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Creativity in the Recording Studio: Alternative Takes (Leisure Studies in a Global Era)
by Paul ThompsonPaul Thompson offers an alternative take on the romanticized and mythologized process of record-making. Side A illustrates how creativity arises out of a system in action, and introduces the history, culture, traditions and institutions that contribute to the process of commercial record production. Side B demonstrates this system in action during the central tasks of songwriting, performing, engineering and producing. Using examples from John Lennon, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Björk, Marta Salogni, Sylvia Massy and Rick Rubin, each chapter takes the reader inside a different part of the commercial record production process and uncovers the interactive and interrelated multitude of factors involved in each creative task.
Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory (Global Political Thinkers)
by Deepshikha ShahiThe ancient Indian text of Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However, Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra largely suffers from the problem of ‘presentism’, whereby present-day assumptions of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it, thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra which could retrieve its ‘alternative assumptions’ and ‘unconventional traits’. This book attempts to enable Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra to break free from the problem of presentism – it does so by juxtaposing the elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of both ‘Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra’ and ‘Eurocentric IR’. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR – a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneous research traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR.
Emerging Trends in Banking and Finance: 3rd International Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives (Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics)
by Nesrin Ozatac Korhan K. GökmenogluThis volume presents current developments in the fields of banking and finance from an international perspective. Featuring contributions from the 3rd International Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives (ICBFP), this volume serves as a valuable forum for discussing current issues and trends in the banking and financial sectors, especially in light of the global economic challenges triggered by financial institutions. Using the latest theoretical models, new perspectives are brought to topics such as e-finance and e-banking, Islamic banking, capital flight, bank efficiency, risk assessment, bankruptcy, investment diversification, and insider trading. Offering an opportunity to explore the challenges of a rapidly changing industry, this volume will be of interest to academics, policy makers, and scholars in the fields of banking, insurance, and finance.
Consilience, Truth and the Mind of God: Science, Philosophy and Theology in the Search for Ultimate Meaning
by Richard J. Di RoccoThis book argues that God can be found within the edifice of the scientific understanding of physics, cosmology, biology and philosophy. It is a rewarding read that asks the Big Questions which humans have pondered since the dawn of the modern human mind, including: Why and how does the universe exist? From where do the laws of physics come? How did life and mind arise from inanimate matter on Earth? Science and religion have a common interest in the answers to such questions, yet many scientists and believers have been at odds for centuries. The author and contributors present a program for moving beyond the vastly different perspectives of reality offered by science and religion. Historical proofs for the existence of God are considered in light of the possibility that the universe may be only one in an eternal multiverse that contains an infinite number of other universes. Readers will find a modification of St. Augustine’s Argument from Truth for the existence of the necessary, self-sufficient being commonly referred to as God. This book is suited to all with an interest in the crossing points of science and religion, providing much food for thought and reflection. If in the end, you cannot accede to philosophy’s proofs, or theism’s invitation to faith, perhaps you will nevertheless say ‘yes’ to the amazing universe in which we live.
The Prophetic Dimension of Sport (SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies)
by Terry ShoemakerBringing together leading scholars in the fields of Religion and Sport, this book examines the prophetic dimension of sport, to arrive at a better understanding of the nature of sports in the United States. By detailing and analyzing particular sports, a portrait of sport as an important space for social and political critique emerges. Sport is indisputably an important cultural phenomenon in the United States. Each year millions attend sporting events, track the statistics and lives of sports stars, collect memorabilia, engage in fantasy sports, and play various sporting games. But increasingly, sport is also a space for public articulations regarding social and political issues within the United States. What are we to make of these particular articulations? What do they tell us about the nature of sport in the United States? How are these social and political critiques formed? Why do sporting voices seem to carry more weight at this moment in history? Ideally suited for use in undergraduate and graduate courses, this book offers a new way of thinking about the connection between sport and religion in a secularizing society. By analyzing various sports and particular historical moments, the chapters supply a unique example of the relevance of sport as it pertains to social and political critique.
