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"This book looks at how the ideas of freedom, property and order are expressed in modern social contract theories (SCTs). Drawing on the theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls, it studies how notions of freedom promulgated by these SCTs invariably legitimise and defend the private ownership of the means of production. It argues that capitalism's impact on individual dependence and economic inequality still stems from this model, ultimately working in favour of proprietors. The author highlights the problematic nature of SCTs, which work as ideological mechanisms put forward under the guise of formal equality and formal freedom, by focusing on the historical and social context behind them. From a methodological point of view, the author presents a de-ideologization of the contractarian issue and provides insight into the political 'layers' within the discourse of individualism, human nature and morality shaping the outer corners of contractarian theory. An important intervention in the study of SCTs, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political and social theory, sociology, political history, and political philosophy."

"This book offers a timely insight into how the news media have adapted to the digital transformation of public communication infrastructure. Providing a conceptual roadmap to understanding the disruptive, innovative impact of digital networked journalism in the 21st century, the author critically examines how and to what extent news media around the world have engaged in digital adaptation. Making use of data from news media content production and distribution both off- and online, as well as user and financial data from the U.S and internationally, the book traces how the news media embraced and reacted to key developments such as the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989, the launch of Google in 1998, Facebook in 2004 and the Apple iPhone in 2009. The author also highlights innovative organisations that have sought to reimagine news media that are optimized for digital, online, and mobile media of the 21st century, demonstrating how these groups have been able to stay better engaged with the public. Disruption and Digital Journalism is recommended reading for all academics and scholars with an interest in media, digital journalism studies, and technological innovation"--

In this work, the author contends that we should create a comparative framework for the study of imaginary worlds in the social sciences. Making use of extended examples from both science fiction and fantasy fiction, as well as the living movement of steampunk, the reader is invited to an argument about how best to define imaginary worlds and approach them as social locations for qualitative research. It is suggested in this volume that increasing economic and existential forms of alienation fuel the contemporary surge of participation in imaginary worlds (from gaming worlds to young adult novels) and impel a search for more humane forms of social and cultural organization. Suggestions are made about the usefulness of imaginary worlds to social scientists as places for both testing out theoretical formulations and as tools for teaching in our classrooms. Wayne Fife is Professor of Anthropology at Memorial University, Canada and the author of Doing Fieldwork and Counting as a Qualitative Method, as well as many journal articles on heritage and eco-tourism, economic inequality and education, play as politics, social alienation, ethnographic research methods, and implicit forms of religion

"This book presents a vivid and close-up view of social science researchers engaged in fieldwork, in discussions with colleagues and in writing. Adopting an ethnographic approach inspired by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the author pursues a praxeological analysis of social inquiry in situ. By conceiving of analytical practices such as observation, shop talk, and conceptualization in experiential terms, the seen but unnoticed structures of knowledge work are exposed and made available for empirical analysis. In a departure from ethnographic studies of research that focus on the physical sciences, the author uses the example of sociological research to shed new light on the role of self and mind for epistemic cultures, on the elusive materiality of conceptual objects, and on researchers' experiential ways of seizing, reviewing and accrediting knowledge. A rich and pervasive study of elementary sites in the research process, The Body of Knowledge will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and the humanities with interests in the epistemic practice of their own discipline, as well as those working in fields such as the social study of science, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and the sociology of interaction"--

The fate of Cassiodorus' Variae during the Early Middle Ages is largely unknown, since the manuscript tradition begins with the eleventh century, and long quotations taken from them are attested only from that period. However, words or expressions reminiscent of the Variae occur more than once in Charlemagne's letters to Byzantium, in the works of Paschasius, and in the Donation of Constantine. The author of the epistles sent by Charlemagne's to the East Roman emperor was aware of the ideological context of Variae 1.1, and the same is true for the Donation of Constantine. At the same time, Paschasius used Cassiodorus as a source of elegant words and expressions, thereby treating him like a classical author. It is impossible to ascertain whether Carolingian writers had access to all books of the Variae, or only to a substantial selection of letters (similar for instance to the manuscript containing the Epistolae Austrasicae), but there is a high degree of likelihood that they knew quite a few epistles of Cassiodorus, and were able to appreciate the political messages conveyed by them.

