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The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History
by Alice CrawfordFrom Greek and Roman times to the digital era, the library has remained central to knowledge, scholarship, and the imagination. The Meaning of the Library is a generously illustrated examination of this key institution of Western culture. Tracing what the library has meant since its beginning, examining how its significance has shifted, and pondering its importance in the twenty-first century, notable contributors—including the Librarian of Congress and the former executive director of the HathiTrust—present a cultural history of the library. In an informative introduction, Alice Crawford sets out the book's purpose and scope, and an international array of scholars, librarians, writers, and critics offer vivid perspectives about the library through their chosen fields. The Meaning of the Library will appeal to all who are interested in this vital institution's heritage and ongoing legacy.
The Meaning of the Local: Politics of Place in Urban India
by Geert De Neve Henrike DonnerBy zooming in on urban localities in India and by unpacking the 'meaning of the local' for those who live in them, the ten papers in this volume redress a recurrent asymmetry in contemporary debates about globalisation. In much literature, the global is associated with transnationalism, dynamism and activity, and the local with static identities and history. Focusing on a range of locales in India's metropolitan areas and provincial small towns, the contributions move beyond the assertion that space is socially constructed to explore the ways in which social and political relations are themselves spatially and historically contingent. Using detailed ethnography, the authors highlight the vitality of place-making in the lives of urban dwellers and the centrality of a 'politics of place' in the production of power, difference and inequality. The volume illustrates how urban spaces are increasingly interconnected through wider social and spatial processes, while local boundaries and group-based identities are at the same time reconstructed, and often even consolidated, through the use of 'traditional' idioms and localised practices. All contributions relate detailed case studies of everyday activities to a range of contemporary debates that highlight various spatial aspects of cultural identities, economic restructuring and political processes in India. The volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective on urban life in rapidly changing political and economic environments. It offers a contribution to policy-orientated debates on urban livelihoods and urban planning as well as a wealth of ethnographic material for those interested in the spatial dimensions of urban life in India.
The Meaning of the Twentieth Century: The Great Transition (World Perspectives #2)
by Kenneth BouldingOriginally published in 1965 and written by a noted economist and leader in the field of conflict resolution, this book traces the forces which have brought the 20th century ‘post-civilisation’ into being: the ever-increasing power of science and the scientific attitude, the global communication network, the high efficiency of industrial societies. New conditions pointed to a life of ease but also enormous problems. The book discusses how though our technical resources have become immense, social and psychological conflicts remain. The author’s training in psychology and economics combines with a deep sense of history to create a book which is as relevant now as when it was first published.
The Meaningful City: Reading Barcelona’s Urban Landscape
by James DouetThis book presents a new way of examining cities to reveal the many and varied meanings which are written into urban landscapes. As the title suggests, urban areas are full of messages and communications, with signs and symbols incorporated into buildings, structures and plans. Taking the rich architectural and urbanistic chronicle of Barcelona as a model, the author shows how different social groups, consciously and unconsciously, have written their values and interests on to the city. The narrative opens with the forced reshaping by military engineers of the former capital of Catalunya after 1714, and extends up to an analysis of the many competing actors and agencies which attempt to impose their perspectives on the contemporary city. It scrutinizes how deep cultural and social changes such as the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the Industrial Revolution, de-industrialisation and globalisation can be read in the urban environment, as well as more intentional effects of major urban development projects including the Ciutadella fortress, the Rambles, the universal exhibitions of 1888 and 1929, the Sagrada Família, the Barcelona Model of urban renewal, the 22@ innovation district and the superil·les sustainability plans. Informed by the approach of critical urban studies, the narrative is written in a clear style to engage readers with many different interests, students, urbanists and design professionals as well as residents and visitors to the city. Drawing on research from varied academic fields published in English, Catalan and Spanish, it is illustrated with colour photographs of many of the buildings and sites that have made Barcelona a global resource for understanding contemporary cities.
The Meanings of Europe: Changes and Exchanges of a Contested Concept (Routledge Advances in Sociology #118)
by Claudia Wiesner Meike Schmidt-GleimWhat is Europe? What are the contents of the concept of Europe? And what defines European identity? Instead of only asking these classical questions, this volume also explores who asks these questions, and who is addressed with such questions. Who answers the questions, from which standpoints and for what reasons? Which philosophical, historical, religious or political traditions influence the answers? This book addresses its task in three parts. The first concentrates on the controversies around the meaning of Europe. The second focuses on the role of the European Union. The third discusses Europe and its relations to different types of otherness, or rather, non-European-ness. The volume produces a complex and plural picture of the concepts, ideas, debates and (ex)changes associated with the concept of Europe, and has a clear significance for today’s debates on European identity, Europeanization, and the EU.
