There is fascination and suspicion about the wealthy. Yet there is a dearth of material in which the wealthy speak for themselves about the meaning of their lives. "Gospels of Wealth" provides such narrative material. This book is a novel venture in social science. It is the first book to have a broad range of wealthy individuals recount their lives in detail, and, importantly, the first to formulate a sociology of wealth that goes beyond conventional, power-elite, Marxist, and status-group theories.

The authors begin with an analytical framework for studying the biographical narratives of the wealthy. Next, 12 contemporary Americans directly and vividly recount how financial and spiritual aspects of their lives unfold and invariably intertwine. A concluding section explores rules for interpreting the truth of moral biographies and for undertaking a critical assessment of such narratives. The book's theoretical framework and first-person accounts will appeal to general readers as well as researchers in sociology, American studies, philanthropy, economic life, and cultural studies.

The recent financial crisis has generated many structural changes within the economy. Many issues are ongoing, and the question of how to recover from the crisis, and how to avoid another one, are continually addressed by scholars and practitioners everywhere. Where there is much discussion within academic and practitioner circles, there is not always adequate interaction between these schools of research. This book provides a thorough overview of the recent financial crisis from the perspective of both industry practitioners and academics specialising in the area. The first part provides practitioner insight on the crisis, and explores the causes and effects and of the recession, European public financing, ECB monetary policy and the Euro, the repression of financial markets, and financial stability. Part two focuses on the case of Greece, as a country still heavily impacted by the crisis, which has undergone various unorthodox policies imposed by the IMF, the ECB the EU. The third part provides insight from researchers and academics, covering an array of Economic theories and revealing new economics architectures available for the future. With informed views from both financial industry practitioners and academics, this book discusses current issues and implementable solutions for a faster post-crisis recovery.

This book summarizes the most recent data on the molecular and cellular mechanisms which determine the unique properties of nerve cells - their ability to differentiate, establish connections to each other, and to form the nervous system with its immense capability for receiving, analysing, and storing information about our external and internal world. The key role of calcium ions in this process is particularly explored, along with nervous system function in aging and neural pathology. The author, based at a high-profile research unit in the Ukraine, is able to draw on significant new research which has not been widely published. Plasticity in nerve cell function will be of interest to researchers and research students in the fields of neurophysiology, cellular physiology, biophysics, and neurochemistry in particular. It will also be of relevance to researchers and medical doctors interested in neuropathology and aging.

Les contributions de cet ouvrage collectif envisagent les modifications de l'espace et l'evolution de leur perception dans l'aire mediterraneenne. Elles adoptent une perspective resolument inter- et pluridisciplinaire, privilegiant des approches aussi bien diachroniques que synchroniques autour de l'espace mediterraneen dans son acception la plus large. Ces approches interdisciplinaires posent un regard croise sur ces inventions ou re- inventions de l'espace : elles examinent les mutations spatiales dans une approche historique, archeologique et anthropologique aussi bien que litteraire ou philoso- phique et sociologique, dans un prolongement temporel etendu et a travers des rea- lites culturelles diverses. Ruptures et continuites, transpositions, territorialites com- munes et mouvement des espaces repartissent les dix-huit textes en quatre parties. Cet ouvrage se caracterise par son processus reflechi d'integration de plusieurs disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales autour d'une thematique commune appliquee a un espace de reference signifiant cree par quelques millenaires de pre- sence de cultures differentes. L'eclairage nouveau se situe au croisement de toutes ces disciplines qui peuvent apporter a travers leurs contributions specifiques une vision globale et transhistorique de la Mediterranee dans sa physionomie actuelle. L'avantage principal de cette proposition reside dans le dialogue actif entre les dis- ciplines et la synergie scientifique fondee sur les echanges d'outils conceptuels et methodologiques appropries.

How did Caribbean rituals helped form new currents in the performing and visual arts of the United States? This book answers this question through an examination of the Caribbean-inspired dance creations of dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham and the experimental films of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren.

This book presents peer-reviewed and selected papers of the International Youth Conference on Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technologies (YETI-2021), held in Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, on April 22-23, 2021. For the third time around, the conference brings together students and early career scientists, serving to disseminate the current trends and advances in electronics, telecommunications, optical, and information technologies. A series of workshops and poster sessions focusing, in particular, on the theoretical and practical challenges in nanotechnologies, photonics, signal processing, and telecommunications allow to establish contacts between potential partners, share new ideas, and start new collaborations. The conference is held in an online format, thus considerably expanding its geographical reach and offering an even wider scope of discussion.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This book explores the issue of private sector over-indebtedness following the recent financial crisis. It addresses the various challenges for policymakers, investors and economic agents affected by applied remedial policies as the private non-financial sector in Europe continues to face increased challenges in servicing its debt, with the problem mainly concentrated in several countries in the EU periphery and Eastern Europe. Chapters from expert contributors address reduced investment as firms concentrate on deleveraging and repairing their balance sheets, curtailed consumer spending, depressed collateral values and weak credit creation. They examine effective policies to facilitate private sector debt restructuring which may involve significant upfront costs in terms of time to implement and committed budgetary resources, as well as necessary reforms required to improve the broader institutional framework and judicial capacity. The book also explores the issue of over indebtedness in the household sector, contributing to the literature in establishing best practice principles for household debt.

Olonkho is the general name for the entire Yakut heroic epic that consists of many long legends - one of the longest being 'Nurgun Botur the Swift' consisting of some 36,000 lines of verse, published here. Like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Finnish Kalevala, the Buryat Geser, and the Kirghiz Manas, the Yakut Olonkho is an epic of a very ancient origin dating back to the period - possibly as early as the eighth or ninth centuries - when the ancestors of the present-day Yakut peoples lived on their former homeland and closely communicated with the Turkic and Mongolian peoples living in the Altay and Sayan regions. As with all Olonkho stories the hero - in this story Nurgun Botur the Swift - and his tribe are heaven-born, hence his people are referred to as 'Aiyy kin' (the deity's relatives). Naturally, too, on account of his vital role (in saving his people from destruction and oblivion by evil, many-legged, fire-breathing, one-armed, one legged Cyclops-type monsters - the Devil's relatives representing all possible sins), he is depicted not only as strong, but also a handsome, remarkably athletic and incredibly brave and well-built man 'as swift as an arrow', but also with an uncontrollable temper when required.