A Half-Century of Physical Asymptotics and Other Diversions

A Half-Century of Physical Asymptotics and Other Diversions

Author: Michael Berry

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2017-07-19

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9813221224

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Michael Berry is a theoretical physicist who has contributed to a wide variety of areas in quantum mechanics, optics and related mathematics, linked by the geometrical aspects of waves, especially phase. This collection of his selected published and unpublished papers, reviews, tributes to other scientists, speeches and other works ranges from the technical to the popular. It is organized by the themes of his significant scientific contributions. Detailed introductions emphasize the rich connections between the different themes. An essential read for physicists, mathematicians, students and philosophers of science.


Interaction Ritual Chains

Interaction Ritual Chains

Author: Randall Collins

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-05-06

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1400851742

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Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in. The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts--from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes--while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.


Social Interaction Systems

Social Interaction Systems

Author: Robert Freed Bales

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 2001-03-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1412834325

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Social Interaction Systems is the culmination of a half century of work in the field of social psychology by Robert Freed Bales, a pioneer at the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University. Led by Talcott Parsons, Gordon W. Allport, Henry A. Murray, and Clyde M. Kluckhohn, the Harvard Project was intended to establish an integrative framework for social psychology, one based on the interaction process, augmented by value content analysis. Bales sees this approach as a personal involvement that goes far beyond the classical experimental approach to the study of groups. Bales developed SYMLOG, which stands for systematic multiple level observation of groups. The SYMLOG Consulting Group approach was worldwide as well as interactive. It created a data bank that made possible a search for general laws of human interaction far beyond anything thus far known. In his daring search for universal features, Bales redefines the fundamental boundaries of the field, and in so doing establishes criteria for the behavior and values of leaders and followers. Bales offers a new "field theory," an appreciation of the multiple contexts in which people live. Bales does not aim to eradicate differences, but to understand them. In this sense, the values inherent in any interaction situation permit the psychologist to appreciate the sources of polarization as they actually exist: between conservative and liberal, individualistic and authoritarian, libertarian and communitarian. Bales repeatedly emphasizes that the mental processes of individuals and their social interactions take place in systematic contexts which can be measured. Hence they permit explanation and prediction of behavior in a more exact way than in past traditions. Bales has offered a pioneering work that has the potential to move us into a new theoretical epoch no less than a new century. His work holds out the promise of synthesis and support for psychologists, sociologists, and all who work with groups and organizations of all kinds.


Godzilla: Half Century War

Godzilla: Half Century War

Author: James Stokoe

Publisher: IDW Publishing

Published: 2013-06-19

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1623023092

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Introducing a new and exciting look at Godzilla's reign of destruction, courtesy of Orc Stain creator James Stokoe! The year is 1954 and Lieutenant Ota Murakami is on hand when Godzilla makes first landfall in Japan. Along with his pal Kentaro, Ota makes a desperate gamble to save lives... and in the process begins an obsession with the King of the Monsters that lasts fifty years!


Being Colonized

Being Colonized

Author: Jan Vansina

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2010-03-18

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0299236439

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What was it like to be colonized by foreigners? Highlighting a region in central Congo, in the center of sub-Saharan Africa, Being Colonized places Africans at the heart of the story. In a richly textured history that will appeal to general readers and students as well as to scholars, the distinguished historian Jan Vansina offers not just accounts of colonial administrators, missionaries, and traders, but the varied voices of a colonized people. Vansina uncovers the history revealed in local news, customs, gossip, and even dreams, as related by African villagers through archival documents, material culture, and oral interviews. Vansina’s case study of the colonial experience is the realm of Kuba, a kingdom in Congo about the size of New Jersey—and two-thirds the size of its colonial master, Belgium. The experience of its inhabitants is the story of colonialism, from its earliest manifestations to its tumultuous end. What happened in Kuba happened to varying degrees throughout Africa and other colonized regions: racism, economic exploitation, indirect rule, Christian conversion, modernization, disease and healing, and transformations in gender relations. The Kuba, like others, took their own active part in history, responding to the changes and calamities that colonization set in motion. Vansina follows the region’s inhabitants from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, when a new elite emerged on the eve of Congo’s dramatic passage to independence.


ASEAN's Half Century

ASEAN's Half Century

Author: Donald E. Weatherbee

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-04-29

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1442272538

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This authoritative book provides a comprehensive political history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ten members of which are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Leading scholar Donald E. Weatherbee follows ASEAN from its inception in 1967, when it was founded with the goal of promoting peace, stability, security, and economic growth in the region. Throughout, a basic assumption of its leaders has been that the achievement of the first three conditions is necessary for the fourth. Weatherbee traces ASEAN’s three reinventions: in 1976, it made security a primary Cold War interest; in 1992, it refocused on economic integration; in 2007, it adopted the ASEAN Charter, which was the legal basis for the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015. He shows how at each stage of its development, ASEAN has dealt at three levels of action: the regional international order; intra-ASEAN relations; and the spillover of the domestic politics of member states into regional relations, particularly on questions of democracy and human rights. ASEAN’s greatest contemporary political challenge is in adapting to the regional impact of the US–China rivalry, particularly over South China Sea issues. For ASEAN to maintain its claim to centrality as a driving force in the regional security architecture, the author argues, a fourth reinvention may be required. Dispelling the myths surrounding the organization’s achievements fifty years after its founding, this book will be invaluable for all readers interested in ASEAN’s role in the broader Asia-Pacific region.


Politics Is about Relationship

Politics Is about Relationship

Author: H. Saunders

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-12-22

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1403983410

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In this straightforward exploration of core problems facing humanity, Harold Saunders outlines how concerned citizens can bring about social and political change. Using examples from the U.S. to South Africa, Tajikistan to China, this book is full of real stories of how building 'relationship' among people can empower citizens outside government.


Proceedings Of The First Interdisciplinary Chess Interactions Conference

Proceedings Of The First Interdisciplinary Chess Interactions Conference

Author: Chary Rangacharyulu

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2010-08-06

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 981446550X

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This unique proceedings volume offers one of the very first truly interdisciplinary conferences ever organized. More than 15 papers in this volume are written by some of the most acclaimed researchers in their field. Contributions range over a very wide spectrum of disciplines: biology; computer science; economics; education; health sciences; operations research; philosophy; physics; psychology; mathematics; music and sociology.