"Understanding Knowledge Creation: Intellectuals in Academia, the Public Sphere and the Arts "brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and cultures and involves them into a multi-dimensional dialogue on the mechanisms of knowledge creation in the present-day society with a specific focus on intellectuals as knowledge creators in three main arenas of their activity: the 'institutionalized' arena - academia - and two adjacent arenas: the public sphere and the arts.

This book reflects the wide-spread belief that the twenty-first century is evolving in a significantly different way to the twentieth, which witnessed the advance of human rationality and technological progress, including urbanisation, and called into question the public and cultural significance of religion. In this century, by contrast, religion, faith communities and spiritual values have returned to the centre of public life, especially public policy, governance, and social identity. Rapidly diversifying urban locations are the best places to witness the emergence of new spaces in which religions and spiritual traditions are creating both new alliances but also bifurcations with secular sectors. "Postsecular Cities" examines how the built environment reflects these trends. Recognizing that the 'turn to the postsecular' is a contested and multifaceted trend, the authors offer a vigorous, open but structured dialogue between theory and practice, but even more excitingly, between the disciplines of human geography and theology. Both disciplines reflect on this powerful but enigmatic force shaping our urban humanity. This unique volume offers the first insight into these interdisciplinary and challenging debates. The relationship between religion and politics is both fascinating and challenging, and recent years have seen substantial changes in the way this relationship is studied.

This book builds on the notion that social pathology differs from society to society and that the sense of character that develops in each society is specific to different perceptions of interpersonal obligations and responsibilities in that society. The book deals with the cultural and psychological effects of social change relevant to the study of modernity and postmodernity. It deals with particular social issues such as war and conflict, juvenile delinquency, problems of social ecology and religious revivalism, all reflecting the stresses of modern life and social change within very concrete, particular environments. Braun and his contributors show how individual character and civil society evolve together to create culturally specific trajectories of social change.

Max Weber argued that medieval religious movements were an important source for the distinctive rationality of Western civilization. He intended to study precisely this theme but died before he could do so. In Schools of Asceticism, Lutz Kaelber builds on Weber's ideas by presenting a fresh historical and theoretical analysis of orthodox and heretical religious groups in the Middle Ages. He explores how doctrine and social organization shaped ascetic conduct in these groups from the twelfth century on.

Kaelber first examines monastic and mendicant groups, correcting common misperceptions about the nature of their ascetic practices and their significance for the emergence of a Protestant work ethic. Then he turns to two of the largest and most widespread heretical groups in the Middle Ages, the Waldensians and the Cathars. For the most part, Waldensians and Cathars practiced a form of "other-worldly asceticism" resembling that of monks and nuns. For the Austrian Waldensians, however, Kaelber documents a type of "inner-worldly asceticism" that resembled what Weber described for early modern Protestant groups. Both types of asceticism originated in distinctive heretical establishments: Waldensian schools and Cathar "houses of heretics." As these establishments disappeared, the boundaries separating Waldensianism and Catharism from Catholicism collapsed. Kaelber is therefore able to link organizational aspects of heretical communities to the tenacity of heresy in the Middle Ages.

Based on exhaustive research into both primary and secondary sources, Schools of Asceticism is a bold and original book that bridges the disciplines of comparative historical and theoretical sociology, medieval history, and religious studies.

Erving Goffman (1922-82) is considered to be among the greatest and most inventive of American sociologists. His works first appeared at a time when traditional, formal American sociology dominated the scene. They introduced fresh, new ideas and ways of thinking about the individual in the social world.

Although Goffman is more often thought of as being grounded in symbolic interactionism, he was in fact the first to raise questions about the socially constructed self, the distinction between public identity versus the private self, the role of gender in society, and the study of public spaces. These themes remain of primary interest today, making Goffman one of the most influential thinkers in late twentieth-century social thought.

For the first time in any collection, readers will have access to the complete development of Goffman's writing and thinking from his earliest, lesser-known works to his final masterpiece "Felicity's Condition." Included in this collection are pieces from Goffman's classic works including "Stigma, Asylums, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life," and "Forms of Talk."

Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice brings together leading international figures in political theory and sociology, as well as representatives from the political community, to consider the normative issues at stake in the relationship between environmental sustainability and social justice. It raises important questions and sets out to provide the answers. If future generations are owed justice, what should we bequeath them? Is `sustainability' an appropriate medium for environmentalists to express their demands? Is environmental protection compatible with intra-generational justice? Is environmental sustainability a luxury when social peace has broken down? These essays emerged from three intensive seminars that involved participants in constant re-evaluations of their work, and which bought three distinct groups-environmental theorists, `mainstream' political theorists, and policy community members-into fruitful contact. In particular, the attempt to involve `mainstream' theorists in environmental questions, and to encourage environmentalists to use intellectual resources of political theory, should be highlighted.

Since the nineteenth century, ethnic Koreans have represented a small yet significant portion of the population of the Russian Far East, but until now, the phenomenon has been largely understudied. Based on extensive historical and ethnographic research, this is the first book in English to chart the contemporary social life of Koreans in the complex borderland region. Dispelling the commonly held notion that Koreans were completely removed from the region during the country's attempt to 'cleanse' its borders in 1937, Hyun Gwi Park reveals timely new insights into the historical and current experiences of Koreans living along the Eurasian frontier.

Atlantic Communications examines the historical development of communications technology and its impact on German-American relations from the 17th to the 20th century. Chronologically organized, the book is divided into five parts, each scrutinizing one or two central themes connected to the specific time period and technology involved. The book starts with speech as a dominant medium of the 17th and 18th centuries, when cultural brokers played a significant role in producing and spreading knowledge about America. During the 19th century, the technological competition between the old and the new world became a driving force for the history of transatlantic relations. This competition developed new dimensions with the invention of the telegraph and the emergence of news agencies. Information became commercialized. technologically possible. Print media, daily journals and especially weekly magazines became the medium of a critical style of journalism. The Muckrakers, representatives of a political and intellectual elite, criticized the social and cultural consequences of technological progress, thereby highlighting the negative effects of modernization. During the 1920s and 1930s, radio developed as a new mass medium, the first one to be used widely for political purposes. Not only did Josef Goebbels recognize the political possibilities of reaching the people directly via radio, Franklin Roosevelt used the radio as well to transmit his political messages in the form of fireside chats. to communicate the past, especially the historical experience of the Holocaust. Specific cultures of memory developed in both America and Germany. The demand to tackle the psychological and social problems stemming from the experiences during the Third Reich, advocated especially by the student movement, was most successfully taken up by the media. The television miniseries Holocaust had a far more profound impact on the public than efforts taken by school teachers, history professors or the institutions for political education who were officially in charge of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung.

This study shows how philanthropic foundations and their leaders help shape the American political agenda. The authors' central argument is that foundation leaders are members of a key social and political elite in American society. Relying on a survey of such leaders and on an examination of foundation public policy grants, the authors demonstrate that members of the foundation elite are among the most polarized groups in American society. This study shows how philanthropic foundations and their leaders help shape the American political agenda. The authors' central argument is that foundation leaders are members of a key social and political elite in American society. Relying on a survey of such leaders and on an examination of foundation public policy grants, the authors demonstrate that members of the foundation elite are among the most polarized groups in American society. Contrary to popular belief, those who control foundations seek to make American more progressive. Public policy oriented foundations are largely liberal in outlook and make grants primarily to liberal individuals and organizations. The authors examine the dilemmas that the existence of such organizations create for democratic political theory. The discussion is placed in the context of a historical overview of the role of foundations in American society; it will be of great interest to public policy professionals, political scientists, and those who track the direction of the national agenda.

Despite continued public interest in issues relating to gender and computing, there exists a relative scarcity of texts on this topic. Gender and Social Computing: Interactions, Differences and Relationships provides an overview of the major questions that researchers and practitioners are addressing, outlining possible future directions for theory development and empirical research on gender and computing. This comprehensive reference focuses on three areas of research on gender and computing: gender and computing in the work arena, gender and computing in cyberspace, and gender in eDating.

Automation now supplants economic activity more than it supports it. Furthermore, this process is fueled by enormous economic forces, which intensifies dependence on automation and spawns other sociological consequences. Of these consequences, fraud generates the highest immediate losses, amounting to $300 billion annually. In the long run, however, the greatest economic cost will occur through loss of jobs, and a lowering of net skills for most of the balance. Other consequences include pervasive invasion of privacy, and overdependence on technology at the expense of developing critical reasoning, judgement, and a personal sense of responsibility. Fortunately, many of these consequences could be ameliorated by automated countermeasures that offset the excesses. Unfortunately, it usually takes a crisis to institute fundamental reform, though the looming economic meltdown stemming from the mounting federal debt offers just such an opportunity.

