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The author regards his book Karl Marx and the Political Economy of Modernity, as a summarized polemical autobiography. For him, above all, Marx is an extremely successful key for a new understanding of the classical political and political-economic theory and for its applicability in future analysis and projections of ways out from the actual world crisis. Even though in his book he documented and elaborated ways of completing Marx's critique of political economy in accordance with Marx's plan from Das Kapital, and demonstrated also the possibility of founding a critical political theory on the basis of the critique of political economy. For Dag Strpic, a critical political theory, contradictory to Marx's planning, would be required already in building a concretized theory of markets and prices in the "competition of a multitude of capitals" on the "surface of civil society" -- based on Marx's methodology. Somewhat aside from that, in this article Strpic is focused on an extended clarification of the Modern Normal's meaning. The Modern Normal (MN) in his book was constructed in an analysis based on a combination of classical modern and contemporary political and political-economic theory. But also on analytical use of results of all social sciences and humanities in principle, and science as a whole -- especially by necessity of problem-solving public policy. With a fundamental and implementational focus on an integral political science. In this, Strpic holds on to the basic scheme of the Modern Normal, Fl, from his book. Strpic's Modern Normal in this basic form is designed as a cross-section view of a corridor of cyclical movements of changing orders and fluctuating processes in mutually structurized elements of modern nation-states and their world-system. Those orders and elements developed various foundations on classical modern political and political-economic principles. With various centers of gravity or normals and different formating dominants in a structure of sequential political/political-economic counterpoints of development in series of historically different variants of the Modern Normal. Strpic observes the conjunctures and crises of development of those processes and orders, and also the actual worldwide economic, political, social and cultural crisis, through cycles of the Modern Normal as a whole. This is most evident in semi-centennial and (multi)centennial cycles, and most striking in great crises and pics of conjunctures. Adapted from the source document.

Der Beitrag behandelt die theoretische Erklärung und empirisch feststellbare Bedeutung des Einreisealters für die Entstehung einer (kompetenten) Bilingualität. Im Hintergrund steht die theoretisch nahe liegende, aber umstrittene Hypothese, dass bestimmte soziale Bedingungen, die den Erwerb der einen Sprache fördern, den der anderen behindern, etwa weil sich im Alltag die entsprechenden Sprachumwelten räumlich, zeitlich und sozial meist deutlich verteilen. Beim Einreisealter kommt die - ebenfall umstrittene - Hypothese hinzu, dass es eine "kritische Periode" des Spracherwerbs gebe. In dem Beitrag wird ein theoretisches Modell für den Zweit- und Erstspracherwerb entwickelt und anhand von Daten des Sozio-Ökonomischen Panels empirisch untersucht. Die beiden wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind, dass es zum einen in der Tat einige Bedingungen des Spracherwerbs gibt, die den Erwerb beider Sprachen gegenseitig behindern, und dass das für das Einreisealter in einem besonderen Maße zutrifft, und zum anderen, dass es eine deutlich erkennbare "kritische Periode" beim Zweitspracherwerb gibt (etwa ab 13 Jahre). Die Entstehung der (kompetenten) Bilingualität wird damit von zwei Seiten her erschwert: Ein zu niedriges Einreisealter behindert den Erstspracherwerb, ein zu hohes den Zweitspracherwerb. Die praktische Schlussfolgerung für die Förderung der Bilingualität ist damit die möglichst frühzeitige Ermöglichung interethnischer Kontakte für den simultanen Zugang zu verschiedenen Sprachumgebungen in der Periode der höchsten Lernfähigkeit. (DIPF/Orig.).;;;"This contribution deals with the theoretical explanation and empirically observable impact of the age at immigration on the development of (competent) bilingualism. What is behind this, is the obvious, however also controversial, hypothesis that certain social conditions that foster the acquisition of one language impede the acquisition of the other one. This may be due to the fact that the respective day-to-day language environments often differ in terms of space, time and also socially. In addition, with regard to the age at immigration the - also controversial - hypothesis becomes important that there is a 'critical period' in language acquisition. In this article the author develop a theoretical model of second and first language acquisition and investigate it empirically with data of the socio-economic panel. The two most important results are that, first there are indeed certain conditions that mutually impede the acquisition of both languages and that this is especially true for age at immigration as one of these conditions, and second, that there is a clearly identifiable 'critical period' in second language acquisition (starting at about the age of 13). The development of (competent) bilingualism is thus hindered from two sides: a too low age at immigration obstructs first language acquisition whereas a too high age obstructs second language acquisition. The practical conclusion for enhancing bilingualism is then to allow for interethnic contacts at an early stage in order to provide simultaneous exposure to different language environments during the period when learning aptitude is highest." (author's abstract).

