Contested Futures
Contested Futures

Author: Nik Brown

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1351949004

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In a unique volume, Contested Futures brings together a group of scholars to examine the relationships between social action and the future. Rather than speculating upon what the future might bring, the volume interrogates the metaphors and practices through which the future is mobilized as an object of present day action and agency. The book shifts the analytical gaze from looking into the future to looking at the future as a sociological phenomenon in its own right. Futures are thus contested in as much as they register differences of interest, time frame or organizational and political form. Contestation is also evident in the ascendancy of certain discourses, languages and metaphors which foreclose some futures whilst facilitating others. But futures are far from being simply linguistic abstractions, and in fact can often be seen to harden into material entrenchment as expectations become scripted into 'path dependency' and 'lock in'. Contested Futures is an invaluable analysis for both academics and policy actors seeking a better understanding of the ubiquity of futures-discourse in the context of today’s uncertainties.

The Future of Public Health
The Future of Public Health

Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1988-01-15

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0309581907

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"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Corporate Futures
Corporate Futures

Author: George E. Marcus

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1998-07-20

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780226504544

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This is part of a series of annuals designed to probe cultural, institutional and geopolitical change as the 20th century closes. The books provide in-depth interviews with those closely involved with these changes. This volume focuses on the investment of corporations in the concept of culture.

DNA
DNA

Author: Linda L. McCabe

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0520265882

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"The discussions of genetic determinism, prenatal genetic testing, eugenics, and gender identity are particularly informative, stimulating, clearly spelled out, and comprehensible to lay readers as well as professionals."—Solomon A. Kaplan, MD, Professor Emeritus, Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA "If you read one book about the human genome, this is it! An extraordinary thoughtful, readable and myth-busting contribution to understanding our future. I loved it!"—Donna E. Shalala, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Uncertain Futures
Uncertain Futures

Author: Jens Beckert

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-07-11

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0192552759

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Uncertain Futures considers how economic actors visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. It starts from the premise that dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by relentless innovation and novelty and hence exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced to measurable risk. The organizing question then becomes how economic actors form expectations and make decisions despite the uncertainty they face. This edited volume lays the foundations for a new model of economic reasoning by showing how, in conditions of uncertainty, economic actors combine calculation with imaginaries and narratives to form fictional expectations that coordinate action and provide the confidence to act. It draws on groundbreaking research in economic sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology to present theoretically grounded empirical case studies. These demonstrate how grand narratives, central bank forward guidance, economic forecasts, finance models, business plans, visions of technological futures, and new era stories influence behaviour and become instruments of power in markets and societies. The market impact of shared calculative devices, social narratives, and contingent imaginaries underlines the rationale for a new form of narrative economics.

Practice Wisdom
Practice Wisdom

Author: Joy Higgs

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-07-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 900441049X

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Practice wisdom is needed because the challenges people face in life, work and society are not simple and require more than knowledge, actions and decision making capabilities. In professional practice wisdom enhances people’s capacity to succeed and evolve and to assist their clients in achieving positive, relevant and satisfying outcomes. Practice Wisdom: Values and Interpretations brings diverse views and interpretations to an exploration of what wisdom in professional practice means and can become: academically, practically and inspirationally. The authors reflect on core dimensions of practice wisdom like ethics, mindfulness, moral virtue, particularisation and metacognition. The chapter authors tackle the trials that practice wisdom seekers encounter including the demand for resilience, perseverance, finding credibility and humility in practice wisdom, and linking wisdom into evidence for sound professional decision making. Readers are invited to consider what the place of practice wisdom encompasses in pursuing good practice outcomes amidst the turmoil and pressure of professional practice today. Do the imperatives of evidence-based practice and accountability leave enough space for wise practice or is wisdom seen by modern practice worlds as unnecessary, antiquated, unrealistic and redundant? Without a doubt these questions are answered positively in this book in support of the place and value of practice wisdom in professional practice today.

ICT Futures
ICT Futures

Author: Paul Warren

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-30

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780470758663

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Learn all about the major trends and future advancements in ICT! ICT Futures provides an insightful introduction to the major technology trends in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and to the economic, commercial and societal environment which is shaping them. The experienced author-team, consisting of experts from both industry and academia, addresses: The interaction between people and technology - how ICT affects every day social practices; the rise of social computing; how the way we interact with information and the devices we use are changing; and how trust can be assured over the Internet. The underlying ICT infrastructure - the semantic web and the semantic intranet; the real-time service-oriented infrastructure; the future optical network; self-managing networks and agents; P2P technologies; pervasiveness; mobility and wireless technology; and how all this infrastructure can be made secure. ICT technology and how it is affecting industries as diverse as health, finance, retail and law. The book covers a vast wealth of material, with a strong focus upon the impending changes to the way ICT operates.This reference is a valuable tool for people in managerial roles, CIOs, CTOs, business and technology strategists, and students undertaking technology MBAs, or technology modules in general MBAs. Professionals working in ICT will also find this book valuable.

Hippocratic Oaths
Hippocratic Oaths

Author: Raymond Tallis

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Published: 2015-01-01

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1782396519

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In this book, the physician and philosopher Raymond Tallis yokes together his diverse intellectual interests to address important questions about our well-being. In a series of stimulating and impassioned arguments, he establishes the truth about, among many other things, recent health scares, explains why patients compete for our doctors' and nurses' time; why the exploding popularity of alternative therapies is actually bad for our health; and how one man's view of the MMR vaccine influenced a nation. This is the summation of a lifetime's thought and medical practice, by one of Britain's most original thinkers. It will, quite simply, change for ever the way we think about ourselves and our health.