Why does contemporary calculation proceed as calculation of the quality of everything, to the extent that quality comes to be perceived as a controversial word, endowed with enigmatic power? How should we consider calculation of quality? And how, from the perspective of quality, can we renew questioning on the very nature of the calculative and on the (in)calculability of the human? In what way should we approach quality and calculability in current socio-economic and managerial scenarios? In considering quality of life and its calculation, how can we reflect on the issue of life enhancement? What does it mean that, precisely under the banner of quality, life, in its individuality and totality, emerges as being obviously calculable and enhanceable? How should we think of quality, calculation and life when life resonates on the scale of the post-human?
These are some of the main questions that the book addresses through a phenomenological investigation and an analysis of the social science debate.

Discover New Passion and Purpose after the Kids Leave Home Many women approaching their empty-nest years do so with mixed emotions--feeling grief for what is no more but also excitement for what lies ahead. Barbara Rainey and Susan Yates are seasoned empty nesters, and they know firsthand the ups and downs, the uncertainty and challenges that accompany this new stage of life. Although Mom is a lifelong role, the job description changes significantly when the kids are grown. Questions abound: Who am I now? How do I relate to my kids? How will my marriage be affected? Where am I needed? Every woman in this stage needs to determine her own redefined role as wife, mother, friend, and more. Offering practical advice and biblical guidance, along with inspiring personal stories of women who have discovered how to live a meaningful life during the "second half," Barbara and Susan help you work out how to flourish and thrive in your own empty nests.

CONSEQUITER QUODCUNQUE PETIT, CONSTANTIA DILLENGENTIA ET COR IMMOBILE SANS PEUR

Freemasonry is worldwide, to know and understand in one country is to know and understand in another although there may be some language barriers, the mode of recognition is the same.

According to Modern Scholars, and Historians, Modern Freemasonry officially began in London, England in 1717 at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern.

There has been dispute among Masonic Historians that Freemasonry origins date back to the beginning of mankind. There are theories which date back to Adam and Eve, Solomon in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, the building of the Tower of Babel, Alexander the Great, Leonidus king of Spartica, Noah in the building of the Ark, the Ancient Mysteries, and so on. Whatever the case may be, Freemasonry as it is today is based on all these theories, whether true, fables, or just conjured stories, they are the baseline for what we know today as Freemasonry.

According to Scholars, and Historians, Ancient Craft Masonry commenced with the creation of the world, calling it Ano Lucis (A.L.), "in the year of light" 4000 years prior to the Christian era, thus, 4000 plus 2004 = A.L. 6004. Royal Arch Masonry dates from the year the second temple was commenced by Zerubbabel, Anno Inventionis (A.I.), "in the year of discovery," 530 years prior to the Christian era, thus, 530 plus 2004 = A.I. 2534. Order of the High Priesthood date from the year of the blessing of Abraham by the High Priest Melchizedek, Anno Benedictionis (A.B.), "in the year of the blessing," 1913 years prior to the Christian era, thus 1913 plus 2004 = A.B. 3917. Royal and Select Masters date from the year in which the temple of King Solomon was completed Anno Depositions (A. Dep.) "In the year of deposit,"1000 years prior to the Christian era, thus 1000 plus 2004 = A. Dep. 3004. Knights Templar date from the year of the organization of the ancient order, Anno Ordinis (A.O.), "in the year of the Order," 1118 years into the Christian era, thus 2004 - 1118 = A.O. 886.

HE OBTAINS WHATEVER HE SEEKS BY PERSEVERANCE, DILIGENCE AND A STEADFAST HEART, WITHOUT FEAR.

This completely revised and updated textbook explores the moral, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the movement of people across international borders. In style and substance, this book is designed to spark thoughtful discussions and to challenge students to draw their own conclusions to questions such as: How should democracies balance the rights of immigrants with those of citizens? What exactly constitutes persecution and how should we define a refugee? How should democracies allocate citizenship? Can and should a distinction between voluntary and forced migration be made, and does one group of migrants deserve admission more than the other? What does a reasonable border policy look like? The rise of populism, the vote for Brexit, and the unprecedented flow of refugees around the world are all evidence that these questions remain highly salient, controversial, and unresolved. Content has also been thoroughly updated to cover: * Migration into Europe since 2014. * Climate change as a driver of migration and the concept of environmental refugees. * Unaccompanied minors fleeing gang violence, asylum for victims of domestic violence, family separation policies and the building of a wall on the US/Mexican border. * The controversies surrounding the Danish cartoons, Charles Hebdo and hijabs as examples of the tension in liberal democracies between free speech, individual freedom, religious expressions and minority rights. * The Dream Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). * Demographic shifts and the debates around multiculturalism and diversity * Guest worker programs as alternatives to admitting immigrants. Intended as the main text for undergraduate classes on international migration the book will also appeal to broad survey courses on world politics, comparative politics, international relations, world history and more specialized courses on human rights and nationalism.