1. Constructing transnational studies / Sanjeev Khagram and Peggy Levitt -- 2. Transnational relations and world politics : an introduction / Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and Robert O. Keohane -- 3. "Conclusions" and "Post Scriptum" from Dependency and Development in Latin America / Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto -- 4. The homeland, Aztlan / El otro Mexico / Gloria Anzaldua -- 5. Global ethnoscapes : notes and queries for a transnational anthropology / Arjun Appadurai -- 6. The real new world order / Anne-Marie Slaughter -- 7. "Introduction" and "the state and the global city" from globalization and its discontents / Saskia Sassen -- 8. Discipline and practice : "the field" as site, method, and location in anthropology / Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson -- 9. Methodological nationalism, the social sciences, and the study of migration : an essay in historical epistemology / Andreas Wimmer and Nina Glick Schiller -- 10. Assimilation and transnationalism : determinants of transnational political action among contemporary migrants / Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, Alejandro Portes and William Haller -- 11. "Introduction" from forces of labor : workers' movements and globalization since 1870 / Beverly J. Silver -- 12. "Transnational struggles for water and power" and "dams, democracy, and development in transnational perspective" / Sanjeev Khagram -- 13. Breakthrough to history / William H. McNeill -- 14. The world system in the thirteenth century : dead-end or precursor? / Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod -- 15. The historical sociology of race / Howard Winant -- 16. The Black Atlantic as a counterculture of modernity / Paul Gilroy -- 17. Of our spiritual strivings / W.E.B. Du Bois -- 18. The cosmopolitan perspective : sociology of the second age of modernity / Ulrich Beck -- 19. The nation-state and its others : in lieu of a preface / Khachig Tololyan -- 20. "Nigerian Kung Fu, Manhattan fatwa" and "the local and the global : continuity and change" / Ulf Hannerz -- 21. Introduction : transnational feminist practices and questions of postmodernity / Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan -- 22. "Transnational projects : a new perspective" and "theoretical premises" / Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc -- 23. The local and the global : the anthropology of globalization and transnationalism / Michael Kearney -- 24. The study of transnationalism : pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field / Alejandro Portes, Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Patricia Landolt -- 25. Conceptualizing simultaneity : a transnational social field perspective on society / Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller -- 26. Systemic religion in global society / Peter Beyer -- 27. Introduction : religion, states, and transnational civil society / Susanne Hoeber Rudolph -- 28. Theorizing globalization and religion / Manuel A. Vasquez and Marie Friedmann Marquardt -- 29. Locations of culture / Homi K. Bhabha -- 30. Interstitial subjects : Asian American visual art as a site for new cultural conversations / Elaine H. Kim -- 31. Cultural reconversion / Nestor Garcia Canclini -- 32. Living borders / Buscando America : languages of latino self-formation / Juan Flores and George Yudice -- 33. World society and the nation-state / John W. Meyer ... [et al.] -- 34. Norms, culture, and world politics : insights from sociology's institutionalism / Martha Finnemore -- 35. Do regimes matter? Epistemic communities and Mediterranean pollution control / Peter M. Haas -- 36. Cross-national cultural diffusion : the global spread of cricket / Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson -- 37. Transnationalism, localization, and fast foods in East Asia / James L. Watson -- 38. "Introduction" from transnational corporations and world order / George Modelski -- 39. Imperialism, dependency, and dependent development / Peter Evans -- 40. The organization of buyer-driven global commodity chains : how U.S. retailers shape overseas production networks / Gary Gereffi -- 41. "Flexible citizenship : the cultural logics of transnationality" and "afterword : an anthropology of transnationality" / Aihwa Ong -- 42. Bringing transnational relations back in : introduction / Thomas Risse-Kappen -- 43. World culture in the world polity : a century of international non-governmental organization / John Boli and George M. Thomas -- 44. Social movements and global transformation / Louis Kriesberg -- 45. Conclusions : advocacy networks and international society / Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink -- 46. The challenges and possibilities of transnational feminist praxis / Nancy A. Naples -- 47. Global prohibition regimes : the evolution of norms in international society / Ethan A. Nadelmann -- 48. Transnational organized crime : an imminent threat to the nation-state? (transcending national boundaries) / Louise Shelley -- 49. "Introduction" from New and Old Wars : organized violence in a global era / Mary Kaldor -- 50. Smuggling the state back in : agents of human smuggling reconsidered / David Kyle and John Dale

