The richness and vibrancy of Vietnamese spirituality are vividly portrayed in these twelve essays that shed light on the remarkable reflorescence of religion in this communist country. Ancestor worship, mediumship, sacrifices, and communal rituals have not only survived Vietnam's reintegration into the capitalist world; they are intrinsic to the dramatic reshaping of its contemporary social and cultural life. Transnational Buddhism and Christianity challenge the political status quo as they answer conflicting aspirations for enlightenment, justice, national development and cultural identity. Making conceptual contributions to anthropology and comparative religion, this book provides insights from post-revolutionary Vietnam into the diverse passages to re-enchantment in the modern world.

A thorough overview of elementary education in the United States, spanning its history, foundations, curriculum models, technology, assessment, and special programs. Elementary Education: A Reference Handbook takes readers on an all-inclusive journey through the history and current status of elementary education in America. The handbook first examines the historical, philosophical, social, and cultural foundations of elementary education. It then delves into the fascinating topic of how children learn, including racial identity formation, culturally differing cognitive thinking styles, and language developments. A critical investigation of issues relating to the curriculum reveals its purpose, types, and models, weighing the impact of technology and providing a historical review of key subjects, from language arts to physical education. Are the results of standardized testing and high-stakes testing realistic and fair? This handbook explores these and other key questions in a detailed discussion of assessment and evaluation methods. Covers foundations, key events, contributors to elementary education, theories of learning, curriculum models, instructional practices, best practices, school reform, trends, and issues in elementary education Provides a chronology of elementary and public education from Plessy v. Ferguson through the No Child Left Behind Act

European integration can no longer be understood as a west European experiment mainly focused on functional and economic policy cooperation. The issues addressed include security and defense, as well as core concerns of European society. This volume explores three interlocking dimensions of integration; functional, territorial, and affiliational. Each dimension influences how countries across the continent engage with European integration. This first volume in the One Europe or Several? series identifies the agenda of research program, funded by the British Economic and Social Research Council.

Contemporary scholars place the rural-urban divide at the center of individual identity in China. This interdisciplinary collection traces the development and distinctions between urban and rural life and the effect on the Chinese sense of identity from the 16th century to the present day. It provides a daunting example of the influence that political ideology may exert on an individual's sense of place.

A billion lives depend on the wayers of the Himalayas; sixty million live in this mountain range, while the rest live in its foothills, on the plains of the Indian subcontinent. For them, the Himalayas are a providential water tower. Despite their astonishing diversity, all these peoples share the common belief that this is a 'Sacred Land' and this mountain range is, above all, the 'Abode of Snow' where pure water springs, rivers gush and lakes are crystal-clear. In this mosaic of peoples, languages, religions and lands, water plays a vital part in the geographical distribution of the various ethnic groups, their social organization and the way they see themselves. With its stunning photographs and embedded videos, this volume offers an anthropological insight into the various bonds formed between man and water in the Himalayas. In doing so, it also stresses both the importance of this water tower of Asia, which provides for a thousand million people, and the scope of the current economic and ecologic issues that are at stake.

Microregionalism and World Order is a pioneering work on the least understood aspect of regionalism. Leading specialists analyze the form microregionalism takes in different parts of the world, including the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Africa. By illustrating the complex relationship among the political, economic, and social dimensions of microregionalism, the book seeks to contribute to the theoretical debate on regionalism as well as to provide new empirical insights.

Of the enormous number of books published on the Arab-Israeli conflict, most focus on its history or the political dimensions of the current peace process. None, however, has provided an in-depth look at the relationship between those who shape the events and the Western journalists who cover them. In this bold new study, Mohammed A. el-Nawawy explores the ways in which government officials try to manipulate the news media, how the reporters contend with such interference, the professional and newsmaking roles of the journalists, and how their demographic and educational backgrounds influence their coverage of this crucial time and place. Through interviews with 168 Western correspondents--94 in Israel and 74 in Egypt--who, together, represent more than 88 percent of the whole population of foreign correspondents in the Middle East, the author provides an invaluable source of information on the day-to-day activities of reporters in the region, as well as their interactions with government officials.

