Informal relations have been one of the major research topics of the social sciences since the 1990s. In order to allow for meaningful comparisons between different combinations of the positive and negative effects of informal relations on democratic representation, this book focuses on post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe as a particular region where formal democratic rules have been established, but competing informal rules are still strong. A broad spectrum of related analytical concepts is discussed from different perspectives and from different academic disciplines, then empirical cases of the relationship between informal relations and democratic representation are analyzed. The contributions span the whole continuum, as we perceive it, from civil society networks seen as supporting democratic representation to the perversion of democratic representation through political corruption. The final part of the book takes a closer look at corruption through four case studies from Russia.

This book explores how representations of intimacy between women included both a sexualized model of the "lesbian" tribade and an "idealized" model that portrayed female friendship as devoid of sexual expression.

This book offers an essential review of central theories, current research and applications in the field of numerical representations of ordered structures. It is intended as a tribute to Professor Ghanshyam B. Mehta, one of the leading specialists on the numerical representability of ordered structures, and covers related applications to utility theory, mathematical economics, social choice theory and decision-making. Taken together, the carefully selected contributions provide readers with an authoritative review of this research field, as well as the knowledge they need to apply the theories and methods in their own work.

Canonical commutation relations (CCR) and canonical anti-commutation relations (CAR) are basic principles in quantum physics including both quantum mechanics with finite degrees of freedom and quantum field theory. From a structural viewpoint, quantum physics can be primarily understood as Hilbert space representations of CCR or CAR. There are many interesting physical phenomena which can be more clearly understood from a representation–theoretical viewpoint with CCR or CAR. This book provides an introduction to representation theories of CCR and CAR in view of quantum physics. Particular emphases are put on the importance of inequivalent representations of CCR or CAR, which may be related to characteristic physical phenomena. The topics presented include general theories of representations of CCR and CAR with finite and infinite degrees of freedom, the Aharonov–Bohm effect, time operators, quantum field theories based on Fock spaces, Bogoliubov transformations, and relations of infinite renormalizations with inequivalent representations of CCR. This book can be used as a text for an advanced topics course in mathematical physics or mathematics.

Chemistry seeks to provide qualitative and quantitative explanations for the observed behaviour of elements and their compounds. Doing so involves making use of three types of representation: the macro (the empirical properties of substances); the sub-micro (the natures of the entities giving rise to those properties); and the symbolic (the number of entities involved in any changes that take place). Although understanding this triplet relationship is a key aspect of chemical education, there is considerable evidence that students find great difficulty in achieving mastery of the ideas involved. In bringing together the work of leading chemistry educators who are researching the triplet relationship at the secondary and university levels, the book discusses the learning involved, the problems that students encounter, and successful approaches to teaching. Based on the reported research, the editors argue for a coherent model for understanding the triplet relationship in chemical education.