Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Social Sciences and Knowledge Management

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social), the Humanities, and the private and public sectors of society. The chapters speak across sociocultural concerns, education, welfare and artistic sectors under the common desire for direct responses in more effective ways by means of interaction across societal structures. This book contains the following chapters: (1) Social Research Methods in Higher Education: A Critical Analysis of Methodological Issues and Emerging Trends at the Zimbabwe Open University (Caleb Kangai); (2) Methodology Transfers Between Social Sciences and Humanities in Relation to Natural Sciences, Technology and Government Policy (Hajime Eto and Shinichi Yamamoto); (3) Causality in Social Studies Education (Bayram Tay); (4) The Assumption of Non-Gaussianity in Natural and Social Sciences and Its Influence on Detection of Causal Relationships (Katerina Hlavackova-Schindler); (5) Qualitative Research: The Toolkit of Theories in the Social Sciences (Sylvain K. Cibangu); (6) A Simulation Approach to Validate Models Derived from Observational Studies (Pierre N. Robillard and Simon Labelle); (7) Cartographic Generalization Applied to Social Networks Maps in the City of Curitiba in Brazil (Renan M. Pombo, Luciene S. Delazari and Claudia R. Sluter); (8) Open-Source Tools for Data Mining in Social Science (Pasko Konjevoda and Nikola Stambuk); (9) Applying Social Sciences Research for Public Benefit Using Knowledge Mobilization and Social Media (David J. Phipps, Krista E. Jensen and J. Gary Myers); (10) Re-Visiting Ethnographic and Orthodox Research Methodologies: Field Research Experiences from an African Perspective (Oliver Mtapuri); (11) Social Physics: An Interdisciplinary Way to Explore the Mechanism of Public Opinion (Yijun Liu and Wenyuan Niu); (12) The Methodology of Formulating Iranian National Policy of Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Framework (Hassan Danaeefard and Mohammad Reza Noruzi); (13) Theoretical Approaches to Employment and Industrial Relations: A Comparison of Subsisting Orthodoxies (Christopher Odogwu Chidi and Okwy Peter Okpala); (14) Human Capital Resourcing Practices and Organisational Performance: A Study of Selected Organisations in Lagos State, Nigeria (Christopher Odogwu Chidi and Okwy Peter Okpala); (15) Enhancing Productivity Through Lean Behavior (A. Perumal Puvanasvaran); (16) Organizational Sustainability: The Case of Handcrafts Micro-Business in Southern San Sebastian, Jalisco, Mexico (Jose G. Vargas-Hernandez); (17) Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Science, Technology and Innovation in Uganda (Muriisa R. Kabeba); (18) A Didactic and Methodological Lesson of the Study of Economics and the Skill Development of Students (Maria Covadonga De la Iglesia Villasol); (19) New Public Management and Reforms in Iran: Analysis of Government Downsizing (Hassan Danaee fard, Tayebeh Abbasi and Mohammad Reza Noruzi); and (20) Media of Exchange and Liquid Assets of Political and Market Enterprises: A New Monetary Perspective on Medieval French Monetary Mutations (Thomas Marmefelt).