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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies
What happens when people return to the land of their birth after
decades away? The migrants' journey is a well-told story but much
less is known about those who return. Why do they go back? What is
it like to be back home? Home Again is a collection of contemporary
real-life stories by men and women who have returned to Dominica.
Their feelings and experiences, expressed in their own words, link
the challenges of the past to both the positive aspects of return -
a sense of belonging and well-being - and also to its difficulties
- of rejection and frustration. Compelling, moving and intensely
personal, Home Again, is a revealing insight into the lives of
these pioneering migrants.
The Medieval Tailor's Assistant is the standard work for both
amateurs and professionals wishing to re-create the clothing of
Medieval England for historical interpretation or drama. This new
edition extends its range with details of fitting different figures
and many more patterns for main garments and accessories from 1100
to 1480. It includes simple instructions for plain garments, as
well as more complex patterns and adaptations for experienced
sewers. Advice on planning outfits and materials to use is given
along with a range of projects and alternative designs, from
undergarments to outer wear. Early and later tailoring methods are
also covered within the period. There are clear line drawings,
pattern diagrams and layouts and over eighty full-colour
photographs that show the garments as working outfits.
Eugenic thought and practice swept the world from the late
nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century in a remarkable
transnational phenomenon that informed social and scientific policy
across the political spectrum, from liberal welfare measures in
emerging social-democratic states, to feminist ambitions for birth
control, to public health campaigns, to totalitarian dreams of the
"perfectibility of man." This book dispels for uninitiated readers
the automatic and apparently exclusive link between eugenics and
the Holocaust: the popularity of eugenics in Japan, for example,
comes as a surprise. It is the first world history of eugenics and
an indispensable core text for both teaching and research in what
has become a sprawling but ever more important field. Eugenics has
accumulated generations of interest as part of the question of how
experts think about the connections between biology, human capacity
and policy. In the past and the present, eugenics speaks to
questions of race, class, gender and sex, evolution, governance,
nationalism, disability, and the social implications of science. In
the current climate, where the human genome project, stem cell
research, and new reproductive technologies have proven so
controversial, the history of eugenics has much to teach us about
the relationship between scientific research, technology, and human
ethical decision-making. This volume offers both a
nineteenth-century context for understanding the emergence of
eugenics and a consideration of contemporary manifestations of, and
relationships to eugenics. It is the definitive text for students
and researchers to consult for careful and up-to-date summaries,
new substantive fields where very little work is currently
available (e.g. eugenics in Iran, South Africa, and South East
Asia); transnational thematic lines of inquiry; the integration of
literature on colonialism; and connections to contemporary issues.
Literary Feminisms provides a map for charting the difficult waters
that feminist theories have created in literary studies. Ruth
Robbins shows the reasons for the development of feminist literary
critiques, explains the difficulties and exposes some of feminism's
blindspots. A wide range of theorists is discussed, ranging from
Wollstonecraft to Kristeva, showing the ways in which materialist,
psychoanalytic and literary accounts of feminist thinking
creatively intersect. Through a series of exemplary readings, of
texts such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Yellow Wallpaper,
she also points out how the student reader can begin to make her or
his own feminist criticism, and can learn to engage with both the
politics and poetics of the literature.
Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors challenges readers to
reconsider China's relations with the rest of Eurasia.
Investigating interstate competition and cooperation between the
successive Sui and Tang dynasties and Turkic states of Mongolia
from 580 to 800, Jonathan Skaff upends the notion that inhabitants
of China and Mongolia were irreconcilably different and hostile to
each other. Rulers on both sides deployed strikingly similar
diplomacy, warfare, ideologies of rulership, and patrimonial
political networking to seek hegemony over each other and the
peoples living in the pastoral borderlands between them. The book
particularly disputes the supposed uniqueness of imperial China's
tributary diplomacy by demonstrating that similar customary norms
of interstate relations existed in a wide sphere in Eurasia as far
west as Byzantium, India, and Iran. These previously unrecognized
cultural connections, therefore, were arguably as much the work of
Turko-Mongol pastoral nomads traversing the Eurasian steppe as the
more commonly recognized Silk Road monks and merchants. This
interdisciplinary and multi-perspective study will appeal to
readers of comparative and world history, especially those
interested in medieval warfare, diplomacy, and cultural studies.