An introduction to McDonaldization / George Ritzer -- Precursors: bureaucracy and Max Weber's theory of rationality, irrationality, and the iron cage / George Ritzer -- Islands of the living dead: the social geography of McDonaldization / George Ritzer -- On mass distribution: a case study of chain stores in the restaurant industry / Joel I. Nelson -- A sociology of rib joints / P.D. Holley, D.E. Wright, Jr. -- McDonald's as a Disneyized institution / Alan Bryman -- Urgent dreams: climbing, rationalization, and ambivalence / Ian Heywood -- A conversation with Eric Schlosser, author of Fast food nation -- McDonaldization: the major criticism / Bryan S. Turner -- McDonaldization of America's police, courts, and corrections / Matthew B. Robinson -- McDonaldization of the sex industries? The business of sex / Kathryn Hausbeck, Barbara G. Brents -- McDonaldizing men's bodies? Slimming, associated (ir)rationalities and resistances / Lee F. Monaghan -- McDonaldization and the family / Sara Raley -- McSchools for McWorld? Mediating global pressures with a McDonaldizing education policy response / Gary Wilkinson -- The de-McDonaldization of the internet / Nathan Jurgenson -- Multinational retailers in China: proliferating 'McJobs' or developing skills? / Jos Gamble -- Supersizing farms: the McDonaldization of agriculture / Andrew J. Knight -- From burgers to biodiversity: the McDonaldization of on-farm nature conservation in the UK / Carol Morris, Matt Reed -- From creeds to burgers: religious control, spiritual search, and the future of the world / John Drane -- McCitizens: risk, coolness, and irony in contemporary politics / Bryan S. Turner -- Cathedrals of consumption: rationalization, enchantment, and disenchantment / George Ritzer -- The McDonaldization thesis and cruise tourism / Adam Weaver -- A case of McDonald's restaurant: the built environment and the perpetuation of the phenomenon of globalisation / Kristine Peta Jerome -- Credit cards, fast-food restaurants, and rationalization / George Ritzer -- Jihad vs. McWorld / Benjamin R. Barber -- September 11, 2001: mass murder and its roots in the symbolism of American consumer culture / George Ritzer -- The McLibel trial story / McSpotlight -- Jos(c)♭ Bov(c)♭ vs. McDonald's: the making of a national hero in the French anti-globalization movement / Wayne Northcutt -- The emergence of Slow Food: social entrepreneurship, local foods, and the Piedmont gastronomy cluster / Hielke S. Van Der Meulen -- Globalization and culture: three paradigms / Jan Nederveen Pieterse -- McDonaldization and the global culture of consumption / Malcolm Waters -- Transnationalism, localization, and fast foods in East Asia / James L. Watson -- The McDonald's mosaic: globalization and diversity / Bryan S. Turner -- Domesticating the French fry: McDonald's and consumerism in Moscow / Melissa L. Caldwell -- Glocommodification: how the global consumes the local: McDonald's in Israel / Uri Ram -- Globalization and McDonaldization: does it all amount to ... nothing? / George Ritzer -- Globaloney / Michael Veseth -- eBayization / Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Aaron Ahuvia

"In the wake of the Enlightenment ... the suddenness with which Jews began to appear and make a mark in numerous ... areas ... is nothing short of astounding. It seemed as if a huge reservoir of Jewish talent, hitherto dammed up behind the wall of Talmudic learning were suddenly released to spill over into all fields of Gentile cultural activity."--Raphael Patai, The Jewish Mind "Quite suddenly, around the year 1800, this ancient and highly efficient social machine for the production of intellectuals began to shift its output. Instead of pouring all of its products into the closed circuit of rabbinical studies, where they remained completely isolated from general society, it unleashed a significant and ever growing proportion of them into secular life. This was an event of shattering importance in world history." -Paul Johnson, History of the Jews The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement chronicles the astonishing record of one people's disproportionate achivements and the causes behind it. The stunning performance of Jews over the last 125 years can only be compared with that of the Italians during the Renaissance, the Greeks during the era of Pericles, or the Dutch during their own Golden Age. The Golden Age details that record in more than 60 exhibits covering the range from Nobel prizes to Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame awards, from Pulitzer Prizes to chess champions, from philanthropy to Supreme Court Justices and more. But more intriguing is the question, "Why has this happened?" (the question posed by Rabbi Harold N. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People). Through fascinating stories, such as "Lev Leviev and the Soviet Jews" (at the start of Chapter 20) and "The Jazz Singer" (at the start of Chapter 13) the book illustrates the life and circumstances of hundreds of remarkable Jews before drawing its perspective together in Chapter 25 - Why? Timely, the book raises notions advanced by Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and recent debates over "Jewish genes" as well as Charles Murray's 2007 Commentary article where he argued for natural selection. The Golden Age makes the case for culture. It explains how the evolution of Judaism, coupled with a tortured 2,000 year history has shaped a unique combination of cultural values which have made Jews into the world's most successful tribe of Outliers. For example, they were history's first tribe to mandate literacy for all of their people. The book challenges natural selection, second generation immigra ...