The Formation of Kurdishness in Turkey examines political violence, the politics of fear and the Kurdish experience of pain through an analysis of life stories, personal narratives and testimonies of Kurdish subjects in contemporary Turkey. It traces the physical and psychological impacts of the war between the state security forces and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) guerrillas in the last three decades, in Kurdish populated areas in the south-eastern part of Turkey. Focusing on the instrumentalization of violence, the ensuing and manufactured culture of fear, gendered experiences of state violence, pain, incarceration, and corporeal punishment, Ramazan Aras argues that these phenomena have shaped contemporary Kurdish history and memory. Analysing occurrences of various forms of protracted state violence and fear not only as personal and differential markers experienced by individuals, but also as communally-felt phenomena which have engendered collective suffering, this book asserts that these traumatic experiences have marked the social body and produced a prevailing narrative of Kurdishness. Providing an anthropological study of political violence, fear, and pain amongst the Kurdish community in Turkey, this book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Kurdish Studies, Middle East Studies and Anthropology.

Spatial Econometrics is a rapidly evolving field born from the joint efforts of economists, statisticians, econometricians and regional scientists. The book provides the reader with a broad view of the topic by including both methodological and application papers. Indeed the application papers relate to a number of diverse scientific fields ranging from hedonic models of house pricing to demography, from health care to regional economics, from the analysis of R&D spillovers to the study of retail market spatial characteristics. Particular emphasis is given to regional economic applications of spatial econometrics methods with a number of contributions specifically focused on the spatial concentration of economic activities and agglomeration, regional paths of economic growth, regional convergence of income and productivity and the evolution of regional employment. Most of the papers appearing in this book were solicited from the International Workshop on Spatial Econometrics and Statistics held in Rome (Italy) in 2006.

This book is a significant gathering of ideas on the subject of modern Chinese literature and culture of the past several years. The essays represent a wide spectrum of new approaches and new areas of subject matter that are changing the landscape of knowledge of modern and contemporary Chinese culture: women's literature, theatre (performance), film, graphic arts, popular literature, as well as literature of the Chinese diaspora. These phenomena and the approaches to them manifest four interconnected trajectories for new scholarship in the field: the rewriting of literary history, the emergence of visual culture, and the quotidian apocalypse--the displacement of revolutionary romanticism and realism as central paradigms for cultural expression by the perspective of private, everyday experience.

The second edition of this book presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of population trends and patterns in Singapore since its foundation in 1819 to the present day. Separate chapters are devoted to population growth and distribution, changing population structure, mortality trends and differentials, marriage trends and patterns, divorce trends and patterns, family planning, abortion and sterilization, incentive and disincentive measures, fertility trends and differentials, immigration policies and programmes, migration, labour force and future population trends. The strength of the book lies in the author's deep familiarity with the subject acquired through some personal involvement in the compilation of demographic statistics as well as the formulation of population policies for the country.

A cross-disciplinary anthology on contemporary Kashmir by academics from Jammu and Kashmir, the first such volume to appear. The book offers a panorama of key cultural concerns of Jammu and Kashmir today, incorporating analysis of military, cultural, religious, and social aspects of the society and polity.

This book questions our perceptions of China. It is argued that what is commonly understood to be 'China' is, in large part, a collage of images. These images - created and manipulated by individuals and groups within the boundaries of the Chinese state in order to pursue their own social, economic and political ambitions - have been accepted, elaborated upon, strengthened and made legitimate by European and American social scientists and by other professional commentators on China. If shaped or strongly conditioned by these images, policies towards China are likely to prove either inappropriate or dangerous.

When Why Has Japan 'Succeeded'? (1982) was published, Japan was still a country of "capitalism from above". For the past ten years the country's economy has faltered and declined. It is turning towards 'capitalism from below' despite Japan's weak democracy. This directional change is investigated through a variety of standpoints, using an in-depth knowledge of the Japanese ethos, national history, educational background, as well as the sociology of the Japanese economy and business world. The author offers a long-term forecast for the future of Japan.

This book narrates the battles, conquests and diplomatic activities of the early Muslim fighters in Syria and Iraq vis-a-vis their Byzantine and Sasansian counterparts. It is the first English translation of one of the earliest Arabic sources on the early Muslim expansion entitled Futuh al-Sham (The Conquests of Syria). The translation is based on the Arabic original composed by a Muslim author, Muhammad al-Azdi, who died in the late 8th or early 9th century C.E. A scientific introduction to al-Azdi's work is also included, covering the life of the author, the textual tradition of the work as well as a short summary of the text's train of thought. The source narrates the major historical events during the early Muslim conquests in a region that covers today's Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq in the 7th century C.E. Among these events are the major battles against the Byzantines, such as the Battles of Ajnadayn and al-Yarmuk, the conquests of important cities, including Damascus, Jerusalem and Caesarea, and the diplomatic initiatives between the Byzantines and the early Muslims. The narrative abounds with history and Islamic theological content. As the first translation into a European language, this volume will be of interest to a wide range of readership, including (Muslim and Christian) theologians, historians, Islamicists, Byzantinists, Syrologists and (Arabic) linguists.