The Meanings of Macho
by Matthew C. GutmannIn this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists.
The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Tenth Anniversary Edition)
by Matthew C. GutmannIn this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists.
The Meanings of Things: Material Culture and Symbolic Expression (One World Archaeology #Vol. 6)
by Ian HodderThis unique and fascinating book concentrates on the varying roles and functions that material culture may play in almost all aspects of the social fabric of a given culture. The contributors, from Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea, India, South America, the USA, and both Eastern and Western Europe, provide a rich variety of views and experience in a worldwide perspective. Several of the authors focus on essential points of principle and methodology that must be carefully considered before any particular approach to material culture is adopted. One of the many fundamental questions posed in the book is whether or not all material culture is equivalent to documents which can be 'read' and interpreted by the outside observer. If it is, what is the nature of the 'messages' or meanings conveyed in this way? The book also questions the extent to which acceptance, and subsequent diffusion, of a religious belief or symbol may be qualified by the status of the individuals concerned in transmitting the innovation, as well as by the stratification of the society involved. Several authors deal with 'works of art' and the most effective means of reaching an understanding of their past significance. In some chapters semiotics is seen as the most appropriate technique to apply to the decoding of the assumed rules and grammars of material culture expression.
The Meanings of Violence
by Elizabeth A. StankoThe media often makes sense of violence in terms of 'randomness' and 'evil'. But the reality, as the contributors to The Meanings of Violence demonstrate, is far more complex. Drawing on the diverse subject matter of the ESRC's Violence Research Programme - from interviews with killers to discussions with children in residential facilities - this volume locates the meaning of violence within social contexts, identities and social divisions. It aims to break open our way of speaking about violence and demonstrate the value in exploring the multiple, contradictory and complex meanings of violence in society. The wide range of topics include:*Prostitute and client violence *Violence amongst young people at school and on the streets *Violence in bars and nightclubs *Violence in prison *Racist and homophobic violenceThis book will be fascinating reading for students of criminology and academics working in the field of violent crime.
The Measure Of Manliness: Disability And Masculinity In The Mid-victorian Novel
by Karen BourrierThe Measure of Manliness is among the first books to focus on representations of disability in Victorian literature, showing that far from being marginalized or pathologized, disability was central to the narrative form of the mid-century novel. Mid-Victorian novels evidenced a proliferation of male characters with disabilities, a phenomenon that author Karen Bourrier sees as a response to the rise of a new Victorian culture of industry and vitality, and its corollary emphasis on a hardy, active manhood. The figure of the voluble, weak man was a necessary narrative complement to the silent, strong man. The disabled male embodied traditionally feminine virtues, softening the taciturn strong man, and eliciting emotional depths from his seemingly coarse muscular frame. Yet, the weak man was able to follow the strong man where female characters could not, to all-male arenas such as the warehouse and the public school. The analysis yokes together historical and narrative concerns, showing how developments in nineteenth-century masculinity led to a formal innovation in literature: the focalization or narration of the novel through the perspective of a weak or disabled man. The Measure of Manliness charts new territory in showing how feeling and loquacious bodies were increasingly seen as sick bodies throughout the nineteenth century. The book will appeal to those interested in disability studies, gender and masculinity studies, the theorization of sympathy and affect, the recovery of women's writing and popular fiction, the history of medicine and technology, and queer theory.
The Measure of Civilization: How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations
by Ian MorrisA groundbreaking look at Western and Eastern social development from the end of the ice age to todayIn the past thirty years, there have been fierce debates over how civilizations develop and why the West became so powerful. The Measure of Civilization presents a brand-new way of investigating these questions and provides new tools for assessing the long-term growth of societies. Using a groundbreaking numerical index of social development that compares societies in different times and places, award-winning author Ian Morris sets forth a sweeping examination of Eastern and Western development across 15,000 years since the end of the last ice age. He offers surprising conclusions about when and why the West came to dominate the world and fresh perspectives for thinking about the twenty-first century.Adapting the United Nations' approach for measuring human development, Morris's index breaks social development into four traits—energy capture per capita, organization, information technology, and war-making capacity—and he uses archaeological, historical, and current government data to quantify patterns. Morris reveals that for 90 percent of the time since the last ice age, the world's most advanced region has been at the western end of Eurasia, but contrary to what many historians once believed, there were roughly 1,200 years—from about 550 to 1750 CE—when an East Asian region was more advanced. Only in the late eighteenth century CE, when northwest Europeans tapped into the energy trapped in fossil fuels, did the West leap ahead.Resolving some of the biggest debates in global history, The Measure of Civilization puts forth innovative tools for determining past, present, and future economic and social trends.
