Search results for ""DEBATE""

Drawing together a mix of internationally renown contributors, Social Policy Review 28 provides an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship. With specially commissioned reviews of pensions, health care, conditionality and housing this book examines important debates in the field. A themed section on personalised budgets examines the introduction and consequences of personalisation of funding from the perspectives of the UK, Australia and Norway and considers the impact of such funding on vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the homeless. Published in association with the SPA this comprehensive discussion and analysis of the current state of social policy will be of keen interest to academics and students.

Read more less

Seminal essays on one of the most crucial issues in Arthurian studies. For the past fifty years, debates about which text of Malory scholars and teachers should prefer have sparked much controversy: which is the most authentic or authoritative, Caxton, the Winchester version, or a mixture of both (asproposed by Vinaver)? The papers in this volume represent the most important contributions to the dialogue; previously published articles have been updated where relevant and new issues are presented in several original essays, while the introductions place the argument in its theoretical and historical contexts. Professor BONNIE WHEELER teaches at the Southern Methodist University; Professor MICHAEL SALDA teaches at the University of SouthernMississippi; Professor ROBERT KINDRICK teaches at the University of Montana. Contributors: MICHAEL N. SALDA, KEVIN GRIMM, SHUNICHI NOGUCHI, CHARLES MOORMAN, P.J.C. FIELD, WILLIAM MATTHEWS, ROBERT KINDRICK, HELEN COOPER, TOSHIYUKI TAKAMIYA, YUJI NAKAO, NORMAN BLAKE

Read more less

Sanctified Sex draws on two thousand years of rabbinic debates addressing competing aspirations for loving intimacy, passionate sexual union, and sanctity in marriage. What can Judaism contribute to our struggles to nurture love relationships? What halakhic precedents are relevant, and how are rulings changing? The rabbis, of course, seldom agree. Underlying their arguments are perennial debates: What kind of marital sex qualifies as ideal—sacred self-control of sexual desire or the holiness found in emotional and erotic intimacy? Is intercourse degrading in its physicality or the highest act of spiritual/mystical union? And should women or men (or both) wield ultimate say about what transpires in bed? Noam Sachs Zion guides us chronologically and steadily through fraught terrain: seminal biblical texts and their Talmudic interpretations; Talmud tales of three unusual rabbis and their marital bedrooms; medieval codifiers and mystical commentators; ultra-Orthodox rabbis clashing with one another over radically divergent ideals; and, finally, contemporary rabbis of varied denominations wrestling with modern transformations in erotic lifestyles and values. Invited into these sanctified and often sexually explicit discussions with our ancestors and contemporaries, we encounter innovative Jewish teachings on marital intimacy, ardent lovemaking techniques, and the art of couple communication vital for matrimonial success.

Read more less

This innovative study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity--the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world--by setting the phenomenon against the wide background of the political and theological debates of the time. Asking how the emerging notion of a sacred geography challenged the leading intellectuals and ecclesiastical authorities, Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony deftly reshapes our understanding of early Christian mentalities by unraveling the process by which a territory of grace became a territory of power. Examining ancient writers' responses to the rising practice of pilgrimage, Bitton-Ashkelony offers a nuanced reading of their thinking on the merits and the demerits of pilgrimage, revealing theological and ecclesiastical motivations that have been overlooked, and questioning the long-held assumption of scholars that pilgrimage was only a popular, not an elite, religious practice. In addition to Greek and Latin sources, she includes Syriac material, which allows her to build a rich picture of the emerging theology of landscape that took shape over the fourth to sixth centuries.

Read more less

With a wide-ranging set of contributions, this book provides a compilation of cutting-edge original research in the field of entrepreneurial opportunities. The book reopens the subject from diverse perspectives focusing on theories and approaches to entrepreneurial opportunities. It provides a brief history of the idea of opportunity and a framework how opportunities develop in space and place. Further, this Research Handbook looks at process and context-based views on the topic. It also includes the latest research on impact factors, such as individual values on creating entrepreneurial opportunities. The book has been complemented by an outstanding Delphi panel of six leading scholars of the field: Lowell Busenitz, Dimo Dimov, James O. Fiet, Denis Grégoire, Jeff McMullen and Mike Wright. This carefully edited selection of current and topical contributions will be of immense value to students, researchers and scholars interested in the field of entrepreneurial opportunities.Contributors include: C. Albornoz, J.E. Amorós, T. Baker, B. Bjerke, L. Busenitz, M. Chiasson, D. Dimov, J.O. Fiet, J. Gaddefors, W.B. Gartner, D.A. Grégoire, A. Haas, T.P. Kenworthy, S. Korsgaard, A. Kurczewska, C. Léger-Jarniou, F. Linán, M. Marchesnay, J.S. McMullen, S.P. Sassmannshausen, F. Sautet, B.T. Teague, S. Tegtmeier, S.J. Vliamos, R.D. Wadhwani, M. Wright