Richard Quinney: Journey of Discovery (Palgrave Pioneers in Criminology)
by Clemens Bartollas Dragan MilovanovicThis book traces the life course of Richard Quinney, one of the most cited authors in the social sciences and a key figure in the development of critical criminology in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It provides a look into his personal thoughts in becoming a 'radical' criminologist and situates it in his various experiences, questioning, and shifts in his journey through life. Richard has contributed to a profound paradigm shift in criminology, beginning with his book, The Social Reality of Crime (1970), but also to peacemaking criminology as well as peace studies. He has also written several books via an autoethnography approach and has presented a number of photograph presentations for which he has received awards. It traces his early development on the family farm in Wisconsin to his travels in higher academe. It gives a personal perspective in becoming not only a radical criminologist, an accomplished writer in auto-ethnography, visual sociology, and photography but also how his continuous questioning of the meaning of it all came to fruition with profound insights about what it is to be human. The book will be inspirational to not only seasoned veterans in criminology, but also to emerging scholars, to undergrads and grads, showing them the struggles that come in 'making it'.
The Religious Metaphysics of Vladimir Solovyov
by Alexandre KojèveThe original text of this work was published in the French journal Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses. This English translation presents Kojève’s attempt to unify the religious philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov into a metaphysical system that Solovyov strived for but was never able to fully articulate in his lifetime.
Decolonizing Theology in Revolution: A Critical Retrieval of Sergio Arce´s Theological Thought (New Approaches to Religion and Power)
by Ary Fernández-AlbánDrawing on decolonial perspective, this book provides a critical retrieval of Sergio Arce’s theological thought, and proposes it as a source of inspiration to continue renewing liberation theologies in Cuba and in Latin America. In light of current social contexts in Cuba and abroad, this volume examines the relevance of Arce’s theological legacy, identifying significant contributions and also key limitations. It presents a panoramic view of the historical contexts previous to Arce’s articulation of his theology, and also reconstructs the various stages of the development of his theology by reviewing his major writings from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. Bringing Arce into a conversation with other recognized Latin American liberation theologians, this book delivers a reconstruction of his major theological insights related to discourses and practices of liberation, highlighting important similarities and differences between their approaches.
Reflections on Jean Améry: Torture, Resentment, and Homelessness as the Mind’s Limits
by Vivaldi Jean-MarieThis book elaborates Jean Améry’s critique of philosophy and his discussion of some central philosophical themes in At the Mind’s Limits and his other writings. It shows how Améry elaborates the shortcomings and unfitness of philosophical theories to account for torture, the experience of homelessness, and other indignities, and their inability to assist with overcoming resentment. It thus teases out the philosophical import of Jean Améry's critique of philosophy, which constitutes his own philosophical testament of being an inmate at Auschwitz. This book situates At the Mind’s Limits in the context of twentieth-century Continental philosophy. On the one hand, it elaborates Améry’s engagement with key philosophical figures. On the other hand, it shows how thoroughly Améry denounces the limits of the philosophical enterprise, and its impotence in capturing and accounting for the crimes of the Third Reich.
The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in Matthew's Passion Narrative
by Wongi ParkIn Matthew’s passion narrative, the ethnoracial identity of Jesus comes into sharp focus. The repetition of the title “King of the Judeans” foregrounds the politics of race and ethnicity. Despite the explicit use of terminology, previous scholarship has understood the title curiously in non-ethnoracial ways. This book takes the peculiar omission in the history of interpretation as its point of departure. It provides an expanded ethnoracial reading of the text, and poses a fundamental ideological question that interrogates the pattern in the larger context of modern biblical scholarship. Wongi Park issues a critique of the dominant narrative and presents an alternative reading of Matthew’s passion narrative. He identifies a critical vocabulary and framework of analysis to decode the politics of race and ethnicity implicit in the history of interpretation. Ultimately, the book lends itself to a broader research agenda: the destabilization of the dominant narrative of early Christianity’s non-ethnoracial origins.
