Results by title

479 books match the query 'Methodology' and 19 start with p

cover of Past Or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning Through

Past Or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning Through

Eleanor Mitchell

Assoc of College & Research Libraries, 2012

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cover of Past or Portal: Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives

Past or Portal

Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives

Eleanor Mitchell

Assoc of College & Research Libraries, 2012

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cover of Personal Knowledge Graphs (PKGs): Methodology, tools and applications

Personal Knowledge Graphs (PKGs)

Methodology, tools and applications

Sanju Tiwari

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2023

Since the development of the semantic web, knowledge graphs (KGs) have been used by search engines, knowledge-engines and question-answering services as well as social networks. A knowledge graph, also known as a semantic network, represents and illustrates a network of real-world entities such as objects, events, situations, or concepts and the relationships between them. This information is usually stored in a graph database and visualized as a graph structure, prompting the term "knowledge graph". Knowledge graphs structure the information of entities, their properties and the relation between them.
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cover of Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing

Philosophy Between the Lines

The Lost History of Esoteric Writing

Arthur M. Melzer

University of Chicago Press, 2014

Philosophical esotericism—the practice of communicating one’s unorthodox thoughts “between the lines”—was a common practice until the end of the eighteenth century. The famous Encyclopédie of Diderot, for instance, not only discusses this practice in over twenty different articles, but admits to employing it itself. The history of Western thought contains hundreds of such statements by major philosophers testifying to the use of esoteric writing in their own work or others’. Despite this long and well-documented history, however, esotericism is often dismissed today as a rare occurrence. But by ignoring esotericism, we risk cutting ourselves off from a full understanding of Western philosophical thought.
           
Arthur M. Melzer serves as our deeply knowledgeable guide in this capacious and engaging history of philosophical esotericism. Walking readers through both an ancient (Plato) and a modern (Machiavelli) esoteric work, he explains what esotericism is—and is not. It relies not on secret codes, but simply on a more intensive use of familiar rhetorical techniques like metaphor, irony, and insinuation. Melzer explores the various motives that led thinkers in different times and places to engage in this strange practice, while also exploring the motives that lead more recent thinkers not only to dislike and avoid this practice but to deny its very existence. In the book’s final section, “A Beginner’s Guide to Esoteric Reading,” Melzer turns to how we might once again cultivate the long-forgotten art of reading esoteric works.

Philosophy Between the Lines is the first comprehensive, book-length study of the history and theoretical basis of philosophical esotericism, and it provides a crucial guide to how many major writings—philosophical, but also theological, political, and literary—were composed prior to the nineteenth century.
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cover of Points of Departure: Rethinking Student Source Use and Writing Studies Research Methods

Points of Departure

Rethinking Student Source Use and Writing Studies Research Methods

Tricia Serviss

Utah State University Press, 2017

Points of Departure encourages a return to empirical research about writing, presenting a wealth of transparent, reproducible studies of student sources. The volume shows how to develop methods for coding and characterizing student texts, their choice of source material, and the resources used to teach information literacy. In so doing, the volume advances our understanding of how students actually write.

The contributors offer methodologies, techniques, and suggestions for research that move beyond decontextualized guides to grapple with the messiness of research-in-process, as well as design, development, and expansion. Serviss and Jamieson’s model of RAD writing studies research is transcontextual and based on hybridized or mixed methods. Among these methods are citation context analysis, research-aloud protocols, textual and genre analysis, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, with an emphasis on process and knowledge as contingent. Chapters report on research projects at different stages and across institution types—from pilot to multi-site, from community college to research university—focusing on the methods and artifacts employed.

A rich mosaic of research about research, Points of Departure advances knowledge about student writing and serves as a guide for both new and experienced researchers in writing studies.

Contributors: Crystal Benedicks, Katt Blackwell-Starnes, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Kristi Murray Costello, Anne Diekema, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Brian N. Larson, Karen J. Lunsford, M. Whitney Olsen, Tricia Serviss, Janice R. Walker
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cover of Politics by Formula: How Congressional Policymaking Creates Disparities

Politics by Formula

How Congressional Policymaking Creates Disparities

Leah Rosenstiel

University of Chicago Press, 2026

A clear-eyed study that reveals how politics shapes and often distorts important federal programs, driving inequalities across states.

