Studying the Jewish Future explores the power of Jewish culture and assesses the perceived threats to the coherence and size of Jewish communities in the United States, Europe, and Israel. In an unconventional and provocative argument, Calvin Goldscheider departs from the limiting vision of the demographic projections that have shaped predictions about the health and future of Jewish communities and asserts that "the quality of Jewish life has become the key to the future of Jewish communities." Through the lens of individual biographies, Goldscheider shows how context shapes Jewish senses of the future and how conceptions of the future are shaped and altered by life experiences. Goldscheider's distinctive comparative approach includes a critical review of population issues, a consideration of biographies as a basis for understanding Jewish values, and an analysis of biblical texts for studying contemporary values. He combines demographic and sociological analyses in historical and comparative perspectives to dispel the notion that quantitative issues are at the heart of the challenge of Jewish continuity in the future. Numbers are clearly the building blocks of community. But the interpretations of these demographic issues are often confusing and biased by ideological preconceptions. As a basis for studying the core themes of the Jewish future, "hard facts" are less "hard" and less "factual" than interpreters have made them out to be. Population projections are limited by the vision of those who prepare them. Goldscheider concludes that the futures of Jewish communities--in America, Europe, and Israel--are much more secure than has been presented in most scholarly and popular publications, and discussions about the Jewish future should shift to other patterns of distinctiveness. This book will appeal to the general Jewish reader as well as to social scientists and modern Jewish historians. It is appropriate for Jewish studies courses, particularly, but not exclusively, those focusing on Jews in the United States, the American Jewish community, and modern Jewish society, and in courses on ethnicity, multiculturalism, cultural diversity, and ethnic relations.

Das vorliegende Buch enthalt aktuelle Beitrage aus dem Friedensforschungszentrum Tamera in Portugal. In einer Zeit, in der die Medien voll sind von Kriegs- und Katastrophenmeldungen, offnet sich hier ein geistiges Tor zu einer anderen Entwicklungsmoglichkeit: Unser Planet mit seinen Menschen und Tieren, seinen Landschaften und Gewassern ist heilbar, wenn wir diese Heilung mit aller Kraft wollen und umsetzen. Die einzelnen Beitrage sind Studientexte der Schule Terra Nova. Weltweit haben Gruppen von Menschen be-gonnen, die vorliegenden Gedanken zu studieren und in ihren Freundeskreisen und Netzwerken zu verbreiten. Gemeinsam arbeiten sie daran, ein globales Bewusstsein daruber aufzubauen, dass und wie ein profunder Systemwechsel gelingen kann. Es ist eine neue Art von Revolution. Sie ist ohne Vorbild. Fast noch im Verborgenen, undogmatisch und offen fur alle, die sich ihr anschliessen wollen, bahnt sich hier ein neuer menschheitlicher Impuls seinen W

Todos venimos al mundo con un bello proyecto para realizar: ser nosotros mismos al maximo de las posibilidades existentes. Desde el mismo momento en que somos concebidos, la ley natural que rige la evolucion de lo vivo existente, nos posibilita -de conocerla y actuarla- el pleno desarrollo de nuestras capacidades y habilidades, ofreciendonos, para cada edad, todo un universo, un amplisimo abanico de puertas que abrir y que conquistar, y permitiendonos a lo largo de la vida, auparnos hacia cotas de mayor felicidad. Y esto, de manera universal y gratuita, para todos nosotros. Entonces, por que hay tantos seres humanos desgraciados e inconformes? Por que hay tantas personas que pasan por la vida con futilidad, como quien pasa el rato? Por que tantos piensan que este mundo es un valle de lagrimas en el cual la plenitud es imposible y utopica? Por que hay tanta gente enfadada con la vida? Por que la indiferencia, la insensibilidad, la envidia, la competitividad, el desamor y el nihilismo pasota? Y por ultimo, de vital importancia, por que la mayoria de nuestros ancianos no son felices porque sabios y sabios porque felices? Y por que cuando recordamos nuestra ninez, nos sentimos tantas veces perplejos, confundidos y desorientados cuando no amnesicos? Despues de mas de cuarenta anos de estudio, Preciada Azancot, escritora, pintora y creadora del MAT -Metamodelo de Analisis Transformacional-, ha dado con las esenciales y, por ende sencillas, respuestas a tantos "por que" y con ellas, nos brinda, amorosamente, las claves para una existencia plena. Seamos quien seamos, independientemente de nuestro sexo y de nuestra edad, "Un cielo de andar por casa - En cada fase de nuestra vida" nos desvelara la sencilla -porque esencial- ley natural de la vida humana: a cada edad su necesidad vital y esencial, insustituible si no se quieren tener graves carencias que nos hipotecarian la vida plena, y lo que es aun mas grave, nos convertirian en depredadores de nuestro entorno. Este libro nos permitira situarnos, de modo organico y natural, donde de verdad nos corresponde estar, donde de verdad nos sentiremos realizados, para asi ser felices y hacer mas felices a los que nos rodean. Ademas, tendremos a nuestra disposicion un mapa-guia para avanzar, siempre, hacia mas verdad, hacia mas felicidad, hacia un fluir mas natural y coherente, en suma. Preciada Azancot descubre que el ser humano tiene, de manera innata, una serie de necesidades que cubrir y de motivaciones que colmar, y que estas deben ser atendidas en un orden determinado. Este libro cubre las tres primeras necesidades de un total de seis, siendo las tres restantes analizadas en la segunda parte. La creadora del MAT eligio a su mejor alumno y socio, Antonio Galvez, para darle la replica y convertir el aprendizaje en dialogo universal.

