Monoculture

Monoculture

Author: F. S. Michaels

Publisher: Red Clover Press

Published: 2011-04-25

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 098685381X

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Winner of the George Orwell Award. One of The Atlantic's best books of the year. As human beings, we've always told stories: stories about who we are, where we come from, and where we're going. Now imagine that one of those stories is taking over the others, narrowing our diversity and creating a monoculture. Because of the rise of the economic story, six areas of your world - your work, your relationships with others and the environment, your community, your physical and spiritual health, your education, and your creativity - are changing, or have already changed, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. And because how you think shapes how you act, the monoculture isn't just changing your mind - it's changing your life. In Monoculture, F.S. Michaels draws on extensive research and makes surprising connections among disciplines to take a big-picture look at how one story is changing everything. Her research and writing have been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Killam Trusts, and regional and municipal arts councils. Michaels has an MBA, and completed five years of PhD studies in Organizational Analysis. She lives in British Columbia, Canada. "A single lucid narrative that's bound to first make you somewhat uncomfortable and insecure, then give you the kind of pause from which you can step back and move forward with more autonomy, authenticity and mindfulness than ever." - The Atlantic "A thin, enrapturing gem. It's accessible, sensible--exactly the sort of book that should have (and still could + should!) take off and create a tiny little dent in books." - Kenyon Review "A smart and realistic guide to first recognizing the monoculture and the challenges of transcending its limitations." - Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org "I found myself reading non-stop, underlining like crazy...an astute explanation about what I've been feeling recently, something I couldn't put my finger on...[Michaels] writes in clear, energetic prose that's thoughtful, engaging and unforced. She defines and analyzes without judgment or insistence...a breath of fresh air." - NPR "...a singularly brilliant and accessible analysis of some of the fundamental assumptions and driving principles of our time." - Comment Magazine "5 stars: The cause and effect of our world is more surprising than you'd think. With intriguing notions about the driving ideas of stories in every shape of our life, "Monoculture" is an incredibly fascinating way about how the mind works and today's consumer culture." - Midwest Book Review "If you just read one book this year, read this one." - BuriedInPrint.com


Autonomy Unbound

Autonomy Unbound

Author: Paul Barry Clarke

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-13

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 0429863934

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First published in 1999, this volume examines how the question of autonomy has come to be of recent interest in political theory. The author argues that autonomy goes deep into the Western consciousness and is a part of our very mode of being. He suggests that while autonomy is not universal, once tasted it becomes ineradicable. Autonomy runs deeper than is often thought and this book shows that while autonomy is unique to Western consciousness and to democracy, it raises and examines the question as to whether autonomy is either universally necessary or necessary to democracy.


Diversity of Family Farming Around the World

Diversity of Family Farming Around the World

Author: Pierre-Marie Bosc

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-08

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 940241617X

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This book aims at explaining the nature and strength of the links between the families and their farms looking at their diversity throughout the world. To do so, it documents family farming diversity by using the sustainable rural livelihood (SRL) framework exploring their ability to adapt and transform to changing environments. In 18 case studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, it shows how family farms resist under adverse conditions, seize new opportunities and permanently transform. Family farms, far from being backwards are potential solutions to face the current challenges and shape a new future for agriculture taking advantage of their local knowledge and capacity to cope with external constraints. Many co-authors of the book have both an empirical and theoretical experience of family farming in developed and developing countries and their related institutions. They specify «what makes and means family» in family farming and the diversity of their expertise draws a wide and original picture of this resilient way of farming throughout the world.


Earth Democracy

Earth Democracy

Author: Vandana Shiva

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Published: 2015-10-27

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1623170427

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World-renowned environmental activist and physicist Vandana Shiva calls for a radical shift in the values that govern democracies, condemning the role that unrestricted capitalism has played in the destruction of environments and livelihoods. She explores the issues she helped bring to international attention—genetic food engineering, culture theft, and natural resource privatization—uncovering their links to the rising tide of fundamentalism, violence against women, and planetary death. Struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancun and in homes and farms across the world have yielded a set of principles based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons, and freely sharing the earth’s resources. These ideals, which Dr. Shiva calls “Earth Democracy,” serve as an urgent call to peace and as the basis for a just and sustainable future.


AI Narratives

AI Narratives

Author: Stephen Cave

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020-02-28

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 0198846665

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This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real Artificial Intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative history shapes how the technology is developed, deployed and regulated. It is therefore a crucial social and ethical issue. Part I of this book provides a historical overview from ancient Greece to the start of modernity. These chapters explore the revealing pre-history of key concerns of contemporary AI discourse, from the nature of mind and creativity to issues of power and rights, from the tension between fascination and ambivalence to investigations into artificial voices and technophobia. Part II focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first-centuries in which a greater density of narratives emerge alongside rapid developments in AI technology. These chapters reveal not only how AI narratives have consistently been entangled with the emergence of real robotics and AI, but also how they offer a rich source of insight into how we might live with these revolutionary machines. Through their close textual engagements, these chapters explore the relationship between imaginative narratives and contemporary debates about AI's social, ethical and philosophical consequences, including questions of dehumanization, automation, anthropomorphisation, cybernetics, cyberpunk, immortality, slavery, and governance. The contributions, from leading humanities and social science scholars, show that narratives about AI offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful new technologies.


Communicative Justice in the Pluriverse

Communicative Justice in the Pluriverse

Author: Joan Pedro-Carañana

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-11

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1000784029

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This volume examines communicative justice from the perspective of the pluriverse and explores how it is employed to work towards key pluriverse goals of environmental, cognitive, sociocultural, sociopolitical, and political economy justice. The book identifies and explains the unequal power relations in place that limit the possibilities of communication justice, the challenges and difficulties faced by activists and communities, the ways in which communities and movements have confronted power structures through discourse and material action, and their successes and limitations in creating new structures that promote the right to, and facilitate a future for, communicative justice. The volume features contributions based on experiences of resistance and transformation in the Global South—Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Malawi, and collaborations between the continents of Latin America and Africa—as well as notable studies from the Global North—Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom—that defy hegemonic models. This book is essential for students and scholars interested in media and communication activism, media practice for development and social change, and communication for development and social change, as well as those actively engaged with activism and social justice.


Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism

Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism

Author: Tindall, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2022-03-22

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1839100222

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This thought-provoking Handbook provides a theoretical overview of the wide variety of anti-environmentalisms and offers an integrative research agenda for future research on the topic. Probing the ways in which groups have organized to oppose environmental movements and pro-environmental policies in recent decades, it examines those involved in these countermovements and studies their motivations and support systems. This Handbook explores core topics in the field, including contestation over climate change, wind power, mining, forestry, food sovereignty, oil and gas pipelines and population issues.


Inside the Learning Society

Inside the Learning Society

Author: Stewart Ranson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1998-11-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1847141625

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As an approach to the diverse and shifting learning needs of today, the learning society labours under a definitional generosity which has led to three different models evolving with competing claims. This book traces the history of the concept and lucidly lays out these three interpretive models: learning for work, learning for citizenship and learning for democracy. The book's close scrutiny concludes with an analysis that synthesizes and sharpens our understanding of the learning society. With due consideration given to the emerging critique and with chapters from public bodies engaged in implementing learning society principles, Inside the Learning Society offers a comprehensive appraisal of ideas and practices. This is a book of great significance for anyone concerned about or involved in the future of education.


Ideology and Atheism in the Soviet Union

Ideology and Atheism in the Soviet Union

Author: William van den Bercken

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-05-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 3110857375

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The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.