|
Showing 1 - 8 of
8 matches in All Departments
How have the weapons of the nuclear age changed the rules of
international politics? Can co-operation replace coercion as an
instrument of security? This book compares the biographies of four
dissident intellectuals who grappled with these questions
throughout their careers - Louise Weiss, Leo Szilard, E.P.
Thompson, and Danilo Dolci. Though they shared a revulsion for the
"balance of terror," they possessed sharply divergent visions of a
post-Cold War peace, from the Gandhi-like non-violence of Dolci to
Szilard's relentless quest for US-Soviet joint diplomacy. Weiss, a
French journalist and realpolitiker, believed that a united
European military power would break the Cold War impasse; Szilard,
a physicist and father of the atomic bomb, pressed for co-operative
diplomacy between the superpowers; Thompson, a British historian,
mobilized millions in the grassroots campaign for European Nuclear
Disarmament; and Dolci, an Italian poet, experimented with conflict
resolution through education and non-violence. By comparing the
ideals, successes, and failures of these activists, this book
illustrates the problematic boundary between "realism" and
utopianism" in the nuclear age.
The Nation-State in Tranformation discusses the significance of the
state in a globalised economy. Focusing on Denmark and Ireland, the
book analyses how small states adapt to the international market
and argues that the institutional mediation of globalisation helps
us explain why some states seem to possess more capacity to adjust
than others. Not only must we bring the state back in, ' we must
also consider how history, culture and collective identities
influence the performance of the nation-state in the new globalised
world order. With contributions by Francis Fukuyama, Bob Jessop,
David Marsh, John A Hall and John Campbell, Georg Sorensen, Bjorn
Hvinden, Rory ODonnell, Peadar Kirby, Joseph Ruane, Brian Girvin,
Sean ORiain, Chris McInerny, Gert and Gunnar Svendsen, Lars Bo
Kaspersen and Linda Thorsager, Henrik Bang, and Michael Boss.
The accelerating interpenetration of nature and culture is the
hallmark of the new "light-green" social order that has emerged in
postwar France, argues Michael Bess in this penetrating new
history. On one hand, a preoccupation with natural qualities and
equilibrium has increasingly infused France's economic and cultural
life. On the other, human activities have laid an ever more potent
and pervasive touch on the environment, whether through the
intrusion of agriculture, industry, and urban growth, or through
the much subtler and more well-intentioned efforts of ecological
management.
"The Light-Green Society" limns sharply these trends over the last
fifty years. The rise of environmentalism in the 1960s stemmed from
a fervent desire to "save" wild nature-nature conceived as a
qualitatively distinct domain, wholly separate from human designs
and endeavors. And yet, Bess shows, after forty years of
environmentalist agitation, much of it remarkably successful in
achieving its aims, the old conception of nature as a "separate
sphere" has become largely untenable. In the light-green society,
where ecology and technological modernity continually flow
together, a new hybrid vision of intermingled "nature-culture" has
increasingly taken its place.
The Middle East captured front pages world-wide for the alleged
Arab Spring in 2011. Large segments of the populations of Tunisia,
Libya, Egypt, and Syria took to the streets to voice their protest
against autocratic regimes and to demand democracy. Violent
uprisings followed, but the prospects of liberal democracy are
still uncertain and distant. No wonder. Democratisation took a
couple of centuries in the West. And even today, well-established
Western democracies are under pressure from globalisation and
regionalisation, and many claim representative democracy is in need
of renewal. This collection of essays focuses on a number of
theoretical issues associated with democracy and democratisation.
Divided into three parts, the first part analyses how democracy may
be understood, explained and measured. The second part deals with
issues of democracy, international stability, and development in
fragile and developmental states and regions. The third part of the
book looks at representative democracy in old democracies and its
potential for development.
Telling stories is an essential part of being human: We tell
stories about ourselves to show other people who we are and where
we belong. Nations have stories to tell too - "stories of
peoplehood" - that build and maintain a sense of national belonging
and identity. The concept has been used to analyse identities,
memories, and histories of individuals, communities and nations.
But does it make sense to talk about peoplehood today? Can plural
societies tell national stories without marginalizing their
minorities? And is it even fair to assume that our individual
self-narratives are coupled with shared cultural ones? In Narrating
Peoplehood amidst Diversity, 16 internationally renowned scholars
reflect on the nature and history of peoplehood and discuss how it
forms part of national identities, public culture, and academic
historiography. Based on theoretical analysis and empirical studies
drawn from Latinos in the United States and African immigrants in
France, and from multicultural stands in Canada to grand narratives
in Danish history, the book is a timely contribution to the ongoing
debate on belonging and identification in multicultural societies.
For religious persons, the notion of human being is tied
inextricably to the notion of God (or the gods) and turns on this
question: what is human being? How did we, with our almost infinite
capacities for thought, change, and domination, come to be? Imbued
with powers far beyond any other animal, humans are too faulty to
be considered gods themselves. Yet, the idea of God (or the gods)
appears in all distinctive human cultures: it names the other pole
of human-it designates a being who realizes perfectly our
imperfectly realized nature. With the rise of new sciences come
ancient anxieties about how we should define human being. In the
nineteenth century, electricity and magnetism fascinated experts
and captivated the lay public. In the twenty-first century,
advances in neuroscience open up vast new possibilities of
mimicking, and perhaps emulating human being. In this book twelve
scholars and scientists ask what-if anything-distinguishes Brain
from Mind, and Mind from Self and Soul.
For religious persons, the notion of human being is tied
inextricably to the notion of God (or the gods) and turns on this
question: what is human being? How did we, with our almost infinite
capacities for thought, change, and domination, come to be? Imbued
with powers far beyond any other animal, humans are too faulty to
be considered gods themselves. Yet, the idea of God (or the gods)
appears in all distinctive human cultures: it names the other pole
of human_it designates a being who realizes perfectly our
imperfectly realized nature. With the rise of new sciences come
ancient anxieties about how we should define human being. In the
nineteenth century, electricity and magnetism fascinated experts
and captivated the lay public. In the twenty-first century,
advances in neuroscience open up vast new possibilities of
mimicking, and perhaps emulating human being. In this book twelve
scholars and scientists ask what_if anything_distinguishes Brain
from Mind, and Mind from Self and Soul.
Posthumanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens will provide an
introduction to a vast array of scholarly perspectives on emergent
technologies and biotechnologies used to modify or augment the
capabilities of human beings. The handbook covers the fundamental
aspects of how bioenhancement will become feasible, what shape
these technologies are likely to take, and what sorts of concrete
consequences they will have for peoplea s lives. This volume
strives for both intellectual clarity and a genuinely accessible
voice, always emphasizing the practical and moral implications of
bioenhancement technologies. Posthumanism takes an
interdisciplinary approach to the subject, integrating science and
technology as well as the arts, humanities, religious perspectives,
and ethics.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|