The Measure of Democracy: Polling, Market Research, and Public Life, 1930-1945
by Daniel RobinsonPoliticians, government officials, and public relations officers lean heavily on polling when fashioning public policy. Proponents say this is for the best, arguing that surveys bring the views of citizens closer to civic officials. Critics decry polling's promotion of sycophantic politicians who pander to the whims of public sentiment, or, conversely, the use of surveys by special interest groups to thwart the majority will. Similar claims and criticisms were made during the early days of polling. When George Gallup began polling Americans in 1935, he heralded it as a bold step in popular democracy. The views of ordinary citizens could now be heard alongside those of organized interest groups. When brought to Canada in 1941, the Gallup Poll promised similar democratic rejuvenation. In actual practice, traditionally disadvantaged constituencies such as women, the poor, French Canadians, and African Americans were often heavily underrepresented in Gallup surveys. Preoccupied with election forecasting, Gallup pollsters undercounted social groups thought less likely or unable to vote, leading to a considerable gap between the polling results of the sampled polity and the opinions of the general public. Examining the origins and early years of public opinion polling in Canada, Robinson situates polling within the larger context of its forerunners – market research surveys and American opinion polling – and charts its growth until its first uses by political parties.
The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750-1940
by John CarsonCarson tells the fascinating story of how two nations wrestled scientifically with human inequalities and their social and political implications. Surveying an array of political tracts, philosophical treatises, scientific works, and journalistic writings, he chronicles the gradual embrace of the IQ version of intelligence in the U.S., while in France, the birthplace of the modern intelligence test, expert judgment was consistently prized above such quantitative measures.
The Measure of our Success
by Marian Wright EdelmanA beautiful gift edition of the number one New York Times bestseller--from the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund.
The Measurement and Analysis of Housing Preference and Choice
by Henny C.C.H. Coolen Sylvia J.T. Jansen Roland W. GoetgelukWhat are the current trends in housing? Is my planned project commercially viable? What should be my marketing and advertisement strategies? These are just some of the questions real estate agents, landlords and developers ask researchers to answer. But to find the answers, researchers are faced with a wide variety of methods that measure housing preferences and choices. To select and value a valid research method, one needs a well-structured overview of the methods that are used in housing preference and housing choice research. This comprehensive introduction to this field offers just such an overview. It discusses and compares numerous methods, detailing the potential limitation of each one, and it reaches beyond methodology, illustrating how thoughtful consideration of methods and techniques in research can help researchers and other professionals to deliver products and services that are more in line with residents' needs.
The Measurement and Development of Empathy in Nursing (Routledge Revivals)
by William J ReynoldsThis title was first published in 2000: Empathy is known to be crucial to helping relationships, but professional helpers, including nurses, do not normally display much empathy as it has not been measured in clients' terms and accordingly taught. This text examines a study in which a client-centred empathy scale was developed - the client-centred measure of empathy was found to be reliable and valid and a course designed to teach nurses to offer empathy in clients' terms was effective. The findings of the study have implications for the future design of nurse eduction and the goals of the health service.
The Measurement of Hate Crimes in America (SpringerBriefs in Criminology)
by Frank S. Pezzella Matthew D. FetzerUsing data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Hate Crime Statistics Program and the National Crime Victimization Survey, this brief highlights the uniqueness of hate or bias crime victimization. It compares these to non-bias crimes and delineates the situational circumstances that distinguish bias from non-bias offending. The nuances of under-reporting shed light on bias-group and victim reasons for not reporting. By examining measurement issues associated with data collection systems, this brief helps explain why eighty-nine percent of participating law enforcement agencies report zero hate crimes each year. It describes patterns and trends in reporting the volume of general bias motivations and specific bias types, as the most prevalent hate crime offense types and most likely victims and offenders. With recommendations to address issues in measurement and under-reporting, including an action plan by the Enhance the Response to Hate Crimes Advisory Committee and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a best practice model by the Oak Creek Police Department, and other promising law enforcement reporting models, this brief provides an increasingly critical resource for law enforcement practitioners and researchers dealing with hate crimes.
