Books: 'Shocks (Donkey)' – Grafiati (2024)

Abstract:

The more diverse and rich a person's life is, the more areas of activity, different sides of reality he comes into contact with. People get a lot of resources from them, but at the same time each such sphere has its own vulnerability and is able to create threats to the security of people, societies and States. Most dangerous of all are the threats that affect the vital basis of human existence. These include threats to food security. They have long gone beyond biological or medical limits and received a truly geopolitical scope. The monograph shows how these threats were born and grew, as well as what can be done not only by States or international organizations, but also by individuals to minimize such threats and risks, to return to food the original meanings of the unifying principle. It is intended for specialists in the field of international relations, teachers and students of humanitarian and social disciplines, and will be of interest to a wide range of readers.

Abstract:

Shock Therapy For the American Health Care System describes the problems of the health care system and offers a program of comprehensive reform that is more far-reaching than anything currently being proposed. From a veteran physician comes this remarkably clear-eyed look at what's wrong with how we adminster and pay for health care and what can be done to fix it. In Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System: Why Comprehensive Reform Is Needed, Dr. Robert Levine offers an easily understandable diagnosis of the problems plaguing our current health care infrastructure, with discussions that include the roles of various stakeholders—insurance companies, "big pharma," hospitals, health care providers, and patients. He also dispels a number of myths designed to make voters leery of any reform efforts. Levine's comprehensive plan addresses everything from bloated bureaucracies to unnecessary procedures to the handling of negligence and malpractice lawsuits/claims. Throughout, Levine backs his proposals with facts and comparisons to systems in various countries, and concludes that even now, with disaster looming, the ultimate goal of providing health insurance for every American is achievable and affordable.

Abstract:

African pastoralism is distinctive from that of Southwest Asia, focusing on dairy production with cattle, sheep, and goats. The latter were domesticated in Southwest Asia and introduced, but debate continues on whether indigenous African aurochs contributed genes to African domestic cattle. Pastoralism emerged in what was then a grassy Sahara and shifted south with the mid-Holocene aridification. Zooarchaeology and genetics show the donkey is a mid-Holocene African domesticate, emerging as an aid to pastoral mobility during increasing aridity. Pastoralism is the earliest form of domesticate-based food production in sub-Saharan Africa, with farming emerging millennia later. Human genetics and lipid analysis of Saharan ceramics shows an early reliance on dairying. With the emergence of pastoralism, new economies and social relations emerged that were carried by pastoralists across the whole of Africa.

Abstract:

Abstract Most books and articles about climate change focus on two important questions. First, what will growing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) mean for the climate over the coming decades? By how much will temperatures increase and sea levels rise? And what will be the economic and social damage resulting from these changes? Second, what should be done to avert climate change? By how much and how rapidly should GHG emissions be reduced? Is a carbon tax the best policy tool, and if so, how large should the tax be? But two additional questions are equally important. First, while we might agree on what should be done, we must ask what will be done to avert climate change. Is it realistic to expect worldwide emissions to fall rapidly enough to prevent severe climate change? Second, if we conclude it is not realistic, so that higher temperatures and rising sea levels are likely, what should we do? What actions should we take now to reduce the likely impact of climate change? These questions are the focus of this book. The book explains how and why there is considerable uncertainty over what might happen. We might be lucky and experience only mild climate change, but counting on good luck is not smart policy. This book shows that given the economic and political realities, it is simply not realistic to expect the GHG emission reductions needed to avert substantial global warming. We should therefore invest now in adaptation to reduce the possible impacts of warming, and this book shows how that can be done.

Abstract:

Called the business crime wave of the 21st century, trademark counterfeiting and product piracy are worldwide in scope and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. High technology and the globalization of business have made it possible to counterfeit and pirate a seemingly limitless number of products, from t-shirts, designer jeans, films and books to auto and airplane parts, and prescription drugs. The 1995-1996 trade dispute between the U.S. and China shows how serious the problem has become for American business and for U.S. diplomatic relations. Paradise explores the history of counterfeiting and piracy, shows how they are done, and the strategies that U.S. businesses are using to combat them. With interviews, commentary, and anecdotes by corporate attorneys, business leaders, and private investigators, this well-written book is essential for anyone interested in the damage that violations of intellectual property law are inflicting on world trade and what is being done to stop it. Called the business crime wave of the 21st century, trademark counterfeiting and product piracy are worldwide in scope and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. High technology and the globalization of business have made it possible to counterfeit and pirate a seemingly limitless number of products, from t-shirts, designer jeans, films and books to auto and airplane parts, and prescription drugs. The 1995-1996 trade dispute between the U.S. and China shows how serious the problem has become for American business and for U.S. diplomatic relations. Paradise explores the history of counterfeiting and piracy, shows how they are done, and the strategies that U.S. businesses are using to combat them. With interviews, commentary, and anecdotes by corporate attorneys, business leaders, and private investigators, this well-written book is essential for anyone interested in the damage that violations of intellectual property law are inflicting on world trade and what is being done to stop it. Paradise lays out the problem in Chapter 1 with a clear explanation of the differences between trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and the laws covering each. In Chapter 2 he looks at the role played by organized crime, gray market goods, the lack of intellectual property laws, and ultimately the threat to U.S. business. He discusses the recent investigations and disputes with China, and its aftermath throughout Southeast Asia. Chapter 4 focuses on the knockoff, chapter 5 on street peddlers and flea markets (and how merchants are retaliating), and chapter 6 on the tracking of counterfeiters. The entertainment industries and the pharmaceutical industries are then closely examined. He follows with equally comprehensive (and chilling) studies of automobile and aircraft parts counterfeiting and piracy in cyberspace. Paradise ends with a look at what is being done to counteract the inroads that piracy and counterfeiting have made into the global economy, and offers a provocative call for more and better efforts in the future.

