Online hate speech in the European Union : A discourse-analytic perspective
open access under a CC BY 4.0 license and reports on research carried out as part of the European Union co-funded C.O.N.T.A.C.T. project which targeted hate speech and hate crime across a number of EU member states. It showcases the bearing that discourse analytic research can have on our understanding of this phenomenon that is a growing global cause for concern.
One hundred years of social protection : The changing social question in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa
As the first in-depth study of the ideational foundations of social protection policies and programmes in these four countries, the contributions demonstrate that the social question was articulated in an increasingly inclusive way.
On the path to AI : Law’s prophecies and the conceptual foundations of the machine learning age
This book explores machine learning and its impact on how we make sense of the world. It does so by bringing together two ‘revolutions’ in a surprising analogy: the revolution of machine learning, which has placed computing on the path to artificial intelligence, and the revolution in thinking about the law that was spurred by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr in the last two decades of the 19th century.
Old and New Perspectives on Mortality Forecasting
This book describes methods of mortality forecasting and discusses possible improvements. It contains a selection of previously unpublished and published papers, which together provide a state-of-the-art overview of statistical approaches as well as behavioural and biological perspectives. The different parts of the book provide discussions of current practice, probabilistic forecasting, the linearity in the increase of life expectancy, causes of death, and the role of cohort factors.
Official Statistics 4.0 : Verified Facts for People in the 21st Century
Explores official statistics and their social function in modern societies. Digitisation and globalisation are creating completely new opportunities and risks, a context in which facts (can) play an enormously important part if they are produced with a quality that makes them credible and purpose-specific. In order for this to actually happen, official statistics must continue to actively pursue the modernisation of their working methods.
Nuel Belnap on Indeterminism and Free Action
Seeks to further the use of formal methods in clarifying one of the central problems of philosophy: that of our free human agency and its place in our indeterministic world. It celebrates the important contributions made in this area by Nuel Belnap, American logician and philosopher. Philosophically, indeterminism and free action can seem far apart, but in Belnap’s work, they are intimately linked. This book explores their philosophical interconnectedness through a selection of original research papers that build forth on Belnap’s logical and philosophical work. Some contributions take the form of critical discussions of Belnap's published work, some develop points made in his publications in new directions, and others provide additional insights on the topics of indeterminism and free action.
Nostalgia and Hope : Intersections between Politics of Culture, Welfare, and Migration in Europe
This book shows how the politics of migration affect community building in the 21st century, drawing on both retrogressive and progressive forms of mobilization. It elaborates theoretically and shows empirically how the two master frames of nostalgia and hope are used in local, national and transnational settings, in and outside conventional forms of doing politics.
Nonlinear Fokker-Planck Equations : Fundamentals and Applications
Providing an introduction to the theory of nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, this book discusses fundamental properties of transient and stationary solutions, emphasizing the stability analysis of stationary solutions by means of self-consistency equations, linear stability analysis, and Lyapunov's direct method. Also treated are Langevin equations and correlation functions. Nonlinear Fokker-Planck Equations addresses various phenomena such as phase transitions, multistability of systems, synchronization, anomalous diffusion, cut-off solutions, travelling-wave solutions and the emergence of power law solutions. A nonlinear Fokker-Planck perspective to quantum statistics, generalized thermodynamics, and linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics is given. Theoretical concepts are illustrated where possible by simple examples. The book also reviews several applications in the fields of condensed matter physics, the physics of porous media and liquid crystals, accelerator physics, neurophysics, social sciences, population dynamics, and computational physics.
Non-Equilibrium Social Science and Policy : Introduction and Essays on New and Changing Paradigms in Socio-Economic Thinking
The overall aim of this book, an outcome of the European FP7 FET Open NESS project, is to contribute to the ongoing effort to put the quantitative social sciences on a proper footing for the 21st century. A key focus is economics, and its implications on policy making, where the still dominant traditional approach increasingly struggles to capture the economic realities we observe in the world today - with vested interests getting too often in the way of real advances.Insights into behavioral economics and modern computing techniques have made possible both the integration of larger information sets and the exploration of disequilibrium behavior
New methods for measuring and analyzing segregation
This book introduces new methods for measuring and analyzing residential segregation. It begins by placing all popular segregation indices in the “difference of group means” framework wherein index scores can be obtained as simple differences of group means on individual-level residential attainments scored from area racial composition. Drawing on the insight that in this framework index scores are additively determined by individual residential attainments, the book shows that the level of segregation in a given city can be equated to the effect of group membership (e.g., race) on individual residential attainments. This unifies separate research traditions in the field by joining the analysis of segregation at the aggregate level with the analysis of residential attainments for individuals.
