833 results for "Environment"

Disciplinary decadence: living thought in trying times

Gordon, Lewis R.
"In this book, philosopher and social critic Lewis Gordon explores the ossification of disciplines, which he calls "disciplinary decadence". In response, he offers a theory of what he calls a "teleological suspension of disciplinarity", in which he encourages scholars and lay intellectuals to pay attention to the openness of ideas and purposes on which their disciplines were born. Gordon builds his case through discussions of philosophy of education, problems of secularization in religious thought, obligations across generations, notions of invention in the study of ideas, decadence in development, colonial epistemologies, and the quest for a genuine postcolonial language. These topics are examined with the underlying diagnosis of the present political and academic environment as one in which it is indecent to think". --Publisher.
Routledge 2016 173 pages

Principles of Topological Psychology

Kurt Lewin
2015 Reprint of 1936 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Topological psychology may be described non-technically as an attempt to comprehend human behavior in terms of the objects which are present, and of the relations among "events" taking place in a given environment ("life-span"). Lewin contends that it provides the basis for a truly scientific psychology. The Lewin's equation, B = ƒ(P, E), is a psychological equation of behavior developed by Kurt Lewin. It states that behavior is a function of the person in their environment. The equation is the psychologist's most well known formula in social psychology, of which Lewin was a modern pioneer. When first presented in Lewin's book "Principles of Topological Psychology," published in 1936, it contradicted most popular theories in that it gave importance to a person's momentary situation in understanding his or her behavior, rather than relying entirely on the past.
Martino Fine Books 2015-03-02 250 pages

The Qualitative-Quantitative Distinction in the Social Sciences

B. Glassner,Jonathan Moreno
Without of course adopting a Platonic metaphysics, the eighteenth-century philosophes were Grecophiles who regarded the Athenian philosophers as their intellectual forbearers and mentors. So powerful was their identification with c1assification that ancient ideas were taken as keys to the design of the modem world, but usually the ideas were taken separately and as divided from their systematic context. The power of number was an idea the En lightenment thinkers deployed with their legendary passion and vigor, particularly as an instrument for social reconstruction. It is no exaggemtion to say that the role of quantities in contemporary social scientific theorizing cannot be understood with any depth absent a recollection of the philosophes' axial development of the notion of quantification. It is a commonplace that for the philosophes progress required releasing human abilities to have power over nature. Aprerequisite for this power was knowledge of the underlying causes of natural events, knowledge that required quantitative precision. Enlightenment thinkers were sufficiently aware of themselves as products of their time to appreciate the importance of a liberal social environment to the knowledge enterprise; the supposition that the reverse is also the case, that enhanced knowledge could advance social conditions, came easily.
Springer Netherlands 2010-12-25 236 pages

The life of metrical and free verse in twentieth-century poetry

Silkin, Jon
In a wide-ranging and compelling account of the life of metrical and free verse in the twentieth century, poet and critic Jon Silkin deepens our understanding of the way poetry works on us. He begins from the premiss that two modes of verse, free and metrical, engage the creative energies of poetry now, creating a rich, fertile environment capable of yielding work valuable to poetry itself and to the society which has given it life. With a practitioner's empathy Silkin reads the poetry of Whitman, Hopkins, Eliot, Pound, Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Bunting and eight British poets from the post-second World War period to illustrate how free and metrical verse create, separately or together, a poetic harmony. Additionally, he includes crucial statements on modern poetry from poets themselves, concluding with a fine memoir of Basil Bunting by Connie Pickard, published in book-form for the first time.
Macmillan 1997 423 pages

The myths of Zionism

Rose, John
'This is an impressive work of deconstruction with many crucial new insights. . . . [It is] written in an accessible way, despite the very complicated issues with which Rose deals: such as the cultural and ideological sources of the Zionist narrative.' Illan Pappe, Professor of Middle East History, University of Haifa, Israel 'In a highly charged environment, Jewish authors played an immense role in elevating the debate about Zionism and the birth of the Israeli State. . . . John Rose's book is a welcome addition that will defy the pro-Israeli inquisition that seeks, through intimidation, to silence legitimate criticism.' Afif Safieh, Palestinian General Delegate to the UK This is a controversial book. It is a critical account of the historical, political and cultural roots of Zionism. John Rose shows how this powerful political force is based in mythology; ancient, medieval and modern. Many of these stories, as with other mythologies, have no basis in fact. However, because Zionism is a living political force, these myths have been used to justify very real and political ends -- namely, the expulsion and continuing persecution of the Palestinians. Chapter-by-chapter, John Rose scrutinises the roots of the myths of Zionism. Mobilising recent scholarship, he separates fact from fiction presenting a detailed analysis of their origins and development. This includes a challenge to Zionism's biblical claims using very recent and very startling Israeli archaeological conclusions. He provides a detailed exploration of Judaism's links to the Middle East. He shows clearly that Zionism makes many false claims on Jewish religion and history. He questions its rationale as a response to European anti-Semitism, and shows that, if there is ever to be peace and reconciliation in the land of Palestine, this intellectual dishonesty must be addressed.
Pluto Press 2004-10-11 232 pages

A Geographical and Historical View of the World: exhibiting a complete delineation of the natural and artificial features of each country, etc.

