One of the state's key features is its ability to oblige its citizens to risk their lives on its behalf by being sent into war. However, what is it about the state (or its equivalent) that makes this obligation justifiable? Justifying the Obligation to Die is the first monograph to explore systematically how this obligation has been justified. Using key texts from political philosophy and just war theory, it provides a critical survey of how this obligation has been justified and, using illustrations from Zionist thought and practice, demonstrates how the various arguments for the obligation have functioned. The obligation to risk one's life for the state is often presumed by theorists and practitioners who take the state for granted, but for the Zionists, a people without a state but in search of one and who have little history of state-based political thought, it became necessary to explain this obligation. As such, this book examines Zionism as a Jewish political theory, reading it alongside the tradition of Western political thought, and critiques how Zionist thought and practice sought to justify this obligation to risk one's life in war what Michael Walzer termed "the obligation to die." Finally, turning to the political thought of Hannah Arendt, the author suggests how the obligation could become justifiable, although never entirely justified. For the obligation to become at all justifiable, the type of politics that the state enables must respect human diversity and individuality and restrict violence so that violence is not a continuation of politics."

What is Anthropology? Why should you study it? What will you learn? And what can you do with it? "What Anthropologists Do" answers all these questions. And more. Anthropology is an astonishingly diverse and engaged field of study that seeks to understand human social behavior. "What Anthropologists Do" presents a lively introduction to the ways in which anthropology's unique research methods and cutting edge thinking contribute to a very wide range of activities: environmental issues, aid and development, advocacy, human rights, social policy, the creative arts, museums, health, education, crime, communications technology, design, marketing, and business. In short, a training in Anthropology provides highly transferable skills of investigation and analysis. The book will be ideal for any readers who want to know what Anthropology is all about and especially for students coming to the study of Anthropology for the first time.

At a time when the global development industry is under more pressure than ever before, this book argues that an end to poverty can only be achieved by prioritizing human dignity. Unable to adequately account for the roles of culture, context, and local institutions, today's outsider-led development interventions continue to leave a trail of unintended consequences, ranging from wasteful to even harmful. This book shows that increased prosperity can only be achieved when people are valued as self-governing agents. Social orders that recognize autonomy and human dignity unleash enormous productive energy. This in turn leads to the mobilization of knowledge-sharing that is critical to innovation and localized problem-solving. Offering a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives and specific examples from the field showing these ideas in action, this book provides NGOs, multilateral institutions, and donor countries with practical guidelines for implementing "dignity-first" development. Compelling and engaging, with a wide range of recommendations for reforming development practice and supporting liberal democracy, this book will be an essential read for students and practitioners of international development.

Minority Women and Western Media: Challenging Representations and Articulating New Voices presents research examining media portrayals of women from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. It provides qualitative and quantitative findings of how women are stereotyped and misrepresented not only because of their gender but also their race, religion, ability, physical attributes, and political status. Whilst their voices are frequently excluded, marginalized and misrepresented, the chapters in this volume show how minority women are creating and articulating new discourses and challenging assumptions and expectations about themselves. This book provides insights into how women are represented in different media, including newspapers, television shows, films, and online platforms. Scholars of media studies, women's studies, and communication will find this book particularly useful.

Charitable giving and philanthropic behavior are frequently the subject of media reports and newspaper headlines. Examining the incentives and barriers to charitable behavior, Dashefsky and Lazerwitz account for such giving by members of the Jewish community. A discussion of motivations for charitable giving, Charitable Choices relies on quantitative and qualitative data in one religio-ethnic community.

