1,721,052 research outputs found
Decolonizing the 'Global': the Coloniality of Method and the Problem of the Unit of Analysis
Full text linkUnthinking Capital: Conceptual and Terminological Landmarks
Full text linkIn this article I take issues with some Eurocentric limits of the two contradictions of
capital: capital/labour and capital/nature. These limits are exposed by elaborating on
two theoretical insights from researches in critical race studies and indigenous political
ecologies: respectively thingification and uncommon. These insights produce a tension between
colonialism and capitalism, which calls for a post-Eurocentric process of concept formation.
This reconceptualization of capital is pursued through the notion of muri, which the Japanese
thinker Uno Kōzō deployed to designate a bold non-western pathway to reading Capital. The
article elaborates and formulates three conceptual and terminological landmarks to unthinking
capital for a global social theory
The unbearable lightness of method: Concept formation in global social science
Full text linkFour decades of radical criticisms against eurocentrism in historical sociology manifest today through a side effect: the allergy to elaborate a more adequate method enabling global studies to cope with multiplex challenges coming from heterogeneous geohistorical as well as epistemological standpoints. To be sure, the task of placing new methodological cornerstones urges, even though it remains inexplicit. For it solicits automatic suspicion of neo-positivist “conspiracies” or “neo-colonialism” of knowledge whereas scrutinized from postcolonial, decolonial or post-western perspectives. In turn, these same critical perspectives do not acknowledge their own inability to steam an appropriate methodology out of a pressing demand: struggling against the prejudice that the instances they express are in fact exclusively confined to provincial, exotic or solipsistic particularisms; therefore never as universalistic as the dominant ones. Here contradiction arises that calls for theoretical formulation in terms of methodological problem. The problem is enunciated as follows: how should research about large-scale/long-term processes of social change be conducted once agreed upon the world as a single yet multilayered spacetime of analysis, in order to cope with the asymmetrical power relations that materialize colonial history through heterarchies of class, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, knowledge, cosmology and ecology? To answer this question, the paper herewith faces one major issue among the many this formulation raises: concept formation. The argument develops in four steps: formulating the limits of Eurocentrism in terms of methodological issues within the social sciences at large; unthinking conceptualization in historical sociology; exploring heuristic pathways in postcolonial and decolonial thinking; formalize six methodological directions toward a protocol of concept formation for global social sciences
Generalized fractional calculus for gompertz-type models
No full textThis paper focuses on the construction of deterministic and stochastic extensions of the Gompertz curve by means of generalized fractional derivatives induced by complete Bernstein functions. Precisely, we first introduce a class of linear stochastic equations involving a generalized fractional integral and we study the properties of its solutions. This is done by proving the existence and uniqueness of Gaussian solutions of such equations via a fixed point argument and then by show-ing that, under suitable conditions, the expected value of the solution solves a generalized fractional linear equation. Regularity of the absolute p-moment functions is proved by using generalized Grön-wall inequalities. Deterministic generalized fractional Gompertz curves are introduced by means of Caputo-type generalized fractional derivatives, possibly with respect to other functions. Their stochastic counterparts are then constructed by using the previously considered integral equations to define a rate process and a generalization of lognormal distributions to ensure that the median of the newly constructed process coincides with the deterministic curve
On a stochastic neuronal model integrating correlated inputs
No full textA modified LIF-type stochastic model is considered with a non-delta correlated stochastic process in place of the traditional white noise. Two different mechanisms of reset are specified with the aim to model endogenous and exogenous correlated input stimuli. Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes are used to model the two different cases. An equivalence between different ways to include currents in the model is also shown. The theory of integrated stochastic processes is evoked and the main features of involved processes are obtained, such as mean and covariance functions. Finally, a simulation algorithm of the proposed model is described; simulations are performed to provide estimations of firing densities and related comparisons are given
Deterministic Control of SDEs with Stochastic Drift and Multiplicative Noise: A Variational Approach
Full text linkWe consider a linear stochastic differential equation with stochastic drift and multi-plicative noise. We study the problem of approximating its solution with the process that solves the equation where the possibly stochastic drift is replaced by a determinis-tic function. To do this, we use a combination of deterministic Pontryagin's maximum principle approach and direct methods of calculus of variations. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a function u ? L-1(0, T) to be a minimizer of a certain cost functional. To overcome the problem of the existence of such minimizer, we also consider suitable families of penalized coercive cost functionals. Finally, we consider the important example of the quadratic cost functional, showing that the expected value of the drift component is not always the best choice in the mean squared error approximation
On the construction of some fractional stochastic Gompertz models
No full textThe aim of this paper is the construction of stochastic versions for some fractional Gompertz curves. To do this, we first study a class of linear fractional-integral stochastic equations, proving existence and uniqueness of a Gaussian solution. Such kinds of equations are then used to construct fractional stochastic Gompertz models. Finally, a new fractional Gompertz model, based on the previous two, is introduced and a stochastic version of it is provided
A Sojourn-Based Approach to Semi-Markov Reinforcement Learning
No full textIn this paper we introduce a new approach to discrete-time semi-Markov decision processes based on the sojourn time process. Different characterizations of discrete-time semi-Markov processes are exploited and decision processes are constructed by their means. With this new approach, the agent is allowed to consider different actions depending also on the sojourn time of the process in the current state. A numerical method based on Q-learning algorithms for finite horizon reinforcement learning and stochastic recursive relations is investigated. Finally, we consider two toy examples: one in which the reward depends on the sojourn-time, according to the gambler’s fallacy; the other in which the environment is semi-Markov even if the reward function does not depend on the sojourn time. These are used to carry on some numerical evaluations on the previously presented Q-learning algorithm and on a different naive method based on deep reinforcement learning
Leveraging NLP and web knowledge graphs to harmonize locations: A case study on US patent transactions
No full textIn the present study, we introduce a novel methodology for the harmonization and standardization of locations associated with patent transactions recorded at the USPTO from 2005 to 2022. Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques in conjunction with search engine-based web knowledge graphs, our method comprises four phases: data pre-processing, semantic clustering, exploitation of web-knowledge graphs, and API-driven harmonization. Initiating our analysis with a dataset of 63,838 unique locations, our methodology effectively reduces this number by more than 50 %. This approach exhibits an accuracy rate of approximately 92 %. The resulting geolocated dataset of companies' patent transactions offers a valuable resource for fine-grained geographical analyses of the markets for technology; in particular, we provide examples of relevant economic insights which can be learned from looking at the geographical patterns of those transactions
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