To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Asymmetric info.
Books on the topic 'Asymmetric info'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 books for your research on the topic 'Asymmetric info.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse books on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
North, Jill. Time in Thermodynamics. Edited by Craig Callender. Oxford University Press, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199298204.003.0011.
Full textAbstract:
It is often claimed, or hoped, that some temporal asymmetries are explained by the thermodynamic asymmetry in time. Thermodynamics, the macroscopic physics of pressure, temperature, volume, and so on, describes many temporally asymmetric processes. Heat flows spontaneously from hot objects to cold objects (in closed systems), never the reverse. More generally, systems spontaneously move from non-equilibrium states to equilibrium states, never the reverse. Delving into the foundations of statistical mechanics, this chapter reviews the many open questions in that field as they relate to temporal asymmetry. Taking a stand on many of them, it tackles questions about the nature of probabilities, the role of boundary conditions, and even the nature and scope of statistical mechanics.
2
Renic, Neil C. Asymmetric Killing. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198851462.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This book offers an engaging and historically informed account of the moral challenge of radically asymmetric violence—warfare conducted by one party in the near-complete absence of physical risk, across the full scope of a conflict zone. What role does physical risk and material threat play in the justifications for killing in war? And crucially, is there a point at which battlefield violence becomes so one-directional as to undermine the moral basis for its use? In order to answers these questions, Asymmetric Killing delves into the morally contested terrain of the warrior ethos and Just War Tradition, locating the historical and contemporary role of reciprocal risk within both. This book also engages two historical episodes of battlefield asymmetry, military sniping and manned aerial bombing. Both modes of violence generated an imbalance of risk between opponents so profound as to call into question their permissibility. These now-resolved controversies will then be contrasted with the UAV-exclusive violence of the United States, robotic killing conducted in the absence of a significant military ground presence in conflict theatres such as Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. As will be revealed, the radical asymmetry of this latter case is distinct, undermining reciprocal risk at the structural level of war. Beyond its more resolvable tension with the warrior ethos, UAV-exclusive violence represents a fundamental challenge to the very coherence of the moral justifications for killing in war.
3
Zagajewski, Adam. Asymmetry. FSG Adult, 2019.
Find full text
4
Zagajewski, Adam. Asymmetry: Poems. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018.
Find full text
5
Zagajewski, Adam. Asymmetry: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Find full text
6
Knight, Alec. An Asymmetric Comparative International Law Approach to Treaty Interpretation. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190697570.003.0020.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter illustrates an asymmetric comparative international law approach to treaty interpretation through the example of the CEDAW Committee’s greater willingness to go beyond a margin of appreciation to tolerate progressive deviations rather than regressive deviations in the interpretation of CEDAW’s provisions. Section I examines the interactions between the CEDAW Committee and states parties. Section II discusses how the Committee’s asymmetric approach to treaty interpretation fits within a comparative international law project. Section III provides an introduction to the CEDAW Committee. Section IV illustrates the CEDAW Committee’s inflexible treatment of Muslim states parties’ reservations to the Convention, which constitute regressive deviations. Section V analyzes the Committee’s permissive treatment of the Scandinavian approach to CEDAW. Section VI explores how the asymmetric approach allows states to develop interpretations of treaties. Section VII concludes and describes potential future avenues of research into the asymmetric comparative international law approach to treaty interpretation.
7
Hoerl, Christoph, Teresa McCormack, and Alison Fernandes, eds. Temporal Asymmetries in Philosophy and Psychology. Oxford University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862901.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
Humans’ attitudes towards an event often vary depending on whether the event has already happened or has yet to take place. The dread felt at the thought of a forthcoming examination turns into relief once it is over. People also value past events less than future ones—offering less pay for work already carried out than for the same work to be carried out in the future, as recent research in psychology shows. This volume brings together philosophers and psychologists with a shared interest in such psychological past/future asymmetries. It asks questions such as: What different kinds of psychological past/future asymmetries are there, and how are they related? Under what conditions do humans exhibit them? To what extent do they reflect features of time itself, or particular beliefs people have about time? Are they rational, or at least rationally permissible, or should we aspire to being temporally neutral? What exactly does temporal neutrality consist in?
8
Kachelriess, Michael. Baryogenesis. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198802877.003.0022.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter shows that a baryon asymmetry can be generated only if the Sakharov conditions are satisfied. The required departure from thermal equilibrium can be realised either in first-order phase transitions or in out-of-equilibrium decays. Sphaleron transitions as a possible way to transfer a lepton into a baryon asymmetry are covered and the Boltzmann equation governing the baryon asymmetry generated in particle decays is derived. A brief review of baryogenesis during the electroweak phase transition is presented.
9
Maher, Kristen Hill, and David Carruthers. Unequal Neighbors. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197557198.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
San Diego and Tijuana are the site of a national border enforcement spectacle, but they are also neighboring cities with deeply intertwined histories, cultures, and economies. In Unequal Neighbors: Place Stigma and the Making of a Local Border, Kristen Hill Maher and David Carruthers shift attention from the national border to a local one, examining the role of place stigma in reinforcing actual and imagined inequalities between these cities. Widespread “bordered imaginaries” in San Diego represent it as a place of economic vitality, safety, and order, while stigmatizing Tijuana as a zone of poverty, crime, and corruption. These dualisms misrepresent complex realities on the ground, but they also have real material effects: the vision of a local border benefits some actors in the region while undermining others. Based on a wide range of original empirical materials, the book examines how asymmetries between these cities have been produced and reinforced through stigmatizing representations of Tijuana in media, everyday talk, economic relations, and local tourism discourse and practices. However, both place stigma and borders are subject to contestation, and the study also examines “debordering” practices and counternarratives about Tijuana’s image. While the details of the study are particular to this corner of the world, the processes it documents offer a window into the making of unequal neighbors more broadly. The dynamics of this case present a framework for understanding how inequalities between places rest in part on cultural practices that produce asymmetric borders.
