The Traffic in Hierarchy

The Traffic in Hierarchy PDF Author: Ward Keeler
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865979
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Until its recent political thaw, Burma was closed to most foreign researchers, and fieldwork-based research was rare. In The Traffic in Hierarchy, one of the few such works to appear in recent years, author Ward Keeler combines close ethnographic attention to life in a Buddhist monastery with a broad analysis of Burman gender ideology. The result is a thought-provoking analysis of Burmese social relations both within and beyond a monastery’s walls. Keeler shows that the roles individuals choose in Burman society entail inevitable trade-offs in privileges and prestige. A man who becomes a monk gives up some social opportunities but takes on others and gains great respect. Alternatively, a man can become a head of household. Or he can choose to take on a feminine gender identity—to the derision of many but not necessarily his social exclusion. A woman, by contrast, is expected to concern herself with her relations with family and kin. Any interest she might show in becoming a nun arouses ambivalent reactions: although it fulfills Buddhist teachings, it contravenes assumptions about a woman’s proper role. In Burma, hierarchical understandings condition all relationships, but hierarchy implies relations of exchange, not simply inequality, and everyone takes on subordinate roles in their bonds with some, and superordinate ones with others. Knowing where power lies and how to relate to it appropriately is key. It may mean choosing at times to resist power, but more often it involves exercising care as to whom one wishes to subordinate oneself, in what ways, and on what terms. Melding reflections on the work of theorists such as Dumont, Anderson, Warner, and Kapferer with close attention to the details of Burman social interaction, Keeler balances theoretical insights and ethnographic observation to produce a rich and challenging read. The conundrum at the heart of this book—whether to opt for autonomy, the Buddhist seeking of detachment, or for attachment, the desire for close bonds with others—is one that all humans, not just Burmans, must confront, and it is one that admits of no final resolution.

The Traffic in Hierarchy

The Traffic in Hierarchy PDF Author: Ward Keeler
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865979
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Until its recent political thaw, Burma was closed to most foreign researchers, and fieldwork-based research was rare. In The Traffic in Hierarchy, one of the few such works to appear in recent years, author Ward Keeler combines close ethnographic attention to life in a Buddhist monastery with a broad analysis of Burman gender ideology. The result is a thought-provoking analysis of Burmese social relations both within and beyond a monastery’s walls. Keeler shows that the roles individuals choose in Burman society entail inevitable trade-offs in privileges and prestige. A man who becomes a monk gives up some social opportunities but takes on others and gains great respect. Alternatively, a man can become a head of household. Or he can choose to take on a feminine gender identity—to the derision of many but not necessarily his social exclusion. A woman, by contrast, is expected to concern herself with her relations with family and kin. Any interest she might show in becoming a nun arouses ambivalent reactions: although it fulfills Buddhist teachings, it contravenes assumptions about a woman’s proper role. In Burma, hierarchical understandings condition all relationships, but hierarchy implies relations of exchange, not simply inequality, and everyone takes on subordinate roles in their bonds with some, and superordinate ones with others. Knowing where power lies and how to relate to it appropriately is key. It may mean choosing at times to resist power, but more often it involves exercising care as to whom one wishes to subordinate oneself, in what ways, and on what terms. Melding reflections on the work of theorists such as Dumont, Anderson, Warner, and Kapferer with close attention to the details of Burman social interaction, Keeler balances theoretical insights and ethnographic observation to produce a rich and challenging read. The conundrum at the heart of this book—whether to opt for autonomy, the Buddhist seeking of detachment, or for attachment, the desire for close bonds with others—is one that all humans, not just Burmans, must confront, and it is one that admits of no final resolution.

Traffic Power Structure

Traffic Power Structure PDF Author: Planka.nu
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 1629632651
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
The modern traffic system is ecologically unsustainable, emotionally stressful, and poses a physical threat to individuals and communities alike. Traffic is not only an ecological and social problem but also a political one. Modern traffic reproduces the rule of the state and capital and is closely linked to class society. It is a problem of power. At its core lies the notion of “automobility,” a contradictory ideal of free movement closely linked to a tight web of regulations and control mechanisms. This is the main thesis of the manifesto The Traffic Power Structure, penned by the Sweden-based activist network Planka.nu. Planka.nu was founded in 2001 to fight for free public transport. Thanks to creative direct action, witty public interventions, and thought-provoking statements, the network has become a leading voice in Scandinavian debates on traffic. In its manifesto, Planka.nu presents a critique of the automobile society, analyzes the connections between traffic, the environment, and class, and outlines its political vision. The topics explored along the way include Bruce Springsteen, high-speed trains, nuclear power, the security-industrial complex, happiness research, and volcano eruptions. Planka.nu rejects demands to travel ever-longer distances in order to satisfy our most basic needs while we lose all sense for proximity and community. The Traffic Power Structure argues for a different kind of traffic in a different kind of world. The book has received several awards in Sweden and has been hailed by Swedish media as a “manifesto of striking analytical depth, based on profound knowledge and a will to agitation that demands our respect” (Ny Tid).

