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 Free Download Simon Philpott, "Understanding Conflict Imaginaries: Provocations from Colombia and Indonesia" English | ISBN: 3031039750 | 2022 | 142 pages | EPUB | 353 KB This Palgrave Pivot argues that if we are to understand civil conflict we need to grasp how everyday life is shaped by local conflict imaginaries. In order to examine this claim the book sets out to explore the contours of conflict imaginaries from two very different sites of conflict. Both Colombia and Indonesia have suffered from the collective trauma of political violence but in very different social, cultural and political contexts. Sketching out what they mean by a conflict imaginary, and explaining the relationship of this key concept to social imaginaries more broadly, the authors provide a historical overview of how political violence has been represented in both countries. They go on to outline the original qualitative research methods used to provide empirical evidence for the importance of conflict imaginaries, methods which allow them to explore the images and metaphors that underpin the spatial, chronological and emotional cartographies through which people make sense of political violence. With an emphasis on the construction of place-based knowledge, they consider the role of the local, the national and the global in the imagining of civil conflict, and show how film can be used to explore the imaginative worlds of social actors living alongside violence, revealing in the process the need to take seriously their hopes, fears, dreams and fantasies.  Free Download Haili Ma, "Understanding CCI through Chinese Theatre" English | ISBN: 3031458737 | 2024 | 167 pages | EPUB | 378 KB This book examines the development of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) in China through the angle of Chinese Theatre, xiqu. It focuses on the political and socio-economic transition period at the turn of the 21st century, as China evolves from 'Made in China' to 'Created in China', highlighting associated class reconstruction and cultural production and consumption. There are many forms of Chinese Theatre, the most popular one throughout Chinese history to date is the sing-song drama, collectively refers to as xiqu, which currently has over 300 regional styles across China. In 2014, President Xi Jinping's Beijing Talk on Arts and Literature, which serves as China's latest Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideological direction and cultural policy, stressed that 'the future of Chinese cultural and creative industries is to be anchored on traditional art forms, such as  Free Download Understanding Body Shapes of Animals: Shapes as mechanical constructions and Systems moving on minimal energy level by Holger Preuschoft English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030276678 | 595 Pages | True ePUB | 112 MB  Free Download Understanding Artificial Intelligence: Fundamentals, Use Cases and Methods for a Corporate AI Journey (Future of Business and Finance) by Ralf T. Kreutzer English | December 13, 2024 | ISBN: 3658461306 | 498 pages | MOBI | 16 Mb This book on Artificial Intelligence (AI) explores its transformative potential for individuals and businesses. It covers AI basics and its applications across various industries, presenting AI as a foundational technology that will impact all aspects of life and the economy. The author emphasizes the need for responsible AI usage and introduces the concept of the "AI Journey" for businesses to leverage AI's potential. The second edition is updated with recent developments, including large language models like Aleph Alpha and ChatGPT, generative AI, affective computing, and ethical considerations. It also discusses open-source solutions, legal frameworks, and practical use cases. Recommended for leaders, decision-makers, students, professors, and anyone interested in understanding AI's future impact.  Free Download Guy Jackson, "Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument" English | ISBN: 3031415345 | 2023 | 189 pages | EPUB | 319 KB Anselm's ontological argument is one of the most fascinating, most controversial, and most misunderstood arguments in the entire history of Western thought. By centring the argument firmly in the Neoplatonic tradition within which Anselm was writing, Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument sheds fresh light and clarity on this enigmatic piece of philosophy. It argues that, far from resting upon a fallacy or illegitimately attempting to define God into existence, Anselm's argument is a powerful and plausible philosophical proof, and deserves to be taken seriously as such.  Free Download Dario Tuorto, "Underprivileged Voters and Electoral Exclusion in Contemporary Europe " English | ISBN: 3030975045 | 2022 | 192 pages | EPUB | 3 MB This volume investigates the reasons behind voter turnout inequalities in contemporary Europe. It looks at the socioeconomic factors that can inhibit electoral participation at the individual level, and how these factors interact with the institutional constraints regulating access to the electoral arena, and considering the changes affecting the class system and occupational opportunities. The volume also reflects on the long-term effects of the 2008 Great Recession on the stability of democracy and the individual lives of voters, who are often deprived of institutional representation and left with the choice between anti-system protest and disengagement from politics.  