10
Marmodoro, Anna. Aristotelian Powers at Work. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198796572.003.0005.
Full textAbstract:
This paper puts powers to work by developing a broadly Aristotelian account of causation, built on the fundamental idea (which Aristotle found in Plato, attributed by him to Heraclitus) that causation is a mutual interaction between powers. On this Aristotelian view, causal powers manifest them-selves in dependence on the manifestation of their mutual partners. (See also Heil, this volume; Mumford, this volume; and Martin 2008.) The manifestations of two causal power partners are co-determined, co-varying, and co-extensive in time. (See Marmodoro 2006.) Yet, causation has a direction and is thus asymmetric. This asymmetry is what underpins metaphysically the distinction between causal agent and patient. The proposed Aristotelian analysis of the interaction between mutually manifesting causal powers is distinctive, in that it pays justice to the intuition that there is agency in causation. That is, agency is not a metaphorical way of describing what causal powers do. For some powers, it is a way of being that instantiates the non-anthropomorphic sense in which powers are causal agents. This point is brought out in the paper in relation to the explanation of the concept of change. In an Aristotelian fashion, the paper argues that the distinction be-tween agent and patient in causation is pivotal to offering a realist account of causation that does not reify the interaction of the reciprocal causal partners into a relation. On the proposed view, the interaction between mutually manifesting causal partners consists in the power of one substance being realized in another substance. Specifically, the agent’s causal powers metaphysically belong to the agent, but come to be realized in the patient. The significance of this is that the interaction of the agent’s and the patient’s powers is not a relation; rather, it is an ex-tension of the constitution of the agent onto the patient, which occurs when agent and patient interact and their powers are mutually manifested. Thus the proposed Aristotelian account of causation explains the mutual interaction between manifestation partners—potentiality, agency, and change—as irreducible to one another, but interconnected.
11
Benkler, Yochai, Robert Farris, and Hal Roberts. Network Propaganda. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190923624.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This book examines the shape, composition, and practices of the United States political media landscape. It explores the roots of the current epistemic crisis in political communication with a focus on the remarkable 2016 U.S. president election culminating in the victory of Donald Trump and the first year of his presidency. The authors present a detailed map of the American political media landscape based on the analysis of millions of stories and social media posts, revealing a highly polarized and asymmetric media ecosystem. Detailed case studies track the emergence and propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere that took advantage of structural weaknesses in the media institutions across the political spectrum. This book describes how the conservative faction led by Steve Bannon and funded by Robert Mercer was able to inject opposition research into the mainstream media agenda that left an unsubstantiated but indelible stain of corruption on the Clinton campaign. The authors also document how Fox News deflects negative coverage of President Trump and has promoted a series of exaggerated and fabricated counter narratives to defend the president against the damaging news coming out of the Mueller investigation. Based on an analysis of the actors that sought to influence political public discourse, this book argues that the current problems of media and democracy are not the result of Russian interference, behavioral microtargeting and algorithms on social media, political clickbait, hackers, sockpuppets, or trolls, but of asymmetric media structures decades in the making. The crisis is political, not technological.
12
Back, Kerry E. Information, Strategic Trading, and Liquidity. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190241148.003.0024.
Full textAbstract:
The chapter describes some asymmetric information models of liquidity. In these models, trades move prices because of the possibility that the trades are based on information not known to the market. A strategic trader is one who takes into consideration that her trades move prices. The chapter describes the Glosten‐Milgrom model of the bidask spread, the Kyle model of market depth, the Glosten model of limit‐order markets, and models of auctions. Except for the auction models, prices are set in these models by uninformed market makers who face adverse selection from informed traders. In the auction models, prices are set by informed individuals bidding against one another. The winner’s curse, the revenue equivalence theorem, and related aspects of auctions are explained.
13
Richemond-Barak, Daphné. Tunnels in Conflict. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190457242.003.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter paints a panoramic and multifaceted picture of tunnel warfare across time and geography. It begins with World War I, which has marked history with powerful tunnel mining attacks, face-to-face underground combat, and the demonstration of how tunnel users improve their skills on the go. It proceeds to focus on underground combat through World War II, the Vietnam War, the wars in Afghanistan, the War in Syria, and cross-border tunnels in Egypt and Israel. It shows that underground warfare has evolved into a global phenomenon that is currently benefiting from strategic and technological tailwinds. Asymmetric conflicts, where the aerial and ground superiority of one party stands out, are particularly vulnerable to the spread of underground warfare.
14
Scarpa, Raffaele, Francesco Caso, Luisa Costa, Rosario Peluso, Nicola Matteo Dario Di Minno, and Antonio Del Puente. Peripheral arthritis. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198737582.003.0010.
Full textAbstract:
Clinical presentation of peripheral arthritis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), has been described by Moll and Wright who classified it into four subsets: symmetrical polyarthritis, asymmetrical oligoarthritis, distal interphalangeal (DIP) arthritis and arthritis mutilans. In the symmetrical polyarthritis subset, the distribution of articular involvement is similar to rheumatoid arthritis and this has for many years justified the inappropriate use of the terminology ‘rheumatoid-like form’, at present completely abandoned. Oligoarthritis is characterized by asymmetrical involvement of few joints (less than four), which include scattered DIP or proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints and/or metatarsophalangeal joints. DIP arthritis may occur with symmetrical or asymmetrical features, and it is often in strict association with onycopathy. The arthritis mutilans pattern is characterized by osteolysis of phalanx and metacarpals and it is very rare, occurring in less than 1% of patients with established form of arthritis. In 15-20% of the cases the arthritis may precede the onset of the psoriatic skin rash. Consequently, psoriatic arthritis ‘sine psoriasis’ should not be considered a rare clinical finding. In this subset articular involvement is clinically expressed, while cutaneous is apparently absent. Laboratory tests and imaging are relevant for differential diagnosis which in some presentations may represent a diagnostic challenge. The outcome of peripheral patterns of PsA patients is related not only to the spectrum of peripheral phenotypes, but also to early diagnosis, and metabolic aspects, which may affect excess in morbidity and mortality.
