"Countries that at different times in history were among the world's greatest powers, such as Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Britain, and Germany, have gradually shifted their sights either in the wake of defeat or after protracted periods of grappling with decline, from winning the great power sweepstakes to topping the lists of nations offering the best quality of life." David Rothkopf "One critical measure of the health of a modern democracy is it ability to legitimately extract taxes from its own elites. The most dysfunctional societies in the developing world are those whose elites succeed either in legally exempting themselves from taxation or in taking advantage of lax enforcement to evade them." Francis Fukuyama "Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity." Joseph E. Stiglitz "Tea Party constitutionalism and conservative originalism more generally are less interested in the Constitution's actual words (or the 'real' intentions of the Founders) than they are in rolling back democratic advances that have been made since 1787." E. J. Dionne

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the generations of women who entered religious life in the United States after 1965. It provides up-to-date demographics for women's religious institutes; a summary of canon law locating religious life within the various forms of life in the Church; an analysis of Church documents on religious life; and data on the views of post-Vatican II entrants regarding ministry, identity, prayer, spirituality, the vows, and community. Beginning each chapter with an engaging narrative, the authors explore how different generations of Catholic women first became attracted to vowed religious life and what kinds of religious institutes they were seeking. By analyzing the results of extensive national surveys, the authors systematically examine how the new generations of Sisters differ from previous ones, and what those changes suggest about the future. The book concludes with recommendations for further understanding of generations within religious life and within the Church and society. Because of its breadth and depth, this book will be regarded by scholars, the media, and practitioners as an essential resource for the sociological study of religious life for women in the United States.

This open access book argues that contrary to dominant approaches that view nationalism as unaffected by globalization or globalization undermining the nation-state, the contemporary world is actually marked by globalization of the nation form. Based on fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and drawing, among others, on Peter van der Veer's comparative work on religion and nation, it discuss practices of nationalism vis-a-vis migration, rituals of sacrifice and prayer, music, media, e-commerce, Islamophobia, bare life, secularism, literature and atheism. The volume offers new understandings of nationalism in a broader perspective. The text will appeal to students and researchers interested in nationalism outside of the West, especially those working in anthropology, sociology and history.

While there is much discussion on Africa-China relations, the focus tends to lean more on the Chinese presence in Africa than on the African presence in China. There are numerous studies on the former but, with the exception of a few articles on the presence of African traders and students in China, little is known of the latter, even though an increasing number of Africans are visiting and settling in China and forming migrant communities there. This is a phenomenon that has never happened before the turn of the century and has thus led to what is often termed Africa's newest Diaspora. This book focuses on analyzing this new Diaspora, addressing the crucial question: What is it like to be an African in China? Africans in China is the first book-length study of the process of Africans travelling to China and forming communities there. Based on innovative intermingling of qualitative and quantitative research methods involving prolonged interaction with approximately 800 Africans across six main Chinese cities--Guangzhou, Yiwu, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau--sociolinguistic and sociocultural profiles are constructed to depict the everyday life of Africans in China. The study provides insights into understanding issues such as why Africans go to China, what they do there, how they communicate with their Chinese hosts, what opportunities and problems they encounter in their China sojourn, and how they are received by the Chinese state. Beyond these methodological and empirical contributions, the book also makes a theoretical contribution by proposing a crosscultural bridge theory of migrant-indigene relations, arguing that Africans in China act as sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural bridges linking Africa to China. This approach to the analysis of Diaspora communities has consequences for crosscultural and crosslinguistic studies in an era of globalization. Africans in China is an important book for African Studies, Asian Studies, Africa-China relations studies, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, international studies, and migration and Diaspora studies in an era of globalization.