From Medicaid to Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, a large percentage of the annual US federal budget (approximately $1 trillion) is distributed through grants-in-aid, a policy tool that allocates aid to state and local governments rather than to individual Americans. When members of Congress use grants-in-aid to fund healthcare, housing, and other forms of support, they are not solely determining how much assistance one person receives. Instead, they can allot certain localities larger grants, which carry big implications for the quality of public services available to citizens living in different states.

Many reasonably assume that these assistance programs distribute funding to states impartially because they use statistical formulas based on population levels, poverty, and other characteristics that, ostensibly, measure need. However, in Politics by Formula, Leah Rosenstiel shows how this seemingly technocratic aspect of federal policymaking is deeply affected by both the structure of political institutions and the motivations of elected officials. Key congressional committees—and especially their leaders—design formulas to benefit their constituencies. Superficially neutral formulas can shield these political decisions from scrutiny, but formulas also constrain congressmembers. Drawing on formal modeling and quantitative and qualitative evidence, Rosenstiel elucidates how these dynamics shape whose and what needs are met and where.

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cover of Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction

Popular Culture Theory and Methodology

A Basic Introduction

Edited by Harold E. Hinds, Marilyn F. Motz, and Angela M.S. Nelson

University of Wisconsin Press, 2006

Since its birth in the 1960s, the study of popular culture has come a long way in defining its object, its purpose, and its place in academe. Emerging along the margins of a scholarly establishment that initially dismissed anything popular as unworthy of serious study-trivial, formulaic, easily digestible, escapist-early practitioners of the discipline stubbornly set about creating the theoretical and methodological framework upon which a deeper understanding could be founded. Through seminal essays that document the maturation of the field as it gradually made headway toward legitimacy, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology provides students of popular culture with both the historical context and the critical apparatus required for further growth.
    For all its progress, the study of popular culture remains a site of healthy questioning. What exactly is popular culture? How should it be studied? What forces come together in producing, disseminating, and consuming it? Is it always conformist, or has it the power to subvert, refashion, resist, and destabilize the status quo? How does it differ from folk culture, mass culture, commercial culture? Is the line between "high" and "low" merely arbitrary? Do the popular arts have a distinctive aesthetics? This collection offers a wide range of responses to these and similar questions. Edited by Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz, and Angela M. S. Nelson, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology charts some of the key turning points in the "culture wars" and leads us through the central debates in this fast developing discipline. Authors of the more than two dozen studies, several of which are newly published here include John Cawelti, Russel B. Nye, Ray B. Browne, Fred E. H. Schroeder, John Fiske, Lawrence Mintz, David Feldman, Roger Rollin, Harold Schechter, S. Elizabeth Bird, and Harold E. Hinds, Jr. A valuable bibliography completes the volume.
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cover of Positive Political Theory I: Collective Preference

Positive Political Theory I

Collective Preference

David Austen-Smith and Jeffrey S. Banks

University of Michigan Press, 2000

Positive Political Theory I is concerned with the formal theory of preference aggregation for collective choice. The theory is developed as generally as possible, covering classes of aggregation methods that include such well-known examples as majority and unanimity rule and focusing in particular on the extent to which any aggregation method is assured to yield a set of "best" alternatives. The book is intended both as a contribution to the theory of collective choice and a pedagogic tool.
Austen-Smith and Banks have made the exposition both rigorous and accessible to people with some technical background (e.g., a course in multivariate calculus). The intended readership ranges from more technically-oriented graduate students and specialists to those students in economics and political science interested less in the technical aspects of the results than in the depth, scope, and importance of the theoretical advances in positive political theory.
"This is a stunning book. Austen-Smith and Banks have a deep understanding of the material, and their text gives a powerfully unified and coherent perspective on a vast literature. The exposition is clear-eyed and efficient but never humdrum. Even those familiar with the subject will find trenchant remarks and fresh insights every few pages. Anyone with an interest in contemporary liberal democratic theory will want this book on the shelf." --Christopher Achen, University of Michigan
David Austen-Smith is Professor of Political Science, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Management and Strategy, Northwestern University. Jeffrey S. Banks is Professor of Political Science, California Institute of Technology.
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cover of Positive Political Theory II: Strategy and Structure

