• 

  Active Inference

  The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior-a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains. Active inference is a "first principles" approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 40.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Combatants in African Conflicts (eBook, PDF)

  This book focuses on the different types of combatants in conflicts in Africa, exploring the fine lines between what might be classified as a militia in one conflict, a rebel in another, or a terrorist in a third. Drawing on the work of Carl von Clausewitz, this book provides a conceptually stable and analytically sound new typology on combatants. Analysing the relationships between state and society, and drawing on Clausewitz's Trinity of passion, chance, and reason, the book presents a set of five types of armed actors: Professionals, Praetorians, Militias, Insurgents, and Mercenaries. Each type is developed through a close reading of foundational theoretical texts, reviews of contemporary studies, and a historical analysis of their unique characteristics. Unlike a reductionist binary perspective, this typology accounts for the dynamic, complex, and evolving relationships of these actors with the state and society. A typology of combatants in conflicts in Africa can provide avenues for more in-depth analysis of such conflicts and holds implications for Security Sector Reform projects and other peace-building programmes. As such, this book will be an essential reference for scholars and students of African Politics and Military and Security Studies.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.95 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Combatants in African Conflicts (eBook, ePUB)

  This book focuses on the different types of combatants in conflicts in Africa, exploring the fine lines between what might be classified as a militia in one conflict, a rebel in another, or a terrorist in a third. Drawing on the work of Carl von Clausewitz, this book provides a conceptually stable and analytically sound new typology on combatants. Analysing the relationships between state and society, and drawing on Clausewitz's Trinity of passion, chance, and reason, the book presents a set of five types of armed actors: Professionals, Praetorians, Militias, Insurgents, and Mercenaries. Each type is developed through a close reading of foundational theoretical texts, reviews of contemporary studies, and a historical analysis of their unique characteristics. Unlike a reductionist binary perspective, this typology accounts for the dynamic, complex, and evolving relationships of these actors with the state and society. A typology of combatants in conflicts in Africa can provide avenues for more in-depth analysis of such conflicts and holds implications for Security Sector Reform projects and other peace-building programmes. As such, this book will be an essential reference for scholars and students of African Politics and Military and Security Studies.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.95 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Globalisation and Local Conflicts in Africa and Asia

  This edited book is written by six authors from Asia and Africa. The individual authors focus on their own country's case or cases that they have been working on. The book features local conflicts in six countries in Asia and Africa and identifies how the local conflicts are affected by the forces of globalization. Cases include Nigeria's oil-related conflicts, the Democratic Republic of Congo's timber conflicts, continuing instability in Mozanbique, Thailand's conflict with regard to AIDS medicine, Myanmar's local conflicts after its reforms, and the Afghanistan's conflicts over minerals. From these diverse case studies, the book examines how globalization and international politics affect local politics and conflicts, and vice versa. Even seemingly internal conflicts are shown to be significantly influenced by globalization forces and to create new dynamism in local politics. While there are other books that explore globalization and conflicts, many of them are conceptually organized with a small number of case studies. The present volume examines local conflicts in relation to globalization and demonstrates how structural inequality vis-a-vis weak stateness and statehood are significantly affected by global political economy.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 94.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Latin American Relations with the Middle East (eBook, ePUB)

  Latin American Relations with the Middle East surveys the dealings of ten Latin American and Caribbean states - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela - with the Middle East. This volume examins these states' external behavior at both an empirical and conceptual level. Empirically, authors seek to examine Latin American and Caribbean foreign policies towards the Middle East in four dimensions: diplomatic attention; trade and investment (including the energy issue); development cooperation; security matters/intelligence, and relationship with multilateralism (Iran, Palestine, and Syria). Case studies are selectively deployed to observe the influence of unfavorable circumstances that have increased since 2015, such as domestic turmoil, wars, economic crisis, ideological bias, and international constraints. Conceptually, the book enhances the theoretical framework for understanding Southern countries' foreign policies, through fomenting dialogue with Latin American and Caribbean regional literature on foreign policy. Authors inquire about how decision-making processes occur, and uncover how influential actors help to test the main hypotheses of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). Forging essential new paths of inquiry, this book is a must read for researchers of International Relations, Foreign Policy, South-South Relations, Latin American Politics and Middle Eastern Politics.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.95 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Latin American Relations with the Middle East (eBook, PDF)

  Latin American Relations with the Middle East surveys the dealings of ten Latin American and Caribbean states - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela - with the Middle East. This volume examins these states' external behavior at both an empirical and conceptual level. Empirically, authors seek to examine Latin American and Caribbean foreign policies towards the Middle East in four dimensions: diplomatic attention; trade and investment (including the energy issue); development cooperation; security matters/intelligence, and relationship with multilateralism (Iran, Palestine, and Syria). Case studies are selectively deployed to observe the influence of unfavorable circumstances that have increased since 2015, such as domestic turmoil, wars, economic crisis, ideological bias, and international constraints. Conceptually, the book enhances the theoretical framework for understanding Southern countries' foreign policies, through fomenting dialogue with Latin American and Caribbean regional literature on foreign policy. Authors inquire about how decision-making processes occur, and uncover how influential actors help to test the main hypotheses of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). Forging essential new paths of inquiry, this book is a must read for researchers of International Relations, Foreign Policy, South-South Relations, Latin American Politics and Middle Eastern Politics.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.95 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  The Road to Unfreedom (eBook, ePUB)