Bigland, John,Morse, Jedidiah
Title: A Geographical and Historical View of the World: exhibiting a complete delineation of the natural and artificial features of each country, etc.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world. Topics include health, education, economics, agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and industry, mining, penal policy, and social order. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:++++ British Library Bigland, John; Morse, Jedidiah; 1811. 5 vol. ; 8º. 10006.dd.13.
British Library, Historical Print Editions 2011-03-27 472 pages

Entrepreneurship in the global economy: engine for economic growth

Kressel, Henry
"Entrepreneurs have long been drivers of innovation in developed countries. They start companies and create new industries that keep economies strong and prosperous. Today, however, in developing nations such as China, state-controlled economies are building robust industries at stunning speed and siphoning off jobs from the West. How can entrepreneurs function in the face of this challenge? Can they continue to create economic value in a globalized business environment? This book addresses the crucial issue of state planning vs. free enterprise and examines specific problems surrounding entrepreneurship in the global economy through nine case histories of entrepreneurial companies. It also looks at how and why government gets involved in economic growth and how entrepreneurs contribute to economic value. Based on this analysis, the authors argue that companies can succeed, even in controlled economies, by understanding the customs and policies of countries where they do business"--
Cambridge University Press 2012-07-19 266 pages

Against the tide: one woman's political struggle

Keyserling, Harriet
In 1944, when New York City native Harriet Keyserling arrived in the small South Carolina town of Beaufort, she found herself in an environment that seemed foreign to her. Coming to Beaufort with her husband - a native son and local physician - she was a liberal northerner in the conservative South and a Jew in a predominantly Christian world. These religious and political differences only intensified her feelings of being an outsider - a thread that would run through much of her life and career. After successfully raising four children and professionally volunteering for most of her adult life, Keyserling became involved in state and local politics. Driven by passion for the causes she supports, she organized a chapter of the League of Women Voters, became the first woman to serve on the Beaufort County Council, and, at the age of fifty-four, was elected to the state General Assembly. She served for sixteen years before retiring in 1992, when the growing rancor and partisanship of the legislature became intolerable for her. Against the Tide tells the intensely personal story of an unconventional politician struggling to gain self-confidence, beat the odds, and make a lasting dif
University of South Carolina Press 2004 388 pages

From Grief Into Vision A Council

Deena Metzger
Never before in our history as a human race have we been confronted with such grave concerns: the devastation of the environment, global terrorism, vast abuse of political and religious powers, destruction of species and threats to every life form upon this planet. How do we sustain our hope, and our vision of a viable future? Inevitably such disasters are opportunities to draw us together as a people to try to heal ourselves and the Earth. Deena: It is a difficult and sorrowful story that we are in. It requires everything of each of us who have enough love, sorrow and courage in our hearts. We have to find the pieces of this story that may yet sustain creation. Deena s journey, as chronicled in Entering the Ghost River, continues as she returns to Africa and is once again visited by the male elephant elder she calls The Ambassador . Inspired by this continued connection, she interweaves the threads of her community s stories, dreams and visions to create a new form of council on the page, as an offering to us of the wisdom that the circle creates.
Hand To Hand Publ 2007-03 192 pages

The biography of a germ

Karlen, Arno.
Germs get a bad press, so we never hear their side of the story. What is life really like in their invisible kingdom? Arno Karlen tells the fascinating life story of the germ Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb for short), the microbe that causes Lyme disease. He takes us through its ancestry, its appearance, its environment, its sex life, its struggle for survival, and its adventures with other species, including us. Interwoven with Bb¿s biography are fascinating discursions on how life began, why we cannot live without bacteria, and how perturbed environments breed disease. Karlen also describes how perceptions of microbes have changed through history, especially their unfair connection with dirt and suffering. The Biography of a Germ makes the world of microbiology absolutely riveting, and it will help to rehabilitate Bb¿s undeserved reputation.
Phoenix 2001 178 pages

