BiblioVault - Books about Models

Blinding Polyphemus

Geography and the Models of the World

Franco Farinelli

Seagull Books, 2016

Today, we believe that the map is a copy of the Earth, without realizing that the opposite is true: in our culture the Earth has assumed the form of a map. In Blinding Polyphemus, Franco Farinelli elucidates the philosophical correlation between cultural evolution and shifting cartographies of modern society, giving readers an interdisciplinary study that attempts to understand and redefine the fundamental structures of cartography, architecture, and the notion of “space.”

Following the lessons of nineteenth-century critical German geography, this is a manual of geography without any map. To indicate where things are means already responding, in implicit and unreflective ways, to prior questions about their nature. Blinding Polyphemus not only takes account of the present state of the Earth and of human geography, it redefines the principal models we possess for the description of the world: the map, above all, as well as the landscape, subject, place, city, and space.

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Content-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education

Models and Methods

Stephen Stryker and Betty Lou Leaver, Editors

Georgetown University Press, 1997

This book offers concrete and practical ideas for implementing content-based instruction—using subject matter rather than grammar—through eleven case studies of cutting-edge models in a broad variety of languages, academic settings, and levels of proficiency.

The highly innovative models illustrate content-based instruction programs for both commonly and less-commonly taught languages—Arabic, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish—and for proficiency levels ranging from beginners to fluent speakers. They include single-teacher and multi-teacher contexts and such settings as typical language department classrooms, specialty schools, intensive language programs, and university programs in foreign languages across the curriculum.

All of the contributors are pioneers and practitioners of content-based instruction, and the methods they present are based on actual classroom experiences. Each describes the rationale, curriculum design, materials, and evaluation procedures used in an actual curriculum and discusses the implications of the approach for adult language acquisition.

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Edge Computing

Models, technologies and applications

Javid Taheri

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2020

Cloud computing has evolved as a cost-effective, easy-to-use, elastic and scalable computing paradigm to transform today's business models. 5G, Industrial IoT, Industry 4.0 and China-2050 frameworks and technologies are introducing new challenges that cannot be solved efficiently using current cloud architectures. To handle the collected information from such a vast number of devices and actuators, and address these issues, novel concepts have been proposed to bring cloud-like resources closer to end users at the edge of the network, a technology called edge computing.

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Family Resilience in the Military

Definitions, Models, and Policies

Sarah O. Meadows

RAND Corporation, 2015

Most leaders in the Department of Defense (DoD) agree that family resilience is an important construct, yet DoD does not have a standard definition. The authors of this report review existing definitions of family resilience and offer a candidate definition for DoD use. They also review models of family resilience, identify key family resilience factors, and make recommendations for how DoD can manage family-resilience programs and policies.

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Making Sense of Life

Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines

Evelyn Fox Keller

Harvard University Press, 2002

What do biologists want? If, unlike their counterparts in physics, biologists are generally wary of a grand, overarching theory, at what kinds of explanation do biologists aim? How will we know when we have “made sense” of life? Such questions, Evelyn Fox Keller suggests, offer no simple answers. Explanations in the biological sciences are typically provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogeneous as their subject matter. It is Keller’s aim in this bold and challenging book to account for this epistemological diversity—particularly in the discipline of developmental biology.

In particular, Keller asks, what counts as an “explanation” of biological development in individual organisms? Her inquiry ranges from physical and mathematical models to more familiar explanatory metaphors to the dramatic contributions of recent technological developments, especially in imaging, recombinant DNA, and computer modeling and simulations.

A history of the diverse and changing nature of biological explanation in a particularly charged field, Making Sense of Life draws our attention to the temporal, disciplinary, and cultural components of what biologists mean, and what they understand, when they propose to explain life.

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Models, Numbers, and Cases

Methods for Studying International Relations

Detlef F. Sprinz and Yael Wolinsky-Nahmias, Editors

University of Michigan Press, 2004

Scholars and students of international relations must contend with increasingly sophisticated methods for studying world politics. Models, Numbers, and Cases is a comprehensive assessment of the three main approaches to international relations: case study, quantitative methods, and formal methods. Clearly written chapters explain the most important methodological and theoretical issues in the field, and demonstrate the practical application of these methods to international political economy, environmental policy, and security. Models, Numbers, and Cases is a concise and valuable guide to the challenging terrain of contemporary international relations study.

