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2069 results in Cambridge Elements

Page 88 of 104

Unsupervised Machine Learning for Clustering in Political and Social Research

Unsupervised Machine Learning for Clustering in Political and Social Research
  • Philip D. Waggoner
  • Published online:
    15 December 2020
    Print publication:
    28 January 2021
  • In the age of data-driven problem-solving, applying sophisticated computational tools for explaining substantive phenomena is a valuable skill. Yet, application of methods assumes an understanding of the data, structure, and patterns that influence the broader research program. This Element offers researchers and teachers an introduction to clustering, which is a prominent class of unsupervised machine learning for exploring and understanding latent, non-random structure in data. A suite of widely used clustering techniques is covered in this Element, in addition to R code and real data to facilitate interaction with the concepts. Upon setting the stage for clustering, the following algorithms are detailed: agglomerative hierarchical clustering, k-means clustering, Gaussian mixture models, and at a higher-level, fuzzy C-means clustering, DBSCAN, and partitioning around medoids (k-medoids) clustering.
Text Analysis in Python for Social Scientists

Text Analysis in Python for Social Scientists
  • Discovery and Exploration
  • Dirk Hovy
  • Published online:
    14 December 2020
    Print publication:
    21 January 2021
  • Text is everywhere, and it is a fantastic resource for social scientists. However, because it is so abundant, and because language is so variable, it is often difficult to extract the information we want. There is a whole subfield of AI concerned with text analysis (natural language processing). Many of the basic analysis methods developed are now readily available as Python implementations. This Element will teach you when to use which method, the mathematical background of how it works, and the Python code to implement it.
Calcium Isotopes

Calcium Isotopes
  • Elizabeth M. Griffith, Matthew S. Fantle
  • Published online:
    11 December 2020
    Print publication:
    21 January 2021
  • Precise measurements of the calcium (Ca) isotopes have provided constraints on Ca cycling at global and local scales, and quantified rates of carbonate diagenesis in marine sedimentary systems. Key to applying Ca isotopes as a geochemical tracer of Ca cycling, carbonate (bio)mineralization, and diagenesis is an understanding of the impact of multiple factors potentially impacting Ca isotopes in the rock record. These factors include variations in stable isotopic fractionation factors, the influence of local-scale Ca cycling on Ca isotopic gradients in carbonate settings, carbonate dissolution and reprecipitation, and the relationship between the Ca isotopic composition of seawater and mineral phases that record the secular evolution of seawater chemistry.
Innovation and Certainty

Innovation and Certainty
  • Mark Wilson
  • Published online:
    10 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • Beginning in the nineteenth century, mathematics' traditional domains of 'number and figure' became vigorously displaced by altered settings in which former verities became discarded as no longer sacrosanct. And these innovative recastings appeared everywhere, not merely within the familiar realm of the non-Euclidean geometries. How can mathematics retain its traditional status as a repository of necessary truth in the light of these revisions? The purpose of this Element is to provide a sketch of this developmental history.
Philosophy of Probability and Statistical Modelling

Philosophy of Probability and Statistical Modelling
  • Mauricio Suárez
  • Published online:
    10 December 2020
    Print publication:
    21 January 2021
  • This Element has two main aims. The first one (sections 1-7) is an historically informed review of the philosophy of probability. It describes recent historiography, lays out the distinction between subjective and objective notions, and concludes by applying the historical lessons to the main interpretations of probability. The second aim (sections 8-13) focuses entirely on objective probability, and advances a number of novel theses regarding its role in scientific practice. A distinction is drawn between traditional attempts to interpret chance, and a novel methodological study of its application. A radical form of pluralism is then introduced, advocating a tripartite distinction between propensities, probabilities and frequencies. Finally, a distinction is drawn between two different applications of chance in statistical modelling which, it is argued, vindicates the overall methodological approach. The ensuing conception of objective probability in practice is the 'complex nexus of chance'.
African Literature and the CIA