Abstract:

Doubtful Readers: Print, Poetry, and the Reading Public in Early Modern England focuses on early modern publishers’ efforts to identify and accommodate new readers of verse that had previously been restricted to particular social networks in manuscript. Focusing on the period between the maturing of the market for printed English literature in the 1590s and the emergence of the professional poet following the Restoration, this study shows that poetry was shaped by—and itself shaped—strong print publication traditions. By reading printed editions of poems by William Shakespeare, Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, and others, this book shows how publishers negotiated genre, gender, social access, reputation, literary knowledge, and the value of English literature itself. It uses literary, historical, bibliographical, and quantitative evidence to show how publishers’ strategies changed over time. Ultimately, Doubtful Readers argues that although—or perhaps because—publishers’ interpretive and editorial efforts are often elided in studies of early modern poetry, their interventions have had an enduring impact on our canons, texts, and literary histories.

Abstract:

This chapter discusses research to policy linkages at state level with a case study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. The study used the research done by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) located at Hyderabad to assess the linkages of the research it had done in the policies of the state, and also the possible impact in actual policymaking in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The policy research of the CESS is broadly categorized into two types, viz., research-driven policy; and policy-driven research. The study found that in both cases, the CESS research had a significant impact on framing of state policies. The study shows that research by a dedicated and autonomous research institute can play a useful role in giving direction to the policies of the state and help in bringing about changes in the lives of people.

Abstract:

The assessment of wider economic impacts from transport projects has become more widespread, but still provokes considerable debate. This chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical basis of such impacts and shows how the argument has developed, from a straightforward assessment of the way changes in the effective density of labor markets impact on productivity, to arguments about the transformational effects of megaprojects on the economy as a whole. It is concluded that although there are firm foundations for the existence of such additional impacts, more still needs to be done to establish a robust methodology for their acceptance.

Abstract:

Building on the recent initiative to truly globalize the field of international relations, this book provides an innovative interrogation of regionalism. The book applies a globalizing framework to the study of regional worlds in order to move beyond the traditional conception of regionalism, which views regions as competing blocs dominated by great powers. Bringing together a wide range of case studies, the book shows that regions are instead dynamic configurations of social and political identities in which a variety of actors, including the less powerful, interact and partake in regionalization processes and have done so through the centuries.

Abstract:

This monograph investigates how religious coexistence functioned in six towns in the multiconfessional region of Upper Lusatia in Western Bohemia. Lutherans and Catholics found a feasible modus vivendi through written agreements and regular negotiations. This meant that the Habsburg kings of Bohemia ruled over a Lutheran region. Lutherans and Catholics in Upper Lusatia shared spaces, objects, and rituals. Catholics adopted elements previously seen as a firm part of a Lutheran confessional culture. Lutherans, too, were willing to incorporate Catholic elements into their religiosity. Some of these overlaps were subconscious, while others were a conscious choice. This monograph provides a new narrative of the Reformation and shows that the concept of the ‘urban Reformation’, where towns are seen as centres of Lutheranism has to be reassessed, particularly in towns in former East Germany, where much work remains to be done. It shows that in a region like Upper Lusatia, which did not have a political centre and underwent a complex Reformation with many different actors, there was no clear confessionalization. By approaching the Upper Lusatian Reformation through important individuals, this monograph shows how they had to negotiate their religiosity, resulting in cross-confessional exchange and syncretism.

Abstract:

This chapter examines defensive cyber operations in a fashion similar to kill chain analysis. It presents an outline of how baseline network defense is done, and what technologies and techniques contribute to that mission. This includes memory forensics, penetration testing, and incident response. It shows as well how those efforts are likely to be insufficient, and how advanced states have an incentive to go further and intrude into other states’ networks for defensive reasons—operations that are sometimes called counter-computer network exploitation. It is these intrusions, which are genuinely defensive, that can be misperceived and interpreted as offensive intrusions—leading to a cycle of escalation.

