Bücher der Reihe The MIT Press

This overview of recent research on how institutions matter in tackling environmental problems reports the findings and policy implications of a decade-long international research project.

One of the most important books on the modernist movement in architecture, written by a founder of the Bauhaus school.One of the most important books on the modern movement in architecture, The New Architecture and The Bauhaus poses some of the fundamental problems presented by the relations of art and industry and considers their possible, practical solution. Gropius traces the rise of the New Architecture and the work of the now famous Bauhaus and, with splendid clarity, calls for a new artist and architect educated to new materials and techniques and directly confronting the requirements of the age.

A new edition of Quine's most important work.

From the Model T to today's "lean manufacturing": the assembly line as crucial, yet controversial, agent of social and economic transformation.

A seasoned Zen practitioner and neurologist looks more deeply at mindfulness, connecting it to our subconscious and to memory and creativity.

An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace.

Entertaining, concise, and relentlessly probing, City of Bits is a comprehensive introduction to a new type of city, an increasingly important system of virtual spaces interconnected by the information superhighway.

A commonsense, self-contained introduction to the mathematics and physics of music; essential reading for musicians, music engineers, and anyone interested in the intersection of art and science.

Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914-the first great globalization boom, which anticipated the experience of the last fifty years.

Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and, along with privatization and deregulation, represents a substantial reduction in the authority of national governments over economic policy. The contributors to Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries examine this institutional transformation from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, offering detailed case studies of decentralization in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda.Some of these countries witnessed an unprecedented "big bang" shift toward comprehensive political and economic decentralization: Bolivia in 1995 and Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Brazil and India decentralized in an uneven and more gradual manner. In some other countries (such as Pakistan), devolution represented an instrument for consolidation of power of a nondemocratic national government. In China, local governments were granted much economic but little political power. South Africa made the transition from the undemocratic decentralization of apartheid to decentralization under a democratic constitution. The studies provide a comparative perspective on the political and economic context within which decentralization took place, and how this shaped its design and possible impact.ContributorsOmar Azfar, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Pranab Bardhan, Shubham Chaudhuri, Ali Cheema, Jean-Paul Faguet, Bert Hofman, Kai Kaiser, Philip E. Keefer, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Justin Yifu Lin, Mingxing Liu, Jeffrey Livingston, Patrick Meagher, Dilip Mookherjee, Ambar Narayan, Adnan Qadir, Ran Tao, Tara Vishwanath, Martin Wittenberg

Error-Correcting Codes, by Professor Peterson, was originally published in 1961. Now, with E. J. Weldon, Jr., as his coauthor, Professor Peterson has extensively rewritten his material. The book contains essentially all of the material of the first edition; however, the authors state that because there has been so much new work published in error-correcting codes, the preparation of this second edition proved to be a much greater task than writing the original book. The major additions are the chapters on majority-logic codes, synchronization, and convolutional codes. Much new material has also been added to the chapters on important linear block codes and cyclic codes. The authors cite some highly regarded books on recent work done in Eastern Europe and an extensive bibliography on coding theory in the Soviet Union [sic]. In its much-expanded form, Error-Correcting Codes may be considered another valuable contribution to computer coding.

A provocative call for delegitimizing fossil fuels rather than accommodating them, accompanied by case studies from Ecuador to Appalachia and from Germany to Norway.Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, and coal brought anything but great prosperity. But the presumption of net benefits from fossil fuels is eroding as widening circles of people rich and poor experience the downside.A positive transition to a post-fossil fuel era cannot wait for global agreement, a swap-in of renewables, a miracle technology, a carbon market, or lifestyle change. This book shows that it is now possible to take the first step toward the post-fossil fuel era, by resisting the slow violence of extreme extraction and combustion, exiting the industry, and imagining a good life after fossil fuels. It shows how an environmental politics of transition might occur, arguing for going to the source rather than managing byproducts, for delegitimizing fossil fuels rather than accommodating them, for engaging a politics of deliberately choosing a post-fossil fuel world. Six case studies reveal how individuals, groups, communities, and an entire country have taken first steps out of the fossil fuel era, with experiments that range from leaving oil under the Amazon to ending mountaintop removal in Appalachia.

A concise analysis of legal issues in the anarchic world of cyberspace (on-line services, bulletin board systems, and networks), for members of the on-line world who have little or no legal background. The author discusses issues such as copyright law, freedom of speech and adult material.

A comprehensive and accessible overview of major economic issues facing Latin America today, including balance-of-payments problems, inflation, stabilization and poverty. Each chapter centres on an economic problem, presenting economic theories about the causes and possible solutions.

This book analyzes how the bank-dominated financial system-a key element of the oft-heralded "Japanese economic model"-broke down in the 1990s and spawned sweeping reforms.

Stefan Brands proposes cryptographic building blocks for the design of digital certificates that preserve privacy without sacrificing security.

Solutions and detailed explanations for odd-numbered end-of-chapter exercises (107 problems) in Felix Muñoz-Garcia's Advanced Microeconomic Theory.Felix Muñoz-Garcia's Advanced Microeconomic Theory provides examples and exercises that help students understand how to apply theoretical models and offers tools for approaching similar problems on their own. This workbook provides solutions and step-by-step explanations for the odd-numbered exercises (107 problems in total). The answer key and detailed explanations emphasize the economic intuition behind the mathematical assumptions and results and, in combination with the textbook, enable students to improve both their theoretical and practical preparation.

Burroughs brings an especially wide range of explanatory models-from social history, cultural anthropology, iconology and semiotics-to bear in his analysis of urban reform and the shifts in architectural design that emerged in early Renaissance Rome.

According to Rosalind Picard, if we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and express emotions.

Over the past decade, a small group of economists has challenged traditional wisdom about international trade. Rethinking International Trade provides a coherent account of this research program and traces the key steps in an exciting new trade theory that offers, among other possibilities, new arguments against free trade.

A brief, simple introduction to the theory of radiation and its application in astrophysics and a manual for researchers.

Most of Simon's papers on classical and neoclassical economic theory are contained in volume one.

An explanation of why animals behave in unusual ways prior to the onset of an earthquake.

Identifying the operative ideas in architectural theory from ancient Rome to the present and codifying them into coherent theoretical systems; for students, practitioners, and the general reader.In Ideas That Shaped Buildings, Fil Hearn identifies and codifies into theoretical systems the operative tenets of architectural theory from ancient Rome to the present. With this strikingly original synthesis of architectural history and theory, he constructs an intellectual armature on which virtually any architectural concept, past or present, can be positioned. Dealing mainly with the treatises that have been highly influential historically, he organizes their concepts thematically and analyzes their development through time. Straightforward and concise, Ideas That Shaped Buildings is readily accessible to architecture students, practicing architects, and the general public—indeed anyone interested in understanding the design rationale of buildings. Its overarching message is that, far from being constricting, proper knowledge and application of architectural theory is enabling and inspiring, and makes creative freedom possible by providing the conceptual awareness needed to devise a design.After an introductory history of the development of architectural theory, the text is divided into four parts. The first deals with issues relevant to all theories of architecture. The second, treating theory from antiquity to 1800, focuses on the prescriptive conventions inherent in the classical tradition. The third, treating theory after 1800, focuses on the inspirational principles prompted by rationalist perceptions of the Gothic tradition. The fourth, treating theory since 1965, deals with rationales beyond rationalism and the influence of computers on design method and design formulation. The concepts discussed are illustrated with theoretical drawings and images of actual buildings.