Time, role of the past and varieties of fictional expectations: comments on Jens Beckert’s Imagined Futures

Accepted manuscrip

Phaseshift equivalent NN potentials and the deuteron

Different modern phase shift equivalent NN potentials are tested by evaluating the partial wave decomposition of the kinetic and potential energy of the deuteron. Significant differences are found, which are traced back to the matrix elements of the potentials at medium and large momenta. The influence of the localisation of the one-pion-exchange contribution to these potentials is analyzed in detail.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures include

Disentangling urban sustainability: the Flemish City Monitor acknowledges complexity

Nowadays, cities have to deal with complexity. In this article we argue that the City Monitor for Sustainable Urban Development in the Flanders (Belgium) acknowledges complexity. This set of almost 200 SDIs (Sustainable Development Indicators) contains actor-exceeding and policy-exogenous information. On that account this learning instrument is relevant for all actors involved in the urban (sustainable) development of their city and is able to enhance and to sharpen the quality of strategic urban debates and complex decision-making processes. Our intensive co-design approach of the City Monitor also succeeds to deal adequate with the tensions of complex catch-all terms such as (urban) sustainability

Researching the construction of a formbild

This paper is a presentation and a discussion of the research methods used in the author’s research project at Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Gulliksen, 2006). The aim of the research was to describe how a group of people, in this case: students and teaches, come to agree upon what a good quality form is. The chosen way of explaining the notion of form quality in design engaged a socio-constructivistic approach, based in the theories of Bourdieu and Foucault and others. It rendered form quality as something constructed by the individual in interaction with artefacts and other individuals. The object of the study was to explore the mechanisms of this construction, separated into dynamical aspects (the actual construction) and the hierarchical aspects (the restrictions) of the constructive mechanisms. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis of communication (verbal, visual and more) about form was the methodology chosen. This paper discusses certain fundamental methodological questions concerning the use of this perspective and this methodology in a design process. It asks in what way it is convenient to study something as material as an artefact’s form as something as immaterial as construction, communication and text. The paper is based on specific examples from the thesis presenting the research, ending with a short conclusive discussion concerning the opportunity this perspective gave to avoid a dichotomist basis (in the artefact it self or in the eyes of the beholder) for theories concerning form quality, and to sustain a focus on the communicational and relational aspects of the designing process. Keywords: Form Quality, Formbild, Socio-Constructivism, Discourse Analysis, Methodological Considerations</p

What majority decisions are possible

Suppose we are given a family of choice functions on pairs from a given finite set (with at least three elements) closed under permutations of the given set. The set is considered the set of alternatives (say candidates for an office). The question is, what are the choice functions c on pairs of this set of the following form: for some (finite) family of ``voters'', each having a preference, i.e., a choice from each pair from the given family, c{x,y} is chosen by the preference of the majority of voters. We give full characterization

Technological agglomeration and the emergence of clusters and networks in nanotechnology

Based on the analysis of two clusters in nanotechnologies (MESA+ in the Netherlands and Minatec in Grenoble in France), the paper examines the emergence and effects of technological agglomeration. The social and technical arrangements of a regional centre for nanotechnology both enable and constrain the ongoing activities and research lines that can be followed. Technology platforms and their co-location are a pre-requisite for nanotechnology research and agglomeration of such platforms are both a means and outcome for institutional entrepreneurs to mobilise resources, build networks and construct regional centres of excellence in nanotechnology. Technological agglomeration shapes the networks that evolve and leads to the convergence of scientific disciplines.TECHNOLOGICAL AGGLOMERATION;TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM;CLUSTER;DISTRICT; CONVERGING TECHNOLOGY;MULTILEVEL ACTIVITIES