Abstract:

‘Military lawyering’ shows that increasingly, national military justice systems look much like civilian criminal trials with military or civilian lawyers acting as judges and other lawyers prosecuting and defending. In the United States, most military lawyering is done by lawyers who are commissioned officers, organized in many national systems into a Judge Advocate General’s Corps, department, or branch. In addition, civilian lawyers may play a role, either as military judges in some systems, or as defense counsel retained by the accused. The different judiciary roles are outlined along with potential problem areas. In the United States, each branch of the armed forces maintains a professional responsibility program and has regulations governing the conduct of counsel.

Abstract:

The welfare state is, at its core, a problem-solving apparatus, designed to manage dysfunctions that are endemic to the economic and social life of modern nations. But welfare states also generate problems of their own—such as moral hazards, excessive bureaucracy, soaring costs, and labour market rigidities—that sometimes threaten to bring the whole enterprise into disrepute. ‘Problems’ shows that these issues are troubling and consequential, but in weighing their significance we ought always to ask: ‘what can be done?’ and ‘what are the alternatives?’ That the welfare state has its problems is undeniable. The real question is whether these problems are manageable and how they compare to those of other arrangements.

Abstract:

This book provides a compelling account of the rigging of benchmarks during and after the financial crisis of 2007–08. Written in clear language accessible to the non-specialist, it provides the historical context necessary for understanding the benchmarks – Libor, Forex and the Gold and Silver Fixes – and shows how and why they have to be reformed in the face of rapid technological changes in markets. Though banks have been fined and a few traders have been jailed, justice will not be done until senior bankers are made responsible for their actions. Provocative and rigorously argued, this book makes concrete recommendations for improving the security of the financial services industry and holding bankers to account.

Abstract:

This chapter introduces the Eurace@Unibi model, one of the agent-based simulation models that are relatively new additions to the toolbox of macroeconomists, and the research that has been done within this framework. It shows how an agent-based model can be used to identify economic mechanisms and how it can be applied to spatial policy analysis. The assessment is that agent-based models in economics have passed the proof-of-concept phase and it is now time to move beyond that stage. It has been shown that new kinds of insights can be obtained that complement established modeling approaches. The chapter concludes by pointing toward some potentially fruitful areas of agent-based macroeconomic research.

Abstract:

This chapter puts many of the ideas outlined previously to work in considering the problem of responsibility for systemic injustice. Building on the insights of Iris Marion Young and Marion Smiley, it argues that responsibility must be reconceptualized as a political rather than a philosophical problem and that its solution lies in counterhegemonic political struggles over the meaning of injustice itself. The chapter shows, in a concrete way, what such struggles might look like, describing the ways in which social conventions and interpretations structure our thinking about responsibility and what might be done to challenge and change them. It concludes that to take responsibility for injustice is to take up this political work.

Abstract:

This chapter examines the two most important English-language troupes active during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Caroline Richings, known as a “manageress” or “directress,” performed before, during, and after the Civil War. Her success shows conclusively that Americans of the immediate postwar period were still interested in English-language opera, even though most music critics believed that this style of performance was old-fashioned and passé. Many believed that Richings created the English-language-opera renaissance in America. The Scottish soprano Euphrosyne Parepa arrived in America in 1865 as part of an itinerant concert troupe and subsequently sang in Italian-language opera companies. Richings’s success and popularity inspired her, and she organized her own English-language troupe, which quickly eclipsed that of her competitor. The success of these two prime donne—especially in the face of skepticism about Americans’ interest in vernacular opera—illuminates the operatic tastes of American audiences in the immediate postwar period.

Abstract:

Australia’s nature is exceptional, wonderful and important. But much has been lost, and the ongoing existence of many species now hangs by a thread. Against a relentless tide of threats to our biodiversity, many Australians, and government and non-government agencies, have devoted themselves to the challenge of conserving and recovering plant and animal species that now need our help to survive. This dedication has been rewarded with some outstanding and inspiring successes: of extinctions averted, of populations increasing, of communities actively involved in recovery efforts. Recovering Australian Threatened Species showcases successful conservation stories and identifies approaches and implementation methods that have been most effective in recovering threatened species. These diverse accounts – dealing with threatened plants, invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals – show that the conservation of threatened species is achievable: that it can be done and should be done. They collectively serve to inform, guide and inspire other conservation efforts. This is a book of hope and inspiration. It shows that with dedication, knowledge and support, we can retain and restore our marvellous natural heritage, and gift to our descendants a world that is as diverse, healthy and beautiful as that which we have inherited. Joint recipient of the 2018 Whitley Certificate of Commendation for Conservation Zoology