The new discipline of chaotics will alter our thinking about the real forces of change in our society. As presented here, chaotics emphasizes that the real world cannot be understood in terms of conventional deterministic philosophies or standard chaos theory, but that complexity in itself has a powerful but subtle role to play. How does this apply to business and society? To what degree are our lives governed by misguided notions--or do our businesses succeed by chance--because real societal and business forces and their effects are not really understood? Beginning with the foundations of the discipline, this book applies chaotics to business and wealth creation and to society. On the social side, it examines a sea-change in the philosophy of everyday living, be it the concept of employment or our relationship to the environment. The book examines personal identity and its loss in modern society, as well as the search for new contacts and gratification through technology. The authors look at the stunted growth of philosophy against science but emphasize what philosophy has to tell us in a chaotic world. A major new text which will be of interest to professionals and scholars in business, government, and society.

Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox? Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal human experience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny. A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

Popular religion rarely expresses itself in the artifacts of "high" culture. In this book, Lippy approaches the study of popular religion by asking how ordinary people have gone about the process of being religious in America. Along the way, he examines popular religious periodicals, newspapers, novels, diaries, devotional materials, hymnals, promotional materials for revivals and camp meetings, religious tracts, as well as vernacular art and architecture, other artifacts, and, especially in the 20th century, radio, film, and television. He avoids the traditional focus on religious movements and institutions, choosing instead to illuminate the cultural impact of what people in America think and do when they are being religious by highlighting aspects of private life.

At a moment when reproduction is increasingly politicized, this volume explores the breadth of contemporary research on reproduction from the perspective of medical sociology, illuminating the lived experience of reproduction and offering insights to inform sociology and health policy. Reproduction, Health, and Medicine elucidates the tensions and contradictions between the normal physiologic processes of pregnancy and birth and the sociocultural beliefs, values, and arrangements that shape how we experience these biological phenomena. Investigating a range of reproductive events and experiences, including pregnancy, birth, abortion and fertility planning, the volume advances our understanding of how lay people and professionals make cultural meaning out of these processes in diverse settings. The chapters highlight how studies of reproduction, health, and medicine interface with core sociological concepts such as stratification, inequality, intersectionality, family and kinship, risk, and social control, and how experiences of reproduction are shaped by gender, race, class, sexuality and citizenship, as well as culture, health care systems, and health politics.

In Voices on Birchbark Jos Schaeken explores the major role that writing on birchbark - an ephemeral, even 'throw-away' form of correspondence and administration - played in the vibrant medieval merchant city of Novgorod and other cities in the Russian Northwest. Birchbark literacy was crucial to the organization of Novgorodian society; it was integrated into a huge variety of activities and had a broad social basis; it was used extensively by the laity, by women as well as men, by villagers as well as landlords. Voices on Birchbark is the first book-length study of this unique corpus in English. By examining a representative selection of birchbark texts, Jos Schaeken presents fascinating vignettes of daily medieval life and a holistic picture of the pragmatics of communication in pre-modern societies.

Woolf details here the ways in which English men and women first became seriously aware of and interested in their own and the world's past. Previous works have focused exclusively on the writings of a small minority of historians, yet, through using a variety of manuscript and printed sources, this study examines the wider 'historical culture' within which historical and antiquarian studies could emerge.

Modern society emerged in the context of European colonialism and empire. So, too, did a distinctively modern social theory, laying the basis for most social theorising ever since. Yet colonialism and empire are absent from the conceptual understandings of modern society, which are organised instead around ideas of nation state and capitalist economy. Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood address this absence by examining the role of colonialism in the development of modern society and the legacies it has bequeathed. Beginning with a consideration of the role of colonialism and empire in the formation of social theory from Hobbes to Hegel, the authors go on to focus on the work of Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Du Bois. As well as unpicking critical omissions and misrepresentations, the chapters discuss the places where colonialism is acknowledged and discussed - albeit inadequately - by these founding figures; and we come to see what this fresh rereading has to offer and why it matters. This inspiring and insightful book argues for a reconstruction of social theory that should lead to a better understanding of contemporary social thought, its limitations, and its wider possibilities.

