- Table View
- List View
Agrifood Transitions in the Anthropocene: Challenges, Contested Knowledge, and the Need for Change (SAGE Studies in International Sociology)
by Allison M. Loconto Douglas H. ConstanceThe greatest challenges of the twenty-first century stem from the fact that we are now living in a new epoch: the Anthropocene. The human footprint on the planet can no longer be denied. One of the greatest and most essential human innovations, agriculture, is being increasingly recognised as a leading contributor to climate change. According to global governance bodies, the world will need to feed a predicted nine billion people by 2050. However, in this Anthropocene, we must address the environmental inequalities in how these people will be fed. This book explores our current societal struggles to transition towards more sustainable agrifood systems. It suggests that debates around sustainable agriculture must be social as well as technical, exploring the growth of social movements campaigning for more democratic food systems. However, as each chapter demonstrates, both the problems and the solutions in sustainable agriculture are highly contested. Using the term ′agrifood′ to capture the nexus between research, governance and the environment knowledge-environment-governance, this book provides an in-depth and wide-ranging account of current research around agricultural production and food consumption. The book introduces the Anthropocene along with the fundamental question that it poses about human-nature interactions. It outlines the core concerns related to agriculture and food and the debates around the need for agrifood system transitions. Each chapter investigates controversies in the field through case studies. These contributions offer a call for sociologists of agriculture and food to engage with the controversies unfolding in the Anthropocene.
Agritourism for Sustainable Development: Reflections from Emerging African Economies
by Admire Mthombeni Bronson Mutanda Collen Sabao Dumisani Rumbidzai Muzira Dzingai Kennedy Nyahunzvi Edward Chinongwa Enard Mutenheri Ernest Mugoni Felix Chari Geoffrey Korir Gilda Eyang Gracious Mutipforo Hellen Amunga Jabulani Garwi Judith Moyo Katsande Chipo Martin Dzapasi Noreen Watyoka Nyasha Tendai Makiwa Lucyna Przezborska-Skobiej Komborerai Wilfred Chikwape Obert Sifile Ranganayi Njodzi Raymond Mapuranga Regis Muchowe Samulo Mutale Sharon Chisango Shingirai Siziba Solomon Marime Tendai Shelton Muwani Tichakunda Valentine Chabata Willard Muntanga Yeukayi Dzapasi Zibanai ZhouThrough the lens of African emerging economies, this text examines empirical studies and the related practices of agritourism. By looking at tourism innovation, entrepreneurship ethics and responsibility of public and private organizational stakeholders, the text promotes an understanding of how radical novel sustainable agritourism might be implemented to help society's living become more sustainable with low usage of material resources, low energy and environmental cost. Informed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, which emphasize the fostering of novel sustainable agritourism, the book includes: methodologies, theory, reviews, primary research findings and practice topics such as start-ups, legal aspects, CSR and digital technologies techniques and tools with global application The book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students interested in the challenges of sustainable agritourism and African emerging economies.
AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health
by Juan M. Lavista Ferres William B. WeeksDiscover how AI leaders and researchers are using AI to transform the world for the better In AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health, a team of veteran Microsoft AI researchers delivers an insightful and fascinating discussion of how one of the world’s most recognizable software companies is tacking intractable social problems with the power of artificial intelligence (AI). In the book, you’ll learn about how climate change, illness and disease, and challenges to fundamental human rights are all being fought using replicable methods and reusable AI code. The authors also provide: Easy-to-follow, non-technical explanations of what AI is and how it works Examinations of how healthcare is being improved, climate change is being addressed, and humanitarian aid is being facilitated around the world with AI Discussions of the future of AI in the realm of social benefit organizations and efforts An essential guide to impactful social change with artificial intelligence, AI for Good is a must-read resource for technical and non-technical professionals interested in AI’s social potential, as well as policymakers, regulators, NGO professionals, and, and non-profit volunteers.
AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health
by Juan M. Lavista Ferres William B. WeeksDiscover how AI leaders and researchers are using AI to transform the world for the better In AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health, a team of veteran Microsoft AI researchers delivers an insightful and fascinating discussion of how one of the world’s most recognizable software companies is tacking intractable social problems with the power of artificial intelligence (AI). In the book, you’ll learn about how climate change, illness and disease, and challenges to fundamental human rights are all being fought using replicable methods and reusable AI code. The authors also provide: Easy-to-follow, non-technical explanations of what AI is and how it works Examinations of how healthcare is being improved, climate change is being addressed, and humanitarian aid is being facilitated around the world with AI Discussions of the future of AI in the realm of social benefit organizations and efforts An essential guide to impactful social change with artificial intelligence, AI for Good is a must-read resource for technical and non-technical professionals interested in AI’s social potential, as well as policymakers, regulators, NGO professionals, and, and non-profit volunteers.
AI for Social Good: Using Artificial Intelligence to Save the World
by Rahul DodhiaUnderstand the real power of AI and and its ability to shape the future for the better. AI For Social Good: Using Artificial Intelligence to Save the World bridges the gap between the current state of reality and the incredible potential of AI to change the world. From humanitarian and environmental concerns to advances in art and science, every area of life stands poised to make a quantum leap into the future. The problem? Too few of us really understand how AI works and how to integrate it into our policies and projects. In this book, Rahul Dodhia, Deputy Director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Research Lab, offers a nontechnical exploration of artificial intelligence tools—how they’re built, what they can and can’t do, and the raw material that teaches them what they “know.” Readers will also find an inventory of common challenges they might face when integrating AI into their work. You'll also read more on: The potential for AI to solve longstanding issues and improve lives Learn how you can tap into the power of AI, regardless of the size of your organization Gain an understanding of how AI works and how to communicate with AI scientists to create new solutions Understand the real risks of implementing AI and how to avoid potential pitfalls Real-life examples and stories that demonstrate how teams of AI specialists, project managers, and subject matter experts can achieve remarkable products. Written for anyone who is curious about AI, and especially useful for policymakers, project managers, and leaders who work alongside AI, AI For Social Good provides discussions of how AI scientists create artificially intelligent systems, and how AI can be used ethically (or unethically) to transform society. You’ll also find a discussion of how governments can become more flexible, helping regulations keep up with the fast pace of change in technology.
AI for Social Good: Using Artificial Intelligence to Save the World
by Rahul DodhiaUnderstand the real power of AI and and its ability to shape the future for the better. AI For Social Good: Using Artificial Intelligence to Save the World bridges the gap between the current state of reality and the incredible potential of AI to change the world. From humanitarian and environmental concerns to advances in art and science, every area of life stands poised to make a quantum leap into the future. The problem? Too few of us really understand how AI works and how to integrate it into our policies and projects. In this book, Rahul Dodhia, Deputy Director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Research Lab, offers a nontechnical exploration of artificial intelligence tools—how they’re built, what they can and can’t do, and the raw material that teaches them what they “know.” Readers will also find an inventory of common challenges they might face when integrating AI into their work. You'll also read more on: The potential for AI to solve longstanding issues and improve lives Learn how you can tap into the power of AI, regardless of the size of your organization Gain an understanding of how AI works and how to communicate with AI scientists to create new solutions Understand the real risks of implementing AI and how to avoid potential pitfalls Real-life examples and stories that demonstrate how teams of AI specialists, project managers, and subject matter experts can achieve remarkable products. Written for anyone who is curious about AI, and especially useful for policymakers, project managers, and leaders who work alongside AI, AI For Social Good provides discussions of how AI scientists create artificially intelligent systems, and how AI can be used ethically (or unethically) to transform society. You’ll also find a discussion of how governments can become more flexible, helping regulations keep up with the fast pace of change in technology.
AI-Generated Popular Culture: A Semiotic Perspective
by Marcel DanesiThis book gives a general overview of Artificial Intelligence as it is impacting on the world of the arts and culture. What is AI-generated pop culture? What does a movie, a musical work, a novel, or song created entirely by a generative AI imply in terms of our notions of creativity? What is the semiotic dynamic (the meaning-making impulse that humans imprint in sign and textual forms) that is involved in an AI-produced work? No comprehensive treatment exists of the profound implications that AI-generated pop culture entails, including how it might affect cultural evolution and how we interpret artistic artifacts. Such a treatment is critical at this moment, and this book aims to fill this gap.
AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own
by Verity HardingA humanist manifesto for the age of AIArtificial intelligence may be the most transformative technology of our time. As AI&’s power grows, so does the need to figure out what—and who—this technology is really for. AI Needs You argues that it is critical for society to take the lead in answering this urgent question and ensuring that AI fulfills its promise.Verity Harding draws inspiring lessons from the histories of three twentieth-century tech revolutions—the space race, in vitro fertilization, and the internet—to empower each of us to join the conversation about AI and its possible futures. Sharing her perspective as a leading insider in technology and politics, she rejects the dominant narrative, which often likens AI&’s advent to that of the atomic bomb. History points the way to an achievable future in which democratically determined values guide AI to be peaceful in its intent; to embrace limitations; to serve purpose, not profit; and to be firmly rooted in societal trust.AI Needs You gives us hope that we, the people, can imbue AI with a deep intentionality that reflects our best values, ideals, and interests, and that serves the public good. AI will permeate our lives in unforeseeable ways, but it is clear that the shape of AI&’s future—and of our own—cannot be left only to those building it. It is up to us to guide this technology away from our worst fears and toward a future that we can trust and believe in.
AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own
by Verity HardingA humanist manifesto for the age of AIArtificial intelligence may be the most transformative technology of our time. As AI&’s power grows, so does the need to figure out what—and who—this technology is really for. AI Needs You argues that it is critical for society to take the lead in answering this urgent question and ensuring that AI fulfills its promise.Verity Harding draws inspiring lessons from the histories of three twentieth-century tech revolutions—the space race, in vitro fertilization, and the internet—to empower each of us to join the conversation about AI and its possible futures. Sharing her perspective as a leading insider in technology and politics, she rejects the dominant narrative, which often likens AI&’s advent to that of the atomic bomb. History points the way to an achievable future in which democratically determined values guide AI to be peaceful in its intent; to embrace limitations; to serve purpose, not profit; and to be firmly rooted in societal trust.AI Needs You gives us hope that we, the people, can imbue AI with a deep intentionality that reflects our best values, ideals, and interests, and that serves the public good. AI will permeate our lives in unforeseeable ways, but it is clear that the shape of AI&’s future—and of our own—cannot be left only to those building it. It is up to us to guide this technology away from our worst fears and toward a future that we can trust and believe in.
Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
by Saskia Brechenmacher Katherine MannIn recent decades, women's political empowerment has become an important foreign policy and assistance objective. Every year, donor governments and multilateral organizations partner with hundreds of civil society groups around the world to train women to run for office, support women legislators, campaign for gender quotas, and bolster women's networks in political parties and parliaments. What ideas about gender, power, and political change guide these aid programs? What have practitioners and advocates learned about their strengths and weaknesses, and how might they improve their work going forward? Drawing on extensive interviews with aid officials, women's rights advocates, and women politicians in Western donor countries and across Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, and Nepal, Aiding Empowerment investigates how democracy aid actors promote gender equality in politics. Saskia Brechenmacher and Katherine Mann argue that international assistance for women's political empowerment has evolved significantly over the last three decades, from a first generation of aid programs aimed at integrating women into nascent democratic institutions to a second generation focused on transforming the broader political ecosystem hindering women's equal political influence. However, this evolution is still unfolding, and changes in thinking have outstripped changes in aid practice. Several challenges threaten future progress, from the persistence of patriarchal norms to rising concerns about democratic erosion and backlash. In the face of these hurdles, the book presents practical recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates fighting for women's political empowerment globally.
