Critical Transitions in Nature and Society

Critical Transitions in Nature and Society PDF Author: Marten Scheffer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400833272
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
How do we explain the remarkably abrupt changes that sometimes occur in nature and society--and can we predict why and when they happen? This book offers a comprehensive introduction to critical transitions in complex systems--the radical changes that happen at tipping points when thresholds are passed. Marten Scheffer accessibly describes the dynamical systems theory behind critical transitions, covering catastrophe theory, bifurcations, chaos, and more. He gives examples of critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, climate, evolution, and human societies. And he demonstrates how to deal with these transitions, offering practical guidance on how to predict tipping points, how to prevent "bad" transitions, and how to promote critical transitions that work for us and not against us. Scheffer shows the time is ripe for understanding and managing critical transitions in the vast and complex systems in which we live. This book can also serve as a textbook and includes a detailed appendix with equations. Provides an accessible introduction to dynamical systems theory Covers critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, the climate, evolution, and human societies Explains how to predict tipping points Offers strategies for preventing "bad" transitions and triggering "good" ones Features an appendix with equations

Critical Transitions in Nature and Society

Critical Transitions in Nature and Society PDF Author: Marten Scheffer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400833272
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do we explain the remarkably abrupt changes that sometimes occur in nature and society--and can we predict why and when they happen? This book offers a comprehensive introduction to critical transitions in complex systems--the radical changes that happen at tipping points when thresholds are passed. Marten Scheffer accessibly describes the dynamical systems theory behind critical transitions, covering catastrophe theory, bifurcations, chaos, and more. He gives examples of critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, climate, evolution, and human societies. And he demonstrates how to deal with these transitions, offering practical guidance on how to predict tipping points, how to prevent "bad" transitions, and how to promote critical transitions that work for us and not against us. Scheffer shows the time is ripe for understanding and managing critical transitions in the vast and complex systems in which we live. This book can also serve as a textbook and includes a detailed appendix with equations. Provides an accessible introduction to dynamical systems theory Covers critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, the climate, evolution, and human societies Explains how to predict tipping points Offers strategies for preventing "bad" transitions and triggering "good" ones Features an appendix with equations

Societies in Transition in Early Greece

Societies in Transition in Early Greece PDF Author: Alex R. Knodell
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520380533
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Situated at the disciplinary boundary between prehistory and history, this book presents a new synthesis of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Greece, from the rise and fall of Mycenaean civilization to the emergence of city-states in the Archaic period. These centuries saw the growth and decline of varied political systems and the development of networks across local, regional, and Mediterranean scales. As a groundbreaking study of landscape, interaction, and sociopolitical change, Societies in Transition in Early Greece systematically bridges the divide between the Mycenaean period and the Archaic Greek world to shed new light on an often-overlooked period of world history. “This book reconfigures our understanding of early Greece on a regional level, beyond Mycenaean 'palaces' and across temporal boundaries. Alex Knodell's sophisticated arguments enable a fresh reading of the emergence of early Greek polities, revealing the microregions that put to the test overarching 'Mediterranean' models. His detailed study makes a convincing return to a comparative framework, integrating a 'small world' network and its trajectory with the larger picture of ancient complex societies.” SARAH MORRIS, Steinmetz Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture, University of California, Los Angeles “A comprehensive, thoughtful treatment of the time period before the crystallization of the ancient Greek city states.” WILLIAM A. PARKINSON, Curator and Professor, The Field Museum and University of Illinois at Chicago “An important and must-read account. The strength of this book lies in its close analysis of the important different regional characteristics and evolutionary trajectories of Greece as it transforms into the Archaic and, later, the Classical world.” DAVID B. SMALL, author Ancient Greece: Social Structure and Evolution.

Transitions in Society

Transitions in Society PDF Author: Colin M. Bain
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195417685
Category : Sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Trillium Listed!Transitions in Society: The Challenge of Change explores the many trends and issues in Canada's ever-changing society. This is a full-colour text written specifically for the new Grade 12 course in Ontario called Challenge and Change in Society.The unit structure mirrors the new curriculum strands: Social Change, Social Trends and Social Challenges. Each unit also examines a group of specific social science skills: Conducting research in the Social Sciences, Processing and Interpreting reseach findings, and Communicating researchfindings.Specific features include Film Society, Competing Perspectives, Focus on Issues, and Groundbreakers.

The Ecosocial Transition of Societies

The Ecosocial Transition of Societies PDF Author: Aila-Leena Matthies
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317034597
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This groundbreaking book both explains and expands the growing debate on ecological (environmental) social work at the global level. In order to achieve this, the book strengthens the environmental paradigm in social work and social policy by undertaking further research on theoretical and conceptual clarification as well as distinct reflections on its practical directions. Divided into five parts: concepts; the impact of environmental crises; sustainable communities and lifestyles; food politics; and the profession in transition, this work’s main objective is to place ecological social work as a part of the more comprehensive and interdisciplinary eco-social transition of societies towards sustainability, balancing economic and social development with the limited resources of the natural environment. By focussing on these five core concepts, it shows how social work and social policy contribute to this transition through having a research-based approach and orientation on solutions rather than problem analysis. The book will be of interest to scholars from a broad range of disciplines, including those in social work and social policy, sustainability, economics, agriculture and environmental studies.