Read more less

In recent years, a number of controversies have emerged from inside Canadian universities. While some of these controversies reflect debates occurring at a broader societal level, others are unique to the culture of universities and the way in which they are governed. In University Commons Divided, Peter MacKinnon provides close readings of a range of recent incidents with a view to exploring new challenges within universities and the extent to which the idea of the university as ‘commons,’ a site for open and contentious disagreement, may be under threat. Among the incidents addressed in this book are the Jennifer Berdahl case in which a UBC professor alleged a violation of her academic freedom when she was phoned by the university's board chair to discuss her blog on which she speculated about the reasons for the university president's departure from office; the case of Root Gorelick, a Carleton University biologist and member of the university’s board of governors who refused to sign a code of conduct preventing public discussion of internal board discussions; the Facebook scandal at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry in which male students posted misogynistic comments about their female classmates. These and many other examples of turmoil in universities across the country are used to reach new insights on the state of freedom of expression and academic governance in the contemporary university. Accessibly written and perceptively argued, University Commons Divided is a timely and bold examination of the pressures seeking to transform the culture and governance of universities.

Read more less

This book examines the historiography of the African American freedom struggle from the 1890s to the present. It considers how, and why, the study of African American history developed from being a marginalized subject in American universities and colleges at the start of the twentieth century to become one of the most extensively researched fields in American history today.There is analysis of the changing scholarly interpretations of African American leaders from Booker T. Washington through to Barack Obama. The impact and significance of the leading civil rights organizations are assessed, as well as the white segregationists who opposed them and the civil rights policies of presidential administrations from Woodrow Wilson to Donald Trump.The civil rights struggle is also discussed in the context of wider, political, social and economic changes in the United States and developments in popular culture.

Read more less

This book examines the key debates relating to the rights, responsibilities, policies and practices of the higher education sector when dealing with students from refugee backgrounds. Exploring the political context of forced migration to countries of settlement, including the impact made by media rhetoric, Refugees in Higher Education identifies how such global issues frame and position the efforts of universities to open access to, and enable the participation of, refugee students. Focusing on the UK and Australia (representing a past colonising and a colonised country) and including a series of individual case studies, it asks challenging questions about the discourses around forced migration, and how these play out for students on a personal level. With unprecedented levels of forced migration, and the growing strength of anti-immigration arguments as more power is conceded to alt-right conservative governments, Refugees in Higher Education is both a timely and much-needed contribution to its field.

Read more less

The biggest untapped market in the world? The last great communist threat? The free-trade partner? The human rights scourge? China Cross Talk provides a front-row seat to the most memorable scenes in the American debate over China policy since 1978. Representing the full spectrum of opinion on this divisive issue, selections range from op-ed articles and commentaries to speeches by leading government officials; from congressional testimony to editorial cartoons. They touch upon the whole range of security, economic, and political issues that have affected the relationship, including the benefits and dangers of diplomatic recognition, managing Taiwan, most-favored-nation status, China's Olympic bids, proliferation, growing Chinese power, and the April 2001 plane collision incident over the South China Sea. As firsthand intellectual history, this anthology allows participants in the debate to speak in their own voices. Spanning a quarter century, it offers readers the chance to see how the dispute has evolved and how even some individuals have changed their positions, sometimes radically. While the book focuses on China policy, the debate is emblematic of the broader conversation America has engaged in over the past century about its proper role in the world. As such, China Cross Talk should interest students of U.S.-China relations and American foreign policy, the policy community, and general readers.