Pragmatic Humanism Revisited: An Essay on Making the World a Home (Studies in Humanism and Atheism)
by Ana HonnackerHow can we feel at home in this world without clinging to false certainties? This book offers a humanist re-reading of philosophical pragmatism and explores its potentials for a worldview that relies only on human resources. Thinking along with authors like William James and F.C.S. Schiller, it highlights a fundamentally humanist strand of pragmatism aimed at fostering human creativity and transformative action. It is grounded in everyday experience and underlines our responsibility to strive for the better. Ana Honnacker traces perspectives on science, religion, and ethics in the light of a pragmatic understanding of humanism. Furthermore, she suggests how to address the existential challenges we face today. Thus, pragmatic humanism is explored not only as a philosophy for critical minds, but also as a way of life.
The Values of Independent Hip-Hop in the Post-Golden Era: Hip-Hop’s Rebels
by Christopher VitoUtilizing a mixed-methods approach, this book uncovers the historical trajectory of U.S. independent hip-hop in the post-golden era, seeking to understand its complex relationship to mainstream hip-hop culture and U.S. culture more generally. Christopher Vito analyzes the lyrics of indie hip-hop albums from 2000-2013 to uncover the dominant ideologies of independent artists regarding race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and social change. These analyses inform interviews with members of the indie hip-hop community to explore the meanings that they associate with the culture today, how technological and media changes impact the boundaries between independent and major, and whether and how this shapes their engagement with oppositional consciousness. Ultimately, this book aims to understand the complex and contradictory cultural politics of independent hip-hop in the contemporary age.
Artists, Writers and The Arab Spring (Middle East Today)
by Riad IsmatThe book aims to explore the foresight of prominent Middle Eastern authors and artists who anticipated the Arab Spring, which resulted in demands for change in the repressive and corrupted regimes. Eventually, it led to cracking down on the protests with excessive force, which caused tremendous human suffering, destruction, and also escalation of extreme insurgency. The author analyzes major literary and artistic works from Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, and their political context. This monograph will be helpful to scholars and students in the growing field of Middle Eastern and North African Studies and everyone who is interested in the politics of MENA.
Contesting the Theological Foundations of Islamism and Violent Extremism (Middle East Today)
by Fethi Mansouri Zuleyha KeskinThis edited volume discusses critically discursive claims about the theological foundations connecting Islam to certain manifestations of violent extremism. Such claims and associated debates become even more polarizing when images of violent acts of terrorism performed in the name of Islam circulate in the global media. The authors argue that the visibility of such mediated violent extremism, in particular since the emergence of ISIS, has created a major political and security challenge not only to the world but also to the global Muslim community. This is particularly true in relation to the way Islam is being understood and characterized in the modern world. Existing studies on radicalization generally deal with causes and strategies to address violent extremism. The book will appeal to scholars, researchers and students in political science, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.
Polygamy, Women, and Higher Education: Life after Mormon Fundamentalism
by Laura ParsonThis volume explores the life stories of women who were former members of Mormon fundamentalist polygamous societies, from their own perspectives, to seek insight into their readiness for higher education settings. In order to support all learners in higher education, it is important to understand the unique needs of women students who have non-traditional formal schooling experiences and/or have come from restrictive or patriarchal cultures. This book helps further the discourse by providing recommendations for inclusive programs that consider how to develop elements of self-concept, empowerment, and motivation necessary for higher education success—academically and beyond.
Secularists, Religion and Government in Nineteenth-Century America
by Timothy VerhoevenThis book shows how, through a series of fierce battles over Sabbath laws, legislative chaplains, Bible-reading in public schools and other flashpoints, nineteenth-century secularists mounted a powerful case for a separation of religion and government. Among their diverse ranks were religious skeptics, liberal Protestants, members of minority faiths, labor reformers and defenders of slavery. Drawing on popular petitions to Congress, a neglected historical source, the book explores how this secularist mobilization gathered energy at the grassroots level. The nineteenth century is usually seen as the golden age of an informal Protestant establishment. Timothy Verhoeven demonstrates that, far from being crushed by an evangelical juggernaut, secularists harnessed a range of cultural forces—the legacy of the Revolutionary founders, hostility to Catholicism, a belief in national exceptionalism and more—to argue that the United States was not a Christian nation, branding their opponents as fanatics who threatened both democratic liberties as well as true religion.
