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Erotic Mentoring: Women's Transformations in the University (Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives)
by Janice Hocker RushingThey’re everywhere in the academy: young, bright women mentored by older scholars, usually men, who attempt to mold them into their own masculine ideals. Janice Hocker Rushing’s study of over 200 women and their life transformations is the subject of this eloquent book. Using the tropes of mythology and Jungian psychology, the author characterizes the many paths these women’s academic lives take: as Muse for a faltering older scholar, as Mistress or wife, as the dutiful academic daughter. Their resistance to this power differential also takes many forms: as a Veiled Woman, silent in public but active in private, or the Siren, using her sexuality to beat the system. Ultimately, Rushing arrives at the myth of Eros and Psyche, where women’s self understanding and personal development turns her erotic mentoring into an autonomous, whole, and free life, unfettered by any man. These women’s stories and Rushing’s literary and literate framing of their lives will ring true to many in the university.
Erotic Performance and Spectatorship: New Frontiers in Erotic Dance (Interdisciplinary Studies in Sex for Sale)
by Katy PilcherErotic dance is one of the most contentious issues in feminist debates today and a source of fascination in media and popular cultural representations. Yet, why is it that we currently know so little about those who perform erotic dance for female customers, or the experiences of these spectators themselves? The result of a unique investigation within two of the UK’s leisure venues, Erotic Performance and Spectatorship seeks to rectify the aforementioned lack of insight. Through vivid ethnographies of a lesbian leisure venue and a male strip show, Pilcher’s research advances key debates about the gender and sexual politics of erotic dance, whilst simultaneously relating these to debates about the sex industry more widely. This book also subverts previous assumptions that only women perform erotic dance and only men spectate. Thus, this book stands out amongst other academic accounts, developing the debate beyond the established focus on erotic dance as either empowering or degrading. This new contribution to the study of erotic dance – which provides a fresh theoretical perspective combining queer and feminist theorising, in addition to rich empirical evidence – will appeal to academic researchers and both undergraduate and postgraduate students within the fields of sociology, gender studies, sexuality studies, gay & lesbian studies, feminism and other neighbouring disciplines. It will also be of interest to feminist and sex work activists, policy makers, and practitioners.
The Erotic Silence of the American Wife
by Dalma HeynTold in women's own words, this revolutionary book broke the silence surrounding women and adulteryDalma Heyn knows that wives have affairs--and why. She's spoken with hundreds of women who, desperate to break free of their quest to be the stereotypical "perfect wife," have reluctantly looked outside their marriages to find the pleasure and connection that eluded them. Her extensive first-person interviews and compelling case stories present a nuanced view of women's sexuality and marriage. Heyn contextualizes these stories with a critique of the cultural expectations placed on women by literature, experts, the institution of marriage, and themselves. Shocking and revelatory, The Erotic Silence of the American Wife is a groundbreaking book as vital to understanding marriage--and its unspoken effects on women's and men's relationships--as it was when it was first published. This ebook features an introduction by Dalma Heyn and an illustrated biography including rare photos from the author's personal collection.
Erotic Testimonies: Black Women Daring to Be Wild and Free (SUNY series in Black Women's Wellness)
by Julia S. Jordan-ZacheryErotic Testimonies draws inspiration from Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic" to explore how Black women access their interiority and use their feelings to engage in processes of self-actualization and make themselves free. Blending genres and resisting the confines of conventional scholarly analysis, Julia S. Jordan-Zachery undertakes what she characterizes as a performative embodied reading of testimonies by four "wild" women from her own life. Jordan-Zachery takes care not to define what constitutes a wild woman—that's been done enough to oppressive ends—but rather tends to these women's forms and means of self-articulation. Complex accounts of wildness, freedom, femininity, the erotic, and the divine emerge from her field notes. Erotic Testimonies attests to the experience of the individual as well as, and even more importantly, how the individual speaks to a broader collective that here includes Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Janet Jackson, the author, her grandmother, and many more.