Positive Political Theory II

Strategy and Structure

David Austen-Smith and Jeffrey S. Banks

University of Michigan Press, 2005

“A major piece of work . . . a classic. There is no
other book like it.”
—Norman Schofield, Washington University

“The authors succeed brilliantly in tackling a large
number of important questions concerning the
interaction among voters and elected representatives
in the political arena, using a common, rigorous
language.”
—Antonio Merlo, University of Pennsylvania

Positive Political Theory II: Strategy and Structure
is the second volume in Jeffrey Banks and David
Austen-Smith’s monumental study of the links
between individual preferences and collective choice.
The book focuses on representative systems, including
both elections and legislative decision-making
processes, clearly connecting individual preferences to
collective outcomes. This book is not a survey. Rather,
it is the coherent, cumulative result of the authors’
brilliant efforts to indirectly connect preferences to
collective choice through strategic behaviors such as
agenda-selection and voting.

The book will be an invaluable reference and teaching
tool for economists and political scientists, and an
essential companion to any scholar interested in the
latest theoretical advances in positive political theory.


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cover of Postverbal Behavior

Postverbal Behavior

Thomas Wasow

CSLI, 2002

Compared to many languages, English has relatively fixed word order, but the ordering among phrases following the verb exhibits a good deal of variation. This monograph explores factors that influence the choice among possible orders of postverbal elements, testing hypotheses using a combination of corpus studies and psycholinguistic experiments. Wasow's final chapters explore how studies of language use bear on issues in linguistic theory, with attention to the roles of quantitative data and Chomsky's arguments against the use of statistics and probability in linguistics.
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cover of Practical Healthcare Epidemiology: Third Edition

Practical Healthcare Epidemiology

Third Edition

Edited by Ebbing Lautenbach, Keith F. Woeltje, and Preeti N. Malani

University of Chicago Press, 2010

In recent years, issues of infection prevention and control, patient safety, and quality-of-care have become increasingly prominent in healthcare facilities. Practical Healthcare Epidemiology takes a practical, hands-on approach to these issues, addressing all aspects of infection surveillance and prevention in clear, straightforward terms. This fully revised third edition brings together the expertise of more than fifty leaders in healthcare epidemiology who provide clear, sound guidance on infection prevention and control for the full range of patients in all types of healthcare facilities, including those in settings with limited resources. A powerful resource for practitioners in any branch of medicine or public health who are involved in infection prevention and control, whether they are experienced in healthcare epidemiology or new to the field.

“A handy desk reference and an up-to-date primer for trainees and experts alike” —The Journal of the American Medical Association

“An essential for anyone in the field.”—Thomas R. Talbot, Chief Hospital Epidemiologist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center  

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cover of Practical Pedagogy For Library Instructors:17 Innovative

Practical Pedagogy For Library Instructors

17 Innovative

Douglas Cook

Assoc of College & Research Libraries, 2011

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cover of Practical Research Methods for Librarians and Information Professionals

Practical Research Methods for Librarians and Information Professionals

Susan E. Beck

American Library Association, 2008

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cover of Practicing Materiality

Practicing Materiality

Edited by Ruth M. Van Dyke

University of Arizona Press, 2015

It is little wonder that relationships between things and humans are front-and-center in the contemporary social sciences, given the presence of technologies in every conceivable aspect of our lives. From Bruno Latour to Ian Hodder, anthropologists and archaeologists are embracing “thing theory” and the “ontological turn.” In Practicing Materiality, Ruth M. Van Dyke cautions that as anthropologists turn toward animals and things, they run the risk of turning away from people and intentional actions.          

Practicing Materiality focuses on the practical job of applying materiality to anthropological investigations, but with the firm retention of anthropocentrism. The philosophical discussions that run through the nine chapters develop practical applications for material studies, including Heideggerian phenomenology, Gellian secondary agency, object life histories, and bundling. Seven case studies are flanked by an introduction and a discussion chapter. The case studies represent a wide range of archaeological and anthropological contexts, from contemporary New York City and Turkey to fifteenth-century Portugal, the ancient southwest United States, and the ancient Andes. Authors in every chapter argue for the rejection of subject/object dualism, regarding material things as actively involved in the negotiation of power within human social relationships. Practicing Materiality demonstrates that it is possible to focus on the entangled lives of things without losing sight of their political and social implications.
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cover of Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot

Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot

Jean Le Rond d'Alembert

University of Chicago Press, 1995

Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot expresses the hopes, dogmas, assumptions, and prejudices that have come to characterize the French Enlightenment. In this preface to the Encyclopedia, d'Alembert traces the history of intellectual progress from the Renaissance to 1751. Including a revision of Diderot's Prospectus and a list of contributors to the Encyclopedia, this edition, elegantly translated and introduced by Professor Richard Schwab, is one of the great works of the Enlightenment and an outstanding introduction to the philosophes.
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cover of Process-Tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines

Process-Tracing Methods

Foundations and Guidelines

Derek Beach and Rasmus Brun Pedersen

University of Michigan Press, 2013

Process-tracing in social science is a method for studying causal mechanisms linking causes with outcomes. This enables the researcher to make strong inferences about how a cause (or set of causes) contributes to producing an outcome. Derek Beach and Rasmus Brun Pedersen introduce a refined definition of process-tracing, differentiating it into three distinct variants and explaining the applications and limitations of each. The authors develop the underlying logic of process-tracing, including how one should understand causal mechanisms and how Bayesian logic enables strong within-case inferences. They provide instructions for identifying the variant of process-tracing most appropriate for the research question at hand and a set of guidelines for each stage of the research process.

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cover of Process-Tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines

Process-Tracing Methods

Foundations and Guidelines

Derek Beach and Rasmus Brun Pedersen

University of Michigan Press, 2019

Process-tracing in social science is a method for studying causal mechanisms linking causes with outcomes. This enables the researcher to make strong inferences about how a cause (or set of causes) contributes to producing an outcome. In this extensively revised and updated edition, Derek Beach and Rasmus Brun Pedersen introduce a refined definition of process-tracing, differentiating it into four distinct variants and explaining the applications and limitations of each. The authors develop the underlying logic of process-tracing, including how one should understand causal mechanisms and how Bayesian logic enables strong within-case inferences. They provide instructions for identifying the variant of process-tracing most appropriate for the research question at hand and a set of guidelines for each stage of the research process.
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cover of Psychoanalysis--A Theory in Crisis

Psychoanalysis--A Theory in Crisis

Marshall Edelson

University of Chicago Press, 1988

Marshall Edelson identifies the core theory of psychoanalysis and shows how free association and the case study method can provide rational grounds for believing its clinical inferences about the causal role of unconscious sexual fantasies. "Dr. Edelson has committed himself with gusto, persistence and intelligence [to] a spirited defense of psychoanalysis as science—not necessarily as it is, but as it can be in the best of hands as it should be. . . . It is a defense that I hope can resonate strongly in psychoanalytic ranks. It is also a message that I hope would receive a warm reception in that wider intellectual world where ideas matter and where enlightened social policy and cultural cachet are fostered."—Robert Wallerstein, New York Times Book Review
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cover of Psychobiography and Life Narratives

Psychobiography and Life Narratives

Dan P. McAdams and Richard L. Ochberg, eds.

Duke University Press, 1988

Psychobiography and Life Narratives explores a number of exciting new approaches to the psychological understanding of individual lives. Eleven prominent scholars in personality and social, developmental, and clinical psychology have contributed chapters presenting innovative perspectives on discerning and developing “the story of my life” that each person tells and lives by.
Five chapters show how differing psychobiographical approaches can illuminate the lives of Richard Nixon, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Eleanor Marx (Karl Marx’s youngest daughter), author and feminist Vera Brittain, psychologist Henry Murray, and Sigmund Freud (whose peculiar relationship to Leonardo da Vinci shaped and distorted the first psychobiography every written). Two chapters concentrate on the analysis of life histories collected from contemporary American adults at mid-life crises, and the remaining three chapters provide bold new conceptual and methodological perspectives from which to view the study of individual lives and life stories.
This landmark volume promises to make a major contribution to the growing literature on biography and personality.

Contributors. Irving E. Alexander, James William Anderson, Leslie A. Carlson, Rae Carlson, Alan C. Elms, Carol Franz, Lynne Layton, Dan P. McAdams, Richard L. Ochberg, George C. Rosenwald, William McKinley Runyan, Abigail G. Stewart, Jacquelyn Wiersma, David G. Winter

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