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The Obamas And Mass Media
by Mia Moody-Ramirez Jannette L. DatesUsing the cultural prism of race, this book critically examines the image of African Americans in media of the twenty-first century. Further, the authors assess the ways in which media focused on gender, religion, and politics in framing perceptions of the President and First Lady of the United States during the Obama administration.
The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality and Ideology
by Jan Wright Michael GardIncreasing obesity levels are currently big news but do we think carefully enough about what this trend actually means? Everybody – including doctors, parents, teachers, sports clubs, businesses and governments – has a role to play in the ‘war on obesity’. But is talk of an obesity ‘crisis’ justified? Is it the product of measured scientific reasoning or age-old ‘habits of mind’? Why is it happening now? And are there potential risks associated with talking about obesity as an ‘epidemic’? The Obesity Epidemic proposes that obesity science and the popular media present a complex mix of ambiguous knowledge, familiar (yet unstated) moral agendas and ideological assumptions.
The Obesity Myth
by Paul CamposIs your weight hazardous to your health? According to public-health authorities, 65 percent of us are overweight. Every day, we are bombarded with dire warnings about America's "obesity epidemic." Close to half of the adult population is dieting, obsessed with achieving an arbitrary "ideal weight." Yet studies show that a moderately active larger person is likely to be far healthier (and to live longer) than someone who is thin but sedentary. And contrary to what the fifty-billion-dollar-per-year weight-loss industry would have us believe medical science has not yet come up with a way to make people thin. After years spent scrutinizing medical studies and interviewing leading doctors, scientists, eating- disorder specialists, and psychiatrists, Professor Paul Campos is here to lead the backlash against weight hysteria--and to show that we can safeguard our health without obsessing about the numbers on the scale. But The Obesity Myth is not just a compelling argument, grounded in the latest scientific research; it's also a provocative, wry exposé of the culture that feeds on our self-defeating war on fat. Campos will show: How the nation's most prestigious and trusted media sources consistently misinform the public about obesity What the movie industry's love affair with the "fat suit" tells us about the relationship between racial- and body-based prejudice in America How the skinny elite--with their "supersized" lifestyles and gas-guzzling SUVs--project their anxieties about overconsumption on the poorer and heavier underclass How weight-loss mania fueled the impeachment of Bill Clinton In this paradigm-busting read, Professor Campos challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the medical, political, and cultural meaning of weight and brings a rational and compelling new voice to America's increasingly irrational weight debate.
The Obituary as Collective Memory (Routledge Advances in Sociology)
by Bridget FowlerThe first serious academic study of obituaries, this book focuses on how societies remember. Bridget Fowler makes great use of the theories of Pierre Bordieu, arguing that obituaries are one important component in society's collective memory. This book, the first of its kind, will find a place on every serious sociology scholar's bookshelves.
The Object of Conservation: An Ethnography of Heritage Practice
by Thomas Yarrow Siân JonesThe Object of Conservation examines how historic buildings, monuments and artefacts are cared for as valued embodiments of the past. It tells the fascinating story of the working lives of those involved in conservation through an ethnographic account of a national heritage agency. How are conservation objects made? What is the moral purpose of that making and what practical consequences flow from this? Revealing the hidden labour of keeping things as they are, the book highlights the ethical commitments and dilemmas involved in trying to care well. In doing so, it reveals how conservation objects are made literally to matter. Taking debates in the interdisciplinary field of heritage studies forward in important new directions, the book engages with themes of broader interest within the arts, humanities and social sciences, shedding new light on time, authenticity, modernity, materiality, expert knowledge and the politics of care. The Object of Conservation is a thought-provoking and engaging account that offers original insights for students, scholars, heritage professionals and others interested in the work of caring for the past.
