Jascha Grübel

Category: ETH

  • ISN: Positions in Social Networks

    Positions in a network are important for different reasons such as well-being. In the following several concepts will be introduced to gauge positions in a social networks. Structural balance People prefer balanced relationship structures. According to Heider (Heider, 1946), imbalances cause psychological distress. To balance people create or drop ties. However, balance may not be…

  • PE: Bureaucracy theory

    We will be looking at the political process in an exogenous political environment. Policies are demanded for by citizens/voters and interest groups whereas it is supplied by delegates/representatives/politicians and public administration. Public administration is claimed to be motived by either rent-seeking or community-engaging. A central question becomes how to measure the quality of government of…

  • IAP: Netheads and Bellheads

    In the 1990s the great debates on how the Internet should be developed was coined the Netheads versus Bellheads. Netheads originated from the people that developed network technology whereas Bellheads originates from the Bell Laboratories – a research institution of telecommunication companies. At the core was a technical discussion whether packet-switching or circuit-switching is more…

  • CSD: Space Syntax Theory

    Space syntax is a social theory on the use of space. It encompasses a set of theories and techniques that examines relationships between man (e.g. individual/user/society) and the environment (in/outdoor). Recommended basic readings are Lynch’s “The image of the city” (Lynch, 1960) as well as “Space is the machine” (Hillier, 2007) . Advanced readings are…

  • SMADSC: Social Networks

    Social networks often give structure to relations. They can be considered as abstract, mathematically, tractable and computationally instantiatable systems. Social networks have become a field of their own. It is very interdisciplinary touching mathematics (graph theory), computer science (algorithms), sociology (population group trends), psychology (individual and social behaviour), and complex network theory. Interpersonal contact caused…

  • ISN: Network visualisation

    Today’s topic will be to visualise networks and centrality measures. We visualise a network to better understand the underlying data. A visualisation should be driven by the question that we would like to answer. Nonetheless, visualisations are by their nature exploratory. Also, visualisations do not provide evidence for hypothesis. Visualisation usually tries to convey information…

  • PE: Public Good Game

    Public Good Game Each subject secretly chooses how much of their initial endowment to put into a public pot. The joint value in this pot is multiplied by a factor ([latex] 1 < factor < N [/latex]) and evenly paid out across all [latex]N[/latex] subjects. All unspent endowments is kept by the respective subject. In…

  • ASC: Introduction

     Argumentation and Science Communication will discuss how scientific arguments are made and how they are eventually communicated. The first weeks readings are listed in the references (Bradley & Steele, 2015; Lempert, Nakicenovic, Sarewitz, & Schlesinger, 2004). A particular focus will be on (Mueller, 2010), for which the following questions should be answered: What is a…

  • Urban Design II: Los Angeles

    Today’s topic will be the Urban Design of Los Angeles. The main tools will be top-down infrastructure (Ecology/landscape), fragmented sub-urban (suburbia) and places for experimentation (micro/temporary programs). Los Angeles is a car city. It is the antagonist to New York, the incarnation of the battle between the East and West Coast. Hollywood is located in…