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Advancing Gerontological Social Work Education
by Joanna Mellor Joann Ivrys your gerontological social work program as comprehensive-and as well attended-as it could be? Advancing Gerontological Social Work Education will help you develop courses that effectively prepare social work students and practitioners to work with the ever-increasing older population. It clearly presents the rationale for geriatric/gerontological preparation and defines the current status of geriatric/gerontological education. With fascinating case studies, detailed curricula, and a review of the skills and knowledge competencies necessary for effective geriatric social work practice, this book also describes a variety of courses and teaching programs in detail-noting the problems that other educators have encountered and offering practical suggestions to help in replicating the programs in other institutions. This book is especially useful because it not only examines the issues surrounding-and need for-increased gerontological education for social workers, but because it follows this with specific, concrete descriptions of educational approaches and curricula. It provides you with both the framework and the specifics to develop your own gerontological social work education program at the graduate or undergraduate level. Helpful charts and tables make the information easy to access and understand. Advancing Gerontological Social Work Education is divided into three sections, each of which will increase your knowledge and understanding of this vital area of social work education. The first section examines: the historical development of gerontological social work education the CSWE/SAGE-SW Competencies Project the importance of interdisciplinary teamwork-and the educational basis for interdisciplinary team training, highlighting organizational context, team structure, team process, and team outcomes ways to increase students' interest in this vital area of social work In the second section of this well-referenced book, you will examine school-based initiatives, focusing on: the development and implementation of the John A. Hartford Foundation Geriatric Social Work Initiative the recruitment of students into geriatric social work-with an examination of a fellowship program the relationship between the aging population of the United States and the growing demand for geriatric social workers-and how that need can be met through graduate-level social work training developing a field training rotation model a doctoral fellowship program and its dissertation support, mentorship, and leadership development The third section of Advancing Gerontological Social Work Education features: an empirical study exploring the potential for a limited curriculum module to enhance MSW and BSW students' gerontological practice-related knowledge, attitudes, and interest an overview of the history and rationale of service learning in elder care a description of the varied service learning in elder care programs an experiential exercise that was used successfully to assist graduate students in integrating and applying their knowledge about geriatric assessment the results of interviews with MSW students about the appropriateness of their preparation for medical social work with an aged population-conducted at the beginning, midpoint, and end of their field placements a report on incorporating intergenerational service learning into an undergraduate introductory gerontology course the use of the "family study," which exposes teams of students for 20 weeks to a family that includes an older adult
Advancing Global Social Work: A Machine-Generated Literature Overview
by Rajendra BaikadyThis book provides a machine-generated overview of social work across the globe, providing an in-depth understanding on social work education, practice and research. It shows the latest developments in social work, curriculum, pedagogy, practice, research and clinical social work. Each chapter is organized by the book editor with a human-written introduction. In a time when the world is facing several challenges and social work as a human service profession is getting global recognition and acceptance, it is essential to generate evidence-based literature on the development, changes, and challenges. Chapters in this book help readers understand contemporary debates, discussions and insights on global social work and its growth and development. It is a one-stop resource for scholars studying social work, social policy, social welfare, social exclusion and inclusion, sociology and other social science discipline, as it presents the literature on the recent development of the field in one place. The book is equally valuable to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students across all educational institutions without boundaries. The auto-summaries have been generated by a recursive clustering algorithm via the Dimensions Auto-summarizer by Digital Science. The editor of this book selected which Springer Nature content should be auto-summarized and decided its order of appearance. Please be aware that these are extractive auto-summaries, which consist of original sentences, but are not representative of its original paper, since we do not show the full length of the publication. Please note that only published SN content is represented here, and that machine-generated books are still at an experimental stage.
