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Book Redesigning the Future  a Systems Approach to Societal Problems

Download or read book Redesigning the Future a Systems Approach to Societal Problems written by Russell Lincoln Ackoff and published by Wiley-Interscience. This book was released on 1974 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Redesigning the Future  a Systems Approach to Societal Problems

Download or read book Redesigning the Future a Systems Approach to Societal Problems written by Russell Lincoln Ackoff and published by Wiley-Interscience. This book was released on 1974 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Systems Approach to Societal Problems

Download or read book The Systems Approach to Societal Problems written by Stephen E. Stephanou and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Handbook of Information Resource Management

Download or read book Handbook of Information Resource Management written by Jack Rabin and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1987-09-30 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Public Policy Analysis

Download or read book Public Policy Analysis written by William N. Dunn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-04 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public Policy Analysis, the most widely cited book on the subject, provides students with a comprehensive methodology of policy analysis. It starts from the premise that policy analysis is an applied social science discipline designed for solving practical problems facing public and nonprofit organizations. This thoroughly revised sixth edition contains a number of important updates: Each chapter includes an all-new "big ideas" case study in policy analysis to stimulate student interest in timely and important problems. The dedicated chapter on evidence-based policy and the role of field experiments has been thoroughly rewritten and expanded. New sections on important developments in the field have been added, including using scientific evidence in public policymaking, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and "big data." Data sets to apply analytical techniques are included online as IBM SPSS 23.0 files and are convertible to Excel, Stata, and R statistical software programs to suit a variety of course needs and teaching styles. All-new PowerPoint slides are included to make instructor preparation easier than ever before. Designed to prepare students from a variety of academic backgrounds to conduct policy analysis on their own, without requiring a background in microeconomics, Public Policy Analysis, Sixth Edition helps students develop the practical skills needed to communicate findings through memos, position papers, and other forms of structured analytical writing. The text engages students by challenging them to critically analyze the arguments of policy practitioners as well as political scientists, economists, and political philosophers.

Book Sociology and the New Systems Theory

Download or read book Sociology and the New Systems Theory written by Kenneth D. Bailey and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1994-01-11 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides current information about the many recent contributions of social systems theory. While some sociologists feel that the systems age ended with functionalism, in reality a number of recent developments have occurred within the field. The author makes these developments accessible to sociologists and other non-systems scholars, and begins a synthesis of the burgeoning systems field and mainstream sociological theory. The analysis shows not only that important points of rapprochement exist between systems theory and sociological theory, but also that systems theory has in some cases anticipated developments needed in mainstream theory.

Book Analytical Planning

Download or read book Analytical Planning written by Thomas L. Saaty and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-17 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analytical Planning: The Organization of Systems deals with systems and planning and suggests a methodological tool for integrating the two. This book presents the basic ideas behind complexity, systems, hierarchies, and prioritization and describes planning as a unique form of decision making with illustrations of some prominent philosophical and methodological approaches. It highlights some shortcomings of traditional approaches to planning and shows how these can be addressed by the systems approach. This monograph consists of seven chapters and opens with a discussion on the nature of complexity and describes an approach that facilitates the use of creativity and experience to structure complex problems. The next chapter explains the rationale for systems thinking and how reductionism works. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is then considered, along with its relationship to some of the properties of systems. The remaining chapters focus on ways of thinking about planning and philosophies of planning; strategic planning; and the applicability of the Analytic Hierarchy Process to benefit-cost analysis and resource allocation. This book is intended for managers, decision makers, and planners, as well as researchers and practitioners in applied mathematics and computer science.

Book Collective Beings

    Book Details:
  • Author : Gianfranco Minati
  • Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
  • Release : 2006-12-26
  • ISBN : 0387359419
  • Pages : 474 pages

Download or read book Collective Beings written by Gianfranco Minati and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-12-26 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an overview on the background to systemics. It introduces the concept of Collective Being as a Multiple System established by processes of emergence and self-organization of the same agents simultaneously or dynamically interacting in different ways. The principles underlying this approach are grounded on the theoretical role of the observer. This view allows to model in a more suitable way complex systems, such as in physics, biology and economics.

Book The Social Engagement of Social Science  Volume 3

Download or read book The Social Engagement of Social Science Volume 3 written by Eric Trist and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 731 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume three completes this set, which also presents socio- psychological (volume one) and socio-technical (volume two) perspectives. Thirty-four articles focus on nonhierarchical forms of organization facilitating interorganizational relations in complex and rapidly changing environments. The collection serves as a guide to institution building for the future. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book The Social Engagement of Social Science  a Tavistock Anthology  Volume 3

Download or read book The Social Engagement of Social Science a Tavistock Anthology Volume 3 written by Eric Trist and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 731 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II brought together a group of psychiatrists and clinical and social psychologists in the British Army who developed a number of radical, action-oriented organizational innovations in social psychiatry. They became known as the "Tavistock Group," since the core members had been at the pre-war Tavistock Clinic. At the post-war Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, they developed a pioneering mode of relating theory and practice, called in these volumes "The Social Engagement of Social Science." Previous volumes presented two of three interdependent perspectives: the socio-psychological (Volume I, 1990) and the socio-technical (Volume II, 1993). The latest volume, on the socio-ecological perspective, completes the set. The socio-ecological perspective is concerned with the coevolution of systems and their environments. It considers the broader environment which shapes not only the task environments of socio-technical organizations but the institutional and cultural environment that confronts the individual. Volume III focuses on nonhierarchical forms of organization facilitating inter-organizational relations in complex and rapidly changing environments. This perspective provides a guide to institution building for the future.