Abstract:

It is often said that we live in global systems of injustice. But if so, what are they, and what are their moral consequences? This book offers a theory of global injustice—“Unfreedom for All.” The theory explores and defends the old adage that “No one is free while others are oppressed” by putting five questions: Why and when ought we to combat injustices done to distant others, and does this require joining in solidarity against them? Do we live under global systems of injustice? What counts as systematic injustice or oppression? Who if anyone is made unfree by such injustices? What harms do they do? Unfreedom for All shows that the “No one is free” creed either answers or results from each of these questions. It defends that creed by considering how systematic injustices—such as global severe poverty, male supremacy, or racial oppression—are perpetuated. The book argues that where your society does such an injustice, it systematically suppresses anyone’s resistance to the injustice—including yours. It uses authoritarian tactics against everyone, so you too are subject to arbitrary power. Hence you too are unfree. This holds just as true of systematic injustices done by global society, and this should be the main reason for joining in solidarity against injustice.

Abstract:

Most of the research on the prehistoric archaeology of the Northeast shows that many such research attempts are confined mainly to surface sites, and that excavated sites from the Neolithic and even the historical period are comparatively rare. It is now time to scrutinize the nature of the studies done so far on Northeast Indian archaeology and assess the historiography, together with the recent theoretical developments in the discipline. The area is a contact zone between the East and the West and will only be fully known when a complete picture emerges of its prehistoric cultural growth through sustained archaeological and interdisciplinary palaeoecological research. This chapter spells out the rationale behind the research, the problem, the working hypotheses, aim, objectives, and methodologies followed in the book.

Abstract:

This chapter describes the main components of Adam Smith’s theory of the passions. It offers a detailed taxonomy of the passions. In particular, the chapter discusses four kinds of passions: the natural passions, the proto-passions, the intellectual sentiments, and the derived passions. The chapter also explains the way in which Smith thinks about rationality and the role of reason as a so-called active principle. The chapter introduces a concept, environmental rationality, to articulate what Smith means by sound judgment in a particular context. Finally, by drawing on Smith’s account of the proto-passions and his treatment of reason as an active principle, the chapter shows it is a mistake to understand Smith as a moral empiricist, as is commonly done.

Abstract:

This one-of-a kind book challenges the current thinking about black girls to show how America has failed them—and what can be done to make their lives better. African American girls are one of the United States' most endangered populations, yet meaningful explorations of the issues that impact their lives are almost nonexistent. In this riveting book, led by one of the African American community's best-known scholars, experts from across the nation explain the risks, challenges, and influences—both good and bad—faced by black girls and teens. The work shows how our society is failing them, and it outlines what can and should be done to help these young women lead happier, healthier, more successful lives. The book covers a wide range of concerns, including obesity, substance abuse, sex trafficking, gangs, teen pregnancy, and suicide attempts. Stress, low self-esteem, anger, aggression, and violence are explored, as are failures of our education system and of a legal system that tends to victimize young black women. A substantial section on parenting and mentoring discusses ways to counter the negative influences that are a constant for many black girls and adolescents. It is time for American society to recognize and react to the realities these young women face, making this book a must-read for caring parents, teachers, nurses, guidance counselor, doctors, school administrators, and school board members.

Abstract:

This chapter examines the internal competition and coordination in mobilising resources from regular and extra-budgetary sources at the six IOs. As the traditional assessed contribution from member states to IOs has been by and large fixed and the share of other sources has been expanding, the challenge for IOs is how to manage (a) the contribution from different parts of member states (assessed vs. voluntary contribution), (b) that of member states and non-state contributors, and (c) the participation of non-state bodies in IO activities which pose serious challenges for the head of IOs, the secretariat and member states. It particularly explains the two different types of budget process within IOs: managing the budget and deficit-driven budgeting, and shows why and how they are done.

Abstract:

This chapter presents the basics of the ‘effective-one-body’ approach to the two-body problem in general relativity. It also shows that the 2PN equations of motion can be mapped. This can be done by means of an appropriate canonical transformation, to a geodesic motion in a static, spherically symmetric spacetime, thus considerably simplifying the dynamics. Then, including the 2.5PN radiation reaction force in the (resummed) equations of motion, this chapter provides the waveform during the inspiral, merger, and ringdown phases of the coalescence of two non-spinning black holes into a final Kerr black hole. The chapter also comments on the current developments of this approach, which is instrumental in building the libraries of waveform templates that are needed to analyze the data collected by the current gravitational wave detectors.

