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Strong and Hard Women: An ethnography of female bodybuilding (Routledge Advances in Ethnography)
by Tanya BunsellFemales with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of female bodybuilding has caused a significant rupture on feminist ground. Whilst proponents claim that female bodybuilding is a way of empowering and liberating women, others see it as a form of corporeal entrapment. This book investigates the controversy. Do women who pump iron resist physical restrictions of imposed femininity, or are they engaged in an ultimately oppressive quest for ‘perfect bodies’? In an original two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, Tanya Bunsell immersed herself into the world of female bodybuilders. By mapping these extraordinary women’s lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an ‘empowering’ radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the ‘Janus-faced’ nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances. This book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of gender studies, the sociology of sport, the body and research methodology.
Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope
by Richard M. CohenThe author of Blindsided “gives a voice to the voiceless—the chronically disabled who, in our health-conscious society, are defined by their disease” (Providence [RI] Journal).New York Times–bestselling author Richard M. Cohen spent three years chronicling the lives of five diverse “citizens of sickness”: Denise, who suffers from ALS; Buzz, whose Christian faith helps him deal with his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; Sarah, a determined young woman with Crohn’s disease; Ben, a college student with muscular dystrophy; and Larry, whose bipolar disorder is hidden within. Differing in age and gender, race and economic status, all five are determined to live life on their own terms. In Strong at the Broken Places, Cohen shares these inspirational and revealing stories, which offer lessons for us all—on self-determination, on courage in the face of adversity and public ignorance, on keeping hope alive.We are all strong at the broken places—stronger than we think.“The strength of these profiles derives from Cohen’s focus on chronic illnesses that, as he notes, are not ‘sexy’ and generally ‘do not resolve themselves’ . . . These are stories dense with quotidian details.” —The Washington Post“Extraordinary.” —Larry King“Career journalist Cohen doesn’t flinch from probing for truth about relationships, money, fear, and death . . . One only hopes that, with their group presentation to a class of Harvard medical students, these five taught young medicos as much as they could teach Cohen and, through him, us.” —Booklist
Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York
by Thomas Von EssenThe SiteMay 30, 2002"How will we ever get through this?" is the question I asked on the night of September 11."How?"Maybe the answer is here, all around me. Not just in the cleanup, not just in the purpose demonstrated by all who came and labored in these months.The answer is in the enduring spirits of all assembled here. That, for me, is the miracle in all of this: having looked horror in the face, we bear the pain without losing heart.-- Thomas Von Essen
Struck: A Husband's Memoir Of Trauma And Triumph
by Douglas SegalOne of life's biggest clichés becomes a horrific reality when Douglas Segal's wife and young daughter are hit head-on by a Los Angeles city bus. Miraculously, his daughter was unharmed, but his wife faced a series of life-threatening injuries, including the same one that famously left Christopher Reeve paralyzed. Following the accident, Segal began sending regular email updates to their circle of friends and family--a list that continued to grow as others heard of the event and were moved by the many emotional and spiritual issues it raised. Segal's compelling memoir is an intimate and honest chronicle built around these email updates, and is a profound example of how people show up for one another in times of crisis. Alternatingly harrowing, humorous, heartbreaking, and hopeful, this is an uplifting tribute to love, determination, and how the compassion of community holds the power to heal, serving as an inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit when faced with pain and adversity.
Structural Adjustment, Reconstruction and Development in Africa (Routledge Revivals)
by Kempe Ronald HopeFirst published in 1997, this volume is intended to make a contribution to both the literature and the contentious debate on the relationship between structural adjustment and reconstruction and development in Africa, as seen from the multidisciplinary perspective of academics and practitioners working in Africa on African development problems and issues. The implementation of structural adjustment in Africa has spawned a considerable, and still on-going, debate with vociferous advocates on both sides of the issue, particularly with respect to the efficacy of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) as an antidote to Africa’s development crisis. This book contributes to that debate with a rich mixture of analytical views and ideas covering a wide range of countries and sectors on the role and impact of structural adjustment programmes on the process of reconstruction and development in Africa.
Structural Adjustment: Theory, Practice and Impacts
by Giles Mohan Ed Brown Bob Milward Alfred B. Zack-WilliamsStructural Adjustment: Theory, Practice and Impacts examines the problems associated with Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and reveals the damaging impacts they can have. The book looks at how the debt crisis of the 1970's forced developing countries to seek external help and then reviews what constitutes as a standard adjustment programme, detailing the political, economic, social and environmental impacts of SAPs. The final section draws together theories and political responses and presents a case for alternatives to the programmes.
Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences: Mobilizing Poor Voters
by Mariela SzwarcbergDemocracy has provided opportunities for political representation and accountability, but it has also created incentives for creating and maintaining clientelistic networks. Why has clientelism consolidated with the introduction of democracy? Drawing on network analysis, Mobilizing Poor Voters answers this question by describing and explaining the emergence, maintenance, and disappearance of political, partisan, and social networks in Argentina. Combining qualitative and quantitative data gathered during twenty-four months of field research in eight municipalities in Argentina, Mobilizing Poor Voters shows that when party leaders distribute political promotions to party candidates based only on the number of voters they mobilize, party leaders incentivize the use of clientelistic strategies among candidates competing to mobilize voters in poor neighborhoods. The logic of perverse incentives examined in this book explains why candidates who use clientelism succeed in getting elected and re-elected over time, contributing to the consolidation of political machines at the local level.
Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences: Social Sequence Analysis
by Benjamin CornwellSocial sequence analysis includes a diverse and rapidly growing body of methods that social scientists have developed to help study complex ordered social processes, including chains of transitions, trajectories and other ordered phenomena. Social sequence analysis is not limited by content or time scale and can be used in many different fields, including sociology, communication, information science and psychology. Social Sequence Analysis aims to bring together both foundational and recent theoretical and methodological work on social sequences from the last thirty years. A unique reference book for a new generation of social scientists, this book will aid demographers who study life-course trajectories and family histories, sociologists who study career paths or work/family schedules, communication scholars and micro-sociologists who study conversation, interaction structures and small-group dynamics, as well as social epidemiologists.
Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: SAHC 2023 - Volume 1 (RILEM Bookseries #47)
by Yohei Endo Toshikazu HanazatoThis book gathers the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC), held in Kyoto, Japan, on September 12-15, 2023. It highlights the latest advances and innovations in the field of conservation and restoration of historical and heritage structures. The conference topics encompass history of construction and building technology, theory and practice of conservation, inspection methods, non-destructive techniques and laboratory testing, numerical modeling and structural analysis, management of heritage structures and conservation strategies, structural health monitoring, repair and strengthening strategies and techniques, vernacular constructions, seismic analysis and retrofit, vulnerability and risk analysis, resilience of historic areas to climate change and hazard events, durability, and sustainability. As such the book represents an invaluable, up-to-the-minute tool, providing an essential overview of conservation of historical constructions, and offers an important platform to engineers, architects, archeologists, and geophysicists.Chapter Guidelines for Seismic Retrofitting of Earthen Historic Buildings in Peru and Latin America is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: SAHC 2023 - Volume 2 (RILEM Bookseries #46)
by Yohei Endo Toshikazu HanazatoThis book gathers the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC), held in Kyoto, Japan, on September 12-15, 2023. It highlights the latest advances and innovations in the field of conservation and restoration of historical and heritage structures. The conference topics encompass history of construction and building technology, theory and practice of conservation, inspection methods, non-destructive techniques and laboratory testing, numerical modeling and structural analysis, management of heritage structures and conservation strategies, structural health monitoring, repair and strengthening strategies and techniques, vernacular constructions, seismic analysis and retrofit, vulnerability and risk analysis, resilience of historic areas to climate change and hazard events, durability, and sustainability. As such the book represents an invaluable, up-to-the-minute tool, providing an essential overview of conservation of historical constructions, and offers an important platform to engineers, architects, archeologists, and geophysicists.Chapter The Challenges of the Conservation of Earthen Sites in Seismic Areas, Chapter Performance Evaluation of Patch Repairs on Historic Concrete Structures (PEPS): Preliminary Results from Two English Case Studies are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Structural Anthropology
by Claude Levi-StraussThe "structural method," first set forth in this epoch-making book, changed the very face of social anthropology. This reissue of a classic will reintroduce readers to Lévi-Strauss's understanding of man and society in terms of individuals--kinship, social organization, religion, mythology, and art.