For centuries, Africa's Upper Guinea Coast region has been the site of regional and global interactions, with societies from different parts of the African continent and beyond engaging in economic trade, cultural exchange, and various forms of conflict. This book provides a wide-ranging look at how such encounters have continued into the present day, identifying the disruptions and continuities in religion, language, economics, and various other social phenomena that have resulted. These accounts show a region that, while still grappling with the legacies of colonialism and the slave trade, is both shaped by and an important actor within ever-denser global networks, exhibiting consistent transformation and creative adaptation.

This book investigates the EU's regional growth dynamics and, in particular, the reasons why peripheral and socio-economically disadvantaged areas have persistently failed to catch up with the rest of the Union. It shows that the capability of the knowledge-based growth model to deliver its expected benefits to these areas crucially depends on tackling a specific set of socio-institutional factors which prevents innovation from being effectively translated into economic growth. The book takes an eclectic approach to the territorial genesis of innovation and regional growth by combining different theoretical strands into one model of empirical analysis covering the whole EU-25. An in-depth comparative analysis with the United States is also included, providing significant insights into the distinctive features of the European process of innovation and its territorial determinants. The evidence produced in the book is extensively applied to the analysis of EU development policies.

The Asia Annual 2011 focuses on the various aspects of democracy in the Asian context. The chapters in this volume reflect diverse perceptions, adopting an interdisciplinary approach, which enhance the discussions and reveal a plethora of opinions and outlooks. The collection of essays has been arranged primarily in terms of 'regions' (in the geopolitical sense). The volume brings together contributions from leading experts and 'area specialists' who offer special insights and critiques on crucial issues and questions related to the central theme of democracy in their respective 'regions/areas' of specialisation. The intention is to submit an inclusive volume concerning the idea of democracy in Asia. It strives to offer an exhaustive analysis that could prove to be valuable for those who are absorbed in Asian studies. The essays contend with wide-ranging debates on varied aspects related to the processes of democracy and democratisation from the Asian geopolitical space and contemplate on problems arising from the pressures associated with movements for democracy. The authors in their accounts also raise crucial questions regarding the viability as well as the consequences of external efforts at stimulating democracy and the setting up of imported models of democracy. The inherent emphasis is on both the intrinsic distinctiveness of the regions as well as the considerable commonalities, which inspire comparative analyses in general and in the context of democracy/democratisation in particular.

When the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) of the middle and late 1960s burst forth, the initial response both in China and the West seemed primarily to be one of mystification. The spectacle of severe splits among leaders long thought to be compatible, of armed struggles between factional units whose uniform pledges to Chairman Mao and the Party Center appeared to make their similarities greater than their differences, and of destructive Red Guards who were bent on "tearing down the old world to build a new one" was at first difficult to explain.

The rapid economic growth of the past few decades has radically transformed India's labour market, bringing millions of former agricultural workers into manufacturing industries, and, more recently, the expanding service industries, such as call centres and IT companies. Alongside this employment shift has come a change in health and health problems, as communicable diseases have become less common, while non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular problems, and mental health issues such as stress, have increased. This interdisciplinary work connects those two trends to offer an analysis of the impact of working conditions on the health of Indian workers that is unprecedented in scope and depth.

This book has its focus on the dynamics of oligopoly games. Several contributions show how easily the unique Nash equilibria in some most traditional oligopoly models may lose stability, giving way to complex phenomena, such as periodic/chaotic processes, and to multi stability of coexistent attractors. The bifurcations producing these phenomena are studied by means of recently accumulated global methods, based on the use of critical curves. These tools are explained in a separate methodological chapter. The book also contains some historical background of the present theory. In this way the book becomes suitable also as an advanced text for industrial organisation courses. The various models presented in the book focus both classical Cournot types, and Hotelling`s "ice cream vendor" problems, including location choice. The author list comprises some of the most prolific contributors to current dynamic oligopoly modelling.