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Astrology in India: A Sociological Inquiry

This book critically examines the larger world of astrology in India, its ubiquity and relationship with religion, caste, gender, class and aspirations. It looks at astrology through an empirical and phenomenological lens, analyzing different meanings and questions associated with it. How do people see astrology—as magic, science, religion, or a knowledge system? The volume analyses the role of astrology in religious and social ceremonies; the interplay of faith and fear; beliefs, practices, mysticism, and skepticism in middle-class households; and gendered negotiations in everyday life. It also delves into how astrology has emerged as a livelihood and an industry, the continued fascination with it even in an era of technological advancement, and its domination of the vernacular media. Insightful and highly comprehensive, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies and urban Sociology.

Astrology in India: A Sociological Inquiry

This book critically examines the larger world of astrology in India, its ubiquity and relationship with religion, caste, gender, class and aspirations. It looks at astrology through an empirical and phenomenological lens, analyzing different meanings and questions associated with it. How do people see astrology—as magic, science, religion, or a knowledge system? The volume analyses the role of astrology in religious and social ceremonies; the interplay of faith and fear; beliefs, practices, mysticism, and skepticism in middle-class households; and gendered negotiations in everyday life. It also delves into how astrology has emerged as a livelihood and an industry, the continued fascination with it even in an era of technological advancement, and its domination of the vernacular media. Insightful and highly comprehensive, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies and urban Sociology.

Astrology in the Workplace: The Zodiac Guide to Creating Great Working Relationships

Have you ever wondered what makes your work colleagues tick? Is your boss a firebrand, a visionary or someone you can always turn to? Are your colleagues creative or intensely practical? World-renowned astrologer, Penny Thornton, stresses the huge influence that zodiac signs have on your working relationships. Discover how to work best with your colleagues or put project teams together: will a feisty Scorpio work well with a pragmatic Taurean, or will an energetic Capricorn lock horns with dogmatic Leo? This book includes: • A guide to each element-fire, earth, air and water • An insight into the curriculum vitae of each sign, their strengths and weaknesses • What each sign is like as a boss and a worker • The best careers for each sign • Tables showing how well each sign relates to other zodiac signs Astrology in the Workplace is an insightful guide full of great advice to improve your working relationships.

Astroturf: Eine neue Lobbyingstrategie in Deutschland?

Asyl als Anspruch?: Der Alltag des Rechts und Rechte im Alltag von Asylsuchenden (Gesellschaft der Unterschiede #78)

Inwiefern fordern Asylsuchende (Menschen-)Rechte ein? Können in einem allumfassend rechtlich regulierten und von Unsicherheit geprägten Alltag überhaupt Ansprüche gestellt werden? Lässt die Asylpraxis Raum für Subjektpositionen abseits von Opferschaft? Andrea Fritsche nähert sich dem (Asyl-)Recht aus alltagssoziologischer Perspektive und fokussiert Asylsuchende als handelnde Subjekte und Rechteinhaber*innen. Dabei zeichnet sie Bedeutungen von Recht und Rechten in der österreichischen Asylwirklichkeit nach und schafft ein Verständnis für die Folgen rechtlicher, politischer und gesellschaftlicher Praktiken, die die Gewährleistung von Rechten an Dankbarkeit, Leistung und Anpassung koppeln.

Asyl verwalten: Zur bürokratischen Bearbeitung eines gesellschaftlichen Problems (Kultur und soziale Praxis)

Wie gehen Verwaltungsbehörden mit den oftmals komplexen und eigensinnigen Geschichten von Flucht und Asyl um, wie wird daraus ein »Fall« und wie entsteht eine Entscheidung? Im Kontext europäischer Koordinierungsversuche sind solche Fragen nicht nur von wissenschaftlicher, sondern auch von gesellschaftlicher und politischer Relevanz. Dieser Band trägt zu einem besseren Verständnis der Strukturen und Veränderungen lokaler Verwaltungspraxis in einem hoch brisanten, umkämpften und folgenreichen Handlungsbereich bei. Er versammelt Beiträge, die sich aus soziologischer, sozialanthropologischer und politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive mit behördlichem Handeln an unterschiedlichen Orten Europas befassen.

Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives (Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies)

Drawing on new research material from ten European countries, Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives brings together a range of detailed accounts of the legal and bureaucratic processes by which asylum claims are decided. The book includes a legal overview of European asylum determination procedures, followed by sections on the diverse actors involved, the means by which they communicate, and the ways in which they make life and death decisions on a daily basis. It offers a contextually rich account that moves beyond doctrinal law to uncover the gaps and variances between formal policy and legislation, and law as actually practiced. The contributors employ a variety of disciplinary perspectives – sociological, anthropological, geographical and linguistic – but are united in their use of an ethnographic methodological approach. Through this lens, the book captures the confusion, improvisation, inconsistency, complexity and emotional turmoil inherent to the process of claiming asylum in Europe.

Asylum Seekers in Australian News Media: Mediated (In)humanity

This book sheds light on how the public engage with, make sense of, and discursively evaluate news media constructions of people from asylum seeking backgrounds. As a case study, the author discusses her recent research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception framework to examine the perspectives of 24 Western Australians who took part in semi-structured interviews. During their interviews, participants were asked open-ended questions about: their general views on people seeking asylum, including Australia’s policy responses, their media engagement habits and preferences, and their views concerning how the Australian media represents people seeking asylum. The author compares and contrasts this research with broader interdisciplinary discussion, and the book will therefore appeal to students and scholars of migration, political communication, sociology, audience reception, critical media studies and sociolinguistics.

Asylum Seekers, Social Work and Racism

This book analyses social work through the concept of 'xenoracism' to challenge the outdated concepts of racism that still pervade social work. It illustrates how, through their discursive practices, social workers are able to counteract the dominant anti asylum seeking discourses.

Asymmetric Kernel Smoothing: Theory and Applications in Economics and Finance (SpringerBriefs in Statistics)

This is the first book to provide an accessible and comprehensive introduction to a newly developed smoothing technique using asymmetric kernel functions. Further, it discusses the statistical properties of estimators and test statistics using asymmetric kernels. The topics addressed include the bias-variance tradeoff, smoothing parameter choices, achieving rate improvements with bias reduction techniques, and estimation with weakly dependent data. Further, the large- and finite-sample properties of estimators and test statistics smoothed by asymmetric kernels are compared with those smoothed by symmetric kernels. Lastly, the book addresses the applications of asymmetric kernel estimation and testing to various forms of nonnegative economic and financial data. Until recently, the most popularly chosen nonparametric methods used symmetric kernel functions to estimate probability density functions of symmetric distributions with unbounded support. Yet many types of economic and financial data are nonnegative and violate the presumed conditions of conventional methods. Examples include incomes, wages, short-term interest rates, and insurance claims. Such observations are often concentrated near the boundary and have long tails with sparse data. Smoothing with asymmetric kernel functions has increasingly gained attention, because the approach successfully addresses the issues arising from distributions that have natural boundaries at the origin and heavy positive skewness. Offering an overview of recently developed kernel methods, complemented by intuitive explanations and mathematical proofs, this book is highly recommended to all readers seeking an in-depth and up-to-date guide to nonparametric estimation methods employing asymmetric kernel smoothing.

Asymptotic Statistics in Insurance Risk Theory (SpringerBriefs in Statistics)

This book begins with the fundamental large sample theory, estimating ruin probability, and ends by dealing with the latest issues of estimating the Gerber–Shiu function. This book is the first to introduce the recent development of statistical methodologies in risk theory (ruin theory) as well as their mathematical validities. Asymptotic theory of parametric and nonparametric inference for the ruin-related quantities is discussed under the setting of not only classical compound Poisson risk processes (Cramér–Lundberg model) but also more general Lévy insurance risk processes. The recent development of risk theory can deal with many kinds of ruin-related quantities: the probability of ruin as well as Gerber–Shiu’s discounted penalty function, both of which are useful in insurance risk management and in financial credit risk analysis. In those areas, the common stochastic models are used in the context of the structural approach of companies’ default. So far, the probabilistic point of view has been the main concern for academic researchers. However, this book emphasizes the statistical point of view because identifying the risk model is always necessary and is crucial in the final step of practical risk management.

