Download or read book Reversibility Politics under Conditions of Uncertainty written by Harmut Behr and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western modernity is characterized by instrumental relations between humans and nature, as well as between humans themselves, that have caused irreversible environmental and social exploitation and degradation. Many policy documents, such as those by the United Nations Environment Programme, warn of the uncertainty and unpredictability of our precarious conditions due to our social and ecological interrelations and interdependencies. Accepting that our position in the world does not allow us secure knowledge of the consequences of politics, Reversibility – Politics under Conditions of Uncertainty asks how we can act politically in a responsible way when we cannot predict the outcomes of our decisions. Hartmut Behr diagnoses Western modernity and its manifold crises as dominated by the view that fellow humans and natural environments are merely means to our individual ends. Behr introduces a novel ethics of self-restraint and the principle of reversibility – a commitment to political actions whose effects shall not be indefinite or immutable – to build a policy framework that demands both ethical and practical reflection on the conditions of action and that accounts for the limitations under which we act and live. Identifying an urgent need for re-thinking political progress and for policy reform, Reversibility – Politics under Conditions of Uncertainty presents a new understanding of the self and of political responsibility centred in a genuine acknowledgment of the human condition.
Download or read book Sequential Binary Investment Decisions written by Werner Jammernegg and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes some models from the theory of investment which are mainly characterized by three features. Firstly, the decision-maker acts in a dynamic environment. Secondly, the distributions of the random variables are only incompletely known at the beginning of the planning process. This is termed as decision-making under conditions of uncer tainty. Thirdly, in large parts of the work we restrict the analysis to binary decision models. In a binary model, the decision-maker must choose one of two actions. For example, one decision means to undertake the invest ·ment project in a planning period, whereas the other decision prescribes to postpone the project for at least one more period. The analysis of dynamic decision models under conditions of uncertainty is not a very common approach in economics. In this framework the op timal decisions are only obtained by the extensive use of methods from operations research and from statistics. It is the intention to narrow some of the existing gaps in the fields of investment and portfolio analysis in this respect. This is done by combining techniques that have been devel oped in investment theory and portfolio selection, in stochastic dynamic programming, and in Bayesian statistics. The latter field indicates the use of Bayes' theorem for the revision of the probability distributions of the random variables over time.
Download or read book Political Theory and the Environment written by Matthew Humphrey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection offers a sympathetic but critical perspective on contemporary ecological political theory, and gives proposals for a reorientation of some of its key aspects.
Download or read book The Politics of Climate Change and Uncertainty in India written by Lyla Mehta and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-24 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together diverse perspectives concerning uncertainty and climate change in India. Uncertainty is a key factor shaping climate and environmental policy at international, national and local levels. Climate change and events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and changing rainfall patterns create uncertainties that planners, resource managers and local populations are regularly confronted with. In this context, uncertainty has emerged as a "wicked problem" for scientists and policymakers, resulting in highly debated and disputed decision-making. The book focuses on India, one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world, where there are stark socio-economic inequalities in addition to diverse geographic and climatic settings. Based on empirical research, it covers case studies from coastal Mumbai to dryland Kutch and the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal. These localities offer ecological contrasts, rural–urban diversity, varied exposure to different climate events, and diverse state and official responses. The book unpacks the diverse discourses, practices and politics of uncertainty and demonstrates profound differences through which the "above", "middle" and "below" understand and experience climate change and uncertainty. It also makes a case for bringing together diverse knowledges and approaches to understand and embrace climate-related uncertainties in order to facilitate transformative change. Appealing to a broad professional and student audience, the book draws on wide-ranging theoretical and conceptual approaches from climate science, historical analysis, science, technology and society studies, development studies and environmental studies. By looking at the intersection between local and diverse understandings of climate change and uncertainty with politics, culture, history and ecology, the book argues for plural and socially just ways to tackle climate change in India and beyond. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003257585, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book The Anthropocene Debate and Political Science written by Thomas Hickmann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword. It denotes a new geological epoch that is human‐dominated. As mounting scientific evidence reveals, humankind has fundamentally altered atmospheric, geological, hydrological, biospheric, and other Earth system processes to an extent that the risk of an irreversible system change emerges. Human societies must therefore change direction and navigate away from critical tipping points in the various ecosystems of our planet. This hypothesis has kicked off a debate not only on the geoscientific definition of the Anthropocene era, but increasingly also in the social sciences. However, the specific contribution of the social sciences disciplines and in particular that of political science still needs to be fully established. This edited volume analyzes, from a political science perspective, the wider social dynamics underlying the ecological and geological changes, as well as their implications for governance and politics in the Anthropocene. The focus is on two questions: (1) What is the contribution of political science to the Anthropocene debate, e.g. in terms of identified problems, answers, and solutions? (2) What are the conceptual and practical implications of the Anthropocene debate for the discipline of political science? Overall, this book contributes to the Anthropocene debate by providing novel theoretical and conceptual accounts of the Anthropocene, engaging with contemporary politics and policy-making in the Anthropocene, and offering a critical reflection on the Anthropocene debate as such. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development.