Introduction -- Focus of the book -- Background -- Developments since the first and second editions -- Who should read this book -- Acknowledgments -- Rationale -- Why visit customers? -- Customer visits and market focus -- Promise and peril of customer visits -- Additional information -- Customer visits as a distinctive approach to market research -- Why do market research at all? -- Why do market research via personal visits? -- Why visits by cross-functional teams? -- Additional benefits of team visits -- Additional information -- Limits, boundary cases, and the sweet spot for customer visits -- When customer visits are not the technique of choice -- The sweet spot for customer visits -- Boundary cases -- From conceptual rationale to practical advice -- Additional information -- Procedures -- Programmatic, ad hoc and hybrid approaches to visiting customers -- Ad hoc visits -- Hybrid and emerging visit types -- How to harvest data from ad hoc visits -- Planning a program of visits -- Why a program of visits? -- Appropriate and inappropriate applications for visit programs -- A seven-step procedure for planning customer visit programs -- To begin: set objectives -- Additional information -- Budgets, recruitment, coordination, team preparation, and time line -- Cost factors -- Recruit customers -- Coordination with the salesforce -- Select team members -- Time frame -- Additional information -- Selecting customers to visit -- Devising a sample frame -- Special cases in sample selection -- Additional information -- Preparing a discussion guide -- The goal: information capture -- The discussion guide -- A process for team preparation of a discussion guide -- Additional information -- Constructing good questions -- Preparation but also spontaneity -- Importance of open-ended questions -- Workhorse questions -- Specialized question strategies -- Criteria for effective and ineffective questions -- A few specific questions to avoid -- How to ask questions about pricing -- The importance of follow up questions -- Additional information -- Conducting the visits -- Interview format: time boundaries -- Interview format: spatial considerations -- Group vs. individual interviews -- Interview roles -- Interview skills -- Difficult interview situations -- Additional information -- Completing the visit program -- Debriefing -- Analysis and reporting -- Dissemination of results -- Storage of results -- Closure for customers and the field -- Additional information -- Analysis -- Generalizability of visit data -- Procedures for the analysis of visit data -- Process of analysis: baseline approach -- Analysis of visit data: a closer look -- Visual representation of visit data -- Tips for improving the analysis of visit data -- Additional information -- The place of customer visits within the market research toolbox -- Compartments in the market research toolbox -- Research planning -- Customer visits compared to kindred techniques -- Combination strategies involving customer visits -- Mistakes to avoid -- Summary -- Additional information -- Appendix: checklist for conducting a program of customer visits -- Bibliography -- About the author -- Index

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and abbreviations -- Introduction -- E-development as a holistic vision -- The eSri Lanka program -- Learning from eSri Lanka -- Developing e-leadership institutions -- An institutional innovation in e-leadership: the ICT Agency of Sri lanka -- The institutional model -- Evolution of the authorizing environment and governance model -- Mandate -- Paths to sustainability -- Core competencies -- Partnerships -- A learning organization -- Role of aid agencies -- Lessons and conclusions -- Annex 2.1 The ICT agency in search of a corporate identity -- Annex 2.2 The ICT policy framework & the organizational structure of the ICT agency -- Annex 2.3 Internal and external risks facing the ICT agency at inception -- Managing results -- Objectives of monitoring and evaluation for eSri Lanka -- Framework for monitoring and evaluation -- Arrangements for monitoring and evaluation -- Emerging lessons -- Annex 3.1 Results framework for monitoring and evaluation -- Outcome indicator -- ICT human resource development and industry promotion -- Transforming government -- Best practices and options for planning and implementing e-government -- Approaches to planning e-government -- Implementation of e-government: four phases -- Leadership, partnership, and change management -- Providing leadership, building partnerships -- Conclusions and implications -- Readiness for e-government: a historical perspective -- History of e-government in Sri Lanka -- Analysis of the situation -- Findings and recommendations -- A vision of e-government -- Motivations and aspirations -- Challenges to realizing the vision -- Lessons learned: a postscript -- A strategy for e-government: initial priorities and lessons -- Planning for e-services -- Building e-governance -- Implementation agenda -- Early experience and lessons -- Annex 7.1 Criteria for determining impact & feasibility of offering services online -- Determining impact -- Determining feasibility -- Empowering communities -- Innovation in ICT use for poverty reduction -- Bottom-up planning and participatory development -- Serving the bottom of the pyramid -- The user innovation revolution -- Demand-driven ICT-enabled development -- Financing ICT innovation: lessons from InfoDev -- Conditions for ensuring impact by small grants -- Strategies for soliciting and funding good proposals -- Evaluating proposals and making funding decisions -- Good practices in managing a small-grant program -- E-society: design and early experience -- Overview of the fund -- Practices in soliciting and funding proposals -- Arrangements for implementation and monitoring -- Early operation and lessons learned -- Key lessons of eSri Lanka -- Designing and implementing a holistic framework for e-development -- Developing e-leadership institutions -- Transforming government -- Empowering communities -- Appendix 1 Main program components of eSri Lanka -- ICT policy, leadership, and institutional development program -- Information infrastructure program -- Reengineering government program -- ICT human resource capacity-building program -- ICT investment and private sector development program -- E-society program -- Appendix 2 Selected indicators for Sri Lanka and comparators -- Bibliography -- About the author

This article includes some ideas on the crisis that took place in Osh, Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. Apart from a brief summary of the events, it describes viewpoints of the main 'actors' including the international organizations; it also seeks an answer to the question on what the reasons leading up to these tragic events were. Regarding possible sources of conflicts, including the factor of ethnic minorities, the question arises whether the various international mechanisms created for handling regional conflicts function properly, in a conducive way, and whether they can warn the international community of an evolving crisis and prevent conflicts. According to the facts, in the concrete case of the Osh crisis, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities succeeded in fulfilling his task in the area of early warning; however, no concrete actions were taken by the above-mentioned 'actors' in regional and international politics to prevent the conflict. This paper has no intention of dwelling on this issue as it was very adequately addressed by an earlier article written by Sabine Machl. The ethnic conflicts of 1990 and 2010 in Central Asia demonstrate the vulnerability of the region, which also faces some additional challenges in the field of security. This article does not intend to examine all the aspects of the Kyrgyz crisis. However, as some experts at the time of the Osh events explicitly mentioned, the possibility of the infiltration of militants from Afghanistan and their involvement in the clashes and as Afghanistan itself is a country, where about half of the population belong to various ethnic 'minority' groups (Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmens, etc.), one cannot ignore the danger of the implication of the conflict going on in Afghanistan for its vicinity, including Central Asia. The awareness of this challenge was reflected in various ideas and suggestions (to address the Afghan crisis) emanating from these countries. The most comprehensive of these -- according to the views of the author of this article -- is the so called '6+3' initiative developed by Uzbekistan. One of the 'messages' of this article should be that, at the present, stronger and more consistent as well as concerted efforts are needed to deal with evolving conflicts and crises in the broader region of Central and West Asia, where these potential conflicts may develop not only by themselves, in separate countries or 'subregions', but they could include the danger of a 'spillover' which may also effect other countries. Adapted from the source document.

