Günter Grass is Germany's best-known and internationally most successful living author, from his first novel The Tin Drum to his recent controversial autobiography. He is known for his tireless social and political engagement with the issues that have shaped post-War Germany: the difficult legacy of the Nazi past, the Cold War and the arms race, environmentalism, unification and racism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999. This Companion offers the widest coverage of Grass's oeuvre across the range of media in which he works, including literature, television and visual arts. Throughout, there is particular emphasis on Grass's literary style, the creative personality which inhabits all his work, and the impact on his reputation of revelations about his early involvement with Nazism. The volume sets out, in a fresh and lively fashion, the fundamentals that students and readers need in order to understand Grass and his individual works.
In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
This is a challenger book. It systematically modifies the assumptions of the homo economicus and homo sociologicus by constructing a deeper foundation of human and corporate personhood. The new theory of homo psychologicus probes into a long-forgotten common sense: humans are rationally irrational homo psychologicus, as are companies. The homo psychologicus state of people and companies, or the desire of realizing who we are and who we are not, lays the foundation for our decisions on profits and stakeholder relationships. The author, a veteran brand strategy consultant, starts by decoding some of the most popular misconceptions in the field of brand management—Corporate Identity, Brand Valuation, and Positioning Theory. While the concepts are clarified and the functionality of brand management is redefined, the book further dissects that a key differentiation between businesses with lasting success and others is a thoughtful homo psychologicus mindset. The methodology of developing thoughtful businesses will empower companies to make more visionary decisions for themselves and the economic ecosystem that we all rely upon. More thoughtful businesses could potentially create more thoughtful economies through their collective efforts.
You have a calling, but you also have a “sending.” A calling is a familiar idea. People search for their true calling, hoping to find what they were made to do, eager to fulfill their life’s purpose. Let God Send reminds us that regardless of our individual vocation, we are always sent people, propelled by God’s Spirit into the world to serve others. This sent-ness comes from the very nature of God who is always on the move in our world. Jesus was sent. The Holy Spirit is sent. Abraham and Moses were sent. The first disciples became sent-ones as well. The journeyers in the biblical narrative show us that when God sends, the path is never clear or direct. Being sent can be daunting, disconcerting, and disorienting. We can feel under-qualified, under-educated, or unprepared. But none of our hesitancy changes the reality that a life of following Jesus is a life of being sent out. Using strong biblical narratives and questions for reflection or group discussion, Matt Brough guides us into an examination of what holds us back from making a move, how to go in a humble and listening way, and ultimately what each disciple of Jesus is called to do in our going. Let God Send is a straightforward, plainspoken plea for people who follow Jesus to get moving.
PRODUCT INNOVATION TOOLBOX Discover how to implement consumer-centric innovation to help create new product development in this latest edition In recent years, behavioral approaches, social media listening, and other new techniques and technologies—digital techniques, augmented intelligence, machine learning, and advanced biometrics, among others—have been foregrounded in innovation research. A focus on the evolving fields of data science and neuroscience is a driving force for both researchers and the people they study. These digital and mobile technologies have enabled researchers to augment listening, observing and categorizing methods, and to adapt new techniques in attempting to better understand consumers. On the other hand, digitized mobile societies, spurred by faster and cheaper internet access, emphasize an interconnectedness that drastically alters human behaviors and creates borderless influences. Even so, the tenets and approaches to insightful deep learning for consumers and other actors, from discovery through to the launch of successful products, remains an intrinsic part of assessing the market. Product Innovation Toolbox brings together key thought leaders and seasoned consumer researchers from corporate R&D, academia, and marketing research companies to share their experiences, advanced consumer research tools and practical tips for successful and sustainable product innovation. By offering these leading-edge tools and insights, the book ensures consumer-centric innovation by linking strategy and a designed approach. The new edition focuses on the integration and connection of all data—both structured and unstructured???for deep learning and activation, rather than a differentiated qualitative—quantitative approach, reflecting the shifting relationships involved in the latest developments in the field. The second edition of Product Innovation Toolbox also includes: Revised material for more than 70% of the manual, with 11 new and extensively updated chapters New tools sections on digital technologies to create novel ways to stimulate and elicit insights from participants, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Digital Augmentation Upgraded versions of tools in each updated section, with fresh examples New case studies created using the tools from the previous edition, including cases regarding cross-continental marketplaces and cross-cultural societies An emphasis on tools with global applications Product Innovation Toolbox is an essential resource for product developers, marketers, and technologists.
In Productive Workplaces Revisited, Marvin Weisbord takes the next step in exploring effective strategies for improving workplace productivity through dignity, meaning, and community. Remarkably, in this new edition the author revisits the case studies from the first edition, Productive Workplaces, to show the long-term effects of OD interventions -- twenty-plus years after the fact and provides invaluable insights for practitioner and student alike. In five new chapters, Weisbord reinterprets his systems work in health care and steel-making, describes how “future search,” his method for “getting everybody improving whole systems,” has crossed cultures on five continents, and summarizes his learning from following up cases decades later. This edition also presents in-depth case studies of organizations that have used these techniques to increase output, cut costs, create strategic plans, manage conflict between functions, and more.
Leaves of Grass Revisited is about one boy's journey through the American Civil War. It suggests that the past is not the past, and the future is not necessarily linear. It is a book of possibility and hope, very much needed in today's climate of strife and change. The poetry in Reflections mirror a long life of dreams and sorrows.
These short stories are the memories of a sixteen-year-old boy born and raised under the Big Sky, Montana. His dream of working on a ranch and becoming a cowboy was fulfilled in the late 1960s when he spent three summers on the "Sweet Grass," a four-generation ranch. He came to know what the predawn call to "rise and shine" meant, how it feels to milk a cow with callouses on your hands, to be tossed off the back of a horse and hang on to the reins, and all the other skills required to become a ranch hand. In the process, he came to love the ranch family and discover why his boss said that ranching is not for atheists since a farmer needs to partner with God Who is the Creator and, in His Word, gives clear instructions. Their reverence was expressed not in many words but in the way they treated their family, other people, their cattle, their dogs, and the land itself. They worked hard and rested on the Sabbath. They put their trust in God and were rewarded with His smile. During these summers of learning the ways of the land and the Sweet Grass, he became a young man and later moved to California. He had a successful thirty-seven-year career with a utility company, where all those skills served him well. He still remembers the smell of the grass in Montana and what he saw in the Big Sky.