Abstract:

Hermann von der Hardt’s exegetical work is extremely idiosyncratic and controversial. Yet it is important for at least two reasons. First, his reading of the Bible evinces a thorough philological approach that served to corroborate his view of the complicated, encoded structures of biblical history. Secondly, von der Hardt refused to present the Book of Jonah as a prediction of Christ’s coming, as was usually done before him. Instead, he adopted a strictly historical interpretation that avoided delving into the mysteries of divine providence and explained the book as series of practical, moral, and political recommendations. His exegesis shows a predilection for a historical-critical interpretation that fits in the tradition associated with La Peyrère, Spinoza, and Simon. For von der Hardt, the moral implications of the text were of overriding importance.

Abstract:

This chapter shows how in the 21st century new technologies and new bureaucracies have become part and parcel of the EU’s migration and asylum policy, and how these two are intimately linked. Together they have allowed the EU and its Member States to tighten their grip over the movement of people. The use of technology has transformed the nature of the European border and has reinforced the agencies in charge of its management. This has largely been done without a clearly defined vision or grand design. Rather, it was technology itself that enabled this development and has greatly helped to shape it. While technology has often been portrayed as value-neutral, it may now pose challenges to some of the EU’s fundamental rights, most notably the right to data protection.

Abstract:

This chapter presents several challenges raised by the process of enforcement of European soft law. It briefly reviews various strategies to determine what enforcement could mean in a soft law context. The chapter looks at a series of examples which demonstrate how soft law is enforced through flexible, but also more coercive means, before concluding that ensuring the enforcement of soft law is done through hybrid methods which only reflect the hybridity of regulation in Europe. The chapter in addition shows how hybridity of regulation is reflected in the hybridity of enforcement mechanisms, with soft law itself becoming an enforcement tool for higher, binding norms, or values. Finally, this chapter reflects on whether, in the coercive enforcement of soft law, fundamental Rule of Law values are still preserved.

Abstract:

Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1852), the so-called “father of kindergarten”, was one of the most influential educational thinkers of the 19th century. Kindergarten is a worldwide phenomenon, and today Froebel’s educational ideas are discussed and continue to shape educational practice. This book showcases the cutting-edge work being done around the world on this pioneer of early childhood education and shows the many ways in which Froebel's work has been applied and extended. It presents a wealth of Froebelian expertise on topics including religious education, architecture, neuroscience and peace education and links Froebel's theories to other thinkers including John Dewey and Michel Foucault. It highlights what Froebel means today in a variety of (educational) settings around the world and includes contributions from academics and practitioners based in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Abstract:

Can poetry, even a deeply philosophical poetry, articulate something about love that philosophy itself cannot? The Form of Love argues that it can. In close readings of seven “metaphysical” poems, this book shows how figures ranging from John Donne to Emily Dickinson use poetic form to turn philosophy to new ends, transforming its concern to know truth about love into concern to create virtual experiences of love. These poems create strange loves made in, rather than through, the forms—the devices, structures and forces particular to verse—where they appear. Tracing how poems think, this book argues, requires an intimate form of reading: close—from one perspective, even too close—attention to and thinking with the text. In The Form of Love, Kuzner reads as closely as possible in order to consider as seriously as possible how poetry thinks of love otherwise than other fields: how poems do not complete philosophy or compete with it, and how poetry and philosophy instead can enter into a relation that is itself like love.

Abstract:

Could hate speech have authority? Yes. Some hate speech is propaganda, and has epistemic authority. Some hate speech is directive, and has practical authority. Some has both, in part because epistemic authority can be a basis for practical authority. Hate speech can acquire authority informally through a process of accommodation, whereby a presupposition of authority is accommodated by hearers, and becomes acceptable or true. This phenomenon is familiar to philosophers of language, but has political implications, as this chapter shows, drawing on work by Lewis, Thomason, Witek, and Maitra. Authority makes a difference to what is done with words; and the accommodation of authority can make a difference to hate speech, enabling it to enact norms, rank people, or deprive them of powers. The accommodation of authority matters, because it alters the force hate speech can have, as a speech act.

Abstract:

This chapter examines the lessons learned by Ray Bradbury from his readings during the war years. There were Modernists who appealed to Bradbury in more mature ways than Frederic Prokosch had done, and there were in fact abiding lessons that he could take away from some of these other writers such as Somerset Maugham and Christopher Morley. Maugham and Morley provided Bradbury the narrative models that were reinforced by Thornton Wilder's The Cabala (1926). This chapter considers two other novels read by Bradbury and what he learned from each one of them: the English translation of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon (1941) and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (1944). It shows that Darkness at Noon's ethical insights inspired Bradbury to embark on a work of fiction that would evolve, over a period of six years, into Fahrenheit 451.