This volume examines all aspects of using agent or individual-based simulation. This approach represents systems as individual elements having their own set of differing states and internal processes. The interactions between elements in the simulation represent interactions in the target systems. What makes this "social" is that it can represent an observed society. Social systems include all those systems where the components have individual agency but also interact with each other. This includes human societies and groups, but also increasingly socio-technical systems where the internet-based devices form the substrate for interaction. These systems are central to our lives, but are among the most complex known. This poses particular problems for those who wish to understand them. The complexity often makes analytic approaches infeasible but, on the other hand, natural language approaches are also inadequate for relating intricate cause and effect. This is why individual and agent-based computational approaches hold out the possibility of new and deeper understanding of such systems. This handbook marks the maturation of this new field. It brings together summaries of the best thinking and practices in this area from leading researchers in the field and constitutes a reference point for standards against which future methodological advances can be judged. This second edition adds new chapters on different modelling purposes and applying software engineering methods to simulation development. Revised existing content will keep the book up-to-date with recent developments. This volume will help those new to the field avoid "reinventing the wheel" each time, and give them a solid and wide grounding in the essential issues. It will also help those already in the field by providing accessible overviews of current thought. The material is divided into four sections: Introduction, Methodology, Mechanisms, and Applications. Each chapter starts with a very brief section called 'Why read this chapter?' followed by an abstract, which summarizes the content of the chapter. Each chapter also ends with a section on 'Further Reading'. Whilst sometimes covering technical aspects, this second edition of Simulating Social Complexity is designed to be accessible to a wide range of researchers, including both those from the social sciences as well as those with a more formal background. It will be of use as a standard reference text in the field and also be suitable for graduate level courses.

This insightful book analyzes the political engagement and marginalization of three of Milan's migrant groups, Filipinos, Egyptians and Ecuadorians. Bringing together data relating to the civic and political engagement of individual migrants, and of migrant organizational networks, the result is an examination of the consequences of the political exclusion of migrants, exploring the different ways in which they cope with this predicament. Such exclusion, the author argues, has three major impacts. It can transform migrant groups into political subcultures and engender externally-driven participation, but it can also lead to radicalization.

Are you your genes? De-Sequencing: Identity Work with Genes explores this perplexing question, showing how different forms of knowledge must be contextualized to become meaningful. It is generally assumed that the genomic sequence adds up to the identity-forming material life is made of. Yet identity cannot itself adopt the form of a sequence. As the authors in this volume show, the genome must be 'de-sequenced' by human language to render it interpretable and meaningful in a social context. The book unpacks this type of 'sequence-speech' in engaging detail, adopting a personal, social, cultural, and bio-political approach to examine the transformation of human identity and reflexivity in the era of genetic citizenship.

This book examines the dangers and the patterns of adaptation that emerge through exposure to risk on a daily basis. By addressing the influence of environmental factors in Indian Ocean World history, the collection reaches across the boundaries of the natural and social sciences, presenting case-studies that deal with a diverse range of natural hazards - fire in Madagascar, drought in India, cyclones and typhoons in Oman, Australia and the Philippines, climatic variability, storms and flood in Vietnam and the Philippines, and volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis in Indonesia. These chapters, written by leading international historians, respond to a growing need to understand the ways in which natural hazards shape social, economic and political development of the Indian Ocean World, a region of the globe that is highly susceptible to the impacts of seismic activity, extreme weather, and climate change.

This is the book that nobody thinks they need … until they see it.

Information is power. Those who can afford it and know how to navigate their way around the Internet have unfettered access to knowledge and information that gives them a distinct advantage when it comes to exploring opportunities, developing their own potential and finding solutions to problems.

In the words of Truida Prekel, this printed collection of tools, resources, services and solutions offered by non-profit, faith-based, civil society and government organisations is lLike holding Google in your hands. A huge time-saver, as you get curated what you are looking for, in compact form – rather than getting lost, misled or distracted by surfing around.

The Resource Directory is a direct result of the issues we learn about during Community Conversations and the follow-up research we do for articles in the magazine. The outcome? A comprehensive Directory of solutions, resources, tools and services from non-profit, faith-based, civil society and government programmes – letting South Africans know where to find what they need – online and offline.

This book takes a fresh look at professional practice and professional education. In times of increased managerialism of academic teaching and a focus on graduate learning outcomes, it discusses possibilities to teach and learn otherwise. A deliberate professional is someone who consciously, thoughtfully and courageously makes choices about how to act and be in the practice world. A pedagogy of deliberateness is introduced that focuses on developing the following four characteristics of professionals: (1) deliberating on the complexity of practice and workplace cultures and environments; (2) understanding what is probable, possible and impossible in relation to existing and changing practices; (3) taking a deliberate stance in positioning oneself in practice as well as in making technical decisions; and (4) being aware of and responsible for the consequences of actions taken or actions not taken in relation to the 'doing', 'saying', 'knowing' and 'relating' in practice. Educating the deliberate professional is a comprehensive volume that carves out and explores a framework for a pedagogy of deliberateness that goes beyond educating reflective and deliberative practitioners. As a whole, this book argues for the importance of educating deliberate professionals, because, in the current higher education climate, there is a need to reconcile critique (thinking), participation (doing) and moral responsibility (relating to others) in professional practice and professional education.