Detlef Sprinz is a Senior Fellow at the Department of Global Change and Social Systems of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and teaches on the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

Yael Wolinsky-Nahmias is Senior Lecturer and Associate Chair in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University.

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Models of Management

Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Perspective

Mauro F. Guillén

University of Chicago Press, 1994

In this book, Mauro F. Guillén explores differing historical patterns in the adoption of the three major models of organizational management: scientific management, human relations, and structural analysis. Moving beyond Reinhard Bendix's classic Work and Authority, Models of Management takes a fresh look at how managers have used these models in four countries during the twentieth century.

Guillén's study of two liberal-democratic societies (the United States and Great Britain) and two corporatist societies (Germany and Spain) reveals significant differences in the way managerial elites and firms have adopted the three models. His data show that ideas themselves—independent of material interests and technology—can cause organizational change. Throughout the book, contrasts between modernist-technocratic and liberal-humanist mentalities, as well as between Protestant and Catholic religious backgrounds, emerge as decisive factors in determining managerial ideology and practice.

In addition to analyzing management methods in organizations, Guillén explores larger issues: the interaction among managerial, government, and labor elites; the impact of the state and the professions on managerial behavior; and the role that managers play in modern societies.

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Models Of Nature

Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia

Douglas R. Weiner

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000

Models of Nature studies the early and turbulent years of the Soviet conservation movement from the October Revolution to the mid-1930s—Lenin’s rule to the rise of Stalin. This new edition includes an afterword by the author that reflects upon the study's impact and discusses advances in the field since the book was first published.

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Models of Strategic Choice in Politics

Peter C. Ordeshook, Editor

University of Michigan Press, 1989

Discusses the sophisticated application of game theory to the development of contemporary political theory

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Models of the Mind

A Psychoanalytic Theory

John E. Gedo and Arnold Goldberg

University of Chicago Press, 1976

In an effort to expand the clinical theory of psychoanalysis, John E. Gedo and Arnold Goldberg delineate and order the various generally accepted systems of psychological functioning, considered here as "models of the mind." The authors provide a historical review of four major models of the mind: the topographic model, the reflex arc model, the tripartite model, and an object relations model. They then investigate the possible hierarchical interrelationships of such models. Each model is shown to represent a different facet of mental functioning and is thus employable on an ad hoc basis. The models are shown not to cancel on another out but to allow for theoretical complementarity.

Gedo and Goldberg apply their theory to four classic psychoanalytic case studies to demonstrate its effectiveness: Freud's Rat Man, his Wolf Man, the case of Daniel Paul Schreber, and a case of arrested development. For each of these cases the authors show how it would have been both possible and advantageous to apply a variety of different theories as facts about each continued to accumulate.

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Models of Value

Eighteenth-Century Political Economy and the Novel

James Thompson

Duke University Press, 1996

James Thompson examines the concept of value as it came to be understood in eighteenth-century England through two emerging and divergent discourses: political economy and the novel. By looking at the relationship between these two developing forms—one having to do with finance, the other with romance—Thompson demonstrates how value came to have such different meaning in different realms of experience. A highly original rethinking of the origins of the English novel, Models of Value shows the novel’s importance in remapping English culture according to the separate spheres of public and domestic life, men’s and women’s concerns, money and emotion.
In this account, political economy and the novel clearly arise as solutions to a crisis in the notion of value. Exploring the ways in which these different genres responded to the crisis—political economy by reconceptualizing wealth as capital, and the novel by refiguring intrinsic or human worth in the form of courtship narratives—Thompson rereads several literary works, including Defoe’s Roxana, Fielding’s Tom Jones, and Burney’s Cecilia, along with influential contemporary economic texts. Models of Value also traces the discursive consequences of this bifurcation of value, and reveals how history and theory participate in the very novelistic and economic processes they describe. In doing so, the book bridges the opposition between the interests of Marxism and feminism, and the distinctions which, newly made in the eighteenth century, continue to inform our discourse today.
An important reformulation of the literary and cultural production of the eighteenth century, Models of Value will attract students of the novel, political economy, and of literary history and theory.

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Primate Encounters

Models of Science, Gender, and Society

Edited by Shirley C. Strum and Linda Marie Fedigan

University of Chicago Press, 2000

A provocative collective reflection on primatology and its relations to broader cultural, historical, and social issues, Primate Encounters brings together both scientists and those who study them to investigate precisely what kind of science primatology is.

