Central Europe has always been a highly multilingual region but how has this been affected by the social and political transformations of the last 20 years? The German language in particular has long played a key role in processes of identification here: but what role is the relationship between German and other languages playing today in the reshaping of societies and communities in this rapidly changing region? How is this relationship articulated in discourses on language and language ideologies? How is it manifested in individual repertoires and social practices? How is it determined by social and cultural policies? How is it exploited in the construction of European identities?
These are just some of the questions addressed in this book, in which individual studies explore language practices in the multilingual contact zones of central Europe and the impact of both past and present migrations. Analysing a wide range of sources from media texts to language biographies and from business meetings to salsa classes, the authors demonstrate the local effects of global processes and some of the many ways in which language figures in contemporary social change.

The commonly asked question today is, "Should divorced people remarry?" With great compassion and warmth, Dr. Laney maintains that the more fundamental question with which Christ dealt is, "Should married people be divorced?" His purpose is to draw the church up short against the runaway divorce epidemic with a theology of marriage.Challenging the church on the subject of divorce and remarriage, the author carefully builds evidence from scripture and from cultural and historical data for a no-divorce/remarriage position. Not everyone will agree with Laney, but it deserves the careful attention of all who are genuinely concerned about the divorce issue.

This edited volume offers a new and original approach to the study of technological change in retail finance. Documenting developments in the US alongside case studies from Mexico and Europe, Technological Innovation in Retail Finance addresses the variety of financial institutions that populated the markets for retail finance. It offers a massive research base reflecting not only breadth of contributor interests, but also a unity of purpose that comes from several workshops and comments on each other's work. Technological innovation had a major role in the shaping and developing of administrative procedures, routines, and capabilities in organizations offering retail financial services. Indeed, with the exception of contemporary case studies for the UK, the current 'state of the art' in the study of the computerization of financial services from an historical perspective is overwhelmingly focused on developments in the USA. This volume overcomes the usual bias towards the so called 'Atlantic continuity' in the understanding of technological change related to applications of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) by offering a number of sources of distinctiveness. It shows when and how technological change altered the competitive intensity in the markets for retail finance.

This edited volume offers a new and original approach to the study of technological change in retail finance. Documenting developments in the US alongside case studies from Mexico and Europe, Technological Innovation in Retail Finance addresses the variety of financial institutions that populated the markets for retail finance. It offers a massive research base reflecting not only breadth of contributor interests, but also a unity of purpose that comes from several workshops and comments on each other's work. Technological innovation had a major role in the shaping and developing of administrative procedures, routines, and capabilities in organizations offering retail financial services. Indeed, with the exception of contemporary case studies for the UK, the current 'state of the art' in the study of the computerization of financial services from an historical perspective is overwhelmingly focused on developments in the USA. This volume overcomes the usual bias towards the so called 'Atlantic continuity' in the understanding of technological change related to applications of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) by offering a number of sources of distinctiveness. It shows when and how technological change altered the competitive intensity in the markets for retail finance.

Kantian-inspired approaches to ethics are a hugely important part of the philosophical landscape in the 21st century, yet the lion's share of the work done in service of these approaches has been at the theoretical level. Moreover, when we survey writing in which Kantian-inspired thinkers address practical ethical problems, we do not often enough find sustained attention being paid to issues in military ethics. This collection presents a sampling of how an ethicist who takes Kantian commitments seriously addresses controversial questions in the profession of arms. It examines some of the less frequently studied topics within military ethics such as women in combat, military careerism, homosexuality, teaching bad ethics, immoral wars, collateral damage and just war theory. Presenting philosophical thinking in an easy to understand style, the volume has much to offer to a military audience.