Read more less

A crucial senatorial debate on the question of the states’ relationship to the federal government.Two generations after the founding, Americans still disagreed on the nature of the Union. Was it a confederation of sovereign states or a nation headed by a central government? To South Carolina Senator Robert Y. Hayne and others of his mindset, only the vigilant protection of states’ rights could hold off an attack on the southern way of life, which was undergirded by slavery. Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, on the other hand, believed that the political and economic ascendancy of New England—and the nation—required a strong, activist national government. In The Webster-Hayne Debate, Christopher Childers focuses on the sharp dispute that engaged Webster and Hayne in January 1830. During Senate discussion of western land policy, Childers explains, the senators’ exchanges grew first earnest and then heated, finally landing on the question of union—its nature and its value in a federal republic. Childers argues that both Webster and Hayne, and the factions they represented, saw the West as key to the success of their political plans and sought to cultivate western support for their ideas.A short, accessible account of the conflict and the related issues it addressed, The Webster-Hayne Debate captures an important moment in the early republic. Ideal for use in college classrooms or for readers interested in American history, this book examines a pivotal moment and a critical problem in the history of US politics. It also shows how Americans grappled with the issues of nationalism, sectionalism, and the meaning of union itself—issues that still resonate today.

Read more less

This anthology of philosophical essays, gathered from numerous sources, provides a convenient, in-depth introduction to the Doctrine of Double Effect. A number of important philosophers and intellectual perspectives are represented in what constitutes a debate over the doctrine and the various concerns it raises. Philosophers represented in these readings include Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., Warren Quinn, G. E. M. Anscombe, Thomas Nagel, Phillippa Foot, Jonathan Bennett, Nancy Davis, Donald Marquis, and many others. The Doctrine of Double Effect is a principle of reasoning well known to moral philosophers. The standard formulation of the doctrine states that it is "licit to posit a cause which is either good or indifferent from which there follows a twofold effect, one good, the other evil, if a proportionally grave reason is present, and if the end of the agent is honorable." According to this doctrine, an effect that would be considered morally wrong if it were the intentional outcome of an act could be morally permissible if it were the unintended effect of that act, even if it had been foreseen. As a method of drawing moral distinctions between the intentional and unintentional production of evil, the doctrine has had a long history. It has often been employed, for example, in debates about "just war" and the kinds of acts that are permissible in war. The first section of this collection offers an introduction to the doctrine, its purpose, its claims, and the issues it raises for moral philosophers. Sections two and three take the form of a debate by several influential thinkers about the validity of the doctrine and the many problems surrounding it. The authors in section two defend the doctrine; those in section three oppose it. Sections four and five focus on applications, concrete and theoretical, of the doctrine, showing its possible uses and misuses. This book will be valuable to teachers and students of philosophy as well as others interested in a clear understanding of this controversial doctrine. Contributors: G. E. M. Anscombe, Greg Beabout, Jonathan Bennett, Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., William Cooney, David Copp, Nancy Davis, Stanislaus J. Dundon, John Martin Fischer, Philippa Foot, Jeff Jordan, Donald B. Marquis, Robert M. Martin, Thomas Nagel, Warren S. Quinn, Mark Ravizza, Michael Walzer, and P. A. Woodward.

Read more less

El 23 de febrero de 1984 los Comandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas asesinaron en San Sebastián al senador socialista Enrique Casas. El crimen se cometió tres días antes de la celebración de los comicios al Parlamento vasco, a los que la víctima se presentaba como cabeza de lista del PSE-EE en Gipuzkoa, en la recta final de una campaña electoral sucia y crispada. Este libro recupera la biografía humana y la trayectoria política de un líder carismático, que defendió la pluralidad de la sociedad vasca frente a las tentaciones exclusivistas del nacionalismo y se convirtió en una voz incómoda e insoportable para el terrorismo. Se sitúa en el contexto de unos años convulsos en los que ETA y su constelación de fanáticos intentaron hacer descarrilar la democracia e impedir la construcción de la autonomía vasca.