A Planner's Encounter with Complexity

A Planner's Encounter with Complexity PDF Author: Gert de Roo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317187083
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Spatial planning is about dealing with our 'everyday' environment. In A Planner's Encounter with Complexity we present various understandings of complexity and how the environment is considered accordingly. One of these considerations is the environment as subject to processes of continuous change, being either progressive or destructive, evolving non-linearly and alternating between stable and dynamic periods. If the environment that is subject to change is adaptive, self-organizing, robust and flexible in relation to this change, a process of evolution and co-evolution can be expected. This understanding of an evolving environment is not mainstream to every planner. However, in A Planner's Encounter with Complexity, we argue that environments confronted with discontinuous, non-linear evolving processes might be more real than the idea that an environment is simply a planner's creation. Above all, we argue that recognizing the 'complexity' of our environment offers an entirely new perspective on our world and our environment, on planning theory and practice, and on the raison d'être of the planners that we are. A Planner's Encounter with Complexity is organized into 17 chapters. It begins with the interplay of planning and complexity from the perspective of contemporary planning theory. It continues by critically assessing planning theory and practice in the light of the interdisciplinary debate regarding complexity thinking. As the book progresses, it positions itself ever closer to the perspective of complexity thinking, looking at the planning discipline 'from the outside in', clarifying the facets of complexity and its importance in planning. Finally, conceptual and theoretical developments towards more applied examples are identified in order to see the interplay of planning and complexity in practice. This book emphasizes the importance of complexity in planning, clarifies many of the concepts and theories, presents examples on planning and complexity, and proposes new ideas and methods for planning.

Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World

Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World PDF Author: Charles D. Trombold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521383374
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
The presence of ancient road networks in the New World is a puzzle, because they predate the use of wheeled transport vehicles. But whatever their diverse functions may have been, they remain the only tangible indication of how extinct American societies were regionally organised. Contributors to this volume, originally published in 1991, describe past studies of prehispanic roads in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, paying special attention to their significance for economic and political organisation, as well as regional communication.

Handbook of Optimization

Handbook of Optimization PDF Author: Ivan Zelinka
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642305040
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1088

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Book Description
Optimization problems were and still are the focus of mathematics from antiquity to the present. Since the beginning of our civilization, the human race has had to confront numerous technological challenges, such as finding the optimal solution of various problems including control technologies, power sources construction, applications in economy, mechanical engineering and energy distribution amongst others. These examples encompass both ancient as well as modern technologies like the first electrical energy distribution network in USA etc. Some of the key principles formulated in the middle ages were done by Johannes Kepler (Problem of the wine barrels), Johan Bernoulli (brachystochrone problem), Leonhard Euler (Calculus of Variations), Lagrange (Principle multipliers), that were formulated primarily in the ancient world and are of a geometric nature. In the beginning of the modern era, works of L.V. Kantorovich and G.B. Dantzig (so-called linear programming) can be considered amongst others. This book discusses a wide spectrum of optimization methods from classical to modern, alike heuristics. Novel as well as classical techniques is also discussed in this book, including its mutual intersection. Together with many interesting chapters, a reader will also encounter various methods used for proposed optimization approaches, such as game theory and evolutionary algorithms or modelling of evolutionary algorithm dynamics like complex networks.

Digital Telephony and Network Integration

Digital Telephony and Network Integration PDF Author: Bernhard E. Keiser
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401571775
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
What is "digital telephony"? To the authors, the term digital telephony de notes the technology used to provide a completely digital point-to-point voice communication system from end to end. This implies the use of digital technol ogy from one end instrument through the transmission facilities and switching centers to another end instrument. Digital telephony has become possible only because of the recent and ongoing surge of semiconductor developments allowing microminiaturization and high reliability along with reduced costs. This book deals with both the future and the present. Thus, the first chapter is entitled, "A Network in Transition." As baselines, Chapters 2, 3, and 10 provide the reader with the present status of telephone technology in terms of voice digitization as well as switching principles. The book is an outgrowth of the authors' continuing engineering education course, "Digital Telephony," which they have taught since January, 1980, to attendees from business, industry, government, common carriers, and tele phony equipment manufacturers. These attendees come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. but generally have the equivalent of at least a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. The book has been written to provide both the engineering student and the practicing engineer a working knowledge of the principles of present and future voice communication systems based upon the use of the public switched network. Problems or discussion questions have been included at the ends of the chapters to facilitate the book's use as a senior level or first year graduate level course text.