Aktuelle Diskurse in der Sozialwirtschaft V (Perspektiven Sozialwirtschaft und Sozialmanagement)
by Ludger KolhoffAktuelle zentrale Fragen der Sozialwirtschaft und des Sozialmanagements werden auch 2022 und 2023 auf Tagungen der in Deutschland Ton angebenden wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, der „Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialmanagement / Sozialwirtschaft BAG SMSW“ diskutiert.Die vorliegende Publikation dokumentiert die Beiträge der Tagungen:· Sozialunternehmen im internationalen Vergleich (In Zusammenarbeit mit der Hochschule XXX)· Gender und Sozialwirtschaft (In Zusammenarbeit mit der Hochschule XXX)· Digitalisierung in der Sozialwirtschaft (In Zusammenarbeit mit der Hochschule XXX)Die Zielgruppen· Studierende und Lehrende der Sozialen Arbeit/der Sozialwirtschaft/des Sozialmanagements· Fach- und Führungskräfte aus dem Bereich der Sozialen Arbeit/der Sozialwirtschaft/des Sozialmanagements
Alchemies of Blood and Afro-Diasporic Fiction: Race, Kinship, and the Passion for Ontology
by Prof Nicole SimekAlchemies of Blood and Afro-Diasporic Fiction focuses on the resurgence of biological racism in 21st-century public discourse, the ontological and material turns in the academy that have occurred over the same time period, and how Afro-diasporic fiction has responded to both with alternative visions of bloodlines, kinship, and community. In thinking through conceptions of race, ethnicity, and materiality at work within both humanities research and popular culture, Nicole Simek asks how the figure of alchemy – that semi-scientific, semi-mystical search for gold and the elixir of long life – can help scholars address the epistemological and affective investments in blood, bloodlines, and genetics marking both academic and mainstream discourses. To answer this question, Simek examines neo-plantation and Afrofuturist narratives, Afropessimist interventions, museums and public memory projects, and direct-to-consumer genetic testing services in the French Caribbean and the United States. This comparative approach to cultural production helps pinpoint and better understand the intersections and divergences between scholarship trends and troubling features of a broader Zeitgeist.
Alfred Schutz, Phenomenology, and the Renewal of Interpretive Social Science (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)
by Besnik PulaIn recent decades, the historical social sciences have moved away from deterministic perspectives and increasingly embraced the interpretive analysis of historical process and social and political change. This shift has enriched the field but also led to a deadlock regarding the meaning and status of subjective knowledge. Cultural interpretivists struggle to incorporate subjective experience and the body into their understanding of social reality. In the early twentieth century, philosopher Alfred Schutz grappled with this very issue. Drawing on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and Max Weber’s historical sociology, Schutz pioneered the interpretive analysis of social life from an embodied perspective. However, the recent interpretivist turn, influenced by linguistic philosophies, discourse theory, and poststructuralism, has overlooked the insights of Schutz and other phenomenologists. This book revisits Schutz’s phenomenology and social theory, positioning them against contemporary problems in social theory and interpretive social science research. The book extends Schutz’s key concepts of relevance, symbol relations, theory of language, and lifeworld meaning structures. It outlines Schutz’s critical approach to the social distribution of knowledge and develops his nascent sociology and political economy of knowledge. This book will appeal to readers with interests in social theory, phenomenology, and the methods of interpretive social science, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, science and technology studies, political economy, and international relations.
Alfred Schutz, Phenomenology, and the Renewal of Interpretive Social Science (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)
by Besnik PulaIn recent decades, the historical social sciences have moved away from deterministic perspectives and increasingly embraced the interpretive analysis of historical process and social and political change. This shift has enriched the field but also led to a deadlock regarding the meaning and status of subjective knowledge. Cultural interpretivists struggle to incorporate subjective experience and the body into their understanding of social reality. In the early twentieth century, philosopher Alfred Schutz grappled with this very issue. Drawing on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and Max Weber’s historical sociology, Schutz pioneered the interpretive analysis of social life from an embodied perspective. However, the recent interpretivist turn, influenced by linguistic philosophies, discourse theory, and poststructuralism, has overlooked the insights of Schutz and other phenomenologists. This book revisits Schutz’s phenomenology and social theory, positioning them against contemporary problems in social theory and interpretive social science research. The book extends Schutz’s key concepts of relevance, symbol relations, theory of language, and lifeworld meaning structures. It outlines Schutz’s critical approach to the social distribution of knowledge and develops his nascent sociology and political economy of knowledge. This book will appeal to readers with interests in social theory, phenomenology, and the methods of interpretive social science, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, science and technology studies, political economy, and international relations.
All the Good Things You Deserve
by Elaine FeeneyHow do we love, trust and create in the aftermath of trauma? How do we name and speak that love?In this powerful new collection from acclaimed poet and novelist Elaine Feeney, images andmemory circle and recur, and the journey from pain towards a place of greater safety is far from linear. All the Good Things You Deserve juxtaposes violence, hurt and the tyranny of shame with love, beauty and the transformative possibilities of art.