"[A] fascinating study . . . on how and why ideas about primate society have changed. The volume consists of dialogues among scientists from different disciplines, national traditions, scientific culture, generations, standpoints, and genders. . . . A wonderful reflection on the discipline of primatology and on science in general."—Science Books and Films

"Primate Encounters should be required reading for anyone about to embark on a career in the field. But it equally valuable for its miscellany of opinions, recollections and off-the-cuff remarks, as well as for its thoughtful observations, 'outrageous ravings' and humour (from the elders in the field). It gives us a glimpse of how scientists work together to understand their place in the world."—Deborah L. Mazolillo, Times Literary Supplement

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Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century

Concepts, Models and Metrics

Edited by Henrietta L. Moore, Matthew Davies, Nikolay Mintchev, and Saffron Woodcraft

University College London, 2023

A powerful vision for reimagining prosperity for the twenty-first century.

Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century sets out a new vision for prosperity in the twenty-first century and how it can be achieved for all. The volume challenges orthodox understandings of economic models but goes beyond contemporary debates to show how social innovation drives economic value. Drawing on substantive research in the UK, Lebanon, and Kenya, it develops new concepts, frameworks, models, and metrics for prosperity across a wide range of contexts, emphasizing commonalities and differences. Departing from general propositions about post-growth to delineate pathways to prosperity, the volume emphasizes that visions of the good life are diverse and require empirical work co-designed with local communities and stakeholders to drive change. It will be essential reading for policymakers who are stuck, local government officers who need new tools, activists who wonder what is next, academics in need of refreshment, and students and people of all ages who want a way forward.

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Removing the Educational Silos

Models of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Education

Edited by Wiline Pangle, Keeley Stanley-Bohn, Ann Dasen, Jay Batzner, and Heather Trommer-Beardslee

Intellect Books, 2022

A self-guided instructional journey for educators in multi- and interdisciplinary learning.

This book is designed as a source of inspiration, replication, and adaptation. Each chapter, in varying modalities, addresses interdisciplinary course development and implementation in institutions of higher education. The essays focus on common issues like navigating administrative systems and solving the challenges encountered when crossing departments or colleges, whether regarding course listings or the intricacies of course loads on each professor. Chapters also provide detailed information on the nuts and bolts of the specific course or courses taught, including syllabi, lesson examples, and both formal and informal assessments implemented.

Contributors candidly offer discussions of the failures and successes of their interdisciplinary collaborations, including course design, lesson planning, or complications brought in by unforeseen pandemics. Most chapters end with a summary of lessons learned, where experiences from the field provide opportunities for growth and continued exploration. An excellent resource for educators, this volume offers readers guidance and encouragement to implement the approaches described and inspiration to forge their own paths in the world of multi- and interdisciplinary teaching and research.

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Rendering Life Molecular

Models, Modelers, and Excitable Matter

Natasha Myers

Duke University Press, 2015

What are living bodies made of? Protein modelers tell us that our cells are composed of millions of proteins, intricately folded molecular structures on the scale of nanoparticles. Proteins twist and wriggle as they carry out the activities that keep cells alive. Figuring out how to make these unruly substances visible, tangible, and workable is a challenging task, one that is not readily automated, even by the fastest computers. Natasha Myers explores what protein modelers must do to render three-dimensional, atomic-resolution models of these lively materials. Rendering Life Molecular shows that protein models are not just informed by scientific data: model building entangles a modeler’s entire sensorium, and modelers must learn to feel their way through the data in order to interpret molecular forms. Myers takes us into protein modeling laboratories and classrooms, tracking how gesture, affect, imagination, and intuition shape practices of objectivity. Asking, ‘What is life becoming in modelers' hands?’ she tunes into the ways they animate molecules through their moving bodies and other media. In the process she amplifies an otherwise muted liveliness inflecting mechanistic accounts of the stuff of life.

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Seeing Underground

Maps, Models, and Mining Engineering in America

Eric C. Nystrom

University of Nevada Press, 2014

Digging mineral wealth from the ground dates to prehistoric times, and Europeans pursued mining in the Americas from the earliest colonial days. Prior to the Civil War, little mining was deep enough to require maps. However, the major finds of the mid-nineteenth century, such as the Comstock Lode, were vastly larger than any before in America. In Seeing Underground, Nystrom argues that, as industrial mining came of age in the United States, the development of maps and models gave power to a new visual culture and allowed mining engineers to advance their profession, gaining authority over mining operations from the miners themselves.