Read more less

El desarrollo del conocimiento sobre la historia y la cultura de Irán en España es todavía un asunto pendiente. A pesar de ser un país con una fuerte presencia en los medios de comunicación, son escasos los trabajos académicos publicados en español sobre el tema. Sin embargo, España e Irán han mantenido un constante contacto desde la Edad Media hasta la actualidad, pasando por distintas etapas, cada una con sus propias características en función del escenario político del momento. Desde ambos territorios se organizaron embajadas que hicieron un registro detallado de sus viajes, que iban más allá de los asuntos políticos, y que hoy resultan ser extraordinarios documentos para conocer la realidad de cada una de estas dos naciones en aquel momento.En los últimos años se ha producido un claro aumento de la cooperación universitaria entre centros españoles e iraníes, que han dado como resultado el intercambio de profesores, investigadores y estudiantes en ambas direcciones, favoreciendo

Read more less

Published in association with the SPA, Social Policy Review 27 draws together international scholarship at the forefront of addressing concerns that emphasise both the breadth of social policy analysis, and the expanse of issues with which it is engaged. Contributions to this edition focus on the effects of financialisation on services and care provision, policies to address deficiencies in housing and labour markets, and ways in which the study of social policy may need to develop to respond to its changing material concerns. A themed section explores the place of comparative welfare modelling in the context of change over the last quarter of a century to consider where scholarship has been and where it might be going.

Read more less

This edition of Social Policy Review marks the 40th anniversary of a publication from the UK Social Policy Association devoted to presenting an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship. It includes a special Anniversary Preface celebrating the publication's evolution and distinctive contributions. Continuing its reputation as a cutting edge, international publication in social policy, Part One of this edition analyses current developments under the UK's Coalition Government across a range of key policy areas. Part Two includes an examination of social policy in 'developing' countries, including in Africa and the Arab nations. Part Three considers the fate of social welfare in countries among the worst hit by the 'economic crisis', including: Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Iceland. Social Policy Review is essential reading for social policy academics and students and for anyone who is interested in the implications of government policy.

Read more less

A classic, pioneering account of the lives of women in Islamic history, republished for a new generation This pioneering study of the social and political lives of Muslim women has shaped a whole generation of scholarship. In it, Leila Ahmed explores the historical roots of contemporary debates, ambitiously surveying Islamic discourse on women from Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded to Iraq during the classical age to Egypt during the modern era. The book is now reissued as a Veritas paperback, with a new foreword by Kecia Ali situating the text in its scholarly context and explaining its enduring influence. “Ahmed’s book is a serious and independent-minded analysis of its subject, the best-informed, most sympathetic and reliable one that exists today.”—Edward W. Said “Destined to become a classic. . . . It gives [Muslim women] back our rightful place, at the center of our histories.”—Rana Kabbani, The Guardian

Read more less

The international controversy over who "owns" antiquities has pitted museums against archaeologists and source countries where ancient artifacts are found. In his book Who Owns Antiquity?, James Cuno argued that antiquities are the cultural property of humankind, not of the countries that lay exclusive claim to them. Now in Whose Culture?, Cuno assembles preeminent museum directors, curators, and scholars to explain for themselves what's at stake in this struggle--and why the museums' critics couldn't be more wrong. Source countries and archaeologists favor tough cultural property laws restricting the export of antiquities, have fought for the return of artifacts from museums worldwide, and claim the acquisition of undocumented antiquities encourages looting of archaeological sites. In Whose Culture?, leading figures from universities and museums in the United States and Britain argue that modern nation-states have at best a dubious connection with the ancient cultures they claim to represent, and that archaeology has been misused by nationalistic identity politics. They explain why exhibition is essential to responsible acquisitions, why our shared art heritage trumps nationalist agendas, why restrictive cultural property laws put antiquities at risk from unstable governments--and more. Defending the principles of art as the legacy of all humankind and museums as instruments of inquiry and tolerance, Whose Culture? brings reasoned argument to an issue that for too long has been distorted by politics and emotionalism. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Kwame Anthony Appiah, Sir John Boardman, Michael F. Brown, Derek Gillman, Neil MacGregor, John Henry Merryman, Philippe de Montebello, David I. Owen, and James C. Y. Watt.

