We Decide!: Theories and Cases in Participatory Democracy
Author: Michael Menser File Type: pdf Participatory democracy calls for the creation and proliferation of practices and institutions that enable individuals and groups to better determine the conditions in which they act and relate to others. Michael Mensers timely book We Decide! is arguably the most comprehensive treatment of participatory democracy. He explains the three waves of participatory democracy theory to show that this movement is attentive to the mechanics of contemporary political practices. Menser also outlines maximal democracy, his own view of participatory democracy that expands peoples abilities to shape their own lives, reduce inequality, and promote solidarity.We Decide! draws on liberal, feminist, anarchist, and environmental justice philosophies as well as in-depth case studies of Spanish factory workers, Japanese housewives, and Brazilian socialists to show that participatory democracy actually works. Menser concludes his study by presenting a reconstructed version of the state that is shaped not by corporations but by inclusive communities driven by municipal workers, elected officials, and ordinary citizens working together. In this era of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, the participatory democracy proposed in We Decide! is more significant than ever. **
Author: Christophe Jaffrelot
File Type: pdf
Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the worlds largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, to the present. Spanning more than 130 years of Indian history and including the writings of both famous and unknown ideologues, this reader reveals how the Hindutuva movement approaches key issues of Indian politics. Covering such important topics as secularism, religious conversion, relations with Muslims, education, and Hindu identity in the growing diaspora, this reader will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Indian politics, society, culture, or history.ReviewNo similar collection of primary materials exists, but now no other is necessary.(Brian K. Pennington Religious Studies Review ) ReviewNo similar collection of primary materials exists, but now no other is necessary. (Brian K. Pennington Religious Studies Review )Jaffrelot has given us a valuable reference tool. It is possibly one for those who already have some sense of what the significance of Hindu nationalism has been rather than for the absolute beginner. Its strength lies in the clarity of the trajectory it depicts. (Shabum Tejani Culture and Religion )
Author: George Bilgere
File Type: pdf
In Imperial, George Bilgeres sixth collection of poetry, he continues his exploration of the beauties, mysteries, and absurdities of being middle-aged and middle-class in mid-America. In poems that range from the Cold War anxieties of the 1950s to the perils and predicaments of an aging Boomer in a post-911 world, Bilgeres rueful humor and slippery syntax become a trapdoor that at any moment can plunge the reader into the abyss. In Bilgeres world a yo-yo morphs into an emblem for the atomic bomb. A spot of cancer flames into the Vietnam War. And the death of a baseball player reminds us, in this age of disbelief, of the importancethe necessityof myth.**
Author: Alrick George Headley
File Type: epub
Looking for deeper insights into an age-old debate on the question of the issue of free will in the theology of Calvin and Arminius? Youve come to the right place. When the general question, does man have a free will? is directed to John Calvin and James Arminius, the received and oft-repeated answer is that Calvin, jealous for the glory of God, opposes free will and that Arminius, being human-centered, advocates for free will, thus robbing God of his glory. This book shows, through a fresh look at the original sources, that the above characterization of the differences between Calvin and Arminius on the nature of the human will is misguided. For, by using the fourfold state of human beings as the lens through which to ask and answer the question, it is shown here that the glory of God constitutes the main reason underlying both Calvins opposition to, and Arminiuss advocacy of, free will. Moreover, though for different reasons and with many nuances, Calvin and Arminius do agree seventy-five percent of the time--in the created, the redeemed, and the glorified state--that human beings possess free will. However, they differ significantly on the location, efficacy, and function of that free will. For Calvin, free will is a gift of grace for Arminius, it is a gift of grace and nature.
Author: Edmund White
File Type: mobi
Many straight men and gay men are best friends, but if the phenomenon is an urban commonplace it has never been treated before as the focus of a major novel.Jack Holmes is in love, but the man he loves never shares his bed. The other men Jack sleeps with never last long and he dallies with several women. He sees a shrink and practices extreme discretion about his gay adventures since the book begins in the 1960s, before gay liberation, and ends after the advent of AIDS in the 1980s. Jacks friend, Will Wright, comes from old stock, has aspirations to be a writer, and like Jack works on the Northern Review, a staid cultural quarterly. Will is shy and lonely-and Jack introduces him to the beautiful, brittle young woman he will marry. Over the years Will discovers his sensuality and almost destroys his marriage in doing so. Towards the end of the 1970s Jacks and Wills lives merge as they both become accomplished libertines.Jack Holmes and his Friend...
Author: Tijana Stojkovic
File Type: pdf
Larkins poems are often regarded as falling somewhere between the traditional plain and the more contemporary postmodern categories. This study undertakes a comprehensive linguistic and historical study of the plain style tradition in poetry, its relationship with so-called difficult poetry, and its particular realization in the cultural and historical context of 20th-century Britain. The author examines the nature of poetry as a type of discourse, the elements of, and factors in, the development of literary styles, a close rhetorical examination of Larkins poems within the described poetic frameworks, and his position in the British twentieth-century poetic canon.