Stateless

Alan Gold,Mike Jones
In this next thrilling story from Alan Gold and Mike Jones, we meet Shalman, a freedom-fighter turned peacenik and archaeologist, and his young beautiful wife, Judit, a refugee from the horrors of Stalin's USSR. As the Second World War draws to a close, and the world begins to learn the truth about Hitler's genocide, the foundation of the State of Israel as a permanent home for what's left of the Jewish people becomes increasingly urgent. In Palestine, Arab and Jewish forces fight each other and the British for supremacy and the right to own the land, causing a nightmare environment of hatred and suspicion. But a deeply buried global conspiracy, which has its origin in Stalin's Russia, seeks to undermine Israel's future as an independent nation. A plot to fashion the fledgling nation as a puppet of the Soviet Union rests upon a handful of committed Jewish Communists, led secretly by Judit. But is she a heartless assassin, a disciple of the evils of Beria and the Kremlin, or a committed fusion of Zionist and Communist? And in the darkest recesses of ancient history, we meet Shalman's ancestors, themselves descendants of the builders of Solomon's Temple. As the family escapes the nightmare of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, it witnesses the glories of the Islamic renaissance in Baghdad and the rampages of the Crusaders through the region. Another exciting instalment in this story of the births of nations and of the strength of their people.
Simon & Schuster 2014 480 pages

The Devil and Uncle Sam: a users guide to the friendly tyrants dilemma

Adam M. Garfinkle
For more than forty years, the American government has struggled with the challenge of maintaining useful relations with a special breed of regime: one whose rulers profess a community of interests with the United States while they rule through authoritarian means. Relationships with such "friendly tyrants" almost invariably generate tensions between the need for prudent security strategies and the ideal of promoting liberty and human rights worldwide. The Devil and Uncle Sam: A User's Guide to the Friendly Tyrants Dilemma distills the policy lessons of over four decades and offers practical approaches to negotiating these obstinate ambiguities of contemporary political life.This User's Guide brings together a team of eminent authors with diverse talents and experience to present a comparative study of the Friendly Tyrants phenomenon in recent history and to devise a systematic set of guidelines for dealing with it. The book is organized around ten essential maxims (Beware Dependence, Be Nimble, Promote Democracy, Chastise with Care, Define Goals, Know the Country, Think It Through, Coordinate Policy, Hedge Bets, Plan for Crises) and a larger number of specific Do's and Don'ts.The Devil and Uncle Sam draws richly upon historical examples to illustrate general principles that will prove invaluable to policymakers and political analysts. The Persian Gulf*War has shown that the Friendly Tyrants problem is still with us, even in the post-Cold War environment. The authors' understanding of past patterns yields insights that should help to prevent the preventable. While new situations will create possibilities for new mistakes, old ones must not be repeated. Contributors to The Devil and Uncle Sam include, in addition to Adam Garfinkle, Daniel Pipes, Kenneth Adelman, Patrick Clawson, Mark Falcoff, and Douglas J. Feith.
Transaction Publishers 1992 135 pages

Urban recycling and the search for sustainable community development

Weinberg, Adam S.
More Americans recycle than vote. And most do so to improve their communities and the environment. But do recycling programs advance social, economic, and environmental goals? To answer this, three sociologists with expertise in urban and environmental planning have conducted the first major study of urban recycling. They compare four types of programs in the Chicago metropolitan area: a community-based drop-off center, a municipal curbside program, a recycling industrial park, and a linkage program. Their conclusion, admirably elaborated, is that recycling can realize sustainable community development, but that current programs achieve few benefits for the communities in which they are located. The authors discover that the history of recycling mirrors many other urban reforms. What began in the 1960s as a sustainable community enterprise has become a commodity-based, profit-driven industry. Large private firms, using public dollars, have chased out smaller nonprofit and family-owned efforts. Perhaps most troubling is that this process was not born of economic necessity. Rather, as the authors show, socially oriented programs are actually more viable than profit-focused systems. This finding raises unsettling questions about the prospects for any sort of sustainable local development in the globalizing economy. Based on a decade of research, this is the first book to fully explore the range of impacts that recycling generates in our communities. It presents recycling as a tantalizing case study of the promises and pitfalls of community development. It also serves as a rich account of how the state and private interests linked to the global economy alter the terrain of local neighborhoods.
Princeton University Press 2000-08-13 225 pages