Read more less

This book explores people’s lived experience of discussing politics online. Based on original research involving in-depth conversations with 85 participants around the UK, it asks people about their own understanding of their online engagement, focusing on major UK political events and related debates –the Scottish Independence Referendum, the EU Referendum and the UK Labour Party leadership contests. It shows how people’s experiences are varied and influenced by many factors, but with a focus on personal feelings, needs and concerns as much as wider political ones. Participants struggle with self-awareness and understanding the motives and actions of others, which has an impact on their behaviour and perceived efficacy. They can have profound emotional responses owing to the constraints of using social media but still value it as a medium for political learning and self-expression. Communication effects in this environment are complex and unpredictable – there is much ‘crosstalk’. Social media itself is proving to be an unprecedented learning environment, where people begin to better understand their own behaviour and that of others and adapt over time.

Read more less

Does government surveillance make us safer? The thirteenth Munk Debate, held in Toronto on Friday, May 2, 2014, pitted Michael Hayden and Alan Dershowitz against Glenn Greenwald and Alexis Ohanian to debate whether state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedom — the democratic issue of the moment.In a risk-filled world, democracies are increasingly turning to large-scale state surveillance, at home and abroad, to fight complex and unconventional threats — but is it justified? For some, the threats more than justify the current surveillance system, and the laws and institutions of democracies are more than capable of balancing the needs of individual privacy with collective security. But for others, we are in peril of sacrificing to a vast and unaccountable state surveillance apparatus the civil liberties that guarantee citizens’ basic freedoms and our democratic way of life.In this edition of the Munk Debates, former head of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden and civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz square off against journalist Glenn Greenwald and reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to debate the legitimacy of state surveillance. With issues of Internet privacy increasingly gaining prominence, the Munk Debate on the Surveillance State asks: Should government be able to monitor our activities in order to keep us safe?

Read more less

A Stage for Debate presents a detailed analysis of the repertoire of the leading German-language stage of the nineteenth century, Vienna’s Burgtheater. The book explores the extent to which the Burgtheater repertoire contributed to important political and cultural debates on individual liberty, the role of women in society, and the understanding of national and regional identity. The relevance of the Burgtheater as a forum for political debate is assessed not by the degree to which the performed plays transgressed established norms, but by the range of positions that were voiced on a given topic. Martin Wagner investigates the roughly 1,000 plays from across Europe that were introduced to the Burgtheater’s repertoire between 1814 and 1867 by combining a general overview with detailed interpretations of especially successful plays. Wagner reveals that the Burgtheater was significantly more involved in contemporary debates than the stereotype of this stage as an artistically refined but apolitical institution suggests. Drawing from theatre studies and German and Austrian studies more broadly, A Stage for Debate revises the history of one of Europe’s leading theatres.

Read more less

'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason … Take it nice and easy and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this magisterial book, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the divisive debate at its core. Quantum theory looks at the very building blocks of our world, the particles and processes without which it could not exist. Yet for 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century. Quantum theory is weird. In 1905, Albert Einstein suggested that light was a particle, not a wave, defying a century of experiments. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Erwin Schrodinger's famous dead-and-alive cat are similarly strange. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren't shocked by quantum theory, you didn't really understand it. While "Quantum" sets the science in the context of the great upheavals of the modern age, Kumar's centrepiece is the conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. 'Bohr brainwashed a whole generation of physicists into believing that the problem had been solved', lamented the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. But in "Quantum", Kumar brings Einstein back to the centre of the quantum debate. "Quantum" is the essential read for anyone fascinated by this complex and thrilling story and by the band of brilliant men at its heart.

Read more less

During the past few decades, high-profile cases like that of Terry Schiavo have fueled the public debate over forgoing or withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration from patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). These cases, whether involving adults or young children, have forced many to begin thinking in a measured and careful way about the moral legitimacy of allowing patients to die. Can families forgo or withdraw artificial hydration and nutrition from their loved ones when no hope of recovery seems possible? Many Catholics know that Catholic moral theology has formulated a well-developed and well-reasoned position on this and other end-of-life issues, one that distinguishes between "ordinary" and "extraordinary" treatment. But recent events have caused uncertainty and confusion and even acrimony among the faithful. In his 2004 allocution, Pope John Paul II proposed that artificial nutrition and hydration is a form of basic care, thus suggesting that the provision of such care to patients neurologically incapable of feeding themselves should be considered a moral obligation. The pope's address, which seemed to have offered a new development to decades of Catholic health care ethics, sparked a contentious debate among the faithful over how best to treat permanently unconscious patients within the tenets of Catholic morality. In this comprehensive and balanced volume, Ronald Hamel and James Walter present twenty-one essays and articles, contributed by physicians, clergy, theologians, and ethicists, to reflect the spectrum of perspectives on the issues that define the Catholic debate. Organized into six parts, each with its own introduction, the essays offer clinical information on PVS and feeding tubes; discussions on the Catholic moral tradition and how it might be changing; ecclesiastical and pastoral statements on forgoing or withdrawing nutrition and hydration; theological and ethical analyses on the issue; commentary on Pope John Paul II's 2004 allocution; and the theological commentary, court decisions, and public policy resulting from the Clarence Herbert and Claire Conroy legal cases. A valuable resource for students and scholars, this teachable volume invites theological dialogue and ethical discussion on one of the most contested issues in the church today.