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Participatory Action Research (PAR) provides new theoretical insights and many robust tools that will guide researchers, professionals and students from all disciplines through the process of conducting action research 'with' people rather than 'for' them or 'about' them. PAR is collective reasoning and evidence-based learning focussed on social action. It has immediate relevance in fields ranging from community development to education, health, public engagement, environmental issues and problem solving in the workplace. This new edition has been extensively revised to create a user-friendly textbook on PAR theory and practice, including: updated references and a comprehensive overview of different approaches to PAR (pragmatic, psychosocial, critical); more emphasis on the art of process design, especially in complex social settings characterized by uncertainty and the unknown; developments in the use of Web2 collaborative tools and digital strategies to support real-time data gathering and processing; updated examples and stories from around the world, in a wide range of fields; critical commentaries on major issues in the social sciences, including stakeholder theory, systems thinking, causal analysis, monitoring and evaluation, research ethics, risk assessment and social innovation. This modular textbook provides novel perspectives and ideas in a longstanding tradition that strives to reconnect science and the inquiry process with life in society. It provides coherent and critical treatment of core issues in the ongoing evolution of PAR, making it suitable for a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It is intended for use by researchers, students and working professionals seeking to improve or rethink their approach to co-creating knowledge and supporting action for the well-being of all.

Numerous historical studies use the term "community'" to express or comment on social relationships within geographic, religious, political, social, or literary settings, yet this volume is the first systematic attempt to collect together important examples of this varied work in order to draw comparisons and conclusions about the definition of community across early modern Europe. Offering a variety of historical and theoretical approaches, the sixteen original essays in this collection survey major regions of Western Europe, including France, Geneva, the German Lands, Italy and the Spanish Empire, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland. Complementing the regional diversity is a broad spectrum of religious confessions: Roman Catholic communities in France, Italy, and Germany; Reformed churches in France, Geneva, and Scotland; Lutheran communities in Germany; Mennonites in Germany and the Netherlands; English Anglicans; Jews in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands; and Muslim converts returning to Christian England. This volume illuminates the variety of ways in which communities were defined and operated across early modern Europe: as imposed by community leaders or negotiated across society; as defined by belief, behavior, and memory; as marked by rigid boundaries and conflict or by flexibility and change; as shaped by art, ritual, charity, or devotional practices; and as characterized by the contending or overlapping boundaries of family, religion, and politics. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate the complex and changeable nature of community in an era more often characterized as a time of stark certainties and inflexibility. As a result, the volume contributes a vital resource to the ongoing efforts of scholars to understand the creation and perpetuation of communities and the significance of community definition for early modern Europeans.

The concept of "community" is ubiquitous in the way we talk and think about life in the twenty-first century. Political and economic projects from rainforest conservation to urban empowerment zones focus on "the community" as the appropriate vehicle and target of change. Some scholars see a decline of community and predict dire social consequences; others criticize the concept itself for its ideological baggage and lack of clear definition. Moving the debate to a deeper level, the contributors to this volume aspire to understand the various ways "community" is deployed and the work it performs in different contexts. They compare the many cases where scholars and activists use "community" genetically with instances in which the notion of community is less pervasive or even non-existent. How does a community facilitate governance or capital accumulation? In what ways does it articulate these two forces in local and translocal contexts? What are the unintended consequences of deploying the concept--and what, too, are the potential consequences of criticizing our fascination with it? The essays demonstrate the critical value of using community as the focus of analysis rather than simply an empty category of heuristic or descriptive convenience.

Catholic Social Thought presents detailed commentary and response to the Vatican's 2005 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, with contributions from outstanding American scholars. Addressing theology, social theory, the family, economy, government, labor, global society, gender, peace, and the environment, the various authors explore the core theology, explain the Compendium's themes and arguments, and apply their own intellectual powers to applications of its teachings. Some of the essays are largely expository, some more critical (in both positive and negative senses). Some operate from a standard of magisterial assent in conformity with Ad Tuendam Fidam, others do not. Together, the essays represent the range of Catholic thinking on social issues in the American Church today.

In Jewish Faith and Modern Science, renowned Jewish philosopher and rabbi Norbert Samuelson argues that modern Jewish philosophy has died that it has failed to address the challenges to traditional beliefs posed by scientific advances, and is therefore no longer relevant to Jews today. Samuelson confronts these challenges head-on, critically reflecting on how all of the forms of contemporary Judaism, from orthodox to liberal to secular to new age, can address questions raised by the latest scientific advances. Considering questions ranging from the existence of the soul, to the relationship between God and particle physics, to the debate over when life begins and ends, Samuelson paves the way for a rebirth of Jewish philosophy applicable to life in the modern world."