The Objective Society (Routledge Revivals)
by Everett KnightFirst published in 1959, The Objective Society elaborates that any objective society has two functions: to transmit a cultural heritage through education, and to think for that great majority of men who have no access to the stores of information upon which thought must feed if it is to live. However, it has long ceased to do either of these things. The masses of the people are indifferent to culture as it is understood in the universities, and academics do not think – they gather and catalogue facts. Any attempt to use the facts to some practical end or, more generally, to organize them into an ideology which might restore to our civilisation a purpose and a direction is considered an offence to objectivity. This book indicates the path that must be taken to avoid complete cultural stagnation. Explicating on themes resonant with the current socio-political climate, this book will be an interesting read for students of philosophy and literature.
The Objects That Remain (Dimyonot)
by Laura LevittOn a November evening in 1989, Laura Levitt was raped in her own bed. Her landlord heard the assault taking place and called 911, but the police arrived too late to apprehend Laura’s attacker. When they left, investigators took items with them—a pair of sweatpants, the bedclothes—and a rape exam was performed at the hospital. However, this evidence was never processed.Decades later, Laura returns to these objects, viewing them not as clues that will lead to the identification of her assailant but rather as a means of engaging traumatic legacies writ large. The Objects That Remain is equal parts personal memoir and fascinating examination of the ways in which the material remains of violent crimes inform our experience of, and thinking about, trauma and loss. Considering artifacts in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and evidence in police storage facilities across the country, Laura’s story moves between intimate trauma, the story of an unsolved rape, and genocide. Throughout, she asks what it might mean to do justice to these violent pasts outside the juridical system or through historical empiricism, which are the dominant ways in which we think about evidence from violent crimes and other highly traumatic events.Over the course of her investigation, the author reveals how these objects that remain and the stories that surround them enable forms of intimacy. In this way, she models for us a different kind of reckoning, where justice is an animating process of telling and holding.
The Objects That Remain (Dimyonot: Jews and the Cultural Imagination #11)
by Laura LevittOn a November evening in 1989, Laura Levitt was raped in her own bed. Her landlord heard the assault taking place and called 911, but the police arrived too late to apprehend Laura’s attacker. When they left, investigators took items with them—a pair of sweatpants, the bedclothes—and a rape exam was performed at the hospital. However, this evidence was never processed.Decades later, Laura returns to these objects, viewing them not as clues that will lead to the identification of her assailant but rather as a means of engaging traumatic legacies writ large. The Objects That Remain is equal parts personal memoir and fascinating examination of the ways in which the material remains of violent crimes inform our experience of, and thinking about, trauma and loss. Considering artifacts in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and evidence in police storage facilities across the country, Laura’s story moves between intimate trauma, the story of an unsolved rape, and genocide. Throughout, she asks what it might mean to do justice to these violent pasts outside the juridical system or through historical empiricism, which are the dominant ways in which we think about evidence from violent crimes and other highly traumatic events.Over the course of her investigation, the author reveals how these objects that remain and the stories that surround them enable forms of intimacy. In this way, she models for us a different kind of reckoning, where justice is an animating process of telling and holding.
The Objects and Textures of Everyday Life in Imperial Britain
by Deirdre H. McMahon Janet C. MyersFocusing on everyday life in nineteenth-century Britain and its imperial possessions”from preparing tea to cleaning the kitchen, from packing for imperial adventures to arranging home décor”the essays in this collection share a common focus on materiality, the nitty-gritty elements that helped give shape and meaning to British self-definition during the period. Each essay demonstrates how preoccupations with common household goods and habits fueled contemporary debates about cultural institutions ranging from personal matters of marriage and family to more overtly political issues of empire building. While existing scholarship on material culture in the nineteenth century has centered on artifacts in museums and galleries, this collection brings together disparate fields”history of design, landscape history, childhood studies, and feminist and postcolonial literary studies”to focus on ordinary objects and practices, with specific attention to how Britons of all classes established the tenets of domesticity as central to individual happiness, national security, and imperial hegemony.
The Objects of Affection
by Arthur Asa BergerIn this book, pre-eminent semiotician Arthur Asa Berger decodes the meanings of common objects of consumption and their perceived 'sacredness' in consumerist cultures. Using semiotic theory, consumer culture is dissected in new and fascinating ways.