Abstract:

The collapse of the communist regimes in the former Soviet bloc and the subsequent economic, political, social, and cultural transformations opened up new challenges for social science research. Working with the methodological and conceptual tools of Pierre Bourdieu, including habitus, field, capital, symbolic power, hysteresis, and the logic of honor, among others, scholars have defined and addressed four clusters of important research questions: the possibility of systemic change and the emergence of “capitalism without capitalists”; mechanisms for legitimacy and stability, new configurations of stratification and lifestyles; marketing selves, the informal economy, and nationalism; and state-level strategies for redefining positions in the international political field. This chapter shows that, although much remains to be done across these areas, works that use Bourdieu’s insights to analyze post-communist regimes have provided more nuanced accounts and fuller explanations than those available in mainstream literatures, making up in salience what they lack in number.

Abstract:

Now that the study of emotions has emerged as a thriving field of interdisciplinary research, social psychology and neuroscience have been sources of evidence informing theoretical accounts. One issue is whether emotion and cognition are discrete and emotions thus noncognitive responses. Many philosophers have argued that emotions are independent of “higher” cognition, based upon some neuroscientific findings. Yet they have been too hasty in appropriating indefinite evidence to justify sweeping conclusions: a closer look shows that empirical research does not justify their views. Social psychology has done more to show how closely emotions are correlated with particular bodily states, and this evidence must be taken into account. The role of the living body in our affective experience must be acknowledged, since it is through our living, feeling bodies that we emotionally recognize significant aspects of situations. The embodied phenomenology of emotions is thus linked with the revelation of value or significance.

Abstract:

Chapter 3 focuses on the representational role of elected politicians in India—how they work, and whom they try to work for. It starts with an account of the daily work-routines of Indian politicians, describing how SC politicians differ from their non-SC colleagues in their political work. Turning to how SC politicians describe their representational role, the chapter shows how they respond to the incentives of the electoral system and pressures from their political parties, noting that they generally see their role as acting as representatives of their parties, not as agents for the interests of their specific group. The chapter ends by examining which political parties have been elected in SC-reserved constituencies, finding that SC politicians have been elected for a similar set of parties as other politicians, and that parties running on a specifically SC-focused platform have not done particularly well in SC-reserved constituencies.

Abstract:

This chapter examines Oliver Lodge’s popular science book Ether and Reality, which was published in 1925. In it, Oliver Lodge purported to give a non-technical account of the functions of the luminiferous ether. However, Lodge himself had a dilemma, as he wanted the ether to be different from material bodies but not wholly immaterial. Lodge thus needed to present both an account of the ether and an account of a scientific view that was sympathetic to its possible existence. This chapter examines Lodge’s expository strategies in his book. It considers Lodge’s creation of ethos, and the reader that his text implies, paying particular attention to his use of analogy, repetition, parallelism and allusion. It also identifies previously unremarked literary allusions and allusions to the Bible. Finally, as this chapter shows, much of Lodge’s work is done through suggestion and insinuation: Lodge requires the reader to complete his meaning for him.

Abstract:

Many countries have set up sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as vehicles for public saving and wealth management. The majority are in resource-exporting countries; frequently stated objectives are macroeconomic and fiscal stabilization, intertemporal transfer of wealth, and national development. Some resource funds hold assets equivalent to several multiples of GDP, but many funds are relatively small. The evidence shows that the design and operation of an SWF can help or encumber economic management and wealth preservation. Poorly designed stabilization and saving funds without operational flexibility can be costly and interfere with wealth objectives. Many SWFs conduct domestic operations; this creates opportunities but also potentially serious risks to public wealth that must be addressed. Strong SWF governance and transparency are key to achieving sustainable performance and preventing political capture and misuse of public resources. While a number of funds have made progress in these areas, in others much remains to be done.

Abstract:

Talent intermediaries are entities that stand between the individual worker and the organization that needs work done. They include online intermediaries such as job boards or social networking sites, and search and placement firms such as executive search firms and temporary-help service firms. Talent intermediaries have an increasingly important role in the contemporary employment landscape: they influence not only how and which individuals are matched to organizations but also how tasks are performed or conflicts are resolved once talent is hired by the organization. This chapter reviews the already extensive literature on talent intermediaries, focusing on their role in the identification, assessment, and hiring of talent. The chapter shows the advantages that talent intermediaries present to the talent-acquisition process compared with hiring organizations and the ways in which their intermediation changes traditional talent-acquisition processes that involved only two parties: the job seeker and the hiring organization.

Abstract:

Musical comedy in London’s West End theatres during and on either side of the Edwardian period is reassessed against the traditional narrative of period obsolescence and Americanization. This is done through close readings of audience capacity and demographics, musical economics, musical topics, script and lyric writing (including humour), standard plots, performance practice, and opulent production values. The genre’s celebration of modernity and investment not only in the British Empire but also in its own merchandise and afterlife of amateur productions is analysed. Special reference is made to the producer George Edwardes; the composers Lionel Monckton, Paul Rubens, and Howard Talbot; the lyricist Adrian Ross; the stars Gertie Millar and George Grossmith; and the shows The Arcadians, To-Night’s the Night, The Quaker Girl, and A Country Girl. The genre’s particular appeal during the First World War is also covered. Research questions for the future are raised.

