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Illustrates relational approaches to the study of social movements and collective action. Contributors analyse most recent developments in the analysis of the role of networks as facilitators or constraints of individual recruitment, various forms of interorganizational networks, and the relationship between social networks and the political context in which social movements operate. They also relate the growing attention to social networks by social movement analysis to broader theoretical debates. Both quantitative and qualitative network analysis are considered, and attention is paid to the time dimension and the evolution of networks, through both simulation models and empirical data. Empirical chapters cover both contemporary and historical episodes of collective action, in reference to authoritarian as well as progressive, left‐libertarian movements. Chapters focusing on individual networks specify different effects of network embeddedness over participation in different types of collective action (Passy, Anheier). Interorganizational relations are explored by looking at leadership dynamics (Diani), the relationship between categorical traits and network position within coalitions (Ansell), and the role of individuals in linking different organizations both synchronically and diachronically (Osa). Network approaches to the political process illustrate shifts in alliance and conflict networks at a time of regime change (Tilly and Wood), the evolution of social networks during protest cycles (Oliver and Myers), and the role of local elites in shaping protest networks in the community (Broadbent). Theoretical chapters discuss network perspectives on social movements in relation to recent theoretical developments in rational choice theory (Gould), cultural analysis (Mische), and the analysis of social mechanisms (McAdam). A radical case is also made for a reorientation of the whole social movement agenda along network lines (Diani).

Spectral methods have long been popular in direct and large eddy simulation of turbulent flows, but their use in areas with complex-geometry computational domains has historically been much more limited. More recently, the need to find accurate solutions to the viscous flow equations around complex configurations has led to the development of high-order discretization procedures on unstructured meshes, which are also recognized as more efficient for solution of time-dependent oscillatory solutions over long time periods. This book, an updated edition on the original text, presents the recent and significant progress in multi-domain spectral methods at both the fundamental and application level. Containing material on discontinuous Galerkin methods, non-tensorial nodal spectral element methods in simplex domains, and stabilization and filtering techniques, this text introduces the use of spectral/hp element methods with particular emphasis on their application to unstructured meshes. It provides a detailed explanation of the key concepts underlying the methods along with practical examples of their derivation and application.

This book develops a philosophical theory of imagination that draws upon recent theories and results in psychology. Ideas about how we read the minds of others have put the concept of imagination firmly back on the agenda for philosophy and psychology. The authors present a theory of what they call imaginative projection; they show how it fits into a philosophically-motivated picture of the mind and of mental states, and how it illuminates and is illuminated by recent developments in cognitive psychology. They argue that we need to recognize a category of desire-in-imagination, and that supposition and fantasy should be classed as forms of imagination. They accommodate some of the peculiarities of perceptual forms of imagining such as visual and motor imagery, and suggest that they are important for mind-reading. They argue for a novel view about the relations between imagination and pretence, and suggest that imagining can be, but need not be, the cause of pretending. They show how the theory accommodates but goes beyond the idea of mental simulation, and argue that the contrast between simulation and theory is neither exclusive nor exhaustive. They argue that we can understand certain developmental and psychiatric disorders as arising from faulty imagination. Throughout, they link their discussion to the uses of imagination in our encounters with art, and they conclude with a chapter on responses to tragedy. The final chapter also offers a theory of emotions that suggests that these states have much in common with perceptual states.

This volume defends an integrated account of the psychological mechanisms underlying “mindreading,” the commonplace capacity to understand the mind. The authors maintain that it is, as commonsense would suggest, vital to distinguish between reading others’ minds and reading one’s own. In reading other minds, the imagination plays a central role. As a result, the authors begin with an explicit and systematic account of pretense and imagination which proposes that pretense representations are contained in a separate mental workspace, the “Possible World Box,” which is part of the basic architecture of the human mind. The mechanisms subserving pretense get recruited in reading other minds, a capacity that implicates multifarious kinds of processes, including those favored by simulation approaches to mindreading, those favored by information-based approaches, and processes that don’t fit into either category. None of these mechanisms or processes, though, explains how we read our own minds, which, according to the authors, requires invoking an entirely independent set of mechanisms.