In the tradition of international bestsellers, "Future Shock" and "Megatrends," Michael J. Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, brings "The Mobile Wave," a ground-breaking analysis of the impact of mobile intelligence--the fifth wave of computer technology.
"The Mobile Wave "argues that the changes brought by mobile computing are so big and widespread that it's impossible for us to see it all, even though we are all immersed in it. Saylor explains that the current generation of mobile smart phones and tablet computers has set the stage to become the universal computing platform for the world. In the hands of billions of people and accessible anywhere and anytime, mobile computers are poised to become an appendage of the human being and an essential tool for modern life.
With the perspective of a historian, the precision of a technologist, and the pragmatism of a CEO, Saylor provides a panoramic view of the future mobile world. He describes how: A Harvard education will be available to anyone with the touch of a screen.Cash will become virtual software and crime proof. Cars, homes, fruit, animals, and more will be "tagged" so they can tell you about themselves. Buying an item will be as easy as pointing our mobile device to scan and pay.Land and capital will become more of a liability than an asset.Social mobile media will push all businesses to think and act like software companies.Employment will shift as more service-oriented jobs are automated by mobile software.Products, businesses, industries, economies, and even society will be altered forever as the Mobile wave washes over us and changes the landscape. With so much change, "The Mobile Wave "is a guidebook for individuals, business leaders, and public figures who must navigate the new terrain as mobile intelligence changes everything.

ber das Buch: Aufbruch zur neuen Kultur Wenn das Leben gewinnt, wird es keiner Verlierer mehr geben. Wie geht es weiter nach dem Zusammenbruch der gro en Systeme? Der gro en u eren Systeme von Politik und Wirtschaft, Klima und Natur? Aber auch der gro en inneren Systeme von Glauben, Liebe und Denken? Die Antwort auf diese Fragen mu bestehen k nnen vor den vielen gescheiterten Antworten der Vergangenheit. Die Welt steht am Abgrund. Die Jugend von Kairo bis London, von Griechenland bis Chile, von der Rothschild Avenue, Tel Aviv bis zur Wall Street New York sucht neue Wege. Wenn der massiver Aufstand und Protest, der sich heute weltweit formiert, revolution re Kraft und gemeinsame Fl gel bekommen soll, wenn das Leben endlich siegen soll ber Krieg und Gewalt, dann brauchen wir eine Vorstellung davon, wie es weitergehen k nnte. Das vorliegende Buch bietet eine solche Vorstellung an. Es wurde vor fast 30 Jahren geschrieben. Wir glauben, das seine Zeit nun gekommen ist. Der Autor Dieter Duhm hat hier dem Leben selbst eine Stimme verliehen. Er hat es aufgesp rt hinter Dogmen und falscher Moral, hat ihm Wege gebahnt durch verh rtete Denkmuster und eingefrorene Herzen, die eine lebensfeindliche Epoche der patriarchalen Herrschaft in uns hinterlassen hat. Diese aber k nnte jetzt vorbei sein. Der Systemwechsel, der heute zu vollziehen ist, ist der tiefste und fundamentalste seit Jahrtausenden. Es ist ein Wechsel von der Macht, Leben zu vernichten hin zur Macht, Leben zu pflegen und zu sch tzen. Nur so hat dieser blaue Planet und alle seine Bewohner, auch der Mensch, eine Chance auf Zukunft. Wir w nschen diesem Buch, da es auf offene Ohren und Herzen trifft und seine Saat aus Humanit t und Anteilnahme weltweit aufgehen kann. Es ist ja mehr als ein Buch. Es ist eine Vorstellung davon, wie eine lebenswerte Zukunft auf der Erde aussehen k nnte. Der Autor hat sich selbst beim Wort genommen und sich gemeinsam mit Genossinnen und Genossen aufgemacht, diese Zukunftsidee in die Praxis umzusetzen. Der letzte Abschnitt dieses Buches zeigt in Stichworten, was heute, drei ig Jahre danach, aus dieser Pionierarbeit geworden ist.

