In Star Trek and Star Wars: The Enlightenment versus the Anti-Enlightenment, George A. Gonzalez shows that these two behemoths of popular culture put the Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment before the viewing public. Star Trek is arguably the popular culture vehicle most reflective of the Enlightenment: a belief in political and social progress, leading to a society that is modern, classless, and totally free of gender and ethnic biases. The Star Wars franchise, meanwhile, is seemingly the artistic embodiment of the anti-Enlightenment: societal progress (to the extent that it occurs) is solely a function of technology and not a perfecting of justice and fairness. Gonzalez shows that this reflects the pessimism and demoralization underlying the Trump phenomenon and the rise of anti-democratic, virulent nationalism.

The 1960s (a.k.a. the 60s) remains a terrain of contemporary politics-with the values of the period embraced or rejected, as well as differently interpreted. Popular culture (movies, television) is an important means to understand and analyze the political issues and controversies surrounding the 60s-egalitarianism, equality (civil rights, feminism), as well as anti-communism (including the American war in Vietnam). In important and key instances popular culture (especially Star Trek [1966-1969]) was at the forefront of the progressive politics of the 60s. This book engages and analyzes the ongoing 60s through popular culture. The 60s is a pivotal period in American and world history-as the United States during this time turned away from white supremacy as official ideology. Also, the American public decidedly soured on U.S. military adventurism-as evidenced by broad public opposition to a military draft. Additionally, women (as a result of the feminism of the era) gained greater access to the public sphere and increased personal autonomy-non-discrimination (and anti-harassment) rules, abortion rights, and no fault divorce. Popular culture is philosophically significant because it allows people to cogitate reasons in the world-especially in the social, political realm. The creators of popular culture will often seek to offer the public authentic art, and much of the public seeks out authentic art. This makes American popular culture (in its finer forms) a viable source material about reason in the world. In this book the author doesn't seek to deconstruct popular culture; instead, he seeks to identify and analyze the reasons in the world depicted in it.

Shape-Shifting Capital: Spiritual Management, Critical Theory, and the Ethnographic Project is positioned at the intersection of anthropology, critical theory, and philosophy of religion. First, Gonzalez explores the phenomena of "workplace spirituality" in a language that is accessible to a general readership. Taking contemporary trends in organizational management as a case study, he argues, by way of a detailed ethnographic study of practitioners of workplace spirituality, that the conceptual and institutional boundaries between religion, science, and capitalism are being redrawn by theologized management appropriations of tropes borrowed from creativity theory and quantum mechanics. Second, Gonzalez makes a case for a critical anthropology of religion that combines existential concerns for biography and intentionality with poststructuralist concerns for power, arguing that the ways in which the personalization of metaphor bridges personal and social histories also helps bring about broader epistemic shifts in society. Finally, in a postsecular age in which capitalism itself is explicitly and confidently "spiritual," Gonzalez suggests that it is imperative to reorient our critical energies towards a present day evaluation of postmodern capitalism's boundary-blurring. Gonzalez further argues that the kind of "existential deconstruction" performed by what he calls "existential archeology" can serve the needs of any social criticism of neoliberal "religion" and corporate spirituality.

If you currently employ knowledge workers who do most of their work on computers or with computers, access the Internet, utilize internal and external databases, use e-mail or other new messaging technology, then this book is for you. Quite simply, this handbook is for any organization with a lot of Web DNA that wishes to cut costs, improve performance, and stay perpetually competitive. It is for change agents or managers within those organizations who work with information and want to leverage the latest crop of tool sets to deliver on the promise of Lean for the modern, information-rich office. packed with new ideas breaks new ground in so many directions . John Bicheno, Director, Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School excellent on several levels teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows and the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests. Keith Russell, PhD, Global Continuous Improvement Leader RandD, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Very interesting view on operational excellence, helpful to readers without a background in this area of expertise. Bert Nordberg, President and CEO. Sony Ericsson Congratulations to all the readers holding this book! ... These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each and every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey. Lennart K , CEO, Wasa Kredit It s one thing to develop a concept. It s another to make it sing. This is the hymnal. Dr. Don V. Steward, CEO Problematics, Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University, inventor of DSM a must read for CIOs everywhere." Julian Amey, Principal Fellow, Warwick University

If you currently employ knowledge workers who do most of their work on computers or with computers, access the Internet, utilize internal and external databases, use e-mail or other new messaging technology, then this book is for you. Quite simply, this handbook is for any organization with a lot of Web DNA that wishes to cut costs, improve performance, and stay perpetually competitive. It is for change agents or managers within those organizations who work with information and want to leverage the latest crop of tool sets to deliver on the promise of Lean for the modern, information-rich office.

packed with new ideas breaks new ground in so many directions .
John Bicheno, Director, Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School

excellent on several levels teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows and the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests.
Keith Russell, PhD, Global Continuous Improvement Leader R&D, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Very interesting view on operational excellence, helpful to readers without a background in this area of expertise.
Bert Nordberg, President and CEO. Sony Ericsson

Congratulations to all the readers holding this book ... These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each and every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey.
Lennart Kall, CEO, Wasa Kredit

It s one thing to develop a concept. It s another to make it sing. This is the hymnal.
Dr. Don V. Steward, CEO Problematics, Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University, inventor of DSM

a must read for CIOs everywhere."
Julian Amey, Principal Fellow, Warwick University