Read more less

The author devotes this volume to a debate concerning the application of the rule of cause prevention. He shows that a strict and extremist application has been the reason for many restrictions that social tradition in many Muslim countries have imposed on women, depriving them of much that is permissible in Islam. He cites clear evidence confirming that women’s full participation in social life was part of the Prophet’s guidance. His approach is always balanced between the freedom Islam gives to women’s participation in life’s activities and the need to adhere to Islamic regulations and values concerning attire and behaviour.

Read more less

Los procesos de escolarización y el establecimiento de estrategias coherentes y respetuosas en relación a la acogida del alumnado de origen inmigrante son cuestiones que hoy están en el centro de un debate social y educativo. Éstas obligan a redefinir el concepto mismo de educación pública y a revisar el papel que los municipios deben tener en la gestión y planificación escolar. Una educación para todos y de calidad supone asimismo una mejora en la coordinación entre los centros educativos y los diferentes agentes escolares. El libro analiza la experiencia en un municipio concreto (Vic, Barcelona) cuyas singularidades más destacables han sido la fusión de centros y la distribución del alumnado inmigrante. En ellas se condensan, en un proceso abierto con luces y sombras, algunos de los aspectos más significativos de las políticas educativas actuales.

Read more less

Communication is a crucial issue in our complex societies tinted by distrust. It is the core of democratic life and almost all human and social actions. Therefore it is essential for communication to be responsible. But responsible communication cannot only be conceived as a deontological issue, framed by ethical compliance requirements or good practices promotion. It should be considered with all the virtualities of communication, from conversation to consideration, going through narrative, interpretation and argumentation. Indeed each of these communicational capacities has its properties, assets, complementarities and limitations. They constitute different ways to be responsive. This book offers a contribution to the debate of Theory of Deliberative Theory (TDD), reexamined here within its different inspiration sources, notably the opposition between communicational turn and system, the fact of moral pluralism and the public reason.

Read more less

In Selfish Libertarians and Socialist Conservatives?, Nathan W. Schlueter and Nikolai G. Wenzel present a lively debate over the essential questions that divide two competing political philosophies. Wenzel—a libertarian who believes the state should be restricted to protecting life, liberty, and property—and Schlueter—a conservative who thinks the state has a larger role to play in protecting public welfare, safety, and morals—explore the fundamental similarities and differences between their respective positions. Over a series of point-counterpoint chapters, they lay out the essential tenets of their own stances, critiquing the other. This engaging dialogue introduces readers to the foundations of each political philosophy. To vividly illustrate the diverging principles underlying conservatism and libertarianism, the authors explore three different hot-button case studies: marriage, immigration, and education. Compact, accessible, and complete with suggestions for further reading, Selfish Libertarians and Socialist Conservatives? is an ideal teaching tool that places these two political perspectives in fruitful dialogue with one another.

Read more less

Josef Pieper was one of this century’s most influential thinkers. A leading Catholic philosopher, he won a wide audience through such books as The Four Cardinal Virtues and About Love. This book is one of few extended studies of Pieper’s thought—in particular, of the concept of hope. Pieper was one of the first modern philosophers to explore the idea of hope, and Schumacher discusses his development alongside contributions by Sartre, Jaspers, Marcel, Heidegger, Bloch, and other thinkers. He examines Pieper’s treatment of hope as an aspect of individual potential and as an historical force, exploring such themes as dignity, ethics, the good, and the just.

Read more less

A reasoned response to the contemporary moral debate about homosexuality, taking into account the latest medical and social scientific research, and thoroughly examining biblical and theological concerns.