Jacques Bidet's theory of modernity is a fascinating research project which confronts us in a challenging way with a series of key theoretical & practical problems. The text focuses on the concepts of metastructure, domination, class & democracy. The most important concept is "metastructure," which is to be perceived as all coordination & legitimation resources (on the economic, legal-political & cultural levels -- the overcoming of any transcendental order) at the disposal of the citizens of modernity. These resources can be combined in several different ways, in varied structures of modernity. How are we to understand the ontological status of this metastructure? A full answer confronts us with another question: is it possible to offer a scientific explanation of the genesis of this modern (meta)structure? Thus, if metastructure is some sort of general grammar of modernity, the social structures are an actualization of the possibilities of metastructure according to the spectrum ranging from the extreme of planned collectivism to the extreme of liberistic capitalism. Consequently, the duality of modernity is manifest in the fact that it is characterized, on the one hand, by universalistic legitimacy and, on the other, by the persistence of forms of (class) domination. According to Bidet, in capitalism a dominant class will be established with two poles -- property & competence -- which correspond to the interlinkage of market & organization in such a form of society. For this reason, an attempt to achieve emancipation from the domination of the proprietor, in the case of planned collectivism, developing to the full the organizational dimension in order to satisfy the social needs in a more egalitarian way, necessarily results in the organizer's domination. But the thesis that the dominant class in capitalism has two poles (property & competence) is met with the objection that simultaneously too much & not enough is said about the second pole of this class (of managers). Namely, it remains unclear how we must think the unity of capitalist domination in the plurality of spheres of social power; & if, on the contrary, we must abandon this unity, why should we limit ourselves to only two poles? The author concludes with a discussion of two questions which he deems to be decisive: to what extent can the inequalities related to property or competence be designated as class relations or forms of domination? And what is the relation between various modalities of class relations or relations of domination, & the institutions of modern poliarchic democracy which is centered on the multi-party system? Adapted from the source document.

Providing a balance sheet of Kirchnerism is not a straightforward task. While clearly far from being the recasting of Argentina's political culture proclaimed by its partisans, neither of Argentina's political culture proclaimed by its partisans, neither was it a mere prolongation of the 1990s dispensation. In what follows, the author will outline Kirchnerism's characteristic features, noting both where it marked a break with the past & the elements of strong continuity. For if Kirchner can point to some genuine economic achievements & certain policy initiatives that qualitatively separate him from earlier administrations, his government otherwise presided over widening income inequalities & an increasing trend towards precarious forms of labor. His political praxis meanwhile, was marked by repeated recourse to tactics of co-option & clientelism, suggesting that the old order supposedly swept aside by the crisis of 2001-02 has clung to life, in altered guise; & that it may yet make a full recovery. The conflict with the countryside had a paradoxical result; on the one hand, it brought onto the political stage different social & economic actors, linked to the agribusiness model, while strengthening the positions of the most conservative & reactionary section. On the other hand, its denouement has imposed political limits on the government which probably signal the end of the 'K Era' -- at least in the configuration that has obtained since 2003, combining appeals for a 'new politics' & hopes of constructing a cross-party centre let force with a heightened concentration of power in the executive branch & the instrumental use of allies, even within the ruling bloc. This style of government, effective in reshaping the political scene during the first years of Kirchner's mandate, is now being questioned by a significant portion of society -- above all the middle classes -- who rejected the authoritarianism of the presidential couple, disbelieving its promises of renewal & demanding that power be further democratized. The Peronist party's election of Nestor Kirchner as its chairman in May 2008 may be a public role, but as a first step towards the reconsolidation of the Partido Justicialista which, thanks to Kirchner's changeling strategies, has ridden out the storms of devaluation more successfully than any other political force in the country. The situation as it stands is likely to mark the end of the K Era & its timid experiments with building a centre left coalition clearing the way for the traditional system of Peronist domination to return with a vengeance. Adapted from the source document.

