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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Institutions & organizations
How do objects mediate human relationships, and possess their own social and political agency? What role does material culture - such as prestige consumption as well as commodity aesthetics, biographies, and ownership histories - play in the production of social and political identities, differences, and hierarchies? How do (informal) consumer subcultures of collectors organize and manage themselves? Drawing on theories from anthropology and sociology, specifically material culture, consumption, museum, ethnicity, and post-socialist studies, Materializing Difference addresses these questions via analysis of the practices and ideologies connected to Gabor Roma beakers and roofed tankards made of antique silver. The consumer subculture organized around these objects - defined as ethnicized and gendered prestige goods by the Gabor Roma living in Romania - is a contemporary, second-hand culture based on patina-oriented consumption. Materializing Difference reveals the inner dynamics of the complex relationships and interactions between objects (silver beakers and roofed tankards) and subjects (Romanian Roma) and investigates how these relationships and interactions contribute to the construction, materialization, and reformulation of social, economic, and political identities, boundaries, and differences. It also discusses how, after 1989, the political transformation in Romania led to the emergence of a new, post-socialist consumer sensitivity among the Gabor Roma, and how this sensitivity reshaped the pre-regime-change patterns, meanings, and value preferences of prestige consumption.
Indigenous Epistemology problematizes the self-reflexive inquiry between two researchers engaged in transnational collaboration that asserts experiential pedagogy as a tool to decolonize research methodology and honor the inter-generational stories that empower Indigenous people across the globe. The authors demonstrate the direct connection between Black Lives Matter, SOSBlakAustralia and the Maroons of Jamaica as examples of contemporary Indigenous people disrupting hegemony through agentive action that inspires global awareness and pushes for systemic change. In elevating the critical epistemologies of the ancient cultures of the Aboriginals of Australia and the African Diaspora, the authors assert that the legacies and current operations of colonialism must be disrupted and replaced with an emancipatory epistemology.
An extensive one-volume guide covering some 1,900 international and regional entities, this title gives detailed and accurate information on a wide spectrum of international organizations, from the International Monetary Fund to NATO. Fully revised and updated, this new 13th edition includes background material as well as useful contact details to offer a complete understanding of the role of international organizations in the framework of modern global politics. Users will benefit from brand new introductory essays covering the international humanitarian system and international environmental governance, as well as biographical details of leading officials within international organizations.
Dating back to antiquity, semiotics is both a "technique" and a "science" that aims to understand the nature of meaning. An academic discipline in its own right, semiotics uses signs, such as words and symbols, to think, communicate, reflect, transmit, and preserve knowledge. Since the initial publication of The Quest for Meaning in 2007, the world has changed dramatically with the advent of online culture, new technologies, and new ways of making signs and symbols. Updated to reflect these many changes, the second edition includes a comprehensive chapter on the use of semiotics in the Internet age. Written in a student-friendly style, featuring examples from everyday life, the book explains what semiotics is all about and why it is so important for gaining insights into our elusive and mysterious human nature.
College-university relationships, the role of examinations, the politics of curriculum: papers amplify the picture of developments in Cambridge during the century. It was in the 19th and early 20th centuries that Cambridge, characterised in the previous century as a place of indolence and complacency, underwent the changes which produced the institutional structures which persist today. Foremost among them was the rise of mathematics as the dominant subject within the university, with the introduction of the Classical Tripos in 1824, and Moral and Natural Sciences Triposes in 1851. Responding to this, Trinity was notable in preparing its students for honours examinations, which came to seem rather like athletics competitions, by working them hard at college examinations. The admission of women and dissenters in the 1860s and 1870s was a majorchange ushered in by the Royal Commission of 1850, which finally brought the colleges out of the middle ages and strengthened the position of the university, at the same time laying the foundations of the new system of lectures and supervisions. Contributors: JUNE BARROW-GREEN, MARY BEARD, JOHN R. GIBBINS, PAULA GOULD, ELISABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN, DAVID McKITTERICK, JONATHAN SMITH, GILLIAN SUTHERLAND, CHRISTOPHER STRAY, ANDREW WARWICK, JOHN WILKES.
