  Effective field theories encode the predictions of a quantum field theory at
low energy. The effective theory has a fairly low ultraviolet cutoff. As a
result, loop corrections are small, at least if the effective action contains a
term which is quadratic in the fields, and physical predictions can be read
straight from the effective Lagrangean.
  Methods will be discussed how to compute an effective low energy action from
a given fundamental action, either analytically or numerically, or by a
combination of both methods. Basically,the idea is to integrate out the high
frequency components of fields. This requires the choice of a "blockspin",i.e.
the specification of a low frequency field as a function of the fundamental
fields. These blockspins will be the fields of the effective field theory. The
blockspin need not be a field of the same type as one of the fundamental
fields, and it may be composite. Special features of blockspins in nonabelian
gauge theories will be discussed in some detail.
  In analytical work and in multigrid updating schemes one needs interpolation
kernels $\A$ from coarse to fine grid in addition to the averaging kernels $C$
which determines the blockspin. A neural net strategy for finding optimal
kernels is presented.
  Numerical methods are applicable to obtain actions of effective theories on
lattices of finite volume. The constraint effective potential) is of particular
interest. In a Higgs model it yields the free energy, considered as a function
of a gauge covariant magnetization. Its shape determines the phase structure of
the theory. Its loop expansion with and without gauge fields can be used to
determine finite size corrections to numerical data.