Advancing Grounded Theory with Mixed Methods
by Elizabeth G. CreamerThis groundbreaking book introduces an innovative new perspective on mixed method grounded theory methodology (MM-GTM) by conceptualizing it holistically as a distinct, qualitatively driven methodology that appreciates the integrity of each of the methods it embraces. This practical and accessible text advocates for using MM-GTM in a way that promote meaningful interaction between qualitative and quantitative data during analysis. Its principal contribution is to provide a set of research tools to develop or refine a multi-faceted analytical framework in applied fields in the social and behavioral sciences, including nursing. Used as either a resource or a textbook in a survey course about research methods, the text references dozens of examples about how a dialectical exchange between different sources of data can be built into core grounded theory procedures, including theoretical sampling, coding, case-based memoing, and integrated visual displays. With a whole chapter devoted to reporting, the book also considers the way that indexes of quality that extend beyond methodological transparency can be used to evaluate research that partners mixed methods with grounded theory and other qualitative methods. Featuring student-friendly pedagogy throughout, including self-assessment questions, a glossary, and a framework that summarizes key points, this text is an essential read for all research methods students or early career researchers ambitious to develop a theoretical perspective with qualitative, mixed methods, or evaluation.
Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities: Interrogating Community Development and Participatory Praxis
by Abhijit Das Anuj Kapilashrami Neil QuinnIn a world facing multiple intersecting crises, the push for healthier, more resilient societies has never been more urgent. This timely book reveals how empowered and organised communities can lead this change. It offers policy makers, academics, and activists research-driven insights, decolonial perspectives and real-world examples of organising and collective actions from across the global North and South. By centring on the power of community development, participation, and social movements, the book delivers actionable frameworks to tackle inequality and advance the right to health, making it an essential resource for anyone committed to health justice and for building equitable and sustainable health systems worldwide.
Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston (PLAC: Political Lessons from American Cities)
by Shannon Gleeson Els de GraauwHouston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States and has long been a prime destination for international migrants from Latin America, Asia, and more recently, Africa. However, the city is politically mixed, organizationally underserved, and situated in a relatively anti-immigrant state. This makes Houston a challenging context for immigrant rights despite its rapidly diversifying population. In Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston, Els de Graauw and Shannon Gleeson recount how local and multi-level contexts shape the creation, contestation, and implementation of immigrant rights policies and practices in the city. They examine the development of a city immigrant affairs office, interactions between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement officials, local public-private partnerships around federal immigration benefits, and collaborations between labor, immigrant rights, faith, and business leaders to combat wage theft. The case study of Houston provides a bellwether for how other U.S. cities will deal with their growing immigrant populations and underscores the importance of public-private collaborations to advance immigrant rights.
Advancing International Human Rights Law Responsibilities of Development NGOs: Respecting and Fulfilling the Right to Reparative Justice for Genocide Survivors in Rwanda
by Noam SchimmelThis book explores the potential responsibilities to respect, protect and fulfill international human rights law (IHRL) of a particular class of non-state actors: non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It calls for NGOs pursuing development to respect and fulfill the human right of genocide survivors to reparative justice in Rwanda. It argues that NGOs have social and moral responsibilities to respect and fulfill IHRL, and for greater accountability for them to do so. The book focuses on those NGOs advancing development in a post genocide transitional justice context acting simultaneously in partnership with state governments, as proxies and agents for these governments, and providing essential public goods and social services as part of their development remit. It defines development as a process of expanding realization of social, economic, and cultural rights addressing food security, economic empowerment/poverty reduction, healthcare, housing, education, and other fundamental human needs while integrating these alongside the expansion of freedoms and protections afforded by civil and political rights. It uses post genocide Rwanda as a case study to illustrate how respect and fulfillment of the IHRL pertaining to reparative justice are hindered by failing to hold NGOs responsible for IHRL. Consequently, this results in discrimination against, marginalization, and the disadvantaging of survivors of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi and violations of their human rights.
Advancing Media Production Research: Shifting Sites, Methods, And Politics (Global Transformations In Media And Communication Research - A Palgrave And Iamcr Ser.)
by David Lee Chris Paterson Anamik Saha Anna ZoellnerThis anthology explores challenges to understanding the nature of cultural production, exploring innovative new research approaches and improvements to old approaches, such as newsroom ethnography, which will enable clearer, fuller understanding of the workings of journalism and other forms of media and cultural production.
Advancing Older Adults' Well-being
by Yang WangThis book introduces part of the advances of the aging research conducted by Dr. Yang Wang and his collaborators since 2022. It covers several topics related to older adults, including their psychological and social well-being, their role as caregivers and care receivers, the impact of the maltreatment experience in early life, and how witnessing elder abuse could influence children. This book is composed of nine research articles and manuscripts. Most of the studies were conducted in China or USA, using nationally representative sample. This book is a valuable resource for readers who care about older adults’ well-being and the advancement of it.
