Over the past 50 years, the federal government's efforts to reform American public education have transformed U.S. schools from locally-run enterprises to complex systems in which federal, state and local actors jointly construct the educational environment of U.S. children. Through struggles over school integration, the growth of special education, the teaching of English learners and the rise of accountability politics, the federal role in U.S. education has meant a profound reconstruction of local expectations, roles and political alignments. Seeking to construct the federal schoolhouse - an educational system in which there are common national expectations and practices - has meant the creation of new modes of education within local institutions. The creation of this "education state " has also meant that federal educational initiatives have collided with - or reinforced - local political regimes in cities and suburbs alike. To the extent that "all politics is local, " the federal role in public schools has changed both the conduct and the norms of local educational politics. Building the Federal Schoolhouse examines how increasing federal authority over public education in the U.S. changes the practices of 'operational localism' in education and how local regime commitments implement, thwart, or even block federal policy initiatives. The book examines these issues through an in-depth, fifty year examination of federal educational policies at work within one community, Alexandria, Virginia. The home of T.C. Williams High School, memorialized in the Hollywood movie Remember the Titans, Alexandria has been transformed within two generations from a Jim Crow school system to a new immigrant gateway school district with over 20 percent of its students English learners. Along the way, the school system has struggled to provide quality education for special needs students, sought to overcome the legacies of tracking and segregated learning and simultaneously retain upper-middle class students in this wealthy suburb of Washington, DC. Most recently, it has grappled with state and federally imposed accountability measures that seek to boost educational outcomes. All of these policy initiatives have contended with the existing political regime within Alexandria, at times forcing the local regime to a breaking point, and at times bolstering its reconstruction. At the same time, the local expectations and governing realities of administrators, parents, politicians and voters alike have sharply constrained federal initiatives, limiting their scope when in conflict with local commitments and amplifying them when they align. Through an extensive use of local archives, contemporary accounts, school data and interviews, Reed not only paints an intimate portrait of the conflicts that the creation of the federal schoolhouse has wrought in Alexandria, but also documents the successes of the federal commitment to greater educational opportunity. In so doing, he highlights the complexity of the American education state and the centrality of local regimes and local historical context to federal efforts to reform education.

Shopping is one of the most challenging and rewarding human activities. Pooler offers a captivating exploration of the emotional and psychological dimensions of shopping. What drives shoppers in various situations? Why do we shop the way we do? Why do people go to malls, boutiques, and Web sites with their credit cards in hand, despite not knowing what it is they're looking for? This book answers such questions, taking an incisive look at how shopping and shoppers have changed in recent years. For those in retailing and marketing, this guide to the fickle consumer's mindset offers concrete and practical advice on modern shopping behavior, along with important insights into the shopping psyche. Comprehending why people shop as they do is a daunting challenge for today's retailer. For example, why do people shop for bargain groceries yet purchase the latest luxury-model SUV? Why do people feel justified in splurging for Christmas, birthdays, or anniversaries, but suffer guilt from over-spending at other times of the year? Is clothes-shopping all about price and practicality, or is it more about emotional reward and psychological needs? Is the excitement in the quest or the acquisition? Why is there such a thing as a morning-after "urge to return" among certain shoppers, while others refuse to return an item even if it's flawed or doesn't fit? Pooler probes to the heart of today's complex shopper, providing valuable insights for retailers, advertisers, marketers, and consumers.

This book maps emergent global practices and discourses of mediated, spiritualized social change. Bringing together scholarly perspectives from around the world and across disciplines, the authors explore how 'spiritualities' express themselves through and with media - from television to Internet, from fashion to art murals - as socially transforming voices and practices. The very fluidity of the meaning of spirituality is part of its appeal: it can service as easily as a reference to a perceived common essence of humanness as it can work to legitimate market-based practices. While the involvement of spiritual life with social transformation is certainly not peculiar to contemporary societies, what has changed is the upsurge of media in these matters. In the specific case of religion, globalization has unleashed a cascade of unexpected and unpredictable implications, many of which are consequences of the media. The authors here show ways in which media and spiritualities are engaged around the world in efforts to restructure paradigms, institutions, beliefs and practices to affect social change. >

