Mansholt Publication series - Böcker

"This book contains ideas to develop interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary views on economy and society. It aims to disseminate heterodox ideas on various subjects related to economics and global society.The book is organised in six parts. Part 1 contains the key lectures of Backhaus on the concept of state sciences and of Klamer on the importance of culture for economics. Parts 2- 6 contain successively contributions in the areas of economic paradigms and theories, population and society, corporate issues, environment, and international relations. Examples of the content are:- the changes of family life cycles due to the rise of non-traditional households;- subjective and objective inflation rates after the introduction of the Euro;- the economics of genetic engineering;- the contribution of foreign direct investment to the economic development of host countries;- the inaccuracy of economic models applied in places characterized by extreme income disparities;- the improvement of political and corporate governance;- evolutionary thinking and emission trading;- freedom and order in the European Union;- the reform of social policy in Europe.The book provides interesting creative multi-disciplinary ideas with respect to various topical issues concerning the contemporary global society. It is highly recommended for economists and social scientists in search of broad views on social science and society."

Decision Science is the discipline that is concerned with the development and applications of quantitative methods and techniques to support decision making processes. This book discusses the general principles of often used optimisation techniques such as Linear Programming, Integer Programming, Dynamic Programming, Non-linear Programming, Network Theory and Simulation. It aims to fill the gap between theory and practice. It especially discusses the theoretical background of important quantitative methods and techniques as well as how they can be applied to practical decision making problems. Therefore the modelling process is illustrated with examples of corporate firms, consumers, governments and other non-profit organizations.Decision science: theory and application is a thoroughly revised edition of two former Dutch versions. The authors have used their extensive didactical experience to find a proper balance between mathematical exactness, knowledge and readability on the one hand and understanding, insights and applicability of the subjects on the other hand. Virtually every topic in the text is illustrated by small, class-tested, numerical examples, exercises and graphical illustrations. This edition contains more than 160 figures.The book is therefore an elemental asset in introductory courses on decision science. It is addressed to undergraduates, postgraduates and research students.

"This volume in the Mansholt series presents state of the art discussions on a wide variety of topics in the field of (agricultural) development. More than 20 chapters have been prepared by internationally known scholars and policy analysts, providing a concise overview of a variety of recent debates in development economics. While the background of most contributors is in economic science, the chapters are prepared so that they feed into ongoing policy discussions and are accessible to a wide readership.The contributions in this volume are organized around five themes: prospects for rural poverty alleviation, sustainable management of natural resources, strategies for enhancing food security, markets and the role of the state, and institutions and governance. It is obvious there are many links between these themes, and indeed the integration between them is emphasized in various chapters.This book is prepared as a festschrift or Liber Amicorum for professor Arie Kuyvenhoven. His retirement from the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands is a good opportunity to take stock of recent developments in the area of agricultural development economics. Therefore, in addition to being a valuable source of information for readers with an interest in development, this volume is also intended as a farewell gift: to Arie, from friends and colleagues."

This volume comprises contributions from several fields of study in the social sciences. The different disciplinary angles intersect at the level of the research subjects: families, households and consumers. Together they reflect a broad field of study that always had its particular niche in Wageningen as ‘household and consumer studies’. The five separate parts: the formation and dissolution of families; stratification and inequality; consumer and household behaviour; leisure time; and hygiene, health and society, nicely reflect the broadness of this field. The eighteen contributions in this volume were purposefully selected, not only based on their contents and quality, but also because of their relationship to the work of Kees de Hoog, who retired this year. Although Kees de Hoog is a professor of family sociology and family policy, his work throughout the years has extended far beyond that and covers the fields that are captured by the different parts in this book. Therefore the contributions in this volume comprise an interesting read for scholars all over the world who have an interest in families, consumers, households, and the ways they interface.

Research in action engages the researcher who wants to live up to the challenges of contemporary science and to contribute to innovation and social change.This ambition to contribute to change raises many questions. How to define the main target group of the research? What role does this group play in the research? Which methods of data collection are most appropriate? Who are the commissioners of the research and do their interests match with those of the prime target group? How to deal with power relations in research situations? What do these issues mean for the relation of researcher with the people in the researched situation? And, last but not least, what does it all imply for the researcher him- or herself? These questions have to be dealt with in situations in which the design and organization of the research is still open but also in situations where these have already been preformatted through the research proposal or earlier developments. In any case, they have to be framed in the theoretical considerations of what is science.This book aims to assist scholars and practitioners who would want to deal with this kind of research and questions. The book does not offer recipes, nor fixed scenarios. It presents a series of practical research cases and theoretical insights by experienced researchers who themselves struggled with what is probably the most meaningful questions of the science today. The practical examples of research in action are from different disciplines and include themes from health care, policy research, agricultural technology and education, in Northern and Southern context. Four leading themes of research in action are introduced in the first chapter. In the last chapter the editors return to the dilemmas research in action and try to clarify the options and responses that are possible in different situations.