This study deals with time and with music, and the link between the two is the suggestion that music is a modeling of the way we construct time. Time-the now, duration, succession and order of succession; the past, the future-is seen as a resource for managing systemic disequilibrium and as the evolutionary elaboration of the now. As organic dynamical systems humans maintain themselves by means of self-regulatory actions, nows, and these nows are proposed as feeding off a pre-temporal, interindividually accessed energy in nature, an ongoing cosmic proto-present. Speech is a way out of sensory immediacy and a way into a complex shared world where coordination and planning take place away from the distractions of the present as given by the senses. Music is presented as one of a group of behaviors comprising the arts and games that evolved in parallel with language to compensate for its abstractness. Language tends to the complexly abstract and music favors the complex, sensorially concrete: like speech, music operates on a synthetic plane, but provides synthetic occasions for sensory immediacy at a level of complexity to match that of language.

The world is witnessing a media revolution similar to the birth of the film industry from the early 20th Century. New forms of media are expanding the human experience from passive viewership to active participants, surrounding and enveloping us in ways film or television never could. New immersive media forms include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (XR), fulldome, CAVEs, holographic characters, projection mapping, and mixed experimental combinations of old and new, live, and generated media. With the continued expansion beyond the traditional frame, practitioners are crafting these new media to see how they can influence and shape the world. The Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media is a collection of innovative research that provides insights on the latest in existing and emerging immersive technologies through descriptions of case studies, new business models, philosophical viewpoints, and scientific findings. While highlighting topics including augmented reality, interactive media, and spatial computing, this book is ideally designed for media technologists, storytellers, artists, journalists, designers, programmers, developers, manufacturers, entertainment executives, content creators, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and media students.

This DIY fill-in book inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a perfectly personalized and portable gift for any Austen lover.

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire you! Tell your closest friend, family member, or sweetheart how much you treasure them with 47 endearing fill-in-the blank prompts inspired by the enchanting world and characters of Pride andPrejudice. Once completed, this customizable, DIY book becomes an unforgettable gift—an ode to your singular connection and shared appreciation for Jane Austen’s beloved novel.

Efficient resource management and provision of public goods represent social dilemmas for those involved. They must choose between a course of action that would be in their personal best interest (e.g., overharvesting fishing banks to take a bigger profit; withholding one's contributions to National Public Radio) and some alternative course that would be more advantageous for the community as a whole (e.g., limiting one's present catch to ensure future fishing stocks; contributing to NPR, even though contributors and noncontributors alike would be able to enjoy its programming). The decisions made by those facing social dilemmas are affected by many factors, and the contributors to this book have explored the diverse processes that ultimately lead an individual to choose between self-interest and the well-being of the community. By gaining a better appreciation of the variables that affect decisions made by those caught in social dilemmas, more effective ways to encourage greater cooperation and to promote the common good may be found.

The southwest Virginia murder trials of a young schoolteacher named Edith Maxwell made her a cause celebre of the 1930s. No newspaper reader or radio listener could avoid hearing of her case in 1935 or 1936, and few magazines neglected to run at least one story on the case. In the media attention that it received, the Maxwell case rivaled the Scopes monkey trial of the 1920s, and for some it seemed to involve many of the same sociological issues--the conflict between modernism and tradition, between urban and rural values, between the sexes, and between generations. Feminist organizations like the National Women's Party and other women's business and professional organizations rallied to Edith's defense because women were not allowed on criminal juries in Virginia in the 1930s.

This book examines the history and contemporary living conditions of Chagossians who were evicted from the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean to make way for a strategic U.S. military base. Initially part of colonial Mauritius, Chagos was integrated into a new colony named the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965. In 1966, Great Britain transferred control of Diego Garcia, the largest Chagos island, to the Americans under a fifty year lease. The expulsions which followed were designed to satisfy the U.S. demand for an unpopulated territory. The Chagossians were thus forced to resettle in Mauritius and the Seychelles, where livelihoods are poor and marginalized. The Chagossians are currently engaged in a campaign seeking right of return to the archipelago and recognition as a people forced to live in diaspora.