African Literature and the CIA
  • Networks of Authorship and Publishing
  • Caroline Davis
  • Published online:
    10 December 2020
    Print publication:
    21 January 2021
  • During the period of decolonisation in Africa, the CIA covertly subsidised a number of African authors, editors and publishers as part of its anti-communist propaganda strategy. Managed by two front organisations, the Congress of Cultural Freedom and the Farfield Foundation, its Africa programme stretched across the continent. This Element unravels the hidden networks and associations underpinning African literary publishing in the 1960s; it evaluates the success of the CIA in secretly infiltrating and influencing African literary magazines and publishing firms, and examines the extent to which new circuits of cultural and literary power emerged. Based on new archival evidence relating to the Transcription Centre, The Classic and The New African, it includes case studies of Wole Soyinka, Nat Nakasa and Bessie Head, which assess how the authors' careers were affected by these transnational networks and also reveal how they challenged, subverted, and resisted external influence and control.
The Network Turn

The Network Turn
  • Changing Perspectives in the Humanities
  • Ruth Ahnert, Sebastian E. Ahnert, Catherine Nicole Coleman, Scott B. Weingart
  • Published online:
    10 December 2020
    Print publication:
    21 January 2021
    • Element
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  • We live in a networked world. Online social networking platforms and the World Wide Web have changed how society thinks about connectivity. Because of the technological nature of such networks, their study has predominantly taken place within the domains of computer science and related scientific fields. But arts and humanities scholars are increasingly using the same kinds of visual and quantitative analysis to shed light on aspects of culture and society hitherto concealed. This Element contends that networks are a category of study that cuts across traditional academic barriers, uniting diverse disciplines through a shared understanding of complexity in our world. Moreover, we are at a moment in time when it is crucial that arts and humanities scholars join the critique of how large-scale network data and advanced network analysis are being harnessed for the purposes of power, surveillance, and commercial gain. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Understanding the Tripartite Approach to Bayesian Divergence Time Estimation

Understanding the Tripartite Approach to Bayesian Divergence Time Estimation
  • Rachel C. M. Warnock, April M. Wright
  • Published online:
    08 December 2020
    Print publication:
    04 February 2021
  • Placing evolutionary events in the context of geological time is a fundamental goal in paleobiology and macroevolution. In this Element we describe the tripartite model used for Bayesian estimation of time calibrated phylogenetic trees. The model can be readily separated into its component models: the substitution model, the clock model and the tree model. We provide an overview of the most widely used models for each component and highlight the advantages of implementing the tripartite model within a Bayesian framework.
Publishing against Apartheid South Africa

Publishing against Apartheid South Africa
  • A Case Study of Ravan Press
  • Elizabeth le Roux
  • Published online:
    08 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • In many parts of the world, oppositional publishing has emerged in contexts of state oppression. In South Africa, censorship laws were enacted in the 1960s, and the next decade saw increased pressure on freedom of speech and publishing. With growing restrictions on information, activist publishing emerged. These highly politicised publishers had a social responsibility, to contribute to social change. In spite of their cultural, political and social importance, no academic study of their history has yet been undertaken. This Element aims to fill that gap by examining the history of the most vocal and arguably the most radical of this group, Ravan Press. Using archival material, interviews and the books themselves, this Element examines what the history of Ravan reveals about the role of oppositional print culture.
The Study of US State Policy Diffusion

The Study of US State Policy Diffusion
  • What Hath Walker Wrought?
  • Christopher Z. Mooney
  • Published online:
    04 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • In 1969, political scientist Jack Walker published 'The Diffusion of Innovations among the American States' in the American Political Science Review. 'Walker 1969' has since become a cornerstone of political science, packed with ideas, conjectures, and suggestions that spawned multiple lines of research in multiple fields. In good Kuhnian fashion, Walker 1969 is important less for the answers it provides than for the questions it raises, inspiring generations of political scientists to use the political, institutional, and policy differences among the states to understand policymaking better. Walker 1969 is the rock on which the modern subfield of state politics scholarship was built, in addition to inspiring copious research into federalism, comparative politics, and international relations. This Element documents the deep and extensive impact of Walker 1969 on the study of policymaking in the US states. In the process, it organizes and analyzes that literature, demonstrating its progress and promise.
The Evolution of Corporate Governance

