Download or read book Monoculture written by F. S. Michaels and published by Red Clover Press. This book was released on 2011-04-25 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the George Orwell Award. One of The Atlantic's best books of the year. As human beings, we've always told stories: stories about who we are, where we come from, and where we're going. Now imagine that one of those stories is taking over the others, narrowing our diversity and creating a monoculture. Because of the rise of the economic story, six areas of your world - your work, your relationships with others and the environment, your community, your physical and spiritual health, your education, and your creativity - are changing, or have already changed, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. And because how you think shapes how you act, the monoculture isn't just changing your mind - it's changing your life. In Monoculture, F.S. Michaels draws on extensive research and makes surprising connections among disciplines to take a big-picture look at how one story is changing everything. Her research and writing have been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Killam Trusts, and regional and municipal arts councils. Michaels has an MBA, and completed five years of PhD studies in Organizational Analysis. She lives in British Columbia, Canada. "A single lucid narrative that's bound to first make you somewhat uncomfortable and insecure, then give you the kind of pause from which you can step back and move forward with more autonomy, authenticity and mindfulness than ever." - The Atlantic "A thin, enrapturing gem. It's accessible, sensible--exactly the sort of book that should have (and still could + should!) take off and create a tiny little dent in books." - Kenyon Review "A smart and realistic guide to first recognizing the monoculture and the challenges of transcending its limitations." - Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org "I found myself reading non-stop, underlining like crazy...an astute explanation about what I've been feeling recently, something I couldn't put my finger on...[Michaels] writes in clear, energetic prose that's thoughtful, engaging and unforced. She defines and analyzes without judgment or insistence...a breath of fresh air." - NPR "...a singularly brilliant and accessible analysis of some of the fundamental assumptions and driving principles of our time." - Comment Magazine "5 stars: The cause and effect of our world is more surprising than you'd think. With intriguing notions about the driving ideas of stories in every shape of our life, "Monoculture" is an incredibly fascinating way about how the mind works and today's consumer culture." - Midwest Book Review "If you just read one book this year, read this one." - BuriedInPrint.com

Download or read book Autonomy Unbound written by Paul Barry Clarke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-13 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999, this volume examines how the question of autonomy has come to be of recent interest in political theory. The author argues that autonomy goes deep into the Western consciousness and is a part of our very mode of being. He suggests that while autonomy is not universal, once tasted it becomes ineradicable. Autonomy runs deeper than is often thought and this book shows that while autonomy is unique to Western consciousness and to democracy, it raises and examines the question as to whether autonomy is either universally necessary or necessary to democracy.

Download or read book Diversity of Family Farming Around the World written by Pierre-Marie Bosc and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims at explaining the nature and strength of the links between the families and their farms looking at their diversity throughout the world. To do so, it documents family farming diversity by using the sustainable rural livelihood (SRL) framework exploring their ability to adapt and transform to changing environments. In 18 case studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, it shows how family farms resist under adverse conditions, seize new opportunities and permanently transform. Family farms, far from being backwards are potential solutions to face the current challenges and shape a new future for agriculture taking advantage of their local knowledge and capacity to cope with external constraints. Many co-authors of the book have both an empirical and theoretical experience of family farming in developed and developing countries and their related institutions. They specify «what makes and means family» in family farming and the diversity of their expertise draws a wide and original picture of this resilient way of farming throughout the world.

Download or read book Earth Democracy written by Vandana Shiva and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World-renowned environmental activist and physicist Vandana Shiva calls for a radical shift in the values that govern democracies, condemning the role that unrestricted capitalism has played in the destruction of environments and livelihoods. She explores the issues she helped bring to international attention—genetic food engineering, culture theft, and natural resource privatization—uncovering their links to the rising tide of fundamentalism, violence against women, and planetary death. Struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancun and in homes and farms across the world have yielded a set of principles based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons, and freely sharing the earth’s resources. These ideals, which Dr. Shiva calls “Earth Democracy,” serve as an urgent call to peace and as the basis for a just and sustainable future.

