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The attributed article is the culmination of efforts between three friends, to write on the life and reach of historical sociologist, Giovanni Arrighi, who died from cancer in June 2009. The author provides a personal insight into Arrighi's academic and literary career, commenting on the political viewpoints both shared with and debated by many academians throughout the world. By highlighting Arrighi's life and writing practices, the author brings to light the distinct understanding behind the historically necessary and historically possible, and the four systematic cycles re accumulation of historical capitalism. The article then discusses the themes of economic restructuring and reorganization, various patterns, and questions regarding the consolidation of wealth in the following books: The Geometry of Imperialism (1978), The Long Twentieth Century (1994), and Adam Smith in Beijing (2007). Towards the conclusion, the author states that Arrighi in his final days, spoke of the need for a world based on mutual respect between humans, and of nature discounting the overuse of the word socialism; and assigning the interviewer to ascertain a new expression for this vision, one with which the author also seems to share as a tribute. Adapted from the source document.

Aracoeli (1982) was the last novel written by Elsa Morante (1912-85), one of the most significant Italian writers of the twentieth century. The journey, both geographical and memorial, of a homosexual son in search of his dead mother is a first-person narrative that has puzzled many critics for its darkness and despair. By combining scholars from different disciplines and cultural traditions, "The Power of Disturbance: Elsa Morante's Aracoeli", co-edited by Manuele Gragnolati and Sara Fortuna, re-evaluates the esthetical and theoretical complexity of Morante's novel and argues that it engages with crucial philosophical and epistemological questions in an original and profound way. Contributors explore the manifold tensions staged by the novel in connection with contemporary philosophical discourse (from feminist/queer to political theory to psycho-analysis) and authors (such as Emilio Gadda, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Pedro Almodovar). "The Power of Disturbance", which emerged from an ICI-Symposium, shows that by creating a 'hallucinatory' representation of the relationship between mother and child, Aracoeli questions the classical distinction between subject and object, and proposes an altogether new and subversive kind of writing. 201p (Legenda 2009) ; Presenting The Power of Disturbance , book presentation, ICI Berlin, 29 October 2009

Straipsnyje analizuojami elektroninio mokymosi kursai elektroninių informacijos šaltinių kontekste, elektroninio mokymosi ypatumai. Aptariamos galimybės naudoti elektroninius informacijos šaltinius kuriant elektroninio mokymosi kursus. Išanalizavus elektroninio mokymosi kursų specifiką daroma išvada, kad tiesiogiai naudoti elektroninius informacijos šaltinius kuriant elektroninio mokymosi medžiagą negalima. Be to, elektroninio mokymosi kursai išskiriami kaip specifiniai elektroniniai informacijos šaltiniai, netapatintini su elektroninėmis knygomis, žurnalais, straipsniais ar kita medžiaga, pateikiama elektroninėse laikmenose.Reikšminiai žodžiai: nuotolinis mokymasis, elektroninis mokymasis, elektroninio mokymosi kursai, elektroniniai informacijos šaltiniai, elektroniniai informacijos ištekliai, nuotolinės studijos, virtualioji mokymosi terpė.Electronic information sources and possibilities of their use in electronic learningPovilas Abarius
SummaryThe main objective of the articles was to analyze electronic learning courses in the context of electronic information sources, to investigate the peculiarities of electronic learning and discuss the possibilities of using electronic information sources in producing electronic learning materials. The peculiarities of electronic learning courses and their specific structure are analyzed. The conclusions are that direct usage of an electronic information source in producing electronic course material is impossible. Electronic learning courses should be treated as separate electronic information sources without identifying them with other electronic information sources such as electronic books, journals, etc.Key words: distance learning, electronic learning, electronic learning courses, electronic information sources.e-height: 18px;">

Nonhuman nonheteronormativity presents a profound challenge not just to identity forms but more importantly to disciplinary habits of thinking of human subjectivity as the default form of social agency. To elaborate this point, this essay surveys how some recent books, including Roughgarden's Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, Donna Haraway's When Species Meet, Alice A. Kuzniar's Melancholy's Dog, and Jens Rydström's Sinners and Citizens: Bestiality and Homosexuality in Sweeden, 1889-1950, take as their subjects intimacies that belie hetero/homosexual along with non/human binaries. Grounding queer theory in a cross-species continuum is not the overall purpose of any of these texts, but an effect produced through the alignment of these authors' very different examinations of sex relations as shared by social animals. Ranging from the bizarre (fish threesomes) to the raunchy (bestiality in the cowshed), and even more ordinary combinations of both (dogs' dry-humping), the forms of sociality accruing in these discussions lay foundations for new biopolitical (as opposed to disciplinary) knowledges, prompting further inquiry into what happens to all of us when animals do it unlike they do on the Discovery Channel.

