Understanding cooperative phenomena far from equilibrium is one of fascinating challenges of present-day many-body physics. Glassy behaviour and the physical ageing process of such materials are paradigmatic examples. The present volume, primarily intended as introduction and reference for postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from related fields, collects six extensive lectures addressing selected experimental and theoretical issues in the field of glassy systems. Lecture 1 gives an introduction and overview of the time-dependent behaviour of magnetic spin glasses. Lecture 2 is devoted to an in-depth discussion on the nature of the thermal glass-transition in structural glasses. Lecture 3 examines the glassy behaviour of granular systems. Lecture 4 gives a thorough introduction to the techniques and applications of Monte-Carlo simulations and the analysis of the resulting data through scaling methods. Lecture 5 introduces the zero-range-process concept as simple but subtle model to describe a range of static and dynamic properties of glassy systems. Lecture 6 shows how familiar RG methods for equilibrium systems can be extended to systems far from equilibrium. Understanding cooperative phenomena far from equilibrium is one of the fascinating challenges of present-day many-body physics. Glassy behaviour and the physical ageing process of such materials are paradigmatic examples. The present volume, primarily intended as introduction and reference, collects six extensive lectures addressing selected experimental and theoretical issues in the field of glassy systems. Introduction 1(6) M. Henkel M. Pleimling R. Sanctuary References 6(1) Ageing, Rejuvenation and Memory: The Example of Spin-Glasses 7(54) E. Vincent What is a Spin-Glass? 7(4) Slow Dynamics and Ageing 11(16) DC Experiments 11(6) AC Susceptibility 17(2) Noise Measurements 19(6) Rejuvenation by a Stress 25(2) Ageing, Rejuvenation and Memory 27(14) Cooling Rate Effects 27(4) Memory Dip Experiments 31(5) Rejuvenation and Memory Versus Cumulative Ageing 36(5) Characteristic Length Scales for Ageing 41(14) Length Scales from Field Variation Experiments 41(4) Length Scales from Temperature Variation Experiments 45(5) The Dynamical Correlation Length from Both Temperature and Field Variation Experiments 50(3) Separation of Time and Length Scales with Temperature: How Much? 53(2) Conclusions 55(6) References 57(4) About the Nature of the Structural Glass Transition: An Experimental Approach 61(100) J. K. Kruger P. Alnot J. Baller R. Bactavatchalou S. Dorosz M. Henkel M. Kolle S. P. Kruger U. Muller M. Philipp W. Possart R. Sanctuary Ch. Vergnat Introduction 61(17) The Method of Brillouin Spectroscopy 78(7) The ``Kinetic Face'' of the Structural Glass Transition 85(16) The Dynamic View of the Thermal Glass Transition 101(17) Static Properties at the Thermal Glass Transition 118(13) The Role of Non-Linear Elastic Behaviour at the Thermal and Chemical Glass Transition 131(21) Conclusion 152(9) References 153(8) Glassy Behaviours in A-Thermal Systems, the Case of Granular Media: A Tentative Review 161(46) O. Dauchot Introduction 161(1) Thermal vs. A-thermal Systems 162(7) Definitions and General Considerations 162(3) Illustration in the Context of Stochastic Dynamics 165(4) Glassy Behaviour of Granular Media 169(24) Experimental Evidence of the Analogy at the Macroscopic Level 169(10) Recent Experimental Results at the Grain Scale 179(13) Partial Conclusion 192(1) Looking for a Statistical Description 193(9) Edwards' Proposal 194(2) Experimental Test of Edwards' Proposal? 196(6) Conclusion and Perspectives 202(5) References 204(3) Introduction to Simulation Techniques 207(54) W. Janke Introduction 207(2) Models and Phase Transitions 209(7) Models and Observables 209(2) Phase Transitions 211(5) The Monte Carlo Method 216(6) Importance Sampling 216(1) Local Update Algorithms 217(5) Initial Non-Equilibrium Period and Ageing 222(4) Statistical Analysis of Monte Carlo Data 226(13) Estimators 228(1) Uncorrelated Measurements and Central-Limit Theorem 228(1) Correlated Measurements and Autocorrelation Times 229(2) Bias 231(1) Numerical Estimation of Autocorrelation Times 232(1) Binning Analysis 233(1) Jackknife Analysis 234(1) A Simplified Model: The Bivariate Gaussian Time Series 235(3) Applications to the 2D Ising Model 238(1) Cluster Algorithms 239(6) Reweighting Techniques 245(7) Single-Histogram Technique 246(4) Multi-Histogram Technique 250(2) Tempering Methods 252(1) Simulated Tempering 252(1) Parallel Tempering 252(1) Multicanonical Ensembles 253(2) Concluding Remarks 255(6) References 256(5) From Urn Models to Zero-Range Processes: Statics and Dynamics 261(34) C. Godreche Dynamical Urn Models and Zero-Range Processes 262(6) Dynamical Urn Models 262(1) Zero-Range Processes 263(1) Equilibrium Urn Models with Independent Sites 264(2) Dynamical Urn Models with Stationary Product Measure 266(2) A Counterexample 268(1) Two-Species ZRP: Conditions for Product Measure 269(1) Equilibrium Urn Models with Independent Sites 269(1) Product Measure 270(1) Reversibility Implies Stationary Product Measure 270(1) An Example of a Two-Species ZRP with Non Product Stationary Measure 270(1) Two Extreme Cases 270(3) The Case of Two Sites 270(2) A Thermodynamic System on the Complete Graph 272(1) Statics of ZRP: Fundamental Properties 273(2) Statics of ZRP: Examples and the Phenomenon of Condensation 275(3) Two Simple Examples 275(1) The Canonical Example for the Phenomenon of Condensation 276(1) Rate Uk = 1 + a/k?: Stretched-Exponential Critical Behaviour 277(1) Zero-Range Processes: Nonstationary Dynamics (I) 278(4) Dynamics on the Complete Graph 278(3) Late Stages of the Dynamics and the Case of One Dimension 281(1) Zero-Range Processes: Nonequilibrium Dynamics (II) 282(4) General Framework 282(2) Application: ZRP with Condensation (uk = 1 + b/k) 284(2) One Dimension 286(1) Stationary Dynamics of the Condensate 286(5) The Question Posed 286(1) Numerical Observations 287(1) Theoretical Analysis 288(3) Last Remarks 291(1) Further References 291(4) References 293(2) Field-Theory Approaches to Nonequilibrium Dynamics 295(51) U. C. Tauber Critical Dynamics 295(33) Continuous Phase Transitions and Critical Slowing Down 296(5) Field Theory Representation of Langevin Equations 301(3) Outline of Dynamic Perturbation Theory 304(4) Renormalisation 308(4) Scaling Laws and Critical Exponents 312(4) Critical Dynamics with Reversible Mode-Couplings 316(4) Critical Relaxation, Initial Slip, and Ageing 320(1) Nonequilibrium Relaxational Critical Dynamics 321(3) Driven Diffusive Systems 324(4) Reaction--Diffusion Systems 328(18) Chemical Reactions and Population Dynamics 328(2) Field Theory Representation of Master Equations 330(4) Diffusion-Limited Single-Species Annihilation Processes 334(1) Segregation for Multi-Species Pair Annihilation 335(3) Active to Absorbing State Transitions and Directed Percolation 338(4) Dynamic Isotropic Percolation and Multi-Species Variants 342(2) Concluding Remarks 344(2) References 346