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Books > Social sciences
The Chinese Government s five-year strategy for social and economic
development to 2015 includes the aim of making the southwestern
province of Yunnan a bridgehead for opening the country to
southeast Asia and south Asia. Yunnan - A Chinese Bridgehead to
Asia traces the dynamic process which has led to this policy goal,
a process through which Yunnan is being repositioned from a
southwestern periphery of the People s Republic of China to a
bridgehead between China and its regional neighbours. It shows how
this has been expressed in ideas and policy frameworks, involvement
in regional institutions, infrastructure development, and changing
trade and investment flows, from the 1980s to the present.
Detailing the wider context of the changes in China's global
interactions, especially in Asia, the book uses Yunnan's case to
demonstrate the extent of provincial agency in global interactions
in reform-era China, and provides new insights into both China s
relationships with its Asian neighbours and the increasingly
important economic engagement between developing countries.
Offers a new perspective on YunnanContains historical depth:
understanding the background and developments over time means that
this China watching book will not date quicklyTakes a provincial
view of China s international relations"
The international community has donated nearly one trillion dollars
during the last four decades to reconstruct post-conflict countries
and prevent the outbreak of more civil war. Yet reconstruction has
eluded many of these countries, and 1.9 million people have been
killed in reignited conflict. Where did the money go? This book
documents how some leaders do bring about remarkable reconstruction
of their countries using foreign aid, but many other post-conflict
leaders fail to do so. Offering a global argument that is the first
of its kind, Desha Girod explains that post-conflict leaders are
more likely to invest aid in reconstruction when they are desperate
for income and thus depend on aid that comes with reconstruction
strings attached. Leaders are desperate for income when they lack
access to rents from natural resources or to aid from donors with
strategic interests in the country. Using data on civil wars that
ended between 1970 and 2009 and evidence both from countries that
succeeded and from countries that failed at post-conflict
reconstruction, Girod carefully examines the argument from
different perspectives and finds support for it. The findings are
important for theory and policy because they explain why only some
leaders have the political will to meet donor goals in the wake of
civil war. The findings also shed light on state-building processes
and on the political economy of post-conflict countries.
Paradoxically, donors are most likely to achieve reconstruction
goals in countries where they have the least at stake.
Kelly Besecke offers an examination of reflexive spirituality, a
spirituality that draws equally on religions traditions and
traditions of reason in the pursuit of transcendent meaning. People
who practice reflexive spirituality prefer metaphor to literalism,
spiritual experience to doctrinal belief, religious pluralism to
religious exclusivism or inclusivism, and ongoing inquiry to
''final answers.'' Reflexive spirituality is aligned with liberal
theologies in a variety of religious traditions and among the
spiritual-but-not-religious. You Can't Put God in a Box draws on
original qualitative data to describe how people practiced
reflexive spirituality in an urban United Methodist church, an
interfaith adult education center, and a variety of secular
settings. The theoretical argument focuses on two kinds of
rationality that are both part of the Enlightenment legacy.
Technological rationality focuses our attention on finding the most
efficient means to a particular end. Reflexive spiritualists reject
forms of religiosity and secularity that rely on the biases of
technological rationality-they see these as just so many versions
of ''fundamentalism'' that are standing in the way of compelling
spiritual meaning. Intellectual rationality, on the other hand,
offers tools for analysis, interpretation, and synthesis of
religious ideas. Reflexive spiritualists embrace intellectual
rationality as a way of making religious traditions more meaningful
for modern ears. Besecke provides a window into the progressive
theological thinking of educated spiritual seekers and religious
liberals. Grounded in participant observation, her book uses
concrete examples of reflexive spirituality in practice to speak to
the classical sociological problem of modern meaninglessness.
The UK has a deservedly strong reputation for work on understanding
social inequalities in health. But there is some way to go in
ensuring that research and other types of knowledge are used to
reduce inequalities in child health. This revised and updated
edition of an important report looks at macro public policy
interventions, community interventions, and individual level
interventions in a variety of settings, and for a range of
populations: infancy, early years, childhood and adolescence, and
those with particular needs including looked after children. It
considers 'what works' in practice. There are new case studies,
updated research, and reference to cost effectiveness -
particularly relevant for doing the right thing in a climate of
austerity. Drawing on evidence from the UK and beyond, the book
presents these in an accessible form not just for those who make
decisions now, but also for the students of today who are the
decision makers of tomorrow.