In her book, Anna Marie Smith meticulously analyzes the racial and gendered dimensions of the U.S. welfare state and the ways in which it punishes the unmarried and imposes hetero-normative standards on all types of poor families. Smith's aim is to "expand the disciplinary limits of feminist political theory" (p. 6) by drawing on case law, public policy, and social theory. She exposes highly undemocratic practices directed at poor women and men, as well as what amounts to a eugenic project seeking to limit poor people's reproduction. Significantly, individuals of color are targeted by the state for eugenic control and moral policing. In particular, Smith points out how welfare reform and the implementation of "paternafare"—a program that forces poor women to identify biological fathers so that the state can pursue these "deadbeat dads"—do not help the one group who even conservatives agree are "innocent"—children. Very rarely are any party's circumstances elevated by this system, and most often "payers" are forced into deeper poverty. Furthermore, the state's hetero-normative stance marginalizes lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals (LGBTs) in a legal system in which their rights are already deeply compromised.

Résumé: Cet article explore les liens entre les sociologies québécoise et française de l'environnement. Il revient d'abord sur les difficultés de lier entre-elles les approches sociologiques nationales. Il s'attache ensuite à rassembler un nombre important de contributions issues d'ouvrages collectifs et de colloques français, québécois et francophones pour présenter deux résultats. Premièrement, il existe un ensemble de démarches d'analyse transversales aux approches québécoises et
françaises. Deuxièmement, ces deux sociologies régionales gardent pourtant des spécificités historiques et géographiques propres. Cela conduit à penser que sociologies locales et sociologie globale coexistent et trouvent un équilibre certes fragile mais heuristique.

Abstract: This article explores the relationship between Quebec and French environmental sociologies. It reviews the difficulties in linking national sociological approaches. Then it endeavours to compile numerous contributions selected in Quebec, French and French-speaking collective books, and conferences with two results. First, there is a set of analytical processes transversal to Quebec and French approaches. Second, both of these two regional sociologies keep their own historical and geographical specificities. This suggests that local sociologies and global sociology can coexist and find an equilibrium, heuristic though
fragile.

Despite the great concern towards the issue of the convergence
of economies, the world is still witnessing the gap between rich and
poor being widened progressively. The book examines the interesting
question of why some countries are rich and some are poor-why they
differ in their levels of income and their rates of economic growth.
Featuring the latest data, new case studies, and a number of significant
additions in the content, the new Second Edition takes the Weil legacy
further. The text develops a very balanced relevance of both
macroeconomics' classical roots and its current practice in the field of
growth. Engagingly written, it brings into use simple models, close to
reality examples, and instructive tables and figures to address the key
issues. Chapter summaries, list of key concepts at the beginning of each
chapter, questions for review, as well as problems and applications to
help the diligent reader master the material he provides. The clarity of
the writing, the richness of the empirical and quantitative
descriptions, and the best available evidence of some of the modern
economies confronting growth issues, however, would further deepen his
interest.

In this paper we deconstruct the popular book by Thomas Friedman which argues that the world is integrated through the advent of a new form of globalization based on the Internet. We use the logic of international business strategy to demonstrate that Friedman's examples of worldwide integration are special cases which ignore the empirical realities of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We provide empirical evidence to demonstrate that the world's largest MNEs do not operate globally, but sell and produce the vast majority of their output within their home region of the triad. We develop a new analytical framework to explain the limited nature of Friedman's thinking, and we contrast this with the more robust frameworks available in international business. The latter frameworks, which take into account country level and regional level barriers to integration, are better at explaining the activities of MNEs. We conclude that, from the viewpoint of international business strategy, the prescriptive thinking from Friedman is misleading if it is believed that a global strategy is feasible. Instead, MNEs need to develop strategies to accommodate the realities of intra-regional integration and to overcome the liabilities of inter-regional expansion across the triad.

