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Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience: Teaching Applied Linguistics and Beyond
by Maria Leedham Caroline Tagg Jackie Tuck“This book showcases the breadth and value of online pedagogy for applied linguistics. The chapters offer informative, practical and inspirational insights into teaching and learning used at the Open University, and how these approaches extend to the wider Higher Education context. A genuinely engaging and instructive book, written by experienced and innovative practitioners.”Dr Mel Evans, University of Leeds, UK“This timely collection on online pedagogy from an applied linguistics perspective offers an impressive range of important issues that educators need to constantly reflect on in this day and age. All chapters are written in a highly accessible manner and illustrated with ample examples. I am sure readers will find the book an enjoyable read.”Dennis Chau, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong KongThis book is an essential guide to providing quality online and distance learning. As the educational landscape becomes increasingly digital, this book is designed to help readers embrace this transition and support their students. Written by a team of online experts at the Open University, the book skillfully combines core theories and principles with practical examples and student insights. Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience covers an expansive range of topics including blended learning, online social presence, dialogic learning and digital literacy. All chapters are illustrated with practical examples and supplemented with engaging exercises. The book:• Provides educators with tried and tested online pedagogical techniques• Integrates the student voice to highlight their perspective• Contains illuminative case studies and reflective exercisesThe authors do not assume access to specific technologies or platforms, making the book accessible for all. Perfect for educators and postgraduate students contemplating their future in the world of digital education, this book supports teachers in developing their online learning strategies.Maria Leedham is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and English Language at the Open University, UK. She has worked there for over 15 years, writing material for modules at under- and postgraduate level in applied linguistics and English language as well as running modules in presentation.Caroline Tagg is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and English Language, and has taught across The Open University’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes since 2015. Her research focuses on the role of mobile technologies in shaping language and communication. She is currently Secretary of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL).Jackie Tuck is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and English Language at the Open University, UK. She has been involved in teaching in English Language and Applied Linguistics (module design, materials writing and delivery) at the Open University for 25 years. Jackie also co-ordinates the University’s Professional Academic Communication in English programme for postgraduate research students.
The Online Self: Externalism, Friendship and Games (Philosophy of Engineering and Technology #25)
by Soraj HongladaromThis book investigates the emerging phenomenon of the self as it exists in the online world. It argues for an externalist conception of self and identity, one that does not depend on the continuity of consciousness of the subject. It also offers an analysis of related phenomenon such as online friendship and games based on this analysis. An outstanding feature of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is that it allows for the user to put forward their “selves” or their identity onto the Internet and use the online self as an anchor to connect with any number of “friends” each of whom also has their own online selves. A number of questions then arise which are deeply conceptual and philosophical in nature: What is the metaphysical nature of this emerging online self? Is it the same or fundamentally different from the “offline” self with which we are already familiar? Since increasing numbers of people are connected to the online world, this world itself seems to be taking on a reality of its own. This much has been appreciated by a number of scholars in the field. However, there seems to be lacking a systematic study of the philosophical and metaphysical nature of the self that has become a key element in cyberspace, a key topic which this volume addresses. Apart from the problem of constitution of the online self, this volume addresses related questions concerning personal identity in the online world and scrutinizes computer games and the characteristics that they share with social networking sites. Unlike the majority of the existing literature, which discusses the topic from a more social scientific perspective, this volume fills the lacuna of a philosophical and theoretical study of the online world.