"That summer afternoon, I had no way of knowing the book would radically alter my existence. Yet that proved to be the case."
So writes folklorist José Manuel de Prada-Samper about a chance discovery more than thirty years ago of an obscure book called Specimens of Bushman Folklore in a second-hand bookshop in England.
Part historical detective story, part memoir, Fading Footprints traces the author’s journey into the magical folklore of the /xam hunter-gatherers of the Upper Karoo. Through archival research and on field trips in South Africa, De Prada-Samper is able to humanise the /xam as he delves into the work and lives of researchers William Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, who recorded the stories of San prisoners in Cape Town in the late 1800.
The author learns that many are still told to this day by farm workers in forgotten corners of the Northern Cape and that, contrary to common belief, the culture and traditions of South Africa’s first people are still alive.
During the century of British rule of the Indian subcontinent known
as the British Raj, the rulers felt the significant influence of
their exotic subjects. Resonances of the Raj examines the
ramifications of the intertwined and overlapping histories of
Britain and India on English music in the last fifty years of the
colonial encounter, and traces the effects of the Raj on the
English musical imagination. Conventional narratives depict a
one-way influence of Britain on India, with the 'discovery' of
Indian classical music occurring only in the post-colonial era.
Drawing on new archival sources and approaches in cultural studies,
author Nalini Ghuman shows that on the contrary, England was both
deeply aware of and heavily influenced by India musically during
the Indian-British colonial encounter. Case studies of
representative figures, including composers Edward Elgar and Gustav
Holst, and Maud MacCarthy, an ethnomusicologist and performer of
the era, integrate music directly into the cultural history of the
British Raj. Ghuman thus reveals unexpected minglings of peoples,
musics and ideas that raise questions about 'Englishness', the
nature of Empire, and the fixedness of identity. Richly illustrated
with analytical music examples and archival photographs and
documents, many of which appear here in print for the first time,
Resonances of the Raj brings fresh hearings to both familiar and
little-known musics of the time, and reveals a rich and complex
history of cross-cultural musical imaginings which leads to a
reappraisal of the accepted historiographies of both British
musical culture and of Indo-Western fusion.
This title is the second Chandos Learning and Teaching Series book
that explores themes surrounding enhancing learning and teaching
through student feedback. It expands on topics covered in the
previous publication, and focuses on social science disciplines.
The editors previously addressed this gap in their first book
Student Feedback: The cornerstone to an effective quality assurance
system in higher education. In recent years, student feedback has
appeared in the forefront of higher education quality, in
particular the issues of effectiveness and the use of student
feedback to affect improvement in higher education teaching and
learning, and also other areas of student tertiary experience. This
is an edited book with contributions by experts in higher education
quality and particularly student feedback in social science
disciplines from a range of countries, such as Australia, Europe,
Canada, the USA, the UK and India. This book is concerned with the
practices of evaluation and higher education quality in social
science disciplines, with particular focus on student feedback.
The first book of its kind on student feedback specific to social
sciences and will be a scholarly resource for all stakeholders to
enhance learning/teaching through student feedbackWill interrogate
student feedback in social science disciplines, on the basis of
establishing a better understanding of its forms, purposes and
effectiveness in learningContributions come from experienced
academics, experts and practitioners in the area
St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven
different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's
illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the
Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the
Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their
exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an
awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name, and read why
Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the
St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of
cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, The
Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the
Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or
Chicago.
Linguistic Rivalries weaves together anthropological accounts of
diaspora, nation, and empire to explore and analyze the
multi-faceted processes of globalization characterizing the
migration and social integration experiences of Tamil-speaking
immigrants and refugees from India and Sri Lanka to Montreal,
Quebec in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In
Montreal, a city with more trilingual speakers than in any other
North American city, Tamil migrants draw on their multilingual
repertoires to navigate longstanding linguistic rivalries between
anglophone and francophone, and Indian and Sri Lankan nationalist
leaders by arguing that Indians speak "Spoken Tamil " and Sri
Lankans speak "Written Tamil " as their respective heritage
languages. Drawing on ethnographic, archival, and linguistic
methods to compare and contrast the communicative practices and
language ideologies of Tamil heritage language learning in Hindu
temples, Catholic churches, public schools, and community centers,
this book demonstrates how processes of sociolinguistic
differentiation are mediated by ethnonational, religious, class,
racial, and caste hierarchies. Indian Tamils showcase their use of
the "cosmopolitan " sounds and scripts of colloquial varieties of
Tamil to enhance their geographic and social mobilities, whereas
Sri Lankan Tamils, dispossessed of their homes by civil war,
instead emphasize the "primordialist " sounds and scripts of a pure
"literary " Tamil to rebuild their homeland and launch a "global "
critique of racism and environmental destruction from the diaspora.
