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The Weil Conjectures: On Math and the Pursuit of the Unknown
by Karen OlssonA New York Times Editors' Pick and Paris Review Staff Pick"A wonderful book." --Patti Smith"I was riveted. Olsson is evocative on curiosity as an appetite of the mind, on the pleasure of glutting oneself on knowledge." --Parul Sehgal, The New York TimesAn eloquent blend of memoir and biography exploring the Weil siblings, math, and creative inspirationKaren Olsson’s stirring and unusual third book, The Weil Conjectures, tells the story of the brilliant Weil siblings—Simone, a philosopher, mystic, and social activist, and André, an influential mathematician—while also recalling the years Olsson spent studying math. As she delves into the lives of these two singular French thinkers, she grapples with their intellectual obsessions and rekindles one of her own. For Olsson, as a math major in college and a writer now, it’s the odd detours that lead to discovery, to moments of insight. Thus The Weil Conjectures—an elegant blend of biography and memoir and a meditation on the creative life.Personal, revealing, and approachable, The Weil Conjectures eloquently explores math as it relates to intellectual history, and shows how sometimes the most inexplicable pursuits turn out to be the most rewarding.
Weimar: A Jurisprudence of Crisis
by Arthur J. Jacobson Bernhard SchlinkThis selection of the major works of constitutional theory during the Weimar period reflects the reactions of legal scholars to a state in permanent crisis, a society in which all bets were off.
Weimar on the Pacific: German Exile Culture in Los Angeles and the Crisis of Modernism
by Ehrhard BahrIn the 1930s and 40s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals - including Thomas Mann, Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenberg - who were fleeing Nazi Germany. This book examines as a group the work and lives of these artists and intellectuals.
The Weimar Origins of Rhetorical Inquiry
by David L. MarshallThe Weimar origins of political theory is a widespread and powerful narrative, but this singular focus leaves out another intellectual history that historian David L. Marshall works to reveal: the Weimar origins of rhetorical inquiry. Marshall focuses his attention on Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Aby Warburg, revealing how these influential thinkers inflected and transformed problems originally set out by Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, Theodor Adorno, Hans Baron, and Leo Strauss. He contends that we miss major opportunities if we do not attend to the rhetorical aspects of their thought, and his aim, in the end, is to lay out an intellectual history that can become a zone of theoretical experimentation in para-democratic times. Redescribing the Weimar origins of political theory in terms of rhetorical inquiry, Marshall provides fresh readings of pivotal thinkers and argues that the vision of rhetorical inquiry that they open up allows for new ways of imagining political communities today.
Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy
by Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormickA comprehensive look at the intellectual and cultural innovations of the Weimar periodDuring its short lifespan, the Weimar Republic (1918–33) witnessed an unprecedented flowering of achievements in many areas, including psychology, political theory, physics, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism, and the arts. Leading intellectuals, scholars, and critics—such as Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Martin Heidegger—emerged during this time to become the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century. Even today, the Weimar era remains a vital resource for new intellectual movements. In this incomparable collection, Weimar Thought presents both the specialist and the general reader a comprehensive guide and unified portrait of the most important innovators, themes, and trends of this fascinating period.The book is divided into four thematic sections: law, politics, and society; philosophy, theology, and science; aesthetics, literature, and film; and general cultural and social themes of the Weimar period. The volume brings together established and emerging scholars from a remarkable array of fields, and each individual essay serves as an overview for a particular discipline while offering distinctive critical engagement with relevant problems and debates.Whether used as an introductory companion or advanced scholarly resource, Weimar Thought provides insight into the rich developments behind the intellectual foundations of modernity.
Weird Fiction: A Genre Study
by Michael CiscoWeird Fiction: A Genre Study presents a comprehensive, contemporary analysis of the genre of weird fiction by identifying the concepts that influence and produce it. Focusing on the sources of narrative content—how the content is produced and what makes something weird—Michael Cisco engages with theories from Deleuze and Guattari to explain how genres work and to understand the relationship between identity and the ordinary. Cisco also uses these theories to examine the supernatural not merely as a horde of tropes, but as a recognition of the infinity of experience in defiance of limiting norms. The book also traces the sociopolitical implications of weird fiction, studying the differentiation of major and minor literatures. Through an articulated theoretical model and close textual analysis, readers will learn not only what weird fiction is, but how and why it is produced.