15
Hu, Xuhui. Encoding applied arguments. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198808466.003.0006.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter applies the theoretical framework of events to the study of non-core arguments. The applied argument in the symmetric applicative construction is introduced by a PP. This PP serves as the modifier of the event predicate, and its head, a null P, is incorporated into V. In an asymmetric applicative, including the ditransitive construction in English, two predicates are involved: in addition to the matrix verb, the other predicate is a PHAVEP. The derivation of this construction is therefore by nature identical to that of English resultatives. An implication of this chapter concerns the syntactic distinction between core arguments and non-core arguments. The core argument is merged in either [Spec EP] or [Spec FP], while the applied argument is introduced elsewhere providing its merge position is permitted by general syntactic constraints.
16
Basrur, Rajesh. India’s Policy Toward Pakistan. Edited by David M. Malone, C. Raja Mohan, and Srinath Raghavan. Oxford University Press, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198743538.013.27.
Full textAbstract:
India’s most difficult foreign policy challenge has been Pakistan. At one level, the relationship has been managed reasonably well given the fundamental contradiction between India’s status quo-ist approach on Kashmir and Pakistan’s determination to alter the status quo. At another, Indian policy-makers’ inability to meet the challenge effectively reflects the constraints imposed by major policy choices. Jawaharlal Nehru opted for a set of ‘independent’ strategic and economic policies that congealed into ‘non-alignment’ and ‘self-sufficiency’. This left India militarily and economically weak and unable to counter Pakistan’s sustained bid to wrest Kashmir. A later set of choices encompasses failure to anticipate the consequences of Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear capability, reluctance to match Islamabad’s asymmetric strategy of pressurizing India, and a tendency to slip back into the autonomy-oriented policy template of the Cold War era. Consequently, India’s capacity to fashion an optimal policy towards Pakistan continues to be significantly constrained.
17
Kalantzakos, Sophia. Conclusion. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190670931.003.0006.
Full textAbstract:
The case of rare earths provides an important window into a new set of international challenges. China, a major power on the rise, maintains its dominance over these crucial strategic materials showing its willingness to use its position to further its political and economic goals. Moreover, the case provides insight into the overall inability of China’s international competitors and rivals to effectively remedy this asymmetry, allowing China to maintain its critical advantage in high tech, renewables and defense applications.As elements, rare earths are enablers. As political instruments, they are increasingly turning into a catalyst in a new era of potentially fraught international relations.
18
Harris, Ellen T. Ground Bass Techniques. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190271664.003.0006.
Full textAbstract:
The movements in Dido and Aeneas built over a ground (repeating) bass illustrate Purcell’s achievement in balancing repetitive patterning with asymmetrical phrase structure, thus transforming a common compositional artifice into artistic expression. In “Ah, Belinda,” he writes a declamation and an air over the same repeating bass pattern. In “Oft she visits,” the collapse of normalcy into destructive chaos depicted in the text is illustrated by the alteration he makes to the relationship between the repeating bass and the vocal line. Dido’s Lament is the most extensively constructed of these airs, the links to the preceding and following movements creating an extended scene depicting Dido’s dying moments.
19
Benkler, Yochai, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts. Polarization in American Politics. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190923624.003.0010.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter reviews the political science literature on polarization, showing that polarization in American politics long precedes the internet and results primarily from asymmetric political-elite-driven dynamics. This chapter first considers the polarization of political elites and the public before discussing how social identity begets party affiliation that helps explain why polarization can take on such deeply affective negative responses to partisans of the other party. The chapter shows that party elites, in particular elected representatives, have experienced significant party polarization in the sense that liberals and conservatives have mostly sorted themselves into Democrats and Republicans, respectively, and that the most visible component of this move was the realignment of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party. The broader population, if it has polarized at all, has polarized affectively—in the way it feels about the other party—rather than ideologically, or the practical policy preferences it holds.
20
Hock Tsen, Wong. Money and Banking. UMS Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.51200/moneyandbankingumspress2019-978-967-2166-61-0.
Full textAbstract:
Money and banking are about money, payment systems, banking and the central bank in an economy. The information on money and banking enables economic agents to make a better financial decision in the economy. Money is an exchange for goods and services and to settle debts. There is a link between the money supply and the monetary base. The money supply will increase or decrease when the monetary base or the money multiplier increases or decreases. The value of money will deteriorate fast when inflation is high. A payment system is an arrangement for exchange, which can be categorised into store-of-value systems and account-based systems. Asymmetric information can lead to adverse selection and moral hazard problems and thus, the asymmetric information problem can trigger the financial crisis problem. Banks can be commercial banks, investment banks and Islamic banks. Banks pool savings, provide safekeeping, accounting services and the payment systems, provide liquidity, diversify risk and provide financial information. Banking development is said to have a vital role in economic growth. Balance sheet management is important for the smooth running of the business of banks. Theory of term structure of interest rate attempts to explain the shape of the yield curve over time. Interest rate risk is a significant risk in the bank as a change in interest rate can affect both sides of the balance sheet of the bank. Financial innovation and bank consolidation are important issues in money and banking. The central bank manages monetary policy and oversees the financial system in an economy. The independence of the central bank can be a goal and operational independence. There are pro and con for the independence of the central bank and for the central bank to prick asset price bubble. This book can be divided into three main parts, namely money and the payment systems, banking and central bank. Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 explains money and the payment systems. Chapter 3 to Chapter 7 are banking. Chapter 8 is the central bank. Chapter 9 is concluding remarks. This book provides some fundamentals in money and banking for the economic agents, namely households, firms, governments and foreigners.