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING PDF Author: PARTHA CHAKROBORTY
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 8120353455
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
This book is designed to serve as a comprehensive text for undergraduate as well as first-year master’s students of civil engineering in India. Now, in the second edition, the book incorporates a thorough revision and extension of topics covered in the previous edition. In order to keep the treatment focused, the emphasis is on roadways (highways) based transportation systems. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE BOOK • Analysis of characteristics of vehicles and drivers that affect traffic and design of traffic facilities. • Principles of road geometry design and how to lay a road. • Characterization and analysis of flows on highways, unsignalized and signalized intersections, toll plazas, etc. • Design principles for traffic facilities. • Engineering characteristics of pavement materials. • Structural analysis and design of highway pavements. • Principles of pavement design with special reference to the Indian conditions. • Evaluation and maintenance of highways. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECOND EDITION • Incorporates the latest and up-to-date information on the topics covered. • Includes a large number of figures, tables, worked-out examples, and exercises highlighting practical engineering design problems. • Elaborates text by introducing new sections on Continuum Models of Traffic Flow, Traffic Flow at Toll Plazas, Determination of Critical Gap, Occlusion of Signs, Fleet Allocation, Vehicle and Crew Assignment, Elastic Solution of Layered Structures, Analysis of Concrete Pavement Structures, Functional Evaluation of Pavements, Highway Economics and Finance, etc. in respective chapters.

Streets and Patterns

Streets and Patterns PDF Author: Stephen Marshall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113437075X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
There is an emerging consensus that urban street layouts should be planned with greater attention to ‘placemaking’ and urban design quality, while maintaining the conventional transport functions of accessibility and connectivity. However, it is not always clear how this might be achieved: we still tend to have different sets of guidance for main road networks and for local streetgrids. What is needed is a framework that addresses both of these, plus main streets – that don’t easily fit either set of guidance – in an integrative manner. Streets and Patterns takes up this challenge to create a coherent rationale to underpin today’s streets-oriented urban design agenda. Informed by recent research, the book looks behind existing design conventions and beyond immediate policy rhetoric, and analyses a range of first principles – from Le Corbusier and Colin Buchanan to New Urbanism. The book provides a new framework for the design and planning of urban layouts, integrating transport issues such as road hierarchy, arterial streets and multi-modal networks with urban design and planning issues such as street type, grid type, mixed-use blocks and urban design coding.

Advances in Neural Networks - ISNN 2006

Advances in Neural Networks - ISNN 2006 PDF Author: Jun Wang
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540344829
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 1429

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Book Description
This is Volume III of a three volume set constituting the refereed proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2006. 616 revised papers are organized in topical sections on neurobiological analysis, theoretical analysis, neurodynamic optimization, learning algorithms, model design, kernel methods, data preprocessing, pattern classification, computer vision, image and signal processing, system modeling, robotic systems, transportation systems, communication networks, information security, fault detection, financial analysis, bioinformatics, biomedical and industrial applications, and more.

Utopia(s) - Worlds and Frontiers of the Imaginary

Utopia(s) - Worlds and Frontiers of the Imaginary PDF Author: Maria Rosário Monteiro
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351966839
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The idea of Utopia springs from a natural desire of transformation, of evolution pertaining to humankind and, therefore, one can find expressions of “utopian” desire in every civilization. Having to do explicitly with human condition, Utopia accompanies closely cultural evolution, almost as a symbiotic organism. Maintaining its roots deeply attached to ancient myths, utopian expression followed, and sometimes preceded cultural transformation. Through the next almost five hundred pages (virtually one for each year since Utopia was published) researchers in the fields of Architecture and Urbanism, Arts and Humanities present the results of their studies within the different areas of expertise under the umbrella of Utopia. Past, present, and future come together in one book. They do not offer their readers any golden key. Many questions will remain unanswered, as they should. The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities - UTOPIA(S) WORLDS AND FRONTIERS OF THE IMAGINARY were compiled with the intent to establish a platform for the presentation, interaction and dissemination of researches. It aims also to foster the awareness and discussion on the topics of Harmony and Proportion with a focus on different utopian visions and readings relevant to the arts, sciences and humanities and their importance and benefits for the community at large.