Weird John Brown: Divine Violence and the Limits of Ethics (Encountering Traditions)
by Ted A. SmithConventional wisdom holds that attempts to combine religion and politics will produce unlimited violence. Concepts such as jihad, crusade, and sacrifice need to be rooted out, the story goes, for the sake of more bounded and secular understandings of violence. Ted Smith upends this dominant view, drawing on Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and others to trace the ways that seemingly secular politics produce their own forms of violence without limit. He brings this argument to life-and digs deep into the American political imagination-through a string of surprising reflections on John Brown, the nineteenth-century abolitionist who took up arms against the state in the name of a higher law. Smith argues that the key to limiting violence is not its separation from religion, but its connection to richer and more critical modes of religious reflection. Weird John Brown develops a negative political theology that challenges both the ways we remember American history and the ways we think about the nature, meaning, and exercise of violence.
Weird Math: A Teenage Genius and His Teacher Reveal the Strange Connections Between Math and Everyday Life
by David Darling Agnijo BanerjeeA successful science writer and a teenage math prodigy reveal the complex mathematics that is all around usEveryone has stared at the crumpled page of a math assignment and wondered, where on Earth will I ever use this? It turns out, Earth is precisely the place. As teen math prodigy Agnijo Banerjee and his teacher David Darling reveal, complex math surrounds us. If we think long enough about the universe, we're left not with material stuff, but a ghostly and beautiful set of equations. Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts, and surprising solutions, Weird Math leads us from a lyrical exploration of mathematics in our universe to profound questions about God, chance, and infinity. A magical introduction to the mysteries of math, it will entrance beginners and seasoned mathematicians alike.
Weird Maths: At the Edge of Infinity and Beyond
by David Darling Agnijo BanerjeeIs anything truly random? Does infinity actually exist? Could we ever see into other dimensions? In this delightful journey of discovery, David Darling and extraordinary child prodigy Agnijo Banerjee draw connections between the cutting edge of modern maths and life as we understand it, delving into the strange – would we like alien music? – and venturing out on quests to consider the existence of free will and the fantastical future of quantum computers. Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts and surprising solutions, this is for anyone who wants life&’s questions answered – even those you never thought to ask.
Weird Wonder in Merleau-Ponty, Object-Oriented Ontology, and New Materialism
by Brian Hisao OnishiThis book connects recent developments in speculative realism, new materialism, and eco-phenomenology to articulate an approach to wonder that escapes the connected traps of anthropocentrism and correlationism. Brian Onishi argues that wonder has explanatory power for the constitution of the world and the organization of meaning. To do this, he appeals to both fiction (speculative and Weird fiction in particular) and quantum physics. More specifically, he argues that the focus of Weird fiction on impossible experiences and a feeling of something just beyond the limits of one’s grasp dramatizes the speculative reach beyond the limits of our understanding. But more than a tool for knowledge acquisition, wonder is an organizing property of objects. Like the collapse of superposition in quantum physics, reality is constituted when objects reveal themselves to other objects and thereby organize themselves into complex objects. Since no relation is exhaustive, the capacity to wonder remains at a material level, and the possibility of reorganization is ever present. Ultimately, Onishi argues for a speculative eco-phenomenology with wonder as an engine for a Weird environmental ethics.
Weirder Maths: At the Edge of the Possible
by David Darling Agnijo BanerjeeEven the most enthusiastic of maths students probably at one time wondered when exactly it would all prove useful in &‘real life&’. Well, maths reaches so far and wide through our world that, love it or hate it, we&’re all doing maths almost every minute of every day. David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee go in search of the perfect labyrinth, journey back to the second century in pursuit of &‘bubble maths&’, reveal the weirdest mathematicians in history and transform the bewildering into the beautiful, delighting us once again.