Many educators have been looking for a fundamentally different approach to engage young people and encourage progress in learning. Supported by recent public policy developments, a transformation is beginning to take place in the practice of many schools. The focus of learning is shifting away from the child as an individual in a classroom detached from the surrounding neighbourhood to a learning community that embraces carers and families as well as young people and teachers. This monograph analyses the organising principles of this cultural transformation and considers how it will shape learning in schools and communities throughout the world. The book brings together key thinkers from the fields of new learning, new communities of educational practice and new forms of educational governance. Arguing for the necessary interconnectedness of pedagogy, institutions and governance, this ground-breaking book will undoubtedly shape the policy agenda in this area for years to come. >

The creative citizen unbound introduces the concept of 'creative citizenship' to explore the potential of civically-minded creative individuals in the era of social media and in the context of an expanding creative economy. Contributors examine the value and nature of creative citizenship, not only in terms of its contribution to civic life and to social capital but also to various and more contested definitions of value, both economic and cultural.

Max Weber is surpassed only by Karl Marx in the breadth of his influence as a social scientist. This bio-bibliography presents a complete listing of printed translations of Weber's works into English and a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of the secondary literature in English about Weber and his work. The first part contains chapter-length biographies of Weber, an overview of Weber's reception in Anglo-America, and a brief discussion of archival holdings for those interested in primary sources. Kivisto and Swatos offer an assessment of existing studies of Weber's life and thought in lieu of a conventional biography. The bulk of the volume is devoted to providing a bibliographic guide to the secondary literature on Weber in English. Annotated entries are arranged in five topical chapters that focus on biography and intellectual history, social science methodology, religion, politics and social class, and modernity, rationality, and bureaucracy. Additional access to information is provided by two indexes: the author index lists the authors of all entries and the number(s) of their respective citations; the name and subject index identifies names that appear in titles or bibliographic entries and guides the researcher to subjects that may be treated in more than one chapter. This first annotated bibliography of works by and about one of modern sociology's founding fathers is a reference book for both scholars and students of social theory, historical sociology, the sociology of religion, and organizational sociology.

The 1980s and 1990s were a watershed in terms of both tax and monetary policy. The 1981 Reagan tax cut ushered in supply-side economics, while the 1986 Tax Reform Act produced a substantial cut in the marginal individual income tax rate. In terms of monetary policy, the Volcker-Greenspan chairmanships of the Federal Reserve initiated fundamental changes in monetary policies that lowered inflation. Jankowski examines both tax and monetary policies to determine their effects on profits. He shows that the pretax profit rate fell in the post-World War II year, but that the post-tax profit rate remained relatively constant. However, Jankowski argues that the tax policies adopted did not produce the observed constancy in the post-tax profit rate. He further argues that the elimination of the corporate income tax would have the effect of enhancing redistributive policies. Jankowski's analysis of tax and monetary policies leads to new theories of the state and classes, and he argues that the growth of the state has restructured classes. The state, and not the workplace, has become the locus of income for the majority of individuals in modern capitalist societies. This change requires a fundamental rethinking of the nature of classes and class politics. A controversial analysis that will be vital reading for economists, political scientists, and other scholars and policymakers dealing with tax and monetary issues.

Currently, public religion is in a time of flux and the notion of the common good--once associated with the Protestant voice in America--is openly contested by new religious coalitions seeking to communicate their version of the truth and plant their stake in the public domain. This edited volume reflects on the changing tone and form of the public voice of religion, on its function in American society, and on its relationship to the private world of religion. It proposes that public religion, when exercised in a civil and accountable way, can be a responsible and prophetic voice in public life and enrich the American experiment in liberal democracy. The contributors--first-rate scholars including Martin Marty and Robert Belah--focus on public religion's influence on controversial issues such as multiculturalism, economic inequality, abortion, and homosexuality.

This special issue of Heart Failure Clinics examines heart failure with a truly global perspective, exposing health inequities in the treatment of heart failure.