How do we face the uncertainty and complexity of the future? An overly optimistic perspective can be motivating but easily dismissed as naive or shallow; the pessimistic outlook may be considered to be deeper and more 'knowing' but could lead to inaction. But limiting our visions of the future to simply one of these two 'branches' would mean adopting a position that is ultimately no more than a fatalistic rut. Facing The Fold is a collection of highly regarded journal essays about how scenario thinking uses the capacious space of the 'fold' to encourage thinking around alternative scenarios--to create the future we both want and need. Scenarios are not predictions, nor are they strategies. Scenarios are stories -- narratives of alternative futures, designed to highlight the risks and opportunities involved in specific strategic issues. According to Ogilvy, scenario planning has generally been considered an art, but here he discusses the extent to which it can also be considered an integral part of 'the new sciences', especially complexity science. The narrative of scenario planning is of particular importance to complexity practitioners. Like complexity approaches, the advantage of scenarios is that they take into account the values and the contextual complexity surrounding the community and provide a way to reflect on the consequences of any strategy changes. The book is divided into 3 clear sections: Section I is about the 'nuts and bolts' of scenario planning and, as outlined in the first chapter co-authored with Peter Schwartz, the steps involved in the practice of developing scenarios, and the key considerations to ensure successful scenario planning. Section II situates scenario planning in the larger context of the human sciences of anthropology, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy and sociology. Section III offers a set of case studies--actual scenarios created for real projects. Lessons learnt from working in the public and the private sector are followed by two in-depth case studies on the future of higher education in California and K-12 public education in Seattle. The challenges and opportunities that were faced at the time are uncannily similar to current problems in the funding of education facilities around the world. Alternative scenarios to the momentum of increasing deficit and declining quality were developed at the time, and the author provides an afterword to show how these scenarios have held up over time. As Adam Kahane (Reos Partners and the University of Oxford) said in his review '...This wonderful collection of his writings is a most welcome and valuable contribution to the field.'

The European Union is the most successful supranational organization in history. It has reconciled former enemies, established a single market and a common currency, and reintegrated Central and Eastern Europe into the West. Yet the EU remains unsatisfying to its members and its partners. An economic giant but a political pygmy, it seems hamstrung by bureaucracy and a lack of connection to European publics.

In "Europe 2030," distinguished authors predict what the European Union will look like twenty years from new. A range of views is presented, foreseeing everything from slower growth and diminished power to actions that would make the EU a more vigorous, influential world play.

Contributors include Oksana Antonenko (International Institute for Strategic Studies), Jos? Manuel Durao Barroso (European Commission), Jos? Cutileiro (former secretary general, Western European Union), Joschka Fischer (former minister of foreign affairs, Germany), Charles Grant (Center for European Reform), Andrew Hilton (Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation), Jonathan Laurence (German Marshall Fund, Boston College and Brookings Institution), Rui Chancerelle de Machete (consititutional and administrative attorney), Hubert V?drine (former minister of foreign affairs, France), and Joseph H.H. Weiler (New York University).

Talking dolphins . . . Underwater cities . . . Two-hundred-year life spans . . . Welcome to the present

People have always imagined what life would be like in the future. Most of the time they've been wrong. Often they were really, really wrong. Your Flying Car Awaits looks at the most outrageous predictions from twentieth-century scientists, novelists, and social commentators, detailing the technologies and philosophies that led some great (and not so great)minds to think the ridiculous was achievable. Includes phenomenally inaccurate predictions such as: Space tourism will be ubiquitous by the year 2000Nuclear explosives will be used for commercial demolitionEngineered and man-made oceans will cover the planetWeather will be as predictable and controllable as a train schedule

An eye-opening, fascinating, and endlessly entertaining collection of truly boneheaded scientific predictions from the past hundred years, Your Flying Car Awaits shines an illuminating light on the people of the previous century by examining the ridiculous theories they envisioned about this one.