This book develops a new energetic/thermodynamic basis for the cyclic nature of civilizations. The growth of a civilization is due to the ability of the civilization to acquire and utilize resources for growth. The theory developed turns out to be identical to Blaha's previously developed theory, which successfully matches the history of 50+ civilizations. The energetic/thermodynamic theory appears in studies of superorganisms such as ant and bee colonies as well as other organisms including colonies of microbes. It also appears in theories of predator-prey populations such as wolves and rabbits. The consideration of superorganisms, predator-prey population cyclicity, and human civilization cyclicity suggests that there is an underlying unity in Nature in the growth of large groups of organisms and leads to the conclusion that civilizations are superorganisms. Thus this new model of civilizations is called SuperCivilizations. The book begins by overviewing superorganisms including some exciting new evidence for microbial superorganisms on land and in the deep sea. Subsequently we discuss almost all of the known human civilizations within the framework of this theory. We also consider the Richardson theory of arms races and show that Richardson's equations are identical to those of our energetic/thermodynamic model of civilization dynamics. With a suitable choice of parameters the arms race theory has cyclic solutions (as well as the exponential solutions studied by Richardson) that describe the dynamics of armaments growth in the United States - Russia confrontations from 1981 - 2010. The book also describes a program for the exploration and the colonization of the Solar System and a new means of travel to the stars and galaxies with a view towards the development of a space civilization. The probable effects on contemporary human civilizations of meeting an alien civilization are also described in detail. Because of a close analogy with Newtonian dynamics, and realizing that chance plays a major role in human history, the book also develops a probabilistic theory of civilization dynamics. The cyclic theory of civilizations is also generalized to a civilization theory for populations with three interconnected population segments: a dominant minority/leadership, followers, and external immigrants. This generalized theory leads to the cyclic theory of civilizations under reasonable conditions.

Montessori: Living the Good Life will surprise you more than you can imagine. With a master's degree in theology, author Connie Ripley Lujan delves deep into Maria's spiritual understanding of the roots of war. Passionately she explains how we can make a difference.

Maria Montessori discovered the secret miracle of childhood over one hundred years ago. Her vision of peace lives on in this passionate memoir of a disciple of her spirit.

Maria's enlightened revelation of the newborn's talent to construct his future life with his own mind is illuminated step by step as each chapter probes deeper into mankind's existence.

The key to assisting the new ones, Maria tells us, lies in the adult's willingness to collaborate with the child's desire for an appropriate environment. Education, for the child and the adult, is the crucial element.

A thoughtful guide for mothers, fathers, grandparents, and all educators and citizens concerned for peace in the home, schools, and world, Montessori-Living the Good Life, about the child in your arms and the child in your heart, is for everyone.

The author goes where no one dares to go, explicating Maria's concepts of the origins of war and peace and how we can make a difference.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 Rural queer experience is often hidden or ignored, and presumed to be alienating, lacking, and incomplete without connections to a gay culture that exists in an urban elsewhere. Queering the Countryside offers the first comprehensive look at queer desires found in rural America from a genuinely multi-disciplinary perspective. This collection of original essays confronts the assumption that queer desires depend upon urban life for meaning. By considering rural queer life, the contributors challenge readers to explore queer experiences in ways that give greater context and texture to modern practices of identity formation. The book's focus on understudied rural spaces throws into relief the overemphasis of urban locations and structures in the current political and theoretical work on queer sexualities and genders. Queering the Countryside highlights the need to rethink notions of "the closet" and "coming out" and the characterizations of non-urban sexualities and genders as "isolated" and in need of "outreach." Contributors focus on a range of topics-some obvious, some delightfully unexpected-from the legacy of Matthew Shepard, to how heterosexuality is reproduced at the 4-H Club, to a look at sexual encounters at a truck stop, to a queer reading of TheWizard of Oz. A journey into an unexplored slice of life in rural America, Queering the Countryside offers a unique perspective on queer experience in the modern United States and Canada.

