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Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Information Science as an Interscience

    Rethinking Science, Method and Practice
    • 1st Edition
    • Fanie de Beer
    • English
    Science is first and foremost an intellectual activity, an activity of thought. Therefore, how do we, as information scientists, respond intellectually to what is happening in the world of information and knowledge development, given the context of new sociocultural and knowledge landscapes? Information Science as an Interscience poses many challenges both to information science, philosophy and to information practice, and only when information science is understood as an interscience that operates in a multifaceted way, will it be able to comply with these challenges. In the fulfilment of this task it needs to be accompanied by a philosophical approach that will take it beyond the merely critical and linear approach to scientific work. For this reason a critical philosophical approach is proposed that will be characterised by multiple styles of thinking and organised by a compositional inspiration. This initiative is carried by the conviction that information science will hereby be enabled to make contributions to significant knowledge inventions that may bring about a better world. Chapters focus on the rethinking of human thinking, our unique ability that enables us to cope with the world in which we live, in terms of the unique science with which we are involved. Subsequent chapters explore different approaches to the establishment of a new scientific spirit, the demands these developments pose for human thinking, for questions of method and the implications for information science regarding its proposed functioning as a nomad science in the context of information practice and information work. Final chapters highlight the proposed responsibility of focusing on information and inventiveness and new styles of information and knowledge work.
  • Introduction to Social Media Investigation

    A Hands-on Approach
    • 1st Edition
    • Jennifer Golbeck
    • English
    If you’re interested in using social media as an investigative tool, Introduction to Social Media Investigation will show you how! Social networks and social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, are some of the most popular services on the Web, with hundreds of millions of users. The public information that people share on these sites can be valuable for anyone interested in investigating people of interest through open, public sources. Social media as an investigative device is in its infancy and not well understood. This book presents an overview of social media and discusses special skills and techniques to use when conducting investigations. The book features hands-on tutorials and case studies and offers additional data-gathering techniques.
  • Evolutionary Criminology

    Towards a Comprehensive Explanation of Crime
    • 1st Edition
    • Russil Durrant + 1 more
    • English
    In our attempts to understand crime, researchers typically focus on proximate factors such as the psychology of offenders, their developmental history, and the social structure in which they are embedded. While these factors are important, they don't tell the whole story. Evolutionary Criminology: Towards a Comprehensive Explanation of Crime explores how evolutionary biology adds to our understanding of why crime is committed, by whom, and our response to norm violations. This understanding is important both for a better understanding of what precipitates crime and to guide approaches for effectively managing criminal behavior. This book is divided into three parts. Part I reviews evolutionary biology concepts important for understanding human behavior, including crime. Part II focuses on theoretical approaches to explaining crime, including the evolution of cooperation, and the evolutionary history and function of violent crime, drug use, property offending, and white collar crime. The developmental origins of criminal behavior are described to account for the increase in offending during adolescence and early adulthood as well as to explain why some offenders are more likely to desist than others. Proximal causes of crime are examined, as well as cultural and structural processes influencing crime. Part III considers human motivation to punish norm violators and what this means for the development of a criminal justice system. This section also considers how an evolutionary approach contributes to our understanding of crime prevention and reduction. The section closes with an evolutionary approach to understanding offender rehabilitation and reintegration.
  • The Glass Ceiling in Chinese and Indian Boardrooms

    Women Directors in Listed Firms in China and India
    • 1st Edition
    • Alice de Jonge
    • English
    This book is about women directors in China and India. The aim of the book is to understand more clearly where women are present on corporate boards, and the reasons for their continued absence from most listed company boards. The Glass Ceiling in Chinese and Indian Boardrooms is written at a time of increasing awareness, particularly in Europe, of the benefits of gender equity at the boardroom table, and of the costs of women’s continued exclusion from corporate decision-making. Norway’s gender equity legislation has now been instrumental in ensuring that women occupy over 40% of all company board seats in that country. France, Italy and Spain are amongst those countries now following the same path towards equity. But Asia in general, and the world’s two largest nations in particular, still lag well behind. In China while women enjoy greater social and economic equality than many of their sisters in other parts of Asia, the male-dominated nature of the Party-state apparatus makes it unlikely that legislative change will be achieved any time soon. In India, while the country’s 2013 Corporations Law now requires all major listed firms to have at least one woman director, the real challenges for women are social and economic, where much work remains to be done.
  • Urban Myths about Learning and Education