Weirdest Maths: At the Frontiers of Reason
by David Darling Agnijo BanerjeeMaths is everywhere, in everything. It&’s in the finest margins of modern sport. It&’s in the electrical pulses of our hearts and the flight of every bird. It is our key to secret messages, lost languages and perhaps even the shape of the universe of itself. David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee reveal the mathematics at the farthest reaches of our world – from its role in the plots of novels to how animals employ numerical skills to survive. Along the way they explore what makes a genius, why a seemingly simple problem can confound the best and brightest for decades, and what might be the great discovery of the twenty-first century. As Bertrand Russell once said, &‘mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty&’. Banerjee and Darling make sure we see it right again.
The Weirdness of Being: Heidegger's Unheard Answer to the Seinsfrage
by Ivo De GennaroThe ongoing publication of Heidegger's complete works has called into question the interpretive and translative practices that have historicized Heidegger's thinking through the adaptation of categories and mind-sets inherited from metaphysics. Ivo De Gennaro argues that the posthumous treatises in particular - many of which have yet to be translated into English - show that the "other onset of thinking" that Being and Time inaugurated and which those historicizing accounts have interpreted and translated away, has already taken place. This book, on the other hand, speaks solely from that other onset, that of being itself. While arguing the "one-pointedness" of Heidegger's entire path of thinking, De Gennaro draws mainly on the posthumous treatises to offer both a provisional exploration of, and an introduction to, a thinking whose sense and implications have barely begun to emerge. This challenging and original interpretation marks an important contribution to Heidegger scholarship.
The Weirdness of the World
by Eric SchwitzgebelHow all philosophical explanations of human consciousness and the fundamental structure of the cosmos are bizarre—and why that&’s a good thingDo we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing? Is consciousness a purely physical matter, or might it require something extra, something nonphysical? According to the philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, it&’s hard to say. In The Weirdness of the World, Schwitzgebel argues that the answers to these fundamental questions lie beyond our powers of comprehension. We can be certain only that the truth—whatever it is—is weird. Philosophy, he proposes, can aim to open—to reveal possibilities we had not previously appreciated—or to close, to narrow down to the one correct theory of the phenomenon in question. Schwitzgebel argues for a philosophy that opens.According to Schwitzgebel&’s &“Universal Bizarreness&” thesis, every possible theory of the relation of mind and cosmos defies common sense. According to his complementary &“Universal Dubiety&” thesis, no general theory of the relationship between mind and cosmos compels rational belief. Might the United States be a conscious organism—a conscious group mind with approximately the intelligence of a rabbit? Might virtually every action we perform cause virtually every possible type of future event, echoing down through the infinite future of an infinite universe? What, if anything, is it like to be a garden snail? Schwitzgebel makes a persuasive case for the thrill of considering the most bizarre philosophical possibilities.
Weiwei-isms (ISMs #1)
by Ai WeiweiThe quotable Ai WeiweiThis collection of quotes demonstrates the elegant simplicity of Ai Weiwei's thoughts on key aspects of his art, politics, and life. A master at communicating powerful ideas in astonishingly few words, Ai Weiwei is known for his innovative use of social media to disseminate his views. The short quotations presented here have been carefully selected from articles, tweets, and interviews given by this acclaimed Chinese artist and activist. The book is organized into six categories: freedom of expression; art and activism; government, power, and moral choices; the digital world; history, the historical moment, and the future; and personal reflections.Together, these quotes span some of the most revealing moments of Ai Weiwei's eventful career—from his risky investigation into student deaths in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to his arbitrary arrest in 2011—providing a window into the mind of one of the world's most electrifying and courageous contemporary artists.Select Quotes from the Book:On Freedom of Expression"Say what you need to say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.""A small act is worth a million thoughts.""Liberty is about our rights to question everything."On Art and Activism"Everything is art. Everything is politics.""The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.""Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don't feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy."On Government, Power, and Making Moral Choice"Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.""I feel powerless all the time, but I regain my energy by making a very small difference that won't cost me much.""Tips on surviving the regime: Respect yourself and speak for others. Do one small thing every day to prove the existence of justice."On the Digital World"Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.""The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.""The Internet is the best thing that could have happened to China."On History, the Historical Moment, and the Future"If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.""We need to get out of the old language.""The world is a sphere, there is no East or West."Personal Reflection"I've never planned any part of my career—except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom.""Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.""Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it."
