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Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity
by Eve PooleTwo of the biggest design problems in Artificial Intelligence are how to build robots that behave in line with human values and how to stop them ever going rogue. One under-explored solution to these alignment and control problems might be to examine how these are already addressed in the design of humans. Looking closely at the human blueprint, it contains a suite of capacities that are so clumsy they have generally been kept away from AI. It was assumed that robots with features like emotions and intuition, that made mistakes and looked for meaning and purpose, would not work as well as robots without this kind of code. But on considering why all these irrational properties are there, it seems that they emerge from the source code of soul. Because it is actually this ‘junk’ code that makes us human and promotes the kind of reciprocal altruism that keeps humanity alive and thriving. Robot Souls looks at developments in AI and reviews the emergence of ideas of consciousness and the soul. It places our ‘junk code’ in this context and argues that it is time to foreground that code, and to use it to look again at how we are programming AI.
Roboter- und KI-Ethik: Eine methodische Einführung – Grundlagen der Technikethik Band 1
by Michael FunkWas ist die Ethik der Roboter? Was ist KI-Ethik? Was sind „moralische Maschinen“? Welchen Gesetzen sollen sie folgen? Haben wir die Roboter, die wir brauchen, und brauchen wir die Roboter, die wir haben?In vorliegendem Buch werden Grundlagen der Ethik im Umgang mit Robotern, Drohnen und KI allgemeinverständlich dargestellt. Hierzu zählt die Unterscheidung von Moral, Ethik und Ethos sowie deren Anwendung auf Menschen und Maschinen. Kriterien, Fehlschlüsse und Robotergesetze werden vorgestellt, wie auch in die umfassende Gegenwartsdebatte übersichtlich eingeführt. Grafiken und Beispiele bieten Orientierung in einem hochaktuellen und komplexen Feld.Als methodische Einführung richtet sich vorliegendes Buch an Ingenieurwissenschaftler*innen, Informatiker*innen und Geisteswissenschaftler*innen im Berufsalltag, aber auch an interessierte Lai*innen, die Grundlagen der Ethik kennen lernen wollen. Es bildet den ersten, in sich abgerundeten Teil der Buchreihe Grundlagen der Technikethik.Mit einem Geleitwort von Yvonne Hofstetter.
Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2014
by Wes Mcgee Monica Ponce de LeonRobotic automation has become ubiquitous in the modern manufacturing landscape, spanning an overwhelming range of processes and applications-- from small scale force-controlled grinding operations for orthopedic joints to large scale composite manufacturing of aircraft fuselages. Smart factories, seamlessly linked via industrial networks and sensing, have revolutionized mass production, allowing for intelligent, adaptive manufacturing processes across a broad spectrum of industries. Against this background, an emerging group of researchers, designers, and fabricators have begun to apply robotic technology in the pursuit of architecture, art, and design, implementing them in a range of processes and scales. Coupled with computational design tools the technology is no longer relegated to the repetitive production of the assembly line, and is instead being employed for the mass-customization of non-standard components. This radical shift in protocol has been enabled by the development of new design to production workflows and the recognition of robotic manipulators as "multi-functional" fabrication platforms, capable of being reconfigured to suit the specific needs of a process. The emerging discourse surrounding robotic fabrication seeks to question the existing norms of manufacturing and has far reaching implications for the future of how architects, artists, and designers engage with materialization processes. This book presents the proceedings of Rob|Arch2014, the second international conference on robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design. It includes a Foreword by Sigrid Brell-Cokcan and Johannes Braumann, Association for Robots in Architecture. The work contained traverses a wide range of contemporary topics, from methodologies for incorporating dynamic material feedback into existing fabrication processes, to novel interfaces for robotic programming, to new processes for large-scale automated construction. The latent argument behind this research is that the term 'file-to-factory' must not be a reductive celebration of expediency but instead a perpetual challenge to increase the quality of feedback between design, matter, and making