Advancing Proactive Policing: Lessons from Ocean View, Delaware (SpringerBriefs in Criminology)
by Jon ShaneThis brief documents a demonstration project undertaken in Ocean View, Delaware on a novel, scalable tool for police agencies seeking to optimize their patrol operations while providing transparency and accountability in resource management. It describes and explains the broader set of circumstances, conditions, and factors that surrounded and influenced the Ocean View Police Department&’s goal to expand the agency toward proactive policing. This work encompasses the social, economic, political, and technical aspects that affected the design, implementation, and outcome. The central research question was: If the Ocean View Police Department increases proactive time from 67% to 75%, then how many officers do we need, and what are the projected costs? The study offers a roadmap for agencies looking to expand their proactive policing efforts, and understand the cost drivers associated with the patrol function. The book details the demands that police agencies face and the complexities of their work. The chapters that follow acknowledge the managerial and fiscal difficulties related to staffing and funding the police, while simultaneously offering suggestions for increased community collaboration. The universal model presented here can be used by all police executives, elected and appointed city officials, academics, finance and directors, analysts.
Advancing Qualitative Inquiry Toward Methodological Inclusion
by Rhodesia McMillianThis fascinating book provides a groundbreaking resource for innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry that address equity and justice and equip readers with tools to enact these approaches in their own work.Comprising contributions from award-winning qualitative scholars, chapters show how methodologies can be employed to address social issues and problems from the social-political milieu including education, COVID-19, racial inequalities, health inequalities, climate change, and debates around gender diversity amongst others. This book offers the new and innovative paradigms, methodologies, and methods a cutting-edge group of scholars has crafted as well as the ‘how to’ so readers may employ these approaches in dissertations, grants, and various research team scholarship. Contributors reimagine the next generation of “rigorous” qualitative methodologies by pushing on the boundaries of existing methodological approaches as well as presenting new ways of engaging in research that prioritise innovation, equity and justice.This unique edited volume is aimed at students and researchers studying or using qualitative methodologies and inquiry who wish to be exposed to emergent conceptualizations and innovations regarding qualitative research methodology and its congruent methods.
Advancing Rule of Law in a Global Context: Proceedings of the International Conference on Law and Governance in a Global Context (icLave 2017), November 1-2, 2017, Depok, Indonesia
by Heru Susetyo Patricia Rinwigati Waagstein Akhmad Budi CahyonoThe papers published in this proceedings volume are written by a selection of authors, resulting from a call for papers for the 1st International Conference on Law and Governance in a Global Context (ICLAVE) originating from Indonesia and other countries. This proceedings volume shall be a very valuable contribution to understand contemporary law issues in Indonesia which are not always taught in law schools. These proceedings will not only serve as a useful reference for law students and academicians, but also help law practitioners to understand law issues that may be encountered in Indonesia. It covers selected items such as Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Business Law, Intellectual Property Law, Criminal Law, Human Rights Law, Adat Law, Shariah Law, Judiciary Law and International Law, which are all important for undergraduate and post-graduate law students, as well as academicians and law practitioners in the law community.
Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa: Constraints and Opportunities (ISSN)
by Ebenezer Durojaye Gladys Mirugi-Mukundi Charles NgwenaThis book explores recent developments, constraints and opportunities relating to the advancement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa.Despite many positive developments in relation to sexual and reproductive health in recent years, many Africans still encounter challenges, for instance in poor maternity services, living with HIV, and discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation or identity. Covering topics such as abortion, gender identity, adolescent sexuality and homosexuality, the chapters in this book discuss the impact of culture, morality and social beliefs on the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights across the continent, particularly in relation to vulnerable and marginalized groups. The book also explores the role of litigation, national human rights institutions and regional human rights bodies in advancing the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the region. Throughout, the contributions highlight the relevance of a rights-based framework in addressing topical and contentious issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights within Sub-Saharan Africa.This book will be of interest to researchers of sexuality, civil rights and health in Africa.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003175049, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa: Constraints and Opportunities (Routledge Contemporary Africa)
by Ebenezer Durojaye, Gladys Mirugi-Mukundi and Charles NgwenaThis book explores recent developments, constraints and opportunities relating to the advancement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa. Despite many positive developments in relation to sexual and reproductive health in recent years, many Africans still encounter challenges, for instance in poor maternity services, living with HIV, and discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation or identity. Covering topics such as abortion, gender identity, adolescent sexuality and homosexuality, the chapters in this book discuss the impact of culture, morality and social beliefs on the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights across the continent, particularly in relation to vulnerable and marginalized groups. The book also explores the role of litigation, national human rights institutions and regional human rights bodies in advancing the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the region. Throughout, the contributions highlight the relevance of a rights-based framework in addressing topical and contentious issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights within Sub-Saharan Africa. This book will be of interest to researchers of sexuality, civil rights and health in Africa.