The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need
by Ellen Karsh Arlen Sue FoxFrom top experts in the field, the definitive guide to grant-writingWritten by two expert authors who have won secured millions of dollars in government and foundation grants, The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need is the classic book on grant seeking, providing a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for government, nonprofit, and individual grant seekers. Drawing on decades of experience in grant writing and professional development, Ellen Karsh and Arlen Sue Fox demystify the process of securing grants while offering indispensable advice from funders and recipients. This updated fifth edition includes:Vital information about grantsmanship in today's ever-changing economic and social climateIn-depth interviews with funders, nonprofit leaders, and policy makers about the grants processA new chapter on how to diversify funding and think "outside the box" when grants are scarceConcrete suggestions for developing each section of a proposalHands-on exercises that let you practice what you learnA detailed description of important websites for grant seekersStrategies for developing and presenting programs that are likely to receive grants
The Only Quiz Book You Will Ever Need
by National Quiz TeamThe championship winning England team presents for the very first time, 3,000 questions in a quiz book for all the family.Fresh from winning the European Championships, the England quiz team have put their heads together and compiled 200 quizzes to challenge every member of the family. From questions for kids, to History, TV and Sport, and of course general knowledge, there’s a quiz to suit everyone. And for those quiz fanatics among you, there are even a few fiendishly difficult ones that our very own champions struggled to answer. So pit yourself against the best, or just join in for a bit of fun; and whether you’re playing in groups or simply testing your own skill, one thing is for sure – a quiz book put together by the best team in Europe is guaranteed to be the only quiz book you’ll ever need.
Ontologies of Nature: Continental Perspectives and Environmental Reorientations (Contributions To Phenomenology #92)
by Gerard Kuperus Marjolein OeleThis volume contains essays that offer both historical and contemporary views of nature, as seen through a hermeneutic, deconstructive, and phenomenological lens. It reaches back to Ancient Greek conceptions of physis in Homer and Empedocles, encompasses 13th century Zen master Dōgen, and extends to include 21st Century Continental Thought. By providing ontologies of nature from the perspective of the history of philosophy and of contemporary philosophy alike, the book shows that such perspectives need to be seen in dialogue with each other in order to offer a deeper and more comprehensive philosophy of nature. The value of the historical accounts discussed lies in discerning the conceptual problems that contribute to the dominant thinking underpinning our ecological predicament, as well as in providing helpful resources for thinking innovatively through current problems, thus recasting the past to allow for a future yet to be imagined. The book also discusses contemporary continental thinkers who are more critically aware of the dominant anthropocentric and instrumental view of nature, and who provide substantial guidance for a sensible, innovative “ontology of nature” suited for an ecology of the future. Overall, the ontologies of nature discerned in this volume are not merely of theoretical interest, but strategically serve to suspend anthropocentrism and spark ethical and political reorientation in the context of our current ecological predicament.
Ontology and Phenomenology of Speech: An Existential Theory Of Speech
by Marklen E. KonurbaevThis book applies phenomenological methodology to examine the transformations of messages as they pass from the mind to the linear world of human speech, and then back again. Rapid development of linguistic science in the second half of the 20th century, and cognitive science in the beginning of the 21st century has brought us through various stages of natural human language analysis and comprehension – from deep structures, transformational grammar and behaviorism to cognitive linguistics, theory of encapsulation, and mentalism. Thus, drawing upon new developments in cognitive science, philosophy and hermeneutics, the author reveals how to obtain the real vision of life lurking behind the spoken word. Applying methodology introduced by Edmund Husserl and developed by Martin Heidegger, the author examines how we can see the ‘living’ and dynamic essence of speech hidden in the world of linear linguistic strings and casual utterances. This uniquely researched work will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of cognitive stylistics, pragmatics and the psychology of language.
Ontology and Phenomenology of Speech: An Existential Theory of Speech
by Marklen E. KonurbaevThis book applies phenomenological methodology to examine the transformations of messages as they pass from the mind to the linear world of human speech, and then back again. Rapid development of linguistic science in the second half of the 20th century, and cognitive science in the beginning of the 21st century has brought us through various stages of natural human language analysis and comprehension – from deep structures, transformational grammar and behaviorism to cognitive linguistics, theory of encapsulation, and mentalism. Thus, drawing upon new developments in cognitive science, philosophy and hermeneutics, the author reveals how to obtain the real vision of life lurking behind the spoken word. Applying methodology introduced by Edmund Husserl and developed by Martin Heidegger, the author examines how we can see the ‘living’ and dynamic essence of speech hidden in the world of linear linguistic strings and casual utterances. This uniquely researched work will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of cognitive stylistics, pragmatics and the psychology of language.