Spirituality, Sport, and Doping: More than Just a Game (SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies)
by Tracy J. TrothenThis book explores the deeper meaning of sports. Drawing on contemporary research, the author makes a strong case for why we should see sport not only in terms of religion but--more importantly-as a possible location for spiritual meaning. Taking this a step farther, she considers how gene editing, robotics, and other biomedical technological enhancements affect not only sports performances but experiences of sport as sacred. In addition, the author explores what difference it might make to the enhancement debate if sports’ spirituality is taken seriously. The author is not afraid to explore the issue in all its complexity. Yet, the argument she presents is both meaningful and accessible. This investigation applies insights from Christian theology, applied ethics, psychology, and sports studies. From lightweight tennis racquets to anabolic steroids, athletes have long used technology and science to improve their performances. But, until now, no one has asked how biomedical technological enhancements might affect the undervalued spiritual dimension of sport. This book presents rich insights into the connection between sports, spirituality, and human enhancement technologies. It will appeal to researchers, athletes and sports followers, and undergraduate and graduate students in ethics, sport, religion or theology.
Persistent Creativity: Making the Case for Art, Culture and the Creative Industries (Sociology of the Arts)
by Peter CampbellRecent years have seen the increasing valuation and promotion of ‘creativity’. Future success, we are often assured, will rest on the creativity of our endeavours, often aligned specifically with ‘cultural’ activity. This book considers the emergence and persistence of this pattern, particularly with regards to cultural policy, and examines the methods and evidence deployed to make the case for art, culture and the creative industries. The origins of current practices are considered, as is the gradual accretion of a broad range of meanings around the term ‘creative’, and the implications this has for the success of the wider ‘Creativity Agenda’. The specific experience of the city of Liverpool in adopting and furthering this agenda both in the UK and beyond is considered, as is the persistence of a range of problematic, and often contradictory, assumptions and practices relating to this agenda up to the present day.
The Open Brethren: A Christian Sect in the Modern World
by Peter HerriotThis book gives a personal insight into the hearts and minds of a fundamentalist Christian sect, the Open Brethren. Using Brethren magazine articles, obituaries, and testimonies, Peter Herriot argues that the Brethren constitute a perfect example of a fundamentalism. Their culture is entirely opposed to the beliefs, values, and norms of modernity. As a result, like other fundamentalisms they challenge modern Christianity and impede its efforts to engage with global society.
Militant Buddhism: The Rise of Religious Violence in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand
by Peter LehrAgainst the backdrop of the ongoing Rohingya crisis, this book takes a close and detailed look at the rise of militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, and especially at the issues of ‘why’ and ‘how’ around it. We are well aware of Christian fundamentalism, militant Judaism and Islamist Salafism-Jihadism. Extremist and violent Buddhism however features only rarely in book-length studies on religion and political violence. Somehow, the very idea of Buddhist monks as the archetypical ‘world renouncers’ exhorting frenzied mobs to commit acts of violence against perceived ‘enemies of the religion’ seems to be outright ludicrous. Recent events in Myanmar/Burma, but also in Thailand and Sri Lanka, however indicate that a militant strand of Theravada Buddhism is on the rise. How can this rise be explained, and what role do monks play in that regard? These are the two broad questions that this book explores.