This book focuses on the use of guanxi (Chinese personal connections) in everyday urban life: in particular, how and why people develop different types of social capital in their guanxi networks and the role of guanxi in school choice. Guanxi takes on a special significance in Chinese societies, and is widely-discussed and intensely-studied phenomenon today. In recent years in China, the phenomenon of parents using guanxi to acquire school places for their children has been frequently reported by the media, against the background of the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on corruption. From a sociological perspective, this book reveals how and why parents manage to do so. Ritual capital refers to an individual's ability to use ritual to benefit and gain resources from guanxi.

Jessica Keebler, director of the Los Angeles County Bureau of Adoptions in 1955, faces an almost insurmountable crisis. There's a logjam of unadoptable babies and a severe lack of adequate foster homes for these children. The crux of this issues rests with a statute in California's adoption law stating ..". an interracial child is a non-white and may be given only to a Negro family."Since Negro family applications to adopt are as rare as rain in the Mojave desert, the backlog of interracial babies threatens the structure of Keebler's department and her mental health. When Paul and Anne Barlin, a white family, say they will adopt a child "of any color, any national origin," Keebler believes she may have found a way to resolve this backlog of babies.To make this unusual adoption a reality, she must have the courage to flaunt the law or stand up to the state legislature and ask them to repeal the law. Her actions will determine if one at-risk child will be placed in a loving home. This one case has the potential to change the landscape of adoption forever.

This book explores the dimensions and characteristics of social vulnerability in Western Europe. It provides a broad empirical foundation for recent theories on the emergence of new social risks in post-industrial societies, revealing to what extent social risks are compromising the 'normal' functioning of the European population.

This book explores mobile representations in government policy, literature, visual arts, music, and research and examines the methodological potential of these representations and the ways in which representations co-produce mobilities.

This work discusses rural poverty and the resulting migration to large cities that it frequently fosters as this pattern affects areas all across America. The special needs of such groups as Indians and Mexican Americans are considered in detail. Proposed solutions to the problems of rural poverty--rural industrialization, the creation of intermediate-size cities, the relocation of labor--are also analyzed.

This book provides a cutting edge analysis of the rapid rise of China's network society and reviews recent key developments within China's internet economy, notably the concepts of "Lucky Money" and E-Business on Wechat, and Crowd-Funding Platforms. It focuses on drawing out the sociological impact of these economic developments, examining among others the bearing of the decentralization of e-business in rural areas. It offers a vital sociological perspective on the development of China's internet society and how it affects social and professional relations, examining the shift from the traditional Red Envelope Giving Culture to Digital Red Envelope, micro charity 2.0 as well as the Rise of Internet Crowd Funding in China. Combining an up to date analysis of the current state of play of China's internet society with expertise in the rapidly changing landscape of China's social media, this book provides key insights into how technology impacts on the communication and movement of population in China, in both social and economic spheres.

Adam Smith is commonly conceived as either an economist or a moral philosopher so his importance as a political thinker has been somewhat neglected and, at times, even denied. This book reveals the integrated, deeply political project that lies at the heart of Smith's thought, showing both the breadth and novelty of Smith's approach to political thought. A key argument running through the book is that attempts to locate Smith on the left-right spectrum (however that was interpreted in the eighteenth century) are mistaken: his position was ultimately dictated by his social scientific and economic thought rather than by ideology or principle. Through examining Smith's political interests and positions, this book reveals that apparent tensions in Smith's thought are generally a function of his willingness to abandon, not only proto-liberal principles, but even the principles of his own social science when the achievement of good outcomes was at stake. Despite the common perception, negative liberty was not the be-all and end-all for Smith; rather, welfare was his main concern and he should therefore be understood as a thinker just as interested in what we would now call positive liberty. The book will uniquely show that Smith's approach was basically coherent, not muddled, ad hoc, or 'full of slips'; in other words, that it is a system unified by his social science and his practical desire to maximise welfare.

Responding to a need for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the consequences of climate change, this book brings experts in climate science, engineering, urban planning, and conservation biology into conversation with scholars in law, geography, anthropology and ethics. It provides insights into how climate change is conceptualized in different fields. The book also aims to contribute to developing successful and multifaceted strategies that promote global, intergenerational and environmental justice. Among the topics addressed are the effects of climate change on the likelihood and magnitude of natural hazards, an assessment of civil infrastructure vulnerabilities, resilience assessment for coastal communities, an ethical framework to evaluate behavior that contributes to climate change, as well as policies and cultural shifts that might help humanity to respond adequately to climate change.