"China's continuous, rapid economic growth since the Reform and Opening up of the country in the early 1980s has been praised as a miracle of the world economy. However, since 2012, the rate of growth has slowed down, rendering some people pessimistic about the country's economic prospects. This title is a collection of a leading Chinese economist's views on China's economic growth and structural reform. The author argues that China's economy has entered "the new normal", meaning that slowed growth rate is not a cyclical phenomenon but a change in the stage of economic development. Therefore, there is a need to enact supply-side structural reforms, such as improved efficiency of resource reallocation, while shifting the mode of development from one of inputs to innovation. In addition, the author discusses the five major concepts of development proposed for the "13th Five-Year Plan", as well as some critical topics related to supply-side structural reform, such as agricultural development, labor employment and product quality. Scholars and students of macroeconomics, development economics and the Chinese economy will find this book to be essential reading."

"We started working on the first edition of this book (Miller and Blair, 1985) in the late 1970s. At that time, input-output as an academic topic (outside of Wassily Leontief's Harvard research group) was a little more than 25 years old - approximately 1952-1979. We use 1952 because that was when the first author was introduced to input-output analysis in a sophomore-year economics class at Harvard taught by Robert Kuenne, who later claimed that was the first time input-output had been included (anywhere) in an undergraduate economics course. In 1962, the first author joined the faculty of the Regional Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He was asked by then department chair Walter Isard to teach the graduate course in linear models for regional analysis; this was to include a strong input-output component. At that time coverage of the topic in texts was to be found primarily in two chapters of Dorfman, Samuelson and Solow (1958), in Chenery and Clark (1959), in Stone (1961) and in a long chapter on input-output at the regional level in Isard et al. (1960); later there were texts by Miernyk (1965), Yan (1969), and Richardson (1972)."

"This book presents a vivid and close-up view of social science researchers engaged in fieldwork, in discussions with colleagues and in writing. Adopting an ethnographic approach inspired by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the author pursues a praxeological analysis of social inquiry in situ. By conceiving of analytical practices such as observation, shop talk, and conceptualization in experiential terms, the seen but unnoticed structures of knowledge work are exposed and made available for empirical analysis. In a departure from ethnographic studies of research that focus on the physical sciences, the author uses the example of sociological research to shed new light on the role of self and mind for epistemic cultures, on the elusive materiality of conceptual objects, and on researchers' experiential ways of seizing, reviewing and accrediting knowledge. A rich and pervasive study of elementary sites in the research process, The Body of Knowledge will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and the humanities with interests in the epistemic practice of their own discipline, as well as those working in fields such as the social study of science, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and the sociology of interaction"--

This book is about the idea that some true statements would have been true no matter how the world had turned out, while others could have been false. It develops and defends a version of the idea that we tell the difference between these two types of truths in part by reflecting on the meanings of words. It has often been thought that modal issues--issues about possibility and necessity--are related to issues about meaning. In this book, the author defends the view that the analysis of meaning is not just a preliminary to answering modal questions in philosophy; it is not merely that before we can find out whether something is possible, we need to get clear on what we are talking about. Rather, clarity about meaning often brings with it answers to modal questions. In service of this view, the author analyzes the notion of necessity and develops ideas about linguistic meaning, applying them to several puzzles and problems in philosophy of language. Meaning and Metaphysical Necessity will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic.

This book analyzes non-democratic legitimacy during the Arab Spring. During this historic event, monarchs and presidents were forced to defend their rule, whether through Islam, the cultural image of paternalism or the cash flow of welfare. Can Arab leaders still justify apolitical reigns? Are monarchies more respected than republicans or are they too under threat? The author traces the history of apolitical rule in the Arab world, from Islamic roots to the role of Arab leaders in merging religion with socio-economic benefits and cosmetic liberalization. Finally, analysis of speeches given by leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain in response to the Arab Spring are considered. When protesters took to the streets with their slogans, the regimes talked back. This work discusses the weight of their words and why some leaders survived unrest while others were overthrown. Nicolai Due-Gundersen is a London-based lecturer and political analyst affiliated with the United Nations. He is also a political commentator and has appeared on Al Jazeera and CGTN and is author of The Privatization of Warfare.

