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The Necessity of Friction

Nineteen Essays on a Vital Force

  • Book
  • © 1993

Overview

Editors:
  1. Nordal Åkerman

    1. Lund, Sweden

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Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-VIII
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  2. Points of departure

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Six poèmes en prose

      • Klaus Rifbjerg
      Pages 3-5

    3. A free-falling society? Six introductory notes

      • Nordal Åkerman
      Pages 6-28

  3. Metaphor transferred

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29
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    2. Re-discovering friction: all that is solid does not melt in air

      • Helga Nowotny
      Pages 31-57

  4. Physics & metaphysics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 59-59
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    2. An exemplary physical disposition

      • Rom Harré
      Pages 61-76

    3. Friction of bodies, friction of minds

      • Agnes Heller
      Pages 77-84

  5. On the battlefield

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85
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    2. Friction and warfare

      • Chris Donnelly
      Pages 87-119

  6. Incentives for progress

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121
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    2. Let us now praise dragging feet!

      • Ottar Brox
      Pages 123-134

    3. Social change induced by technology: promotion and resistance

      • T. R. Lakshmanan
      Pages 135-158

    4. Inertia and development models

      • Georg Sørensen
      Pages 159-177

  7. Rationality in the marketplace

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179
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    2. Friction in economics

      • Keith Griffin
      Pages 181-195

    3. Essential friction: error-control in organizational behavior

      • Gene I. Rochlin
      Pages 196-232

  8. Elation & frustration

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233
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    2. Playing, writing, wrestling

      • Sigrid Combüchen
      Pages 235-247
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Keywords

About this book

Friction is what keeps us from realizing our goals. It is what compromises all our plans, sometimes making them unrecognizable. It defies our wish for perfection and constantly surprises us with new elements of resistance. It constitutes the divide between dream and reality. But friction is also that which gets us moving, a necessary incentive to achieve progress. Nothing can start if it cannot push off something else. By blocking or delaying the easy solution friction makes for a richer, more varied world. If it stops schemes from being completely fulfilled, it also stops them from going totally awry. To the modernist project with its one-sided rationalist pretensions, friction is unambiguously bad. And so it is being disposed of at an increasing speed. This means less and less time to pause and rethink, while the vulnerability of societies is aggravated. In "The Necessity of Friction" twenty scholars tackle this topical and important concept. A number of scientific fields are engaged: physics, philosophy, economics, architecture, organizational theory, artificial intelligence, and others. Together these contributions form the first modern-day attempt at analyzing the intriguing yet elusive subject of friction.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Lund, Sweden

    Nordal Åkerman

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Necessity of Friction

  • Book Subtitle: Nineteen Essays on a Vital Force

  • Editors: Nordal Åkerman

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95905-9

  • Publisher: Physica Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Physica-Verlag Heidelberg 1993

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-95907-3Due: 28 February 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-95905-9Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 336

  • Topics: Regional/Spatial Science, Physics, general

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