21
Gilabert, Pablo. Reflections on Human Rights and Power. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198713258.003.0023.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter explores the tensions between the normative ideal of human rights and the facts of asymmetric power. First, it reconstructs and assesses important power-related worries about human rights. These worries are sometimes presented as falsifying the view that human rights exist, or at least as warranting the abandonment of human rights practice. The chapter argues that the worries do not warrant such conclusions. Instead, they motivate the identification of certain desiderata for the amelioration of human rights practice. The chapter identifies twelve such desiderata. Second, this chapter proposes a strategy for satisfying these desiderata. In particular, it suggests some ways to build empowerment into the human rights project that reduce the absolute and relative powerlessness of human rights holders, while also identifying an ethics of responsibility and solidarity for contexts in which power deficits will not dissolve. Power analysis does not debunk the human rights project. Properly articulated, it is an important tool for those pursuing it.
22
Huang, Yan. Neo-Gricean Pragmatics. Edited by Yan Huang. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697960.013.12.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this chapter is to provide a state-of-the-art survey of classical and especially neo-Gricean pragmatics, focusing on the bipartite model put forward by Horn and the trinitarian model advanced by Levinson. It assesses the role neo-Gricean pragmatics plays in effecting a radical simplification of the lexicon, semantics, and formal syntax in linguistic theory respectively, covering lexical narrowing, lexical cloning, lexical blocking, and lexicalization asymmetry in logical operators, and concentrating on pragmatic intrusion into what is said, Grice’s circle, and the pragmatics–semantics interface, and anaphora and binding.
23
Katirji, Bashar. Case 27. Edited by Bashar Katirji. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190603434.003.0031.
Full textAbstract:
Mononeuropathy multiplex is a disorder which distinguishes itself from peripheral polyneuropathy by involvement of specific individual peripheral nerves. Mononeuropathy multiplex is often asymmetrical and is classified, based on electrophysiologic and pathologic findings, into axonal and demyelinating types. Mononeuritis multiplex is a term that is used exclusively for cases of axonal multiple mononeuropathies due to peripheral nerve vasculitis. This may be associated with connective tissue disease or hepatitis B and C infection. This case outlines the clinical and electrophysiological findings in mononeuritis multiplex and discusses the differential diagnosis of systemic and nonsystemic vasculitic neuropathy. The causes and pathological findings that characterize vasculitic neuropathy are highlighted.
24
Mačák, Kubo. Internationalization. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198819868.003.0002.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter analyses and examines the existing modalities of conflict internationalization, arguing that there are two principal mechanisms through which a prima facie non-international armed conflict may transform into an international armed conflict. Firstly, ‘standard internationalization’ occurs when two independent subjects of international law become engaged against one another as the conflict develops, either as the result of an intervention by an external actor such as a third state or an international organization, or via an internal development if the territorial state dissolves into two or more successor states during the conflict. Secondly, ‘complementary internationalization’ covers those modalities, in which the state/non-state asymmetry of the parties is maintained, and yet the situation transforms into an international armed conflict in law. This process may either be absolute, as with so-called wars of national liberation, or it may be relative, as in internationalization through recognition of belligerency, special agreements, or unilateral declarations.
25
Grare, Frédéric. The Impact of the US Factor on India’s Asia Policy. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190859336.003.0003.
Full textAbstract:
The convergence of interests between India and the United States extend to most major regional issues. Both countries intend to pursue regional cooperation and develop an inclusive regional security architecture. Yet significant perception gaps persist between the two countries linked to their asymmetry of power as well as geographical locations. India does not want to be caught in a zero-sum game between China and the United States and remains uncertain about the willingness of the United States to act as a security provider. The relationship is ultimately based on a quid pro quo that takes into account US interests and India’s own constraints. A strong but autonomous India contributes to United States interests in the region.
26
Sassen, Saskia. Cities as One Site for Religion and Violence. Edited by Michael Jerryson, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Margo Kitts. Oxford University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.013.0032.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter covers the question of organized religions in the complex global modernity. It explores a range of interactions between the rise of cities as key global spaces for economic, political, and cultural conditions, and the rise of religion as a major force in setting where it was not quite so in the twentieth century, which saw the rise of the secularizing state. The chapter develops the urbanizing of war, as it feeds a particularly acute and violent bridging of cities with religious conflicts, and then takes two specific instances of asymmetric war, one in Mumbai and one in Gaza, to investigate the variable and contradictory elements in this bridging. Religion has emerged as one key organizing and legitimating passion, even as it is often not the cause. The Mumbai attacks had succeeded in drawing a conventional inter-state conflict into the specifics and momentary event that was that attack. Gaza displays the limits of power and the limits of war. The chapter makes visible the territorial conflict driving some of the current religious conflict, even as both sides make use of this long history to justify their actions.
27
van der Wal, Jenneke. A Featural Typology of Bantu Agreement. Oxford University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198844280.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
The Bantu languages are in some sense remarkably uniform (subject, verb, order (SVO) basic word order, noun classes, verbal morphology), but this extensive language family also show a wealth of morphosyntactic variation. Two core areas in which such variation is attested are subject and object agreement. The book explores the variation in Bantu subject and object marking on the basis of data from 75 Bantu languages, discovering striking patterns (the Relation between Asymmetry and Non-Doubling Object Marking (RANDOM), and the Asymmetry Wants Single Object Marking (AWSOM) correlation), and providing a novel syntactic analysis. This analysis takes into account not just phi agreement, but also nominal licensing and information structure. A Person feature, associated with animacy, definiteness, or givenness, is shown to be responsible for differential object agreement, while at the same time accounting for doubling vs. non-doubling object marking—a hybrid solution to an age-old debate in Bantu comparative morphosyntax. It is furthermore proposed that low functional heads can Case-license flexibly downwards or upwards, depending on the relative topicality of the two arguments involved. This accounts for the properties of symmetric object marking in ditransitives (for Appl), and subject inversion constructions (for v). By keeping Agree constant and systematically determining which featural parameters are responsible for the attested variation, the proposed analysis argues for an emergentist view of features and parameters (following Biberauer 2018, 2019), and against both Strong Uniformity and Strong Modularity.