This book takes a people-centred approach to the ever-fluid and rapidly-transforming professional world of public relations (PR) in the age of digital platforms. As everyday PR work becomes increasingly shaped by the platform economy, this is transforming how the PR profession talks about itself, its issues and concerns. Drawing on different textual genres and discursive strategies, the author examines the shifting boundaries between PR and adjacent fields such as advertising, marketing and journalism and illuminates varied lifeworlds of PR professionals from different backgrounds, races and genders. Written for academics, practitioners and those interested in the world of public relations, the book will also be enjoyed by young professionals working in this interesting and fast-changing occupation. Clea Bourne is Senior Lecturer and convenor of the MA Promotional Media: Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Her research explores how twenty-first century economies are mediatised through various actors, practices and discourses. Clea is author of Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets, and has published widely in a range of journals and edited collections.

This book provides an in-depth, feminist and sociological analysis of Gamergate, a major social movement and anti-feminist harassment campaign. Gamergate provides a clear example of both how a modern anti-feminist 'backlash' is enacted, and how feminists in the digital age respond. Chapters connect Gamergate to the broader Men's Rights Activism (MRA) political movement, examining men's anxieties surrounding what they see as an erosion of male privilege, their conflation of privilege with rights, as well as their use of social media to harass and attack women as a response to their perceived oppression. Likewise, the author analyses the online strategies used by feminists to respond to this backlash, how social media is harnessed to build a feminist movement, the effectiveness of these online strategies, and the parallels that these actions have with those from previous waves of feminism. Finally, the author reflects on what has changed with regards to MRA, online harassment, and digital feminism after the height of Gamergate. This book will be of interest to scholars in Gender Studies, Sociology, and Media Studies.

"This book argues that while the US president makes foreign policy decisions based largely on political pressures, it is concentrated interests that shape the incentive structures in which he and other top officials operate. The author identifies three groups most likely to be influential: government contractors, the national security bureaucracy, and foreign governments. This book shows that the public choice perspective is superior to a theory of grand strategy in explaining the most important aspects of American foreign policy, including the war on terror, policy towards China, and the distribution of US forces abroad. Arguing that American leaders are selected to respond to public opinion, not necessarily according to their ability to formulate and execute long terms plans, the author shows how mass attitudes are easily malleable in the domain of foreign affairs due to ignorance with regards to the topic, the secrecy that surrounds national security issues, the inherent complexity of the issues involved, and most importantly, clear cases of concentrated interests. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of American Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis and Global Governance"--

"This book looks at how the ideas of freedom, property and order are expressed in modern social contract theories (SCTs). Drawing on the theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls, it studies how notions of freedom promulgated by these SCTs invariably legitimise and defend the private ownership of the means of production. It argues that capitalism's impact on individual dependence and economic inequality still stems from this model, ultimately working in favour of proprietors. The author highlights the problematic nature of SCTs, which work as ideological mechanisms put forward under the guise of formal equality and formal freedom, by focusing on the historical and social context behind them. From a methodological point of view, the author presents a de-ideologization of the contractarian issue and provides insight into the political 'layers' within the discourse of individualism, human nature and morality shaping the outer corners of contractarian theory. An important intervention in the study of SCTs, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political and social theory, sociology, political history, and political philosophy"--

"Many people believe in the power of positive thinking (i.e., how thoughts and attitude can shape their future) yet, despite a plethora of books on this subject, no previous author has credibly explained how mere thoughts are able to tangibly influence future events. To explain the connection, Dr. Donlan presents a new paradigm of nature coupled with a viable explanation of how our right cerebral hemisphere has evolved circuitry that can tap into the hidden domain of the metaphysical. To support this premise, he exposes the reader to the worlds of physics, metaphysics, brain architecture, and evolution. Donlan then introduces the many problems associated with the current model and contrasts it with a new view which remedies many of the issues facing theoretical physicists today. Important to its central theme, the book's proposed paradigm supports the remarkable notion that the future can only be created with thoughts. In the final analysis, the author brings his readers through the necessary steps to put this knowledge to work to help them (pre)ordain their own realities"--