Advancing Social Studies Education through Self-Study Methodology: The Power, Promise, and Use of Self-Study in Social Studies Education (Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices #10)
by Alicia R. CroweAdvancing Social Studies Education through Self-Study Methodology provides a collection of works that highlights ways in which self-study of teaching and teacher education practices can advance conversations and knowledge in social studies education. Some of the pieces chosen for this book will provide theoretical connections between the two fields (e.g. how values and principles important to both fields work together, are similar, and can help each field expand). Others will provide specific examples of self-studies that focus on social studies specific concepts. The book provides a strong and clear introduction of self-study to the field of social studies education as well as an argument for its use to further understand social studies teaching and teacher education. It also provides the self-study community with an example of how self-study can be used to look at content specific aspects of teaching and teacher education.
Advancing Social Work Practice in the Health Care Field: Emerging Issues and New Perspectives
by Gary Rosenberg Helen Rehr, DswCommemorating the 75th anniversary of the Department of Social Work at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, this innovative and exciting book traces the growth of the social work mission and the development of vanguard social work programs at Mount Sinai. Leading social work educators and practitioners look at where the profession is today and speculate on where it might be going. Each article is new and original to this book, and each contributor is a distinguished representative from his specialty in the field. Advancing Social Work Practice in the Health Care Field, with its wealth of historical, practical, and theoretical information, reflects today’s state of the art in selected areas and should serve as an information source not only for practitioners and administrators, but also for educators who are committed to enhancing the social work services and the quality of social health care.
Advancing The Federal Research Agenda On Violence Against Women
by Steering Committee for the Workshop on Issues in Research on Violence Against WomenThis report expands on the work of an earlier National Research Council panel whose report, Understanding Violence Against Women, was published in 1996. The report is based on the presentations and deliberations of a workshop convened in January 2002, at the request of Congress, to develop a detailed research agenda on violence against women. While some of the research recommendations in the earlier report have been funded and carried out, the workshop demonstrated that important gaps remain. For example, prevalence and incidence data are still inadequate to measure trends or to reveal whether interventions being designed under federal programs are, in fact, working. Among its primary recommendations, the committee underscored the importance of strengthening the data and research infrastructure in this area, especially the need for better prevalence data and longitudinal data to determine the causes of violent victimization of women and the impact of interventions.
Advancing Women in Science: An International Perspective
by Jr. Willie Pearson Lisa M. Frehill Connie L. McneelyMany countries have implemented policies to increase the number and quality of scientific researchers as a means to foster innovation and spur economic development and progress. To that end, grounded in a view of women as a rich, yet underutilized knowledge and labor resource, a great deal of recent attention has focused on encouraging women to pursue education and careers in science -- even in countries with longstanding dominant patriarchal regimes. Yet, overall, science remains an area in which girls and women are persistently disadvantaged. This book addresses that situation. It bridges the gap between individual- and societal-level perspectives on women in science in a search for systematic solutions to the challenge of building an inclusive and productive scientific workforce capable of creating the innovation needed for economic growth and societal wellbeing. This book examines both the role of gender as an organizing principle of social life and the relative position of women scientists within national and international labor markets. Weaving together and engaging research on globalization, the social organization of science, and gendered societal relations as key social forces, this book addresses critical issues affecting women's contributions and participation in science. Also, while considering women's representation in science as a whole, examinations of women in the chemical sciences, computing, mathematics and statistics are offered as examples to provide insights into how differing disciplinary cultures, functional tasks and socio-historical conditions can affect the advancement of women in science relative to important variations in educational and occupational realities. Edited by three social scientists recognized for their expertise in science and technology policy, education, workforce participation, and stratification, this book includes contributions from an intellectually diverse group of international scholars and analysts and features compelling cases and initiatives from around the world, with implications for research, industry practice, education and policy development.