All the Rage: Power, Pain, Pleasure: Stories from the Frontline of Beauty 1860-1960
by Virginia NicholsonFrom the popular historian and author of Among the Bohemians and How Was It For You? comes a new offering, unbuttoning the multi-layered, hundred-year-history of women's lives through fashion and beauty from 1860 to 1960At the heart of this history is the female body.The century-span between the crinoline and the bikini witnessed more mutations in the ideal western woman's body shape than at any other period. In this richly detailed account, Virginia Nicholson, described as 'one of the great social historians of our time...' (Amanda Foreman) takes us to the Frontline of Beauty to reveal the power, the pain and the pleasure involved in adorning the female body.The PowerWho determines which shape is currently 'all the rage'? Looking at how custom, colour, class and sex fit into the picture, this book also charts how the advances made by feminism collided with the changing shape of desirability.The PainHere is Gladys, who had botched surgery on her nose; Dorothy, whose skin colour lost her an Oscar; Beccy who took slimming pills and died; and - unbelievably - the radioactive corset.The PleasureHere are the 'New Women' who discovered freedom by bobbing their hair; the boyish, athletic 'Health and Beauty' ladies in black knickers; and starlets in bohemian beachwear. Among the first to experience true women's liberation were the early adopters of trousers.Encompassing two world wars and a revolution in women's rights, All the Rage tells the story of western female beauty from 1860 to 1960, chronicling its codes, its contradictions, its lies, its highs - and its underlying power struggle.
All the Wide Border: Wales, England And The Places Between
by Mike ParkerA Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023 A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the England–Wales border: Britain’s deepest faultline.
All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles - An Oral History by Those Who Were There
by Steven Gaines Peter Brown'I can think of no one better placed to tell the story behind The Beatles than Peter Brown.' -Pattie Boyd Harrison'A revealing oral history of the forces that spurred the band's breakup... drawing from a trove of never before published conversations. Beatles fans will be impatient to get their hands on this.' -Publishers Weekly'**** A gossipy, insider oral history' -MOJO magazineAll You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end. Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen.In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines interviewed everyone in the Beatles' inner circle and included a small portion of the transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now. A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.
The Amazonian Puzzle: Ethnic Positionings and Social Mobilizations
by Véronique BoyerIn the Brazilian Amazon region, cultural “mixture” is expressed in the interaction of city and hinterland, of Indigenous and Black, of religiosity and politics. By examining the multiple cultural and ethnic threads that traverse this landscape, The Amazonian Puzzle sets out to show how the category of caboclo (a powerful spiritual entity to some, and to others a despised peasant of mixed ancestry) reveals deep currents of ethnic recompositions, religious interpenetration, and social hierarchy. These Amazonian dynamics are explored through the lens of ethnography, sociology, and history.
Ambassadors of Social Progress: A History of International Blind Activism in the Cold War (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)
by Maria Cristina GalmariniAmbassadors of Social Progress examines the ways in which blind activists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe entered the postwar international disability movement and shaped its content and its course. Maria Cristina Galmarini shows that the international work of socialist blind activists was defined by the larger politics of the Cold War and, in many respects, represented a field of competition with the West in which the East could shine. Yet, her study also reveals that socialist blind politics went beyond propaganda. When socialist activists joined the international blind movement, they initiated an exchange of experiences that profoundly impacted everyone involved. Not only did the international blind movement turn global disability welfare from philanthropy to self-advocacy, but it also gave East European and Soviet activists a new set of ideas and technologies to improve their own national movements. By analyzing the intersection of disability and politics, Ambassadors of Social Progress enables a deeper, bottom-up understanding of cultural relations during the Cold War. Galmarini significantly contributes to the little-studied history of disability in socialist Europe, and ultimately shows that disability activism did not start as an import from the West in the post-1989 period, but rather had a long and meaningful tradition that was rooted in the socialist system of welfare and needed to be reinvented when this system fell apart.
Ambiguität und Geschlecht in der Neuzeit: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven (Historische Geschlechterforschung #14)
by Frank Becker Patricia PlummerWas geschieht, wenn das binäre Geschlechtermodell irritiert wird, also die gesellschaftlich etablierte Unterscheidung zwischen Mann und Frau nicht greift? Wird geschlechtliche Ambiguität toleriert oder werden die Unterscheidung und die Unterscheidbarkeit erzwungen? Die Beiträger*innen besprechen dazu Fallanalysen aus dem Zeitraum vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Aus unterschiedlichen Fachperspektiven zeigen sie auf, wie Ambiguität eine epistemische Offenheit generiert, deren Auflösung sich kulturabhängig und epochenübergreifend verschieden gestaltet - von einer Bereicherung und Etablierung neuer Werte bis zu Zurückweisung und Widerstand.