The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture (Semiotics and Popular Culture)
by A. BergerIn this book, pre-eminent semiotician Arthur Asa Berger decodes the meanings of common objects of consumption and their perceived 'sacredness' in consumerist cultures. Using semiotic theory, consumer culture is dissected in new and fascinating ways.
The Objects of Experience: Transforming Visitor-Object Encounters in Museums
by Elizabeth Wood Kiersten F LathamWhat if museums could harness the emotional and intellectual connections people have to personal and everyday objects to create richer visitor experiences? In this book, Elizabeth Wood and Kiersten Latham present the Object Knowledge Framework, a tool for using objects to connect museum visitors to themselves, to others, and to their world. They discuss the key concepts underpinning our lived experience of objects and how museums can learn from them. Then they walk readers through concrete methods for transforming visitor-object experiences, including exercises and strategies for teams developing exhibit themes, messages, and content, and participatory experiences.
The Obligation Mosaic: Race and Social Norms in US Political Participation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by Allison P. AnollPolitical participation is a costly activity with little clear payoff. And yet, millions of Americans vote, many donate their time and money to campaigns, and even more spend time becoming informed on issues they will have almost no influence over. Even more puzzling, some racial groups, like African Americans, whose members are least obviously able to bear the costs of participation are more likely to engage than other resource-rich groups, like Asian Americans. What explains this? To answer this question, Allison P. Anoll draws on a rich mix of interviews, surveys, and experiments with the four largest racial groups in America to look at the power of social norms in a community, specifically a civic duty norm, as an explanation for the variation in political participation across different racial and ethnic communities. Beliefs about how best to honor the past and help those in need centrally define concepts of obligation, Anoll finds, but whether these feelings of duty connect to politics depends on each group’s distinct history and continued patterns of racial segregation. Her findings offer a thought-provoking explanation for why some people participate in politics and others do not, while also providing a window into opportunities for change, pointing to how traditionally marginalized groups can be mobilized into the political sphere.
The Obligation Mosaic: Race and Social Norms in US Political Participation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by Allison P. AnollPolitical participation is a costly activity with little clear payoff. And yet, millions of Americans vote, many donate their time and money to campaigns, and even more spend time becoming informed on issues they will have almost no influence over. Even more puzzling, some racial groups, like African Americans, whose members are least obviously able to bear the costs of participation are more likely to engage than other resource-rich groups, like Asian Americans. What explains this? To answer this question, Allison P. Anoll draws on a rich mix of interviews, surveys, and experiments with the four largest racial groups in America to look at the power of social norms in a community, specifically a civic duty norm, as an explanation for the variation in political participation across different racial and ethnic communities. Beliefs about how best to honor the past and help those in need centrally define concepts of obligation, Anoll finds, but whether these feelings of duty connect to politics depends on each group’s distinct history and continued patterns of racial segregation. Her findings offer a thought-provoking explanation for why some people participate in politics and others do not, while also providing a window into opportunities for change, pointing to how traditionally marginalized groups can be mobilized into the political sphere.
The Obligation Mosaic: Race and Social Norms in US Political Participation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by Allison P. AnollPolitical participation is a costly activity with little clear payoff. And yet, millions of Americans vote, many donate their time and money to campaigns, and even more spend time becoming informed on issues they will have almost no influence over. Even more puzzling, some racial groups, like African Americans, whose members are least obviously able to bear the costs of participation are more likely to engage than other resource-rich groups, like Asian Americans. What explains this? To answer this question, Allison P. Anoll draws on a rich mix of interviews, surveys, and experiments with the four largest racial groups in America to look at the power of social norms in a community, specifically a civic duty norm, as an explanation for the variation in political participation across different racial and ethnic communities. Beliefs about how best to honor the past and help those in need centrally define concepts of obligation, Anoll finds, but whether these feelings of duty connect to politics depends on each group’s distinct history and continued patterns of racial segregation. Her findings offer a thought-provoking explanation for why some people participate in politics and others do not, while also providing a window into opportunities for change, pointing to how traditionally marginalized groups can be mobilized into the political sphere.