An extensive and unequalled one-volume guide covering over 1,700 international and regional organizations, this title provides detailed and accurate information on a wide spectrum of international organizations from the UN to the International Council for Science. Features include:
This is the first full-length biography of Dorothy Morland (1906-99), to date the only female director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Based on unpublished letters and other archival sources, as well as interviews and personal recollections, this book traces her busy private and public life from the 1930s up until the 1990s. It tells the story of one of the unacknowledged contributors to the success of the ICA and to the understanding of the international avant garde in post-war Britain. As a female arts administrator, Dorothy Morland's work has been largely overlooked, and this book aims to highlight her significant contribution to the public understanding of modernism. She was part of a network which included the Surrealist Roland Penrose, art critic Herbert Read, architect Jane Drew and wealthy philanthropists, Peter Gregory and Peter Watson. She was also the protector and advocate for the Independent Group. Dorothy Morland always mixed business with pleasure (dancing with Picasso in Antibes while there on ICA business), and tirelessly oversaw the chaotic organisation that was the ICA in Dover Street from 1950 until 1968. After leaving the ICA she worked hard on assembly the organisation's archives and securing their safekeeping at Tate.
From pressure to "teach to the test" and the use of quantitative metrics to define education "quality," to the rise of "school choice" and the shift of principals from colleagues to managers, teachers in New York, Mexico City, and Toronto have experienced strikingly similar challenges to their professional autonomy. By visiting schools and meeting teachers, government officials, and union leaders, Paul Bocking identifies commonalities that are shaping how teachers work and public schools function. While arguing that neoliberal education policy is a dominant trend transcending the realities of school districts, states, or national governments, Bocking also demonstrates the importance of local context to explain variations in education governance, especially when understanding the role of resistance led by teachers' unions.
Anna Snyder provides a detailed account of the challenges women representatives in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) faced in building bridges across diverse ethnic, racial, national, regional, and ideological backgrounds at the 4th United Nations (UN) Conference on Women. This book traces the process by which women's peace groups set an agenda for global policies in the area of women and armed conflict. Setting the Agenda for Global Peace shows how NGOs use conflict to develop transnational social movements and to build consensus around issues of global concern. Using this conference as a case study, Snyder finds three purposes for social movement conflict: contention arising from policy development; deep-rooted historical conflict; and conflicts over NGO network priorities. Drawing together feminist, conflict resolution, and social movement theories, this comprehensive text analyzes the large scale decision making processes for NGOs and points towards future directions for conflict resolution and consensus building.
The notion of microfoundations has received growing interest in neo-institutional theory (NIT) along with an increasing interest in microfoundational research in disciplines such as strategic management and organizational economics. However, despite reference to the same term, there are decisive differences in how microfoundations have been addressed across different disciplines. The aim of this double volume is to explore in more depth what the microfoundations of institutions are and what it takes to actually develop sound microfoundations. To this end, this double volume sets off by exploring the recent well-spring of micro-level research in NIT (i.e., research on the individual, practice and group level). While intimately related, micro-level research and microfoundations are not necessarily the same thing. Hence, the double volume seeks to bring to the fore different perspectives in micro-level research in order to tease out what these perspectives imply for building microfoundations, where they converge and where they diverge.
American political scientist Robert Putnam wasn’t the first person to recognize that social capital – the relationships between people that allow communities to function well – is the grease that oils the wheels of society. But by publishing Bowling Alone, he moved the debate from one primarily concerned with family and individual relationships one that studied the social capital generated by people’s engagement with the civic life. Putnam drew heavily on the critical thinking skill of interpretation in shaping his work. He took fresh looks at the meaning of evidence that other scholars had made too many assumptions about, and was scrupulous in clarifying what his evidence was really saying. He found that strong social capital has the power to boost health, lower unemployment, and improve life in major ways. As such, any decrease in civic engagement could create serious consequences for society. Putnam’s interpretation of these issues led him to the understanding that if America is to thrive, its citizens must connect.
The notion of microfoundations has received growing interest in neo-institutional theory (NIT) along with an increasing interest in microfoundational research in disciplines such as strategic management and organizational economics. However, despite reference to the same term, there are decisive differences in how microfoundations have been addressed across different disciplines. The aim of this double volume is to explore in more depth what the microfoundations of institutions are and what it takes to actually develop sound microfoundations. To this end, this double volume sets off by exploring the recent well-spring of micro-level research in NIT (i.e., research on the individual, practice and group level). While intimately related, micro-level research and microfoundations are not necessarily the same thing. Hence, the double volume seeks to bring to the fore different perspectives in micro-level research in order to tease out what these perspectives imply for building microfoundations, where they converge and where they diverge.
For managers, students and conference professionals this timely new book will provide a firm foundation for understanding and operating in one of the UK's fastest growing business areas. Conferencing forms a large and expanding part of the UK economy and is now attracting serious analysis as the key techniques and principles of good practice become established. This unique book, one of the first written by an expert educator and consultant in the field, considers the background and nature of the UK conference industry and looks at the management issues involved in professional and competitive conferencing.Providing clear, up to date and detailed information on every aspect of the management and organization of conferences and conference centres it will be an essential text for students on hospitality and tourism courses- from GNVQ to undergraduate level. It will also be a vital reference for practitioners in any part of the conference business who want to grasp the key elements for success in the future.
