Author: Byung-Chul Han File Type: pdf Power is a pervasive phenomenon yet there is little consensus on what it is and how it should be understood. In this book the cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han develops a fresh and original perspective on the nature of power, shedding new light on this key feature of social and political life. Power is commonly defined as a causal relation an individuals power is the cause that produces a change of behaviour in someone else against the latters will. Han rejects this view, arguing that power is better understood as a mediation between egoand alterwhich creates a complex array of reciprocal interdependencies. Power can also be exercised not only against the other but also within and through the other, and this involves a much higher degree of mediation. This perspective enables us to see that power and freedom are not opposed to one another but are manifestations of the same power, differing only in the degree of mediation. This highly original account of power will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy and of social, political and cultural theory, as well as to anyone seeking to understand the many ways in which power shapes our lives today. **Review On an itinerary driven by unusual intellectual independence and perfect argumentative transparency, Byung-Chul Han may have reached the level of true philosophical mastership. Based on a circumspect discussion of the positions marked by some classical thinkers of Modernity, What is Power? develops a new vision of the asymmetries produced by human interaction and thus lives up to the promise of depriving power of the power it has on account of never have been adequately understood. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University About the Author Byung-Chul Han is a Korean-born Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies who teaches at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. He is the author of more than 20 books including The Transparency Society and The Burnout Society.

Author: Bjørn Lomborg File Type: pdf A groundbreaking book that transforms the debate about global warming by offering a fresh perspective based on human needs as well as environmental concerns.Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the worlds temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIVAIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supplywhich can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.Lomborg presents us with a second generation of thinking on global warming that believes panic is neither warranted nor a constructive place from which to deal with any of humanitys problems, not just global warming. Cool It promises to be one of the most talked about and influential books of our time.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon.com Guest Reviewer Michael CrichtonIn his many science-themed bestsellers--including The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey, and most recently, Next--Michael Crichton has covered everything from genetically engineered dinosaurs to time travel to nantechnology run amok. Having cast his own views on the dangers and hysteria surrounding global warming with State of Fear, he turns his pen toward the often controversial Bjrn Lomborg and his latest book, Cool It The Skeptical Environmentalists Guide to Global Warming. hrBjrn Lomborg is the best-informed and most humane advocate for environmental change in the world today. In contrast to other figures that promote a single issue while ignoring others, Lomborg views the globe as a whole, studies all the problems we face, ranks them, and determines how best, and in what order, we should address them. His first book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, established the importance of a fact-based approach. With later books, Global Crises, Global Solutions and How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, this mild-mannered Danish statistician has steadily gained new converts. Not surprisingly, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cool It The Skeptical Environmentalists Guide to Global Warming will further enhance Lomborgs reputation for global analysis and thoughtful response. For anyone who wants an overview of the global warming debate from an objective source, this brief text is a perfect place to start. Lomborg is only interested in real problems, and he has no patience with media fear-mongering he begins by dispatching the myth of the endangered polar bears, showing that this Disneyesque cartoon has no relevance to the real world where polar bear populations are in fact increasing. Lomborg considers the issue in detail, citing sources from Al Gore to the World Wildlife Fund, then demonstrating that polar bear populations have actually increased five fold since the 1960s. Lomborg then works his way through the concerns we hear so much about higher temperatures, heat deaths, species extinctions, the cost of cutting carbon, the technology to do it. Lomborg believes firmly in climate change--despite his critics, hes no denier--but his fact-based approach, grounded in economic analyses, leads him again and again to a different view. He reviews published estimates of the cost of climate change, and the cost of addressing it, and concludes that we actually end up paying more for a partial solution than the cost of the entire problem. That is a bad deal. In some of the most disturbing chapters, Lomborg recounts what leading climate figures have said about anyone who questions the orthodoxy, thus demonstrating the illiberal, antidemocratic tone of the current debate. Lomborg himself takes the larger view, explaining in detail why the tone of hysteria is inappropriate to addressing the problems we face. In the end, Lomborgs concerns embrace the planet. He contrasts our concern for climate with other concerns such as HIVAIDS, malnutrition, and providing clean water to the world. In the end, his ability to put climate in a global perspective is perhaps the books greatest value. Lomborg and Cool It are our best guides to our shared environmental future. --Michael Crichton (photo credit Jonathan Exley) hrFrom Publishers WeeklyLomborg, a political scientist and economist with a conservative approach to environmentalism, presents a work thats likely to garner as much acclaim and disdain as his first book, 2001s The Skeptical Environmentalist. This Guide to Global Warming, while thoroughly referenced and convincingly argued, ignores many climate studies and assumes that climate change will continue at a steady rate (not necessarily the case). From this vantage, Lomborg suggests workable solutions beyond hysteria and headlong spending, proposing a tax on CO2 at the economically correct level of about two dollars per ton, or maximally fourteen dollars per ton and that all nations should commit themselves to spending 0.05 percent of GDP in R&D of noncarbon-emitting energy technologies. Gross simplification, however, leads to misleading generalizations and questionable arguments, such as Lomborgs claim that a reduction in global cold weather-related deaths that outweighs the rising number of heat-related deaths means global warming is good for humanity. Though he argues passionately, Lomborgs efforts seem more about pushing his opponents buttons than facing honestly the complexities of global climate change. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Author: Touraj Atabaki File Type: pdf Political upheaval has marked Irans history throughout the twentieth century. The country has been ravaged by two world wars and the brutal Iran-Iraq War which cost tens of thousands of lives. There was a Constitutional Revolution in 1905-1909 and coups in 1921 and 1953, when Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi took absolute power, followed by yet another revolution in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed the Islamic Republic. Wars, revolutions, coups and the impact of modernism have transformed power relations among the political and military elite and have led to radical political, social, cultural, religious and change throughout state and society. These upheavals have shaped Irans historiography, just as they have the countrys history. Originally based on oral and written sources, which underpinned traditional genealogical and dynastic history, Irans historiography was transformed in the early 20th century with the development of a new school of presenting history. Here emphasis shifted from the anecdotal story-telling genre to social, political, economic, cultural and religious history-writing. A new understanding of the nation state and the importance of identity and foreign relations in defining Irans place in the modern world all served to transform the perspective of Iranian historiography. Touraj Atabaki here brings together a range of rich contributions from international scholars who cover the leading themes of the historiography of 20th-century Iran, including constitutional reform and revolution, literature and architecture, identity, women and gender, nationalism, modernism, Orientalism, Marxism and Islamism. **Review [A]n excellent addition to the ever-increasing literature on contemporary Iran... [T]his book should be included on the list of recommended readings on contemporary Iranian history. --CHOICE About the Author Touraj Atabaki is Professor of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at the University of Leiden and Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He is the Editor of numerous books including Iran and the First World War, The State and the Subaltern and, with Erik J. Zurcher, Men of Order (all published by I.B.Tauris).

Author: Lorraine Nencel File Type: pdf In this lively, hard-hitting feminist study of prostitution, Lorraine Nencel interrogates the ways in which sexuality, gender and illicit behaviour have been constructed (and deconstructed) over the years. This is a richly detailed ethnographic account that interweaves narrative with theory. Nencel deals with issues such as AIDS, machismo and the regulation of the sex trade. She analyses the question of whether sex workers are victims or agents of control. In challenging conventional approaches to the study of sex workers and prostitution, Nencel has produced an original and provocative new study that is likely to provoke further discussion and debate.**