In the past thirty years there has been a sea change in North American intellectual life regarding the role of religious commitments in academic endeavors. Driven partly by post-modernism and the fragmentation of knowledge and partly by the democratization of the academy in which different voices are celebrated, the appropriate role that religion should play is contested. Some academics insist that religion cannot and must not have a place at the academic table; others insist that religious values should drive the argument. Faithful Imagination in the Academy takes an approach based on dialogue with various viewpoints, claiming neither too much nor too little. All the authors are seasoned academics with many significant publications to their credit. While they all know how the academy operates and how to make worthwhile contributions in their respective disciplines, they are also Christians whose religious commitments are reflected in their intellectual work.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER **Don't miss the collector's edition with a specially designed board, exclusive to the first print run - buy whilst stocks last!** [A WOMAN ALWAYS LANDS ON HER FEET] Get ready for CAT LADY, the brilliantly bold and joyful new novel from Dawn O'Porter 'Even speaking as a dog man, I thought Cat Lady was an absolute joy to read' MATT HAIG _______________________________________________________________ CAT LADY [n.] Single, independent, crazy, aloof, on-the-shelf, lives alone . . . It's safer for Mia to play the part that people expect. She's a good wife to her husband Tristan, a doting stepmother, she slips on her suit for work each morning like a new skin. But beneath the surface, there's another woman just clawing to get out . . . When a shocking event shatters the conventional life she's been so careful to build, Mia is faced with a choice. Does she live for a society that's all too quick to judge, or does she live for herself? And if that's as an independent woman with a cat, then the world better get ready . . . Fresh, funny and for anyone who's ever felt astray, CAT LADY will help you belong - because a woman always lands on her feet. PRAISE FOR CAT LADY: 'My book of the year' Reader review 'A reminder to live your life your way. Cat or no cat' Fearne Cotton 'Really gets the reader to think about what matters in life Unputdownable and completely wonderful!' Reader review 'Witty, thought-provoking and hilarious, Cat Lady is a triumph' The Unmumsy Mum 'Dawn O'Porter challenges the stereotypes of the typical 'cat lady' with this beautiful and emotional read' Reader review 'An ode to finding your people and a celebration of the small things that bring us together' Emma Gannon 'I absolutely adored this book!' Reader review 'Funny, heart-wrenching and full of warmth' Sarah Morgan 'A beautifully written book that I'd recommend to anyone' Reader review 'A lovely onion of a book, layered with humour and emotion' Daisy Haggard 'A joyous, touching, funny, sharp story - I cannot praise it enough. Purr-fection' Milly Johnson A Sunday Times No.10 bestseller for w/c 31/10/2022

From the earliest interactions of Christians with the Roman Empire to today's debates about the separation of church and state, the Christian churches have been in complex relationships with various economic and political systems for centuries. Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether analyzes the ways the Christian church has historically interacted with powerful systems such as patriarchy, racism, slavery, and environmentalism, while looking critically at how the church shapes these systems today. With a focus on the United States, Christianity and Social Systems provides an introductory analysis of the interactions between the churches and major systems that have shaped western Christian and post-Christian society. Ruether discusses ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism, and includes three country case studies-Nicaragua, South Africa, and North and South Korea-to further illustrate the profound influences Christianity and social systems have with each other. This book is neither an attack on the relationship between Christianity and these systems, nor an apology, but rather a nuanced examination of the interactions between them. By understanding how these interactions have shaped history, we can more fully understand how to make ethical decisions about the role of Christianity in some of today's most pressing social issues, from economic and class disparities to the environmental crisis.

From the earliest interactions of Christians with the Roman Empire to today's debates about the separation of church and state, the Christian churches have been in complex relationships with various economic and political systems for centuries. Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether analyzes the ways the Christian church has historically interacted with powerful systems such as patriarchy, racism, slavery, and environmentalism, while looking critically at how the church shapes these systems today. With a focus on the United States, Christianity and Social Systems provides an introductory analysis of the interactions between the churches and major systems that have shaped western Christian and post-Christian society. Ruether discusses ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism, and includes three country case studies-Nicaragua, South Africa, and North and South Korea-to further illustrate the profound influences Christianity and social systems have with each other. This book is neither an attack on the relationship between Christianity and these systems, nor an apology, but rather a nuanced examination of the interactions between them. By understanding how these interactions have shaped history, we can more fully understand how to make ethical decisions about the role of Christianity in some of today's most pressing social issues, from economic and class disparities to the environmental crisis.