New Frontiers in Social Innovation Research
Interest in social innovation continues to rise, from governments setting up social innovation 'labs' to large corporations developing social innovation strategies. Yet theory lags behind practice, and this hampers our ability to understand social innovation and make the most of its potential. This collection brings together work by leading social innovation researchers globally, exploring the practice and process of researching social innovation, its nature and effects. Combining theoretical chapters and empirical studies, it shows how social innovation is blurring traditional boundaries between the market, the state and civil society, thereby developing new forms of services, relationships and collaborations. It takes a critical perspective, analyzing potential downsides of social innovation that often remain unexplored or are glossed over, yet concludes with a powerful vision of the potential for social innovation to transform society.
New Forms of Governance in Research Organizations : Disciplinary Approaches, Interfaces and Integration
This book undertakes to develop a sector specific theory of governance of the public research sector and applies it to the German research system. The book is the outcome of a large interdisciplinary project. It analyzes the reforms in the German research system from an integrated perspective of law, economics and social sciences. First, we pose the question how external competition and control mechanisms do influence internal governance of research institutions and universities and vice versa. Second, we discuss the consequences of these impacts on research.
New and Old Routes of Portuguese Emigration : Uncertain Futures at the Periphery of Europe
This book offers a comparative overview on Portuguese emigration in Europe and outside the EU in times of recession. In addition to the dynamics of movement, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the heterogeneity of this emigration. It deepens the multifaceted identities concerning social and professional pathways among highly skilled and less skilled emigrants. The labour market continues to be the main regulatory force of Portuguese emigration, which helps to explain the outflow and the processes of settlement and return. Nonetheless, this book demonstrates that non-economic factors have likewise been of great importance in the decision to emigrate.
Networks and Geographies of Global Social Policy Diffusion : Culture, Economy, and Colonial Legacies
This book analyses the global diffusion of social policy as a process driven by multiplex ties between countries in global social networks. The contributions analyze links between countries via global trade, colonial history, similarity in culture, and spatial proximity. Networks are viewed as the structural backbone of the diffusion process, and diffusion is anlaysed via several subfields of social policy, in order to interrogate which network dimensions drive this process.
Neighbourhoods in Transition : Brownfield Regeneration in European Metropolitan Areas
This book is focused on the intersection between urban brownfields and the sustainability transitions of metreopolitan areas, cities and neighbourhoods. It provides both a theoretical and practical approach to the topic, offering a thorough introduction to urban brownfields and regeneration projects as well as an operational monitoring tool.
Motivational profiles in TIMSS mathematics : Exploring student clusters across aountries and time
This open access book presents a person-centered exploration of student profiles, using variables related to motivation to do school mathematics derived from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data. Statistical cluster analysis is used to identify groups of students with similar motivational profiles, across grades and over time, for multiple participating countries. In this book, a person-centered analysis of distinct and meaningful motivational profiles and their differences on sociodemographic variables and mathematics performance broadens understanding about the role that motivation characteristics play in learning and achievement in mathematics.
Monitoring State Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child : An Analysis of Attributes
This book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children.
Modes of Bio-Bordering : The Hidden (Dis)integration of Europe
This book explores how biometric data is increasingly flowing across borders in order to limit, control and contain the mobility of selected people, namely criminalized populations.
Mobilities of the Highly Skilled towards Switzerland : The Role of Intermediaries in Defining “Wanted Immigrants”
This book analyses the strategies of migration intermediaries from the public and private sectors in Switzerland to select, attract, and retain highly skilled migrants who represent value to them. It reveals how state and economic actors define “wanted immigrants” and provide them with privileged access to the Swiss territory and labour market. This book thus shifts the focus from an approach that takes the category of highly skilled migrant for granted to one that regards context as crucial for structuring migrants’ characteristics, trajectories, and experiences. Beyond consideration of professional qualifications, the ways decision-makers perceive candidates and shape their resource environments are crucial for constructing them as skilled or unskilled, wanted or unwanted, welcome or unwelcome.
Mobilities of Knowledge
This collection of essays examines how spatial mobilities of people and practices, technologies and objects, knowledge and ideas have shaped the production, circulation, and transfer of knowledge in different historical and geographical contexts. Targeting an interdisciplinary audience, Mobilities of Knowledge combines detailed empirical analyses with innovative conceptual approaches. The first part scrutinizes knowledge circulation, transfer, and adaption, focussing on the interpersonal communication process, early techniques of papermaking, a geographical text, indigenous knowledge in exploration, the genealogy of spatial analysis, and different disciplinary knowledges about the formation of cities, states, and agriculture.



