Ontology, Epistemology, and Teleology for Modeling and Simulation: Philosophical Foundations for Intelligent M&S Applications (Intelligent Systems Reference Library #44)
by Andreas TolkIn this book, internationally recognized experts in philosophy of science, computer science, and modeling and simulation are contributing to the discussion on how ontology, epistemology, and teleology will contribute to enable the next generation of intelligent modeling and simulation applications.It is well understood that a simulation can provide the technical means to display the behavior of a system over time, including following observed trends to predict future possible states, but how reliable and trustworthy are such predictions? The questions about what we can know (ontology), how we gain new knowledge (epistemology), and what we do with this knowledge (teleology) are therefore illuminated from these very different perspectives, as each experts uses a different facet to look at these challenges. The result of bringing these perspectives into one book is a challenging compendium that gives room for a spectrum of challenges: from general philosophy questions, such as can we use modeling and simulation and other computational means at all to discover new knowledge, down to computational methods to improve semantic interoperability between systems or methods addressing how to apply the recent insights of service oriented approaches to support distributed artificial intelligence.As such, this book has been compiled as an entry point to new domains for students, scholars, and practitioners and to raise the curiosity in them to learn more to fully address the topics of ontology, epistemology, and teleology from philosophical, computational, and conceptual viewpoints.
Open Building for Architects: Professional Knowledge for an Architecture of Everyday Environment (Open Building)
by Stephen H. Kendall N. John HabrakenOpen Building is an internationally recognized approach to the design of buildings and building complexes with roots in the way the ordinary built environment grows and regenerates. The Open Building approach recognizes that both stability and change are realities to be managed in the contemporary built environment. Buildings – and the neighborhoods they occupy – are not static during the most stable times or during times of rapid social and technical change. They are living organisms that need constant adjustments to remain attractive, safe and valuable.Using case studies of built projects from around the world, this book explains the Open Building approach and discusses important characteristics of everyday built environment that the Open Building approach designs for. It also presents a key method that can be used to put the approach into use. It addresses questions such as: How can we design large projects for inevitable change? How can we balance the demands of large projects for efficient implementation with the need for ‘fine-grained’ decision-making control? How can we separate design tasks, one task being the design of what should last a century, the other task being the design of more mutable units of occupancy? How can we identify and share architectural themes and, at the same time, make variations on them? How can we use the Open Building approach to steward the earth’s scarce resources and contribute to a circular economy that benefits all people? This book is an essential resource for practitioners, investors and developers, regulators, builders, product manufacturers and educators interested in why the Open Building approach matters and how to practice Open Building.
Open Building for Architects: Professional Knowledge for an Architecture of Everyday Environment (Open Building)
by Stephen H. Kendall N. John HabrakenOpen Building is an internationally recognized approach to the design of buildings and building complexes with roots in the way the ordinary built environment grows and regenerates. The Open Building approach recognizes that both stability and change are realities to be managed in the contemporary built environment. Buildings – and the neighborhoods they occupy – are not static during the most stable times or during times of rapid social and technical change. They are living organisms that need constant adjustments to remain attractive, safe and valuable.Using case studies of built projects from around the world, this book explains the Open Building approach and discusses important characteristics of everyday built environment that the Open Building approach designs for. It also presents a key method that can be used to put the approach into use. It addresses questions such as: How can we design large projects for inevitable change? How can we balance the demands of large projects for efficient implementation with the need for ‘fine-grained’ decision-making control? How can we separate design tasks, one task being the design of what should last a century, the other task being the design of more mutable units of occupancy? How can we identify and share architectural themes and, at the same time, make variations on them? How can we use the Open Building approach to steward the earth’s scarce resources and contribute to a circular economy that benefits all people? This book is an essential resource for practitioners, investors and developers, regulators, builders, product manufacturers and educators interested in why the Open Building approach matters and how to practice Open Building.