At Home in the Chinese Diaspora: Memories, Identities and Belongings

This book explores how memories are used to re-establish a sense of belonging, analyzing the relationships between migrants' adjustment, assimilation and re-membering home. It considers memories as social expressions as well as the tensions and conflicts in representing and renegotiating memories in literature and cinema.

At Home with Ivan Vladislavić: An African Flaneur Greens the Postcolonial City (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature)

At Home With Ivan Vladislavić is the first comprehensive analysis of the works of Ivan Vladislavić. Bringing a flaneur’s "internal GPS" to postcolonial Johannesburg, Vladislavić established a critical sense of home via an intimate knowledge of geography and history. This sense of belonging can have positive ecological effects as we tend to protect what we know. The flaneur’s deep word hoard also helped him to develop a minimalist style, which was not only a means of living sustainably in the city, but in its humour and close attention to detail a way to make greening the city more of a joy than a duty. In this way, Vladislavić created a culture of sustainability.

At Home with Ivan Vladislavić: An African Flaneur Greens the Postcolonial City (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature)

At Home With Ivan Vladislavić is the first comprehensive analysis of the works of Ivan Vladislavić. Bringing a flaneur’s "internal GPS" to postcolonial Johannesburg, Vladislavić established a critical sense of home via an intimate knowledge of geography and history. This sense of belonging can have positive ecological effects as we tend to protect what we know. The flaneur’s deep word hoard also helped him to develop a minimalist style, which was not only a means of living sustainably in the city, but in its humour and close attention to detail a way to make greening the city more of a joy than a duty. In this way, Vladislavić created a culture of sustainability.

At some point there has to be peace and quiet!: Institutional struggle to working through the past of sexual violence and abuse of power at an institute for analytical child and adolescent psychotherapy

The book provides - for the first time in the German-speaking world - a comprehensive scientific contribution to the reappraisal of sexualized violence in a psychotherapy institute. The qualitative case study takes a look at decades of abuse of power and sexualized violence by the director of an analytical institute for children and young people. It shows that the psychotherapists involved in this system do not live up to central ideas and concepts of their profession: Silence, denial, rationalization, rejection of responsibility, and ignorance of those affected have for a long time prevented the uncovering of the acts and sustainable forms of coming to terms with them. The life of the institute is characterized by a dialectical tension between the necessity of processing and the desire for undisturbed functioning. This dynamic also proves to be analogous to the problem-solving patterns of psychotherapeutic patients. The case points to fundamental problems in the field of psychotherapy, which are primarily related to a structural power imbalance and pronounced dependency relationships both in the context of training and in the treatment setting. The findings of this empirical study are used to derive professional and organizational ethical considerations and - based on these - to formulate concrete recommendations for the prevention of sexualized violence in psychotherapy institutes.

At the Chef's Table: Culinary Creativity in Elite Restaurants

This book is about the creative work of chefs at top restaurants in New York and San Francisco. Based on interviews with chefs and observation in restaurant kitchens, the book explores the question of how and why chefs make choices about the dishes they put on their menus. It answers this question by examining a whole range of areas, including chefs' careers, restaurant ratings and reviews, social networks, how chefs think about food and go about creating new dishes, and how status influences their work and careers. Chefs at top restaurants face competing pressures to deliver complex and creative dishes, and navigate market forces to run a profitable business in an industry with exceptionally high costs and low profit margins. Creating a distinctive and original culinary style allows them to stand out in the market, but making the familiar food that many customers want ensures that they can stay in business. Chefs must make choices between these competing pressures. In explaining how they do so, this book uses the case study of high cuisine to analyze, more generally, how people in creative occupations navigate a context that is rife with uncertainty, high pressures, and contradicting forces.

At the Crossroads of Post-Communist Modernisation: Russia and China in Comparative Perspective

This volume takes a comparative approach to understand general tendencies in post-Communist transition in Russia and China. Bringing together perspectives from Political Science, Sociology and IR, it analyses three arenas of social change: socio-economic systems, political systems, and foreign policies.