Book Methods and Techniques in Urban Engineering

Download or read book Methods and Techniques in Urban Engineering written by Armando Carlos De Pina Filho and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of urban problems such as dwelling deficit, infrastructure problems, inefficient services, environmental pollution, etc. can be observed in many countries. Urban Engineering searches solutions for these problems using a conjoined system of planning, management and technology. A great deal of research is devoted to application of instruments, methodologies and tools for monitoring and acquisition of data, based on the factual experience and computational modeling. The objective of the book was to present works related to urban automation, geographic information systems (GIS), analysis, monitoring and management of urban noise, floods and transports, information technology applied to the cities, tools for urban simulation, social monitoring and control of urban policies, sustainability, etc., demonstrating methods and techniques applied in Urban Engineering. Considering all the interesting information presented, the book can offer some aid in creating new research, as well as incite the interest of people for this area of study, since Urban Engineering is fundamental for city development.

Book Systems Science and Cybernetics   Volume II

Download or read book Systems Science and Cybernetics Volume II written by Francisco Parra-Luna and published by EOLSS Publications. This book was released on 2009-10-30 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject “Systems sciences and cybernetics” is the outcome of the convergence of a number of trends in a larger current of thought devoted to the growing complexity of (primarily social) objects and arising in response to the need for globalized treatment of such objects. This has been magnified by the proliferation and publication of all manner of quantitative scientific data on such objects, advances in the theories on their inter-relations, the enormous computational capacity provided by IT hardware and software and the critical revisiting of subject-object interaction, not to mention the urgent need to control the efficiency of complex systems, where “efficiency” is understood to mean the ability to find a solution to many social problems, including those posed on a planetary scale. The result has been the forging of a new, academically consolidated scientific trend going by the name of Systems Theory and Cybernetics, with a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary focus and therefore apt for understanding realities still regarded to be inescapably chaotic. This subject entry is subdivided into four sections. The first, an introduction to systemic theories, addresses the historic development of the most commonly used systemic approaches, from new concepts such as the so-called “geometry of thinking” or the systemic treatment of “non-systemic identities” to the taxonomic, entropic, axiological and ethical problems deriving from a general “systemic-cybernetic” conceit. Hence, the focus in this section is on the historic and philosophical aspects of the subject. Moreover, it may be asserted today that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, problems, in particular problems deriving from human interaction but in general any problem regardless of its nature, must be posed from a systemic perspective, for otherwise the obstacles to their solution are insurmountable. Reaching such a perspective requires taking at least the following well-known steps: a) statement of the problem from the determinant variables or phenomena; b) adoption of theoretical models showing the interrelationships among such variables; c) use of the maximum amount of – wherever possible quantitative – information available on each; d) placement of the set of variables in an environment that inevitably pre-determines the problem. That epistemology would explain the substantial development of the systemic-cybernetic approach in recent decades. The articles in the second section deal in particular with the different methodological approaches developed when confronting real problems, from issues that affect humanity as a whole to minor but specific questions arising in human organizations. Certain sub-themes are discussed by the various authors – always from a didactic vantage –, including: problem discovery and diagnosis and development of the respective critical theory; the design of ad hoc strategies and methodologies; the implementation of both qualitative (soft system methodologies) and formal and quantitative (such as the “General System Problem Solver” or the “axiological-operational” perspective) approaches; cross-disciplinary integration; and suitable methods for broaching psychological, cultural and socio-political dynamisms. The third section is devoted to cybernetics in the present dual meaning of the term: on the one hand, control of the effectiveness of communication and actions, and on the other, the processes of self-production of knowledge through reflection and the relationship between the observing subject and the observed object when the latter is also observer and the former observed. Known as “second order cybernetics”, this provides an avenue for rethinking the validity of knowledge, such as for instance when viewed through what is known as “bipolar feedback”: processes through which interactions create novelty, complexity and diversity. Finally, the fourth section centres around artificial and computational intelligence, addressing sub-themes such as “neural networks”, the “simulated annealing” that ranges from statistical thermodynamics to combinatory problem-solving, such as in the explanation of the role of adaptive systems, or when discussing the relationship between biological and computational intelligence.

