This chapter surveys some of the many types of models used in science, and some of the many ways scientists use models. Of particular interest for our purposes are the relationships between models and other aspects of scientific inquiry, such as data, experiments, and theories. Our discussion shows important ways in which modeling can be thought of as a distinct and autonomous scientific activity, but always models can be crucial for making use of data and theories and for performing experiments. The growing reliance on simulation models has raised new and important questions about the kind of knowledge gained by simulations and the relationship between simulation and experimentation. Is it important to distinguish between simulation and experimentation, and if so, why?

Scientific knowledge is abundant, but this abundance has created challenges. What can be synthesized from the research is limited because of the inconsistent use of terms and classification systems. For example in clinical research, literature reviews, such as meta-analyses, are critical in the development of clinical practice guidelines and recommendations. And the problem is especially acute in the behavioral sciences, where the lack of an agreed-upon classification system for research terms means this knowledge is less likely to be synthesized and interpreted in a manner that can affect clinical care and public policies. This chapter examines the gap between what is known and the capacity to act on that knowledge. We discuss strategies to make research more replicable, better organized, and more easily retrieved.

The idea that thinking, and thinking about the future, is based on logical content and the computer-like processing of variables has been a cornerstone of the cognitive revolution. The fact that so few theories of prediction and so few prediction scientists explicitly incorporate any form of symbolic rule-based inferencing into their theorizing is another indication of a true paradigm shift in the mind and brain sciences toward a new probabilistic, and at least partly associationist, nonsymbolic and non-rule-based science of the predictive mind.

“Ars” came to be laden with specific meaning in the intellectual culture of late-Republican Rome, with some artes being regarded as intellectually and socially worthier than others. These “higher artes” were distinguished by several features that would form the premises for the scientific culture of the artes in the early Roman Empire. These premises were established in Rome by the reception of Greek notions of technê (τέχνη) but were elaborated independently and joined for the first time into a unified conception of specialized knowledge by Roman thinkers, including Cicero and Varro. The higher artes are logically organized and systematically presented, hence systematic. They are related to one another in their principles and methods, hence interdisciplinary. They entail explanatory knowledge of their methods in terms of causes in nature, and are hence explanatory. And they balance experience and practical know-how with theoretical knowledge, and are hence balanced.

The artes, in the sense of systematic treatises on various disciplines of specialized knowledge, are not well understood today because they are usually studied in isolation from one another. This book argues that the artes of the early Roman Empire—the period of the greatest flourishing of this kind of literature—belong to a common intellectual culture and ought to be studied together. Their unity stems ultimately from a shared preoccupation with relating theory to practice vis-à-vis disciplinary expertise. Within the artes, the theory–practice problem stimulated the emergence of theories of knowledge and theories of nature embedding Roman specialized knowledge in a broader understanding of the world. Indeed, the artes crystallize a uniquely Roman scientific culture that has not been previously recognized as such. The aim of this book is to study this scientific culture.

Ibn Khaldûn’s life (1332–1406). The plague. How power and society are connected. The theory does not match Western history. It might be more relevant for our time and the times to come.

Communication is an important professional and life skill. Organisations today are looking for people with the communication skills to contribute productively in the workplace and maintain effective relationships with their stakeholders. While we may all communicate, not all our communication is intended, and not all of it is interpreted and understood as we expect. Communication can break down at any number of points.

Your ability to develop messages that are received as they are intended depends on your emotional intelligence (being able to interpret which aspects of communication are required), your emotional competence (being able to manage emotions of yourself and others) and your technical skills (being able to produce messages that are capable of being understood).

It’s important that we learn how to harness the benefits of all the tools available to make us better communicators rather than let them replace us in our communication-focused roles. The purpose of this book is to help prepare you with the skills to improve or enhance your communication and effectively utilise the communication tools and channels at your fingertips.

The chapter defines theory and establishes how it informs discourse analysis. Theory is defined as an idea that explains what discourse is, how discourse should be understood, or both. Conversely, a theory is not an opinion, thought, or belief, which are simply intuitions without an explanatory framework. Topics discussed in this chapter include theories of knowledge and applied theories. After reading this chapter, readers will know how to define theory; understand how theory relates to the analytic process; know the difference between a theory of knowledge and an applied theory; and be able to identify the different types of applied theory that exist.