Author: Janina M. Safran
File Type: pdf
Al-Andalus, the Arabic name for the medieval Islamic state in Iberia, endured for over 750 years following the Arab and Berber conquest of Hispania in 711. While the popular perception of al-Andalus is that of a land of religious tolerance and cultural cooperation, the fact is that we know relatively little about how Muslims governed Christians and Jews in al-Andalus and about social relations among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus, Janina M. Safran takes a close look at the structure and practice of Muslim political and legal-religious authority and offers a rare look at intercommunal life in Iberia during the first three centuries of Islamic rule. Safran makes creative use of a body of evidence that until now has gone largely untapped by historiansthe writings and opinions of Andalusi and Maghribi jurists during the Umayyad dynasty. These sources enable her to bring to life a society undergoing dramatic transformation. Obvious differences between conquerors and conquered and Muslims and non-Muslims became blurred over time by transculturation, intermarriage, and conversion. Safran examines ample evidence of intimate contact between individuals of different religious communities and of legal-juridical accommodation to develop an argument about how legal-religious authorities interpreted the social contract between the Muslim regime and the Christian and Jewish populations. Providing a variety of examples of boundary-testing and negotiation and bringing judges, jurists, and their legal opinions and texts into the narrative of Andalusi history, Safran deepens our understanding of the politics of Umayyad rule, makes Islamic law tangibly social, and renders intercommunal relations vividly personal. **
Author: Robert M. Utley
File Type: pdf
Renowned for ferocity in battle, legendary for an uncanny ability to elude capture, feared for the violence of his vengeful raids, the Apache fighter Geronimo captured the public imagination in his own time and remains a figure of mythical proportion today. This thoroughly researched biography by a renowned historian of the American West strips away the myths and rumors that have long obscured the real Geronimo and presents an authentic portrait of a man with unique strengths and weaknesses and a destiny that swept him into the fierce storms of history. Historian Robert Utley draws on an array of new sources and his own lifelong research on the mountain West and white-Indian conflicts of the late nineteenth century to create an updated, accurate, and highly exciting narrative of Geronimos life. Utley unfolds the story through the alternating perspectives of whites and Apaches, and he arrives at a more nuanced understanding of Geronimos character and motivation than ever before. What it was like to be an Apachefighter-in-training, why Indians as well as whites feared Geronimo, how Geronimo maintained his freedom, and why he finally surrenderedthe answers to these questions and many more fill the pages of this irresistable volume. **
Author: Lisa Farley
File Type: pdf
Childhood beyond Pathology offers an account of the ways that psychoanalytic concepts can inform ongoing challenges of representing development, belonging, and relationality, with a focus on debates over how children should be treated, what they might know, and who they should become. Drawing from fiction, clinical studies, and courtroom and classroom contexts, Lisa Farley explores a series of five conceptual figures--the replacement child, the neurodiverse child, the counterfeit child, the child heir of historical trauma, and the gender divergent child--with a keen eye to discussions of social justice and human dignity. The book reveals the emotional situations, social tensions, and political issues that shape the meaning of childhood, and focuses on what happens when a child departs from normative scripts of development. Through thought-provoking analysis, Farley develops themes that include childhood loss, the myth of innocence, the problem of diagnosis, the subject of racial hatred, the meaning of a good fight, and gender embodiment. She draws extensively on psychoanalytic concepts to show how the fantasy of the child advancing through lockstep stages fails to account for the child as symbolic of the conflicts of entering into the social world. Childhood beyond Pathology suggests we reconsider developmental understandings of childhood by honoring the elusive qualities of inner life.
Author: Stephen Mumford
File Type: pdf
Metaphysics and Science brings together important new work within an emerging philosophical discipline the metaphysics of science. In the opening chapter, a definition of the metaphysics of science is offered, one which explains why the topics of laws, causation, natural kinds, and emergence are at the disciplines heart. The book is then divided into four sections, which group together papers from leading academics on each of those four topics. Among the questions discussed are How are laws and measurement methods related? Can a satisfactory reductive account of laws be given? How can Lorentz transformation laws be explained? How are dispositions triggered? What role should dispositional properties play in our understanding of causation? Are natural kinds and natural properties distinct? How is the Kripke-Putnam semantics for natural kind terms related to the natural kind essentialist thesis? What would have to be the case for natural kind terms to have determinate reference? What bearing, if any, does nonlinearity in science have on the issue of metaphysical emergence? This collection will be of interest to philosophers, scientists and post-graduates working on problems at the intersection of metaphysics and science. **