This interdisciplinary work discusses the construction, maintenance, evolution, and destruction of home and community spaces, which are central to the development of social cohesion. By examining how people throughout the world form different communities to establish a sense of home, the volume surveys the formation of identity within the context of rapid development, global and domestic neoliberal and political governmental policies, and various societal pressures. The themes of cooperation, conflict, inclusion, exclusion, and balance require negotiation between different actors (e.g., the state, professional developers, social activists, and residents) as homes and communities develop.
Pastors and church leaders can use the normal activities of church life to touch the innermost lives of their flock, fostering spiritual growth and building up the body of Christ.
An account of how complex patterns form in sustained nonequilibrium systems; for graduate students in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics.
Globalization demands the construction of new business methods to enable companies to remain highly competitive. Due to this demand, cultural differences are now being implemented into policies and procedures as companies expand and seek to collaborate with international entrepreneurs. The Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Social Dynamics in a Globalized World is a pivotal reference source for emergent aspects of internationalization and regional development in an entrepreneurial context. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant areas such as digital entrepreneurship, sustainability, and financial performance, this publication is an ideal resource for academics, public and private institutions, developers, professors, researchers, and post-graduate students seeking current research on globalized entrepreneurship.
Community Based System Dynamics introduces researchers and practitioners to the design and application of participatory systems modeling with diverse communities. The book bridges community- based participatory research methods and rigorous computational modeling approaches to understanding communities as complex systems. It emphasizes the importance of community involvement both to understand the underlying system and to aid in implementation. Comprehensive in its scope, the volume includes topics that span the entire process of participatory systems modeling, from the initial engagement and conceptualization of community issues to model building, analysis, and project evaluation. Community Based System Dynamics is a highly valuable resource for anyone interested in helping to advance social justice using system dynamics, community involvement, and group model building, and helping to make communities a better place.
From Kurdistan to Somaliland, Xinjiang to South Yemen, all secessionist movements hope to secure newly independent states of their own. Most will not prevail. The existing scholarly wisdom provides one explanation for success, based on authority and control within the nascent states. With the aid of an expansive new dataset and detailed case studies, this book provides an alternative account. It argues that the strongest members of the international community have a decisive influence over whether today's secessionists become countries tomorrow and that, most often, their support is conditioned on parochial political considerations.
This volume discusses the rich and interesting properties of dynamical systems that appear in ecology and environmental sciences. It provides a fascinating survey of the theory of dynamical systems in ecology and environmental science. Each chapter introduces students and scholars to the state-of-the-art in an exciting area, presents new results, and inspires future contributions to mathematical modeling in ecology and environmental sciences.
"The field has been waiting for a masterpiece like Racial and Cultural Dynamics in Group and Organizational Life for a long time. It provides a thoughtful account of the subtle, barely visible, and sometimes unspeakable influences of racial and cultural dynamics that occur in groups." —Leo Wilton, Binghamton University, State University of New York "I believe that by focusing on group diversity, this book aligns with a major trend that has not received enough attention." — Christopher J. McCarthy, University of Texas at Austin This book presents a theoretical framework for understanding leadership and authority in group and organizational life. Using relational psychoanalytic and systems theory, the authors examine conscious and unconscious processes as they relate to racial and cultural issues in the formation and maintenance of groups. Unique among group dynamics texts, the book explores aspects of racial and cultural influences in every chapter. Readers will enhance their analytic and practice skills in addressing factors that impact diverse groups and organizations, including ethical considerations, social roles, strategies for leadership, dynamics of entering and joining, and termination. Key Features Case examples help readers integrate theory and practice, as illustrated in transcripts of interactions from group sessions. A group work competencies list ensures that readers master concepts as they progress through the book. An assessment form allows the student or practitioner to evaluate concrete dynamics of groups, such as size, and gendered and racial composition. This text is appropriate for graduate-level courses incorporating group dynamics and multicultural topics in departments of psychology, education, counseling, and social work. It is also a valuable resource for counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals in preparation for group work.
This Research Note aims to provide an insight into recent developments in the theory of pattern formation. In the last decade there has been considerable progress in this field, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. Recent mathematical developments concern the study of the nonlinear stability of systems at near-critical conditions by an appropriate system of modulation equations. The complexity of the original problem can be reduced drastically by this approximation. Moreover, it provides unifying point of view for a wide range of problems. New applications of the theory arise in a multitude of scientific areas such as hydrodynamics, reaction-diffusion problems, oceanography, meteorology, combustion, geophysical and biological morphodynamics and semi-conductors.This book is intended to show the interactions between the mathematical theory of nonlinear dynamics and the study of pattern generating phenomena in the natural environment. There is an intimate relationship between new insights in the mathematical aspects of nonlinear pattern formation and the comprehension of such phenomena. Therefore there are two partly overlapping main themes: one in which the emphasis is on generally applicable mathematical theories and techniques and one in which the phenomenology of pattern evolution in various areas is discussed.The book comprises 19 contributions by experts in the field. Although the emphasis changes considerably from paper to paper, in each contribution the same two themes are present; all the authors have aimed to achieve a suitable balance between the mathematical theory and the physical phenomena.