Eroticism of More- and Other-than-Human Bodies: A Study of the Anthropology of Things
by Grażyna GajewskaFocusing on non-human actors, Grażyna Gajewska expands the discussion of eroticism in contemporary culture by bringing in material culture, object studies, and “the anthropology of things.” She sets out from the assumption that things (such as, for instance, attire, underwear, shoes, or jewelry) play an important role in arousing erotic imagination—they are genuine participants in the process, not mere signifiers of eroticism. Their use does not denote only undeniable facts of everyday life associated with functionality, the pragmatic or aesthetic aspect, but also contribute to the shaping of human emotions, fantasies and phantasms. In her study, Gajewska brings eroticism in contemporary culture to light through applying gender studies to new contexts—animals, robots, virtual worlds—even as she explores a new methodology, the anthropology of things.
The Eroticizing of HIV: Viral Fantasies (Health, Technology and Society)
by Jaime García-IglesiasThis book examines sexual fantasies and their influence on everyday life through the stories of twenty-two men who introduce themselves as bugchasers, i.e. gay men who eroticize HIV. The author defines bugchasing, charts its history and contexts, and considers how it has changed in the age of internet and PrEP. Through the participants, their experiences and contexts, this text also theorizes about sexual fantasies, seeking to understand how people define sexual fantasies and use the internet as a space to navigate their desires, meet others, and find support. Chapters also consider the practical implications of fantasy, most notably, how fantasies influence men’s decisions around HIV prevention and care. This book speaks to renewed interest in both the AIDS crisis and the sociology of everyday life to illustrate how fantasies such as bugchasing appear, evolve, and adapt. This book will be of interest to scholars focused on queer studies, sexuality studies, gender studies, and healthcare.
Erotics and Politics: Gay Male Sexuality, Masculinity and Feminism (Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities)
by Tim EdwardsErotics and Politics provides an interface between the study of sexuality (particularly gay male studies) and gender (primarily feminism). In doing so it covers a wide range of issues of concern to gay and feminist movements over the past twenty five years including gay liberational sexuality, sado-masochism, pornography, promiscuity, personal relationships, AIDS and postmodernity. The central focus of attention throughout is the nature, development and consequence of gay male sexuality and masculinity. This book is unique in its coverage of a wide range of issues and connecting subjects which are typically examined separately.
The Erotics of Grief: Emotions and the Construction of Privilege in the Medieval Mediterranean
by Megan MooreThe Erotics of Grief considers how emotions propagate power by exploring whose lives are grieved and what kinds of grief are valuable within and eroticized by medieval narratives. Megan Moore argues that grief is not only routinely eroticized in medieval literature but that it is a foundational emotion of medieval elite culture. Focusing on the concept of grief as desire, Moore builds on the history of the emotions and Georges Bataille's theory of the erotic as the conflict between desire and death, one that perversely builds a sense of community organized around a desire for death. The link between desire and death serves as an affirmation of living communities. Moore incorporates literary, visual, and codicological evidence in sources from across the Mediterranean—from Old French chansons de geste, such as the Song of Roland and La mort le roi Artu and romances such as Erec et Enide, Philomena, and Floire et Blancheflor; to Byzantine and ancient Greek novels; to Middle English travel narratives such as Mandeville's Travels. In her reading of the performance of grief as one of community and remembrance, Moore assesses why some lives are imagined as mattering more than others and explores how a language of grief becomes a common language of status among the medieval Mediterranean elite.
The Erotics of History: An Atlantic African Example
by Donald L. DonhamAt publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.The Erotics of History challenges long-standing notions of sexuality as stable and context-free--as something that individuals discover about themselves. Rather, Donald L. Donham argues that historical circumstance, local social pressure, and the cultural construction of much beyond sex condition the erotic. Donham makes this argument in relation to the centuries-old conversation on the fetish, applied to a highly unusual neighborhood in Atlantic Africa. There, local men, soon to be married to local women, are involved in long-term sexual relationships with European men. On the African side, these couplings are motivated by the pleasures of cosmopolitan connection and foreign commodities. On the other side, Europeans tend to fetishize Africans’ race, while a few search to become slaves in master/ slave relationships. At its most wide ranging, The Erotics of History attempts to show that it is history, both personal and collective, in reversals and reenactments, that finally produces sexual excitement.
