This book presents a systematic overview of cutting-edge research in the field of parametric modeling of personal income and wealth distribution, which allows one to represent how income/wealth is distributed within a given population. The estimated parameters may be used to gain insights into the causes of the evolution of income/wealth distribution over time, or to interpret the differences between distributions across countries. Moreover, once a given parametric model has been fitted to a data set, one can straightforwardly compute inequality and poverty measures. Finally, estimated parameters may be used in empirical modeling of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on the evolution of personal income/wealth distribution. In reviewing the state of the art in the field, the authors provide a thorough discussion of parametric models belonging to the “κ-generalized” family, a new and fruitful set of statistical models for the size distribution of income and wealth that they have developed over several years of collaborative and multidisciplinary research. This book will be of interest to all who share the belief that problems of income and wealth distribution merit detailed conceptual and methodological attention.

This book studies social phenomena in a new way, by making judicious use of computer technology. The book addresses the entire spectrum of classic studies in social science, from experiments to the computational models, with a multidisciplinary approach. The book is suitable for those who want to get a picture of what it means to do social research today, and also to get an indication of the major open issues. The book is connected to a database of code for simulations, experimental data and allows to activate a subscription to a teaching tool using NetLogo, a programming language widely used in the social studies. The authors are researchers with first-hand experience research projects, both basic and applied. The work will be useful for those who want to understand more of the social, economic and political phenomena via computer applications.

While methodological individualism is a fundamental approach within the social sciences, it is often misunderstood. This highlights the need for a discursive and up-to-date reference work analyzing this approach’s classic arguments and assumptions in the light of contemporary issues in sociology, economics and philosophy. This two-volume handbook presents the first comprehensive overview of methodological individualism. Chapters discuss historical and contemporary debates surrounding this central approach within the social sciences, as well as cutting edge developments related to the individualist tradition with philosophical and scientific implications. Bringing together multiple contributions from the world’s leading experts on this important tradition of theorizing, this collective endeavor provides teachers, researchers and students in sociology, economics, and philosophy with a reliable and critical understanding of the founding principles, key thinkers and intellectual development of MI since the late 19th century.

The book presents the results of the first comprehensive empirical study on the control of minimum wages in Germany. It offers an overview of the challenges and problems of enforcement and compliance with minimum wages, taking three sectors as examples (construction, meat industry, hospitality). On the basis of numerous interviews with experts from the field (e.g. trade unions, employers' associations, customs) and a comprehensive evaluation of the broad international research literature, it identifies starting points and strategies for sustainably improving compliance with and enforcement of minimum wages.

This book presents a sociomaterial perspective on work and organizational practices within the operating room. Looking at medical work from a sociological perspective and drawing on ethnographic observations conducted in a hospital's operating block, this book analyses the entanglements of humans and technologies in the execution of everyday activities. It highlights how the sociomateriality of work and organizational practices manifests in the encounters between operators and material artifacts and in the way objects and technologies participate in processes and practices of organizational communication. Objects and technologies are also shaped by these very practices, giving rise to a recursive relationship wherein technology, communication, and organizing are intertwined.

This book takes you on a journey through the brain, its function and its impact on leadership. The young business field of neuroleadership is founded on the belief that understanding the brain can give leaders new and powerful insights into human behaviour and how to effectively tap into that knowledge to generate better returns in business. The book approaches the background, history, and major thinkers in the field, but also reassesses the fundamental concept of neuroleadership. The authors look into the fundamental basic needs of human beings, how they are represented in the neural networks, and how this manifests in motivational drives. The book also focuses explicitly on how impactful organisational tools can be from the viewpoint of the brain. By following this methodology, the reader will be able to use the knowledge of neuroscience at the workplace to better address individuals’ brains and hence tap into the full power of brains in business.