Download or read book The Economics of Lawmaking written by Francesco Parisi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Economics of Lawmaking explores the relative advantages and limits of alternative sources of law. Francesco Parisi and Vincy Fon explore the process of legal rule production while considering issues of institutional design from a law and economics point of view." "The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the four fundamental sources of law: legislation, judge-made law. customary law, and international law. The defining features of these four sources are then dissected and closely examined using economic analysts and public choice theory. Each part includes an introduction into the lawmaking process for each source, and goes on to discuss such other issues as the optimal specificity of law in legislation to the theories of legal precedent, and to changes in customary lawmaking."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Politics of Uncertainty written by Ian Scoones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is uncertainty so important to politics today? To explore the underlying reasons, issues and challenges, this book’s chapters address finance and banking, insurance, technology regulation and critical infrastructures, as well as climate change, infectious disease responses, natural disasters, migration, crime and security and spirituality and religion. The book argues that uncertainties must be understood as complex constructions of knowledge, materiality, experience, embodiment and practice. Examining in particular how uncertainties are experienced in contexts of marginalisation and precarity, this book shows how sustainability and development are not just technical issues, but depend deeply on political values and choices. What burgeoning uncertainties require lies less in escalating efforts at control, but more in a new – more collective, mutualistic and convivial – politics of responsibility and care. If hopes of much-needed progressive transformation are to be realised, then currently blinkered understandings of uncertainty need to be met with renewed democratic struggle. Written in an accessible style and illustrated by multiple case studies from across the world, this book will appeal to a wide cross-disciplinary audience in fields ranging from economics to law to science studies to sociology to anthropology and geography, as well as professionals working in risk management, disaster risk reduction, emergencies and wider public policy fields.
Download or read book Time Reversibility Computer Simulation and Chaos written by William Graham Hoover and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1999 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A small army of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and engineers has joined forces to attack a classic problem, the ?reversibility paradox?, with modern tools. This book describes their work from the perspective of computer simulation, emphasizing the author's approach to the problem of understanding the compatibility, and even inevitability, of the irreversible second law of thermodynamics with an underlying time-reversible mechanics. Computer simulation has made it possible to probe reversibility from a variety of directions and ?chaos theory? or ?nonlinear dynamics? has supplied a useful vocabulary and set of concepts, which allow a fuller explanation of irreversibility than that available to Boltzmann or to Green and Kubo and Onsager. Clear illustration of concepts is emphasized throughout, and reinforced with a glossary of technical terms from the specialized fields which have been combined here to focus on a common theme.The book begins with a discussion contrasting the idealized reversibility of basic physics and the pragmatic irreversibility of real life. Computer models, and simulation, are next discussed and illustrated. Simulations provide the means to assimilate concepts through worked-out examples. State-of-the-art analyses, from the point of view of dynamical systems, are applied to many-body examples from nonequilibrium molecular dynamics and to chaotic irreversible flows from finite-difference, finite-element, and particle-based continuum simulations. Two necessary concepts from dynamical-systems theory ? fractals and Lyapunov instability ? are fundamental to the approach.Undergraduate-level physics, calculus, and ordinary differential equations are sufficient background for a full appreciation of this book, which is intended for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and research workers. The generous assortment of examples worked out in the text will stimulate readers to explore the rich and fruitful field of study which links fundamental reversible laws of physics to the irreversibility surrounding us all.
