Conference Bochum 14-16 May: Resources and Complex Systems

This event might be of interest to readers of this blog.

Via Frederik Schaff:

Dear colleagues,

 

In the attachment, please find an invitation to the ReSoc conference Resources and Transformation in pre-modern Societies, which takes place in Bochum from 14th to 16th of May 2020.

The conference is organised by the Leibniz Post-Doc School “Resources in Society” (ReSoc) hosted by the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) and the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DBM). The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for a transdisciplinary discourse on transformation of knowledge, culture and landscapes in relation to resources. In three sessions, with two distinguished keynote speakers each, we will cover aspects with a multitude of different methodological and theoretical perspectives.

In this mailing-list, we wish to highlight especially the third session on “Resources and Complex Systems”. Here, we will focus especially on agent-based modelling (or similar) approaches to gain a deeper understanding of transformation processes in a given geographical area over a long time span (typically several hundred years).

In order stimulate a lively and fruitful debate, we highly welcome proposals in the form of an abstract (until February 29^th) that:

·         formally cope with issues of complexity and resources by means of simulation models,

·         theoretically derive the practical relevance of a resource-based viewpoint to issues of complexity in an archaeological context,

·         review critically and/or comprehensively the existing literature on complexity and archaeology with the aim to understand the relevance of resources in the different approaches,

·         empirically (based on, e.g., ethnographic studies) determine and analyse such drivers of spatiotemporal human dynamics that are directly connected to concepts of resources,

·         or fit in any other way well within the context of the session.

All information is also available at the conference page: https://conference.resoc.de.

Please forward this email to interested colleagues.

Please excuse any cross-positings.

We hope to see many of you in Bochum.

Best wishes, on behalf of the organising committee,

Frederik Schaff

PostDoc research stay ABM and archaeology

The following post might be of interest:

PostDoc research stay (m/f/d) within the Leibniz Post Graduate School: Resources in Societies (ReSoc) – initially limited until 31.05.2020 – an extension until 31.12.2020 is desired, subject to approval by the Leibniz Association

The Ruhr-Universität Bochum is one of the leading research universities. The university draws its strengths from both the diversity and the proximity of scientific and engineering disciplines on a single, coherent campus. This highly dynamic setting enables students and researchers to work across traditional boundaries of academic subjects and faculties.

To strengthen our interdisciplinary and international team, we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher (m/f/d) with either a strong background in social theory in archaeology and/or in agent-based modelling according to the basic research issues of the Project “Resources in Societies” (ReSoc) (https://www.bergbaumuseum.de/de/forschung/projekte/neue-projekte/resoc). The position shall be anchored between the archaeological and the macroeconomic field and bridge both social and economic debates. The candidate (m/f/d) will staff up our team until the end of the project period. The researcher (m/f/d) will be enabled to follow his/her own agenda but it should be in line with the general targets and research conducted under ReSoc. There will also be ample opportunity to collaborate within the ReSoc Team. Furthermore, the researcher will share responsibilities for the final ReSoc Conference in Mai 2020 with the rest of the team.

ReSoc focuses on questions related to resources and their appropriation. ReSoc defines resources as a product of individual appropriation and social construction, as material sources and as mental perceptions.  Our guiding hypothesis is that resources represent an outstanding vehicle to describe social change in human history. Our transdisciplinary approach integrates social and cultural studies, natural sciences and social sciences/economics to explore the transformative potential of resources and their subsequent social impact.

Therefore the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DBM) and the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) have established a collaboration to enable PostDocs (m/f/d) to work and teach in a favoring scientific environment.

If the position is funded by third-party funds the employee has no teaching obligation.

Interested applicants should send their application per email to: Prof. Dr. Michael Roos, mak@rub.de, by Friday, 4th October 2019 at the lastest.

Travel expenses for interviews cannot be refunded.

At the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, we wish to promote careers of women in areas in which they are been underrepresented, and we would therefore like to encourage female candidates to send us their applications. Applications by suitable candidates with severe disabilities and other applicants with equal legal status are likewise most welcome.

Anforderungsprofil

• a Ph.D. degree in Economics/Archaeological Sciences/Social Anthropology
• extended knowledge and research experience in the field of Economics/Agent-based Modeling/Social Theory in Archaeology
• excellent English language skills

HNR workshop Bochum

Last month’s Historical Network Research conference in Ghent was awesome! Can’t get enough of that networky goodness? Then you might be interested in the next event in the HNR series: “Vom Schürfen und Knüpfen – Text Mining und Netzwerkanalyse für Historiker_innen”, 10-12 April 2015 in Bochum. More info below.

HNR Workshop 2015

Vom Schürfen und Knüpfen – Text Mining und Netzwerkanalyse für Historiker_innen 10.–12. April 2015
Als 9. Veranstaltung in der Reihe „Historische Netzwerkforschung“ findet im April 2015 ein Workshop zu semantisch-sozialen Netzwerken an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum statt. Die Workshop-Reihe bietet historisch orientierten Forscher_innen aller Fachbereich erste Einblicke in die Methodik und eine Plattform zum Austausch über die neuesten Techniken der Netzwerkanalyse. Unter dieser Zielsetzung wird sich der Bochumer Workshop mit der Methode des Text Mining beschäftigen, die eine zunehmende Automatisierung der Erstellung von Netzwerken aus historischem Material ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus spielt die Frage nach den Dimensionen von Texten, die durch diese Methoden repräsentiert werden können, eine Rolle. Hierbei bieten semantisch-soziale Netzwerke die Möglichkeit, sich zum einen mit Begriffszusammenhängen und Konzeptualisierungen, zum anderen mit Beziehungen zwischen Entitäten auseinanderzusetzen.

Der Workshop soll auch Teilnehmer_innen ohne Vorkenntnisse zeigen, wie Relationen von Worten und/oder Entitäten aus einem Text mithilfe von computergestützten Verfahren erzeugt und graphisch abgebildet werden können, ohne dass sie zunächst manuell (beispielsweise in einer Tabelle) erfasst werden müssen.

Am Freitagvormittag besteht die Möglichkeit, vor der offiziellen Eröffnung des Workshops, an einer Einführung in die Programmiersprachen Python und/oder R teilzunehmen. Während des Workshops gibt es eine mehrstündige Session zum Visualisierungsprogramm Gephi.

Darüber hinaus sollen die Teilnehmer_innen erste Einblicke in die folgenden Bereiche bekommen:

Eigenschaften, die ein Text besitzen sollte, um ein Netzwerk erstellen zu können
Möglichkeiten, die es zur Verbesserung der Qualität von Netzwerken gibt
Tools und Computerprogramme, die bei der Erstellung von Netzwerken helfen können
Fragestellungen, die durch die semantisch-soziale Netzwerkanalyse beantwortet werden können
Auf diese Weise soll gezeigt werden, wie man einen Text zunächst „schürft“, um schließlich ein Netzwerk zu „knüpfen“.

Zum Call for Presentations/Participation