Welche Natur? Und welche Literatur?: Traditionen, Wandlungen und Perspektiven des Nature Writing (Ecocriticism. Literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftliche Perspektiven #1)
by Tanja Van Hoorn Ludwig FischerMit diesem Band gewinnt die deutschsprachige Forschung transdisziplinär Anschluss an die internationalen Nature Writing-Diskussionen. Der Sammelband sondiert das Feld des Nature Writing hinsichtlich der Frage, welche Natur dabei in den unterschiedlichen historisch-kulturellen Konstellationen in jeweils welcher spezifischen literarischen Textur zur Darstellung kommt. Programmatisch-konzeptionell stehen damit nicht zuletzt die (möglicherweise verdeckt normativen) Naturvorstellungen des klassischen und rezenten Nature Writing zur Diskussion. Dies wird in exemplarischen Lektüren untersucht, etwa, indem die Kategorien einer ›unberührten‹ Natur bzw. des ›Wilden‹ – auch im Kontext des sogenannten Rewilding – problematisiert oder aber die ästhetisch geformte Darstellung zivilisatorisch veränderter, sei es anthropogen zerstörter, sei es gärtnerischer gestalteter Natur analysiert wird. Präsentiert werden Beiträge aus amerikanistischer, germanistischer, philosophischer und biologiegeschichtlicher Perspektive zu prominenten Vertreter*innen des englischsprachigen Nature Writing (Henry David Thoreau, Val Plumwood u.a.) ebenso wie zu indigenem Natur-Wissen (Robin Wall Kimmerer) und zu Werken deutschsprachiger naturaffiner Autor*innen der Tradition (Adalbert von Chamisso) und Gegenwart (z.B. Ulrike Draesner, Esther Kinsky und W.G. Sebald). Die Untersuchungen ästhetischer Natur-Darstellungsverfahren erfolgen in close readings sowie im Horizont von politischer Ökologie, New Materialism, Ecocriticism, den seit geraumer Zeit gerade in England geführten Diskussionen zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen eines New Nature Writing und den jüngsten Bestrebungen, die verschüttete Linie eines deutschsprachigen Nature Writing zu rekonstruieren.
Welcoming Finitude: Toward a Phenomenology of Orthodox Liturgy (Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought)
by Christina M. GschwandtnerWhat does it mean to experience and engage in religious ritual? How does liturgy structure time and space? How do our bodies move within liturgy, and what impact does it have on our senses? How does the experience of ritual affect us and shape our emotions or dispositions? How is liturgy experienced as a communal event, and how does it form the identity of those who participate in it? Welcoming Finitude explores these broader questions about religious experience by focusing on the manifestation of liturgical experience in the Eastern Christian tradition. Drawing on the methodological tools of contemporary phenomenology and on insights from liturgical theology, the book constitutes a philosophical exploration of Orthodox liturgical experience.
Welfare and Rational Care (Princeton Monographs in Philosophy #12)
by Stephen DarwallWhat kind of life best ensures human welfare? Since the ancient Greeks, this question has been as central to ethical philosophy as to ordinary reflection. But what exactly is welfare? This question has suffered from relative neglect. And, as Stephen Darwall shows, it has done so at a price. Presenting a provocative new "rational care theory of welfare," Darwall proves that a proper understanding of welfare fundamentally changes how we think about what is best for people. Most philosophers have assumed that a person's welfare is what is good from her point of view, namely, what she has a distinctive reason to pursue. In the now standard terminology, welfare is assumed to have an "agent-relative normativity." Darwall by contrast argues that someone's good is what one should want for that person insofar as one cares for her. Welfare, in other words, is normative, but not peculiarly for the person whose welfare is at stake. In addition, Darwall makes the radical proposal that something's contributing to someone's welfare is the same thing as its being something one ought to want for her own sake, insofar as one cares. Darwall defends this theory with clarity, precision, and elegance, and with a subtle understanding of the place of sympathetic concern in the rich psychology of sympathy and empathy. His forceful arguments will change how we understand a concept central to ethics and our understanding of human bonds and human choices.