Humanity is on the cusp of an exciting longevity revolution. The first person to live to 150 years has probably already been born. What will your life look like when you live to be over 100? Will the world become overpopulated? How will living longer affect your finances, your family life, and your views on religion and the afterlife? In 100 Plus , futurist Sonia Arrison brings together over a decade of experience researching and writing about cutting-edge advances in science and technology to paint a vivid picture of a future that only recently seemed like science fiction, but is now very real. The first book to give readers a comprehensive understanding of how life-extending discoveries will change our social and economic worlds, 100 Plus is an illuminating and indispensable text that will help us navigate the thrilling journey of life beyond 100 years.

El Imperativo Espiritual muestra que, al contrario de lo que piensa la mayoria de la gente, la historia tiene orden, direccion y sentido y el futuro es tan predecible como el tiempo de hoy.

This book is a full-scale exposition of Charles Manski's new methodology for analyzing empirical questions in the social sciences. He recommends that researchers first ask what can be learned from data alone, and then ask what can be learned when data are combined with credible weak assumptions. Inferences predicated on weak assumptions, he argues, can achieve wide consensus, while ones that require strong assumptions almost inevitably are subject to sharp disagreements.

Building on the foundation laid in the author's "Identification Problems in the Social Sciences" (Harvard, 1995), the book's fifteen chapters are organized in three parts. Part I studies prediction with missing or otherwise incomplete data. Part II concerns the analysis of treatment response, which aims to predict outcomes when alternative treatment rules are applied to a population. Part III studies prediction of choice behavior.

Each chapter juxtaposes developments of methodology with empirical or numerical illustrations. The book employs a simple notation and mathematical apparatus, using only basic elements of probability theory.

UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice is at once a history of the ideas and realities of international development, from the classical economists to the recent emphasis on human rights, and a history of the UN s role in shaping and implementing development paradigms over the last half century. The authors, all prominent in the field of development studies, argue that the UN s founding document, the UN Charter, is infused with the human values and human concerns that are at the center of the UN s thinking on economic and human development today. In the intervening period, the authors show how the UN s approach to development evolved from mainstream areas of economic development to include issues of employment, poverty reduction, fairer distribution of the benefits of growth, equality of men and women, child development, social justice, and environmental sustainability."

Eva McDonald Valesh was one of the Progressive Era's foremost labor publicists. Challenging the narrow confines placed on women, Valesh became a successful investigative journalist, organizer, and public speaker for labor reform.

Valesh was a compatriot of the labor leaders of her day and the "right-hand man" of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Events she covered during her colorful, unconventional reporting career included the Populist revolt, the Cuban crisis of the 1890s, and the 1910 Shirtwaistmakers' uprising. She was described as bright, even "comet-like, " by her admirers, but her enemies saw her as "a pest" who took "all the benefit that her sex controls when in argument with a man."

Elizabeth Faue examines the pivotal events that transformed this outspoken daughter of a working-class Scotch-Irish family into a national political figure, interweaving the study of one woman's fascinating life with insightful analysis of the changing character of American labor reform during the period from 1880 to 1920. In her journey through the worlds of labor, journalism, and politics, Faue lays bare the underside of social reform and reveals how front-line workers in labor's political culture -- reporters, investigators, and lecturers -- provoked and informed American society by writing about social wrongs. Compelling, insightful, and at times humorous, Writing the Wrongs is a window on the Progressive Era, on social history and the new journalism, and on women's lives and the meanings of class and gender.

Cyberspace and cybertechnology have impacted on every aspect of our lives. Western society, culture, politics and economics are now all intricately bound with cyberspace. Living With Cyberspace brings together the leading cyber-theorists of North America, Britain and Australia to map the present and the future of cyberspace.Presenting a guidebook to our new world, both the theory and the practice, the book covers subjects as diverse as androids, biotech, electronic commerce, the acceleration of everyday life, access to information, the alliance between the military and the entertainment industries, feminism, democratic practice and human consciousness itself.Together, the essays--divided into separately introduced sections on society, culture, politics and economics--present a systematic and state-of-the-art overview of technology and society in the 21st Century.Contributors: John Armitage, Verena Andermatt Conley, James Der Derian, William H. Dutton, Phil Graham, Tim Jordan, Wan-Ying Ling, David Lyon, Ian Miles, Joanne Roberts, Saskia Sassen, Cathryn Vasseleu, McKenzie Wark, Frank Webster

Health Care in the New Millennium is written by futurist Ian Morrison-author of The Second Curve and Future Tense and one of our nation's foremost health care analysts.