  From the author of international bestseller On Tyranny, this prescient analysis of Russia's ongoing interference in the West is now more relevant than ever. 'One of the best...brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy's retreat in the early years of 21st century' Guardian The past is another country, the old saying goes. The same might be said of the future. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia. In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West; by supporting the far right in Europe, invading Ukraine in 2014, and waging a cyberwar during the 2016 presidential campaign and the EU referendum. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the creation of Donald Trump, an American failure deployed as a Russian weapon. But this threat presents an opportunity to better understand the pillars of our freedoms and face the choices that will determine the future: equality or oligarchy, individualism or totalitarianism, truth or lies. 'A brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 9.49 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Living and Working

  An argument against the ideology of domesticity that separates work from home; lavishly illustrated, with architectural proposals for alternate approaches to working and living. Despite the increasing numbers of people who now work from home, in the popular imagination the home is still understood as the sanctuary of privacy and intimacy. Living is conceptually and definitively separated from work. This book argues against such a separation, countering the prevailing ideology of domesticity with a series of architectural projects that illustrate alternative approaches. Less a monograph than a treatise, richly illustrated, the book combines historical research and design proposals to reenvision home as a cooperative structure in which it is possible to live and work and in which labor is socialized beyond the family-freeing inhabitants from the sense of property and the burden of domestic labor. The projects aim to move the house beyond the dichotomous logic of male/female, husband/wife, breadwinner/housewife, and private/public. They include the reinvention of single-room occupancy as a new model for affordable housing; the reimagining of the simple tower-and-plinth prototype as host to a multiplicity of work activities and enlivening street life; and a plan for a modular, adaptable structure meant to house a temporary dweller. All of these design projects conceive of the house not as a commodity, the form of which is determined by its exchange value, but as an infrastructure defined by its use value.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Assets to Profits

  Praise for From Assets to Profits Competing for IP Value & Return "A timely collection of insights from a cast of leading experts whose experience spans the entire IP ecosystem. Mr. Berman's examination of IP assets and business models--and their myriad dynamics and dependencies--provides a compass that leads readers through a changing landscape." --Damon C. Matteo, Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Palo Alto Research Center, a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation "What is most impressive about Bruce Berman's new book is that it provides a holistic approach to IP management. For most patent holders, IP needs to serve the business, not be it. As many of the contributors to From Assets to Profits point out, considerations such as relationships, alliances, and competitive advantage provide most companies greater ROI than the siren song associated with patent royalties. From Assets to Profits is a welcome addition to the best thinking about managing intellectual assets." --Marshall Phelps, Corporate Vice President for IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft "From Assets to Profits provides a road map for helping IP holders move from an exclusionary strategy to a more inclusive one for creating meaningful profits. Bruce Berman's valuable book helps readers step seamlessly into the shoes of an IP chieftain, investor, broker, open-network innovator, litigator, and economist." --Bill Coughlin, President & CEO, Ford Global Technologies, LLC "When it comes to articulating the value and importance of intellectual property, no one does it better than Bruce Berman. In his fourth book, From Assets to Profits, Berman continues this quest, demonstrating how to profit from IP with concrete examples and insights from the industry's foremost experts. Like his previous books, this is a must-read for all business and finance executives. Berman's books are as conceptually brilliant and as innovative as the people and content they cover." --Steve Lozan, Investment Manager & IP Sector Specialist, Smith Barney

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 56.99 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  A Pedagogical Design for Human Flourishing (eBook, PDF)

  In A Pedagogical Design for Human Flourishing: Transforming Schools with the McCallister Model, Cynthia McCallister presents a revolutionary paradigm for education that is practical, conceptually convincing, and grounded in contemporary behavioral science theory. Beginning with the assertion that equality of educational opportunity depends on access to experiences that are sufficiently appropriate and rich to enable the achievement of diverse human potentials, she provides a comprehensive school design for intervention that demonstrates how to achieve it. Grounded in recent advances in learning science, McCallister asserts three necessary conditions for learning: the need for learners to have access to diverse, rich environmental experiences; the need for them to enjoy fundamental freedom and autonomy to direct their own learning; and access to full and free forms of association. In her model, these conditions provide what is necessary for learners to coordinate their minds with others to develop their identities, personalities, and talents. These conditions are animated in concrete procedures that can be adapted to a wide variety of populations in formal, informal, and remote educational settings. The procedures take the form of rules that learners comply with in the exercise of their freedom. When they are followed, the rules provide a grammar for the social norms that govern the moral worlds of learners and compel them to flourish. Tested over two decades in her work as a teacher, scholar, and school reformer in more than 20 NYC public schools, the McCallister Method has delivered an innovative and disruptive approach to schooling that has proven successful in finally transforming low-performing industrial schools into 21st-century learning organizations. Online support material includes assessments, records, surveys, and more to be used in school design and classroom settings.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 32.95 EUR excl. shipping

---

---