This book contains a detailed account of the various types of
Icelandic folk-story, their likely origins and sources, the
folk-beliefs they represent, and their meanings. In Iceland, people
do not compose verse just to comfort themselves; they worship
poetry and believe in it. In poetry is a power which rules men's
lives and health, governs wind and sea. Icelanders have faith in
hymns and sacred poems too, because of their content. They also
have faith in secular poetry composed by themselves, believing it
to be no less able to move mountains than religious faith is. By
this belief in their own culture, they transfer it into the realm
of mythology, and the glow of the super-human is shed over it.
Whatever may have been their origin, the folk-stories of Iceland
come to mirror the people's life and character, and in the period
when the idea gained ground that all power comes from the people,
their poetry and lore became sacred things that were revered and
looked to as a potential source of strength. Icelandic folk-stories
were similarly an important element in the Icelanders' struggle for
national and cultural integrity in the nineteenth century. They
were more truly Icelandic than anything else worthy of the name.
Everyone in the neighborhood was getting ready for the party.
Everyone knew somebody on the guest list. . . .
This was the day the dead returned.
There's a party tonight, but Cala doesn't want to go. While her family
prepares for the celebration, Cala grieves her grandfather and tries to
pretend she's not afraid.
But when she is separated from her family at the cemetery, Cala
encounters four mysterious riders who will show her she is actually
quite brave after all.
Brimming with magic and humor, The Invisible Parade is the first
picture-book collaboration between award-winner John Picacio and New
York Times bestselling Leigh Bardugo. Set on the night of Día de
Muertos, Cala's story is one of love, loss, and the courage that can be
found in unexpected places.
Ends of Assimilation compares sociological and Chicano/a (Mexican
American) literary representations of assimilation. It argues that
while Chicano/a literary works engage assimilation in complex,
often contradictory ways, they manifest an underlying conviction in
literature's productive power. At the same time, Chicano/a
literature demonstrates assimilation sociology's inattention to its
status as a representational discourse. As twentieth-century
sociologists employ the term, assimilation reinscribes as fact the
fiction of a unitary national culture, ignores the interlinking of
race and gender in cultural formation, and valorizes upward
economic mobility as a politically neutral index of success. The
study unfolds chronologically, describing how the historical
formation of Chicano/a literature confronts the specter of
assimilation discourse. It tracks how the figurative, rhetorical,
and lyrical power of Chicano/a literary works compels us to compare
literary discourse with the self-authorizing empiricism of
assimilation sociology. It also challenges presumptions of
authenticity on the part of Chicano/a cultural nationalist works,
arguing that Chicano/a literature must reckon with cultural
dynamism and develop models of relational authenticity to counter
essentialist discourses. The book advances these arguments through
sustained close readings of canonical and noncanonical figures and
gives an account of various moments in the history and
institutional development of Chicano/a literature, such as the rise
and fall of Quinto Sol Publications, asserting that Chicano/a
writers, editors, and publishers have self-consciously sought to
acquire and redistribute literary cultural capital.
Adult cognitive development is one of the most important yet most
neglected aspects in the study of human psychology. Although the
development of cognition and intelligence during childhood and
adolescence is of great interest to researchers, educators, and
parents, many assume that this development stops progressing in any
significant manner when people reach adulthood. In fact, cognition
and intelligence do continue to progress in very significant ways.