Religion in 50 words: a critical vocabulary

Hughes, Aaron W.,McCutcheon, Russell T.
"Religion in 50 Words: A Critical Vocabulary is the first of a two-volume work that seeks to transform the study of religion by offering a radically critical perspective. It does so by providing a succinct and critical examination of the key words used in the modern study of religion. Arranged alphabetically, the book explores the historic roots, varied uses, and current significance and utility of the technical terms used within the current field of religious studies. These are the terms that both students and scholars routinely deploy to think about, describe, and analyze data-sometimes without realizing that they are themselves technical tools in need of attention. Among the topics covered: Belief Culture Critical Definition Environment Gender Ideology Lived Religion Material Religion Politics Orthodoxy Race Sacred/Profane Secular Theory This book submits all of its terms to a critical interrogation and subsequent re-description, thereby allowing a collective reframing of the field. This volume is an indispensable resource for students and academics working in religious studies"--
Routledge 2022 320 pages

The case against the global economy: and for a turn toward the local

Jerry Mander,Edward Goldsmith
Expressed in such new institutions as GATT, NAFTA, the World Trade Organizations, and Maastricht, as well as by the development schemes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, economic globalization has been bulldozed through legislative bodies throughout the world, with scant public debate or discourse. These tremendous changes are hailed by their backers as leading to a new era or prosperity and peace, but is this true? Now, for the first time, we have a comprehensive point-by-point analysis of the workings of the global economy, its premises, and its dire implications told by more than forty of the world's leading social, environmental, and economic thinkers from the America's, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. They charge that free trade and economic globalization create exactly the opposite results from what is promised. Each of the forty-three chapters in The Case Against the Global Economy takes one part of the story and delves into it, to show both the root assumptions of globalism and its multiple failures. In the end, it is clear that we need to reverse course; away from the global toward a revitalization of local political and economic control, self-sufficiency, and ecological health.
Sierra Club Books 1996 550 pages

Ivory Bridges Connecting Science and Society

Gerhard Sonnert,Gerald Holton
A study of two bridges between science and society: governmental science policy and scientists' voluntary public-interest associations. According to a widespread stereotype, scientists occupy an ivory tower, isolated from other parts of society. To some extent this is true, and the resulting freedom to pursue curiosity-driven research has made possible extraordinary scientific advances. The spinoffs of "pure" science, however, have also had powerful impacts on society, and the potential for future impacts is even greater. The public and many policymakers, as well as many researchers, have paid insufficient attention to the mechanisms for interchange between science and society that have developed since World War II. Ivory Bridges examines two such mechanisms: governmental science policy (often involving the participation of "scientist administrators") and scientists' voluntary public-interest associations. The examination of science policy is guided by the notion of "Jeffersonian science"---defined as basic research on topics identified as being in the national interest. The book illustrates the concept with a historical case study of the Press-Carter Initiative of the late 1970s and proposes that a Jeffersonian approach would make a valuable addition to future science policy. The book also looks at the activities of citizen-scientists who have organized themselves to promote the welfare of society. It shows that their numerous and diverse organizations have made major contributions to the commonweal and that they have helped to prevent science from becoming either too subservient to government or too autonomous. An extensive appendix profiles a wide variety of these organizations.
MIT Press 2002-03-15 240 pages

You are not your fault and other revelations: the collected wit and wisdom of Wes "Scoop" Nisker

Nisker, Wes
Wes “Scoop” Nisker is an award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator, a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher, a best selling author and a captivating performer. In How to be an Earthling , Wes draws on his diverse experiences delivering a collection that brims with the insight, humor and wisdom he is famous for. Compiling for the first time, Wes’ best known essays as well as a selection of recent and never before published work, Wes takes readers on both a cultural journey (a tour through the sixties, through the modern environmental movement, the surge of Buddhism to the West) and a more personal one, exploring the motivation behind humanity’s search for spiritual enlightenment.
Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint 2016-03-15 261 pages

Cursed questions: on music and its social practices

Taruskin, Richard
"Drawn largely from keynote addresses presented at conferences all over the world, and informed by the experience of writing the Oxford History of Western Music, this book considers the perennial, insoluble yet unevadable problems that musical scholarship must address, among them: musical ontology, musical representation, the determination of musical meaning, the objectives of musical historiography, the ethics of musical performance and criticism, musical periodization, the question of aesthetic autonomy, the social impact of art and the need to control it, the proper source of that control, the relationship of art (and art scholarship) to its temporal and geographical environments, the desirability of historical performance practices, the value and purpose of musical analysis, the origin and value of musical traditions, the purposes and effects of the social dissemination of music. As suggested by the subtitle, the thrust is consistently anti-essentialist. Meaning and value are at all times seen in relational terms, as aspects of social transaction"--
University of California Press 2020-04-21 450 pages