    • 1st Edition
    • Pedro De Bruyckere + 2 more
    • English
    Many things people commonly believe to be true about education are not supported by scientific evidence. Urban Myths about Learning and Education examines commonly held incorrect beliefs and then provides the truth of what research has shown. Each chapter examines a different myth, with sections on learning, the brain, technology, and educational policy. A final section discusses why these myths are so persistent. Written in an engaging style, the book separates fact from fiction regarding learning and education. Recognize any of these myths? People have different styles of learning Boys are naturally better at mathematics than girls We only use 10% of our brains The left half of the brain is analytical, the right half is creative Men have a different kind of brain from women We can learn while we are asleep Babies become smarter if they listen to classical music These myths and more are systematically debunked, with useful correct information about the topic in question.
  • Doing Business in India

    A Framework for Strategic Understanding
    • 1st Edition
    • Chandrashekhar Lakshman
    • English
    A comprehensive look at understanding India with a strategic framework that can be readily used for doing business in this market is needed. Doing Business in India discusses the cultural and consumer profile of the people of India and how these fit into the macroeconomic context. The analytical framework provided and illustrated with real case examples spans domains such as the institutional context of the country (full of voids and amazing peculiarities) and the interesting federalist political framework in a country with many states. Based on this foundation, the book introduces the business strategies appropriate for both rural and urban markets in India. The following chapters cover the successful implementation of these strategies in India. The remaining chapters focus on successful cross-cultural management of Indian managers and employees, the appropriate types of leadership required for managing the Indian workforce, the types of managerial control systems likely to be successful in this country, and the HRM practices that can help companies to win in this market.
  • Advances in Child Development and Behavior

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 48
    • English
    Volume 48 of Advances in Child Development and Behavior includes chapters that highlight some the most recent research in the field of developmental psychology. Each chapter provides in-depth discussions, and this volume serves as an invaluable resource for developmental or educational psychology researchers, scholars, and students.
  • Hospital and Healthcare Security

    • 6th Edition
    • Tony W. York + 1 more
    • English
    Building on the foundation of the previous five editions, Hospital and Healthcare Security, 6th Edition includes new and updated chapters to reflect the current state of healthcare security, particularly in data security and patient privacy, patient-generated violence, and emergency preparedness and management. The recognized leading text in the healthcare security industry, Hospital and Healthcare Security, 6th Edition explains the basics as well as higher expertise concerns, such as the roles of design, emergency management, and policy. Conveying a wide spectrum of topics in an easy to comprehend format, Hospital and Healthcare Security, 6th Edition provides a fresh perspective for healthcare security professionals to better prepare for security issue before they occur.
  • Aging and Decision Making

    Empirical and Applied Perspectives
    • 1st Edition
    • Thomas M. Hess + 2 more
    • English
    Decisions large and small play a fundamental role in shaping life course trajectories of health and well-being: decisions draw upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation and self-control, their ability to keep long-term goals in mind, and their willingness to place appropriate value on their future well-being. Aging and Decision Making addresses the specific cognitive and affective processes that account for age-related changes in decision making, targeting interventions to compensate for vulnerabilities and leverage strengths in the aging individual. This book focuses on four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging - neuroscience, behavioral mechanisms, competence models, and applied perspectives. Underscoring that choice is a ubiquitous component of everyday functioning, Aging and Decision Making examines the implications of how we invest our limited social, temporal, psychological, financial, and physical resources, and lays essential groundwork for the design of decision supportive interventions for adaptive aging that take into account individual capacities and context variables.
  • International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

    • 2nd Edition
    • James D. Wright
    • English
    Fully revised and updated, the second edition of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Twenty Five Volume Set, first published in 2001, offers a source of social and behavioral sciences reference material that is broader and deeper than any other. Available in both print and online editions, it comprises over 3,900 articles, commissioned by 71 Section Editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.