PT. I. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE -- [Section 1]. Different forms of motivation -- 1. Core social motivations : views from the couch, consciousness, classroom, computers, and collectives / Susan T. Fiske -- PT. II. FORMS AND SYSTEMS OF MOTIVATION -- 2. Belongingness motivation : a mainspring of social action / Mark R. Leary and Cody B. Cox -- 3. The many sides of control motivation : motives for high, low, and illusory control / Suzanne C. Thompson and Mich(c)·le M. Schlehofer -- 4. Self-enhancement and self-affirmation : the consequences of positive self-thoughts for motivation and health / Shelley E. Taylor and David K. Sherman -- 5. Cognitive dissonance theory : an update with a focus on the action-based model / Eddie Harmon-Jones and Cindy Harmon-Jones -- 6. Motivated closed-mindedness and its social consequences / Arie W. Kruglanski and Woo Young Chun -- 7. Historical perspectives and new directions in achievement goal theory : understanding the effects of mastery and performance-approach goals / Corwin Senko, Amanda M. Durik, and Judith M. Harackiewicz -- 8. A basic but uniquely human motivation : terror management / Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Jamie Arndt -- 9. Prosocial motivation / C. Daniel Batson ... [et al.] -- 10. Implicit motivation : past, present, and future / Melissa J. Ferguson, Ran Hassin, and John A. Bargh -- [Section 2]. Motivational systems -- 11. Motivations for promotion and prevention / Daniel C. Molden, Angela Y. Lee, and E. Tory Higgins -- 12. The neuroevolution of motivation / Gary G. Berntson and John T. Cacioppo -- 13. Contributions of attachment theory and research to motivation science / Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver -- 14. Structural dynamics : the challenge of change in goal systems / James Y. Shah and Arie W. Kruglanski -- PT. III. MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES AND DIFFERENCES -- [Section 1.] Motivational processes and goal pursuits -- 15. The goal construct in psychology / Andrew J. Elliot and James W. Fryer -- 16. The impact of social comparisons on motivation / Penelope Lockwood and Rebecca T. Pinkus -- 17. Goal contagion : inferring goals from others' actions, and what leads to it / Henk Aarts, Ap Dijksterhuis, and Giel Dik -- 18. Implicit and explicit counteractive self-control / Ayelet Fishbach and Yaacov Trope -- 19. Dealing with unwanted feelings : the role of affect regulation in volitional action control / Sander L. Koole and Julius Kuhl -- 20. Feedback processes in the simultaneous regulation of action and affect / Charles S. Carver and Michael F. Scheier -- 21. Flexible tenacity in goal pursuit / Peter M. Gollwitzer ... [et al.] -- 22. The antecedents and consequences of nonconscious goal pursuit / Tanya L. Chartrand, Amy N. Dalton, and Clara Michelle Cheng -- 23. Regulatory fit / E. Tory Higgins -- 24. Can satisfaction reinforce wanting? : a new theory about long-term changes in strength of motivation / Kathleen D. Vohs and Roy F. Baumeister -- [Section 2]. Motivational differences -- 25. The role of goal investment in self-regulation : benefits and costs / Eva M. Pomerantz and Serena Shim -- 26. Self-theories, goals, and meaning / Carol S. Dweck and Heidi Grant -- 27. Culture and motivation / Beth Morling and Shinobu Kitayama -- 28. Of men, women, and motivation : a role congruity account / Amanda B. Diekman and Alice H. Eagly -- 29. Developmental perspectives on achievement motivation : personal and contextual influences / Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia and Jennifer A. Fredricks -- 30. The interface of motivation science and psychology : self-concordance, quality motivation, and multilevel personality integration / Kennon M. Sheldon -- PT. IV. APPLICATIONS OF MOTIVATIONAL RESEARCH -- [Section 1]. Well-being and optimal functioning -- 31. Challenge, threat, and health / Jim Blascovich -- 32. Understanding the determinants of health behavior change : integrating theory and practice / Alexander J. Rothman ... [et al.] -- 33. Social exclusion, motivation, and self-defeating behavior : why breakups lead to drunkenness and ice cream / Jean M. Twenge -- 34. Personal goals and life dreams : positive psychology and motivation in daily life / Laura A. King -- [Section 2]. Intergroup and interpersonal relations -- 35. When self-protection hurts : satisfying connectedness motivations in close relationships / Sandra L. Murray -- 36. Prorelationship motivation : an interdependence theory analysis of situations with conflicting interests / Eli J. Finkel and Caryl E. Rusbult -- 37. Approaching social rewards and avoiding social punishments : appetitive and aversive social motivation / Shelly L. Gable and Amy Strachman -- 38. Making things better and worse : multiple motives in stereotyping and prejudice / Steven J. Stroessner and Abigail A. Scholer -- 39. System justification as conscious and nonconscious goal pursuit / John T. Jost ... [et al.]

