct to shore up the out-dated and misused IQ hypothetical. The author demonstrates the superiority of a highly developed multidisciplinary-theory models view of intelligence.
Download or read book The Quality of Life Systems Approaches written by G.E. Lasker and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applied Systems and Cybernetics covers the proceedings of the International Congress on Applied Systems Research and Cybernetics. The book presents several studies that cover the application of systems research and cybernetics in improving the quality of life. Majority of the materials in the text tackle various aspects of quality of life in relation to systems and cybernetics, such as living space, future prospects, work, education, politics, law, ethics and values, culture and ethnicity, and social systems. The selection also presents articles that cover the elemental properties of quality of life, such as the concept, views, indicators, and dimension. The book will be of great interest to any scientists regardless of disciplines, since it covers the main purpose of science, the improvement of quality of life.
Download or read book Adaptive Social Protection written by Thomas Bowen and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2020-06-12 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adaptive social protection (ASP) helps to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to the impacts of large, covariate shocks, such as natural disasters, economic crises, pandemics, conflict, and forced displacement. Through the provision of transfers and services directly to these households, ASP supports their capacity to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to the shocks they face—before, during, and after these shocks occur. Over the long term, by supporting these three capacities, ASP can provide a pathway to a more resilient state for households that may otherwise lack the resources to move out of chronically vulnerable situations. Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks outlines an organizing framework for the design and implementation of ASP, providing insights into the ways in which social protection systems can be made more capable of building household resilience. By way of its four building blocks—programs, information, finance, and institutional arrangements and partnerships—the framework highlights both the elements of existing social protection systems that are the cornerstones for building household resilience, as well as the additional investments that are central to enhancing their ability to generate these outcomes. In this report, the ASP framework and its building blocks have been elaborated primarily in relation to natural disasters and associated climate change. Nevertheless, many of the priorities identified within each building block are also pertinent to the design and implementation of ASP across other types of shocks, providing a foundation for a structured approach to the advancement of this rapidly evolving and complex agenda.
Download or read book Handbook of Stress written by Leo Goldberger and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book At Risk written by Piers Blaikie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.
Download or read book Building Resilience written by Daniel P. Aldrich and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The factor that makes some communities rebound quickly from disasters while others fall apart: “A fascinating book on an important topic.”—E.L. Hirsch, in Choice Each year, natural disasters threaten the strength and stability of communities worldwide. Yet responses to the challenges of recovery vary greatly and in ways that aren’t explained by the magnitude of the catastrophe or the amount of aid provided by national governments or the international community. The difference between resilience and disrepair, as Daniel P. Aldrich shows, lies in the depth of communities’ social capital. Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich examines the post-disaster responses of four distinct communities—Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake, Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina—and finds that those with robust social networks were better able to coordinate recovery. In addition to quickly disseminating information and financial and physical assistance, communities with an abundance of social capital were able to minimize the migration of people and valuable resources out of the area. With governments increasingly overstretched and natural disasters likely to increase in frequency and intensity, a thorough understanding of what contributes to efficient reconstruction is more important than ever. Building Resilience underscores a critical component of an effective response.
Download or read book General Systems written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Designing to Avoid Disaster written by Thomas Fisher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author Thomas Fisher introduces the idea of fracture-critical design and provides many solutions for how we can design to avoid major disasters.
Download or read book Cybernetica written by and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Logic of Organization written by Alfred Kuhn and published by San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 1982 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