28
Eva Maich, Katherine, Jamie K. McCallum, and Ari Grant-Sasson. Time’s Up! Shorter Hours, Public Policy, and Time Flexibility as an Antidote to Youth Unemployment. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190685898.003.0011.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter explores the relationship between hours of work and unemployment. When it comes to time spent working in the United States at present, two problems immediately come to light. First, an asymmetrical distribution of working time persists, with some people overworked and others underemployed. Second, hours are increasingly unstable; precarious on-call work scheduling and gig economy–style employment relationships are the canaries in the coal mine of a labor market that produces fewer and fewer stable jobs. It is possible that some kind of shorter hours movement, especially one that places an emphasis on young workers, has the potential to address these problems. Some policies and processes are already in place to transition into a shorter hours economy right now even if those possibilities are mediated by an anti-worker political administration.
29
Beehner, Lionel, Risa Brooks, and Daniel Maurer, eds. Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197535493.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This book explores contemporary civil-military relations in the United States. Much of the canonical literature on civil-military relations was either written during or references the Cold War, while other major research focuses on the post-Cold War era, or the first decade of the twenty-first century. A great deal has changed since then. This book considers the implications for civil-military relations of many of these changes. Specifically, it focuses on factors such as breakdowns in democratic and civil-military norms and conventions; intensifying partisanship and deepening political divisions in American society; as well as new technology and the evolving character of armed conflict. Chapters are organized around the principal actors in civil-military relations, and the book includes sections on the military, civilian leadership, and the public. It explores the roles and obligations of each. The book also examines how changes in contemporary armed conflict influence civil-military relations. Chapters in this section examine the cyber domain, grey zone operations, asymmetric warfare and emerging technology. The book thus brings the study of civil-military relations into the contemporary era, in which new geopolitical realities and the changing character of armed conflict combine with domestic political tensions to test, if not potentially redefine, those relations.
30
Koch, Bernhard, ed. Chivalrous Combatants? Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783845276595.
Full textAbstract:
The debate on remote-controlled and so-called autonomous military robotics has also led to new inquiries into the ethos of soldiers. Should soldiers take risks which technological means could easily help them to avoid? Will the deployment of drones and autonomous weapons systems lead to the demise of military virtues? How much technological asymmetry is acceptable in a battle? Is there a need for a new ethos of chivalry among soldiers? In selected papers, this book endeavors to trace the traditional fundamental ideas of chivalry and military virtues, such as courage. It also addresses the question of the ethical significance of such soldierly attributes in conflicts today. With contributions by Nigel Biggar, Torsten Meireis, Alexander Merkl, Jörn Müller, Peter Olsthoorn, Gregory M. Reichberg, Niklas Schörnig and Malcolm Vale.
31
Sen, Amartya. Our Obligation to Future Generations. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198825067.003.0007.
Full textAbstract:
Our reasoned sense of obligations to others can arise from at least three possible sources: cooperation, having caused harm, and effective power to improve suffering. The last source, this chapter argues, is particularly important in considering our obligations to future generations. It draws on a line of reasoning that takes us well beyond contractarian motivations to the idea of the “impartial spectator” as developed by Adam Smith. The interests of future generations come into the story because they are important in our attempt to be impartial spectators. The obligation of power contrasts with the mutual obligations for cooperation at the basic plane of motivational justification. In the context of climate concerns and intergenerational justice, this asymmetry-embracing approach seems to allow an easier entry for understanding our obligations.
32
Ocampo, José Antonio. A Brief History of the International Monetary System since Bretton Woods. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198718116.003.0001.
Full textAbstract:
The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, which created the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was a major landmark in international cooperation. However, the Bretton Woods system came under increasing pressure in the 1960s due to the lack of a reliable adjustment mechanism to manage payment imbalances as well as the persistent asymmetries in the balance-of-payments pressures faced by surplus and deficit countries. In 1971 the system effectively collapsed when the US government suspended convertibility of dollars into gold for other central banks—a decision that would prove to be permanent. The system that evolved to replace it can be viewed as a ‘non-system’ with diverse ad hoc arrangements. Viewed overall this non-system has proved to be fairly resilient, but some of its major gaps continue to have negative effects on the global economy.
33
Troje, Nikolaus F. The Kayahara Silhouette Illusion. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794607.003.0081.
Full textAbstract:
Since it was first published online by Japanese artist Nobuyuki Kayahara, the spinning silhouette of a young girl (the spinning dancer illusion) has been reposted on countless websites where it serves as an eye-catcher that lures users into clicking their way toward different forms of commercial advertisements. Spinning about a vertical axis, the perception of the figure is bistable: it can be seen as either spinning clockwise or counterclockwise, with the former interpretation apparently dominating the latter. This asymmetry generated a number of weird theories about brain laterality that further contributed to the popularity of the Kayahara silhouette on the Internet. These theories are obviously not backed by any serious research, but the animation is in fact a puzzling visual illusion. Primarily based on depth ambiguity, it employs the viewing-from-above bias and offers a number of sophisticated perceptual conflicts.
34
Brown, Steven D., and Paula Reavey. Rethinking Function, Self, and Culture in “Difficult” Autobiographical Memories. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190230814.003.0008.
