In Search of Politics

In Search of Politics

Author: Zygmunt Bauman

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-07-03

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0745656978

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We live in a world which no longer questions itself, which lives from one day to another managing successive crises and struggling to brace itself for new ones, without knowing where it is going and without trying to plan the itinerary. And everything important in our lives - livelihood, human bonds, partnerships, neighbourhood, goals worth pursuing and dangers to avoid - feels transient, precarious, vulnerable, insecure, uncertain, risky. Is there a connection between the shape of the world we inhabit and the way we live our lives? Exploring that connection, and finding out just how close it is, is the main concern of this book. What is at stake in this inquiry is the possibility of re-building the"'private/public" space, where private troubles and public issues meet and where citizens engage in dialogue in order to govern themselves. Individual liberty can only be a product of collective work, it can only be collectively secured and guaranteed. And yet today we are moving towards a privatization of the means to secure individual liberty. If seen as a therapy for the present ills, this is bound to produce effects of a most sinister kind. The act of translating private troubles into public issues is in danger of falling into disuse and being forgotten. The argument of this book is that making the translation possible again is an urgent and vital imperative for the renewal of politics today. This new book by Zygmunt Bauman - one of the most original and creative thinkers of our time - will be of particular interest to students of sociology, politics and social and political theory.


In Search of Climate Politics

In Search of Climate Politics

Author: Matthew Paterson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-08-26

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1108838464

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This book addresses the crucial - but oddly neglected - question of what it means to say climate change is political.


Unapologetically Moderate

Unapologetically Moderate

Author: Bill King

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781939055897

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Bringing together the best of King's work, the book explores topics ranging from the demographic revolution sweeping America to the pressing need for Social Security reform to the place of religious faith in politics. King's reach extends from Houston's local government scene to the Austin statehouse and the halls of Congress. Whatever the subject, King's dispassionate, fact-driven approach to hot-button issues sets him apart from other political observers. His clear explanation of complex subjects provides welcome perspective on topics that have become muddled by partisan interpretations.


In Search of the Black Fantastic

In Search of the Black Fantastic

Author: Richard Iton

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0199733600

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Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows, despite the changes politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making of critical social spaces.


Deep Search

Deep Search

Author: Konrad Becker

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13:

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Deep Search collects 13 texts which investigate the social and political dimensions of how we navigate the deep seas of knowledge. What do we win, and what do we lose when we move from an analogue to a digital information order? How is computer readable significance produced, how is meaning involved in machine communication? Where is the potential of having access to such vast amounts of information? What are the dangers of our reliance on search engines and are there any approaches that do not follow the currently dominating paradigm of Google? This volume answers these questions of culture, context and classification regarding information systems that should not be ignored.


Global Politics as if People Mattered

Global Politics as if People Mattered

Author: Mary Ann Tétreault

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2009-05-16

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0742566587

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What would international relations look like if our theories and analyses began with individuals, families, and communities instead of executives, nation-states, and militaries? After all, it is people who make up cities, states, and corporations, and it is their beliefs and behaviors that explain why some parts of the world seem so peaceful while others appear so violent, why some societies are so rich while others are so poor. Now in a fully updated and revised edition, this unique text on contemporary global politics begins with people, treating them as "social individuals" with free will and human agency even as they are limited and disciplined by rules and rulers. Offering a fresh approach to global politics, this dynamic author team trades perspectives with each other and with such eminent social theorists as Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt to develop their resonant theme. Using practical examples as well as theory, the authors show students how they can take charge of their lives and the politics that affect them, even in the context of a vast global economy and impersonal international forces that sometimes seem out of control. Filled with idealism, yet firmly grounded in current realities, Global Politics as if People Mattered is a fresh take on the proper place and potential of individuals in world politics—front and center, actively engaged in a way of life that is as politically personal as it is politically powerful. This distinctive text, a perfect reading for lower-division politics courses, helps students to carve out their own political space in the contemporary global order.


In Search of Politics

In Search of Politics

Author: Zygmunt Bauman

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9780804738347

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In this book, the noted sociologist confronts the decline of the public realm and the profound contradictions of freedom in present-day society. How can most of us consider ourselves free and yet believe equally firmly that there is little we can change--singly, severally, or all together--in the ways the affairs of the world are being run? Why has the growth of individual freedom coincided with the growth of collective impotence, insofar as there is no easy and obvious way to translate private worries into public issues and, conversely, to pinpoint public issues in private troubles? What, under these circumstances, can bring us together? Occasionally, our impulses toward sociality are released in short-lived explosions, sometimes in carnivals of compassion and charity, sometimes by outbursts of beefed-up aggression against a freshly discovered enemy. The trouble with these occasions is that they run out of steam quickly, and when we return to our daily business the shared world, brightly illuminated for a moment, seems if anything darker than before. The chance of changing this condition hangs on the agora--the space neither private nor public, but more exactly private and public at the same time. In this space, private problems meet in a meaningful way--not just to draw narcissistic pleasures or in search of some therapy through public display, but to seek collective levers powerful enough to lift individuals from their private miseries and create "public good," a "just society," or "shared values." The trouble is that little is left today of the old-style private/public spaces. In this book, the author both explores these problems and sketches the outlines of a solution for them. We cannot, he argues, overcome our collective impotence without resorting to politics and using the vehicle of political agency. In the latter part of the book, the author focuses on three orientation points for a reconstruction of politics: the republican model of the state and of citizenship, basic income as a universal entitlement, and an attempt to re-enable the institutions of autonomous society by catching up with the extraterritorial powers wielding control in an age of globalization.


The Politics of Information

The Politics of Information

Author: Frank R. Baumgartner

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-01-02

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 022619826X

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How does the government decide what’s a problem and what isn’t? And what are the consequences of that process? Like individuals, Congress is subject to the “paradox of search.” If policy makers don’t look for problems, they won’t find those that need to be addressed. But if they carry out a thorough search, they will almost certainly find new problems—and with the definition of each new problem comes the possibility of creating a government program to address it. With The Politics of Attention, leading policy scholars Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones demonstrated the central role attention plays in how governments prioritize problems. Now, with The Politics of Information, they turn the focus to the problem-detection process itself, showing how the growth or contraction of government is closely related to how it searches for information and how, as an organization, it analyzes its findings. Better search processes that incorporate more diverse viewpoints lead to more intensive policymaking activity. Similarly, limiting search processes leads to declines in policy making. At the same time, the authors find little evidence that the factors usually thought to be responsible for government expansion—partisan control, changes in presidential leadership, and shifts in public opinion—can be systematically related to the patterns they observe. Drawing on data tracing the course of American public policy since World War II, Baumgartner and Jones once again deepen our understanding of the dynamics of American policy making.


Politics and Society in the South

Politics and Society in the South

Author: Earl Black

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780674689596

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This book is a systematic interpretation of the most important national and state tendencies in southern politics since 1920. The authors contend that, notable improvements in race relations aside, the central tendencies in southern politics are primarily established by the values, beliefs, and objectives of the expanding white urban middle class.