The Evolution of Corporate Governance
  • Bob Tricker
  • Published online:
    04 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • In this Element the origins of corporate governance are reviewed, recognising that corporate entities have always been governed, that important developments took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the huge significance of the invention of the joint-stock limited liability company. The development of corporate governance in the twentieth century around the world is explored, with complex groups, private companies, and top management dominating shareholder power appearing in the Inter-war years. Some unresolved issues in both principle and practice are identified. Various theories of corporate governance are described and contrasted. The subject is seen to be in search of its paradigm and a systems theoretical relationship between the theories is suggested. The need to rethink the concept of the limited liability company is argued, and a call is made for the development of a philosophy of corporate governance.
Institutional Memory as Storytelling

Institutional Memory as Storytelling
  • How Networked Government Remembers
  • Jack Corbett, Dennis Christian Grube, Heather Caroline Lovell, Rodney James Scott
  • Published online:
    03 December 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • How do bureaucracies remember? The conventional view is that institutional memory is static and singular, the sum of recorded files and learned procedures. There is a growing body of scholarship that suggests contemporary bureaucracies are failing at this core task. This Element argues that this diagnosis misses that memories are essentially dynamic stories. They reside with people and are thus dispersed across the array of actors that make up the differentiated polity. Drawing on four policy examples from four sectors (housing, energy, family violence and justice) in three countries (the UK, Australia and New Zealand), this Element argues that treating the way institutions remember as storytelling is both empirically salient and normatively desirable. It is concluded that the current conceptualisation of institutional memory needs to be recalibrated to fit the types of policy learning practices required by modern collaborative governance.
A Practitioner's Guide to Discrete-Time Yield Curve Modelling

A Practitioner's Guide to Discrete-Time Yield Curve Modelling
  • With Empirical Illustrations and MATLAB Examples
  • Ken Nyholm
  • Published online:
    03 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • This Element is intended for students and practitioners as a gentle and intuitive introduction to the field of discrete-time yield curve modelling. I strive to be as comprehensive as possible, while still adhering to the overall premise of putting a strong focus on practical applications. In addition to a thorough description of the Nelson-Siegel family of model, the Element contains a section on the intuitive relationship between P and Q measures, one on how the structure of a Nelson-Siegel model can be retained in the arbitrage-free framework, and a dedicated section that provides a detailed explanation for the Joslin, Singleton, and Zhu (2011) model.
Management and Governance of Intergovernmental Organizations

Management and Governance of Intergovernmental Organizations
  • Ryan Federo, Angel Saz-Carranza, Marc Esteve
  • Published online:
    03 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • What happens to intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) after their creation has remained in mystery over the years. Although the current globalized outlook has sparked new and growing interests on the role that IGOs play in the global landscape, the scholarship has largely focused on the political aspects of cooperation, primarily on how and why different IGO member states interact with each other and the outcomes associated with such cooperation. Research is yet to untangle how these organizations work and operate. This Element addresses this niche in the literature by delving into two important aspects: the management and governance of IGOs. We build on a four-year research program where we have collected three types of different data and produced several papers. Ultimately, the Element seeks to provide scholars with a description of the inner workings of IGOs, while providing guidance to policymakers on how to manage and govern them.
Religious Language

Religious Language
  • Olli-Pekka Vainio
  • Published online:
    02 December 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • What does it mean to use language religiously? How does religious language differ from our ordinary linguistic practices? Can religious language have meaning? Among others, these questions are part of the so-called problem of religious language, which originates from the peculiar object of many religious claims, that is, the transcendent, or more precisely, God.
Leading the Future of Technology