Starting in the late nineteenth century, mining engineers developed a new set of practices, artifacts, and discourses to visualize complex, pitch-dark three-dimensional spaces. These maps and models became necessary tools in creating and controlling those spaces. They made mining more understandable, predictable, and profitable. Nystrom shows that this new visual culture was crucial to specific developments in American mining, such as implementing new safety regulations after the Avondale, Pennsylvania fire of 1869 killed 110 men and boys; understanding complex geology, as in the rich ores of Butte, Montana; and settling high-stakes litigation, such as the Tonopah, Nevada, Jim Butler v. West End lawsuit, which reached the US Supreme Court.

Nystrom demonstrates that these neglected artifacts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have much to teach us today. The development of a visual culture helped create a new professional class of mining engineers and changed how mining was done. Seeing Undergound is the winner of the 2015 Mining History Association’s Clark Spence Award for the best book on mining history.

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Solving Sprawl

Models Of Smart Growth In Communities Across America

NRDC

Island Press, 2003

Solving Sprawl shines a spotlight on American communities that are applying smart growth principles in successfully addressing the problem of sprawl. It offers examples that illustrate key concepts and tells the story of how this new approach to development has caught hold across America. It reports the good news that successful smart-growth developments can now be found throughout the country, with communities large and small implementing a wide array of innovative solutions.

The book details 35 diverse smart-growth stories from around the United States and celebrates those who are leading the way in solving sprawl –state and local officials who have embraced new forms of development, corporations who are choosing to redevelop abandoned city properties rather than build new corporate campuses on undeveloped land, faith-based organizations that have been instrumental in redeveloping inner-city neighborhoods, visionary architects and planners who are showing how to design communities and regions that solve sprawl. Each chapter showcases a wide variety of solutions with projects of all sizes in urban, suburban, and exurban settings including Adidas Village in Portland, Oregon; the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.; Quality Hill in Kansas City, Kansas; Suisun City redevelopment in Suisun City, California; growth control initiatives in Boulder, Colorado; Pearl Lake in Almira Township, Michigan; and more.

Interspersed throughout are sidebars that offer additional examples and reminders of the sprawl-related environmental and social problems that smart growth helps overcome. The book also includes a glossary of planning terms and land-use concepts.

Instead of obliterating our countryside while jeopardizing our financial reserves and weakening our social bonds, we are learning how to develop and grow in ways that better reflect our values. Solving Sprawl brings a renewed sense of hope and inspiration about smart growth and its potential for creating a more livable country.

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Theory and Craft of the Scenographic Model, Revised Edition

Darwin Reid Payne

Southern Illinois University Press, 1985

Through diagrams, sketches, and models, along with explications of the essential tools and materials required, Payne defines and delineates the precise step-by-step procedures of scenographic modelmaking: the basic preparations of construction, the process of making the model, and the experimental aspects of modelmaking. This new edition with 50 additional illustrations and other new information offers teachers, students, and beginning professionals alike a complete and comprehensive approach to creating and constructing the scenographic model.

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Writing-Enriched Curricula

Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation

edited by Chris M. Anson, and Pamela Flash

University Press of Colorado, 2022

This edited collection explores theoretical and practical applications of the Writing-Enriched Curriculum (WEC) approach, an innovative and sustainable alternative to writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines. The collection’s purpose is to inform writing program administrators, teachers, scholars, and university officials about the model’s potential to transform the way writing is used and supported across courses and curricula in higher education. To this end, contributors offer theoretically grounded accounts of WEC or WEC-like programs and localized research that demonstrate the model’s impact and effectiveness within and across institutional contexts. The book has three sections: “The WEC Approach,” which describes the theoretical and practical basis informing WEC programs; “Accounts of Departmentally-Focused Implementation,” which considers specific campus initiatives to build WEC programs; and “Extensions and Contextual Variation,” which showcases ways in which the approach has led to cross-unit collaborations and varieties of implementation. Contributors bring scholarly and administrative experience to their investigations of WEC, and each has a track record of research and publication. Writing-Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation is the first collection dedicated to this innovative and tested approach.

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