At the Edge of the Wall: Public and Private Spheres in Divided Berlin (Contemporary European History #26)

Located in the geographical center of Berlin, the neighboring boroughs of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg shared a history and identity until their fortunes diverged dramatically following the construction of the Berlin Wall, which placed them within opposing political systems. This revealing account of the two municipal districts before, during and after the Cold War takes a microhistorical approach to investigate the broader historical trajectories of East and West Berlin, with particular attention to housing, religion, and leisure. Merged in 2001, they now comprise a single neighborhood that bears the traces of these complex histories and serves as an illuminating case study of urban renewal, gentrification, and other social processes that continue to reshape Berlin.

At the Forefront of Political Psychology: Essays in Honor of John L. Sullivan (Routledge Studies in Political Psychology)

At the Forefront of Political Psychology pays tribute to John L. Sullivan, one of the most influential political psychologists of his generation. Sullivan’s scholarly contributions have deeply shaped our knowledge of belief systems and political tolerance, two flourishing research areas in political psychology that are crucial to understanding the turbulence of our times. This volume, compiled by three of Sullivan’s longtime colleagues and collaborators, includes cutting-edge contributions from scholars in political science and psychology. The book is divided into three sections; the first two focus on how Sullivan’s work on political tolerance and belief systems influenced generations of political psychologists. The final section offers a more personal look at Sullivan’s influence as a mentor to young scholars, many of whom are now intellectual leaders in political psychology. The chapters featured here elucidate how these students were able to flourish under Sullivan’s tutelage and lifelong mentorship. One of John L. Sullivan’s defining traits is his generosity—as a scholar, mentor, leader, and friend. Over the years, many have benefited greatly from Sullivan’s willingness to share his intellect, insight, and passion for democratic values. This impressive collection will appeal to both students and professors of political psychology, but also scholars of social and political behavior, political tolerance, and anyone who has an interest in the contributions made by Sullivan.

At the Forefront of Political Psychology: Essays in Honor of John L. Sullivan (Routledge Studies in Political Psychology)

At the Forefront of Political Psychology pays tribute to John L. Sullivan, one of the most influential political psychologists of his generation. Sullivan’s scholarly contributions have deeply shaped our knowledge of belief systems and political tolerance, two flourishing research areas in political psychology that are crucial to understanding the turbulence of our times. This volume, compiled by three of Sullivan’s longtime colleagues and collaborators, includes cutting-edge contributions from scholars in political science and psychology. The book is divided into three sections; the first two focus on how Sullivan’s work on political tolerance and belief systems influenced generations of political psychologists. The final section offers a more personal look at Sullivan’s influence as a mentor to young scholars, many of whom are now intellectual leaders in political psychology. The chapters featured here elucidate how these students were able to flourish under Sullivan’s tutelage and lifelong mentorship. One of John L. Sullivan’s defining traits is his generosity—as a scholar, mentor, leader, and friend. Over the years, many have benefited greatly from Sullivan’s willingness to share his intellect, insight, and passion for democratic values. This impressive collection will appeal to both students and professors of political psychology, but also scholars of social and political behavior, political tolerance, and anyone who has an interest in the contributions made by Sullivan.

At the Frontiers of Everyday Life: New Research in Cramped Spaces (The Urban Book Series)

The book provides a critical analysis of the geographies of everyday life, looking at how spatial practices craft w(r)iggle room to cope with the boundaries saturated by normativity, power relations, and inequalities. It explores the possibilities for making do with the everyday practices forming a way of living in cramped spaces. In this respect, early-career researchers and activists share their fieldwork experiences through an intersectional lens based on emerging research methodologies and scholar-activist practices. From their own vantage point, they look at their own contexts, practices, and research subjects at the level of everyday life.Spatial practices and place-based imaginaries from France, Finland, and Spain to Turkey and South Africa present a wide range of non-counter hegemonic yet enabling practices for transformation in everyday life. The contributors, trained in a variety of convergent disciplines concerned with everyday life and space (geography, geopolitics, architecture, urban planning, sociology, political sciences), discuss scholar-activist methodologies during the current crisis in contemporary academia, reflect on their research methodologies and research experiences, and inquire into the ways of embodied negotiations for agency, survival, and care.A group of early-career researchers and activists came together to seek out the possibilities of transformative change in everyday life during the peak periods of COVID-19. When researchers and activists were forced to stay at home in isolation, the authors met up online to discuss their subjectivities self-reflexively to challenge the distance between the researcher and “the field.” The book is the outcome of their collective production based on numerous meetings, writing workshops, and creative debates.