Four Parts, No Waiting investigates the role that vernacular, barbershop-style close harmony has played in American musical history, in American life, and in the American imagination. Starting with a discussion of the first craze for Austrian four-part close harmony in the 1830s, Averill traces the popularity of this musical form in minstrel shows, black recreational singing, vaudeville, early recordings, and in the barbershop revival of the 1930s. In his exploration of barbershop, Averill uncovers a rich musical tradition - a hybrid of black and white cultural forms, practiced by amateurs, and part of a mythologized vision of small-town American life.

The Catholic literary revival in America refers both to the impact of the modern resurgence in European Catholic thought and letters upon the American Church between 1920 and 1960, and to efforts by American Catholic educational and literary leaders to induce a similar flowering of Catholic life and culture in their own country. Arnold Sparr examines those areas of Catholic thought and culture that most concerned educated American Catholics, critics, and cultural leaders between 1920 and 1960: the renaissance in Catholic literary, theological, philosophical, and social thought; its application to modern economic, social, and intellectual problems; and the growth and development of the twentieth century Catholic novel. He contends that the movement had both intellectual and organizational aspects. It represented not only an awakening of American Catholics to their modern intellectual and cultural heritage, but a movement by a self-conscious American Catholic cultural community to realize its own share of modern Catholic thinkers, writers, and poets. Sparr maintains that American Catholic intellectual and cultural life between 1920 and 1960 was driven by three forces: to promote the intellectual standing of American Catholicism, to defend the Catholic faith and its adherents from detractors, and to redeem what was seen as a drifting and fragmented secular culture. He divides the book into three sections, each corresponding to separate phases of the American Catholic literary revival. "Organization and Development, 1920-1935" treats the socio-cultural antecedents of the revival and the self-conscious attempts of the revival's early Jesuit leaders to build a Catholic intellectual presencein America. Part two, "Transformation, 1935-1955," addresses the shift in Catholic revivalist thought from the confrontational literary-philosophical postures of the 1920s and early 1930s to more positive understandings of Catholic faith and practice. Finally, "Dissolution, the 1950s and After" chronicles the eclipse of the revival, resulting from a reactivation of the Catholic intellectualism issues, increasing concerns about professionalism within Catholic academia, and liberal Catholic association of the revival with so-called "ghetto culture." Parts one and two conclude with chapters on the American Catholic novel; the search for the Great American Catholic novel, an important element of the revival, provides an organization framework through which to summarize and assess major trends in the larger cultural movement. This new work will interest scholars and students of American Catholicism, the Catholic church in the 20th century, and cultural and religious historians.

Paulo Freire is one of the century's great thinkers on education and the politics of liberation. Known mostly for his literacy campaigns in Latin America and Africa, and for his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his thinking continues to be rediscovered by generations of teachers, scholars, community activists and cultural workers in Europe and North America. While his name is synonymous with the practice of Critical Literacy' and A Pedagogy of Liberation', his work has been appropiated in many diverse fields of discipline and site-based projects of social reform. This volume represents a pathfinding analysis of Freires work and in many cases it offers an extension of his thinking in order to make it more applicable to first world contexts. Peter McLaren and Peter Leonard have brought together a divergent group of scholars widely recognized for their contributions to critical theory and critical pedagogy. Themes addressed include Freier's relation to feminist critique, his philosophical roots and an evaluation of his ideas from postmodernist and postcolonialist perspectives. The collection will be essential reading for anyone interested in the radical sociology of education and the politics of liberation.

Tragically, religion has often been associated with violence, repression, war, and vengeance. In this searing work Marc Ellis asks, is there God beyond violence? Ellis's personal quest for religious integrity in the face of evil leads him to probe religious dimensions of both historical violence (in the colonizing of the Americas and the Holocaust) and contemporary eruptions of barbarism in Bosnia, Rwanda, or the Mideast. He also queries the works of prominent contemporary theologians from Moltmann and Ruether to Wiesel and Fackenheim, questioning whether reformist movements might ultimately merely gloss over religious distortions. His uncompromising moral sensitivity poses a frank examination of conscience for all Christians and Jews who seek honestly to engage their tradition and their God.

