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.

Gender and Pop Culture provides a foundation for the study of gender, pop culture, and media. This newly updated edition is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, providing both text-book style introductory and concluding chapters written by the editor. The text includes eight original contributor chapters on key topics and written in a variety of writing styles, discussion questions, additional resources, and more. Coverage includes: - Foundations for studying gender and pop culture (history, theory, methods, key concepts). - Contributor chapters on social media, technology, advertising, music, television, film, and sports. - Ideas for activism and putting this book to use beyond the classroom. - Pedagogical features. - Suggestions for further readings on topics covered and international studies of gender and pop culture. Gender and Pop Culture was designed with students in mind, to promote reflection and lively discussion. With features found in both textbooks and anthologies, this sleek book can serve as a primary or supplemental reading in courses across disciplines.

This book aims to describe and demystify what makes criminal gangs so culturally powerful. It examines their codes of conduct, initiation rites, secret communications methods, origin myths, symbols, and the like that imbue the gangsters with the pride and nonchalance that goes hand in hand with their criminal activities. Mobsters are everywhere in the movies, on television, and on websites. Contemporary societies are clearly fascinated by them. Why is this so? What feature and constituents of organized criminal gangs make them so emotionally powerful-to themselves and others? These are the questions that have guided the writing of this textbook, which is intended as an introduction to organized crime from the angle of cultural analysis. Key topics include: * An historic overview of organized crime, including the social, economic, and cultural conditions that favour its development; * A review of the type of people who make up organized gangs and the activities in which they engage; * The symbols, rituals, codes and languages that characterize criminal institutions; * The relationship between organized crime and cybercrime; * The role of women in organized crime; * Drugs and narco-terrorism; * Media portrayals of organized crime. Organized Crime includes case studies and offers an accessible, interdisciplinary approach to the subject of organized crime. It is essential reading for students engaged with organized crime across criminology, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

This book reconstructs the connection between religion and migration, drawing on post-colonial perspectives to shed light on what religion can contribute to migrant encounters. Examining the resources and motives for hospitality as lived in Christian contexts in the Nordic region, it addresses the content of talk about "religion" in public discourse, the concept having become something of an empty signifier in debates surrounding migration. Multidisciplinary in approach, this volume demonstrates that "religion" is not, in fact, an empty signifier, but gains substance through practice and interpretation. Considering the undeveloped potentiality of religion and the manner in which the unseen religious perspective in secularity becomes manifest in practice, this volume will appeal to social scientists and scholars of religion with interests in migration, refugee studies, theology, and Christian practice.

Memories of Tiananmen: Politics and Processes of Collective Remembering in Hong Kong, 1989-2019 analyzes how collective memory regarding the 1989 Beijing student movement and the Tiananmen crackdown was produced, contested, sustained, and transformed in Hong Kong between 1989 and 2019. Drawing on data gathered through multiple sources such as news reports, digital media content, on-site vigil surveys, population surveys, and in-depth interviews with activists, rally participants, and other stakeholders, it identifies six key processes in the dynamics of social remembering: memory formation, memory mobilization, memory institutionalization, intergenerational transfer, memory repair, and memory balkanization. The book demonstrates how a socially dominant collective memory, even one the state finds politically irritable, can be generated and maintained through constant negotiation and efforts by a wide range of actors. While Memories of Tiananmen mainly focuses on the interplay between political changes and the Tiananmen commemoration in the historical period within which the society enjoyed a significant degree of civil liberties, it also discusses how the trajectory of the collective memory may take a drastic turn as Hong Kong's autonomy is abridged. The book promises to be a key reference for anyone interested in collective memory studies, social movement research, political communication, and China and Hong Kong studies.

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.

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.

Research has shown the important role of religious social networks in fostering benevolence, but some questions have remained: Why are people who frequently pray or attend church more generous with their time and money? Why does one religious group rather than another get involved in certain forms of outreach? Drawing on an extensive survey of 1,200 Christian men and women across the United States, as well as 120 in-depth interviews, Matthew T. Lee, Margaret M. Poloma, and Stephen G. Post offer a deeper and more nuanced study of religion and benevolence, finding that it is the experience of God as loving that activates religious networks and moves people to do good for others. Lee, Poloma and Post show that, for many Americans, love underlies both authoritative and benevolent images of God. The authors discover that encounters with God's love are frequent-eight out of ten respondents to the survey said that that they had felt God's love increasing their compassion for others-and that such experiences take on very different meanings depending on social context. These encounters can be intensely transformative, both for individuals and their communities. The book provides countless examples of how receiving God's love, loving God, and expressing this love impacted the lives of the Christians they interviewed. Some began to provide community service, others to strive for social justice, still others to seek to redefine religion and the meaning of "church " in America. Many of the interviewees discarded the judgmental image of God they knew as children in favor of a loving and accepting representation of God that is more consistent with their direct, personal, and affectively intense experiences. The Heart of Religion will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how perceptions of God affect communities in America.

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.

Winner of the 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award In contrast to analyses that view systemic violence in Mexico as simply the result of drugs and criminality, a deviation of a well-functioning market economy and/or a failing and corrupt state, Munoz Martinez argues in Uneven Landscapes of Violence that the nexus of criminality, illegality and violence is integral to neoliberal state formation. It was through this nexus that dispossession took place after 2000 in the form of forced displacement, extorsion and private appropriation of public funds along with widespread violence by state forces and criminal groups. The emphasis of the neoliberal agenda on the rule of law to protect private property and contracts further reshaped the boundaries between legality and illegality, concealing the criminal and violent origins of economic gain.

From 1924 to 1946 the Republic of Turkey was in effect ruled as an authoritarian single-party regime. During these years the state embarked upon an extensive reform programme of modernisation and nation-building. Alexandros Lamprou here offers an alternative understanding of social change and state-society relations in Turkey, shifting the focus from the state as the prime instigator of change to the population's participation in the process of reform. Through the study of the 'People's Houses', the community centres opened and operated by the Republican People's Party in most cities and towns of Turkey, and using previously unpublished archival material, Lamprou analyses how ordinary people experienced, negotiated and resisted the reforms in the 1930s and 1940s and how this process contributed to the shaping of social identities. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of nation-building, socio-cultural change and state-society relations in modern Turkey.

The impetus for this volume comes from reflecting on many years of experience, successes and failures in development evaluation in Asia and Africa, and from recent work supported by the Rockefeller Foundation on Rethinking, Reshaping, and Reforming Evaluation. The concepts, frameworks and ideas presented in this volume are a useful contribution to the ongoing efforts at rethinking, reforming and reshaping international development evaluation. They come from leading thinkers and practitioners in development, evaluation, research and academia who have recognized that development evaluation must evolve if it is to respond to the challenges of the 21st Century and play a meaningful role in social and economic transformation. This volume will be of great interest to evaluation scholars, practitioners, and students, particularly to those interested in international development projects, programs, and policies. This book will be appropriate for a wide range of courses, included Introduction to Evaluation, International Development Evaluation, Program Evaluation, Policy Evaluation, and evaluation courses in International Development, International Relations, Public Policy, Public Health, Human Services, Sociology, and Psychology.