This book uses the ethnographic and archival study of Tamil
mobility and immobility to expose the mutual constitution of elite
and non-elite global modernities, defined as language ideological
projects in which migrants objectify dimensions of time and space
through scalar metaphors.
Teaching the Postsecondary Music Student with Disabilities provides
valuable information and practical strategies for teaching the
college music student. With rising numbers of students with
disabilities in university music schools, professors are being
asked to accommodate students in their studios, classes, and
ensembles. Most professors have little training or experience in
teaching students with disabilities. This book provides a resource
for creating an inclusive music education for students who audition
and enter music school. Teaching the Postsecondary Music Student
with Disabilities covers all of the topics that all readers need to
know including law, assistive technology, high-incidence and
low-incidence disabilities, providing specific details on the
disability and how it impacts the learning of the music student.
Die agtste en laaste deel van die reeks Kolonie aan die Kaap
beskryf die agteruitgang en verval van die VOC en die gevolge wat
dit vir Kaap gehad het gedurende die laaste kwarteeu van die
VOC-bewind. Swanesang dek die tydperk vanaf die dood van goewerneur
Rijk Tulbagh tot en met die eerste Britse besetting van die Kaap in
1795. Sy opvolgers, J.A van Pletterberg, J.C. de Graaff, die
waarnemende goewerneur Rhenius en die laaste goewerneur, J.A.
Sluysken, en die onsekerheid wat die laaste deel van die
VOC-tydperk gekenmerk het, word belig. Afgesien van die amptelike
rolle wat verskeie VOC-amptenare gespeel het, word ook aandag aan
hulle karaktereienskappe en persoonlike lewens gegee om sodoende
lewe aan die geskiedkundige figure te gee. Schoeman slaag egter
veral daarin om naas die amptenary ook ’n beeld te gee van die lewe
van gewone mense in die breer Kaapse samelewing. Besonder boeiend
is die bespreking van die reise van verskeie natuurkundiges, soos
die Swede Thunberg en Sparrman, die Skotte Masson en Paterson, die
Nederlander Robert Jacob Gordon en die Franse Sonnerat en Le
Vaillant. Veral die flambojante Le Vaillant se boeke was baie
populer en het bygedra om die Kaap en sy interessante fauna en
flora wyd bekend te maak. In die laaste hoofstukke word aandag
gegee aan die Franse Rewolusie en ander politieke veranderinge in
Europa wat Nederland verswak en tot die Britse oorname van die Kaap
gelei het.
Religion and Community in the New Urban America examines the
interrelated transformations of cities and urban congregations over
the past several decades. The authors ask how the new metropolis
affects local religious communities, and what the role of those
local religious communities is in creating the new metropolis.
Through an in-depth study of fifteen Chicago congregations-Catholic
parishes, Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques,
and a Hindu temple, city and suburban, neighborhood-based and
commuter-this book describes the lives of their members and
measures the influences of those congregations on urban
environments. Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam challenge the view
held by many urban studies scholars that religion plays a small
role-if any-in shaping postindustrial cities and that religious
communities merely adapt to urban structures in a passive fashion.
Taking into account the spatial distribution of constituents,
internal traits, and external actions, each congregation's urban
impact is plotted on a continuum of weak, to moderate, to strong,
thus providing a nuanced understanding of the significance of
religion in the contemporary urban context. Providing a thoughtful
analysis that includes several original maps illustrating such
things as membership distribution for each congregation, the
authors offer an insightful look into urban community life today,
from congregations to the social-geographic places in which they
are embedded.