Errant Bodies, Mobility, and Political Resistance
by Gregory BlairThis book explores a type of wandering referred to as “errant bodies.” This form of wandering is intentional, without specific destination, and operates as a means of resistance against hegemonic forms of power and cultural prescriptions. Beginning with an examination of the character and particulars of being an errant body, the book investigates historical errant bodies including Ancient Greek Cynics, Punks, Baudelaire, Situationists, Earhart, Kerouac, Fuller, Baudrillard, Hamish Fulton, and Keri Smith. Being an errant body means stepping to the side of dominant culture, creating a potential means of political resistance in the technologically driven twenty-first century.
Error 404: ¿Preparados para un mundo sin internet?
by Esther PaniaguaEs cuestión de tiempo que la red caiga. ¿Estamos preparados? Error 404 no es una distopía. Es un impactante ensayo que trata de anticiparse a ella antes de que sea demasiado tarde. Es cuestión de tiempo que la red caiga. Internet se vendrá abajo y viviremos oleadas de pánico. ¿Suena apocalíptico? No lo es. En Error 404, Esther Paniagua aborda las múltiples formas en las que internet se está cayendo y cómo podría producirse un gran apagón de la red de redes; el caos que ello podría desatar y lo dependientes que somos de ella. Desvela quiénes son los guardianes de internet y nos abre la puerta al lado más oscuro del ciberespacio para hablar de crimen y adicción; de quién convirtió el beicon con huevos en el desayuno estadounidense por excelencia y qué tiene eso que ver con la manipulación; de desinformación, polarización y odio incendiario online; de cómo se ha automatizado la discriminación así como de censura y represión. En definitiva, nos muestra el funcionamiento oculto de una tiranía digital que George Orwell o Aldous Huxley tan siquiera imaginaron. ¿Cómo hemos llegado hasta aquí? ¿Qué se oculta en las tinieblas de internet?¿Hay esperanza de un nuevo amanecer? ¿Seremos capaces de cambiar el rumbo? Error 404 no es una distopía. Es un impactante ensayo que trata de anticiparse a ella antes de que sea demasiado tarde. Estas páginas analizan los temas de ahora, tan urgentes como cruciales, con una perspectiva crítica y propositiva, pues, tal y como defiende su autora, a pesar de todo aún hay motivos para la esperanza. Reseñas:«Una llamada urgente y necesaria a reimaginar y rediseñar radicalmente internet por el bien global.»María Sefidari, presidenta de Fundación Wikimedia. «Un diagnóstico clarificador, preciso y sintético del presente como herramienta para crear el futuro. Se lee como una novela.»Mario Tascón, socio director de Prodigioso Volcán. «Un terrorífico relato sobre el fin del mundo, tan preciso y bien documentado que ya nunca volverás a ver internet del mismo modo.»Toni García, periodista. «Cuando juntas mentes brillantes suceden cosas brillantes. Pero cuando conectas a Esther Paniagua con las personas que más han cambiado nuestras vidas y el mundo… eclosiona este libro de lectura obligatoria para los que nos proponemos seguirlo cambiando.»Andreu Vèa, el biógrafo de internet.
Error, Ambiguity, and Creativity: A Multidisciplinary Reader
by Sita Popat Sarah WhatleyThis book offers a set of eleven discipline-specific chapters from across the arts, humanities, psychology, and medicine. Each contributor considers the creative potential of error and/or ambiguity, defining these terms in the particular context of that discipline and exploring their values and applications. Themes include error in choreography, poetry, media art, healthcare, psychology, critical typography and mixed reality performance. The book emerges from a core question of how dance research and HCI can inform each other through consideration of error, ambiguity and ‘messiness’ as methodological tools. The digital age had heralded the possibility that error could be eradicated by the logic of computers but several chapters focus on glitch in arts practices that exploit errors in computer programmes, or even create programmes specifically to produce errors. Together, the chapters explore how error can take us somewhere different or somewhere new, to develop a new, more interesting way of working.