By their very nature, most newspaper columns and editorials are ephemeral. They are often written in haste to meet a deadline, and what excites interest today may elicit only yawns tomorrow or the next day. This is especially true of community newspapers, whose focus is on matters of interest to a smaller, parochial readership. This book is a collection of pieces that step outside that mold. The author's broad education (four degrees, including a Ph.D. and a J.D.) and wide range of work experiences (college professor, probation officer, prosecuting attorney, professional magician, novelist, editor, publisher, and grocery-store sackboy, to name a few) have provided him with a unusual perspective from which to observe and comment on the problems and pleasures of being a sentient being on Planet Earth in the twenty-first century-and on how we got to this point in human history. Inspired by the example and encouragement of the newspaper editor who gave him his first job in journalism, the author has inflicted upon the readers of several newspapers his reflections on a broad and eclectic range of subjects, from religious and racial intolerance to UFO "sightings" and the beauty of a toad's eye. Throughout it all, the author has been motivated by one unvarying purpose-to make his readers think. Not just about last week's school board meeting or next month's municipal elections, but about ideas and issues with a shelf-life longer than that of ripe tomatoes in your grocer's produce department. Here, then, are half a hundred of those pieces, rescued from dusty newspaper "morgues" and offered to a broader audience than the unsuspecting subscribers to whom they were originally addressed. The author will be pleased if you read them, but he will have failed in his purpose unless reading them makes you think.

The field of high technology focuses on new, rapidly developing technologies, which include electronic technology, new material technology, new energy technology, bioengineering technology, and communication technology. Social Development and High Technology Industries: Strategies and Applications highlights the relationships between contemporary high technology and social development, the development and application of high technology, high technology competition, and economic development as it pertains to high technology. This book addresses society s growing need to adopt emerging technologies for all aspects of business and economic activity and develop innovative solutions to research problems, which will result in the creation of high performance systems.

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology is a complete reference guide, reflecting the scope and quality of the discipline, and highlighting emerging topics in the field. * Global in focus, offering up-to-date topics from an interdisciplinary, international set of scholars addressing key issues concerning globalization, social movements, and citizenship * The majority of chapters are new, including those on environmental politics, international terrorism, security, corruption, and human rights * Revises and updates all previously published chapters to include new themes and topics in political sociology * Provides an overview of scholarship in the field, with chapters working independently and collectively to examine the full range of contributions to political sociology * Offers a challenging yet accessible and complete reference guide for students and scholars

Jes s Maga a se ha lanzado a un metaf rico viaje hacia el centro del infinito, tratando de conocer simult neamente las verdades que definen al ser humano. En sus obras es f cil discernir que sabiamente, no acepta que exista diferencia alguna entre el hombre y la creaci n, entre el macrocosmos y el microcosmos, nos explica entre las l neas de sus pensamientos, que la mente humana y la mente divina es una; o como nos ense a el TOLTECAYOTL, que en el cosmos, en la creaci n, en el todo existe el secreto abierto de una evidente dualidad que a todo lo unifica y que a todo lo trasciende y que todos somos partes integrales del multiverso, en su obra comparte con nosotros tambi n la realidad de que en todas las edades, en todas las culturas, y en diversas escuelas filos ficas comparten estas ideas aunque se expresen de manera diferente. Siempre ha sido un anhelo de Jes s compartir estas mieles del conocimiento, aun sabiendo que mucho es de car cter especulativo, y como el sostiene para si: "es mejor especular en la b squeda de las verdades existenciales que mantenerse en ese c modo sill n de la ignorancia." En esta obra, Maga a nos conduce de manera objetiva por el camino hacia ese viaje a trav s de puertas metaf ricas dimensionales, para llegar de manera segura a ese punto central del infi nito en donde se acrisolan los pensamientos que nos ayudan a cumplir con la misi n para la que hemos sido tra dos a esta tercera dimensi n en que vivimos. Muchas veces se puede defi nir a un ser humano por su b squeda, por sus amistades, por sus obras, Jes s Maga a es f cil de defi nir es un hombre de mente gil y abierta que ama la creaci n a todos los seres humanos y sobre todo respeta y ama a Dios que para el es el mism simo universo, proclama en su obra que debemos respetar con ah nco a nuestra madre tierra que nos aloja en su seno. Para m es un honor que Jes s Maga a mi amigo, mi compatriota y colega, haya compartido sus escritos y como nos lo dice en uno de los cap tulos: Feliz viaje OSCAR LUIS GUZMAN Fundador de C.A.L.I (CIRCULO ARTISTICO Y LITERARIO LATINOAMERICANO) Dedico mi obra a: Un Gran ser Humano el cual ha sido brote de inspiraci n y respeto. Claudia Alderette, mi amiga, mi productora.