Full textAbstract:
The sociocultural model of autobiographical memory focuses on the narrative or storied nature of autobiographical memories and the role of adult–child interactions in scaffolding these stories. Work in discursive psychology extends this interactional focus and demonstrates the action orientation of jointly constructed narratives. However, in this work, there is hitherto little differentiation made among types of autobiographical narratives. Memories of “difficult” or “painful” events, such as sexual violence, neglect, physical injury, and “traumatic” experiences, present particular challenges in terms of narrative organization, interaction, and agency. Speakers must demonstrate responsibility in how they recruit one another into such narratives. Where there is a power asymmetry, this can involve a collaborative “managed accessibility” for memories of particularly distressing details. This chapter provides a conceptual scheme for approaching “vital memories” of these sorts and discusses the importance of their temporal and affective organization within experience.
35
Wunderlich, J., K. Olejník, L. P. Zârbo, V. P. Amin, J. Sinova, and T. Jungwirth. Spin-injection Hall effect. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198787075.003.0016.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter discusses the Spin-injection Hall effect (SiHE), another member of the spin-dependent Hall effects that is closely related to the anomalous Hall effect (AHE), the spin Hall effect (SHE), and the inverse spin Hall effect (iSHE). The microscopic origins responsible for the appearance of spin-dependent Hall effects are due to the spin-orbit (SO) coupling-related asymmetrical deflections of spin carriers. Depending on the relative strength of the SO coupling compared to the energy-level broadening of the quasi-particle states due to disorder scattering, scattering-related extrinsic mechanisms or intrinsic band structure-related deflection dominate the spin-dependent Hall response. Both the iSHE and the SiHE require spin injection into a nonmagnetic system. Similar to the AHE, a spin-polarized charge current flows in the case of the SiHE and the SO coupling generates the spin-dependent Hall signal.
36
Levillain, Kevin, Simon Parker, Rory Ridley-Duff, Blanche Segrestin, Jeroen Veldman, and Hugh Willmott. Protecting Long-term Commitment. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198805274.003.0003.
Full textAbstract:
Growing attention is being paid to the benefits of considering the long-term interests of multiple constituencies in corporate governance. A theory of the corporation where fiduciary duties of directors point to the legal entity and not to its shareholders goes beyond a pure prioritization of shareholders’ interests. However, the notion that board members mediate the interests of all constituencies fails to account for a ‘positive’ conception of corporate purpose and underlying asymmetries in allocations of rights between stakeholders. Addressing corporate governance as a fundamentally ‘open’ model for organizational structuring, we engage with a variety of legal mechanisms that can be used to implement and protect a positive purpose for the modern corporation and to protect the conditions of credible commitment to manage the company for the interest of corporate constituencies, to commit the corporation to a social or environmental purpose and to take into account multiple time-horizons.
37
González, Arancha. Leveraging Trade Facilitation Reforms for Increased SME Competitiveness. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198795650.003.0003.
Full textAbstract:
This publication analyses various constraints preventing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries from tapping into global value chains. It highlights that the time and costs associated with transporting goods across borders are significantly greater in developing than developed economies. It emphasizes that the smaller size and working capital of SMEs, and their concentration in a limited number of geographic and product markets, makes them vulnerable to costs and delays associated with trade barriers compared to multinational corporations. In this context, the chapter stresses the importance of implementing measures stipulated in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement to enhance the ability of SMEs to import and export. These measures would increase logistical efficiency by reducing information asymmetries, simplifying regulatory requirements, and lowering fees for the movement of goods across borders. If implemented correctly, these measures would expand opportunities for developing country SMEs to embed themselves in the growing global economy.
38
Todd, David. A Velvet Empire. Princeton University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691171838.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
After Napoleon's downfall in 1815, France embraced a mostly informal style of empire, one that emphasized economic and cultural influence rather than military conquest. This book is a global history of French imperialism in the nineteenth century, providing new insights into the mechanisms of imperial collaboration that extended France's power from the Middle East to Latin America and ushered in the modern age of globalization. The book shows how French elites pursued a cunning strategy of imperial expansion in which conspicuous commodities, such as champagne and silk textiles, together with loans to client states, contributed to a global campaign of seduction. French imperialism was no less brutal than that of the British. But while Britain widened its imperial reach through settler colonialism and the acquisition of far-flung territories, France built a “velvet” empire backed by frequent military interventions and a broadening extraterritorial jurisdiction. The book demonstrates how France drew vast benefits from these asymmetric, imperial-like relations until a succession of setbacks around the world brought about their unravelling in the 1870s. It sheds light on France's neglected contribution to the conservative reinvention of modernity and offers a new interpretation of the resurgence of French colonialism on a global scale after 1880. It also highlights the crucial role of collaboration among European empires during this period and cooperation with indigenous elites in facilitating imperial expansion and the globalization of capitalism.
39
Woodford, Henry J., and James George. Examining the nervous system of an older patient. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198701590.003.0111.
Full textAbstract:
Ageing is associated with changes in the nervous system, especially the accumulation of neurodegenerative and white matter lesions within the brain. Abnormalities are commonly found when examining older people and some of these are associated with functional impairment and a higher risk of death. In order to reliably interpret examination findings it is important to assess cognition, hearing, vision, and speech first. Clarity of instruction is key. Interpretation of findings must take into account common age-related changes. For example, genuine increased tone should be distinguished from paratonia. Power testing should look for asymmetry within the individual, rather than compare to the strength of the examiner. Parkinsonism should be looked for and gait should be observed. Neurological assessment can incorporate a range of cortical abilities and tests of autonomic function, but the extent of these assessments is likely to be determined by the clinical situation and time available.
40
Gaetz, Michael B., and Kelly J. Jantzen. Electroencephalography. Edited by Ruben Echemendia and Grant L. Iverson. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199896585.013.006.