Open Client/Server Computing and Middleware
by Alan R. Simon Tom WheelerOpen Client/Server Computing and Middleware provides a tutorial-oriented overview of open client/server development environments and how client/server computing is being done.This book analyzes an in-depth set of case studies about two different open client/server development environments—Microsoft Windows and UNIX, describing the architectures, various product components, and how these environments interrelate. Topics include the open systems and client/server computing, next-generation client/server architectures, principles of middleware, and overview of ProtoGen+. The ViewPaint environment, ProtoView screen manager, SQLView visual database access, and ProtoView WinControl library are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the interaction with db-UIM/X, widgets and building interfaces, network object toolkit, and integration of cross-platform components.This publication is suitable for computing professionals and researchers interested in open client/server computing.
Open Conversations: Public Learning in Libraries and Museums
by David CarrCultural institutions must reimagine their roles as education facilities for their communities and address the public need for conversations in safe and fair places, thereby renewing their essential place in democratic society. This book explains how.Open Conversations: Public Learning in Libraries and Museums is a provocative book, one that is designed to offer courage to cultural institution administrators and staff even as it opens their eyes to the possibility that their facilities can offer more than they are. Rather than offering prescriptive answers, the author invites readers to consider museums and libraries in fresh ways.Author David Carr believes professionals in libraries and museums need to think more broadly. He challenges them to address communities, national social change, psychology, and learning, and to think about ways to frame their institutions, not as repositories or research chambers, but as instruments for human thinking. Now is the time for these institutions to recover their integrity and purpose as fundamental, informing structures in a struggling democracy. Based on lectures and previously published writings by the author, and drawing on new scholarship and research, the essays here will inspire professionals to understand their collections and institutions as instruments of personal, social, and cultural change.
Open Economy Macroeconomics
by Martín Uribe Stephanie Schmitt-GrohéA cutting-edge graduate-level textbook on the macroeconomics of international tradeCombining theoretical models and data in ways unimaginable just a few years ago, open economy macroeconomics has experienced enormous growth over the past several decades. This rigorous and self-contained textbook brings graduate students, scholars, and policymakers to the research frontier and provides the tools and context necessary for new research and policy proposals.Martín Uribe and Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé factor in the discipline's latest developments, including major theoretical advances in incorporating financial and nominal frictions into microfounded dynamic models of the open economy, the availability of macro- and microdata for emerging and developed countries, and a revolution in the tools available to simulate and estimate dynamic stochastic models. The authors begin with a canonical general equilibrium model of an open economy and then build levels of complexity through the coverage of important topics such as international business-cycle analysis, financial frictions as drivers and transmitters of business cycles and global crises, sovereign default, pecuniary externalities, involuntary unemployment, optimal macroprudential policy, and the role of nominal rigidities in shaping optimal exchange-rate policy.Based on courses taught at several universities, Open Economy Macroeconomics is an essential resource for students, researchers, and practitioners.Detailed exploration of international business-cycle analysisCoverage of financial frictions as drivers and transmitters of business cycles and global crisesExtensive investigation of nominal rigidities and their role in shaping optimal exchange-rate policyOther topics include fixed exchange-rate regimes, involuntary unemployment, optimal macroprudential policy, and sovereign default and debt sustainabilityChapters include exercises and replication codes
The Open Road: 50 Best Road Trips in the USA (Travel Guide)