In this provocative book, Morrison gives health care executives, doctors, and nurses a guided tour of what's in store for health care in the coming years and explains . . .
• Why our one-trillion dollar health care industry has so many unhappy stakeholders
• Why investor-owned health systems are failing
• Why so few market-based reforms work
• Why health care leaders need new visions of what is possible for the future

Will humanity survive the coming century? Are we threatened by a demographic time-bomb? Will there be food for all? Can we eliminate poverty? Are we, in our cities, heading for a kind of apartheid between the affluent and the socially excluded? Will new information technologies increase the gap between rich and poor - or, on the contrary, open up opportunities for lifelong distance education for all? Are women going to win their legitimate place in society? Is it true that many languages are in danger of extinction? How can we forestall global warming and the onward march of the world's deserts? Will there be wars over access to shrinking supplies of water? What are the prospects of running out of affordable oil and gas; and can we harness solar energy? This book looks at the major challenges of the future. Packed with the latest information and scientific understandings, it traverses a rich tapestry of crucial issues, threats and choices confronting humanity and proposes a new start based on four broad contracts: social, natural, cultural and ethical. In a world where problems are taking on increasingly global dimensions, we must come up with global solutions. We need to turn a culture of violence into a culture of peace. The choice is stark: either a 21st century with a human face or the grimacing mask of a 'Brave New World'.

"Fitz is a well-established scholar whose work on Lispector is highly respected, and this is a well-focused and very knowledgeable study. One of the things I particularly like about this book is that it makes a case for reading Lispector in the light of poststructuralist theory without overwhelming the reader." --Debra A. Castillo, Professor of Romance Studies and Director of Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University Driven by an unfulfilled desire for the unattainable, ultimately indefinable Other, the protagonists of the novels and stories of acclaimed Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector exemplify and humanize many of the issues central to poststructuralist thought, from the nature of language, truth, and meaning to the unstable relationships between language, being, and reality. In this book, Earl Fitz demonstrates that, in turn, poststructuralism offers important and revealing insights into all aspects of Lispector's writing, including her style, sense of structure, characters, themes, and socio-political conscience. Fitz draws on Lispector's entire oeuvre--novels, stories, cronicas, and children's literature--to argue that her writing consistently reflects the basic tenets of poststructuralist theory. He shows how Lispector's characters struggle over and humanize poststructuralist dilemmas and how their essential sense of being is deeply dependent on a shifting, and typically transgressive, sense of desire and sexuality.

"Charging Ahead" foretells the world's next great energy transformation: the shift to clean, renewable energy sources. It shows how renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles, when used together, can give us back a clean environment and create a healthy, sustainable economy. In chronicling this extraordinary technological revolution, John J. Berger provides a fascinating look at the new industries that will make it possible, and the trillion-dollar benefits Americans can enjoy by choosing pollution-free energy and transportation.

A memoir of postmodern times, cast as a history. This book is narrated by a far-future historian, Peter Jensen, who leaves this account of the world from the 1990s to the opening of the 23rd century as a gift to his granddaughter. A combination of fiction and scholarship, this edition of Wagar's speculative history of the future alternates between descriptions of world events and intimate glimpses of his fictive historian's family into the first centuries of the new millennium.

As a talk-show host for more than four decades, Larry King has encountered the most powerful and influential people in the world. Now, in Future Talk, he converses with some of today's most provocative thinkers to get their perspectives on what's in store for us in days to come.

In this book, composed of original interviews never broadcast or published before, Larry King takes us on a tour of the future of politics, religion, the media, war and peace, money, work, travel, sports, and the arts--all from the point of view of highly regarded individuals at the top of their fields.

King has conversations with: Stephen Jay Gould on the unprecedented challenges mankind faces; Marian Wright Edelman on the risks confronting families; Tim Russert on the media and political coverage; Doris Kearns Goodwin on the talents a future president will need to succeed; Gen. John Shalikashvili on military developments; Bill Gates on how computers and the Internet will continue to permeate our lives; Richard C. Holbrooke on the challenges of world diplomacy; C. Everett Koop on the increasingly volatile relationship between government and health care; Lester Thurow on world economics and how the United States needs to position itself; Albert Berkeley on how Wall Street will play less of a central role in investors' lives; Bob Costas on how sports will grow and change, as well as how they will be covered; Maya Angelou and Peter Max on the meanings and relevance of art; Isaac Mizrahi on what we'll be wearing; Stephen Cannell on what we'll be watching; and Robert Thurman and Elaine Pagels on spirituality and what we'll be doing to nourish our souls.These and many other interviews offer comments that are candid and opinionated, optimistic and pessimistic. They will engender reflection and surprise and ultimately provide insight into what tomorrow will bring.