Robots in Care and Everyday Life: Future, Ethics, Social Acceptance (SpringerBriefs in Sociology)
by Uwe EngelThis open access book presents detailed findings about the ethical, legal, and social acceptance of robots in the German and European context. The key resource is the Bremen AI Delphi survey of scientists and politicians and a related population survey. The focus is on trust in robotic assistance, human willingness to use this assistance, and the expected personal well-being in human-robot interaction. Using recent data from Eurostat, the European Social Survey, and the Eurobarometer survey, the analysis is extended to Germany and the EU. The acceptance of robots in care and everyday life is viewed against their acceptance in other contexts of life and the scientific research. The book reports on how the probability of five complex future scenarios is evaluated by experts and politicians. These scenarios cover a broad range of topics, including the worst-case scenario of cutthroat competition for jobs, the wealth promise of AI, communication in human-robot interaction, robotic assistance, and ethical and legal conflicts. International economic competition alone will ensure that countries invest sustainably in the future technologies of AI and robots. But will these technologies also be accepted by the population? The book raises the core issue of how governments can gain the needed social, ethical, and user acceptance of AI and robots in everyday life. This highly topical book is of interest to researchers, professionals and policy makers working on various aspects of human-robot interaction. This is an open access book.
Robots in Education: An Introduction to High-Tech Social Agents, Intelligent Tutors, and Curricular Tools
by Massimiliano Cappuccio Friederike Eyssel Paul Baxter Tony Belpaeme Christoph Bartneck Fady Alnajjar Cinzia Di Dio Jürgen Handke Omar Mubin Mohammad Obaid Natalia Reich-StiebertRobots in Education is an accessible introduction to the use of robotics in formal learning, encompassing pedagogical and psychological theories as well as implementation in curricula. Today, a variety of communities across education are increasingly using robots as general classroom tutors, tools in STEM projects, and subjects of study. This volume explores how the unique physical and social-interactive capabilities of educational robots can generate bonds with students while freeing instructors to focus on their individualized approaches to teaching and learning. Authored by a uniquely interdisciplinary team of scholars, the book covers the basics of robotics and their supporting technologies; attitudes toward and ethical implications of robots in learning; research methods relevant to extending our knowledge of the field; and more.
Rock And Roll: A Social History
by Paul FriedlanderNow updated with two new chapters and an extraordinary collection of photographs, this second edition of Paul Friedlander's Rock and Roll: A Social History is a smash hit. The social force of rock and roll music leaps off the page as Paul Friedlander provides impressive insights based on hits from Johnny B. Goode to Smells Like Teen Spirit and beyond. In this musical journey, Friedlander offers the melodious strains and hard-edged riffs of Elvis, the Beatles, The Who, Dylan, Clapton, Hendrix, Motown, the San Francisco Beat, Punk, New Wave, rap, metal, 90s grunge, plus file sharing, and much more. The book is written in a refreshing, captivating style that pulls the reader in, offering no less than a complete social and cultural history of rock and roll for students and general audiences alike. Friedlander writes, 'This book chronicles the first forty years of rock/pop music history. Picture the various musical styles as locations on a giant unfolding road map. As you open the map, you travel from place to place, stopping at each chapter to sample the artistry. Don't forget to dress your imagination appropriately for this trip, because each genre is affected by the societal topography and climate that surround it. Enjoy your trip. We promise it will be a good one!'