by Jessica DunhamGet inspired and get ready to hit the road with the ultimate guide to America's best road trips! The Open Road: 50 Road Trips Across the USA features:Strategic lists and road trip options: Choose from lists of the best coastal drives, cross-country journeys, trips for kids, awe-inspiring views, and moreFlexible itineraries: 50 different road trips organized by region gear you up for any adventure, from a weekend getaway to a cross-country tripCan't-miss stops from coast to coast: Leaf-peep along the Blue Ridge Parkway, look for wildflowers on Arizona's Apache Trail, or gaze at the mysterious Marfa Lights blinking over the West Texas desert. Snap selfies with kitschy roadside attractions along Route 66, cross the Continental Divide in Colorado, and fall asleep to the sound of crashing waves at your campsite in Big SurThe best local flavors: Eat your way through Vermont's farms, dairies, orchards, and maple houses or indulge in gulf shrimp and fried okra in the South. Sample oysters and craft beers in Oregon or stop for shave ice along the scenic Oahu Coastal LoopExpert advice from seasoned road-tripper Jessica Dunham Comprehensive planning resources: Easy-to-use maps, helpful info on things to do, lodging, and dining for every route, clear directions to each route's starting point, and tips for minimizing your environmental impact along the wayGorgeous, full-color photos and a fold-out mapEssential tips for health and safety on the road, navigating weather conditions, strategies for road-tripping with kids and four-legged friends, and playlists and podcasts to soundtrack your adventureWhether you're hugging the coast or driving the Loneliest Road, find your adventure with The Open Road: 50 Road Trips Across the USA.For more in-depth information on a specific road trip, check out Moon's bestselling road trip guides.
The Open Road: 50 Best Road Trips in the USA (Travel Guide)
by Jessica DunhamGet inspired and get ready to hit the road with the ultimate guide to America's best road trips! The Open Road: 50 Road Trips in the USA features:Strategic lists and road trip options: Choose from lists of the best coastal drives, cross-country journeys, trips for kids, awe-inspiring views, and moreFlexible itineraries: 50 different road trips organized by region gear you up for any adventure, from a weekend getaway to a cross-country tripCan't-miss stops from coast to coast: Leaf-peep along the Blue Ridge Parkway, look for wildflowers on Arizona's Apache Trail, or gaze at the mysterious Marfa Lights blinking over the West Texas desert. Snap selfies with kitschy roadside attractions along Route 66, cross the Continental Divide in Colorado, and fall asleep to the sound of crashing waves at your campsite in Big SurThe best local flavors: Eat your way through Vermont's farms, dairies, orchards, and maple houses or indulge in gulf shrimp and fried okra in the South. Sample oysters and craft beers in Oregon or stop for shave ice along the scenic Oahu Coastal LoopExpert advice from seasoned road-tripper Jessica DunhamComprehensive planning resources: Easy-to-use maps, helpful info on things to do, lodging, and dining for every route, clear directions to each route's starting point,and tips for minimizing your environmental impact along the wayGorgeous, full-color photos and a fold-out mapEssential tips for health and safety on the road, navigating weather conditions, strategies for road-tripping with kids and four-legged friends, and playlists and podcasts to soundtrack your adventureWhether you're hugging the coast or driving the Loneliest Road, find your adventure with The Open Road: 50 Road Trips in the USA. For more in-depth information on a specific road trip, check out Moon's bestselling road trip guides.
The Open Society and Its Animals (The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series)
by Janneke VinkThis book is an interdisciplinary study centred on the political and legal position of animals in liberal democracies. With due concern for both animals and the sustainability of liberal democracies, The Open Society and Its Animals seeks to redefine animals’ political-legal position in the most successful political model of our time. Advancements in modern science point out that many animals are sentient and that, like humans, they have certain elementary interests. The revised perception of animals as beings with elementary interests raises questions concerning the liberal democratic institutional framework: does a liberal democracy have a responsibility towards the animals on its territory, and if so, what kind? Do animals need legal animal rights and lawyers to represent them in court, and should they also be represented in parliament? And how much change of this kind could a liberal democracy really endure? Vink addresses these and other pressing questions relating to the political and legal position of animals in this persuasive and authoritative work, compelling us to reconsider the relationship between the open society and the animals in it.
