Culture-area relation in Axelrod's model for culture dissemination

Axelrod's model for culture dissemination offers a nontrivial answer to the question of why there is cultural diversity given that people's beliefs have a tendency to become more similar to each other's as people interact repeatedly. The answer depends on the two control parameters of the model, namely, the number $F$ of cultural features that characterize each agent, and the number $q$ of traits that each feature can take on, as well as on the size $A$ of the territory or, equivalently, on the number of interacting agents. Here we investigate the dependence of the number $C$ of distinct coexisting cultures on the area $A$ in Axelrod's model -- the culture-area relationship -- through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We find a non-monotonous culture-area relation, for which the number of cultures decreases when the area grows beyond a certain size, provided that $q$ is smaller than a threshold value $q_c = q_c (F)$ and $F \geq 3$. In the limit of infinite area, this threshold value signals the onset of a discontinuous transition between a globalized regime marked by a uniform culture (C=1), and a completely polarized regime where all $C = q^F$ possible cultures coexist. Otherwise the culture-area relation exhibits the typical behavior of the species-area relation, i.e., a monotonically increasing curve the slope of which is steep at first and steadily levels off at some maximum diversity value

Using Information and Communication Technologies in School Administration: Researching Greek Kindergarten Schools

New technologies are widely used in several domains of human activity and business, including education, because of their positive impact on information management and service delivery. Considering technology's ability to provide for advanced and updated technological tools and applications, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been increasingly incorporated into school administration, in order to improve the organization of official data and to facilitate administrative transactions. This research aims to determine the level of technological infrastructure present in Greek kindergarten schools and also to examine the extent to which this equipment meets their administrative needs, as well as the conditions that influence the implementation of ICT in school management. © The Author(s) 2011

Keeping More Than Homes: A More Than Material Framework for Understanding and Intervening in Gentrifying Neighbourhoods

Amie Thurber, a scholar-practitioner working with small-scale neighbourhood geographies in the United States, also builds on the need to understand the participation and involvement of vulnerable, low-income residents in gentrifying neighbourhoods. Linking theoretical writings across disciplinary boundaries, encompassing political philosophy, geography and community psychology, Thurber analyses neighbourhood in terms of material, epistemic and affective dimensions. As well as offering a deeper understanding of the harms done by gentrification, the chapter proposes its ‘more than material’ conceptual framework as a means of imagining then enacting positive interventions to create spaces of resident representation, build relationships between neighbours and support participatory action