Rock • Paper • Pixels: How Our Need to Communicate Created a New Economy, Society, and Individual: What will be the Effects of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing?
by Patrick AievoliThe purpose of this book is to avail faculty, and students of the many different innovations, events, effects, and back-stories equated with the advent of this new era of communications and its impact on our world. At our core we are a species that needs to communicate and to find a way to properly represent those messages. Since the beginning of recorded history mankind has always attempted to communicate and to keep track of its endeavors and accomplishments. Now by using interaction design and modern digital media it has become possible to present “our story” through many current and evocative platforms.As each generation comes of age this new method is being utilized in all areas of their communication choices. These new generations desire their communication at a different rate than its predecessors. They want their information Internet ready and interactive. They are involved in the immediate and that choice is not going away. Interactive media is here to stay and has new rules and new effects. It is changing our economies, our societies and especially us - as individuals.The main goal of this book is to help you see how it started, where it is going and how to be on the right side of this transformation. How to take your first steps in that new direction and how to understand the effects of this new form of communication while being aware of its abilities and its dangers.As a friend once said, “no matter how thin you slice it there are always two sides.”
Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-Help and Postpartum Depression (Perspectives on Gender)
by Verta TaylorAlthough self-help has been an integral strategy of the women's movement, the burgeoning self-help publishing industry and growing popularity of talk shows encouraging personal confession have provoked vicious attacks on self-help from many feminists. Rock-a-By Baby examines the postpartum depression support group movement and exploring the relationship between gender, the ideas and strategies of women's self-help groups and feminism. Taylor uses interviews and personal letters, talk show transcripts, organizational newsletters and a survey of postpartum group leaders to illuminate conflicts played out in the arena of women's self-help.
Rocking the Ages
by J. Walker Smith Ann S. ClurmanWhy We No Longer Care About What Comes Between Brooke And Her Calvins And Other Insights Into Marketing In The 1990s And Beyond For almost forty years, Yankelovich Partners has helped America's biggest companies understand and reach their customers. Their breakthrough MONITOR studies-annual surveys that analyze the values, beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that shape consumer decisions-not only pinpoint current trends, but predict where the market will be in the future. Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing (HarperBusiness; May 21, 1997) by J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman turns the spotlight on America's "generation gap" and transforms what was born as a political and social rallying cry into a sound foundation for profitable marketing. Defining the essence of three generations-the Matures (born between 1909-1945), the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), and the Generation-Xers (1965-1978)-it explores in telling detail the experiences, life skills, values, personal and professional aspirations, likes and dislikes, and hopes and fears that distinguish each generation. Drawing on this unprecedented data, it elucidates how and why each generation reacts to a vast range of marketplace issues-including technology and cyberspace, healthcare and fitness, media and entertainment, retailing and financial services. From highlighting generational differences regarding such basic concepts as work itself-Matures regard it as an inevitable obligation, Boomers as an opportunity for self-fulfillment, and Xers as simply a paycheck-and gratification-delayed by Matures, demanded instantaneously by Boomers, "virtual" in the case of most Xers-to describing the widely differing versions of the American Dream each generation harbors, Rocking the Ages offers invaluable insights into how to market a product or service to reach one, two, or all three generations. The Matures triumphed over the Great Depression, vanquished facism, staunched communism, oversaw the building of the suburbs and shopping malls of middle-class America, and made TV a central part of their households-accomplishments they overwhelmingly attribute to hard work, self-sacrifice, financial discipline, and a respect for authority and institutions. In short, they earned material comforts and security "the old-fashioned way" and now, as they enjoy their retirement or finish out the best-paying years of their work lives, these values continue to guide their decisions. Reaching this group, the authors assert, entails stressing that they've earned the right to enjoy the fruits of their labor; offering of discounts and special benefits that appeal to their ingrained prudence and frugality; and designing campaigns that focus on brand-name loyalty and carry the endorsements of celebrities who embody the wisdom of experience. Born at a time of unprecedented prosperity and affluence, reared in "permissive" households, and comprising-at 78 million-the most populous generation ever, Boomers grew up thinking they were special. Rejecting the conformity and self-sacrifice of the previous generation, they challenged authority, championed the unconventional, and, most strikingly, focused on self-fulfillment-they didn't just want jobs and families and ranch houses, they wanted enlightenment. While their enormous expectations-which drove the marketplace for many years-have been eroded by intractable social, economic, and political problems, the Boomers retain a strong sense of entitlement and self-worth. According to the MONITOR findings, this huge market will be loyal to companies that appeal to the rule-breaking and non-conformity that is the essence of the Boomer self-image; capitalize on the intense nostalgia this generation feels for its past (as Mercedes-Benz has done by using the music of Janis Joplin in its ads); play up the importance of family and family activity, which Boomers now regard as a way to express their personal creativity; offer financial services that help in extending income-earning years; and supply products-from clothing to food...