Abstract:

Catastrophic events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tohoku ‘Triple Disaster’ of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that hit the eastern seaboard of Japan in 2012 are seen as surprises that have a low probability of occurring but have a debilitating impact when they do. In this eye-opening journey through modern and ancient risk management practices, the author explains why we need to find a new way to navigate the deeply uncertain world that we live in. Examining how governments have responded to terrorist threats, climate change, and natural hazards, the book shows how and why these measures have proven inadequate and what should be done to make us more resilient. While conventional approaches have focused on planning and preparing for disruptions and enhanced our ability to ‘bounce back’, our focus should be on anticipating future challenges and enhancing our capacity to adapt to new threats.

Abstract:

This chapter argues that a philosophical account of human epistemology needs to be complemented by a linguistic one, informed by analytical and empirical experience of cross-linguistic semantics. The author outlines such a complementary account, based on many decades of empirical and analytical research undertaken within the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach. The main conclusion is that KNOW is an indefinable and universal human concept, and that there are four “canonical” frames in which this concept occurs across languages, the most basic one being the “dialogical” frame: “I know,” “I don’t know.” The author contends that both the questions and the answers concerning the “epistemology for the rest of the world” need to be anchored in some conceptual givens, derived neither from historically shaped Anglo English, nor from the European philosophical tradition, but from a more reliable, language- and culture-independent source; and the author shows how this can be done.

Abstract:

This unique learning tool lets students read and listen to a popular folktale, analyze the structure through story mapping, and create a board game based on their analysis. Ever-popular, board games can be an ideal teaching tool. In Stories on Board!: Creating Board Games from Favorite Tales, award-winning storyteller Dianne de Las Casas shows how it’s done, allowing students to create their own board games with a unique method that integrates learning and fun. With Stories on Board!, students read and listen to popular folktales, analyze the structure of the story through story mapping, and then create a board game based on their analysis, engaging their aural, visual, and tactile skills. The lesson culminates in a Game Day in which the students play each other’s games. The technique is a great way to introduce a unit on folktales, covering language arts and social studies.

Abstract:

The global state of democracy in 2023 is complex, fluid and unequal. Across every region of the world, democracy has continued to contract, with declines in at least one indicator of democratic performance in half of the countries covered in the Report. Measured in terms of the areas of improvement and decline within each country, 2022 was the sixth consecutive year in which more countries experienced net declines in democratic processes than net improvements. In short, democracy is still in trouble, stagnant at best, and declining in many places. But there are a few green shoots of hope (notably, corruption falling and surprisingly high levels of political participation). Indeed, while The Global State of Democracy 2023 shows some declines in countries that had been thought to be healthy democracies, at the same time there were encouraging improvements in countries where the level of oppression has been constant for years. Against this background, this year’s Report highlights the role of so-called countervailing institutions in stopping the erosion of democratic institutions and reacting to the entrenchment of authoritarian forces. The term goes beyond the traditional understanding of ‘checks and balances’ to encompass those governmental and non-governmental institutions, organizations and movements that check the aggrandizement of power and balance the distribution of power to ensure that decision makers regularly integrate popular priorities into policy. Countervailing institutions include relatively new entities, such as human rights organizations and electoral management bodies, as well as civil society networks, popular movements and investigative journalists, which all play an irreplaceable role in ensuring democracy continues to be of and by the people. What can be done to address the threats to democracy, both acute and chronic? The Global State of Democracy 2023 policy recommendations include: support for electoral processes, focusing on mechanisms that guarantee fair contests and participation; transparency and access to information in legislatures that would multiply the sources of accountability; full commitment from governments to protect civic space; and legal protections for the independence of institutions that protect elections, investigate corruption and supervise government programmes.

Abstract:

While television has always played a role in recording and curating history, shaping cultural memory, and influencing public sentiment, the changing nature of the medium in the post-network era finds viewers experiencing and participating in this process in new ways. They skim through commercials, live tweet press conferences and award shows, and tune into reality shows to escape reality. This new era, defined by the heightened anxiety and fear ushered in by 9/11, has been documented by our media consumption, production, and reaction. In Small Screen, Big Feels, Melissa Ames asserts that TV has been instrumental in cultivating a shared memory of emotionally charged events unfolding in the United States since September 11, 2001. She analyzes specific shows and genres to illustrate the ways in which cultural fears are embedded into our entertainment in series such as The Walking Dead and Lost or critiqued through programs like The Daily Show. In the final section of the book, Ames provides three audience studies that showcase how viewers consume and circulate emotions in the post-network era: analyses of live tweets from Shonda Rhimes's drama, How to Get Away with Murder (2010--2020), ABC's reality franchises, The Bachelor (2002--present) and The Bachelorette (2003--present), and political coverage of the 2016 Presidential Debates. Though film has been closely studied through the lens of affect theory, little research has been done to apply the same methods to television. Engaging an impressively wide range of texts, genres, media, and formats, Ames offers a trenchant analysis of how televisual programming in the United States responded to and reinforced a cultural climate grounded in fear and anxiety.