In the past thirty years there has been a sea change in North American intellectual life regarding the role of religious commitments in academic endeavors. Driven partly by post-modernism and the fragmentation of knowledge and partly by the democratization of the academy in which different voices are celebrated, the appropriate role that religion should play is contested. Some academics insist that religion cannot and must not have a place at the academic table; others insist that religious values should drive the argument. Faithful Imagination in the Academy takes an approach based on dialogue with various viewpoints, claiming neither too much nor too little. All the authors are seasoned academics with many significant publications to their credit. While they all know how the academy operates and how to make worthwhile contributions in their respective disciplines, they are also Christians whose religious commitments are reflected in their intellectual work.

In Recovering American Catholic Inculturation, McNeil follows the case of Bishop John England, who chose to govern the Diocese of Charleston with a Constitution that assigned rights and responsibilities to the church's membership. He argues that this was not a case of simple accommodation to Enlightenment rationality and autonomous individuality. Bishop England's adaptation of Catholicism should be understood as both a retrieval and an application of theoretical thinking to the practical judgment of specific contexts on the basis of reason and pragmatic esthetics. Social conflicts of interest are resolved through the allowance of an exercise of faith and reason within contexts wherein we understand and experience the truth of the situation is never final and that "good" and the "better" are not private, subjective, static nor simply progressive. Contemporary critics have often resorted more to static categories and political projections onto the earlier American experience than is warranted by a close study of the original texts of the founders of the American Republic or, particularly for this study, a personage such as John England. The study concludes that a re-embarkation on the road of inculturation is long overdue for American Catholicism. This book holds appeal for American historians, philosophers interested in the liberal tradition and autonomous individualism, epistemologists exploring rationality, aesthetics, and knowledge, Catholic theologians and Church historians, and all educated Catholics.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009

Relational Theory for Social Work Practice introduces social workers to the burgeoning feminist scholarship on relational theories and the practical application of these theories with diverse populations. It emphasizes the practical application of the basic relational concepts in a readable and comprehensive way, developing an approach to practice which is useful for both male and female social workers and clients.

Relational theory argues that the fundamental feature of healthy human development is the ability to form connections through relationships. Within this perspective, growth is seen as occurring within relationships rather than apart from them. Full case studies viewed through a feminist lens are integrated throughout the book. This work builds explicitly on the professional foundation of social work: mission, theory, practice skills, ethics, and values.

Helpful pedagogical features include a list of best practices for the social worker and a relational questionnaire. It will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals of social work.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009

Relational Theory for Social Work Practice introduces social workers to the burgeoning feminist scholarship on relational theories and the practical application of these theories with diverse populations. It emphasizes the practical application of the basic relational concepts in a readable and comprehensive way, developing an approach to practice which is useful for both male and female social workers and clients.

Relational theory argues that the fundamental feature of healthy human development is the ability to form connections through relationships. Within this perspective, growth is seen as occurring within relationships rather than apart from them. Full case studies viewed through a feminist lens are integrated throughout the book. This work builds explicitly on the professional foundation of social work: mission, theory, practice skills, ethics, and values.

Helpful pedagogical features include a list of best practices for the social worker and a relational questionnaire. It will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals of social work.

In the twenty-first century, more than ever, everything and everybody seems to be on the move. Global flows of people, goods, food, money, information, services and media images are forming an intensely mobile background to everyday life. Social scientists, too, are on the move, seeking new analytical purchase on these important aspects of the social world by trying to move with, and to be moved by, the fleeting, distributed, multiple, non-causal, sensory, emotional and kinaesthetic. Mobile Methods addresses the challenges and opportunities of researching mobile phenomena. Drawing on extensive interdisciplinary discussion, the book brings together a collection of cutting-edge methodological innovations and original research reports to examine some important implications of the mobilities turn for the processes of 'research', and the realm of the empirical. Through analysis that addresses questions such as 'how are social relationships and social institutions made in and through mobility?', and 'how do people experience mobility in twenty-first century world cities?', the authors mobilize sociological analysis, bringing new insights and opening up new opportunities for engagement with contemporary challenges. This book is a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of disciplines including Human Geography, Social Policy, Sociology and Research Methods.