This book explores the implications of acknowledging uncertainty and black swans for regulation of high-hazard technologies, for stakeholder acceptability of potentially hazardous activities and for risk governance. The conventional approach to risk assessment, which combines the likelihood of an event and the severity of its consequences, is poorly suited to situations where uncertainty and ambiguity are prominent features of the risk landscape. The new definition of risk used by ISO, “the effect of uncertainty on [achievement of] one’s objectives”, recognizes this paradigm change. What lessons can we draw from the management of fire hazards in Edo-era Japan? Are there situations in which increasing uncertainty allows more effective safety management? How should society address the risk of potentially planet-destroying scientific experiments?

Dieses Buch bietet Einblicke in die Bandbreite agrar- und regional-soziologischer Forschung und eng verwandter Disziplinen in Österreich. Es widmet sich den vielfältigen Lebensrealitäten von Akteurinnen und Akteuren in ländlichen, insbesondere alpinen Regionen. Die Beiträge beleuchten Themen wie Wandlungsprozesse und Zukunftsperspektiven, Sozialkapital und Lebensqualität, Werthaltungen und Konsumpräferenzen sowie Landnutzung und Familienlandwirtschaft.

Verbraucherpolitik wurde in Deutschland seit ihrem Bestehen in den 1950er Jahren vorwiegend als ein Aktions‐ und Maßnahmenbündel verstanden und betrieben, das in erster Linie staatlicherseits initiiert und institutionalisiert wurde. Oftmals auch wurden von Staats wegen entsprechende Aufträge erteilt und Fördermodelle aufgesetzt, wodurch ein Erscheinungsbild entstand, als ob man es im Grunde nur mit einer durch die Makropolitik verordneten ‚Verbraucherpolitik von oben‘ herab zu tun hätte. Nicht, dass in diesen zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten nicht auch immer wieder Versuche unternommen worden wären, verbraucherpolitische Anstöße aus der Mitte der Zivilgesellschaft – oft in Gestalt kleiner Bürgerinitiativen – zu geben. Und gerade in den letzten Jahren sind einige neue Verbraucherorganisationen entstanden, die ungleich basisnäher operieren.

This book links knowledge management literature and information systems research to explore the process of knowledge preservation within a community of practice. It contributes to existing literature in different ways. First, it provides a conceptualization of the “community knowledge preservation” process. In contrast to previous knowledge management research, knowledge preservation is thus viewed as a process in its own right rather than an integral part of knowledge creation and sharing.

This book reports cutting-edge cases of emerging health technologies. Some health care fields are experiencing paradigmatic shifts because of robotic technologies and the new relationships that they create in r-Health (r-Curing and r-Caring) activities. The book explores emerging health care technologies such as image-guided surgical robotics, pharmacy robots, new visualisation methods (3D, 4D & ″5D″) and home telehealth management systems and their acceptance in the workplace but also, more generally, their special role in business and society.

Nachhaltigkeit stellt die Frage des guten Lebens. Sie meint Resilienz und Lernfähigkeit, um Krisen vorzubeugen oder zu überwinden, die unsere Existenz und ein friedliches Zusammenleben gefährden. In der bisherigen Nachhaltigkeitsdebatte hat die soziale Ungleichheit eher eine Randrolle gespielt, dies liegt auch an der Genese des Leitbildes „nachhaltige Entwicklung“ auf der internationalen Bühne. Das essential zeigt, warum es keine Nachhaltigkeit in einem Kontext der wachsenden sozialen Ungleichheit geben kann. Historisch gehört soziale Ungleichheit zu den wesentlichen Ursachen von gesellschaftlichem Untergang, das essential zeigt warum. Wie können sich Strukturen der sozialen Ungleichheit aufrechterhalten, obwohl viele Menschen vor allem die Kosten davontragen?

This book is a compilation of economic views on the purpose of life. It follows a unique approach, starting with propositions from diverse fields that act as governing laws of the purpose of life in economics, then guiding the reader through the physical, philosophical, and psychological views of the purpose of life, as economics and economic theories can find their roots in all these areas. The book concludes with the purpose of life presented through economic doctrines (from the pre-classical, to classical, to neo-classical schools of economic thought), through the lens of economic development, and from the perspective of several religious doctrines.