The Dynamics of Ambiguity
The Dynamics of Ambiguity

Author: Giuseppe Caglioti

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 3642580807

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A fascinating topic! A fascinating book! Quite often, science and art are considered as the "two cultures" dividing our society into two separate groups. However, important phenomena in science and art have a common root. By using the concept of broken symmetries the author enlightens the similarities between the process of creation of an art work and of a scientific theory, as well as the similarity between the process of perception and measurement. Symmetry is a no-change as the outcome of a change. In order to obtain information, the symmetry of an initially balanced system must be broken. The consequence is ambiguity, the critical point of any dynamical instability. Here the world of physics and emotional and rational spheres match.The dynamics of perception (the transformation leading to a choice) involve well known physical phenomena like symmetry, entropy and others. Many illustrations and a strict ratio between popular inserts and technical chapters make this a scintillating book explaining why sciences and arts have in common the feature of universality.

The Business of Ambiguity
The Business of Ambiguity

Author: Dr. Debbie Sutherland

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group

Published: 2022-01-11

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1632994623

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Have you ever been faced with a puzzling pattern of events, been stuck in a confusing situation, or felt trapped by your own routine thinking patterns? Or have you wondered about how you think and make decisions during messy and unexpected situations? In The Business of Ambiguity, Dr. Debbie Sutherland guides you to implement five key thinking and behavior strategies to explore business uncertainties and build an ambiguity mindset—the cognitive and behavioral capacity to untangle and understand the nuances of ambiguous situations. Using research and powerful real-life stories from dozens of executives whose roles involve a high degree of ambiguity, Dr. Sutherland provides you with the tools, resources, and insights to help you increase your comfort with the unknowns. If you are a business leader who wants to expand your thinking and leadership capacity, someone who wants to explore a knowing gap in life or business, or someone who has felt that it might be time to understand your biases and assumptions on a deeper level, this book is for you.

Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy
Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy

Author: Nikolaos Zahariadis

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2003-07-29

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781589012363

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Zahariadis offers a theory that explains policymaking when "ambiguity" is present—a state in which there are many ways, often irreconcilable, of thinking about an issue. Expanding and extending John Kingdon's influential "multiple streams" model that explains agenda setting, Zahariadis argues that manipulation, the bending of ideas, process, and beliefs to get what you want out of the policy process, is the key to understanding the dynamics of policymaking in conditions of ambiguity. He takes one of the major theories of public policy to the next step in three different ways: he extends it to a different form of government (parliamentary democracies, where Kingdon looked only at what he called the United States's presidential "organized anarchy" form of government); he examines the entire policy formation process, not just agenda setting; and he applies it to foreign as well as domestic policy. This book combines theory with cases to illuminate policymaking in a variety of modern democracies. The cases cover economic policymaking in Britain, France, and Germany, foreign policymaking in Greece, all compared to the U.S. (where the model was first developed), and an innovative computer simulation of the policy process.

Strategic Ambiguities
Strategic Ambiguities

Author: Eric M. Eisenberg

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2006-12-07

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1452238642

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"Eisenberg′s book is refreshing, in addition to its theoretical merits, for the presence of a distinctive human voice, unafraid to express passion, anger and hope. Readers will benefit enormously from the substance of his book, but also from its form." —HUMAN RELATIONS In Strategic Ambiguities: Essays on Communication, Organization, and Identity, Eric M. Eisenberg, an internationally recognized leader in the theory and practice of organizational communication, collects and reflects upon more than two decades of his writing. Strategic Ambiguities is a provocative journey through the development of a new aesthetics of communication that rejects fundamentalisms and embraces a contingent, life-affirming worldview. Strategic Ambiguities: Explores the role of language and communication in the construction of social structures and personal identities. Provides a useful intellectual and historical context for students through framing chapters and head notes developed especially for this volume. Chronicles the historical development of an important argument about communicating and organizing through the sustained focus on a single theorist. Intended Audience: This text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Organizational Communication, Communication Theory, and Organizational Behavior in the fields of Communication, Business & Management, and Educational Leadership. "This collection of essays is insightful, thought-provoking, and forward-looking. Eric Eisenberg takes on challenging positions, writes in a cogent and accessible manner, and always stimulates new scholarship. This work will be an important teaching tool, not just for the innovative content of the writing, but also for the historical narrative of organizational communication embedded in it." —Steve May, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Lay audiences will find the text rich with evocative narratives even as the theoretical moves will engage students and teacher-scholars. This edited compilation is likely to serve as a springboard for future inquiry and an invaluable resource for teaching and learning in undergraduate and graduate communication courses." —THE REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION

Ambiguity in Mind and Nature
Ambiguity in Mind and Nature

Author: Peter Kruse

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 3642784119

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Ambiguity in Mind and Nature is the result of cognitive multistability, the phenomenon in which an unchanging stimulus, usually visual, gives rise in the subject to an oscillating perceptual interpretation. The vase/face picture is one of the most famous examples. In this book scientists from many disciplines including physics, biology, psychology, maths and computer science, present recent progress in this fascinating area of cognitive science. Using the phenomenon of multistability as a paradigm they seek to understand how meaning originates in the brain as a consequence of cognitive processes. New advances are achieved by applying concepts such as self-organization, chaos theory and complex systems to the latest results of psychological and neurophysical experiments.

