Download or read book The Ivory Tower of Babel written by David Demers and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mainstream social science has come under fierce criticism in recent decades for failing to have more impact on public policy. Critics say the social sciences are incapable of generating knowledge that can solve social problems. Others contend that partisan politics and university administrations are the problem. Politicians are more concerned about special interests than scientific research, and administrators care more about scholarly publications than solving social problems. Are the social sciences failing to live up to their promises? Have they outlived their usefulness? Have they become an Ivory Tower of Babel? Like the Babylonians, who built the infamous Tower of Babel, social scientists for the past two centuries have been building a tower of sorts, only this time it's composed of knowledge rather than bricks. The primary goal of these scholars — anthropologists, communication scholars, economists, political scientists, sociologists and social psychologists — has been to solve problems of social integration. The Babylonian tower was designed in part to unite people to one geographical area. Similarly, social scientists see their tower of knowledge as a means for solving social problems — such as poverty, crime, drug abuse, inequality, unemployment, abuse of power — that alienate people and groups from modern society. The Babylonians failed because of divine intervention, according to the Bible. The social scientists aren't finished building their tower. But, according to critics, the results so far look less like a tower of knowledge for solving social problems than an "Ivory Tower of Babel" — one in which social scientists routinely dispute each other's theories and data, and even uncontested or well-supported findings rarely influence public policy. Disputes over the nature of truth and knowledge are so commonplace in the social sciences that many scholars believe a social science which uses methods from the natural sciences is incapable of generating knowledge that can solve social problems. This book examines the history and philosophy of the social sciences and theoretical and empirical research on the impact of social science. Suggestions are offered at the end for enhancing the impact of the social sciences. A number of scientific articles and books have been written about the impact (or lack thereof) of the social sciences on public policy, but none has been written specifically to appeal to both academics and a broader market composed of the general public and students in both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. The author takes the reader on a journey inside one of the best kept secrets in higher education — that much, if not most, of the research conducted in the social sciences has very little impact on public policy or on solving social problems. Are taxpayers getting their money's worth?
Download or read book Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel written by Mike S. Adams and published by Harbor House. This book was released on 2004 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adams lampoons sacred liberal cows such as affirmative action, ethnocentrism, Gay Pride, cultural insensitivity training, multiculturalism and censorship.
Download or read book Babel and the Ivory Tower written by William David Shaw and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing at the time of his retirement from an academia that after four decades has become unfamiliar, Shaw (English, U. of Toronto), says in a society where book learning is an anomaly, scholars must breach the citadel of computer wizards and technicians by combining their knowledge of books with the rebel's power to criticize authority, the prophet's power to renew tradition, and the poet's power to create a world that is no less true for being a vision. He insists that scientists, scholars, and professional practitioners must learn from each other. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Download or read book The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter written by Lana A. Whited and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paper, The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter is the first book-length analysis of J. K. Rowling's work from a broad range of perspectives within literature, folklore, psychology, sociology, and popular culture. A significant portion of the book explores the Harry Potter series' literary ancestors, including magic and fantasy works by Ursula K. LeGuin, Monica Furlong, Jill Murphy, and others, as well as previous works about the British boarding school experience. Other chapters explore the moral and ethical dimensions of Harry's world, including objections to the series raised within some religious circles. In her new epilogue, Lana A. Whited brings this volume up to date by covering Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Download or read book Trembling in the Ivory Tower written by Kenneth Lasson and published by Bancroft Press. This book was released on 2003-03 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this gem of a book, scholar and wit Kenneth Lasson takes on all manner of excesses in the Ivory Tower which, from his insider's viewpoint, constitute little less than a full-scale assault on American values and mores. The ideological warfare is being waged by a slew of vociferous academicians whose predominance is manifested by stifling academic bureaucracies, radical feminist and deconstructionist faculties, and overbearing speech and conduct codesall in invidious pursuit of narrow but pervasive political agendas. Lasson uses his sharply pointed pen to skewer both the powerful and the petty, from perpetually outraged law professors and would-be literati to ethnic hatemongers with tenure. Colleges and universities, Lasson reminds us, are not intellectual playgrounds, but training places for future social, political, and artistic leadersso what's said and not said on those campuses have a far-reaching effect on every one of us. We depend on academic institutions to take our best and brightest and nurture them to think creatively and independently.What's happening, however, is often just the opposite: the purposeful establishment of anti-establishment bias, a closely-guarded breeding ground in which students and professors are too intimidated to challenge extremist ideas. Lasson argues that there is nothing wrong with liberal and multi-cultural approaches to education, so long as they are presented fairly and in a broadly inclusive context. In what is the only truly funny scholarly book to hit the shelves. Trembling in the Ivory Tower ponders the questions many of us should be asking, and supplies the answers we should be demanding: Why have universities apparently abandoned the concept of vigorous debate in an open marketplace of ideas? Why has no university speech or conduct code yet survived a constitutional challenge? Why are senior professors increasingly being charged with creating hostile environments despite emerging victorious whenever they challenge their arbitrary punishments in court? In an age of easy catch phrases, media hype, and watered down scholarship, Trembling in the Ivory Tower is a welcome breath of fresh air that pays homage to original, not merely popular, thought.
