The State In Socialist Society

Politics & Social Sciences

Harding, N., ed.

Politics & Government

SUNY Press

This book explores Muslims' conception of themselves as "the people of the book" and explains the multifaceted meanings of this concept. Published jointly with the Library of Congress, it is an illustrated history of the book and the written word in the Islamic world. The Book in the Islamic World brings together serious studies on the book as an intellectual entity and as a vehicle of cultural development. Written by a group of distinguished scholars, it examines and reflects upon this unique tool of communication not as a physical artifact but as a manifestation of the aspirations, values, and wisdom of Arabs and Muslims in general. The Islamic system of book production differed from that of the West. This volume shows the peculiarities of book making and the intellectual principles that governed a book's inner structure, mysteries, and impact on culture. Investigated and explained are the issues involved in printing; the compilation of the Koran, the most important book in Islam; attitudes toward books; the oral versus the written tradition; metaphors of the book in literature; biographical dictionaries, an important genre of Islamic books; the grammatical tradition; women's contribution to calligraphy; scientific manuscripts; the transition from scribal to print culture; publishing in the modern Arab World; and the new electronic media, a non-book vehicle of communication, and its impact on education.

The Book in the Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East

Religion & Spirituality

On Losing the Soul: Essays in the Social Psychology of Religion

This book introduces the notion of the soul and explores some of the indications, causes, and consequences for its being missing, especially in discussions of individuality. The social scientific literature on the self has been marred by a general indifference to the levels of the self that escape observation. The literature, on the one hand, makes claims about the extent of individualism in American society or claims to see a narcissistic social character widespread in the American public. On the other hand, very little is known about the self at levels that escape observation, but these are the levels at which the self is both most vulnerable and, we argue, most vital. In this volume, the notion of the “soul” is put forward as a hypothesis with which to challenge social sciences to explore the self at depths well beyond that of social relationships.

Religious Studies

Left Margins: Cultural Studies and Composition Pedagogy

This book examines the cultural politics of knowledge in composition classrooms and presents classroom strategies that develop students' awareness of their own ideological subjectivities.Left Margins offers an inside view of the cultural politics of knowledge in college-level composition classrooms. The basic question this book raises is whether or not we can continue to represent the writing process apolitically as the work of autonomous individuals recording their experiences or realizing their private objectives. Readers will get a front-row, classroom perspective on the confrontation between politically engaged writing teachers and largely resistant students, between critical pedagogy and the orthodoxies of American culture at the end of the twentieth century. The book presents classroom strategies that develop students' awareness of their own ideological subjectivities.

Social Sciences

Transforming Democracy: Legislative Campaign Committees and Political Parties (Suny Series in Political Party Development)

Examines the emergence of state-level legislative campaign committees in the U. S., which are quickly becoming the dominant force in state politics, and explores their relationship with traditional party organizations.

Transforming Democracy: Legislative Campaign Committees and Political Parties (SUNY series in Political Party Development)

Shea, Daniel M.

Examines whether NAFTA will produce increased or decreased wages in the regional trading blocs emerging in Europe, North America, and East Asia as a result of its uniting of high and low wage areas and identifies the winners and losers in various labor markets. This book discusses the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in terms of its implications for job creation, reduced tariffs, and increased investment. Although the regional trading blocs merging in Europe, North America, and East Asia differ strikingly, there is one basic feature common to each--the formation of regional trading blocs involves a uniting of high- and low-wage areas. The authors address this issue directly, questioning whether NAFTA will promote upward or downward convergence of compensation rates, unit labor costs, and benefit levels. Equally important, they consider whether this trading arrangement will promote economic growth, investment, and efficiency. Viewpoints from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and from the business and labor communities are included.