Full textAbstract:
Axonal injury is currently considered to be the structural substrate behind most concussion-related neurological dysfunction. Because the principal generators of EEG fields are graded excitatory and inhibitory synaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons, the EEG is well suited for characterizing large-scale functional disruptions associated with concussion induced metabolic and neurochemical changes, and for connecting those disruptions to deficits in behavior and cognition. This essay provides an overview of the use of EEG and newly developed analytical procedures for the measurement of functional impairment related to sport concussion. Elevations in delta and theta activity can be expected in a percentage of athletes and change in asymmetry and coherence may also be present. Newer techniques are likely to be of critical importance for understanding the anatomical and physiological basis of cognitive deficits and may provide additional insight into susceptibility to future injury. Computational modeling may advance our understanding of concussion.
41
Bebbington, Anthony, Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Marja Hinfelaar, Cynthia A. Sanborn, Jessica Achberger, Celina Grisi Huber, Verónica Hurtado, Tania Ramírez, and Scott D. Odell. Conclusions. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198820932.003.0006.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter synthesizes findings from Bolivia, Ghana, Peru, and Zambia. It concludes that political settlements influence the relationships between resource-dependent economies and patterns of social inclusion. However, neither authoritarian, dominant leader forms of politics, nor competitive democratic politics has fostered significant economic diversification or reduced levels of resource dependence. The extractive economy does, however, influence the dynamics of national political settlements. The rents that resource extraction makes possible, and the high cost of engaging in extractive industries, induce asymmetries and create incentives for political exclusion. Colonial and post-colonial histories of resource extraction give political valence to ideas that have helped mobilize actors who have challenged relations of power and institutional arrangements. The materiality of subsoil resources has direct implications for subnational forms of holding power that can influence resource access and control. Mineral and hydrocarbon economies bring both transnational and local political actors into the constitution of national political settlements.
42
Falkner, Robert. The Anarchical Society and Climate Change. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198779605.003.0012.
Full textAbstract:
The Anarchical Society is the first major English School text that addresses the rise of global environmentalism. Based on a close reading of Bull’s classic text, this essay applies his pluralist perspective to the international politics of climate change. Bull’s pluralism offers valuable insights into the scope for, and limitations of, international climate action: it identifies the persistent value and interest differences that prevent deep international cooperation; it highlights the centrality of inter-state bargaining; and it stresses the importance of crafting cooperative solutions that reflect the realities of power asymmetry. However, while Bull acknowledges the need to move towards deeper, solidarist, forms of cooperation, his perspective is found to be wanting when it comes to understanding the modalities of such a shift. Bull has little to say on how to construct a solidarist response and how non-state actors might develop new forms of transnational governance beyond the state-centric climate regime.
43
Doshi, Rush. The Long Game. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197527917.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
For more than a century, no US adversary or coalition of adversaries—not Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or even the Soviet Union—has ever reached 60 percent of US GDP. China is the sole exception, and it is fast emerging into a global superpower that could rival, if not eclipse, the United States. What does China want, does it have a grand strategy to achieve it, and what should the United States do about it? The Long Game draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades’ worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, as well as careful analysis of China's conduct, to provide a history of China’s grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party’s closed doors, this book uncovers Beijing’s long, methodical game to displace America from the regional and global order through three sequential “strategies of displacement.” The book shows how China’s strategy is profoundly shaped by key events that change its perception of American power—the end of the Cold War, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the populist elections of 2016, and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Finally, the book offers a comprehensive yet “asymmetric” plan for an effective US response to the China challenge. Ironically, the proposed approach takes a page from Beijing’s own strategic playbook to undermine China’s ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan.
44
Del Sarto, Raffaella A. Borderlands. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198833550.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
The book proposes a profound rethink of the complex relationship between Europe—defined here as the European Union and its members—and the states of the Mediterranean Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe’s ‘southern neighbours’. These relations are examined through a borderlands prism that conceives of this interaction as one between an empire of sorts that seeks to export its order beyond the border, and the empire’s southern borderlands. Focusing on trade relations on the one hand, and the cooperation on migration, borders, and security on the other, the book revisits the historical origins and modalities of Europe’s selective rule transfer to MENA states, the interests underwriting these policies, and the complex dynamics marking the interaction between the two sides over a twenty-year period (1995–2015). It shows that within a system of structurally asymmetric economic relations from which Europe and MENA elites benefit the most, single MENA governments have been co-opted into the management of border and migration control where they act as Europe’s gatekeepers. Combined with specific policy choices of MENA governments, Europe’s selective expansion of its rules, practices, and disaggregated borders have contributed to rising socio-economic inequalities and the strengthening of authoritarian rule in the ‘southern neighbourhood’, with Europe tacitly tolerating serious violations of the rights of refugees and migrants at its fringes. Challenging the self-proclaimed benevolent nature of European policies and the notion of ‘Fortress Europe’ alike, the findings of this study contribute to broader debates on power, dependence, and interdependence in the discipline of international relations.
45
Karaca, Banu. The National Frame. Fordham University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5422/fordham/9780823290208.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
Based on long-term ethnographic research in the art world of Istanbul and Berlin, The National Frame rethinks the role of art in state governance. It argues that artistic practices, arts patronage and sponsorship, collecting and curating art, and the modalities of censorship, just like official cultural policies, continue to be refracted through the conceptual lens of the nation-state—despite the intensified and much-studied globalization of art. By examining discussions on the civilizing function of art in Germany and Turkey and moments in which art is seen to cede this function, the book reveals the histories of violence on which the production, circulation, and presentation—indeed our very understanding—of art are predicated. It is in the process of disavowing this violence that contemporary art as a global practice keeps being called back into the national frame. Turkey and Germany occupy different places in dominant geopolitical and civilizational imaginaries that have construed the world in terms of “East” and “West,” and, more recently, “Islam” and “Christianity” as incommensurable entities. Unlike German art, art from Turkey is often seen as merging “traditional” and modern motifs, and expressive of “Turkish culture.” Working against this asymmetric perception the book fosters a comparative perspective by showing that Germany and Turkey share a long, troubling history of cultural encounters and political affiliation and similar struggles in claiming modern nationhood. The joint analysis of both cases reveals how art is configured politically and socially and why art has been at once vital and unwieldy for national projects.