Leading the Future of Technology
  • The Vital Role of Accessible Technologies
  • Rebecca LaForgia
  • Published online:
    30 November 2020
    Print publication:
    04 February 2021
  • There is presently a view that accessible technologies offer an inclusive and humanistic expression of technology. They do. But that is not all. Accessible technologies offer more than this: they contain within them lessons on transformational leadership. Through examining six case studies the reader will begin to interpret these accessible technologies as expressions of leadership. The risk inherent in the current view is that to view accessible technologies only as examples of humanism, or the good, is to risk underselling them. In fact, accessible technologies (which are being created across international society) represent a powerful leadership approach to technology itself. Through their leadership, these accessible technologies demand and create new and original thinking by society. The reader will benefit from this Element by learning to identify transformational leadership within accessible technological creations and consequently gaining a capacity to apply this leadership to the very purposes of technology itself.
The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights

The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights
  • Austrian, Public Choice, and Institutional Economics Perspectives
  • Colin Harris, Meina Cai, Ilia Murtazashvili, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
  • Published online:
    30 November 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • Property rights are the rules governing ownership in society. This Element offers an analytical framework to understand the origins and consequences of property rights. It conceptualizes of the political economy of property rights as a concern with the follow questions: What explains the origins of economic and legal property rights? What are the consequences of different property rights institutions for wealth creation, conservation, and political order? Why do property institutions change? Why do legal reforms relating to property rights such as land redistribution and legal titling improve livelihoods in some contexts but not others? In analyzing property rights, the authors emphasize the complementarity of insights from a diversity of disciplinary perspectives, including Austrian economics, public choice, and institutional economics, including the Bloomington School of institutional analysis and political economy.
Monotheism and Faith in God

Monotheism and Faith in God
  • Ian G. Wallis
  • Published online:
    28 November 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • After offering a brief overview of the role of faith within Judaism, Christianity and Islam, an interdisciplinary analysis of faith, belief, belief systems and the act of believing is undertaken. The debate over the nature of doctrine between George Lindbeck and Alister McGrath brings into focus four ways in which beliefs can be employed: expressive, interpretative, formative and referential/relational. An analysis of monotheistic belief ensues which demonstrates how it can function meaningfully in each of these modes, including the last, where insights from phenomenology and relational ontology, as well as philosophical theology, favour a participatory approach in which God is encountered not as an object of investigation, but as that transcendent Other whose worship is the fulfilment of human being. The study concludes by highlighting convergences between the nature of faith presented in the initial scriptural overview and that developed throughout the rest of the study.
The Pyrite Trace Element Paleo-Ocean Chemistry Proxy

The Pyrite Trace Element Paleo-Ocean Chemistry Proxy
  • Daniel D. Gregory
  • Published online:
    28 November 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • The use of the trace element content of sedimentary pyrite as a proxy for the trace element composition of past oceans has recently emerged. The pyrite proxy has several potential advantages over bulk sample analysis: preservation through metamorphism; little dilution during analysis (samples are ablated not dissolved, allowing for the less abundant elements commonly held in the sulfide fraction to be investigated as proxies); accurate measurement of several elements simultaneously; the ability to screen sediments for hydrothermal overprint; and the technique can give information regarding trace element availably at multiple stages of diagenesis. Because of these multiple strengths, the pyrite trace element proxy is a valuable potential addition to the paleo-ocean chemistry tool kit.
Zombie Ideas

Zombie Ideas
  • Why Failed Policy Ideas Persist
  • Brainard Guy Peters, Maximilian Lennart Nagel
  • Published online:
    27 November 2020
    Print publication:
    24 December 2020
  • Ideas are important in shaping the policy choices of governments. But many ideas that have not been successful in the past continue to be used by policymakers, and some good ideas tend not to be adopted. This Element will focus on why governments make these poor policy choices. We will discuss a number of examples of 'zombie ideas' that refuse to die, and then discuss the factors that are associated with their survival. Those factors occur at the elite, the organizational and the societal level. We will also examine some 'ghost' ideas that may well be successful but have a difficult time being adopted, and the factors that are associated with the exclusion of these ideas from the policy process.

Page 88 of 104