The Encyclopedia of Social Theory contains over 500 entries varying from concise definitions of key terms and short biographies of key theorists to comprehensive surveys of leading concepts, debates, themes and schools. The object of the Encyclopedia has been to give thorough coverage of the central topics in theoretical sociology as well as terms

Donald W. Fiske's professional life and collaborations are themselves a textbook in the development of the field of personality. From the field's early origins in personnel selection, rating accuracy, and psychotherapy outcomes, to its current status of theoretical and methodological maturity -- complete with mid-life crises -- the field has been fundamentally changed by Fiske's work, and the changes have influenced generations of scholars. This festschrift is a celebration of Fiske's impact, but not merely of his impact on the history of personality research. Instead, the volume focuses on ongoing debates and issues that have been framed or influenced by Fiske's work. The festschrift's three sections are organized around three themes in Fiske's writings -- themes that also correspond to three periods in his career. This volume examines current thinking about what can be known about personality, how constructs relevant to personality psychology are best measured, and how to approach specific research problems in personality and related fields. The contributors create an eminent cross-section of the development and current status of personality methods. In addition to Fiske's eminent contemporaries, the contributors to this volume include Fiske's former students, collaborators, and his two children, both of whom are behavioral scientists. The accomplishments of his students, colleagues, and children testifies to the range of psychologists who have benefited from his scholarly and practical wisdom. This collection is a valuable textbook for an advanced graduate course as well as appealing as a scholarly resource. Many of the contributors are renown psychological leaders who have made available their latest original thoughts. The book concludes with an essay by Fiske offering his perspective on the central themes: behavioral and social science metatheory, methods, and strategies.

The theory of revealed preference has a long, distinguished tradition in economics but lacked a systematic presentation of the theory until now. This book deals with basic questions in economic theory and studies situations in which empirical observations are consistent or inconsistent with some of the best known economic theories.

While education researchers have drawn on the work of a wide diversity of theorists over the years, much contemporary theory building in these areas has revolved around the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Theory as Method in Research develops the capacity of students, researchers and teachers to successfully put Bourdieu’s ideas to work in their own research and prepare them effectively for conducting Masters and Doctoral scholarships. Structured around four core themes, this book provides a range of research case studies exploring educational identities, educational inequalities, school leadership and management, and research in teacher education. Issues as diverse as Chinese language learning and identity, school leadership in Australia and the school experience of Afro-Trinidadian boys, are covered, intertwined with a set of innovative approaches to theory application in education research. This collection brings together, in one comprehensive volume, a set of education researchers who place Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts such as habitus, capital and field at the centre of their research methodologies. Full of insight and innovation, the book is an essential read for practitioners, student teachers, researchers and academics who want to harness the potential of Bourdieu’s core concepts in their own work, thereby helping to bridge the gap between theory and method in education research.

A Brookings Institution Press and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation publication It started two decades ago with CompStat in the New York City Police Department, and quickly jumped to police agencies across the U.S. and other nations. It was adapted by Baltimore, which created CitiStat—the first application of this leadership strategy to an entire jurisdiction. Today, governments at all levels employ PerformanceStat: a focused effort by public executives to exploit the power of purpose and motivation, responsibility and discretion, data and meetings, analysis and learning, feedback and follow-up—all to improve government's performance. Here, Harvard leadership and management guru Robert Behn analyzes the leadership behaviors at the core of PerformanceStat to identify how they work to produce results. He examines how the leaders of a variety of public organizations employ the strategy—the way the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services uses its DPSSTATS to promote economic independence, how the City of New Orleans uses its BlightStat to eradicate blight in city neighborhoods, and what the Federal Emergency Management Agency does with its FEMAStat to ensure that the lessons from each crisis response, recovery, and mitigation are applied in the future. How best to harness the strategy's full capacity? The PerformanceStat Potential explains all.

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The author describes the stochastic (probabilistic) approach to the study of changes in the climate system. Climatic data and theoretical considerations suggest that a large part of climatic variation/variability has a random nature and can be analyzed using the theory of stochastic processes. This work summarizes the results of processing existing records of climatic parameters as well as appropriate theories: from the theory of random processes (based on the results of Kolmogorov and Yaglom) and Hasselmann's "stochastic climate model theory" to recently obtained results.

Discusses the relationship between Chomskyan syntactic theory and the evolution of language.

This unique volume presents a new approach — the general theory of information — to scientific understanding of information phenomena. Based on a thorough analysis of information processes in nature, technology, and society, as well as on the main directions in information theory, this theory synthesizes existing directions into a unified system. The book explains how this theory opens new kinds of possibilities for information technology, information sciences, computer science, knowledge engineering, psychology, linguistics, social sciences, and education.The book also gives a broad introduction to the main mathematically-based directions in information theory. The general theory of information provides a unified context for existing directions in information studies, making it possible to elaborate on a comprehensive definition of information; explain relations between information, data, and knowledge; and demonstrate how different mathematical models of information and information processes are related.Explanation of information essence and functioning is given, as well as answers to the following questions:

This Companion addresses the contemporary transformation of critical and cultural theory, with special emphasis on the way debates in the field have changed in recent decades. Features original essays from an international team of cultural theorists which offer fresh and compelling perspectives and sketch out exciting new areas of theoretical inquiry Thoughtfully organized into two sections – lineages and problematics – that facilitate its use both by students new to the field and advanced scholars and researchers Explains key schools and movements clearly and succinctly, situating them in relation to broader developments in culture, society, and politics Tackles issues that have shaped and energized the field since the Second World War, with discussion of familiar and under-theorized topics related to living and laboring, being and knowing, and agency and belonging