Download or read book Cultures and Globalization written by Helmut K Anheier and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ′This volume of one of the most comprehensive in the field. Its three themes are critical for the study of culture and globalization with its condensation of space, time and memory. Exploring the intersection between these three processes, the essays are learned, deeply researched and insightful, and the comparative range is impressive. The volume is certain to become a standard reference text for scholars and the general reader alike′ - Professor Stuart Hall, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, The Open University Heritage, memory and identity are closely connected keywords of our time, each endowed with considerable rhetorical power. Different human groups define certain objects and practices as ′heritage′; they envision heritage to reflect some form of collective memory, either lived or imagined; and they combine both to construct cultural identities. Today, the three terms raise conjoined issues of practice, policy and politics in an increasingly globalized world. Bringing together a truly global range of scholars, this volume explores heritage, memory and identity through a diverse set of subjects, including heritage sites, practices of memorialization, museums, sites of contestation, and human rights.
Download or read book The Failure of Risk Management written by Douglas W. Hubbard and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential guide to the calibrated risk analysis approach The Failure of Risk Management takes a close look at misused and misapplied basic analysis methods and shows how some of the most popular "risk management" methods are no better than astrology! Using examples from the 2008 credit crisis, natural disasters, outsourcing to China, engineering disasters, and more, Hubbard reveals critical flaws in risk management methods–and shows how all of these problems can be fixed. The solutions involve combinations of scientifically proven and frequently used methods from nuclear power, exploratory oil, and other areas of business and government. Finally, Hubbard explains how new forms of collaboration across all industries and government can improve risk management in every field. Douglas W. Hubbard (Glen Ellyn, IL) is the inventor of Applied Information Economics (AIE) and the author of Wiley's How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business (978-0-470-11012-6), the #1 bestseller in business math on Amazon. He has applied innovative risk assessment and risk management methods in government and corporations since 1994. "Doug Hubbard, a recognized expert among experts in the field of risk management, covers the entire spectrum of risk management in this invaluable guide. There are specific value-added take aways in each chapter that are sure to enrich all readers including IT, business management, students, and academics alike" —Peter Julian, former chief-information officer of the New York Metro Transit Authority. President of Alliance Group consulting "In his trademark style, Doug asks the tough questions on risk management. A must-read not only for analysts, but also for the executive who is making critical business decisions." —Jim Franklin, VP Enterprise Performance Management and General Manager, Crystal Ball Global Business Unit, Oracle Corporation.
Download or read book Longing in a Culture of Cynicism written by Stephan van Erp and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through current expressions of religion, people are confronted with all kinds of longings and desires which have no place in a rationalised and alienated culture. At the same time, these longings are seeking and finding opportunities for expression. How to understand this cultural ambiguity? The authors in this volume explore the possibilities of a rationality beyond rationalism, reflecting beyond the borders of human imagination on the hidden God.