Errors and Mistakes in Child Protection: International Discourses, Approaches and Strategies
by Kay Biesel, Judith Masson, Nigel Parton and Tarja PösöThis comprehensive international study provides a cross-national analysis of different understandings of errors and mistakes, as well as lessons to avoid and how to handle them in child protection practice, using research and knowledge from 11 countries in Europe and North America. Divided into country-specific chapters, each examines the pathways that lead to mistakes happening, the scale of their impact, how responsibilities and responses are decided and how practice and policy subsequently change. Considering the complexities of evolving practice contexts, this authoritative, future-oriented study is an invaluable text for practitioners, researchers and policy makers wishing to understand why child protection fails – and offers a springboard for fresh thinking about strategies to reduce future risk.
Ersatz Capitalism and Industrial Policy in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Indonesia and Malaysia (Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia)
by Fabian BocekThis book applies and develops the concept of “ersatz capitalism” in the analysis of industrial policy blockades to economic development in Malaysia and Indonesia. Drawing on insights from international political economy, development studies, industrial and innovation policy, and new institutionalism to refer to a specific type of capitalism, the book analyzes different paths and institutions of economic development within the entire East Asian region. Comprehensive theoretical insights are complemented by empirical case studies that relate to country and sectoral studies – the automotive and ICT industries – in Malaysia and Indonesia. Applying contemporary research on international political economy to refer to a specific type of capitalism, the author examines how conflicts of interest between factions of state apparatus, associations, and companies contribute to the failure of developmental policies. The unique combination of theory formation and empirical analysis provides a novel approach to international comparative research on capitalism. The book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of international political economy, development studies, new institutionalism, East Asian and Southeast Asian studies, and industrial and innovation policy.
Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
by Steve OlsonSurvival narrative meets scientific, natural, and social history in the riveting story of a volcanic disaster. For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, sightseers, and nearby residents listened anxiously to rumblings in Mount St. Helens, part of the chain of western volcanoes fueled by the 700-mile-long Cascadia fault. Still, no one was prepared when an immense eruption took the top off of the mountain and laid waste to hundreds of square miles of verdant forests in southwestern Washington State. The eruption was one of the largest in human history, deposited ash in eleven U.S. states and five Canadian provinces, and caused more than one billion dollars in damage. It killed fifty-seven people, some as far as thirteen miles away from the volcano’s summit. Shedding new light on the cataclysm, author Steve Olson interweaves the history and science behind this event with page-turning accounts of what happened to those who lived and those who died. Powerful economic and historical forces influenced the fates of those around the volcano that sunny Sunday morning, including the construction of the nation’s railroads, the harvest of a continent’s vast forests, and the protection of America’s treasured public lands. The eruption of Mount St. Helens revealed how the past is constantly present in the lives of us all. At the same time, it transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience, and, ultimately, our perceptions of what it will take to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet. Rich with vivid personal stories of lumber tycoons, loggers, volcanologists, and conservationists, Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative built from the testimonies of those closest to the disaster, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.
Erving Goffman: From the Perspective of the New Sociology of Knowledge (Knowledge, Communication and Society)
by Jürgen RaabWhile Erving Goffman’s books are among the most widely read sociological works, covering issues including the presentation of the self, total institutions, interaction order to frame analysis, they are in fact guided by a single theme: the analysis of the form of interaction in social situations and the role that individuals play in it. This book stresses Goffman’s central role as a sociological theorist, exploring the potentials of his work and uncovering the recondite layers of his oeuvre. In opening a path to understanding the complexity of his writings, it offers new directions for social theory and empirical research.
Erving Goffman et le travail social (21e – Société, Culture, Histoire)
by Stéphanie Garneau & Dahlia NamianEn ces temps de morcèlement et de cloisonnement disciplinaire, il est impératif de rappeler les liens ambigus, mais néanmoins enchevêtrés, entre le travail social et la tradition sociologique dont est issu Erving Goffman. Les auteurs de cet ouvrage – travailleurs sociaux, sociologues, anthropologues, politistes et infirmiers – ouvrent la « boîte à outils goffmanienne », offrant des regards novateurs sur les enjeux contemporains entourant le travail social. Il prend appui sur une pluralité d’objets, dont la santé mentale, la toxicomanie, les soins aux personnes âgées ou avec un handicap, et l’aide aux sans-abris. Que ce soit sous l’angle épistémologique, théorique, méthodologique ou pratique, la posture goffmanienne est digne de considération. Elle permet d’observer les effets des institutions et des catégories du travail social sur les personnes ciblées. Elle aide à sortir d’une vision normative de l’intervenant pour identifier les possibilités et les contraintes qui pèsent sur lui. Elle permet également d’accéder aux dimensions tacites, affectives et parfois insoupçonnées du social et de la relation d’aide dans le but de rendre visible l’invisible, de rendre intolérable le toléré et les allant-de-soi. Les dix-sept collaborateurs rattachent certaines des ficelles qui ont été dénouées entre les deux disciplines au fil des luttes visant leur reconnaissance institutionnelle.