Read more less

Over roughly the past decade, oil and gas production in the United States has surged dramatically-thanks largely to technological advances such as high-volume hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as "fracking." This rapid increase has generated widespread debate, with proponents touting economic and energy-security benefits and opponents highlighting the environmental and social risks of increased oil and gas production. Despite the heated debate, neither side has a monopoly on the facts. In this book, Daniel Raimi gives a balanced and accessible view of oil and gas development, clearly and thoroughly explaining the key issues surrounding the shale revolution. The Fracking Debate directly addresses the most common questions and concerns associated with fracking, including: What is fracking? Does fracking pollute the water supply? Will fracking make the United States energy independent? Does fracking cause earthquakes? How is fracking regulated? Is fracking good for the economy? Coupling a deep understanding of the scholarly research with travels to every major U.S. oil- and gas-producing region, Raimi highlights stories of the people and communities affected by the shale revolution, for better and for worse. The Fracking Debate provides the evidence and context that have so frequently been missing from the national discussion of the future of oil and gas production, offering readers the tools to make sense of this critical issue.

Read more less

Eloquent, urgent, and inspiring, "The Constant Fire" tackles the acrimonious debate between science and religion, taking us beyond its stagnant parameters into the wider domain of human spiritual experience. From a Neolithic archaeological site in Ireland to modern theories of star formation, Adam Frank traverses a wide terrain, broadening our sights and allowing us to imagine an alternative perspective. Drawing from his experience as a practicing astrophysicist and from the writings of the great scholars of religion, philosophy, and mythology, Frank locates the connective tissue linking science and religion - their commonality as sacred pursuits - and finds their shared aspiration in pursuit of 'the True and the Real'. Taking us from the burning of Giordano Bruno in 1600 to Einstein and on to today's pressing issues of global warming and resource depletion, "The Constant Fire" shows us how to move beyond this stale debate into a more profound experience of the world as sacred - a world that embraces science without renouncing human spirituality.

Read more less

The debate on the valuation of nature and the environment, sustainable national income and economic growth is one of prime importance in environmental economics. Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment deals with the fundamental approaches to calculating sustainable national income and their implications for the valuation of the environment. Leading economists present their views on how the UN system of national accounts could be adjusted to include environmental impacts and the depletion of natural resources. The discussion centres on the appropriateness of national income as an indicator for welfare, and specific attention is paid to the question of how to value changes in environmental quality or emissions of pollutants.Centred around the topics raised by the seminal publications of Roefie Hueting, this book will be of great interest to environmental economists and students focusing on environmental and natural resource economics. Environmental policymakers will welcome the lively and up-to-date discussion of a range of policy issues.

Read more less

When the photographs depicting torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were released in 2004, U.S. politicians attributed the incident to a few bad apples in the American military, exonerated high-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration, promoted Guantanamo as a model prison, and dismissed the illegality of the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation." By the end of the Bush administration, members of both major congressional parties had come to denounce enhanced interrogation as torture and argue for the closing of Guantanamo. What initiated this shift? In Talking About Torture, Jared Del Rosso reviews transcripts from congressional hearings and scholarship on denial, torture, and state violence to document this wholesale change in rhetoric and attitude toward the use of torture by the CIA and the U.S. military during the War on Terror. He plots the evolution of the "torture issue" in U.S. politics and its manipulation by politicians to serve various ends. Most important, Talking About Torture integrates into the debate about torture the testimony of those who suffered under American interrogation practices and demonstrates how the conversation continues to influence current counterterrorism policies, such as the reliance on drones.