The editors have assembled a collection of original essays offering a holistic view of how technology shapes the modern world. Consideration is given to several major issues, such as the dehumanizing effects of technology, which tends to objectify social life; the emphasis on productivity and the accumulation of material goods; and the intricacies involved in creating a responsible technology that would establish more socially sensitive principles, values, and beliefs. Technology is examined not simply as machinery, but as a procedure that can be used to define every aspect of social existence, and the book demonstrates how to bring about the changes that are necessary to remedy this alienating situation.

Despite late reconsideration, a dominant paradigm rooted in Orientalist essentialisations of Islam as statically 'legalistic' and Muslims as uniformly 'transgressive' when local customs are engaged, continues to distort perspectives of South Asia's past and present. This has led to misrepresentations of pre-colonial Muslim norms and undue emphasis on colonial reforms alone when charting the course to post-coloniality. This book presents and challenges staple perspectives with a comprehensive reinterpretation of doctrinal sources, literary expressions and colonial records spanning the period from the reign of the 'Great Mughals' to end of the 'British Raj' (1526-1947). The result is an alternative vision of this transformative period in South Asian history, and an original paradigm of Islamic doctrine and Muslim practice applicable more broadly.

There have been famous chefs for centuries. But it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that the modern celebrity chef business really began to flourish, thanks largely to media advances like television which allowed ever greater numbers of people to tune in.

"Food Media" charts the growth of this enormous entertainment industry, and also how, under the threat of the obesity 'epidemic', some of its stars have taken on new authority as social activists, while others continue to provide delicious distractions from a world of potentially unsafe food. The narrative that joins these chapters moves from private to public consumption, and from celebrating food fantasies to fueling anxieties about food realities, with the questionable role of interference in people's everyday food choices gaining ground along the way.

Covering celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Rachael Ray, and popular trends like foodies, food porn and fetishism, "Food Media" describes how the intersections between celebrity culture and food media have come to influence how many people think about feeding themselves and their families - and how often that task is complicated when it need not be.

The concept of ethnic, racial, and gender humor is as sensitive a subject today as it has ever been; and yet at no time in the past have we had such a quantity of this humor circulating throughout society. We can see the power of such content manifested continually in our culture's films and stand-up comedy routines, as well as on popular TV sitcoms, where Jewish, black, Asian, Hispanic, and gay characters and topics have seemingly become essential to comic scenarios. Though such humor is often cruel, it can also be a source of pride and play among minorities, women, and gays. Leon Rappoport's incisive account takes an in-depth look at ethnic, racial, and gender humor, and shows that despite the polarization that is often apparent in the debates such humor evokes, the most important melting pot in this country may be the one that we enter when we share a laugh at ourselves. This timely work displays ethnic, racial, and gender humor in both its aspects: as an aggressive instrument of prejudice and as a powerful defense against it. Rappoport explores the origins and implications of the various slurs, stereotypes, and obscenities that are typical of this double-edged form of modern comedy, as well as the ways in which irony has been employed by minority figures as a weapon against oppression. Broad in scope and lively in style, Rappoport's volume is enhanced by illustrative jokes and comedy routines, and should keep readers engaged, entertained, and provoked throughout.

Along with biological and medical factors, psychological factors must also be considered in health and well being. Stress plays a major role in physical illness, and stress management is therefore critical to establishing good health and well being behavior. William Miley offers a biopsychosocial approach emphasizing the complex interactions between biologoical, psychological, social, and cultural factors. Lifestyles are a fertile ground for psychological intervention to maintain health and well being. This book focuses on contemporary lifestyle patterns offering positive behaviors to initiate and maintain healthy lifestyles and maintain well being.