NAFTA as a Model of Development: The Benefits and Costs of Merging High- and Low-Wage Areas

Business & Money

International

Addresses the question of whether nonviolent defense can be an effective strategy against military violence. Drawing from the strategic theory of Carl von Clausewitz, the nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi, and recent human needs and conflict theory, Burrowes develops a new strategic theory of nonviolent defense. Because of the way in which the history of nonviolence has been marginalized, relatively few people have a sense of the rich history of nonviolent struggle or realize that it can be systematically planned and applied. Nevertheless, the historical record illustrates that nonviolent struggle is a powerful form of political action. But can it be effective against military aggression? The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense answers this question in the affirmative by first defining the notion of “social cosmology”―the four mutually reinforcing features that determine the character of any society. It then devotes attention to strategies for dealing with conflict, in particular, to developing a strategic theory and framework for planning a strategy of nonviolent defense. In order to develop this theory, Burrowes synthesizes insights drawn from the strategic theory of Carl von Clausewitz, the nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi, and recent human needs and conflict theory.

The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense

Burrowes, Robert J.

Democratization and Social Settlements: The Politics of Change in Contemporary Portugal

Examines the transition to, and consolidation of, democracy in Portugal following the revolutionary events of 1975, during a period of major changes in socioeconomic structure. Nataf emphasizes that not only political institutions but also the fabric of social relations were uprooted, and he compares the Portuguese case to other models of European democratization and postwar settlements. This book examines the transition and consolidation phases of Portugal's democratization. Unlike more incremental types of democratization, the Portuguese case involved "expanded" democratization in which not only were political institutions replaced but the fabric of social relations uprooted. This resulted in a period of dishegemony in which the policy paradigm was uncertain and highly susceptible to political events and government initiatives. By the late 1980s, a tentative social settlement was established that drew partly from neocorporatist and partly from conflict models of European society. Nataf relies on diverse materials including government statistics; business, trade union, and party documents; and electoral, census, and survey materials to substantiate his interpretation of the political and social consensus emerging throughout the 1980s. He uses the Portuguese experience to generate a typology of forms of democratization and then applies this analysis to the post-communist world.

Nataf, Daniel

The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian (Chinese Philosophy Culture)

Sima Qian's writings have influenced the Chinese for over 2,000 years and still serve as a fiscal source of historical information about China. Sima Qian’s vast Records of the Historian is the first comprehensive history of China and has exerted an immense influence both upon our understanding of the Chinese past and also upon the style and structure of subsequent Chinese historiography. In addition to his contribution as a historian, Sima Qian is a highly significant literary figure whose writings are among the most elegant and powerful from the ancient world. Durrant’s study approaches Sima Qian’s work from a literary perspective and demonstrates the relationship between Sima’s narrative of the past and his narrative of his own life. That life was a fascinating and complex one. Enjoined by his father to complete a comprehensive history of China, Sima Qian subsequently offended the great Emperor Wu and was sentenced to castration. Rather than take the “noble path” of suicide, he suffered this traumatic punishment and lived on to fulfill his father’s injunction―but not without emotional scars, scars that influenced his portrayal of the Chinese past. In fact, the great Han historian’s account of the Chinese past, this study argues, is as much his story as it is history.

The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Durrant, Stephen W.

Population, Consumption, and the Environment: Religious and Secular Responses

Shows how the major world religions view the environmental problems of over population and excess resource consumption, and how they approach possible solutions. This book concentrates on the different ways in which the major world religions view the problems of overpopulation and excess resource consumption and how they approach possible solutions. After examining the natural background and the human context, the book moves on to consider both religious and secular approaches. It analyzes how a particular religion’s scriptures comment on the nature of people, the environment, people’s place in the environment, and their roles and responsibilities. The historical dimension is derived from reviewing a particular religion’s record in teaching about these issues, often demonstrating how broader issues are addressed. Practical lessons are learned from religious guidelines that deal with current problems and offer solutions. The authors consider Aboriginal spirituality, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese religions. The secular approaches include secular ethics, North-South relations, market forces, the status of women, and international law.

Economics

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