This book is about machines: those that have been actualized, fantastical imaginal machines, to those deployed as metaphorical devices to describe complex social processes. Machines argues that they transcend time and space to emerge through a variety of spaces and places, times and histories and representations. They are such an integral fabric of daily reality that their disappearance would have immediate and dire consequences for the survival of humanity. They are part and parcel to our contemporary social order. From labor to social theory, art or consciousness, literature or television, to the asylums of the 19th century, machines are a central figure; an outgrowth of affective desire that seeks to transcend organic limitations of bodies that whither, age and die. Machines takes the reader on an intellectual, artistic, and theoretical journey, weaving an interdisciplinary tale of their emergence across social, cultural and artistic boundaries. With the deep engagement of various texts, Machines offers the reader moments of escape, alternative ways to envision technology for a future yet to materialize. Machines rejects the notion that technological innovations are indeed neutral, propelling us to think differently about those "things" created under specific economic or historical paradigms. Rethinking machines provides a rupture to our current technocratic impetus, shining a critical light on possible alternatives to our current reality. Let us sit back and take a journey through Machines, holding mechanical parts as guides to possible alternative futures.

Designed for hassle-free, independent study and priced to meet your budget, this combined Revision Guide and Workbook is the smart choice for those revising for AQA AS level Sociology and includes: A FREE online edition One-topic-per-page format 'Now Try This' practice questions on topic pages Exam skills pages including Worked examples with exemplar answers Exam-style practice pages with practice questions in the style of the exams Guided support and hints providing additional scaffolding, to help avoid common pitfalls Full set of practice papers written to match the specification exactly

The digitalization of society is constructed as a necessary leap that governments and citizens need to take. However, with many older people lacking adequate digital competences to support their full participation in today's digitalized society, how is the marginalisation of older people in digital society socially constructed? How can we promote older people's digital inclusion and agency? Presenting case studies from Finland, one of the top performers in the supply and demand of digital public services, Older People in a Digitalized Society outlines internationally relevant implications for promoting the social construction of older people's agency. Delving into their digital competences, and use and non-use of Internet and eHealth technologies, Rasi-Heikkinen showcases the potential exclusionary effects of digitalization, and highlights the implications for digital inclusion practice and policy. Contesting the dominant discourses which suggest digital technologies and media play central roles in the learning, well-being, everyday life, and participation in society for individuals throughout their lifespan, Older People in a Digitalized Society addresses the digital gap faced by older generations that do not welcome digitalization, or even see it as a positive marginality: a choice that they have consciously made. Paying attention to how digitalization is a contested issue constructed with various, ambivalent, and paradoxical representations, Rasi-Heikkinen shines an important light on how older people are constructed as being on the margins of digitalization by researchers and the media.

Fear Did This is the first book in a series of documented, raw facts presented in the cold light of day. It is the story of the transition of a carefree, innocent young man to an inmate within Ohio due to a totally corrupt judicial system in Trumbull County, Ohio. What follows after murder, attempted murder and arrest is an investigation by the author that exposes the corrupt judicial practices of a system that puts Winning Above Justice!