American Borders: Inclusion and Exclusion in US Culture (American Literature Readings in the 21st Century)
by Paula Barba Guerrero Mónica Fernández JiménezAmerican Borders: Inclusion and Exclusion in US Culture provides an overview of American culture produced in a range of contexts, from the founding of the nation to the age of globalization and neoliberalism, in order to understand the diverse literary landscapes of the United States from a twenty-first century perspective. The authors confront American exceptionalism, discourses on freedom and democracy, and US foundational narratives by reassessing the literary canon and exploring ethnic literature, culture, and film with a focus on identity and exclusion. Their contributions envision different manifestations of conviviality and estrangement and deconstruct neoliberal slogans, analyzing hospitable inclusion in relation to national history and ideologies. By looking at representations of foreignness and conditional belonging in literature and film from different ethnic traditions, the volume fleshes out a new border dialectic that conveys the heterogeneity of American boundaries beyond the opposition inside/outside.
American Democracy and Disconsent: Liberalism and Illiberalism in Ferguson, Charlottesville, Black Lives Matter, and the Capitol Insurrection
by Daniel MontiThis volume is a thorough re-examination of civil unrest and discontent in the United States, particularly the intersection of democracy and violence. The work argues that unrest and violence are embedded rituals of social and political "disconsent" and are constitutive features of citizen-based democracy.As such, they are part of how democratic life works: unrest is the eruptive, visible grammar of citizens in a democratic society. Democracy and citizen unrest and violence in the United States are set within a deeper history. The author traces the roots of American democracy – and the rituals of disconsent – to their sources in ancient Mediterranean political society, demonstrating that early democratic theory and practice understood unrest and revolt as morally grounded. Featuring case studies of recent episodes of political and social "disconsent" in the United States, the volume contextualizes the Black Lives Matter protests, unrest around police and institutional violence, and the Capitol insurrection on January 6.Through this, the book provides an important social theoretical lens through which to understand American discontent around racial injustice, political suppression, and citizen disillusionment.
American Democracy and Disconsent: Liberalism and Illiberalism in Ferguson, Charlottesville, Black Lives Matter, and the Capitol Insurrection
by Daniel MontiThis volume is a thorough re-examination of civil unrest and discontent in the United States, particularly the intersection of democracy and violence. The work argues that unrest and violence are embedded rituals of social and political "disconsent" and are constitutive features of citizen-based democracy.As such, they are part of how democratic life works: unrest is the eruptive, visible grammar of citizens in a democratic society. Democracy and citizen unrest and violence in the United States are set within a deeper history. The author traces the roots of American democracy – and the rituals of disconsent – to their sources in ancient Mediterranean political society, demonstrating that early democratic theory and practice understood unrest and revolt as morally grounded. Featuring case studies of recent episodes of political and social "disconsent" in the United States, the volume contextualizes the Black Lives Matter protests, unrest around police and institutional violence, and the Capitol insurrection on January 6.Through this, the book provides an important social theoretical lens through which to understand American discontent around racial injustice, political suppression, and citizen disillusionment.
American Education (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)
by Joel SpringFeaturing current information and challenging perspectives on the latest issues and forces shaping the American educational system—with scholarship that is often cited as a primary source—Joel Spring introduces readers to the historical, political, social and legal foundations of education and to the profession of teaching in the United States. In his signature straightforward, concise approach to describing complex issues, he illuminates events and topics that are often overlooked or whitewashed, giving students the opportunity to engage in critical thinking about education. Students come away informed on the latest topics, issues and data and with a strong knowledge of the forces shaping the American educational system. Updated throughout, the 21st edition of this clear, authoritative text remains fresh and up-to-date, reflecting the many changes in education that have occurred since the publication of the previous edition. New coverage includes: Discussion of “culture wars” and critical race theory Parental rights versus the goals of common education LGBTQIA+ students’ rights Discussion of the current administration’s educational policies