""This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with voter fraud in twenty-first-century America. Lorraine C. Minnite defines voter fraud so as to allow the careful, systematic investigation of the subject she reports in this volume. I highly recommend it."---Chandler Davidson, editor, Minority Vote Dilution" ""This is the first systematic---and convincing---answer to the decade-long campaign by Republican ideologues, the Wall Street Journal, and, for a time, the U.S. Department of Justice to create what Lorraine C. Minnite rightly calls t̀he myth of voter fraud.' This myth feeds the ongoing partisan efforts in states throughout the country to adopt v̀oter identification' laws, which have the effect of disproportionately disenfranchising minorities and the aged. Minnite's gracefully written book, brimming with fascinating stories and trenchant analysis, provides a clear-eyed, factual background for this major public policy debate. If you want to go beyond slogans and fantasies on voter fraud, this is the place to start."---J. Morgan Kausser. author of Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction" "Allegations that Widespread Voter Fraud is threatening to the integrity of American elections and American democracy itself have intensified since the disputed 2000 presidential election. The claim that elections are being stolen by illegal immigrants and unscrupulous voter registration activists and vote buyers has been used to persuade the public that voter malfeasance is of greater concern than structural inequities in the ways votes are gathered and tallied, justifying ever tighter restrictions on access to the polls. Yet, that claim is a myth." "In The Myth of Voter Fraud, Lorraine C. Minnite presents the results of her meticulous search for evidence of voter fraud. She concludes that while voting irregularities produced by the fragmented and complex nature of the electoral process in the United States are common, incidents of deliberate voter fraud are actually quite rare. Based on painstaking research aggregating and sifting through data from a variety of sources, including public records requests to all fifty state governments and the U.S. Department of Justice, Minnite contends that voter fraud is in reality a politically constructed myth intended to further complicate the voting process and reduce voter turnout. She refutes several high-profile charges of alleged voter fraud, such as the assertion that eight of the 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote, and makes the question of voter fraud more precise by distinguishing fraud from the manifold ways in which electoral democracy can be distorted. Effectively disentangling misunderstandings and deliberate distortions from reality, The Myth of Voter Fraud provides rigorous empirical evidence for those fighting to make the electoral process more efficient, more equitable, and more democratic."--BOOK JACKET

"The question at hand seems relatively simple and straightforward: whether and to what extent the protection and promotion of human rights is necessary for efforts to address conflict and build peace. The issue has been much debated over time. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights forcefully associated the protection of human rights with the prevention of violent conflict, stating that 'it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law' (UN 1948, preamble). Yet in 1996, an anonymous author in Human Rights Quarterly accused the international human rights movement of prolonging the war in Bosnia Herzegovina. There, human rights activists had rejected pragmatic deals that could have ended the violence and, from hindsight, were no worse than the eventual agreement in rewarding ethnic cleansing and aggression. In that author's view, it made 'today's living the dead of tomorrow' by pursuing a perfectly just and moral peace that would bring 'justice for yesterday's victims of atrocities' (Anonymous 1996, 259). Since then, the idea that the normative nature of human rights standards may complicate the practical demands of peacemaking has been a recurrent theme in discussions on the relationship between human rights and efforts to address violent conflict. This is especially the case when the latter is conceived of in terms of conflict settlement or resolution. Questions of definitions and objectives are thus key. Also relevant are the time frame, context and level of intervention one focuses on, though few authors on the subject make this explicit. In addition, narrow perceptions and generalizations abound in this debate as people working on human rights, peace and conflict have been grouped into categories of 'human rights activists' and 'conflict resolvers' as if these were homogenous and coherent clusters of actors. In this chapter, the authoress argues that considering human rights and conflict transformation in conjunction deepens one's analysis of what is involved in moving from violence to sustainable peace. It is informed by the idea that the two fill 'gaps' in one another, in that each contributes to a better understanding of the other by highlighting elements that are relatively under-explored in the theory and practice of each separate field. For conflict transformation, which will be the main focus here, the perspective of human rights forces a greater emphasis on structural conditions, especially the role of the state, systems of governance and issues of power in generating, escalating and transforming violent conflict. Considering human rights in relation to conflict transformation, moreover, highlights the need to employ a holistic, multidimensional understanding of human rights that does not reduce them to their legal foundations. This chapter suggests that conflict transformation, because of its explicit grounding in social justice, and hence inherently normative foundation, may provide a more nuanced and fruitful conceptual space for thinking about human rights, conflict and peace than conflict resolution and conflict management. Placing constructive social change at its core, conflict transformation acknowledges the need for addressing power imbalances and recognizes a role for advocacy and the importance of voices that challenge the status quo. Its concern with direct, structural and cultural violence is thus also highly relevant from a rights perspective. In order to place these ideas in context, the chapter will briefly comment on literature that has been published on human rights and approaches for addressing conflict and building peace (section 2). Section 3 proposes a framework for understanding the relationship between human rights and conflict transformation, using the metaphor of an iceberg, with its graphic image of things visible connected to matters unseen. It also introduces four dimensions of human rights that need to be taken into account in processes to build a just and sustainable peace. Section 4 discusses some of the practical implications of adopting a human rights perspective on conflict transformation. Nepal, South Africa, and other countries where the authoress has worked over the past 15 years, are used as illustrative examples throughout sections 3 and 4. Finally, section 5 concludes and points to some areas for further research." (excerpt)