The Observable Universe: An Investigation
by Heather McCaldenIs anyone ever truly lost in the internet age? A moving, original memoir of a young woman reckoning with her parents&’ absence, the virus that took them, and what it means to search for meaning in a hyperconnected world.&“Brilliantly innovative . . . syncing a narrative of profoundly personal emotion with the invention and evolution of today&’s cyberspace.&”—William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and The PeripheralIn the early 1990s, Heather McCalden lost both her parents to AIDS. She was seven when her father died, ten when she lost her mother. Raised by her grandmother, Nivia, she grew up in Los Angeles, also known as ground zero for the virus and its destruction.Years later, she begins researching online the history of HIV as a way to deal with her loss, which leads her to the unexpected realization that the AIDS crisis and the internet developed on parallel timelines. By accumulating whatever fragments she could about both phenomena—images, anecdotes, and scientific entries—alongside her own personal history, McCalden forms a synaptic journey of what happened to her family, one that leads to an equally unexpected discovery about who her parents might have been.Entwining this personal search with a wider cultural narrative of what the virus and virality mean in our times—interrogating what it means to &“go viral&” in an era of explosive biochemical and virtual contagion—The Observable Universe is at once a history of our viral culture and a prismatic account of grief in the internet age.
The Observation of Savage Peoples
by Joseph-Marie DegerandoAll the major techniques of inquiry which anthropology students now take for granted were first set out in this book. In 1800 Degerando wrote these Considerations on the Various Methods to Follow in the Observation of Savage Peoples as a memoir to serve as guidance to the members of the Societe des Observateurs de l'Homme in an impending expedition to Australia. Degerando's originality lies in his recognizing and stating that the observations of previous explorers were casual and superficial. The advice to the members of the expedition listed topics about which observations should be made and how they should be made. First published in 1969.
The Obsolete Self: Philosophical Dimensions of Aging
by Joseph EspositoThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.
The Occult Sylvia Plath: The Hidden Spiritual Life of the Visionary Poet
by Julia Gordon-Bramer• Decodes the alchemical, Qabalistic, hermetic, spiritual, and Tarot-related references in many of Plath&’s poems• Based on more than 15 years of research, including analysis of Plath&’s unpublished personal writings from the Plath archives at Indiana University• Examines the influences of Plath&’s parents, her early interests in Hermeticism, and her and husband Ted Hughes&’s explorations in the supernatural and the occultSharing her more than 15 years of compelling research—including analysis of Sylvia Plath&’s unpublished calendars, notebooks, scrapbooks, book annotations, and underlinings as well as published memoirs, biographies, letters, journals, and interviews with Plath and her husband, friends, and family—Plath scholar Julia Gordon-Bramer reveals Sylvia Plath&’s enduring interest and active practice in mysticism and the occult from childhood until her tragic death in 1963. She examines Plath&’s early years growing up in a transcendentalist Unitarian church under a brilliant, if stern, Freemason father and a mother who wrote her master&’s dissertation on the famous alchemist Paracelsus. She reveals Plath&’s early knowledge of Hermeticism, how she devoured books on the occult throughout her life, and how, since adolescence, Plath regularly wrote of premonitory dreams. Examining Plath&’s tumultuous marriage with poet Ted Hughes, she looks at their explorations in the supernatural and Hughes&’s mentoring of Plath in meditation, crystal-gazing, astrology, Qabalah, tarot, automatic writing, magical workings, and use of the Ouija board.Looking at Plath&’s writing and her evolution as a person through mystical, political, personal, and historical lenses, Gordon-Bramer shows how Plath&’s poems take on radically new, surprising, and universal meanings—explaining why Hughes perpetually denied that Plath was a &“confessional poet.&” Contrasting the versions in Letters Home with those held in the Plath archives at Indiana University, the author also shows how all occult influences have been rigorously excised from the letters approved for publication by the Plath and Hughes estates. Revealing previously undiscovered meanings deeply rooted in her mystical and occult endeavors, the author shows how Plath&’s writings are much broader than the narrow lens of her tragic autobiography.