This study attempts to explore and compare the cognitive, affective and procedural aspects of EFL elementary textbooks in Syria and Germany. It analyses a corpus which consists of three Syrian elementary textbooks, Starters I-III, and their German counterparts, Kooky I-II. Based on the paradigmatic change from instructivism to constructivism, a descriptive-analytical approach is used to examine the content-material in terms of teacher vs. pupil orientation, product vs. process orientation, virtuality vs. authenticity, cognitive learning vs. learning by doing which represent the essential parameters of learner autonomy. Results indicate that the Syrian material focuses on the cognitive element of language learning without ignoring affective and procedural factors, whereas the German material tends to put special emphasis on affectivity and process-orientation. Culturally, the Syrian textbooks confine their view to the domestic background before opening up to British culture in book III, whereas the German textbooks are keen to introduce the British dimension right from the start. For the Syrian material, the study suggests the inclusion of pronunciation exercises and a stronger consideration of learner autonomy. For the German material, close attention should be paid to a well-balanced relationship between the three parameters mentioned above.

Until recently, my husband and I had been seeing one of those "Oh-I'm-so-glad-he's-my-doctor" physicians for two decades. Then one day the mail brought the announcement that the office was closing its doors and that the four doctors who had been in the practice were either retiring or leaving San Francisco. They enclosed a list of doctors who, they said, had indicated they had room in their practices. So started my search for a new primary-care physician. I looked the list over, saw a familiar name, and dialed the number. "Yes," the receptionist assured me, "doctor is taking new patients." It was all very friendly; I made an appointment; she set about recording the necessary information, and then the crucial question. "What insurance do you have?" "Medicare and AARP" (one of the several medi-gap insurance plans to which those of us who can afford it subscribe), I replied. I heard a small intake of breath, a ten-second silence that felt like much more, and then, "Oh, you should have told me before that you're Medicare; doctor isn't taking new Medicare patients." And with that she severed the connection and, I assume, wiped my appointment off the book.

The European Commission and the EU Member States, pushed by global realities, made an attempt in 2006 and 2007 to come up with a new, effective view of the energy sector in the context of the European Union and European integration. This attention was also supported by the increased interest of researchers as well as public opinion. This is related both to the definition of key priorities and the strategy for addressing them. Even though we are talking about documents issued within a single year, we can see progress in their development. The implementing documents from the beginning of year 2007(The Energy Packet of the European Commission of January, and the Action Plan the Energy Policy for Europe of March) are not as radical as was the strategy for European Policy presented in the Green Book published in March 2006. We should also ask whether the Energy Policy is really a 'new', economically rational, implementable one corresponding to the main challenges of the 21st century. The predetermination of the Energy Packet sounds rather alarming: The European Union should lead the world into a new industrial revolution. The strong words used at the beginning of the Lisbon strategy have not yet fallen into oblivion.

Revised Reprint. Original published in: _Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions_, vol. 7 (1), 2006, pp. 83-107, doi:10.1080/14690760500477919. Book-length Reprint with permission by Taylors & Francis Ltd., London ; International audience ; Heterodox mystics and heretics of any kind become sometimes dangerous and other times reliable, depending on political situations, as was the case with the Bektashis. The system of beliefs and practices related to Bektashism seems to have corresponded to a kind of liberation theology, whereas the structure of Bektashi groups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organization conventionally known as charismatic groups. It becomes understandable therefore that their spiritual tendency could at times connect with and meet social, cultural and national perspectives. In turn, when members of the previously persecuted religious minority will acquire a degree of religious and political respectability within society at large, the doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theology fade into the background. In the end, the heirs of the heterodox promoters of spiritual reform and social movement turn into followers and faithful defenders of a legitimate authority. They become the spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose support is sought by the political regime.

Parallax is the change visible when an object is seen from two different points of view. In The Parallax View (2006), Slavoj Zizek uses parallax as a metaphor for the gap that opens up whenever there co-exist two irreconcilable perspectives. The book looks at examples of parallax in philosophy, science, and politics. Despite the multiplicity of parallaxes on view, there is one object onto which Zizek does not project his metaphor: cinema. This article extends the metaphor of parallax to include Zizek's favourite extra-curricular obsession. Inspired by Zizek's prior writings on Psycho, the article juxtaposes Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film and Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake, focusing specifically on how the two films play out the cinematographic parallax gap between black-and-white and colour. Onto this stylistic parallax gap, the article superimposes the theoretical parallax gap between Zizek's psychoanalytic approach to film and the approach of Zizek's academic antithesis, post-theorist David Bordwell. By exploring one version of Psycho from a Zizekian perspective and the other from a Bordwellian perspective, the artice suggests that Zizek and Bordwell's seemingly irreconcilable perspectives can productively interact to provide a binocular view of Hitchcock's film.