In this second edition of Developmental Influences on Adult
Intelligence, K. Warner Schaie presents the history, latest data,
and results from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (SLS). The purpose
of the SLS is to study various aspects of psychological development
during the adult years. Initiated in 1956 and focusing on a random
sample of 500 adults ranging in age from 25 to 95 years old, the
SLS is organized around five questions: Does intelligence change
uniformly throughout adulthood, or are there different
life-course-ability patterns? At what age and at what magnitude can
decrement in ability be reliably detected? What are the patterns
and magnitude of generational differences? What accounts for
individual differences in age-related change in adulthood? Can the
intellectual decline that increases with age be reversed by
educational intervention? The first edition of the book provided an
account of the SLS through the 1998 (seventh wave) data collection
and of the associated family study through the 1996 (second wave)
data collection. Since that time, Schaie and his collaborators have
conducted several additional data collections. These include a
further longitudinal follow-up in 2005/06, a longitudinal follow-up
and 3rd data collection for the family study in 2003/04, and
acquisition of a 3rd generation sample in 2002. Hence, virtually
all of the content from the first edition has been updated and
expanded, and three new chapters are included on Health Behaviors
and Intellectual Functioning, Biological Influences on Cognitive
Change, and Prediction of Individual Cognitive Decline. This new
edition is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners
specializing in adult development, aging, and adult education, as
well as students and faculty in developmental, cognitive, and
social psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work, and the social
sciences interested in issues of human aging.
Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful
introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and
law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to
be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of
the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject
areas. Shanyang Zhao provides a unique examination of this evolving
topic with a framework to address the common questions: What is
self? How is self formed? and Why does self matter? Drawing a
fascinating distinction between self and self-concept, Zhao regards
both as part of a larger constellation named the 'self-phenomenon.'
He separates social determinants of self from neurocognitive
prerequisites of self. Focusing on the social determinants, he
reviews how social schemas shape self-concept through three
intertwined mechanisms and how social resources affect
self-conscious action through social position and social capital.
Key Features: A clear distinction between self and self-concept A
study of the self as both a social product and a social force A new
framework for the sociology of the self, built on the foundation of
classic works A close examination of three mechanisms of
self-concept formation with specifications of the scope conditions
under which each mechanism operates An analysis of the
distinctiveness of human normative selves through cross-species
comparison This Advanced Introduction will provide essential
reading for scholars and researchers in sociology, social
psychology, and social policy.
"In Caring for Our Own, Sandra Levitsky has written a moving and
perceptive account of the dilemma facing those who provide care for
frail family members. Based on in-depth interviews and participant
observation with family caregivers and the social workers that
attempt to ameliorate their burden, this book uncovers the complex
ideological and political factors that have made long term care the
neglected stepchild of the welfare state in the United
States."-Jill Quadagno, Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar
in Social Gerontology, Florida State University Aging populations
and dramatic changes in health care provision, household structure,
and women's labor force participation over the last half century
have created what many observers have dubbed a "crisis in care":
demand for care of the old and infirm is rapidly growing, while the
supply of private care within the family is substantially
contracting. And yet, despite the well-documented adverse effects
of contemporary care dilemmas on the economic security of families,
the physical and mental health of family care providers, the bottom
line of businesses, and the financial health of existing social
welfare programs, American families have demonstrated little
inclination for translating their private care problems into
political demands for social policy reform. Caring for Our Own
inverts an enduring question of social welfare politics. Rather
than asking why the American state hasn't responded to unmet social
welfare needs by expanding social entitlements, this book asks: Why
don't American families view unmet social welfare needs as the
basis for demands for new state entitlements? How do traditional
beliefs in family responsibility for social welfare persist even in
the face of well-documented unmet need? The answer, this book
argues, lies in a better understanding of how individuals imagine
solutions to the social welfare problems they confront and what
prevents new understandings of social welfare provision from
developing into political demand for alternative social
arrangements. Caring for Our Own considers the powerful ways in
which existing social policies shape the political imagination,
reinforcing longstanding values about family responsibility,
subverting grievances grounded in notions of social responsibility,
and in some rare cases, constructing new models of social provision
that would transcend existing ideological divisions in American
social politics.
Written by a star cast of contributors, this introductory
undergraduate text provides students with a rich, stimulating and
authoritative account of key debates and issues in sociology today.
Carefully structured and edited to take account of the
undergraduate student reader's needs, the essays explore
sociological understandings of a range of core topics and
critically examines what key issues have emerged for debate from
past and current research.