The Occult in National Socialism: The Symbolic, Scientific, and Magical Influences on the Third Reich
by Stephen E. Flowers• Explores the occult influences on various Nazi figures, including Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, and Heinrich Himmler• Examines the foundations of the movement laid in the 19th century and continuing in the early 20th century• Explains the rites and runology of National Socialism, the occult dimensions of Nazi science, and how many of the sensationalist descriptions of Nazi &“Satanic&” practices were initiated by Church propaganda after the warIn this comprehensive examination of Nazi occultism, Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D., offers a critical history and analysis of the occult and esoteric streams of thought active in the Third Reich and the growth of occult Nazism at work in movements today. Sharing the culmination of five decades of research into primary and secondary sources, many in the original German, Flowers looks at the symbolic, occult, scientific, and magical traditions that became the foundations from which the Nazi movement would grow. He details the influences of Theosophy, Volkism, and the work of the Brothers Grimm as well as the impact of scientific culture of the time. Looking at the early 20th century, he describes the impact of Guido von List, Lanz von Liebenfels, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Friedrich Hielscher, and others. Examining the period after the Nazi Party was established in 1919, and more especially after it took power in 1933, Flowers explores the occult influences on key Nazi figures, including Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, and Heinrich Himmler. He analyzes Hitler&’s usually missed references to magical techniques in Mein Kampf, revealing his adoption of occult methods for creating a large body of supporters and shaping the thoughts of the masses. Flowers also explains the rites and runology of National Socialism, the occult dimensions of Nazi science, and the blossoming of Nazi Christianity. Concluding with a look at the modern mythology of Nazi occultism, Flowers critiques postwar Nazi-related literature and unveils the presence of esoteric Nazi myths in modern occult and political circles.
The Occupational Experience of Residential Child and Youth Care Workers: Caring and Its Discontents
by Jerome Beker Mordecai ArieliFrom open and straightforward accounts of residential care workers, The Occupational Experience of Residential Child and Youth Care Workers shows you how care is handled, not how it should be handled. This book introduces you to a social reality, a sometimes very difficult and challenging social reality, as it is viewed by its participants. If you want to know more about what is actually going on in residential care and the discontent that workers frequently experience, this is the book that lays out the facts, the problems, and the nature of residential youth centers.The Occupational Experience of Residential Child and Youth Care Workers broaches the problem of tension between workers and residents and hopes that bringing the problem out into the open will be a first step toward a solution. You learn that the very arrangement of residential care automatically sets up antagonism between the sole group care worker and his/her wards; residents tend to resist the inherently coercive efforts of the worker who tries to bring them through processes of change and socialization. The Occupational Experience of Residential Child and Youth Care Workers will make you think about: residential care and conflicts group interaction career satisfaction and dissatisfaction interpretive sociology of education and its methodology social controlInterviews with Israeli residential care workers are presented to help you understand the circumstances under which residential care providers experience discontent, or job dissatisfaction. You learn which workers are most likely to feel discontented and how staff members cope with the stress and discontent they experience. Youth care workers, policymakers, child-care staff recruiters, supervisors, and trainers will find this book sheds much light on the problem of discontent and the need to make child and youth care facilities more humane for residents and staff alike. It will also help social work educators and researchers in sociology, social work, and the social psychology of education get in touch with what goes on inside the walls of residential care centers.
The Occupied Clinic: Militarism and Care in Kashmir
by Saiba VarmaIn The Occupied Clinic, Saiba Varma explores the psychological, ontological, and political entanglements between medicine and violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir—the world's most densely militarized place. Into a long history of occupations, insurgencies, suppressions, natural disasters, and a crisis of public health infrastructure come interventions in human distress, especially those of doctors and humanitarians, who struggle against an epidemic: more than sixty percent of the civilian population suffers from depression, anxiety, PTSD, or acute stress. Drawing on encounters between medical providers and patients in an array of settings, Varma reveals how colonization is embodied and how overlapping state practices of care and violence create disorienting worlds for doctors and patients alike. Varma shows how occupation creates worlds of disrupted meaning in which clinical life is connected to political disorder, subverting biomedical neutrality, ethics, and processes of care in profound ways. By highlighting the imbrications between humanitarianism and militarism and between care and violence, Varma theorizes care not as a redemptive practice, but as a fraught sphere of action that is never quite what it seems.