At the Margins of Victorian Britain: Politics, Immorality and Britishness in the Nineteenth Century

Victorian Britain, at the head of the vast British Empire, was the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. Yet many of its citizens were denied basic civil rights. At the Margins of Victorian Britain focuses on the political means of policing unwanted 'others' in Victorian society: the Irish, Catholics and Jews, atheists, prostitutes and homosexuals. In this groundbreaking study, Dennis Grube details the laws and conventions which were legally and culturally enforced in order to bar these 'others' from gaining power and influence in Victorian Britain. Utilizing a wide-ranging analysis, the book focuses on key case-studies: the anti-Semitism explicit in Lord Rothschild's barring from the House of Commons; the fine line between accepted male love and companionship and homosexuality, which exploded in the Oscar Wilde trial in the 1890s; and how laws against disease were used to police prostitutes and correct moral vices. Grube argues that while religious outsiders were politically integrated over the course of the century - such as Catholics after the Emancipation Act of 1829 - others were labeled morally deviant and consolidated an outsider status. This will be essential reading for those working in the fields of Victorian Studies and Social and Cultural History.

At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

The capital city of a nation founded on the premise of liberty, nineteenth-century Washington, D.C., was both an entrepot of urban slavery and the target of abolitionist ferment. The growing slave trade and the enactment of Black codes placed the city's Black women within the rigid confines of a social hierarchy ordered by race and gender. At the Threshold of Liberty reveals how these women--enslaved, fugitive, and free--imagined new identities and lives beyond the oppressive restrictions intended to prevent them from ever experiencing liberty, self-respect, and power.Consulting newspapers, government documents, letters, abolitionist records, legislation, and memoirs, Tamika Y. Nunley traces how Black women navigated social and legal proscriptions to develop their own ideas about liberty as they escaped from slavery, initiated freedom suits, created entrepreneurial economies, pursued education, and participated in political work. In telling these stories, Nunley places Black women at the vanguard of the history of Washington, D.C., and the momentous transformations of nineteenth-century America.

At This Time and In This Place: Vocation and Higher Education

Seeking to deepen current scholarly engagement with vocational exploration in both theory and practice, At This Time and In This Place champions the themes of calling and vocation as key elements of effective undergraduate education. Growing out of a year-long seminar sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), this book brings together a nationwide group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in order to produce new scholarly writing on this topic. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment and also suggests how these endeavors can be carried out through specific educational practices. Attending both to the current state of higher education and to broader cultural trends, the contributors examine the contours of vocation from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives. They consider the relationship between vocation and virtue, both of which encourage the cultivation of habits that lead to a life marked by flourishing and fulfillment-for oneself and for others. The authors also discuss how to engage students in actively reflecting on questions of meaning and purpose through classroom conversations, co-curricular activities, programs for community engagement, and attention to a campus's physical features. At This Time and In This Place offers a compelling argument for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education and represents a significant contribution to the emerging scholarly literature in this field.

At This Time and In This Place: Vocation and Higher Education

Seeking to deepen current scholarly engagement with vocational exploration in both theory and practice, At This Time and In This Place champions the themes of calling and vocation as key elements of effective undergraduate education. Growing out of a year-long seminar sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), this book brings together a nationwide group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in order to produce new scholarly writing on this topic. It offers a historical and theoretical account of vocational reflection and discernment and also suggests how these endeavors can be carried out through specific educational practices. Attending both to the current state of higher education and to broader cultural trends, the contributors examine the contours of vocation from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives. They consider the relationship between vocation and virtue, both of which encourage the cultivation of habits that lead to a life marked by flourishing and fulfillment-for oneself and for others. The authors also discuss how to engage students in actively reflecting on questions of meaning and purpose through classroom conversations, co-curricular activities, programs for community engagement, and attention to a campus's physical features. At This Time and In This Place offers a compelling argument for vocational reflection and discernment in undergraduate education and represents a significant contribution to the emerging scholarly literature in this field.