46
Lippert-Rasmussen, Kasper. The Self-Ownership Trilemma, Extended Minds, and Neurointerventions. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198758617.003.0008.
Full textAbstract:
Many believe that, ceteris paribus, neurointerventions on convicted criminals that render reoffending less likely are morally more problematic than comparable indirect interventions, such as compulsory attendance at anger management classes. One justification for this view appeals to the putative fact that persons have moral ownership over themselves—their bodies and minds—and that neurointerventions violate or infringe this right. Suppose, however, that the mind is extended outside the skull and spreads into the external world. Because the most important object one owns, inasmuch as one owns oneself, is one’s mind and because claims to original ownership over things outside one’s body are much less plausible than the self-ownership thesis, the extended mind thesis weakens the attraction of the latter thesis. Because the extended mind thesis is true, self-ownership-based arguments for the relevant moral asymmetry are not sound. Admittedly, there are objections to neurointerventions not based on self-ownership, but these are less attractive, often based on contingent empirical facts, and, in some cases, might also be weakened by the extended mind thesis.
47
Jin, Dal Yong. Digital Hallyu 2.0: Transnationalization of Local Digital Games. University of Illinois Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252039973.003.0007.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter maps out the growth of locally based digital games. In the twenty-first century, the New Korean Wave has been expanding with the rapid growth of digital culture, in particular with online gaming. The rapid growth of the Korean digital game industry, including online gaming, and its export into the Western market have raised a fundamental question of whether digital culture has changed the nature of the Korean Wave, from a regionally focused intracultural flow to include a Western-focused contraflow. The chapter attempts to discuss the ways in which local online games, in particular massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), have advanced contraflow. In addition, it discusses a changing trend in the digital game sector, which has been occurring due to both the increasing role of China's game industries and the emergence of mobile gaming in the smartphone era. It also maps out the process by which Korean online games are appropriated for Western game users in a form of “glocalization”in both content and structure. Finally, the chapter articulates whether this new trend can diminish an asymmetrical cultural flow between the West and the East.
48
Harvey, Mark, and Norman Geras. Inequality and Democratic Egalitarianism. Manchester University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781526114020.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This book arose out of a friendship between a political philosopher and an economic sociologist, and their recognition of an urgent political need to address the extreme inequalities of wealth and power in contemporary societies. The book provides a new analysis of what generates inequalities in rights to income, property and public goods in contemporary societies. It claims to move beyond Marx, both in its analysis of inequality and exploitation, and in its concept of just distribution. In order to do so, it critiques Marx’s foundational Labour Theory of Value and its closed-circuit conception of the economy. It points to the major historical transformations that create educational and knowledge inequalities, inequalities in rights to public goods that combine with those to private wealth. In two historical chapters, it argues that industrial capitalism introduced new forms of coerced labour in the metropolis alongside a huge expansion of slavery and indentured labour in the New World, with forms of bonded labour lasting well into the twentieth century. Only political struggles, rather than any economic logic of capitalism, achieved less punitive forms of employment. It is argued that these were only steps along a long road to challenge asymmetries of economic power and to realise just distribution of the wealth created in society.
49
Gradín, Carlos, Murray Leibbrandt, and Finn Tarp, eds. Inequality in the Developing World. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198863960.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
Inequality has emerged as a key development challenge. It holds implications for economic growth and redistribution and translates into power asymmetries that can endanger human rights, create conflict, and embed social exclusion and chronic poverty. For these reasons, it underpins intense public and academic debates and has become a dominant policy concern within many countries and in all multilateral agencies. It is at the core of the seventeen goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This book contributes to this important discussion by presenting assessments of the measurement and analysis of global inequality by leading inequality scholars, aligning these to comprehensive reviews of inequality trends in five of the world’s largest developing countries—Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. Each is a persistently high or newly high inequality context and, with the changing global inequality situation as context, country chapters investigate the main factors shaping their different inequality dynamics. Particular attention is on how broader societal inequalities arising outside of the labour market have intersected with the rapidly changing labour market milieus of the last few decades. Collectively these chapters provide a nuanced discussion of key distributive phenomena like the high concentration of income among the most affluent people, gender inequalities, and social mobility. Substantive tax and social benefit policies that each country implemented to mitigate these inequality dynamics are assessed in detail. The book takes lessons from these contexts back into the global analysis of inequality and social mobility and the policies needed to address inequality.
50
Pievani, Telmo. Imperfection. The MIT Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14573.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
In praise of imperfection: how life on our planet is a catalog of imperfections, errors, alternatives, and anomalies. In the beginning, there was imperfection, which became the source of all things. Anomalies and asymmetries caused planets to take shape from the bubbling void and sent light into darkness. Life on earth is a catalog of accidents, alternatives, and errors that turned out to work quite well. In this book, Telmo Pievani shows that life on our planet has flourished and survived not because of its perfection but despite (and perhaps because of) its imperfection. He begins his story with the disruption-filled birth of the universe and proceeds through the random DNA copying errors that fuel evolution, the transformations of advantages into handicaps by natural selection, the anatomical and functional jumble that is the human brain, and our many bodily mismatches. Along the way, Pievani tells readers about the Irish elk (incidentally, neither Irish nor elk), whose enormous antlers serve to illustrate the first two laws of imperfection; the widespread dissemination of costly or useless traits; and the neuroimperfection of the human brain—“a frozen accident of evolution that was not designed from scratch,” as Pievani calls it. He sizes up the alleged perfection of the human body, asking, for example, if everything in our bodies serves a purpose, why do we have appendixes? Why bipedalism, with the inevitable back pain that results? In this fascinating account, Pievani offers the first comprehensive explanatory theory for the ubiquity of imperfection.