Rocking the Boat: Migration and Race in Contemporary Spanish Music (Toronto Iberic)
by Silvia BermudezSilvia Bermúdez’s fascinating study reveals how Spanish popular music, produced between 1980 and 2013, was the first cultural site to engage in critical debate about ethnicity and race in relation to the immigration patterns that have been changing the social landscape of Spanish society since the late 1970s. In Rocking the Boat, Bermúdez examines the lyrics of songs by both renowned and up and coming artists to illuminate how these new migrants challenged Spain’s notions of homogeneity, boundaries, accommodation, and incorporation. Bermúdez observes that immigration has had such a significant influence on Spanish society that the tattered boats, seen to this day on the shores of Spain and throughout the Mediterranean Sea, have become inverted emblems of the ships that were once symbols of great power and economic development. Rocking the Boat is a nuanced account of how popular urban music shaped the discourse on immigration, transnational migrants, and racialization in Spain’s new social landscape.
Rodney's Wife
by Richard Nelson"A full emotional geography of a family . . . Seemingly light conversation scrapes the skins of the characters in this sharply etched study of dislocation, loneliness and sexual betrayal."--Ben Brantley, The New York Times"Nelson is a master of the quiet detail, of the oblique rhythm that transforms emotional diffidence into fascinating character."--Linda Winer, Newsday"The early scenes proceed with the closely observed simplicity of Chekhov, whereas the later more wrenching moments evoke the eloquent bitterness of Albee."--David Cote, TimeOut New YorkA new work by leading American playwright Richard Nelson, who for more than 25 years has written prolifically, and with fine detail, on the perplexities of everyday living. In Rodney's Wife, a fading American actor in Rome for the filming of a 1960s spaghetti Western gathers with family and friends at a rented villa. Over the course of one booze-soaked summer night, jealousies and secrets are revealed that crumble the foundations of their relationships. Inspired by Euripides, the play is a tragedy of exiles who continue to need each other, even as they push away.Richard Nelson won Britain's Olivier Award for Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere, and the Tony Award for Best Book for his musical James Joyce's The Dead. His plays have been widely produced in the U.S. and Great Britain. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama.
Rogue Clerics: The Social Problem of Clergy Deviance
by Anson ShupeDuring the past several years the mass media in the United States has been awash with reports of priestly pedophilia, ecclesiastical cover-up, and clerical intimidation or financial settlements intended to silence victims. Based on journalistic accounts, or scholarly research, it might be assumed that this is a recent phenomenon. Journalist reports began only within the past few years. Similarly, most sociologists of religion and particularly specialists in deviance and criminology did not reflect awareness of clerical misbehavior in their work. Despite this, Anson Shupe shows that clergy deviance, whether it is sexual or otherwise, is not merely a recent problem. It is as old as the church itself and is inevitably bound to recur due to the nature of religious groups. This comprehensive analysis offers the first up-to-date analysis of sexual, economic, and authoritative clergy malfeasance across faiths and denominational authority structures. Drawing on examples taken from antiquity up until the present day, and using reports by historians, theologians, church spokespersons, therapists, social scientists, and journalists, Shupe critically evaluates clergy deviant behavior, dividing it into various types. He also makes use of the therapeutic literature, addressing victimization at the level of the individual, church, and community at large. In this way, he compares the response of the clergy to victims' attempts to mobilize movements calling for church reform. Perhaps most controversial, this book considers the possible relationship of homosexuality in the clergy to the occurrences of scandals in all religious traditions across the board. As an overview of clergy misconduct, this book is singular. There is simply no other comprehensive serious examination of this subject. Written by a sociologist for a wide range of readers, its multi-disciplinary nature, vivid examples, and wealth of research, will make the volume of interest to sociologists of religion and crime, historians and theologians, as well as a general public.
Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art
by Michael Gross“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.” <P><P> With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class’s cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers. And he paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power.<P> The Metropolitan, Gross writes, “is a huge alchemical experiment, turning the worst of man’s attributes—extravagance, lust, gluttony, acquisitiveness, envy, avarice, greed, egotism, and pride—into the very best, transmuting deadly sins into priceless treasure.” The book covers the entire 138-year history of the Met, focusing on the museum’s most colorful characters. Opening with the lame-duck director Philippe de Montebello, the museum’s longest-serving leader who finally stepped down in 2008, Rogues’ Gallery then goes back to the very beginning, highlighting, among many others: the first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-born epic phony, whose legacy is a trove of plundered ancient relics, some of which remain on display today; John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest capitalist and art collector of his day, who turned the museum from the plaything of a handful of rich amateurs into a professional operation dedicated, sort of, to the public good; John D. Rockefeller Jr., who never served the Met in any official capacity but who, during the Great Depression, proved the only man willing and rich enough to be its benefactor, which made him its behind-the-scenes puppeteer; the controversial Thomas Hoving, whose tenure as director during the sixties and seventies revolutionized museums around the world but left the Met in chaos; and Jane Engelhard and Annette de la Renta, a mother-daughter trustee tag team whose stories will astonish you (think Casablanca rewritten by Edith Wharton).<P> With a supporting cast that includes artists, forgers, and looters, financial geniuses and scoundrels, museum officers (like its chairman Arthur Amory Houghton, head of Corning Glass, who once ripped apart a priceless and ancient Islamic book in order to sell it off piecemeal), trustees (like Jayne Wrightsman, the Hollywood party girl turned society grand dame), curators (like the aging Dietrich von Bothmer, a refugee from Nazi Germany with a Bronze Star for heroism whose greatest acquisitions turned out to be looted), and donors (like Irwin Untermyer, whose collecting obsession drove his wife and children to suicide), and with cameo appearances by everyone from Vogue editors Anna Wintour and Diana Vreeland to Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten, Rogues’ Gallery is a rich, satisfying, alternately hilarious and horrifying look at America’s upper class, and what is perhaps its greatest creation.
Role of Women Parliamentarians in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in India: Nutrition, Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Bhumika ModhThis book analyses the systematic and procedural issues that are faced by women in the Parliament and brings to light the systematic ignorance of certain issues supported by data on the Parliamentary Debates, Question Hours and functioning of Parliamentary Committees. Combining these technical issues with substantive legal arguments in favour of gender mainstreaming, this book acts as a tool of strategic advantage for policymakers, legislators, advocates and researchers. This work unearths not only the problem areas of the research theme, but also dedicates a solution which relies on effective monitoring techniques used globally, specifically to achieve the SDGs in the field of Nutrition, Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Roles in Interpretation (Fifth Edition)
by Judy E. YordonInterpretation is an artistic process of studying literature through performance and sharing that study with an audience. Yordon's Roles in Interpretation prepares students for the roles they will play in performances by explaining interpretation through a wide variety of literary forms, performance styles, and recent theories of interpretation.
Roles of Resistance: Game Plans for Teachers and Troublemakers
by Mark Leier John-Henry HarterWelcome to class. Today, we’ll be learning how to become (effective) troublemakers. In this classroom, no one gets in trouble for defying authority. Designed for educators and facilitators from the union hall to the lecture hall, Roles of Resistance: Game Plans for Teachers and Troublemakers outlines revolutionary lesson plans on how to fight the power with people power. The thirteen lesson plans in this book created by John-Henry Harter and Mark Leier can be used independently or combined to create a semester-long course. Sections include units on teaching political economy, labour history, and social activism based on democratic, experiential teaching, including role-plays, simulations, and games. The tried and tested classroom activities in this teacher’s guide—successfully applied in high schools, universities, and union classrooms—are bound to create a vibrant learning experience, enriching debates, and providing the main tool we need to change the world: collective action.
Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities in UK Education
by Hilary McqueenTop scholars systematically explore roles, rights, and responsibilities of major participants in UK education: the government, the educators, the learners, and the parents. They investigate the inequalities produced by their current arrangement and look into how changing these arrangements might lead to different outcomes for all involved.
Rolle, Status, Erwartungen und soziale Gruppe
by Gerhard PreyerDie Soziologie der Mitgliedschaft legt einen besonderen Anschnitt bei der Untersuchung der klassischen soziologischen Grundbegriffe Rolle, Status, Erwartungen und soziale Gruppe. Er besteht darin, dass sie im Hinblick auf die Strukturbestandteile sozialer Systeme zu untersuchen sind. Der Band führt in zentrale Grundbegriffe der Soziologie ein, die dem Soziologiestudenten eine Orientierung für die Beobachtung von Kommunikation und Mitgliedschaft bereitstellen. Er wertet soziologisches Wissen aus und führt die Kommunikation mit der Tradition des Faches fort.
Rollenspiele im Assessment Center: Aufbau, Konzeption und Durchführung für Eignungsdiagnostiker (essentials)
by Jens BregasDieser Band beschäftigt sich erstmals ausschließlich mit einer zentralen Übung zeitgemäßer Assessment Center, dem Rollenspiel. Trotz aller Neuerungen und Erweiterungen des Assessment Centers scheint das Erleben eines AC-Kandidaten in der Interaktion mit einem Rollenspielpartner alternativlos zu sein. Doch was macht ein gutes Rollenspiel aus und wie erstellt man es? Hinweise aus der AC-Literatur sowie vielfältige Erfahrungen mit dieser AC-Übung werden hier systematisch zusammengetragen und liefern einen Leitfaden für die praktische Anwendung.
Roller Coaster Diaries
by João Rosa de CastroFinally, the Diary Book, where we find the author’s everyday life, his particularities and reflections that colours the happenings of his daily life. What to say about this writing that many times seems to be unreal for the reader, but that in João Rosa de Castro’s experience appears to have much meaning? The reader is not up to decipher the enigmas nor understand them, but enjoy the words of the writer’s intimacy that lead us to seversal situations lived by him and that he wished to share. Like the writing in which he reveals to be the best hour, the best day, the best month and the best year of his life, or when he discusses the matter drugs based on the discussion held by Maria Rita Kehl in the “Philosophical Café”, or even the confession that he doesn’t know how to console when the matter is death, when he knew of the death of the dog of his Januário’s muse. At last, getting into this book means allowing to open oneself to the perceptions, reflections of its author and enjoy his words.
Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes
by Ted ConoverAs a college student, the author decided that he wanted to study the men who have been called hobos, those who travel by hopping freight trains, and who live however they can. He wanted to know whether their lifestyle was as attractive as it seemed to many young people.