Open Systems Handbook
by Alan R. Simon Tom WheelerOpen Systems Handbook, Second Edition provides an easy-to-read, thorough, and management-oriented explanation of the promises, dangers, and realities of open systems.This edition describes specific products and various open systems that have been updated to reflect the events of the mid-1990s. Emerging open technologies that either didn't exist in 1991 or were in their infancy, such as client/server middleware, are also covered.Topics include the definitions and history of open systems, open systems components, end user interaction points, and elements of open systems software. The general communications hardware, visual application development, models of integration, and advantages of open systems are likewise elaborated.This publication is a good reference for computing professionals and engineers working on open systems.
Opportunistic Mobile Networks: Advances and Applications (Computer Communications and Networks #0)
by Sudip Misra Barun Kumar Saha Sujata PalThis textbook reviews the theory, applications, and latest breakthroughs in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs). Presenting a specific focus on Opportunistic Mobile Networks (OMNs), the text considers the influence of human aspects, and examines emerging forms of inter-node cooperation. Features: contains review terms and exercises in each chapter, with the solutions and source code available at an associated website; introduces the fundamentals of DTNs, covering OMNs, PSNs, and MOONs; describes the ONE simulator, explaining how to set up a simulation project; provides detailed insights into the development and testing of protocols, together with a set of best practices for increased productivity and optimized performance; examines human aspects in the context of communication networks, from human-centric applications to the impact of emotion on human-network interplay; proposes various schemes for inter-node cooperation in DTNs/OMNs; presents a detailed discussion on aspects of heterogeneity in DTNs.
The Opposite Mirrors: An Essay on the Conventionalist Theory of Institutions (Law and Philosophy Library #22)
by E. LagerspetzHow do social institutions exist? How do they direct our conduct? The Opposite Mirrors defends the thesis that the existence of institutions is a conventional matter. Ultimately they exist because we believe in their existence, and because they play a role in our practical reasoning. Human action necessarily has an unpredictable aspect; human institutions perform an important task by reducing uncertainty in our interactions. The author applies this thesis to the most important institutions: the law and the monetary system. In his analysis he connects many traditional topics of the philosophy of law, social philosophy and the philosophy of social sciences in a new way. He discusses the nature of rules, authority, and power and analyzes the Hobbesian presuppositions which have been dominant in legal theory and in the economic analyses of the state. The book is written for legal theorists as well as for political and social philosophers, and theoretically oriented social scientists.
OptaJoe's Football Yearbook 2016: That thing you thought? Think the opposite.
by Duncan AlexanderKane or Vardy?Pep or José? Pulis or … anybody else? Football is a game of opinions. A world where received wisdom and the law of the hunch reign supreme. But football is becoming more intelligent. The history books may say that Leicester City winning the premier league ‘defied logic’, but if you looked more closely, they were always going to win . . . From distances run to pass success rate, shots on target to corners won, counter-attacks to tackles made, Opta, the world’s leading sports data company, records everything. But what does it all mean? And how can it add to our love of the game? From the author and statistician behind the popular OptaJoe Twitter account, what follows is a hugely entertaining and insightful guide to football in 2016, analysing data from the world's greatest teams, players, leagues and tournaments. Stats can never tell us everything, but combining cutting-edge analysis with wry humour, this book debunks countless myths peddled by pundits, managers, and even players. The ideas that follow are both surprising and satisfying, but may also leave you with the feeling that ‘yes, that’s what I was thinking all along’.