Download or read book Communicative Justice in the Pluriverse written by Joan Pedro-Carañana and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-11 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines communicative justice from the perspective of the pluriverse and explores how it is employed to work towards key pluriverse goals of environmental, cognitive, sociocultural, sociopolitical, and political economy justice. The book identifies and explains the unequal power relations in place that limit the possibilities of communication justice, the challenges and difficulties faced by activists and communities, the ways in which communities and movements have confronted power structures through discourse and material action, and their successes and limitations in creating new structures that promote the right to, and facilitate a future for, communicative justice. The volume features contributions based on experiences of resistance and transformation in the Global South—Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Malawi, and collaborations between the continents of Latin America and Africa—as well as notable studies from the Global North—Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom—that defy hegemonic models. This book is essential for students and scholars interested in media and communication activism, media practice for development and social change, and communication for development and social change, as well as those actively engaged with activism and social justice.

Download or read book AI Narratives written by Stephen Cave and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines, featuring contributions from leading humanities and social science scholars who detail the narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) that in turn offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful technologies.

Download or read book Handbook of Anti Environmentalism written by Tindall, David and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thought-provoking Handbook provides a theoretical overview of the wide variety of anti-environmentalisms and offers an integrative research agenda for future research on the topic. Probing the ways in which groups have organized to oppose environmental movements and pro-environmental policies in recent decades, it examines those involved in these countermovements and studies their motivations and support systems. This Handbook explores core topics in the field, including contestation over climate change, wind power, mining, forestry, food sovereignty, oil and gas pipelines and population issues.

Download or read book Unredeemed Land written by Erin Stewart Mauldin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unredeemed Land examines the ways the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves reconfigured the South's natural landscape, revealing the environmental constraints that shaped the rural South's transition to capitalism during the late nineteenth century.

Download or read book Ideology and Atheism in the Soviet Union written by William van den Bercken and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

Download or read book Two Cheers for Anarchism written by James C. Scott and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spirited defense of the anarchist approach to life James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself. Beginning with what Scott calls "the law of anarchist calisthenics," an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation. Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.

Download or read book Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America written by Ben M. McKay and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid the growing calls for a turn towards sustainable agriculture, this book puts forth and discusses the concept of agrarian extractivism to help us identify and expose the predatory extractivist features of dominant agricultural development models. The concept goes beyond the more apparent features of monocultures and raw material exports to examine the inherent logic and underlying workings of a model based on the appropriation of an ever-growing range of commodified and non-commodified human and non-human nature in an extractivist fashion. Such a process erodes the autonomy of resourcedependent working people, dispossesses the rural poor, exhausts and expropriates nature, and concentrates value in a few hands as a result of the unquenchable drive for profit by big business. In many instances, such extractivist dynamics are subsidized and/or directly supported by the state, while also dependent on the unpaid, productive, and reproductive labour of women, children, and elders, exacerbating unequal class, gender, and generational relations. Rather than a one-size-fits-all definition of agrarian extractivism, this collection points to the diversity of extractivist features of corporate-led, external-input-dependent plantation agriculture across distinct socio-ecological formations in Latin America. This timely challenge to the destructive dominant models of agricultural development will interest scholars, activists, researchers, and students from across the fields of critical development studies, rural studies, environmental and sustainability studies, and Latin American studies, among others.

Download or read book Inside the Learning Society written by Stewart Ranson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1998-11-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an approach to the diverse and shifting learning needs of today, the learning society labours under a definitional generosity which has led to three different models evolving with competing claims. This book traces the history of the concept and lucidly lays out these three interpretive models: learning for work, learning for citizenship and learning for democracy. The book's close scrutiny concludes with an analysis that synthesizes and sharpens our understanding of the learning society. With due consideration given to the emerging critique and with chapters from public bodies engaged in implementing learning society principles, Inside the Learning Society offers a comprehensive appraisal of ideas and practices. This is a book of great significance for anyone concerned about or involved in the future of education.

Download or read book The Politics of Palm Oil Harm written by Hanneke Mol and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the politics of harm in the context of palm oil production in Colombia, with a primary focus on the Pacific coast region. Globally, the palm oil industry is associated with practices that fit the most conventional definitions and perceptions of crime, but also crucially, forms of social and environmental harm that do not fit strictly legalistic definitions and understandings of crime. Drawing on rich field-based data from the region, Mol contributes empirically to an awareness of the constructions, practices, and the lived and perceived realities of harm related to palm oil production. She advances criminological debate around ‘harm’ by putting forward a theoretical and analytical approach that redirects the debate from a central concern with the academic contestedness of harm within criminology, towards a focus on the ‘on-the-ground’ contestedness of palm oil-related harm in Colombia. Detailed analysis and arresting conclusions ensure this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of Green and Critical Criminology, Environmental Sociology, and International and Critical Development Studies.