Cultural Meanings and Social Institutions: Social Organization Through Language
by David R. HeiseEmploying three methods of assessing meaning, this book demonstrates that the thousands of human identities in English coalesce into groups that are recognizable as role sets in the contemporary social institutions of economy, kinship, religion, polity, law, education, medicine, sport, and arts. After establishing a theoretical and a methodological framework for his empirical work, David Heise presents the results obtained when meanings are assessed via dictionary definitions, collocates, and word associations. A close comparison of the results reveals that similar outcomes are obtained through each of these three different approaches of defining meaning. The final chapter summarizes the study, considers the benefits and limitations of studying society via language, and applies the results to describing how individuals operate social institutions via their daily social interactions. Aspects of this book will be of interest to social psychologists, sociologists, and linguists.
Islamic Schools in France: Minority Integration and Separatism in Western Society
by Carine BourgetThis book, the first on the growing phenomenon of private full-time K-12 Muslim schools in France, investigates whether these schools participate in the communautarisme (or ethnic/cultural separatism) that Muslims are often accused of or if their founding is a sign of integration, given that most of private education in France is subsidized by the government. Is Islam compatible with the West? This study proposes an answer to this question through the lens of Muslim education in France, adding to our understanding of the so-called resurgence of religion following the demise of the secularization theory and shedding new light on religion’s place in the West and of Islam in diasporic contexts.
Listening and Knowledge in Reformation Europe: Hearing, Speaking and Remembering in Calvin’s Geneva
by Anna KvicalovaThis book investigates a host of primary sources documenting the Calvinist Reformation in Geneva, exploring the history and epistemology of religious listening at the crossroads of sensory anthropology and religion, knowledge, and media. It reconstructs the social, religious, and material relations at the heart of the Genevan Reformation by examining various facets of the city’s auditory culture which was marked by a gradual fashioning of new techniques of listening, speaking, and remembering. Anna Kvicalova analyzes the performativity of sensory perception in the framework of Calvinist religious epistemology, and approaches hearing and acoustics both as tools through which the Calvinist religious identity was constructed, and as objects of knowledge and rudimentary investigation. The heightened interest in the auditory dimension of communication observed in Geneva is studied against the backdrop of contemporary knowledge about sound and hearing in a wider European context.
American Jewish Year Book 2018: The Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities Since 1899 (American Jewish Year Book #118)
by Arnold Dashefsky Ira M. SheskinThe American Jewish Year Book, now in its 118th year, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. The first two chapters of Part I include a special forum on "Contemporary American Jewry: Grounds for Optimism or Pessimism?" with assessments from more than 20 experts in the field. The third chapter examines antisemitism in Contemporary America. Chapters on “The Domestic Arena” and “The International Arena” analyze the year’s events as they affect American Jewish communal and political affairs. Three chapters analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, journals, articles, websites, and research libraries; and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. Today, as it has for over a century, the American Jewish Year Book remains the single most useful source of information and analysis on Jewish demography, social and political trends, culture, and religion. For anyone interested in Jewish life, it is simply indispensable. David Harris, CEO, American Jewish Committee (AJC), Edward and Sandra Meyer Office of the CEO The American Jewish Year Book stands as an unparalleled resource for scholars, policy makers, Jewish community professionals and thought leaders. This authoritative and comprehensive compendium of facts and figures, trends and key issues, observations and essays, is the essential guide to contemporary American Jewish life in all its dynamic multi-dimensionality. Christine Hayes, President, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)and Robert F. and Patricia R. Weis Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University
Quakers, Business and Corporate Responsibility: Lessons and Cases for Responsible Management (CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance)
by Nicholas Burton Richard TurnbullThis book explores how the distinctive "Quaker" approach to responsible business is based on honesty, truth and integrity. It analyzes how networks, family and succession are at its heart, and how much this approach offers to current debates on corporate social responsibility, as well as to managers and practitioners in an increasingly complex business world. The contributions in this volume assess the factors that explain the success and prosperity of many Quaker businesses throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, discussing the lessons learned from their disappearance from prominence. By drawing upon examples that illustrate the Quaker ethic, it also considers what so-called “Quakernomics” can contribute to contemporary responsible business theory and practice.