Abstract:

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the regulation of the world’s enormous derivatives markets assumed center stage on the international public policy agenda. Critics argued that loose regulation had contributed to the momentous crisis as well as commodity price volatility, market abuse, and, more generally, the growing power and influence of private financial interests. This volume analyzes what has been done since 2008 to reform the regulation of derivatives markets. It examines how the G20 governments developed a coordinated international agenda to enhance public regulatory control over these markets that had been allowed to grow largely unchecked before the crisis. At the same time, the volume shows that it is important not to overstate the degree of change embodied in this post-2008 reform agenda. The G20 governments have focused primarily on enhancing the transparency and resilience of the markets, and they have endorsed some continued delegation of key governance functions to private actors and private rule-making. Moreover, the implementation of the G20 reform agenda has been characterized by unanticipated delays and inconsistencies as well as conflict and regulatory fragmentation between G20 members. The volume shows how these post-crisis regulatory trends—both the emergence of the G20 reform agenda and the difficulties associated with its implementation—have been influenced by a complex combination of transnational, inter-state, and domestic political dynamics.

Abstract:

Many landowners are interested in the native animals that live on their farms or once occurred there. In particular they want to know why particular species are present (or absent), what they can do to encourage them to visit, and what they might do to keep them there. Wildlife on Farms outlines the key features of animal habitats—large flowering trees, hollow trees, ground cover, understorey vegetation, dams and watercourses—and describes why landholders should conserve these habitats to encourage wildlife on their farms. It shows how wildlife conservation can be integrated with farm management and the benefits this can bring. The book presents 29 example species—mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians—that are common to a large part of southern and eastern Australia. Each entry gives the distinguishing features of the animal, key features of its required habitat, and what can be done on a farm to better conserve the species.

Abstract:

This chapter revisits Johann Sebastian Bach’s 1717 report on Johann Scheibe’s organ for St. Paul’s Church at the University of Leipzig. On December 16, 1717, Bach examined the organ “partly newly built and partly renovated” by Scheibe for St. Paul’s Church. Bach’s report, written the following day, is deemed successful by contemporary sources. Scheibe himself said the organ was “found [to be] free of even the smallest major defect,” to which the University agreed. However, Gottfried Silbermann’s early twentieth-century biographer Ernst Flade claimed that Scheibe’s organ was a mediocre instrument and suggested that Silbermann would have built a “masterpiece.” Subsequent writers emphasized what Flade labeled “Bach’s serious concerns” about Scheibe’s organ. Drawing on documents from the Leipzig University Archives, many of them written by Scheibe, this chapter shows that Bach enumerated in his report the organ’s problems that can be immediately fixed, problems about which nothing could be done, and problems likely to be encountered in the future; Bach also offered a vigorous defense of Scheibe.

Abstract:

The unprecedented speed of technological change--impacting all sectors of the economy--is changing how research is done, how companies work and do business, and how governments operate and relate to citizens. Innovation may be open, but it is not free. Innovation procurement does not end with the establishment of a supportive legal framework. To cope with the speed of these changes, systematic and mission-driven investments in science and technology capabilities are critical. At the same time, investments must enhance the capabilities of the public and private sectors to work collaboratively, with a supply and demand focus and a shared vision of the risks and returns on investments. This publication emphasizes the increasingly multidimensional and interconnected knowledge flows to accelerate innovation and endogenous capacities between institutions. It is the second in a series of three IDB documents on innovation procurement and open innovation in Brazil. Through this series, the Bank shows its commitment to investing in science, technology, and innovation and strengthening digital transformation.

Abstract:

This book sheds light on how the study of Islam in the Muslim lands become an exercise in politics and pious apologetics. It also displays the way modern critical historical approach to the Qurʾān is under threat across the world. The author shows the combination of traditional practices, sectarian rivalry, prejudice and outdated attitudes—reflexive censorship, mutual systemic exclusion by Sunni and Shi‘i traditions of each other’s points of view along with lack of interest in work done outside the Middle East and a fixation on a narrow and flawed interpretation of Orientalism, Edward W. Said’s classic study of imperialist cultural representation. It discusses the influence of oil-funded conservative inroads into religious studies programs in the West. It provides readers with a powerful case for understanding the sources and dynamics of “Islamic Apologetics” and the threat to critical historical methodologies particularly in the West as an essential first step toward protecting then strengthening modern scholarship, East and West.