Ambiguous Transitions

Ambiguous Transitions PDF Author: Jill Massino
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785335995
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
Focusing on youth, family, work, and consumption, Ambiguous Transitions analyzes the interplay between gender and citizenship postwar Romania. By juxtaposing official sources with oral histories and socialist policies with everyday practices, Jill Massino illuminates the gendered dimensions of socialist modernization and its complex effects on women’s roles, relationships, and identities. Analyzing women as subjects and agents, the book examines how they negotiated the challenges that arose as Romanian society modernized, even as it clung to traditional ideas about gender. Massino concludes by exploring the ambiguities of postsocialism, highlighting how the legacies of the past have shaped politics and women’s lived experiences since 1989.

Transitions

Transitions PDF Author: William Bridges
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
ISBN: 0738211427
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The best-selling guide for coping with changes in life and work, named one of the 50 all-time best books in self-help and personal development Whether you choose it or it is thrust upon you, change brings both opportunities and turmoil. Since Transitions was first published, this supportive guide has helped hundreds of thousands of readers cope with these issues by providing an elegantly simple yet profoundly insightful roadmap of the transition process. With the understanding born of both personal and professional experience, William Bridges takes readers step by step through the three stages of any transition: The Ending, The Neutral Zone, and, eventually, The New Beginning. Bridges explains how each stage can be understood and embraced, leading to meaningful and productive movement into a hopeful future. With a new introduction highlighting how the advice in the book continues to apply and is perhaps even more relevant today, and a new chapter devoted to change in the workplace, Transitions will remain the essential guide for coping with the one constant in life: change.

Grand Transitions

Grand Transitions PDF Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190060689
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
From one of the world's leading experts on the history of energy, a rigorous examination of the transitions that structure our modern world--and the environmental reckoning that will mark its success or failure. What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization--in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics--which have transformed the way we live. Societies that have undergone all four transitions emerge into an era of radically different population dynamics, food surpluses (and waste), abundant energy use, and expanding economic opportunities. Simultaneously, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions remain largely untouched by these developments. Through erudite storytelling, Vaclav Smil investigates the fascinating and complex interactions of these transitions. He argues that the moral imperative to share modernity's benefits has become more acute with increasing economic inequality, but addressing this imbalance would make it exceedingly difficult to implement the changes necessary for the long-term preservation of the environment. Thus, managing the fifth transition--environmental changes from natural-resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and global warming--will determine the success or eventual failure of the grand transitions that have made the world we live in today.

Role Transitions

Role Transitions PDF Author: Vernon L. Allen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461326974
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
The concept of role transition refers to a wide range of experiences found in life: job change, unemployment, divorce, entering or leaving prison, retirement, immi gration, "Gastarbeiten," becoming a parent, and so on. Such transitions often produce strain and hence a variety of problems for the transiting individual, occu pants of complementary social positions, and other members of one's social group and community. In spite of the diversity of role transitions that occur, however, it is important also to realize that many basic psychological processes can be discerned in ostensibly different instances. Research on role transitions has been dispersed across many different subdisci of the social sciences; the problem can be investigated from several points of plines view and levels of analysis. As modern societies become ever more complex, role transitions can be expected to increase in number and diversity, with a concomitant increase in detrimental consequences for the individual and society. Hence, for rea sons of both theory and practice, improved conceptual models and new empirical data are needed. The chapters in this book are the outcome of a N.A.T.O. symposium convened for the purpose of discussing aspects of role transitions from international and inter disciplinary perspectives. The meeting was designed to be a working conference to facilitate as much intellectual exchange and debate among participants as possible.

Youth Transitions

Youth Transitions PDF Author: René Bendit
Publisher: Barbara Budrich
ISBN: 3866491441
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Youth and the future What will become of today’s young people in Australia, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America? Will they be supportive of the world they live in? Or are they doomed to be criminal drop-outs? The authors investigate to which extent different and contradictory trends of social modernisation and economic progress determine the biographical development and social integration of young people in different countries and world regions. Thus, the authors look at the role young people themselves can play in the future; either as construc tive social actors or as a problematic – and partly excluded – group unable to face the challenges of a permanently changing world.

Energy and Society

Energy and Society PDF Author: Gavin Bridge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351019007
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Energy and Society is the first major text to provide an extensive critical treatment of energy issues informed by recent research on energy in the social sciences. Written in an engaging and accessible style it draws new thinking on uneven development, consumption, vulnerability and transition together to illustrate the social significance of energy systems in the global North and South. The book features case studies, examples, discussion questions, activities, recommended reading and more, to facilitate its use in teaching. Energy and Society deploys contemporary geographical concepts and approaches but is not narrowly disciplinary. Its critical perspective highlights connections between energy and significant socio-economic and political processes, such as globalisation, urban isation, international development and social justice, and connects important issues that are often treated in isolation, such as resource availability, energy security, energy access and low-carbon transition. Co-authored by leading researchers and based on current research and thinking in the social sciences, Energy and Society presents a distinctive geographical approach to contemporary energy issues. It is an essential resource for upperlevel undergraduates and Master’s students in geography, environmental studies, urban studies, energy studies and related fields.