Erzähl mir alles!: Mit den Vernehmungsmethoden der Profis effektiver kommunizieren und verhandeln
by Michael SallerDieses Buch bietet Einblicke in die speziellen Techniken, mit denen Profis bei Vernehmungen und Befragungen die gewünschten Informationen erhalten, und erklärt, wie sie für die tägliche Kommunikation genutzt werden können. Der erste Teil erläutert die Unterschiede zwischen Vernehmung und Befragung, stellt Methoden zur Bewertung von Aussagen vor und diskutiert zwei prominente Fälle aus dem Strafrecht (Kachelmann, Mollath). Der zweite Teil konzentriert sich auf bewusste Lügen von Befragten und beschreibt, wie die Glaubwürdigkeit von Personen und die Glaubhaftigkeit von Aussagen methodisch analysiert werden. Der dritte Teil behandelt den Umgang mit Erinnerungen und Irrtümern bei Zeugenaussagen. Der vierte Teil zeigt ein sechsphasiges Modell der effizienten Informationsgewinnung mit praktischen Beispielen und bietet 30 Expertentipps für informativere Gespräche.
Erziehungswissenschaftliche Jugendforschung: Ein Aufbruch
by Cathleen Grunert Karin Bock Nicolle Pfaff Wolfgang SchröerDer Band geht der Frage nach, welche aktuelle Bedeutung die Jugendforschung in der Erziehungswissenschaft hat. In den Beiträgen wird diskutiert, wie das Gegenstandsfeld Jugend in der Erziehungswissenschaft aktuell konturiert ist und mit welchen theoretischen und methodischen Zugängen es bearbeitet wird. Darüber hinaus wird untersucht, wie die Jugendforschung in die verschiedenen subdisziplinären Zusammenhänge und nachbardisziplinären Bezüge eingebunden ist und vor welche jugend-, forschungs- und disziplinpolitischen Herausforderungen eine erziehungswissenschaftlich orientierte Jugendforschung aktuell gestellt ist.
¿Es eso cierto?
by Alberto GranadosFraudes, errores, experimentos inauditos... Todas las respuestas a tus preguntas sobre el mundo científico. Desde los albores del mundo el ser humano ha satisfecho sus ansias de conocimiento con la experimentación y la observación de su entorno para encontrar respuestas a preguntas aparentemente obvias que marcarían el rumbo de su existencia, para hacer realidad sus propios sueños o para entender el legado de los pueblos antiguos. A partir de ese impulso, de esa curiosidad inherente surgen incógnitas, teorías, fórmulas, hallazgos, experimentos... ciencia, y gracias a esta pulsión el hombre ha sido capaz de volar, de conquistar el espacio, de mejorar su calidad de vida... Pero toda cara posee una cruz y a veces el ardor científico se empaña de ambición o de fama y se convierte en generador de historias escabrosas que es mejor olvidar. Granados, autor de éxito de Leyendas urbanas, ha reunido para su «mundo curioso», un recorrido por los errores, los fraudes y las curiosidades científicas a través del tiempo, que no nos dejará indiferentes y que nos hará experimentar momentos irrepetibles. ¿Es eso cierto? demuestra que ciencia y entretenimiento son en ocasiones un binomio perfecto.