Computational science, especially computer simulations, is now the dominant procedure in many areas of science. This book contains the first systematic philosophical account of this new scientific method, and draws a parallel between the ways in which such computational methods have enhanced our abilities to mathematically model the world, and the more familiar ways in which scientific instruments have expanded our access to the empirical world. This expansion forms the basis for a new kind of empiricism better suited to the needs of science than the older anthropocentric forms of empiricism. Human abilities are no longer the ultimate standard of correctness within epistemology. The book includes arguments for the primacy of properties rather than objects, for how technology interacts with scientific methods, and a detailed account of how the path from a computational template or model to a scientific application is constructed and revised. This last feature allows us to hold a form of selective realism in which anti-realist arguments based on abstract reconstructions of theories can be avoided. One important consequence of the rise of computational methods is that the traditional organization of the sciences is being replaced by an organization founded on computational templates.

Eliminativism (or eliminative materialism) has been an important and provocative view in the philosophy of mind since the 1970s. Eliminativism claims that the mental states alluded to in our ordinary talk about the mind – particularly intentional states like beliefs, desires, and thoughts – are the posits of a badly mistaken “folk” theory, and thus, like phlogiston, witches and other posits of badly mistaken theories, they do not exist. This volume is a collection of essays that systematically examine the arguments for eliminativism. Ch. 2 illustrates the way in which connectionist models of belief and memory might be used to support the claim that folk psychology is a radically mistaken theory. Ch. 4 argues against the claim that simulation theory undermines the debate between eliminativists and their opponents. Chs. 3 and 5 argue that the case for the premises of the eliminativist argument is problematic in ways that have not been noted in previous discussions. The long title essay (Ch. 1) argues that, even if the premises are true, they do not support the eliminativist conclusion without the addition of some additional premise, and none of the additional premises that might fill the gap, are defensible. Though many writers rely on the theory of reference to fill the gap between premises and conclusion, it is argued that appeals to the theory of reference cannot do the ontological work required by the eliminativist argument.

There is a continuing growth of interest in the computer simulation of materials at the atomic scale, using a variety of academic and commercial computer programs. In all such programs there is some physical model of the interatomic forces. For a student or researcher, the basis of such models is often shrouded in mystery. It is usually unclear how well founded they are, since it is hard to find a discussion of the physical assumptions that have been made in their construction. The lack of clear understanding of the scope and limitations of a given model may lead to its innocent misuse, resulting either in unfair criticism of the model or in the dissemination of nonsensical results. In this book, models of interatomic forces are derived from a common physical basis, namely the density functional theory. The book includes the detailed derivation of pairwise potentials in simple metals, tight-binding models from the simplest to the most sophisticated (self-consistent) kind, and ionic models. It provides a critical appreciation of the broad range of models in current use, and provides the tools for understanding other variants that are described in the literature. Some of the material is new, and some pointers are given to possible future avenues of model development.

Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) — a way to simulate a large number of choices by individual actors — is one of the most exciting practical developments in business and government modeling since the invention of relational databases. It represents a new way to understand data and generate information that has never been available before — a way for businesses and governments to view the future and to understand and anticipate the likely effects of their decisions on their markets, industries, and territories. It thus promises to have far-reaching effects on the way that businesses and governments in many areas use computers to support practical decision-making. This book has three purposes: first, to teach readers how to think about ABMS, that is, about agents and their interactions; second, to teach readers how to explain the features and advantages of ABMS to other people; and third, to teach readers how to actually implement ABMS by building agent-based simulations. It aims to be a complete ABMS resource and also provides a complete collection of ABMS business and government applications resources.

Brownian motion is the incessant motion of small particles immersed in an ambient medium. It is due to fluctuations in the motion of the medium particles on the molecular scale. The name has been carried over to other fluctuation phenomena. This book treats the physical theory of Brownian motion. The extensive mathematical theory, which treats the subject as a subfield of the general theory of random processes, is touched on but not presented in any detail. Random or stochastic process theory and statistical mechanics are the primary tools. The first eight chapters treat the stochastic theory and some applications. The next six present the statistical mechanical point of view. Then follows chapters on applications to diffusion, noise, and polymers, followed by a treatment of the motion of interacting Brownian particles. The book ends with a final chapter treating simulation, fractals, and chaos.

Electrons in solids behave like microscopic bar magnets, and in certain solids these align to produce macroscopic magnetizations. This book deals with the dynamics of this magnetization field. It addresses questions of microscopic mechanism only to the extent that residual interactions of the magnetic moments with other degrees of freedom of the host solid affect the dynamics, particularly the dissipative aspects. Several of these damping mechanisms are evaluated here for their effect on the equations of the magnetization dynamics. These dynamics are intrinsically nonlinear. This is important in the applications, particularly magnetic recording, which involves very large motion of the magnetization, well beyond the validity of linearized (small motion) approximations or limited extensions thereof. Therefore nonlinear solution methods are emphasized, but with only minimal use of numerical simulation.