In 'THE GREAT AMERICAN GUN CONTROL DEBATE (Not )," Mr. Wuest puts gun control under the microscope. He ferrets out the truth, separating fact from fiction. He presents not a "balanced picture," but scientific objectivity. What is important is not popular opinion, or "conventional wisdom," but the TRUTH. What works and what doesn't? What have we already done, and what should we do or do not? We have had some gun control for as much as a hundred years. Has it done any good? Has it worked to prevent crime? Has gun control become a "free ride"? Or does it cost us dearly? An engineer by profession, Mr. Wuest examines this and more using rigorous testing. Frustrated by the lack of honest debate regarding gun control, Mr. Wuest provides both sides of the arguments. The gun control side is well known; no end of print and air time have been devoted to supporting it. What is the other side, the one we never hear? Is there a downside to gun control? Find out the answers to these and other questions in "THE GREAT AMERICAN GUN CONTROL DEBATE (Not ): . Mr. Wuest provides a breath of fresh air to a stale debate. We have been stuck in a "gun control rut" for so long that it is questionable if the "truth will prevail"? Let us all hope so

Irena Nikaj is clearly one of the best students that I have ever had. That conclusions covers all my years of teaching at the University of Tirana, later at the Institut of Social Studies at the Hague, the netherlands, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from were I received my PhD., at Eastern Michigan University and various other universities in the United States From the very beginning Irena Nikaj has impresed me with her hunger for knowledge, the range of her cultural awareness, her intellectual abilities and her discipline, blending her creativity with her systematic application to her work. And she has lived up to that promise ever since Fatos Tarifa, PhD Director, Institute of Social and Policy Studies European University of Tirana Scientific Secretary, Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences Former Albanian Ambassador to the Netherlands and the United States Editor-in-Chief, Sociological Analysis & Academe Alternate e-mail addresses: [email protected] Phone: ++355682016022 The monograph titled "Albanian Social and Philosophical Thinking of the '30s (Neo-Albanianism)" has not only theoretical, but also, practical value in the treatment and solution of the many complicated issues that are plaguing Albanian society at present. By introducing an excellent and quite visionary theoretical analysis, this book will preserve its theoretical and practical value even in the future. by Prof. Dr Zyhdi Dervishi Head of Department of Sociology Faculty of Social Science University of Tirana, Albania

The most controversial perspective on our nations obesity epidemic that you will ever read! In this book you will: Forgo "Political Correctness." Learn how obesity can be controlled with accountability and self-discipline. Learn how "Fat Sympathizers" are contributing to our great nations obesity epidemic by practically condoning the condition of obesity. Discover the dangers with respect to rationalization and obesity. Realize how an individual's obesity is a direct reflection of their character/personality. So if you are mentally strong enough to read and process information that is not "Politically Correct," then you will enjoy this book. And this book, if taken to heart by the populace, will destroy the enemy of fat and rid our nation of the life destroying and visually disgusting condition of being overweight. Read on...if you have the GUTS!

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Middleton and best friend Jasmine Meens make their "trip of a lifetime" to the Queen's "Jewel in the Atlantic," oblivious to secrets beneath the island's idyllic guise and to the horrors that await them on the dark side of Paradise.Sunny days and teal surf welcome the Canadian teenagers as they roam the twenty square miles of the seemingly pristine British territory. But on this searing July night, a full moon, an unusual storm, a cancelled cruise, absent taxis, and chance meetings end in the gruesome kidnap, rape, torture, and murder of Rebecca Middleton. Emotions left over from long-standing racial inequities impact Becky's case from the moment of her slaughter--especially the hangings of two black men for the murders of five white men during those racially charged 1970s--a matter many still prefer not to discuss.Repercussions from the young Canadian tourist's death and its investigative and judicial failures create international uproar that catches the attention of famed U.S. forensic scientists Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee. During an inquiry brought about by a tourist boycott of Bermuda, advocate LeYoni Junos exposes truths behind this tangled web of deceit. But it won't be long before LeYoni Junos suffers those consequences typically experienced by those who fail to "lie in the tide."Then, almost eight years after Rebecca's murder, the case catches the attention of British human rights lawyer Cherie Booth, QC, wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who terms Bermuda's responses "repugnant to justice." Meanwhile, despite responsibility for territories' "good governance," Britain treads lightly. This is a true story of murder, collusion, conspiracy, and cover-up designed to protect the secrets of privilege, and hide the poverty, violence and drugs that darken Bermuda's tranquil pastels, a third-world setting of mysterious beauty and international influence incongruent with its size.