¡Es que no me entiendes!: Lenguaje femenino vs. Lenguaje masculino
by María del Montes de OcaAntes de claudicar, antes del divorcio, antes de enamorarse, antes de casarse, antes de tener hijos, lea este libro, que le dará las claves exactas para no regarla y no morir en el intento. En ¡Es que no me entiendes!: lenguaje femenino vs. lenguaje masculino, María del Pilar Montes de Oca Sicilia hace un recuento divertido desde el punto de vista lingüístico de todos los ires y venires, los avatares, los entresijos y los problemas que surgen en la comunicación entre los dos sexos, debido a que hablamos un lenguaje completamente distinto aunque a veces no nos demos cuenta. En este libro, hombres y mujeres encontrarán muchas situaciones con las que podrán identificarse, desde cuando estamos en la cuna hasta cuando vivimos en pareja y tenemos sexo, pasando por la escuela, el ligue, los problemas de trabajo, el uso de WhatsApp y las redes sociales, situaciones que de tan verídicas los harán reír o llorar. No deje pasar la oportunidad de leer este compendio de diálogos, palabras, sinrazones, pleitos y hasta maldiciones de un sexo a otro y viceversa, porque quizás a través de esta lectura ¡por fin pueda llegar a entender a su ser amado!
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
by Jonathan FreedlandA complex hero. A forgotten story. The first witness to reveal the full truth of the Holocaust. <p><p>Jonathan Freedland, award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist, tells the incredible story of Rudolf Vrba—the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz, a man determined to warn the world and pass on a truth too few were willing to hear—elevating him to his rightful place in the annals of World War II alongside Anne Frank, Primo Levi, and Oskar Schindler and casting a new light on the Holocaust and its aftermath. <p><p>People won’t believe what they can’t imagine . . . In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz—one of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line. Against all odds, he and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seen—a forensically detailed report that would eventually reach Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the Pope. And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba—then just nineteen years old—had risked everything to deliver. Some could not believe it. Others thought it easier to keep quiet. Vrba helped save 200,000 Jewish lives—but he never stopped believing it could have been so many more. <p><p>This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man—a gifted “escape artist” who even as a teenager understand that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death, a man who deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
by Jonathan FreedlandWinner of the National Jewish Book Award · New York Times Bestseller"A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information—and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?" — Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of TomorrowA complex hero. A forgotten story. The first witness to reveal the full truth of the Holocaust . . .Award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the astonishing true story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became one of the very first Jews to escape from Auschwitz and make his way to freedom—among only a tiny handful who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them. Against all odds, Vrba and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seen—a forensically detailed report that eventually reached Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the Pope.And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba had risked everything to deliver. Though Vrba helped save two hundred thousand Jewish lives, he never stopped believing it could have been so many more.This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man—a gifted “escape artist” who, even as a teenager, understood that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death. Rudolf Vrba deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust.
Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It
by Erica ThompsonHow do mathematical models shape our world - and how can we harness their power for good?Models are at the centre of everything we do. Whether we use them or are simply affected by them, they act as metaphors that help us better understand the increasingly complex problems facing us in the modern world. Without models, we couldn't begin to tackle three of the major challenges facing modern society: regulation of the economy, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in recent years, the validity of the models we use has been hotly debated and there has been renewed awareness of the disastrous consequences when the makers and interpreters of models get things wrong.Drawing on contemporary examples from finance, climate and health policy, Erica Thompson explores what models are, why we need them, how they work and what happens when they go wrong. This is not an audiobook that argues we should do away with models, but rather, that we need to properly understand how they are constructed - and how some of the assumptions that underlie the models we use can have significant unintended consequences. Unexpectedly humorous, thought-provoking and passionate, this is essential listening for everyone.(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It
by Erica Thompson'A brilliant account of how models are so often abused and of how they should be used' John KayHow do mathematical models shape our world - and how can we harness their power for good?Models are at the centre of everything we do. Whether we use them or are simply affected by them, they act as metaphors that help us better understand the increasingly complex problems facing us in the modern world. Without models, we couldn't begin to tackle three of the major challenges facing modern society: regulation of the economy, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in recent years, the validity of the models we use has been hotly debated and there has been renewed awareness of the disastrous consequences when the makers and interpreters of models get things wrong.Drawing on contemporary examples from finance, climate and health policy, Erica Thompson explores what models are, why we need them, how they work and what happens when they go wrong. This is not a book that argues we should do away with models, but rather, that we need to properly understand how they are constructed - and how some of the assumptions that underlie the models we use can have significant unintended consequences. Unexpectedly humorous, thought-provoking and passionate, this is essential reading for everyone.