What is the relationship between philosophy and organization theory (OT)? While at first glance there might appear to be little, a closer look reveals a rich pattern of connections. More than any other type of human inquiry, philosophy helps make us self-aware of critical assumptions we tacitly incorporate in our organizational theorizing; it creates a deeper awareness of the 'unconscious metaphysics' underpinning our efforts to understand organizations. This volume includes papers that explore connections between several streams in philosophy and OT. As the titles of the papers suggest, most authors write about a particular philosopher or group of philosophers that make up a distinct school of thought, summarize important aspects of his/their work, and tease out the implications for OT. The central question authors explore is: 'what does a particular philosophy contribute to OT?' Either addressing this question in historical or exploratory terms, or in a combination of both, the end result is similar: particular philosophical issues, properly explained, are discussed in relation to important questions in OT.
This is the first full-length biography of Dorothy Morland (1906-99), to date the only female director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Based on unpublished letters and other archival sources, as well as interviews and personal recollections, this book traces her busy private and public life from the 1930s up until the 1990s. It tells the story of one of the unacknowledged contributors to the success of the ICA and to the understanding of the international avant garde in post-war Britain. As a female arts administrator, Dorothy Morland's work has been largely overlooked, and this book aims to highlight her significant contribution to the public understanding of modernism. She was part of a network which included the Surrealist Roland Penrose, art critic Herbert Read, architect Jane Drew and wealthy philanthropists, Peter Gregory and Peter Watson. She was also the protector and advocate for the Independent Group. Dorothy Morland always mixed business with pleasure (dancing with Picasso in Antibes while there on ICA business), and tirelessly oversaw the chaotic organisation that was the ICA in Dover Street from 1950 until 1968. After leaving the ICA she worked hard on assembly the organisation's archives and securing their safekeeping at Tate.
As individual institutions of education at all levels respond to the call for greater accountability and assessment, those who teach literacy face the challenging task of choosing what to measure and how to measure it. Both defining literacy clearly and tying that definition to strategies for assessment are two of many challenges faced by educators, theorists, and members of the public who assume responsibility for assessing literacy as well as developing and improving literacy programs. In a pluralistic and democratic society sensitive to multicultural variation, we need to find our way between the competing needs for inclusiveness and for clear and useful standards. Multiple definitions of literacy raise the issue of whether there can be a standard or set of standards and if so, what they are in an environment of multiple literacies. Indeed, the downside of the defeat of older monolithic notions of literacy is the undermining or at least the questioning of well-established methods of literacy assessment. To some extent, the older methods of assessment have been revised in the light of more expansive definitions of literacy. But will this kind of revision be enough? How are the criteria for judgment to be known and applied? Thus, this volume addresses the problems of assessing literacy development in the context of multiple and inclusive definitions. Each section consists of chapters that deal with the issue of definitions per se, with standards in postsecondary settings, with the K-12 situation, and with alternative, non-school environments where literacy is critical to human functioning in a democratic society.
Drawing on research from across Canada and beyond, education policy expert Sue Winton critically analyzes policies encouraging the privatization of public education in Canada. These policies, including school choice, fundraising, fees, and international education, encourages parents and others in the private sector to take on responsibilities for education formerly provided by governments with devastating consequences for the democratic goals of public education. Unequal Benefits introduces traditional and critical approaches to policy research and explains how to conduct a critical policy analysis. Winton explains the role policy plays in supporting and challenging inequality in the pursuit of a strong democracy and the public school ideal. In these idealized education spaces, policy decisions prioritize collective needs over private interests, which are made in public by democratically elected officials, and, more importantly, every child is able to access high quality education programs and enjoy their benefits at no cost. Written for parents, educators, policymakers, and other interested citizens, Unequal Benefits sheds light on how to participate in efforts to resist educational privatization and achieve the public school ideal across Canada.
Drawing on research from across Canada and beyond, education policy expert Sue Winton critically analyzes policies encouraging the privatization of public education in Canada. These policies, including school choice, fundraising, fees, and international education, encourages parents and others in the private sector to take on responsibilities for education formerly provided by governments with devastating consequences for the democratic goals of public education. Unequal Benefits introduces traditional and critical approaches to policy research and explains how to conduct a critical policy analysis. Winton explains the role policy plays in supporting and challenging inequality in the pursuit of a strong democracy and the public school ideal. In these idealized education spaces, policy decisions prioritize collective needs over private interests, which are made in public by democratically elected officials, and, more importantly, every child is able to access high quality education programs and enjoy their benefits at no cost. Written for parents, educators, policymakers, and other interested citizens, Unequal Benefits sheds light on how to participate in efforts to resist educational privatization and achieve the public school ideal across Canada.