The Measurement of Information Integrity
by Michael SeadleArguing that there never was a time when politicians did not prevaricate and when some communities did not doubt conclusions that others considered to be facts, The Measurement of Information Integrity puts the post-truth era in context and offers measures for integrity in the modern world. Incorporating international examples from a range of disciplines, this book provides the reader with tools that will help them to evaluate public statements - especially ones involving the sciences and scholarship. It also provides intellectual tools to those who must assess potential violations of public or academic integrity. Many of these tools involve measurement mechanisms, ways of putting cases into context, and a recognition that few cases are simple black-and-white violations. Demonstrating that a binary approach to judging research integrity fails to recognize the complexity of the environment, Seadle highlights that even flawed discoveries may still contain value. Finally, the book reminds its reader that research integrity takes different forms in different disciplines and that each one needs separate consideration, even if the general principles remain the same for all. The Measurement of Information Integrity will help those who want to do research well, as well as those who must ascertain whether results have failed to meet the standards of the community. It will be of particular interest to researchers and students engaged in the study of library and information science.
The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat
by Rob PercivalFrom a vital new voice in food ethics comes a smart, nuanced investigation into the current meat debate.Our future diet will be shaped by diverse forces. It will be shaped by novel technologies, by geopolitical tensions, and the evolution of cultural preferences, by shocks to the status quo— pandemics and economic strife, the escalation of the climate and ecological crises—and by how we choose to respond. It will also be shaped by our emotions. It will be shaped by the meat paradox. "Should we eat animals?&” was, until recently, a question reserved for moral philosophers and an ethically minded minority, but it is now posed on restaurant menus and supermarket shelves, on social media and morning television. The recent surge in popularity for veganism in the UK, Europe and North America has created a rupture in the rites and rituals of meat, challenging the cultural narratives that sustain our omnivory. In The Meat Paradox, Rob Percival, an expert in the politics of meat, searches for the evolutionary origins of the meat paradox, asking when our relationship with meat first became emotionally and ethically complicated. Every society must eat, and meat provides an important source of nutrients. But every society is moved by its empathy. We must all find a way of balancing competing and contradictory imperatives. This new book is essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of our empathy, the psychology of our dietary choices, and anyone who has wondered whether they should or shouldn't eat meat.
The Meat Question: Animals, Humans, and the Deep History of Food (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Josh BersonA provocative argument that eating meat is not what made humans human and that the future is not necessarily carnivorous.Humans are eating more meat than ever. Despite ubiquitous Sweetgreen franchises and the example set by celebrity vegans, demand for meat is projected to grow at twice the rate of demand for plant-based foods over the next thirty years. Between 1960 and 2010, per capita meat consumption in the developing world more than doubled; in China, meat consumption grew ninefold. It has even been claimed that meat made us human—that our disproportionately large human brains evolved because our early human ancestors ate meat. In The Meat Question, Josh Berson argues that not only did meat not make us human, but the contemporary increase in demand for meat is driven as much by economic insecurity as by affluence. Considering the full sweep of meat's history, Berson concludes provocatively that the future is not necessarily carnivorous.Berson, an anthropologist and historian, argues that we have the relationship between biology and capitalism backward. We may associate meat-eating with wealth, but in fact, meat-eating is a sign of poverty; cheap meat—hunger killing, easy to prepare, eaten on the go—enables a capitalism defined by inequality. To answer the meat question, says Berson, we need to think about meat-eating in a way that goes beyond Paleo diets and PETA protests to address the deeply entwined economic and political lives of humans and animals past, present, and future.
The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
by Christopher LeonardAn investigative journalist takes you inside the corporate meat industry—a shocking, in-depth report every American should read.How much do you know about the meat on your dinner plate? Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country’s biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. Now he delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation’s meat supply.Leonard’s revealing account shines a light on the inner workings of Tyson Foods, a pioneer of the industrial system that dominates the market. You’ll learn how the food industry got to where it is today, and how companies like Tyson have escaped the scrutiny they deserve. You’ll discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And you’ll even see how big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system, from a years-long legal fight in Iowa to the Obama administration’s recent failed attempt to pass reforms.Important, timely, and explosive, The Meat Racket is an unvarnished portrait of the food industry that now dominates America’s heartland.