Free Download Under the Influence : A Case Study of the Elks, MADD, and DUI Policy By John C. Mero 2015 | 153 Pages | ISBN: 0761865594 | PDF | 1 MB What are the potentially negative consequences of an undeniably good public policy? Under the Influence examines how the Elks, one of the oldest lodge-based voluntary associations in America, may have been impacted by government policies such as DUI laws. To examine this empirically, author John C. Mero conducted interviews with fifty-five California and Florida Elk Exalted Rulers. What emerges from the interviews is a voluntary association in transition: having been affected by stricter DUI laws and other government policies over the past few decades, the Elks are reevaluating their approach to associational life. They have demonstrated a willingness to change with the times since their founding as the Jolly Corks in 1884, and-in response to the unintended consequences of more recent government policies-the Elks are seeking new opportunities to contribute to American civil society.  Free Download Under the Flags of Freedom : Slave Soldiers and the Wars of Independence in Spanish South America By Peter Blanchard 2008 | 255 Pages | ISBN: 0822943476 | PDF | 1 MB During the wars for independence in Spanish South America (1808-1826), thousands of slaves enlisted under the promise of personal freedom and, in some cases, freedom for other family members. Blacks were recruited by opposing sides in these conflicts and their loyalties rested with whomever they believed would emerge victorious. The prospect of freedom was worth risking one's life for, and wars against Spain presented unprecedented opportunities to attain it. Much hedging over the slavery issue continued, however, even after the patriots came to power. The prospect of abolition threatened existing political, economic, and social structures, and the new leaders would not encroach upon what were still considered the property rights of powerful slave owners. The patriots attacked the institution of slavery in their rhetoric, yet maintained the status quo in the new nations. It was not until a generation later that slavery would be declared illegal in all of Spain's former mainland colonies. Through extensive archival research, Blanchard assembles an accessible, comprehensive, and broadly based study to investigate this issue from the perspectives of Royalists, patriots, and slaves. He examines the wartime political, ideological, and social dynamics that led to slave recruitment, and the subsequent repercussions in the immediate postindependence era. Under the Flags of Freedom sheds new light on the vital contribution of slaves to the wars for Latin American independence, which, up until now, has been largely ignored in the histories and collective memories of these nations.  Free Download Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing by William A. Dembski English | June 1, 2004 | ISBN: 1932236317 | 394 pages | PDF | 3.08 Mb Recent years have seen the rise to prominence of ever more sophisticated philosophical and scientific critiques of the ideas marketed under the name of Darwinism. In Uncommon Dissent, mathematician and philosopher William A. Dembski brings together essays by leading intellectuals who find one or more aspects of Darwinism unpersuasive. As Dembski explains, Darwinism has gathered around itself an aura of invincibility that is inhospitable to rational discussion-to say the least: "Darwinism, its proponents assure us, has been overwhelmingly vindicated. Any resistance to it is futile and indicates bad faith or worse." Indeed, those who question the Darwinian synthesis are supposed, in the famous formulation of Richard Dawkins, to be ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked. The hostility of dogmatic Darwinians like Dawkins has not, however, prevented the advent of a growing cadre of scholarly critics of metaphysical Darwinism. The measured, thought-provoking essays in Uncommon Dissent make it increasingly obvious that these critics are not the brainwashed fundamentalist buffoons that Darwinism's defenders suggest they are, but rather serious, skeptical, open-minded inquirers whose challenges pose serious questions about the viability of Darwinist ideology. The intellectual power of their contributions to Uncommon Dissent is bracing.  Free Download Kate O'Connor, "Unbundling the University Curriculum: MOOCs, Online Program Management and the Knowledge Question " English | ISBN: 9811946558 | 2022 | 175 pages | EPUB | 360 KB In a context in which explicit attention to the curriculum has been sidelined in universities' strategy, this book makes an argument for why curriculum matters, both in understanding the effects of unbundled online learning and more broadly. It takes up two particular curriculum issues which are amplified in an unbundled context: differences in the formulation of curriculum between disciplines and professional fields, and the extent these are recognised in university strategy; and the push for constructivist pedagogies, and its effects on curriculum construction. |
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