Optics: Volume 2 of Modern Classical Physics
by Kip S. Thorne Roger D. BlandfordA groundbreaking textbook on twenty-first-century waves of all sorts and their applicationsKip Thorne and Roger Blandford’s monumental Modern Classical Physics is now available in five stand-alone volumes that make ideal textbooks for individual graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on statistical physics; optics; elasticity and fluid dynamics; plasma physics; and relativity and cosmology. Each volume teaches the fundamental concepts, emphasizes modern, real-world applications, and gives students a physical and intuitive understanding of the subject.Optics is an essential introduction to a resurgent subject. “Optics” originally referred to the study of light, but today the field encompasses all types of waves, including electromagnetic waves, from gamma rays to radio waves; gravitational waves; waves in solids, fluids, and plasmas; and quantum waves. The past few decades have seen revolutions in optics—amazing advances in nonlinear optics technology, a growing understanding of optical phenomena throughout the natural world, and an increasing appreciation of the wide-ranging applicability of optics’ central principles. Optics shows how and why this subject—which was once a standard part of physics curricula—should again be routinely taught to physics students, as well as to students in engineering, computer science, and the natural sciences.Includes many exercise problemsFeatures color figures, suggestions for further reading, extensive cross-references, and a detailed indexOptional “Track 2” sections make this an ideal book for a one-quarter, half-semester, or full-semester courseAn online illustration package is available to professorsThe five volumes, which are available individually as paperbacks and ebooks, are Statistical Physics; Optics; Elasticity and Fluid Dynamics; Plasma Physics; and Relativity and Cosmology.
Optimierung: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch
by Markus Dederich Jörg ZirfasDieses interdisziplinäre Handbuch rekonstruiert Optimierung als ein Phänomen, das konstitutiv in aktuelle Entwicklungen der Gegenwart eingeschrieben ist. Denn es erscheint kaum mehr möglich, nicht optimieren zu wollen oder zu können. Das gilt für die Arbeit an sich selbst, die Verbesserung des Anderen und die Perfektionierung der Welt. Optimierung verspricht messbare Steigerungen von Effektivität und Effizienz sowie eine Erweiterung der Reichweite von Einfluss und Macht. Sie wirft aber auch Fragen der Instrumentalisierung, der Verdinglichung und Entfremdung sowie Fragen nach Grenzen und Unverbesserlichkeiten auf. Ohne eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Idee der Optimierung lässt sich eine moderne Humanwissenschaft heute nicht mehr konzipieren.
The Order of Things: How hierarchies help us make sense of the world
by Jackie Strachan Jane MoseleyFrom the Private First Class who knows his place (above a Private but below a Lance Corporal), to the classification of the natural world (Species, Genus, Family, Order . . .), we introduce hierarchies, pecking orders and ranks to every aspect of our lives, from society and religion to leisure and the law, establishing priorities and bringing order to our world. This miscellany of the various hierarchies that govern our existence ranges from the prosaically earthbound, in the form of roads and freeways, to the esoterically celestial, in the form of angels, seraphim, cherubims, archangels and so on. Who is more senior in a Chinese triad, a White Paper Fan or a Red Pole? What trumps a Straight Flush in poker? How many ranks are there between a Detective and a Colonel in the American police? What's the next step up from the Court of Appeal? What is a Royal Peculiar and where does it stand in the hierarchy of the British church? Which sea states lie between Calm and Phenomenal? In a Roman legion, how many men made up a Cohort and how many Cohorts a Legion? What is the hierarchy in the US government?Knowing where something - or someone - stands in the order of things helps us quite literally to put it into context.
Organising the Firm: Theories of Commercial Law, Corporate Governance and Corporate Law
by Petri MäntysaariThe theoretical basis of commercial law, corporate governance law, and corporate law is still unsatisfactory. There essentially is no theory of commercial law, and existing theories of corporate governance and corporate law cannot explain the behaviour of firms or the contents of existing regulation. This book proposes a coordinated solution for all three areas. The starting point is that all three areas deal with the organisation of firms. Commercial law, corporate governance, and corporate law are therefore studied from the perspective of the firm rather than that of the judge or the investor. Changing the perspective makes it easier to formulate an "umbrella" theory of commercial law, and theories of corporate governance and corporate law as applications of the main theory. The book provides examples of how the proposed theories work by studying legal corporate governance tools and practices that increase the sustainability of the firm. Sustainability can be bolstered by making the governance model more self-enforcing and ensuring that it fosters innovation.