Download or read book Tarot for Writers written by Corrine Kenner and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2009 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once reserved for mystics and seers, the tarot is one of the best tools for boosting your creativity and shifting your imagination into high gear. Famous authors such as John Steinbeck and Stephen King have used the tarot deck to tap into deep wells of inspiration, and you can enliven your own writing the same way--whether you craft short stories, novels, poetry, nonfiction, or even business proposals. This book on reading tarot cards and applying them to your writing will guide you through each stage of the creative process, from fleshing out a premise to promoting a finished work. Enhance your storytelling technique through over 500 enjoyable writing prompts, exploratory games for groups and individuals, tarot journaling, and other idea-stimulating activities that call upon the archetypal imagery and multi-layered symbolism in the tarot. Infuse flair and originality into your work as you learn to: Interpret symbols, myths, and learn to read all seventy-eight cards in the tarot card deck Use classic tarot layouts and spreads to structure your story Brainstorm story ideas and develop dialogue and plot Create detailed settings, powerful scenes, and dynamic characters Overcome writer's block and breathe new life into existing projects As a writer, you hold the power of creation in your hands. By exploring the tarot and incorporating it into your writing practice, you will set your creative potential soaring to new heights.
Download or read book Babel s Tower Translated written by Phillip Michael Sherman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Babel's Tower Translated, Phillip Sherman explores the narrative of Genesis 11 and its reception and interpretation in several Second Temple and Early Rabbinic texts (e.g., Jubilees, Philo, Genesis Rabbah). The account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is famously ambiguous. The meaning of the narrative and the actions of both the human characters and the Israelite deity defy any easy explanation. This work explores how changing historical and hermeneutical realities altered and shifted the meaning of the text in Jewish antiquity.
Download or read book Bankers in the Ivory Tower written by Charlie Eaton and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-02-25 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exposes the intimate relationship between big finance and higher education inequality in America. Elite colleges have long played a crucial role in maintaining social and class status in America while public universities have offered a major stepping-stone to new economic opportunities. However, as Charlie Eaton reveals in Bankers in the Ivory Tower, finance has played a central role in the widening inequality in recent decades, both in American higher education and in American society at large. With federal and state funding falling short, the US higher education system has become increasingly dependent on financial markets and the financiers that mediate them. Beginning in the 1980s, the government, colleges, students, and their families took on multiple new roles as financial investors, borrowers, and brokers. The turn to finance, however, has yielded wildly unequal results. At the top, ties to Wall Street help the most elite private schools achieve the greatest endowment growth through hedge fund investments and the support of wealthy donors. At the bottom, takeovers by private equity transform for-profit colleges into predatory organizations that leave disadvantaged students with massive loan debt and few educational benefits. And in the middle, public universities are squeezed between incentives to increase tuition and pressures to maintain access and affordability. Eaton chronicles these transformations, making clear for the first time just how tight the links are between powerful financiers and America’s unequal system of higher education.
Download or read book The Neverending Story written by Michael Ende and published by hockebooks. This book was released on 2022-06-02 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To this day, The Neverending Story inspires readers around the world and awakens in them a longing to travel into the realm of fantasy themselves. But how can one find one’s way in a land without borders? Can its secrets be fathomed? Patrick Hocke and Roman Hocke open the door to Fantastica with this encyclopedia. The authors have researched Michael Ende’s world, scoured archives, and collected original quotations. They invite the reader on a journey to visit beloved and unknown creatures, to beautiful and eerie places in Fantastica.
Download or read book African Intellectuals in the Post colonial World written by Fetson A Kalua and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-28 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role of African intellectuals in the years since the end of colonialism, studying the contribution that has been made by such individuals, both to political causes and to development within Africa. Studying the concept of the "intellectual" within an African context, this book explores the responses of such individuals to crucial issues, such as cultural identity and knowledge production. The author argues that since the end of colonialism in Africa, various, often intertwining, factors, such as nationalism and co-option, have been used by black politicians or the political elites to muddle the roles and functions of black African intellectuals. Focusing on these confused roles and functions, the book posits that, over the years, most intellectuals in Africa have found the practice of "cheerleading" for a political cause more productive than making valuable contributions towards dynamic and progressive leadership in their countries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African studies, politics, and development studies.
