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"This book provides an introduction to arguments for and against socialism. The approach is logical and analytic: arguments are broken down into numbered steps, with each step clearly labeled as a premise or an inference from previous steps. This method effectively lays bare the structure of an argument, allowing the reader to see exactly what is assumed by the argument and whether those assumptions really do logically imply the claimed conclusion. While the book aims to be fair to the arguments from both sides, it ultimately sides with socialism: it defines socialism as coming in degrees, and maintains that the arguments indicate that we should move in a strongly democratic socialist direction. The overarching argument has relatively simple premises: socialism promotes human well-being better than capitalism, and socialism does not violate rights of individuals. Naturally, the defender of capitalism will deny these premises and will claim that capitalism better promotes human well-being; many capitalists also claim that socialism does violate individual rights, particularly property rights. The bulk of the book sorts through the data and arguments on both sides, considering arguments from philosophers like G.A. Cohen, Jonathan Wolff, David Schweickart, Ronald Dworkin, and John Tomasi. But the book also considers arguments by scholars from other fields, including economists F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman."

Abstract
Strategic planning is a critical element in the strategic management of any public organization, including local emergency management agencies (EMAs). However, while the importance of strategic planning in emergency management is well founded, even codified in the national standards, little is known empirically about its actual use, and even less is known about the impacts of the planning process on local programs. As such, this study examined the strategic planning practices of county-level EMAs throughout the United States, focusing on the strategic planning process and its underlying dimensions. A composite index for strategic planning comprehensiveness was developed, based on five planning process dimensions, and then analyzed to gauge its relative impacts on local program quality. The findings revealed that the strategic planning process had a direct and significant impact on the quality of local emergency management programs, with the regression model explaining about 60 % of the variance in the local program quality index scores.

Abstract
This study examined the strategic planning practices of county-level emergency management agencies (EMAs), with a specific focus on strategic planning adoption and its relationship to local program quality. The study utilized a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design to collect planning- and program-related data from more than 300 county-level EMAs across the United States. The study findings revealed that most of the county EMAs included in the final sample had previously engaged in strategic planning activities, with nearly all of them continuing to use strategic planning as part of their general management practice. The study findings further revealed that strategic planning had a direct and significant impact on the overall quality of local emergency management programs, and that the strategic planning EMAs had significantly higher mean quality scores across all program dimensions when compared to the non-strategic planning EMAs.

Abstract
Relative wealth inequality between countries of the North and South has not improved since the era of decolonization, yet the LIO's economic regime has scarcely been challenged since the 1970s' New International Economic Order. This paper seeks to explain this puzzle by theorizing and empirically tracking a pervasive pattern of rhetorical "domestication" through which wealth inequality was framed as a domestic instead of an international problem. As part of a rhetorical process of "containment," the NIEO challenge was met with two alternative, liberal discourses from the 1980s through the present: a "responsive" discourse embodied by the Brandt report and its social-democratic middle ground; and a "resisting" one typified by a speech delivered by Ronald Reagan in Cancun in 1983. Our empirical demonstration illustrates how LIO proponents discursively contained NIEO contestation through the spread of a domesticated rhetoric. Using a corpus of General Assembly annual debates from 1971 to 2018, our machine learning textual analysis reveals how a growing proportion of diverse countries address economic development in an increasingly managerial way. By tracking rhetorical tropes, we document a groundswell movement away from structural and political contestation of the LIO. Overall, our original methodology—based on an inductive and relational approach to machine learning text analysis—allows us to capture the many euphemisms that containment diplomacy at the UN entails, and more generally, how key political problems get muffled in global debates.

Most media literacy programs fail to take into account the dramatic nature of digitalization, focusing on analog-native media such as the newspaper or digital-native media such as computers and overlooking the process through which these forms are blending and converging. Those trends and ideas includenew digital aesthetics and new social effects caused by digitalization, both of which need to be taken into account in media literacy programs. The aesthetics of digitalization include prepurposing and repurposing content, virtual experience, sampling, interactivity, and manipulation. The new social effects include nonlinearity and content on demand. Digitalization will not immediately replace analog- and digital-oriented programs but needs to be considered as a part of thorough media literacy education.

"Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) was a notable economist and educator, best known for his contribution to General Systems Theory, ecological economics and conflict and defense. This text gives insight into the life and multidisciplinary work of Boulding. Boulding was born to a working-class family in Liverpool, England. He was greatly influenced by World War I as a child, which made him a lifelong pacifist, eventually leading him to join the Society of Friends (Quakers) while in college. Boulding defied class distinctions by earning a scholarship to study at Oxford University. After graduating he studied economics at the University of Chicago, and later settled in America taking a job at Colgate University where he wrote his bestselling textbook Economic Analysis. This book along with other publications won Boulding the John Bates Clark Medal in 1949. At this same time, Boulding took a job at the University of Michigan where he began to adopt a more transdisciplinary approach to economic as well as social problems, such as war and environmental sustainability. In 1968 he was elected president of the American Economics Association. Boulding's religious beliefs mixed with his general systems thinking led him to apply his unique perspective to areas such as peace, conflict resolution, human betterment, ethics, evolution, general systems and power. This study provides a summary of Kenneth Boulding's achievements, making it indispensable reading for scholars and researchers of history of economic thought and economic theory. It will also appeal to a broader readership of social sciences"--

Dear Abdullah -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction: Questions, objections and confusion -- Bad questions? -- Central objections -- Wider responses -- A word more on method -- A word more on the Qur'an -- Seeking better understanding and looking to a better day post-7/7 -- 1. How can we know an incomprehensible God? -- God seems greatly incomprehensible -- God is... -- God is Creator and Ruler -- God is the personal Covenant-Maker... -- ...in an overarching narrative -- ...personally relating to people -- ...amid promised blessings and human failings -- Comfort from this great God -- Key points -- Some questions -- For followers of Jesus the Messiah -- For Muslim friends -- 2. Don't Christians only do Sundays? -- One-day-a-week Christianity? -- The 'why' of 24/7 Christianity -- The 'what' of 24/7 Christianity -- Abstaining from sin -- Protection from envy -- Doing good deeds -- Submitting to authorities -- Submission and honour in marriage -- Where are the details? -- Reading God's Word and praying continually -- Key points -- Some questions -- For followers of Jesus the Messiah -- For Muslim friends -- 3. What sort of God can be murdered? -- The death of God? -- Foolishness and weakness versus wisdom and power -- Beginning with Moses -- Sin and death -- Mercy and fellowship -- Moving to the Prophets -- Cleaned from sin -- An end to sin -- Finishing with the Psalms -- The crucified Christ opens up paradise -- A holistic answer -- A biblical theme -- Qur'anic problems -- Prophets do suffer -- Forgiving enemies -- Key points -- Some questions -- For followers of Jesus the Messiah -- For Muslim friends -- 4. What sort of God can be born as a baby? -- Who is your God? -- The almighty God who lived with his people in the Old Testament -- God walked with Adam -- God appeared to Abraham -- God came near to Moses