Jascha Grübel

Category: ETH

  • IAP: Introduction

    The internet is a global-scale, technically complex artefact of immense international social and political importance. It is formed by the interaction of technical constraints (e.g. speed of light, number of addresses), usage models and behaviour, technological design choices and policy decisions. This course will focus on the Internet and other networks will only marginally be…

  • CSD: Introduction

    The course “Cognition in Studio Design – analytic tools for evidence-based design” will discuss readings of space syntax (Bafna, 2003) , navigation issues (Carlson, Hölscher, Shipley, & Dalton, 2010) as well as functions and applications of spatial cognition (Montello & Raubal, 2013) . To compute space syntax DepthmapX will be used. References Bafna, S. (2003).…

  • SMADSC: Introduction

    Complex systems are the core topic of  Social Modelling, Agent-Based Simulation, and Complexity. Complex systems usually emerge as an artefact of interaction. The output of a complex system follows the Power Law and may have a regime or phase changes, known as tipping points. Emergent properties and scale-free organisation are a typical feature of complex…

  • ISN: What are Social Networks?

    Social networks are based on relations between two or a few individuals from friendships over contracts to work contacts. Throughout the course, the theory behind social networks will be put into context with methods of comparing and applying social networks. Examples from different scientific disciplines will be used to illustrate the social networks. Network descriptives…

  • PE: Institutions and Economic principles

    The main reference for today will be Mueller’s Public Choice III Chapter 1 and 2 (Mueller, 2003)as well as Acemoglu’s Political Economy Lecture Notes Chapter 1 (Acemoglu, 2009). Additional readings are Acemoglu’s Chapter 2 and work by Ostrom (Ostrom, 1998) and Schnellenbach (Schnellenbach & Schubert, 2015). Political Economy joins the fields of Political Science and Economics.…

  • Urban Design I: Tools

    Throughout the course Urban Design I several “tools” were introduced that impact urbanity. Expansion Tools of this kind belong to top-down approaches and usually give form to the urbanscape in a radical way. Megascale-planing (Berlin) Berlin was an early example of a politically motivated re-organisation of administrative units. Berlin grew from nearly 2 million to…

  • PIPP: Governance beyond the state

    International politics differentiate themselves from state politics as the question of sovereignty is answered differently. States have internal and external sovereignty. A consequence is that they are formally equal entities. Therefore states have to coordinate horizontally and negotiate an order mostly based on the power they can display. International politics would be similar to national…

  • PIPP: Democracy & Governance

    Mechanistic institutional definitions of a democracy are based on the electoral systems and the powers it hands to officials. There are also soft definitions of democracy that focus on citizens’ rights to form interest groups (pressure groups, political parties, etc.) and judicial protection of citizens. The quality of a democracy can be rated based on…

  • Principles of Economics: Imperfect Competition

    Monopoly Barriers to entry are the fundamental cause for the rise of monopoly. Barriers appear in three forms: ownership of key resources, exclusive production rights and an efficient (return-to-)scale. A firm’s ability to influence the market price is called market power. It entails that a firm can raise the price above some competitive level in…

  • QPAM: Uncertainty

    A first form of uncertainty is randomness. It is a stochastic behaviour that can be dealt with sensitivity analysis, estimates from experience (actuarial) or hedging. A more complicated form of uncertainty is indeterminacy. It describes situations that are qualitatively known, but cannot be reliably quantified. It is often addressed by attempting to quantify it anyway…