The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making comprehensively surveys theory and research on organizational decision-making, broadly conceived. Emphasizing psychological perspectives, while encompassing the insights of economics, political science, and sociology, it provides coverage at the individual, group, organizational, and inter-organizational levels of analysis. In-depth case studies illustrate the practical implications of the work surveyed. Each chapter is authored by one or more leading scholars, thus ensuring that this Handbook is an authoritative reference work for academics, researchers, advanced students, and reflective practitioners concerned with decision-making in the areas of Management, Psychology, and HRM.
Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. This volume covers the period 1883-1887: Olcott tells of his meetings with many of the 'Masters' of the Society and considers what has been achieved since he and Madame Blavatsky met in Vermont in 1874. He is invited to Burma by its king, who is interested in hearing about Olcott's work; Madame Blavatsky resigns as Corresponding Secretary of the Society and goes into exile in Europe. The author, however, is determined to give a fair assessment of her invaluable contribution to the Society.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) is the largest professional society devoted to the science of ecology. A Centennial History of the Ecological Society of America tells the story of ESA's humble beginnings, growing from approximately 100 founding members and a modest publication of a few pages to a membership that exceeds 10,000 with half a dozen important journals, in print and online. It is the story of a successful scientific society that set an example for the world. Beginning with the society's inception, the book describes the difficulties faced early on and ways in which it expanded. It tracks the society's progress from the early years when female ecologists were few and inconspicuous to today when they are equally conspicuous as men, and there are as many or more female graduate students in ecology as male. ESA now has members from all around the world, and its journals contain contributions from around the world. Like all sciences, ecology began with simple questions that led to fairly simple answers. But, as ecological sciences progressed, complexity emerged in both questions and answers and the ESA has documented that process along the way. This book describes important initiatives such as the International Biological Program, the Long Term Ecological Research Network, and establishing new journals, as well as recent programs including the National Ecological Observation Network. With numerous illustrations, photographs, charts, and diagrams, the book lets you explore the early beginnings of ESA as if in conversation with its founders and appreciate the early work and achievements in the field.
The essays in Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy make visible the submerged stories of Black life in academia. They offer fresh historical, social, and cultural insights into what it means to teach, learn, research, and work while Black. In daring to shift from margin to centre, the book's contributors confront two overlapping themes. First, they resist a singular construction of Blackness that masks the nuances and multiplicity of what it means to be and experience the academy as Black people. Second, they challenge the stubborn durability of anti-Black tropes, the dehumanization of Blackness, persistent deficit ideologies, and the tyranny of low expectations that permeate the dominant idea of Blackness in the white colonial imagination. Operating at the intersections of discourse and experience, contributors reflect on how Blackness shapes academic pathways, ignites complicated and often difficult conversations, and reimagines Black pasts, presents, and futures. This unique collection contributes to the articulation of more nuanced understandings of the ways in which Blackness is made, unmade, and remade in the academy and the implications for interrelated dynamics across and within post-secondary education, Black communities in Canada, and global Black diasporas.
Bruce Kogut's writing has sketched a theory of human motivation that sees managers as social, often altruistic, sometimes as selfish, who care about their colleagues and their status among them. For the first time this book collects together key pieces that show how this view works in application to practical managerial issues, such as technology transfer and licensing, joint ventures as options, and the diffusion of ideas and best practices in the world economy. In an extensive introduction to these chapters, Kogut grounds this view in recent work in neurosciences and behavioural experiments in human sociality. On this basis, he provides a critique of leading schools of thought in management, including the resource based view of the firm cognition, and experimental economics. He proposes that people are hardwired to learn social norms and to develop identities that conform to social categories. This foundation supports a concept of coordination among people that is inscribed in social communities. It is this concept that leads to a theory of the firm as derived from social knowledge and shared identities. Kogut argues that the resource based view of the firm is only a view and it fails as a theory because it lacks a behavioural foundation. If it were to choose one, the choice would be between knowledge and organizational economics. Similarly, he argues that recent statements regarding cognition do not confront the age-old question of shared templates. If it did, it too would have to confront a theory of social knowledge. The author then proposes that this foundation is essential to an understanding of norms and institutions as well. Thus, we are moving into a period in which rapid advances in neuroscience increasingly lead to an integrated foundation for the social sciences. This opening chapter is the gateway to the collected essays, which assemble the author's published articles on knowledge, options, and institutions. The book ends on the most recent work on open source software and generating rules. The chapter on open source discusses how new technology is changing the face of innovation. The final article on generating rules is the segue to the author's current work that looks at how simple rules of social exchange leads to complex patterns of local and global knowledge. |
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