Read more less

Bolder economic policy could have addressed the persistent bouts of deflation in post-bubble Japan, write Gene Park, Saori N. Katada, Giacomo Chiozza, and Yoshiko Kojo in Taming Japan's Deflation. Despite warnings from economists, intense political pressure, and well-articulated unconventional policy options to address this problem, Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), resisted taking the bold actions that the authors believe would have significantly helped. With Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's return to power, Japan finally shifted course at the start of 2013 with the launch of Abenomics—an economic agenda to reflate the economy—and Abe's appointment of new leadership at the BOJ. As Taming Japan's Deflation shows, the BOJ's resistance to experimenting with bolder policy stemmed from entrenched policy ideas that were hostile to activist monetary policy. The authors explain how these policy ideas evolved over the course of the BOJ's long history and gained dominance because of the closed nature of the broader policy network. The explanatory power of policy ideas and networks suggests a basic inadequacy in the dominant framework for analysis of the politics of monetary policy derived from the literature on central bank independence. This approach privileges the interaction between political principals and their supposed agents, central bankers; but Taming Japan's Deflation shows clearly that central bankers' views, shaped by ideas and institutions, can be decisive in determining monetary policy. Through a combination of institutional analysis, quantitative empirical tests, in-depth case studies, and structured comparison of Japan with other countries, the authors show that, ultimately, the decision to adopt aggressive monetary policy depends largely on the bankers' established policy ideas and policy network.

Read more less

Prostitution and Pornography examines debates about the sex industry and the adequacy of the liberal response to critiques of the sex industry. The anthology focuses particularly on the very different ways prostitution and pornography are treated. Unlike other books that deal with the sex industry, this volume brings together academics and industry veterans and survivors to discuss the ways prostitution, pornography, and other forms of commercial sex are treated, and to ask questions about the role that ideas about the self, personal identity, and freedom play in our attitudes about the sex industry.

Read more less

This book ventures a critical gaze at the image of the European Union beyond the crisis. Keeping in mind that crises constitute organic parts of all systems, the volume attempts to apprehend the EU's losses, gains, challenges, and opportunities deriving from the crisis and assesses what constitutes a viable and integrated exit from the current predicament. Moreover, through dealing with the EU as an everlasting process rather than a completed edifice, the collection aims at charting the conceptual weaknesses which resulted in a crisis so acute and long-lasting and at opening a discourse on the future and the required reconceptualization of the EU. The project is based on three large and interconnected thematic pillars that relate to the European Union after the crisis: - Facets of parliamentarism in the EU in the context of the crisis, - Political cohesion and institutional integration, - Perceptions, images, stereotypes, and their impact on the process of social and political integration of the EU.

Read more less

This book represents the coming together of a number of internationally renowned scholars from science, philosophy, law and social science. Each author presents a distinctive and critical account of the current ethical, social and jurisprudential issues concerning stem cell science: together covering both its research beginnings, and the future translation into the clinical setting. Original to this volume is an emphasis on the inter-state implications of developments in stem cell science from the perspective of a truly global collaboration of leading authors. Academics and policy-makers will find it an invaluable contribution to the socio-political and ethical discourse of stem cell science.

Read more less

Technology evolves at a dazzling speed, and nowhere more so than in the field of genetic engineering, where the possibility of directly changing the genes of one's children is quickly becoming a reality. The public is rightly concerned, but interestingly, they have not had much to say about the implications of recent advancements in human genetics. Playing God? asks why and explores the social forces that have led to the thinning out of public debate over human genetic engineering. John H. Evans contends that the problem lies in the structure of the debate itself. Disputes over human genetic engineering concern the means for achieving assumed ends, rather than being a healthy discussion about the ends themselves. According to Evans, this change in focus occurred as the jurisdiction over the debate shifted from scientists to bioethicists, a change which itself was caused by the rise of the bureaucratic state as the authority in such matters. The implications of this timely study are twofold. Evans not only explores how decisions about the ethics of human genetic engineering are made, but also shows how the structure of the debate has led to the technological choices we now face.

Read more less

Technology evolves at a dazzling speed, and nowhere more so than in the field of genetic engineering, where the possibility of directly changing the genes of one's children is quickly becoming a reality. The public is rightly concerned, but interestingly, they have not had much to say about the implications of recent advancements in human genetics. Playing God? asks why and explores the social forces that have led to the thinning out of public debate over human genetic engineering. John H. Evans contends that the problem lies in the structure of the debate itself. Disputes over human genetic engineering concern the means for achieving assumed ends, rather than being a healthy discussion about the ends themselves. According to Evans, this change in focus occurred as the jurisdiction over the debate shifted from scientists to bioethicists, a change which itself was caused by the rise of the bureaucratic state as the authority in such matters. The implications of this timely study are twofold. Evans not only explores how decisions about the ethics of human genetic engineering are made, but also shows how the structure of the debate has led to the technological choices we now face.

Read more less