Corruption has played a pivotal role in sustaining appallingly high
levels of poverty in many developing countries, particularly in
relation to the deficient provision of basic services such as
education and healthcare. Corruption drives the over exploitation
of natural resources, capturing their value for the elite who
benefit. In the developed world, corrupt funding undermines
political systems and lays policy open to heavy financial lobbying.
Global corruption attempts to identify the main drivers of
corruption worldwide and analyses the current efforts to control
them. This compelling book suggests ways in which the problems
caused by corruption can be addressed and ultimately prevented. The
author draws on years of experience and knowledge and makes this
book an accessible, informative and thought-provoking guide to
corruption operating at all levels of society. "You can save a lot
of money and time by reading this book in which Laurence Cockcroft
provides a candid narrative, distilling his experience in countries
all over the world on corruption and its possible solutions. This
makes for fascinating reading; Cockcroft allows you to understand
that there is no chaos but only complexity." Luis Moreno-Ocampo,
former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
In the last half century, developmental scientists have become
increasingly interested in studying contexts beyond the home
environment that contribute to children's growth and development,
including physical contexts such as schools and neighborhoods, as
well as social contexts such as poverty. During this same period, a
number of social trends have significantly impacted children's
daily lives, including shifts in gender roles and expectations, the
emergence of an early care and education system, and the
proliferation of media technology. Societal Contexts of Child
Development provides comprehensive literature reviews for six broad
contextual influences on children's development that have emerged
as key areas of inquiry in contemporary society - gender, child
care, culture and ethnicity, poverty, schools and neighborhoods,
and media. In the spirit of applied developmental science, this
book considers these six contextual domains in a series of two
linked chapters written by experts in the interdisciplinary field
of developmental science. The first chapter in each section is
organized as a review of basic research relevant to a particular
context, including a discussion of prominent theoretical and
methodological issues. The second chapter in each section then
addresses the same context from an applied research perspective,
examining and documenting how research has been, can be, or should
be used to enhance the everyday lives and developmental outcomes of
children and their families through interventions and/or social
policies. The book concludes with a chapter specifically dedicated
to making connections between research and practice and an epilogue
that situates the book's chapters within the field's study of
contexts. Societal Contexts of Child Development will appeal to a
broad audience of scholars, students, practitioners, and
policymakers from the disciplines of psychology, sociology,
economics, human development, and public policy.
Men who act abusively have their own story to tell, a journey that
often begins in childhood, ripens in their teenage years, and takes
them down paths they were hoping to never travel. Men Who Batter
recounts the journey from the point of view of the men themselves.
The men's accounts of their lives are told within a broader
framework of the agency where they have attended groups, and the
regional coordinated community response to domestic violence, which
includes the criminal justice workers (e.g., probation, parole,
judges), and those who staff shelters and work in advocacy. Based
on interview data with this wide array of professionals, we are
able to examine how one community, in one western state, responds
to men who batter. Interwoven with this rich and colorful portrayal
of the journey of abusive men, we bring twenty years of fieldwork
with survivors and those who walk alongside them as they seek
safety, healing and wholeness for themselves and their children.
Women who have been victimized by the men they love often hold out
hope that, if only their abusers could be held accountable and
receive intervention, the violence will stop and their own lives
will improve dramatically as a result. While the main purpose of
Men Who Batter is to highlight the stories of men, told from their
personal point of view, it is countered by reality checks from
their own case files and those professionals who have worked with
them. And finally, interspersed within its pages is another theme:
finding religious faith or spiritual activity in unlikely places.
Bringing together ecology, evolutionary moral psychology, and
environmental ethics, J. Baird Callicott counters the narrative of
blame and despair that prevails in contemporary discussions of
climate ethics and offers a fresh, more optimistic approach.
Whereas other environmental ethicists limit themselves to what
Callicott calls Rational Individualism in discussing the problem of
climate change only to conclude that, essentially, there is little
hope that anything will be done in the face of its "perfect moral
storm" (in Stephen Gardiner's words), Callicott refuses to accept
this view. Instead, he encourages us to look to the Earth itself,
and consider the crisis on grander spatial and temporal scales, as
we have failed to in the past. Callicott supports this theory by
exploring and enhancing Aldo Leopold's faint sketch of an Earth
ethic in "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest," a
seldom-studied text from the early days of environmental ethics
that was written in 1923 but not published until 1979 after the
environmental movement gathered strength.
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