Download or read book The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America written by A. Dinerstein and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-12-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author contests older concepts of autonomy as either revolutionary or ineffective vis-à-vis the state. Looking at four prominent Latin American movements, she defines autonomy as 'the art of organising hope': a tool for indigenous and non-indigenous movements to prefigure alternative realities at a time when utopia can be no longer objected.

Download or read book Everyday Forms of State Formation written by Gilbert Michael Joseph and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyday Forms of State Formation is the first book to systematically examine the relationship between popular cultures and state formation in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Mexico. While most accounts have emphasized either the role of peasants and peasant rebellions or that of state formation in Mexico's past, these original essays reveal the state's day-to-day engagement with grassroots society by examining popular cultures and forms of the state simultaneously and in relation to one another. Structured in the form of a dialogue between a distinguished array of Mexicanists and comparative social theorists, this volume boldly reassesses past analyses of the Mexican revolution and suggests new directions for future study. Showcasing a wealth of original archival and ethnographic research, this collection provides a new and deeper understanding of Mexico's revolutionary experience. It also speaks more broadly to a problem of extraordinary contemporary relevance: the manner in which local societies and self-proclaimed "revolutionary" states are articulated historically. The result is a unique collection bridging social history, anthropology, historical sociology, and cultural studies in its formulation of new approaches for rethinking the multifaceted relationship between power, culture, and resistance. Contributors. Ana María Alonso, Armando Bartra, Marjorie Becker, Barry Carr, Philip Corrigan, Romana Falcón, Gilbert M. Joseph, Alan Knight, Florencia E. Mallon, Daniel Nugent, Elsie Rockwell, William Roseberry, Jan Rus, Derek Sayer, James C. Scott

Download or read book If Mayors Ruled the World written by Benjamin R. Barber and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the face of the most perilous challenges of our time--climate change, terrorism, poverty, and trafficking of drugs, guns, and people--the nations of the world seem paralyzed. The problems are too big for governments to deal with. Benjamin Barber contends that cities, and the mayors who run them, can do and are doing a better job than nations. He cites the unique qualities cities worldwide share: pragmatism, civic trust, participation, indifference to borders and sovereignty, and a democratic penchant for networking, creativity, innovation, and cooperation. He demonstrates how city mayors, singly and jointly, are responding to transnational problems more effectively than nation-states mired in ideological infighting and sovereign rivalries. The book features profiles of a dozen mayors around the world, making a persuasive case that the city is democracy's best hope in a globalizing world, and that great mayors are already proving that this is so"--

Download or read book Fundamentals of Enterprise Architecture Management written by Jörg Ziemann and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-22 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook provides a comprehensive, holistic, scientifically precise, and practically relevant description of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM). Based on state-of-the-art concepts, it also addresses current trends like disruptive digitization or agile methods. The book is structured in five chapters. The first chapter offers a comprehensive overview of EAM. It addresses questions like: what does EAM mean, what is the history of EAM, why do enterprises need EAM, what are its goals, and how is it related to digitalization? It also includes a short overview of essential EAM standards and literature. The second chapter provides an overview of Enterprise Architecture (EA). It starts with clarifying basic terminology and the difference between EA and EAM. It also gives a short summary of existing EA frameworks and methods for structuring the digital ecosystem into layers and views. The third chapter addresses the strategic and tactical context of the EAM capability in an enterprise. It defines essential terms and parameters in the context of enterprise strategy and tactics as well as the operative, organizational context of EAM. The fourth chapter specifies the detailed goals, processes, functions, artifacts, roles and tools of EAM, building the basis for an EAM process framework that provides a comprehensive overview of EAM processes and functions. Closing the circle, the last chapter describes how to evaluate EAM in an enterprise. It starts by laying out core terminology, like “metric” and “strategic performance measurement system” and ends with a framework that integrates the various measuring areas in the context of EA and EAM. This textbook focuses on two groups: First, EAM scholars, ie bachelor or master students of Business Information Systems, Business Administration or Computer Science. And second, EAM practitioners working in the field of IT strategy or EA who need a reliable, scientifically solid, and practically proven state-of-the-art description of essential EAM methods.