This chapter summarises the key aerodynamic theory of horizontal-axis wind turbine rotors. The actuator disc concept leads to the relationships between induced velocity, axial thrust, and power extraction. The theory is extended to multiple streamtubes, which combined with 2D wing theory establish the basis of blade element momentum (BEM) theory. A straightforward mathematical treatment of BEM theory is included, with an iterative procedure suitable for coding. Measurements from a full-scale rotor illustrate the applicability of BEM theory but also its fundamental limitations: the latter are described, and measures outlined to compensate for them in practical BEM codes. Simple relationships are given for the axial and tangential load distributions on an optimal HAWT blade. The structure of the rotor wake is described, leading into a description of vortex-wake theory, which provides a more physically realistic description of the airflow. Vortex wake codes are described in non-mathematical terms. The chapter includes wake measurements from full-scale wind turbines and small models. Vorticity maps from the latter verify the underlying mathematical model of a helical vortex wake.

This chapter develops the main argument of the book. It posits that some displacement strategies – namely, forced relocation – act as a mechanism for sorting the population in wartime. The argument focuses on how the territorialization of political identity in civil wars and the tendency for combatants to utilize informational shortcuts impels them to use relocation to identify opponents through “guilt by location.” It also shows that relocation can create “zones of appropriation” that facilitate the mobilization of the population into the war effort, without requiring combatants to invest in resource-intensive methods of territorial occupation. To demonstrate the logic and plausibility of each aspect of the "assortative" theory of displacement and illustrate its central causal claims, the chapter provides empirical examples from a wide range of civil wars, from the Revolt of the Camisards in eighteenth-century France, to colonial wars in British, French, Japanese, and Portuguese territories, to modern conflicts in Angola, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. The chapter also discusses a set of hypotheses and observable implications of the theory.

This chapter takes seriously the concerns of Eliot’s early reviewers with a tension in her fiction between the devoted depiction of life later associated with realism, and a didactic impulse to which they increasingly felt she succumbed. Asking why Eliot interrupted representation with theorisation, the chapter takes as a case study her alternating dramatisation and analysis of incongruous versions of history in Chapter 20 of Middlemarch. It traces the lineage of such alternation, via an allusion to her friend John Sibree’s translation of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of History, into one of the notebooks Eliot used as she developed Middlemarch, which is read less as a source for either the novel’s theories or its facts than as a laboratory for its experiments in moving between them. The chapter suggests that Eliot valued the dissonance her reviewers detected when dogma intruded upon depiction. It thereby elucidates her contribution to the dialectical novel of ideas this book explores.

Early childhood education as a field has heavily relied on theories from developmental psychology since the 19th century to inform pedagogy and practice. The use of developmental theories has been significant in assisting the field to raise its professional status, however, an over-reliance on these theories alone has contributed to marginalising children with rich cultural, linguistic and religious diversities. This chapter will focus on exploring co-constructed pedagogies as creating inclusivity in early childhood education (birth to age 8). In particular, co-constructed pedagogies engage children, educators/teachers, families and community in dialogue to inform curriculum and practices that reflect diverse learning communities. It is argued that co-constructed pedagogies are not only important in early childhood education but also offer insights that can support inclusivity in primary and secondary education.

This chapter first develops a theoretical framework on the behavioral dynamics behind voters’ responses to different mobilization strategies and their different effects on voter preferences and party identification. It then goes on to explore why these different strategies are available to new parties in the first place. It develops a theoretical model that focuses on the period before a new party contests its first major election to show how the intra-elite dynamics during these founding moments shape early on which mobilization strategies the party adopts.

Chapter 1 explores the link between the research process and theory and the role of statistics in scientific discovery. Discrete and continuous variables, the building blocks of methodology, take center stage, with clear and elaborate examples and their applicability to scales of measurement and measures of central tendency. Understanding statistics allows us to become better consumers of science and make better judgments and decisions about claims and facts allegedly supported by statistical results.

This chapter summarizes the main points of the book and reflects on possible ways ahead for experimental sociology.