Author: Manuel Castells File Type: pdf This book, the first in Castells ground-breaking trilogy, is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information. Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate a systematic theory of the information society which takes account of the fundamental effects of information technology on the contemporary world.Amazon.com ReviewThe Rise of the Network Society, the first volume in a trilogy collectively known as the Information Age, has earned Manuel Castells comparisons to such illustrious social critics as Max Weber and Karl Marx. Just as they worked to make sense of industrial capitalism, so does Castells put forth a systemic analysis of the global informational capitalism that emerged in the last half of the 20th century. While many books have considered the development of increasingly sophisticated information technology, the shifting conditions of employment and responsibility within corporations, or the rise of corporations whose domains are spread out over several nation-states, Castells unites these topics in a comprehensive thesis, negotiating the tightrope between academic sociology and mainstream business analysis. ReviewA brief review cannot do it justice. No other scholar has approached the subject of the information age in as engaging and innovative a way as this author. Strongly recommended for academic libraries. M. Perelman, California State University. We live today in a period of intense and puzzling transformation, signalling perhaps a move beyond the industrial era altogether. Yet where are the great sociological works that chart this transition? Hence the importance of Manuel Castells multivolume work, in which he seeks to chart the social and economic dynamics of the information age . . . [It] is bound to be a major reference source for years to come. Anthony Giddens, The Times Higher Education Supplement.Adam Smith explained how capitalism worked, and Karl Marx explained why it didnt. Now the social and economic relations of the Information Age have been captured by Manuel Castells. Wall Street Journal.So far, the person who has straddled the world of social theory and Silicon Valley most successfully is Manuel Castells. Castells enjoys a growing reputation as the first significant philosopher of cyberspace. The Economist.A must-read. Wired.This book goes a considerable way to helping us make sense of todays global information economy and our place in it. Financial Times.

Author: Lucy R. Lippard File Type: epub Award-winning author, curator, and activist Lucy R. Lippard is one of Americas most influential writers on contemporary art, a pioneer in the fields of cultural geography, conceptualism, and feminist art. Hailed for the breadth of her reading and the comprehensiveness with which she considers the things that define place (The New York Times), Lippard now turns her keen eye to the politics of land use and art in an evolving New West. Working from her own lived experience in a New Mexico village and inspired by gravel pits in the landscape, Lippard weaves a number of fascinating themesamong them fracking, mining, land art, adobe buildings, ruins, Indian land rights, the Old West, tourism, photography, and waterinto a tapestry that illuminates the relationship between culture and the land. From threatened Native American sacred sites to the history of uranium mining, she offers a skeptical examination of the subterranean economy. Featuring more than two hundred gorgeous color images, Undermining is a must-read for anyone eager to explore a new way of understanding the relationship between art and place in a rapidly shifting society. **Review [A] brilliant and penetrating fantasia on land use and exploitation. . .This singular book will stir the creative energies of veteran Lippard fans and environmentalists as well as a new generation of artist-activists. Publishers Weekly (starred review) This is a marvelous slim book full of dirt the literal dirt and gravel and other materials of the earth, and the unseen, unsung source in that earth of all the building materials of the cities, the cement and concrete, the uranium and oil. Lucy Lippard weaves, as only she can, ideas, facts, images, and histories into a whole about the rawness of raw materials and the ecology of the manmade world. Rebecca Solnit Lippard weaves a complex narrative that moves through the slow processes of ecology to the blitzkrieg of development and extraction. Thoughtful, poetic, and unflinchingly critical, she also presents a way to consider the value of art in the collaborative fight for a sustainable future. Nato Thompson, chief curator, Creative Time This is an intensely personal narrative of degraded ecosystems, exhausted lands, and dispirited peoples. Readers will be captivated by Lippards gut-wrenching identification with, and her eloquent elucidation of, accumulating hazards and diminishing resources. Linda Weintraub, author of To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet and Art on the Edge and Over Lippards timely book extends beyond the discourse of art history and cultural geography. It is a call for action. She guides us on a tour of the American West that is being ravaged by oil and gas interests, damaging both the environment and our collective psyche. Her critique and the numerous artists that she weaves into her narrative visualizes the destruction, as well as presenting alternatives that could direct land use toward a more just and sustainable future. Nicolas Lampert, author of A Peoples Art History of the United States Investigating both the undermining of environmental sustainability by capitalist industry and the critical undermining of normative approaches to nature by artists, Lucy Lippard offers an insightful model of how to live locally with ecological consciousness, doing so without surrendering to a narrow parochialism or losing sight of social justice imperatives. T.J. Demos, reader, department of art history, University College London What you dont know can hurt you. This is true not just in the case of the slow violence through which various forms of environmental toxins seep into our bones and blood. As Lucy Lippard shows in her brilliantly hybrid book, it is also true of the subterranean spaces where these toxins are often stored and, in many cases, blasted, excavated, generated, and buried. Surveying the land beneath that most iconic of American landscapes, the Southwest, Lippard traces the links between the gravel mined for roads, the coal mined for electricity, and the uranium mined for nuclear weapons in the region, just to name a few of the connections she makes. Lippard brings these hidden economies to light, describes the fight of groups such as the Zuni against the despoliation of the land, and presents striking examples of land use art that is helping to galvanize public opinion against the undermining of the West. Ashley Dawson, professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center Praise for The Lure of the Local Lippard overwhelms us with the breadth of her reading and comprehensiveness with which she considers the things that define place. The New York Times Interesting and thoughtful. . . . Her critiques are often delightfully acidic. . . . A solid contribution to popular geography. Kirkus An excellent reference guide to recent and historical place-oriented art and activism. Preservation Praise for Mixed Blessings Lucy Lippards intellectual devotion to the power of women and persons of color enacted and idealized within their works of visual art has brought her to level of discourse that is rich in democratic possibility and promise. I love this book, in short, and recommend it highly. Robert Farris Thompson, professor of African and African American art history, Yale University About the Author Lucy R. Lippard is an internationally known writer, activist, and curator. She has authored twenty-two books, has curated more than fifty major exhibitions, and holds nine honorary degrees. Lippard is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants. She lives in New Mexico.

Author: David Webber File Type: pdf When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burds boardroom allies. In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder Labors Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeways to shine a light on labors most potent remaining weapon its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco diversify corporate boards support Occupy Wall Street force global warming onto the corporate agenda create jobs and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labors capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactics surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labors access to this powerful and underused tool. The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength. **

Author: Konchog Lhadrepa File Type: epub A presentation on the Tibetan Buddhist path to enlightenment, through the lens of an artists eye and experience. The sacred arts play an essential, intrinsic role in Tibetan Buddhist practice. Here, one of the great practitioners and master artists of our time presents a guide to the Tibetan Buddhist path, from preliminary practices through enlightenment, from the artists perspective. With profound wisdom, he shows how visual representations of the sacred in paintings, sculptures, mandalas, and stupas can be an essential support to practice throughout the path. This work, based on the authors landmark Tibetan text,The Path to Liberation,includes basic Buddhist teachings and practices, clearly pointing out the relevance of these for both the sacred artist and the practitioner, along with an overview of the history and iconography of Buddhist art. **