Download or read book Reversible Ligand Binding written by Andrea Bellelli and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the physical background of ligand binding and instructs on how experiments should be designed and analyzed Reversible Ligand Binding: Theory and Experiment discusses the physical background of protein-ligand interactions—providing a comprehensive view of the various biochemical considerations that govern reversible, as well as irreversible, ligand binding. Special consideration is devoted to enzymology, a field usually treated separately from ligand binding, but actually governed by identical thermodynamic relationships. Attention is given to the design of the experiment, which aids in showing clear evidence of biochemical features that may otherwise escape notice. Classical experiments are reviewed in order to further highlight the importance of the design of the experiment. Overall, the book supplies students with the understanding that is necessary for interpreting ligand binding experiments, formulating plausible reaction schemes, and analyzing the data according to the chosen model(s). Topics covered include: theory of ligand binding to monomeric proteins; practical considerations and commonly encountered problems; oligomeric proteins with multiple binding sites; ligand binding kinetics; hemoglobin and its ligands; single-substrate enzymes and their inhibitors; two-substrate enzymes and their inhibitors; and rapid kinetic methods for studying enzyme reactions. Bridges theory of ligand binding and allostery with experiments Applies historical and physical insight to provide a clear understanding of ligand binding Written by a renowned author with long-standing research and teaching expertise in the area of ligand binding and allostery Based on FEBS Advanced Course lectures on the topic Reversible Ligand Binding: Theory and Experiment is an ideal text reference for students and scientists involved in biophysical chemistry, physical biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, protein engineering, drug design, pharmacology, physiology, biotechnology, and bioengineering.
Download or read book Protean Power written by Peter J. Katzenstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mainstream international relations continues to assume that the world is governed by calculable risk based on estimates of power, despite repeatedly being surprised by unexpected change. This ground breaking work departs from existing definitions of power that focus on the actors' evolving ability to exercise control in situations of calculable risk. It introduces the concept of 'protean power', which focuses on the actors' agility as they adapt to situations of uncertainty. Protean Power uses twelve real world case studies to examine how the dynamics of protean and control power can be tracked in the relations among different state and non-state actors, operating in diverse sites, stretching from local to global, in both times of relative normalcy and moments of crisis. Katzenstein and Seybert argue for a new approach to international relations, where the inclusion of protean power in our analytical models helps in accounting for unforeseen changes in world politics.
Download or read book Essential Tools for Water Resources Analysis Planning and Management written by Omid Bozorg-Haddad and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes concepts and tools needed for water resources management, including methods for modeling, simulation, optimization, big data analysis, data mining, remote sensing, geographical information system, game theory, conflict resolution, System dynamics, agent-based models, multiobjective, multicriteria, and multiattribute decision making and risk and uncertainty analysis, for better and sustainable management of water resources and consumption, thus mitigating the present and future global water shortage crisis. It presents the applications of these tools through case studies which demonstrate its benefits of proper management of water resources systems. This book acts as a reference for students, professors, industrial practitioners, and stakeholders in the field of water resources and hydrology.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Reform written by Federico Sturzenegger and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Federico Sturzenegger and Mariano Tommasi propose formal models to answer some of the questions raised by the recent reform experience of many Latin American and eastern European countries.
Download or read book Politics and the English Language written by George Orwell and published by Renard Press Ltd. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Download or read book Risk Uncertainty and Profit written by Frank H. Knight and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2006-11-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.
Download or read book Optical Illusions of Reversible Perspective written by John Edward Wallace Wallin and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ERDA Energy Research Abstracts written by United States. Energy Research and Development Administration and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 906 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Role of Flexibility in the Design Acquisition and Use of Durable Inputs written by Larry Lev and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