Welfare Economics and Antitrust Policy - Vol. I: Economic, Moral, and Legal Concepts and Oligopolistic and Predatory Conduct
by Richard S. MarkovitsThis book is Volume I of a two-volume set on antitrust policy, analyzing the economic efficiency and moral desirability of various tests for antitrust legality, including those promulgated by US and EU antitrust law. The overall study consists of three parts. Part I (Chapters 1-8) introduces readers to the economic, moral, and legal concepts that play important roles in antitrust-policy analysis. Part II (Chapters 9-16) analyzes the impacts of eight types of conduct covered by antitrust policy and various possible government responses to such conduct in terms of economic efficiency, the securing of liberal moral rights, and the instantiation of various utilitarian, non-utilitarian-egalitarian, and mixed conceptions of the moral good. Part III (Chapters 17-18) provides detailed information on US antitrust law and EU competition law, and compares the extent to which—when correctly interpreted and applied—these two bodies of law could ensure economic efficiency, protect liberal moral rights, and instantiate various morally defensible conceptions of the moral good. This first volume contains Part I and the first two chapters of Part II of the overall study—the two chapters that focus on oligopolistic and predatory conduct of all kinds, respectively. The book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students of economics and law who are interested in welfare economics, antitrust legality and the General Theory of the Second Best.
Welfare, Meaning, and Worth (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)
by Aaron SmutsWelfare, Meaning, and Worth argues that there is more to what makes a life worth living than welfare, and that a good life does not consist of what is merely good for the one who lives it. Smuts defends an objective list theory that states that the notion of worth captures matters of importance for which no plausible theory of welfare can account. He puts forth that lives worth living are net high in various objective goods, including pleasure, meaning, knowledge, and loving relationships. The first part of the book presents a theory of worth, a mental statist account of welfare, and an objectivist theory of meaning. The second part explores the implications for moral theory, the popularity of painful art, and the viability of pessimism about the human condition. This book offers an original exploration of worth as a combination of welfare and meaning that will be of interest to philosophers and ethicists who work on issues in well-being and positive psychology.
The Welfare of Invertebrate Animals (Animal Welfare #18)
by Claudio Carere Jennifer MatherThis book is devoted to the welfare of invertebrates, which make up 99% of animal species on earth. Addressing animal welfare, we do not often think of invertebrates; in fact we seldom consider them to be deserving of welfare evaluation. And yet we should. Welfare is a broad concern for any animal that we house, control or utilize – and we utilize invertebrates a lot. The Authors start with an emphasis on the values of non-vertebrate animals and discuss the need for a book on the present topic. The following chapters focus on specific taxa, tackling questions that are most appropriate to each one. What is pain in crustaceans, and how might we prevent it? How do we ensure that octopuses are not bored? What do bees need to thrive, pollinate our plants and give us honey? Since invertebrates have distinct personalities and some social animals have group personalities, how do we consider this? And, as in the European Union’s application of welfare consideration to cephalopods, how do the practical regulatory issues play out?We have previously relegated invertebrates to the category ‘things’ and did not worry about their treatment. New research suggest that some invertebrates such as cephalopods and crustaceans can have pain and suffering, might also have consciousness and awareness. Also, good welfare is going to mean different things to spiders, bees, corals, etc. This book is taking animal welfare in a very different direction. Academics and students of animal welfare science, those who keep invertebrates for scientific research or in service to the goals of humans, as well as philosophers will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.