Empiriomonism is Alexander Bogdanov's scientific-philosophical substantiation of Marxism. In Books One and Two, he combines Ernst Mach's and Richard Avenarius's neutral monist philosophy with the theory of psychophysical parallelism and systematically demonstrates that human psyches are thoroughly natural and are subject to nature's laws. In Book Three, Bogdanov argues that empiriomonism is superior to G. V. Plekhanov's outdated materialism and shows how the principles of empiriomonism solve the basic problem of historical materialism: how a society's material base causally determines its ways of thinking. Bogdanov concludes that empiriomonism is of the same order as materialist systems, and, since it is the ideology of the productive forces of society, it is a Marxist philosophy.

Does religion encourage altruism on behalf of those who do not belong? Are the very religious more likely to be altruistic toward outsiders than those who are less religious? In this book Pearl M. Oliner examines data on Christian rescuers and nonrescuers of Jews during the Holocaust to shed light on these important questions.

Drawing on interviews with more than five hundred Christians--Protestant and Catholic, very religious, irreligious, and moderately religious rescuers and nonrescuers living in Nazi-occupied Europe, Oliner offers a sociological perspective on the values and attitudes that distinguished each group. She presents several case studies of rescuers and nonrescuers within each group and then interprets the individual's behavior as it relates to his or her group. She finds that the value patterns of the religious groups differ significantly from one another, and she is able to highlight those factors that appear to have contributed most toward rescue within each group.

"... this is a well-written and rich resource". -- School Library Journal review of A Student's Guide to British American Genealogy

This groundbreaking series is the first to explain the "how-to's" of genealogical research in simple, jargon-free language. The Oryx American Family Tree Series explores how to research family history for 12 different ethnic groups. Each volume begins with an overview of the group's historical and cultural background, then guides readers through each step in tracing their own genealogical heritage, with practical advice on how to
-- locate important family documents and other vital sources of information
-- conduct interviews with family members and record eyewitness accounts of key events
-- use the latest electronic research tools
-- research your background if you are adopted or come from a nontraditional family
-- preserve family history for future generations

Each volume is written in a friendly, narrative style and is extensively illustrated with full-color and black-and-white photographs. Hundreds of valuable resources unique to each ethnic group are also listed and annotated, including genealogical organizations, books, magazines, journals, videos, and special libraries and archives.

The Oryx American Family Tree Series provides an easy-to-follow road map for anyone interested in tracing a family history -- from junior high and high school students to adults who require a basic primer. Every library will want to make this practical, highly readable series available to its patrons.

Each volume is produced as a sturdy 6 x 9 casebound publication, 192 pages, and printed on acid-free paper.

In recent years, a number of books devoted to a behavior analytic approach to cultural practices have appeared, and this book falls within that domain. At the same time, however, this book is unique in that it minimizes the space devoted to abstract discussion of behavior analytic concepts and principles. Instead, the authors focus exclusively upon particular cultural practices, which are disparate and drawn from three countries, ranging from public health practices to historical utopian communities to various practices of visual artists, art dealers, and gallery owners. In addition, cultural practices regarding women and the changing Japanese society's effect on Japanese women's behavior are considered. Changes in policies aimed at increasing the birth rate in Quebec are analyzed in behavior analytic terms. The wide range of cultural practices addressed by this book are given coherence by the fact that all are addressed by the various authors in terms of behavior analytic concepts and principles. This book is further confirmation of the fact, unappreciated by some, that a behavior analytic approach can address practices that consist of the behaviors of large numbers of people. The authors demonstrate that the behavior analytic approach is not culture-bound. Rather, they show that behavior analytic concepts and principles can illuminate human practices in any culture.

Grocery shopping is an often ignored part of the story of how food ultimately gets to our pantry shelves and tables. "A Theory of Grocery Shopping" explores the social organization of grocery shopping by linking the lived experience of grocery shoppers and retail managers in the US with information transmitted by nutritionists, government employees, financial advisors, journalists, health care providers and marketers, who influence the way we think about and perform the work of shopping for a household's food. The author provides insight into the contradictory messages that shape how consumers provision their households, and details how consumers respond to these messages. The book challenges the consumer choice model that places responsibility on the shopper for making the "right" choice at the grocery store, thereby ignoring the larger social forces at work, which determine what products are available and how they get to the shelves.