Rolling Pennies in the Dark
by Douglas Mackinnon"Our intoxicated mother had marched the three of us out into what passed for a living room in the cardboard and tarpaper shack we were existing in on the edge of Nowhere, New Hampshire. She assembled us like an audience on the broken yellow sofa, and said, 'I'm going to kill myself now, and it's all your father's fault.' "After the dramatic announcement, and once sure we were all looking at the tragedy playing out before us, she took a bottle of sleeping pills out of her purse, and swallowed the entire contents, using vodka as the lubricant." --excerpt from page 44 Through determination, a deep faith in God, and belief in himself, Douglas MacKinnon has taken the pains of his childhood and turned them into the fuel of compassion. Through his words, you can do the same. A Memoir with a Message It's impossible for most of us to imagine what it would be like, as a nine-year-old child, to have your own mother empty her .45 pistol into your cardboard bedroom wall, bullets flying above your head, as you hold your baby sister close to protect her. We can't imagine this, but Doug MacKinnon can. Doug can do more than imagine--he can remember. This very personal memoir is both heartbreaking and highly inspirational. In it, Douglas MacKinnon weaves his astounding story as a desperately poor child and his triumphant transition from living in abject squalor to becoming a White House writer who now has the political influence to change the system--especially as it affects children. But this book is more than the story of one man's personal journey; it is a memoir with a message. Through this message, the author not only inspires readers to move beyond their own difficulties, he also calls both political parties to task for their shameful neglect of tens of millions of Americans. You'll be riveted to the story, moved to compassion, and inspired to see the world through new eyes.
Rolling Pennies in the Dark: A Memoir with a Message
by Douglas Mackinnon"Our intoxicated mother had marched the three of us out into what passed for a living room in the cardboard and tarpaper shack we were existing in on the edge of Nowhere, New Hampshire. She assembled us like an audience on the broken yellow sofa, and said, 'I'm going to kill myself now, and it's all your father's fault.' "After the dramatic announcement, and once sure we were all looking at the tragedy playing out before us, she took a bottle of sleeping pills out of her purse, and swallowed the entire contents, using vodka as the lubricant." --excerpt from page 44 Through determination, a deep faith in God, and belief in himself, Douglas MacKinnon has taken the pains of his childhood and turned them into the fuel of compassion. Through his words, you can do the same. A Memoir with a Message It's impossible for most of us to imagine what it would be like, as a nine-year-old child, to have your own mother empty her .45 pistol into your cardboard bedroom wall, bullets flying above your head, as you hold your baby sister close to protect her. We can't imagine this, but Doug MacKinnon can. Doug can do more than imagine--he can remember. This very personal memoir is both heartbreaking and highly inspirational. In it, Douglas MacKinnon weaves his astounding story as a desperately poor child and his triumphant transition from living in abject squalor to becoming a White House writer who now has the political influence to change the system--especially as it affects children. But this book is more than the story of one man's personal journey; it is a memoir with a message. Through this message, the author not only inspires readers to move beyond their own difficulties, he also calls both political parties to task for their shameful neglect of tens of millions of Americans. You'll be riveted to the story, moved to compassion, and inspired to see the world through new eyes.
Roma Activism: Reimagining Power and Knowledge (Romani Studies #1)
by Sam Beck Ana IvasiucExploring contemporary debates and developments in Roma-related research and forms of activism, this volume argues for taking up reflexivity as practice in these fields, and advocates a necessary renewal of research sites, methods, and epistemologies. The contributors gathered here – whose professional trajectories often lie at the confluence between activism, academia, and policy or development interventions – are exceptionally well placed to reflect on mainstream practices in all these fields, and, from their particular positions, envision a reimagining of these practices.
Roma Identity and Ritual in the Classroom: The Institutional Embeddedness of Ethnicity
by Jana ObrovskáThis book addresses the dynamics of interethnic relationships in ethnically mixed classrooms in the Czech Republic. The classroom is a space in which the boundaries and meanings of facets of identity such as ethnicity, class and gender are negotiated on a daily basis: using rich ethnographic data, the author grounds the analysis in a novel theoretical framework which uses the traditional concept of ritual to examine peer cultures. Highlighting the perspectives of the students themselves, their own peer cultures and the agency of the minority youth present in the classroom, the book reinforces the idea that the dynamics of peer culture can be the scene for successful peer inclusion strategies as well as a stage for the reproduction of inequalities. The author offers a rich array of data from post-socialist classrooms, which are almost invisible in the dominant debates surrounding ethnicity. This revelatory book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of social anthropology, the sociology of education and race and ethnicity in education, as well as practitioners working with minority youth.