This book covers a range of scientific disciplines, from interdependence between low pH and heavy metal stress, to the genesis of the Maldives, and from the importance of globalization in Turkey’s environmental policies on water to Bluetooth-based robotic model platforms for agriculture. Also explored are the fields of architecture and landscape ecology and geography. Contributions in each chapter are prepared by experts in the field, and mirror the advances in their respective approaches. This book contains important recommendations for future tasks within each discipline, and supplies extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter, as well as tables and figures that illustrate the research findings. The volume will attract the attention of researchers and local authorities and implementers, and will be of great interest to academics, teachers and students.

This international exploration on different economic systems provides a comprehensive account which brings a wide range of countries to the forefront in terms of both comparability and accountability, this study shines a light on the differences in systems between states, and provides information to equip readers to minimize those differences.

For decades, politicians, businessmen and other leaders have been concerned with the quality of education, including early childhood education, in the United States. While more than 50% of the children between the ages of three and five are enrolled in preschool and kindergarten programs in the United States, no state, federal, or national standards exist for science or technology education in preschool or kindergarten programs. Knowledge about science and technology is an important requirement for all in contemporary society. An increasing number of professions require the use of scientific concepts and technological skills and society as a whole depends on scientific knowledge. Scientific and technological knowledge should be a part of every individual’s education. There are many ways to enhance young children’s scientific thinking and problem-solving skills as well as their technological abilities. The purpose of this volume is to present a critical analysis of reviews of research on science and technology education in early childhood education. The first part of the volume includes contributions by leading scholars in science, while the second part includes contributions by leading scholars in technology.

There is an alluring desire that research should lead us to find the practical knowledge that enables people to live a good life in a just and equitable society. This desire haunted the 19th century emergence of the social sciences as a discipline, then became more pronounced in the postwar mobilizations of research. Today that desire lives on in the international assessments of national schools and in the structure of professional education, both of which influence government modernization of schools and also provide for people’s well-being. American policy thus reflects research in which reforms are verified by “scientific, empirical evidences” about “what works” in experiments, and “will work” therefore in society. The book explores the idea that practical and useful knowledge changes over time, and shows how this knowledge has been (re)visioned in contemporary research on educational reform, instructional improvement, and professionalization. The study of science draws on a range of social and cultural theories and historical studies to understand the politics of science, as well as scientific knowledge that is concerned with social and educational change. Research hopes to change social conditions to create a better life, and to shape people whose conduct embodies these valued characteristics—the good citizen, parent, or worker. Yet this hope continually articulates the dangers that threaten this future. Thomas Popkewitz explores how the research to correct social wrongs is paradoxically entangled with the inscription of differences that ultimately hamper the efforts to include.

As branches of research and knowledge continue to expand, platforms for gathering and understanding new information become important aspects of organizational improvement. Contemporary Knowledge and Systems Science provides emerging research on the methods and applications of knowledge systems in social science, economics, and technological developments. While highlighting topics such as knowledge retention, organizational information, and evolutionary algorithms, this publication explores the different types of new knowledge from a systems perspective. This book is an important resource for researchers, academics, practitioners, and graduate-level students seeking current research on the connections between technology and information in order to manage new data.

The tourism industry is striving hard to create attractive worlds for its customers. Both as a necessity and as a challenge, this field is overwhelmed by the imagination economy, but raises several questions about tourists, providing opportunities to move deeper into the understanding of complexities involved in relationships among tourists, tourism sites and their historical structure, and environmental sustainability. As a result of this, a serious academic interest in tourism has developed over recent decades as a complex aspect of investigation into humans and their environment. This volume brings together case studies from different parts of the world, focusing on tourism and its interactions with the environment. It provides a general outline of theoretical issues and their practicality in different industrialising countries from both the East and the West. The book will appeal to researchers involved in tourism studies and environmental interactions, as well as academicians and tourism agencies.

In this provocative and broad-ranging work, the authors argue that the ways in which knowledge - scientific, social and cultural - is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying features of the new mode of knowledge production - reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity - the authors show how these features connect with the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology is accorded central concern, the

Having examined previous volumes of the Boston Studies series devoted to different countries, and having discussed the best way to present contemporary research in France, we have arrived at a careful selection of 15 participants, including the organizers. Our aim is to bring together philosophers and practicing scientist from the major institutions of the country, both universities and research centers. The areas of research represented here cover a wide spectrum of sciences, from mathematics and physics to the life sciences, as well as linguistics and economics. This selection is a showcase of French philosophy of science, illustrating the different methods employed: logico-linguistic analysis, rational reconstruction and historical inquiry. These participants have the ability to relate their research both to the French tradition and current discussions on the international scene. Also included is a substantial historical introduction, explaining the development of philosophy of science in France, the various schools of thought and methods as well as the major concepts and their significance.

More than ninety percent of all scientific history has been made during the last half century. So far, however, only a fraction of historical scholarship has dealt with this period. Merely a decade ago, most scientific historians considered recent science - the scientific culture created, lived and remembered by contemporary scientists - an area of study best left to the historical actors themselves.