Welfare, Right and the State: A Framework for Thinking (Routledge Advances in International Political Economy)
by David P. LevineThis book develops a creative theoretical framework for understanding the welfare state: the theory of the state and the idea of welfare connected to autonomy. Written by a well-known expert of political economy and welfare, it explores the nature of welfare and connects welfare not to basic needs, but to what Levine refers to as the capacity to lead the self-made life, considering different ways of grounding the claim that providing for the welfare of citizens might be considered a duty of the state. Among the ideas explored are: shared membership in a community rights compassion and security. Welfare, Right and the State will be of interest to academics and advanced students working in the field of social administration, sociology, political science, economics, philosophy, international studies and social work.
Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools
by Thomas FalkenbergBy its very nature, school education is concerned with student well-being. Written by Canadian education scholars from a Manitoba-based research group, Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools aims to develop the notion that what we wish for our children is their well-being and well-becoming as they live their lives. This collection brings education scholars together to focus on a timely topic that has been of rapidly increasing interest to the research and education communities: student well-being and flourishing schools. Contributors address a broad range of issues that arise from this position to create a rich and integrated understanding of the topic. Chapters focus on foundational issues, conceptual issues, socio-cultural and organizational issues, and pedagogical and curricular issues. Ultimately, Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools weaves together substantial ideas to create an integrative framework that will not only serve as a guide for further research, but also for school educational leaders and educators to implement the idea of making school education primarily about student well-being.
The Well-Being of the Elderly in Asia: A Four-Country Comparative Study
by Albert I. HermalinThe past two decades have witnessed rapid social, economic, and demographic change in East and South-East Asia. The older populations in these regions have been increasing faster than in the West, and the proportions of people over sixty will more than double over the next thirty years. Increased urbanization and educational levels and a strong shift to professional, technical, manufacturing, and service occupations are changing the social and economic landscape, leading to concern for the well-being of the elderly, who traditionally have relied on the family for support. Governments are attempting to preserve these traditions while taking into account widespread family change and new expectations for pension, health insurance, and other public programs. The contributors to this volume use survey and other data collected over ten years to examine the well-being of the current older population in four Asian countries: The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Each major analytic chapter looks at a key dimension of well-being--economic, physical and mental health, work and leisure--and how these are affected by the familial and social support arrangements, as well as age, gender, education, and urban-rural residence. Where possible, changes over time are traced. Explicit attention is given to the policies and programs in place and under development in each country and to the cultural accommodations underway. The contributors also look ahead to the implications of the large numbers of elderly with very different characteristics who will predominate in the coming years and to the policy implications of this coming transformation. The book will be important for scholars and policymakers whose work involves population in Asia, including demographers, sociologists, and economists.
Well-being, Sustainability and Social Development: The Netherlands 1850–2050
by John Grin Jan-Pieter Smits Frank Veraart Harry LintsenThis open access book examines more than two centuries of societal development using novel historical and statistical approaches. It applies the well-being monitor developed by Statistics Netherlands that has been endorsed by a significant part of the international, statistical community. It features The Netherlands as a case study, which is an especially interesting example; although it was one of the world’s richest countries around 1850, extreme poverty and inequality were significant problems of well-being at the time. Monitors of 1850, 1910, 1970 and 2015 depict the changes in three dimensions of well-being: the quality of life 'here and now', 'later' and 'elsewhere'. The analysis of two centuries shows the solutions to the extreme poverty problem and the appearance of new sustainability problems, especially in domestic and foreign ecological systems. The study also reveals the importance of natural capital: soil, air, water and subsoil resources, showing their relation with the social structure of the ‘here and now´. Treatment and trade of natural resources also impacted on the quality of life ‘later’ and ‘elsewhere.’ Further, the book illustrates the role of natural capital by dividing the capital into three types of raw materials and concomitant material flows: bio-raw materials, mineral and fossil subsoil resources. Additionally, the analysis of the institutional context identifies the key roles of social groups in well-being development. The book ends with an assessment of the solutions and barriers offered by the historical anchoring of the well-being and sustainability issues. This unique analysis of well-being and sustainability and its institutional analysis appeals to historians, statisticians and policy makers.