Ambiguous Memory
Ambiguous Memory

Author: Siobhan Kattago

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2001-07-30

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0313074771

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Ambiguous Memory examines the role of memory in the building of a new national identity in reunified Germany. The author maintains that the contentious debates surrounding contemporary monumnets to the Nazi past testify to the ambiguity of German memory and the continued link of Nazism with contemporary German national identity. The book discusses how certain monuments, and the ways Germans have viewed them, contribute to the different ways Germans have dealt with the past, and how they continue to deal with it as one country. Kattago concludes that West Germans have internalized their Nazi past as a normative orientation for the democratic culture of West Germany, while East Germans have universalized Nazism and the Holocaust, transforming it into an abstraction in which the Jewish question is down played. In order to form a new collective memory, the author argues that unified Germany must contend with these conflicting views of the past, incorporating certain aspects of both views. Providing a topography of East, West, and unified German memory during the 1980s and the 1990s, this work contributes to a better understanding of contemporary national identity and society. The author shows how public debate over such issues at Ronald Reagan's visit to Bitburg, the renarration of Buchenwald as Nazi and Soviet internment camp, the Goldhagen controversy, and the Holocaust Memorial debate in Berlin contribute to the complexities surrounding the way Germans see themselves, their relationship to the past, and their future identity as a nation. In a careful analysis, the author shows how the past was used and abused by both the East and the West in the 1980s, and how these approaches merged in the 1990s. This interesting new work takes a sociological approach to the role of memory in forging a new, integrative national identity.

Beauvoir and Sartre
Beauvoir and Sartre

Author: Christine Daigle

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2009-01-19

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0253220378

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Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb, and an international group of scholars explore the philosophical and literary relationship between Beauvoir and Sartre in this penetrating volume.

Handbook of Risk Theory
Handbook of Risk Theory

Author: Sabine Roeser

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 1209

ISBN-13: 9400714327

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Risk has become one of the main topics in fields as diverse as engineering, medicine and economics, and it is also studied by social scientists, psychologists and legal scholars. But the topic of risk also leads to more fundamental questions such as: What is risk? What can decision theory contribute to the analysis of risk? What does the human perception of risk mean for society? How should we judge whether a risk is morally acceptable or not? Over the last couple of decades questions like these have attracted interest from philosophers and other scholars into risk theory. This handbook provides for an overview into key topics in a major new field of research. It addresses a wide range of topics, ranging from decision theory, risk perception to ethics and social implications of risk, and it also addresses specific case studies. It aims to promote communication and information among all those who are interested in theoetical issues concerning risk and uncertainty. This handbook brings together internationally leading philosophers and scholars from other disciplines who work on risk theory. The contributions are accessibly written and highly relevant to issues that are studied by risk scholars. We hope that the Handbook of Risk Theory will be a helpful starting point for all risk scholars who are interested in broadening and deepening their current perspectives.

Group Dynamics in Exercise and Sport Psychology
Group Dynamics in Exercise and Sport Psychology

Author: Mark R. Beauchamp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-05-09

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1134471610

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Can a better understanding of group dynamics raise individual and team athletic performance or improve the outcomes of exercise interventions? Much human behaviour in sport and exercise settings is embedded within groups, where individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviours influence and are influenced by other group members. Now in a fully revised, updated, and expanded second edition, Group Dynamics in Exercise and Sport Psychology explores the unique psychological dynamics that emerge in sport and exercise groups. It provides a clear and thorough guide to contemporary theory, research, and applied practice, covering core themes and cutting-edge topics as well as highlighting directions for future research. The book is organised into five thematic sections: Part 1: The Self in Groups Part 2: Leadership in Groups Part 3: Group Environment Part 4: Motivation in Groups Part 5: Socio-Environmental Issues in Groups This new edition includes seven completely new chapters, exploring important emerging issues such as social identity, the family, co-ordination and shared knowledge within sport teams, the group as a vehicle for facilitating individual behavior change, social support and emotion regulation, peer leadership, and cultural perspectives in relation to group dynamics. No other book on group dynamics in sport or exercise offers such a close examination of the evidence base, and therefore Group Dynamics in Exercise and Sport Psychology is important reading for all students, researchers, or practitioners working in sport or exercise psychology, kinesiology, sport and exercise science, sports coaching, or physical education.