Historians and archaeologists define primary states-"cradles of
civilization" from which all modern nation states ultimately
derive-as significant territorially-based, autonomous societies in
which a centralized government employs legitimate authority to
exercise sovereignty. The well-recognized list of regions that
witnessed the development of primary states is short: Egypt,
Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, Mesoamerica, and Andean South
America. Drawing on archaeological and ethnohistorical sources,
Robert J. Hommon demonstrates that Polynesia, with primary states
in both Hawaii and Tonga, should be added to this list. The Ancient
Hawaiian State is a study of the ancient Hawaiians' transformation
of their Polynesian chiefdoms into primary state societies,
independent of any pre-existing states. The emergence of primary
states is one of the most revolutionary transformations in human
history, and Hawaii's metamorphosis was so profound that in some
ways the contact-era Hawaiian states bear a closer resemblance to
our world than to that of their closely-related East Polynesian
contemporaries, 4,000 kilometers to the south. In contrast to the
other six regions, in which states emerged in the distant,
pre-literate past, the transformation of Hawaiian states are
documented in an extensive body of oral traditions preserved in
written form, a rich literature of early post-contact eyewitness
accounts of participants and Western visitors, as well as an
extensive archaeological record. Part One of this book describes
three competing Hawaiian states, based on the islands of Hawai`i,
Maui, and O`ahu, that existed at the time of first contact with the
non-Polynesian world (1778-79). Part Two presents a detailed
definition of state society and how contact-era Hawaii satisfies
this definition, and concludes with three comparative chapters
summarizing the Tongan state and chiefdoms in the Society Islands
and Marquesas Archipelagos of East Polynesia. Part Three provides a
model of the Hawaii State Transformation across a thousand years of
history. The results of this significant study further the analysis
of political development throughout Polynesia while profoundly
redefining the history and research of primary state formation.
Understand: Dare: Thrive, how to have your best career from today
is essential reading for all women, and all champions of equity,
diversity and inclusion. Every insight and answer that matters is
here, in one place. In this ground-breaking book, leading authority
Diana Parkes - business guru, psychologist and social entrepreneur
- cuts through the complexity of workplace dynamics and human
psychology to share what really works. She provides everything you
need to know to thrive throughout your career, at the pace you
choose, with the recognition and rewards you deserve.
Comprehensive, proven strategies for success Real stories - in the
words of women who've cracked it! Practical examples of how to
handle everyday challenges 24 powerful self-assessment and planning
tools Incisive coaching questions in every chapter
'Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with
gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that
it's all true.' Time In this thrilling panorama of real-life
events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a
secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic
middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's
Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people.
In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings
of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping's complex empire and recounts
the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down.
He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it
pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America,
and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of
undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that
sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in
narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story
and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in
America.
In a world where women continue to face additional challenges to
men, 'Understand: Dare: Thrive' delves into the underlying causes
of this enduring reality and provides the insights and answers
women need to enable them to thrive, across their whole working
life. Businesswoman, psychologist and social entrepreneur Diana
Parkes draws upon her signature skills for cutting-through
complexity, providing a roadmap to understand what is necessary to
achieve your career goals. By exploring how success can be obtained
for women in all industries, the book picks apart gender
stereotypes and demonstrates how it is possible to thrive in any
position, whether entry level or leadership. The book uses powerful
scientific research to blow apart myths about the reasons that men
and women's careers differ. It shares deep insights about human
psychology, enabling us to understand the fundamental causes of
gender inequality and the reasons why inequalities in workplaces
persist. Everything imparted will enable you to anticipate, prevent
or circumnavigate challenging situations and move towards what you
always wanted to achieve. By utilising the real life experiences of
over 45 ordinary women, we see journeys from all walks of life.
They all forged success across a wide range of fields, living the
same daily reality most women experience: limited time, scarce
resources and tricky choices. While drive, resilience and emotional
intelligence were their common foundation strengths, this book
brings together the power of the 900 years of contemporary career
success they shared - setting out pathways to achieve your dreams,
no matter the odds. * * * 'Very informative and comprehensive,
covering all the multi-layer issues affecting women in the
workplace. It distils the experience of so many women and provides
practical ways of tackling some of the big issues that are holding
women back.' - Mandy Garner, Editor of Workingmums.co.uk 'A
marvellous read, full of honesty, great research and powerful
methods to change our core beliefs for more success at work and in
life.' - Rachel Gibson, professional musician
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