Book The Programming Approach and the Demise of Economics

Download or read book The Programming Approach and the Demise of Economics written by Franco Archibugi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-21 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This trilogy deals with an epistemology of economics, arguing for a radical overturning of conventional analysis and providing an alternative to political economy and social sciences, based not on positivism, but on a normative and programming paradigm. Volume II builds on the work presented in Volume I to explore oppositions to the traditional and conventional teaching of economics, and presents testimonies that are favourable to a trend towards a programming approach, thereby giving substance to the epistemological 'overturning' of conventional analysis. Such oppositions studied include the work of Ludvig von Mises and his theory of praxeology; Ian Tinbergen and Wassily Leontif's preference for 'planning' over 'forecasting science'; Bruno de Finetti and Daniel Bell's support for the base of 'utopia' in economics; the trend from the 'theory of planning' towards the 'methodology of planning, by Andreas Faludi; neoclassic curiosity about the 'multi-purposes approach' and 'non-economic commodities' as investigated by Walter Isard, as well as theories expressed by Herbert Simon, Robert Lucas, George Soros and Mark Blaug. Volume III takes studies further and presents a concrete and practical example of how to build a Planning Accounting Framework (PAF), as associated with Frisch's 'plan-frame' (explored in Volume II), to demonstrate the extent to which decisions and negotiations can be routed in the social sciences.

Book Collaborative Environmental Governance Frameworks

Download or read book Collaborative Environmental Governance Frameworks written by Timothy Gieseke and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a practical approach to understanding and describing collaborative governance for resolving environmental problems. It introduces a new collaborative governance assessment model and recognizes that collaborations are a natural result of organizations converging around complex issues. Rather than identifying actors by their type of organization, the actors are identified by the type of role they play. This approach is aligned with how individuals and organizations interact in practice, and their dependance on collaborations to solve emerging environmental problems. The book discusses real cases with governance issues and creates new frameworks for collaborations. Features: Addresses communities at all levels and scales that are gravitating toward collaborations to solve their environmental issues. Prepares and enables individuals to participate in collaborative governance and design collaborative governance frameworks. Introduces the first simplified and standardized model to assess governance using governance actors and styles. Explains governance in simple terms and builds governance frameworks from the individual’s perspective; the smallest, viable unit of governance in a collaboration. Describes "tools of convergence" for collaborative leaders to organize and align activities to create shared-governance outcomes and outputs.

Book Freshwater Fisheries Ecology

Download or read book Freshwater Fisheries Ecology written by John F. Craig and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inland fisheries are vital for the livelihoods and food resources of humans worldwide but their importance is underestimated, probably because large numbers of small, local operators are involved. Freshwater Fisheries Ecology defines what we have globally, what we are going to lose and mitigate for, and what, given the right tools, we can save. To estimate potential production, the dynamics of freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes and estuaries) need to be understood. These dynamics are diverse, as are the earths freshwater fisheries resources (from boreal to tropical regions), and these influence how fisheries are both utilized and abused. Three main types of fisheries are illustrated within the book: artisanal, commercial and recreational, and the tools which have evolved for fisheries governance and management, including assessment methods, are described. The book also covers in detail fisheries development, providing information on improving fisheries through environmental and habitat evaluation, enhancement and rehabilitation, aquaculture, genetically modified fishes and sustainability. The book thoroughly reviews the negative impacts on fisheries including excessive harvesting, climate change, toxicology, impoundments, barriers and abstractions, non-native species and eutrophication. Finally, key areas of future research are outlined. Freshwater Fisheries Ecology is truly a landmark publication, containing contributions from over 100 leading experts and supported by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles. The global approach makes this book essential reading for fish biologists, fisheries scientists and ecologists and upper level students in these disciplines. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where biological and fisheries sciences are studied and taught should have multiple copies of this hugely valuable resource. About the Editor John Craig is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Fish Biology and has an enormous range of expertise and a wealth of knowledge of freshwater fishes and their ecology, having studied them around the globe, including in Asia, North America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. His particular interests have been in population dynamics and life history strategies. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and the Royal Society of Biology.

Book Making Strategy

Download or read book Making Strategy written by Colin Eden and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book approaches strategy-making in a way that is designed to assist most organizations develop strategy appropriate to their size, purpose and resources. It provides a much-needed guide to the strategy-making process by: elaborating the key concepts and theories of strategic management; by illustrating through case vignettes the issues inherent in the process of strategy-making; and by providing extensive and detailed practical guidelines on the methods, techniques and tools employed in the case vignettes. Key themes explored are: the crucial significance of political feasibility; the role of participation; emphasis on stakeholder management; thinking about alternative futures within the overall process of stra

Book Enhancing the university industry interface

Download or read book Enhancing the university industry interface written by and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This special issue of the Journal of European Industrial Training is based around theProgramme for University-Industry Interface (PUII) located at the University ofLimerick (UL) in Ireland. The contributors are members of the project team and theirassociates and the editors are Douglas Weir, Chair of the project Academic AdvisoryBoard and John O'Donoghue of the UL, member of the project Executive Board. PUII stems from an initiative of the Irish Government in 2001 to support companyupskilling, postgraduate conversion courses and maintenance of the national ITinfrastructure. It is funded for the.