The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong: Sustaining Decentralized Protest (Routledge Contemporary China Series)
by Yongshun CaiThe Occupy movement in Hong Kong was sustained for about 80 days because of government tolerance, the presence of determined participants, and a weak leadership. The government tolerated the occupation because its initial use of force, in particular teargas, was counterproductive and provoked large-scale participation. Unlike other social movements, such as the 1989 Tiananmen movement, the Occupy movement reached its peak of participation at the very beginning, making it difficult to sustain the momentum. The presence of determined participants who chose to stay until the government responded was crucial to the sustaining of the movement. These self-selected participants were caught in a dilemma between fruitless occupation and reluctance to retreat without a success. The movement lasted also because the weak leadership was unable to force the government to concede or devise approaches for making a "graceful exit." Consequently, site clearance became the common choice of both the government and the protestors. This book develops a new framework to explain the sustaining of decentralized protest in the absence of strong movement organizations and leadership. Sustained protests are worth research because they not only reveal the broad social context in which the protests arise and persist but also point out the dynamics of the escalation or the decline of the protests. In addition, sustained protest may not only lead to more dramatic action, but they also result in the diffusion of protests or lead to significant policy changes.
The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong: Sustaining Decentralized Protest (Routledge Contemporary China Series)
by Yongshun CaiThe Occupy movement in Hong Kong was sustained for about 80 days because of government tolerance, the presence of determined participants, and a weak leadership. The government tolerated the occupation because its initial use of force, in particular teargas, was counterproductive and provoked large-scale participation. Unlike other social movements, such as the 1989 Tiananmen movement, the Occupy movement reached its peak of participation at the very beginning, making it difficult to sustain the momentum. The presence of determined participants who chose to stay until the government responded was crucial to the sustaining of the movement. These self-selected participants were caught in a dilemma between fruitless occupation and reluctance to retreat without a success. The movement lasted also because the weak leadership was unable to force the government to concede or devise approaches for making a "graceful exit." Consequently, site clearance became the common choice of both the government and the protestors.This book develops a new framework to explain the sustaining of decentralized protest in the absence of strong movement organizations and leadership. Sustained protests are worth research because they not only reveal the broad social context in which the protests arise and persist but also point out the dynamics of the escalation or the decline of the protests. In addition, sustained protest may not only lead to more dramatic action, but they also result in the diffusion of protests or lead to significant policy changes.
The Ocean Incubator Network Learning Toolkit
by Margherita Paola Poto Laura VitaThis open access book is designed to enhance ocean literacy through diverse research, educational and interdisciplinary approaches. It focuses on a number of critical themes, including: an exploration of positionality, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging one’s own perspective in ocean-related research and advocacy; the nuances of trans-cross and interdisciplinarity in ocean studies, advocating for a systemic approach to understanding oceanic phenomena; a model for collaborative research and project development methods. The authors also include practical components such as a mapping of student-led projects on Ocean Literacy and a chapter dedicated to activities that can be implemented to promote understanding and engagement with oceanic themes. This part is designed to be directly applicable in educational settings, providing tools and ideas for active learning. The book is enriched with a vast array of references, resources, infographics, and mind maps to support the content visually and intellectually. Additionally, to ensure accessibility and enhance learning experiences, a video and audio version of the book will be available via a QR code, making this resource fully accessible to a broad audience, including those with visual and auditory impairments. This toolkit serves as a comprehensive guide for educators and researchers and is a pivotal resource for anyone committed to advancing ocean literacy. This Open Access Book is endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development as a Decade Activity.