Stretching westward from deep in the Appalachian Mountains to the waters of the Mississippi River that drain the center of the United States lies Kentucky, the Land of Tomorrow. Kentucky was the nation's first extension of itself into the interior of the vast North American continent. As such, Kentucky became the restless heart of the growing, maturing United States. To know Kentucky, its land, people, its civilization, its distinctive character and personality, takes time. Often, such things are not as they first seem. This is so for it is the state's numerous ironies and paradoxes that give the Commonwealth's way of life much of its meaning, power, vitality, wonder, and its great capacity to endure. The greatest of these ironies and paradoxes is that of the larger American civilization-the tension and ever shifting balance between the strong desire for expansive individual liberty and the need for community. This is the story of Kentucky, the nation's restless heart, and of its people's ongoing search for home and freedom, as seen through multiple prisms of irony and paradox.

Stretching westward from deep in the Appalachian Mountains to the waters of the Mississippi River that drain the center of the United States lies Kentucky, the Land of Tomorrow. Kentucky was the nation's first extension of itself into the interior of the vast North American continent. As such, Kentucky became the restless heart of the growing, maturing United States. To know Kentucky, its land, people, its civilization, its distinctive character and personality, takes time. Often, such things are not as they first seem. This is so for it is the state's numerous ironies and paradoxes that give the Commonwealth's way of life much of its meaning, power, vitality, wonder, and its great capacity to endure. The greatest of these ironies and paradoxes is that of the larger American civilization the tension and ever shifting balance between the strong desire for expansive individual liberty and the need for community. This is the story of Kentucky, the nation's restless heart, and of its people's ongoing search for home and freedom, as seen through multiple prisms of irony and paradox."

Negotiating Development in Muslim Societies explores the negotiation processes of global development concepts such as poverty alleviation, human rights, and gender equality. It focuses on three countries which that are undergoing different Islamisation processes: Senegal, Sudan, and Malaysia. While much has been written about the hegemonic production and discursive struggle of development concepts globally, this book analyzes the negotiation of these development concepts locally and translocally. Lachenmann and Dannecker present empirically grounded research to show that, although women are instrumentalized in different ways for the formation of an Islamic identity of a nation or group, they are at the same time important actors and agents in the processes of negotiating the meaning of development, restructuring of the public sphere, and transforming the societal gender order.

Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from locations across the globe-including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicago-describe grassroots projects in which communities use narrative as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. These compelling accounts of resistance, hope, and vision showcase the power of the storytelling form to generate critique and collective action. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.

Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from locations across the globea "including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicagoa "describe grassroots projects in which communities use narrative as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. These compelling accounts of resistance, hope, and vision showcase the power of the storytelling form to generate critique and collective action. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.

The development and inequalities of society have traditionally been analysed in terms of stratification and class. Raymond Murphy argues that important inequalities of power remain unanalysed by traditional social theories, and that the concept of social closure, suggested by Max Weber, provides a means of capturing the common and essential features of types of subordination that appear quite different on the surface. Seemingly unrelated forms of domination based on private property, the bureaucratic Communist Party, credentials, status, race, language, and gender, are tied together by Weber's notion of social closure as the underlying principle of all systems of inequality in power. The book suggests improvements to the conceptions of closure, power, and social class, and turns closure theory back on itself to analyse the scholarly field. It develops a conceptualization of the rules of social closure and their transformation, and compares the Weberian concept of closure with the Marxian concept of exploitation. Raymond Murphy examines the way in which Western society, in the elusive pursuit of mastery and control, has transformed its codes of social closure by the process of formal rationalization. He shows how this formal rationalization of monopolization and exclusion has led to substantively irrational results. Professor Murphy's conclusion - that Weber's theories of social closure and rationalization provide a conceptual basis for going beyond a narrow focus on one particular means of monopolization to an analysis of monopolization and exclusion per se - marks an important and original advance in the development of the ideas of Weber and in social theory generally.