Download or read book A Companion to the History of the Book written by Simon Eliot and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A COMPANION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK A COMPANION TO THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK Edited by Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose “As a stimulating overview of the multidimensional present state of the field, the Companion has no peer.” Choice “If you want to understand how cultures come into being, endure, and change, then you need to come to terms with the rich and often surprising history Of the book ... Eliot and Rose have done a fine job. Their volume can be heartily recommended. “ Adrian Johns, Technology and Culture From the early Sumerian clay tablet through to the emergence of the electronic text, this Companion provides a continuous and coherent account of the history of the book. A team of expert contributors draws on the latest research in order to offer a cogent, transcontinental narrative. Many of them use illustrative examples and case studies of well-known texts, conveying the excitement surrounding this rapidly developing field. The Companion is organized around four distinct approaches to the history of the book. First, it introduces the variety of methods used by book historians and allied specialists, from the long-established discipline of bibliography to newer IT-based approaches. Next, it provides a broad chronological survey of the forms and content of texts. The third section situates the book in the context of text culture as a whole, while the final section addresses broader issues, such as literacy, copyright, and the future of the book. Contributors to this volume: Michael Albin, Martin Andrews, Rob Banham, Megan L Benton, Michelle P. Brown, Marie-Frangoise Cachin, Hortensia Calvo, Charles Chadwyck-Healey, M. T. Clanchy, Stephen Colclough, Patricia Crain, J. S. Edgren, Simon Eliot, John Feather, David Finkelstein, David Greetham, Robert A. Gross, Deana Heath, Lotte Hellinga, T. H. Howard-Hill, Peter Kornicki, Beth Luey, Paul Luna, Russell L. Martin Ill, Jean-Yves Mollier, Angus Phillips, Eleanor Robson, Cornelia Roemer, Jonathan Rose, Emile G. L Schrijver, David J. Shaw, Graham Shaw, Claire Squires, Rietje van Vliet, James Wald, Rowan Watson, Alexis Weedon, Adriaan van der Weel, Wayne A. Wiegand, Eva Hemmungs Wirtén.
Download or read book The Evolution of Winnicott s Thinking written by Margaret Boyle Spelman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens to the thinking of a thinker who refuses a discipleship? This book attempts to answer this question in relation to D. W. Winnicott and the evolution of his thinking. He eschewed a following, privileging the independence of his thinking and fostering the same in others. However Winnicott's thinking exerts a growing influence in areas including psychoanalysis, psychology, and human development. This book looks at the nature of Winnicott's thought and its influence. It first examines the development of Winnicott's thinking through his own life time (first generation) and then continues this exploration by viewing the thinking in members of the group with a strong likelihood of influence from him; his analysands (second generation) and their analysands (third generation).
Download or read book Developing Teachers and Teaching Practice written by Christopher Day and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-01-14 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pressure is increasing on all those involved in education, from teachers to policy-makers, to transform schools as organisations, while continuing to implement effective new approaches to teaching and learning. The demand is not only to reach attained targets, but also to be accountable for teaching methods. Developing Teachers and Teaching Practice brings together a selection of papers given at the ninth conference of the International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT). The collection takes as a central theme the issue of education as a key concern within the international rhetoric of globalisation. The book offers insights in to the nature of teaching and learning, including the key new research area of emotions. It then goes on to explore the nature of teacher learning before looking at the impact of major policy initiatives on the work of teachers internationally. Developing Teachers and Teaching Practice contains contributions from some of the best-known academics in the field, and will be of great interest to teacher educators and educational researchers around the world.
Download or read book Latin American Vanguards written by Vicky Unruh and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1994-12-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[This book] will become the standard reference on the Latin American vanguard. The time was ripe for an ambitious undertaking like this one, and Unruh does not disappoint."—Gustavo Pérez-Firmat, Duke University