Advancing Youth Work: Current Trends, Critical Questions
by Dana FuscoThis path-breaking book brings together an international list of contributors to collectively articulate a vision for the field of youth work, sharing what they have learned from decades of experience in the training and education of youth workers. Carefully designed evaluation and research studies have legitimized the learning potential of youth programs and non-school organizations over the last twenty years, and recent attention has shifted towards the education, training, and on-going professional development of youth workers. Contributors define youth work across domains of practice and address the disciplines of knowledge upon which sound practice is based, reviewing examples of youth practitioner development both in and outside of academia. Raising critical questions and concerns about current trends, Advancing Youth Work aims to bring clarity to the field and future of youth work. Advancing Youth Work will help youth work practitioners develop a common language, articulate their field in one voice, and create a shared understanding of similarities and differences. This book is also an invaluable resource for higher educators, researchers, and students involved with youth work.
Advancing and Negotiating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Practical Toolkit
by Frank V. Zerunyan Yann DuzertAdvancing and Negotiating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presents a negotiation framework based on the principles of network/collaborative governance in implementing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Trialed in the classroom and workplace, the practical toolkit gives you the tools necessary for facilitating future collaboration and knowledge transfer to all those working to strengthen the formulation, implementation, and achievement of SDG-oriented policies. Advancing and Negotiating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is essential reading for those interested in a better and more sustainable future for all.
Advancing the Regional Commons in the New East Asia (Politics in Asia)
by Siriporn Wajjwalku Kong Chong Ho Osamu YoshidaAdvancing the Regional Commons in the New East Asia highlights a number of interests which members of ASEAN and Plus Three countries collectively recognize. This set of common interests includes not only economic development but also social development. Written by nationals in their respective countries, the different chapters in this volume highlights the different foundations for such common interests and these reflect the different constructive ways in which ASEAN and Plus Three countries come to see a multi-strand cooperative partnership. The task of advancing the regional commons will involve efforts to recognise and nurture ASEAN’s and Plus Three’s common interests in terms of broad social development, managing regional security issues, the development of a regional infrastructure, and ensuring collective progress for all member countries. ASEAN becomes a community in 2015 and the idea of embracing, protecting, sustaining and advancing the regional commons become a vital process. Concurrently, APT has also realized that its contribution to the achieving goal of community and promoting regional commons is absolutely critical for both ASEAN and the Plus Three countries. Academics will find in this volume a clear analytical treatment of issues which regional groupings are currently facing and this can provide the basis for a comparative analysis. This volume will also be of interest to students and the general public looking for a systematic introduction to the successful implementation of cooperative ventures and also an assessment of the new collaborative energies which shape this dynamic region.
Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: Building Collaboration for Action
by Amelie G. Ramirez Edward J. TrapidoThis open access book is a collection of articles based on presentations from the 2020 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference that gives an overview of conference outcomes. The vision of the conference has been to unite researchers, scientists, physicians and other healthcare professionals, patient advocates, and students from across the world to discuss research advancements, identify gaps, and develop actionable goals to translate basic research findings into clinical best practices, effective community interventions, and professional training programs to decrease cancer risks and eliminate cancer disparities for Latinos. This conference comes at an especially important time when Latinos – the largest and youngest minority group in the U.S. – are expected to face a 142% rise in cancer cases in the coming years. Disparities continue to impact this population in critical areas: access to preventive and clinical care, changeable risk behaviors, quality of life, and mortality. Each chapter summarizes the presentation and includes current knowledge in the specific topic areas, identified gaps, and opportunities for future research. Topics explored include: Applying an Exposome-Wide (ExWAS) Approach to Latino Cancer DisparitiesSupportive Care Needs and Coping Strategies Used by Latino Men Cancer SurvivorsOptimizing Engagement of the Latino Community in Cancer ResearchLatino Population Growth and the Changing Demography of CancerImplementation Science to Enhance the Value of Cancer Research in Latinos A Strength-Based Approach to Cancer Prevention in LatinxsOvercoming Clinical Research Disparities by Advancing Inclusive Research Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: Building Collaboration for Action will appeal to a wide readership due to its comprehensive coverage of topics ranging from basic science and community prevention research to clinical practice to policy. The book is an essential resource for physicians and other medical professionals, researchers, scientists, academicians, patient advocates, and students. It also will appeal to policy-makers, NCI-designated cancer centers, academic centers, state health departments, and community organizations.