The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism
by Dr. Jathan SadowskiThis short book demystifies how the two systems of technology and capitalism work together and equips readers with practical tools to dismantle them and build a better world, bit by bit. Our society is constantly made to serve the needs of two systems: technology and capitalism. Neither exists outside humans, but both are treated as above and beyond us. The Mechanic and the Luddite offers the critical tools needed to deconstruct these systems—how they work, whom they work for, and what work they do in our lives. With signature style and energy, Jathan Sadowski presents a provocative one-stop shop for understanding the political economy of technology and capitalism. Each chapter breaks down key features of technological capitalism, offering sharp, synthetic, and authoritative analysis of topics like innovation, labor, data, and risk. It's not enough to know how the machinery of capitalism is put together and how its parts operate; we must also know whom the machines serve and when they should be taken apart, to be rebuilt for new purposes or destroyed for good. The Mechanic and the Luddite provides the political guidance needed to make these crucial decisions.
The Mechanical Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life (Discovering America)
by Margaret Guroff“Guroff has broken new ground with this masterful account of the bicycle revolution set in the broad context of American social and cultural history.” —Tom Crouch, author of The Bishop’s BoysWith cities across the country adding miles of bike lanes and building bike-share stations, bicycling is enjoying a new surge of popularity in America. It seems that every generation or two, Americans rediscover the freedom of movement, convenience, and relative affordability of the bicycle. The earliest two-wheeler, the draisine, arrived in Philadelphia in 1819 and astonished onlookers with the possibility of propelling themselves “like lightning.” Two centuries later, the bicycle is still the fastest way to cover ground on gridlocked city streets.Filled with lively stories, The Mechanical Horse reveals how the bicycle transformed American life. As bicycling caught on in the nineteenth century, many of the country’s rough, rutted roads were paved for the first time, laying a foundation for the interstate highway system. Cyclists were among the first to see the possibilities of self-directed, long-distance travel, and some of them (including a fellow named Henry Ford) went on to develop the automobile. Women shed their cumbersome Victorian dresses—as well as their restricted gender roles—so they could ride. And doctors recognized that aerobic exercise actually benefits the body, which helped to modernize medicine. Margaret Guroff demonstrates that the bicycle’s story is really the story of a more mobile America—one in which physical mobility has opened wider horizons of thought and new opportunities for people in all avenues of life.“[A] fascinating volume . . . Like them or loathe them, cyclists are reprising their initial role as adapters of disruptive technology.” —The Wall Street Journal
The Mechanical Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life (Discovering America)
by Margaret Guroff“Guroff has broken new ground with this masterful account of the bicycle revolution set in the broad context of American social and cultural history.” —Tom Crouch, author of The Bishop’s BoysWith cities across the country adding miles of bike lanes and building bike-share stations, bicycling is enjoying a new surge of popularity in America. It seems that every generation or two, Americans rediscover the freedom of movement, convenience, and relative affordability of the bicycle. The earliest two-wheeler, the draisine, arrived in Philadelphia in 1819 and astonished onlookers with the possibility of propelling themselves “like lightning.” Two centuries later, the bicycle is still the fastest way to cover ground on gridlocked city streets.Filled with lively stories, The Mechanical Horse reveals how the bicycle transformed American life. As bicycling caught on in the nineteenth century, many of the country’s rough, rutted roads were paved for the first time, laying a foundation for the interstate highway system. Cyclists were among the first to see the possibilities of self-directed, long-distance travel, and some of them (including a fellow named Henry Ford) went on to develop the automobile. Women shed their cumbersome Victorian dresses—as well as their restricted gender roles—so they could ride. And doctors recognized that aerobic exercise actually benefits the body, which helped to modernize medicine. Margaret Guroff demonstrates that the bicycle’s story is really the story of a more mobile America—one in which physical mobility has opened wider horizons of thought and new opportunities for people in all avenues of life.“[A] fascinating volume . . . Like them or loathe them, cyclists are reprising their initial role as adapters of disruptive technology.” —The Wall Street Journal
The Mechanical Triumphs of the Ancient Egyptians
by F.M. BarberFirst published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.