Adventure Capital: Migration and the Making of an African Hub in Paris
by Julie KleinmanParis’s Gare du Nord is one of the busiest international transit centers in the world. In the past three decades, it has become an important hub for West African migrants—self-fashioned adventurers—navigating life in the city. In this groundbreaking work, Julie Kleinman chronicles how West Africans use the Gare du Nord to create economic opportunities, confront police harassment, and forge connections to people outside of their communities. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research, including an internship at the French national railway company, Kleinman reveals how racial inequality is ingrained in the order of Parisian public space. She vividly describes the extraordinary ways that African migrants retool French transit infrastructure to build alternative pathways toward social and economic integration where state institutions have failed. In doing so, these adventurers defy boundaries—between migrant and citizen, center and periphery, neighbor and stranger—that have shaped urban planning and immigration policy. Adventure Capital offers a new understanding of contemporary migration and belonging, capturing the central role that West African migrants play in revitalizing French urban life.
Adventure Comics and Youth Cultures in India
by Raminder Kaur Saif EqbalThis pioneering book presents a history and ethnography of adventure comic books for young people in India with a particular focus on vernacular superheroism. It chronicles popular and youth culture in the subcontinent from the mid-twentieth century to the contemporary era dominated by creative audio-video-digital outlets. The authors highlight early precedents in adventures set by the avuncular detective Chacha Chaudhary with his ‘faster than a computer brain’, the forays of the film veteran Amitabh Bachchan’s superheroic alter ego called Supremo, the Protectors of Earth and Mankind (P.O.E.M.), along with the exploits of key comic book characters, such as Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Parmanu, Doga, Shakti and Chandika. The book considers how pulp literature, western comics, television programmes, technological developments and major space ventures sparked a thirst for extraterrestrial action and how these laid the grounds for vernacular ventures in the Indian superhero comics genre. It contains descriptions, textual and contextual analyses, excerpts of interviews with comic book creators, producers, retailers and distributers, together with the views, dreams and fantasies of young readers of adventure comics. These narratives touch upon special powers, super-intelligence, phenomenal technologies, justice, vengeance, geopolitics, romance, sex and the amazing potentials of masked identities enabled by navigation of the internet. With its lucid style and rich illustrations, this book will be essential reading for scholars and researchers of popular and visual cultures, comics studies, literature, media and cultural studies, social anthropology and sociology, and South Asian studies.
Adventure Diffusion: From Meandering Molecules to the Spreading of Plants, Humans, and Ideas
by Gero VoglThis easy-to read book looks at the many ways in which diffusion bears on processes that involve dispersion, starting from the Brownian motion of molecules, covering the invasion of exotic plants, migration of populations, epidemics, and extending to the spreading of languages and ideas. Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding migrations, diffusion and spreading outside the “hard” natural sciences of physics and chemistry, for example the spreading of plants introduced as a result of globalization. Another fascinating story is that of human migration in the distant past, i.e. the immigration of our ancestors who brought agriculture from the Near East, or the fast spread of the Palaeo-Indians into the Americas after the end of the Ice Age. Likewise, the spread of languages in the past, and even more so the current spread and retreat of languages will be described here in terms of diffusion. By understanding these principles, there is hope that some of the less common languages that are threatened by globalization can be saved. Another important implication discussed by the author concerns the outbreak of epidemics; these may be mitigated if we understand their spreading mechanism. Last but not least the spreading of ideas and innovations, a process which changes the world sometimes faster than we wish, can also be usefully described in this picture.
Adventure Stories
by Jack LondonThis text aims to capture the spirit of the American wilderness and its people, in the early 20th century. These youthful tales also include important social themes and ideas. By the age of 29, Jack London was the highest-paid and most widely read author in America, thanks to the huge popularity of The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and White Fang. Themes of these books also pervade this collection of short stories: survival though adaptation, compassion for the less fortunate, a respect for physical power in both man and nature, and the need for social justice.