Structural Anthropology
by Kitty Wheater Jeffrey A. BeckerClaude Lévi-Strauss is probably the most complex anthropological theorist of all time. His work continues to influence present-day thinkers in his field, but he is perhaps even more influential beyond it. As one of the key figures in the development of what is known today as ‘French theory,’ Lévi-Strauss was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th-century. His theories of interpretation, meaning and culture have helped shape the ideas and methodologies of a range of disciplines, above all literature and philosophy. At the heart of Lévi-Strauss’s work are the questions of meaning and where meaning comes from. As an anthropologist, he was primarily interested in what completely different and separate cultures might have in common. Crucially, he saw how common ground resides not on the surface of cultures (i.e., in similar customs), but deep inside invisible background structures of thought. His quest was to peel away the surface of different cultures through careful interpretation, advancing from one layer to another until he discovered the structures that lay behind all of the exterior practices and meanings. Infamously challenging, his work shows interpretative skills working at the highest, most abstract level possible.
Structural Anthropology Zero
by Claude Levi-StraussThis volume of Lévi-Strauss's writings from 1941 to 1947 bears witness to a period of his work which is often overlooked but which was the crucible for the structural anthropology that he would go on to develop in the years that followed. Like many European Jewish intellectuals, Lévi-Strauss had sought refuge in New York while the Nazis overran and occupied much of Europe. He had already been introduced to Jakobson and structural linguistics but he had not yet laid out an agenda for structuralism, which he would do in the 1950s and 60s. At the same time, these American years were the time when Lévi-Strauss would learn of some of the world's most devastating historical catastrophes - the genocide of the indigenous American peoples and of European Jews. From the beginning of the 1950s, Lévi-Strauss's anthropology tacitly bears the heavy weight of the memory and possibility of the Shoah. To speak of 'structural anthropology zero' is therefore to refer to the source of a way of thinking which turned our conception of the human on its head. But this prequel to Structural Anthropology also underlines the sense of a tabula rasa which animated its author at the end of the war as well as the project – shared with others – of a civilizational rebirth on novel grounds. Published here in English for the first time, this volume of Lévi-Strauss’s texts from the 1940s will be of great interest to students and scholars in anthropology, sociology and the social sciences generally.
Structural Approaches in Public Health
by Marni Sommer and Richard ParkerA CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2014! That health has many social determinants is well established and a myriad range of structural factors – social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental – are now known to impact on population well-being. Public health practice has started exploring and responding to a range of health-related challenges from a structural paradigm, including individual and population vulnerability to infection with HIV and AIDS, injury-prevention, obesity, and smoking cessation. Recognising the inadequacy of public health responses that focus solely on individual behaviour change to improve population health outcomes, this text promotes a more holistic approach. Discussing the structural factors related to health and well-being that are both within and outside of an individual’s control, it explores what form structural approaches can take, the underlying theory of structure as a risk factor and the local realities, environments, and priorities that public health practitioners need to take into consideration. Anchored in empirical evidence, the book provides case studies of innovative and influential interventions – from the 100% condom program, to urban planning, injury prevention, and the provision of adequate clean drinking water and sanitation systems – and concludes with a section on implementing and evaluating structural public health programs. This comprehensive text brings together a selection of internationally-recognised authors to provide an overview for students and practitioners working in or concerned with public health around the globe.
Structural Change and Evolution of China’s Internet Society (China Perspectives)
by Liu ShaojieThis title investigates China’s network society, both its online cyber society and offline real world society, by analyzing the trends and social foundations of society as network and the social challenges it poses, as well as structural changes in social space and social interaction.The first part of the book examines how network society in China forms and develops, analyzing the challenges and structural changes it poses. The author studies network power and uncertainties that lies in the supply, flow, and reception of a massive amount of information, revealing how this influences the government's administrative power as well as governance measures to stabilize social cohesion. The second part first discusses the social restructuring and characteristics of network social space in China. Based on case studies of several momentous social events, the spatial change characterized by an integration of absence and presence space and its influence on social interaction and experience is elucidated, including active absence interaction, mediated experience, spatial representation, and social identities of network aggregation.The book will be a crucial reference for scholars and students studying sociology, network sociology, and contemporary Chinese society.
Structural Change, Market Concentration, and Inequality: A Multi-sector Analysis
by Yasuyuki OsumiThis book clarifies the mechanism of widening income inequality and declining labor share in macroeconomics, growth, technology, and the labor market, and provides policy implications. The volume covers three research themes: the influence of structural change, the advancement of artificial intelligence, and the phenomena of market concentration on inequalities and labor share dynamics in theory and empirics. The wide array of theoretical topics in this book includes the implications of unbalanced growth, economy-wide elasticity of substitution between capital and labor, relatively rising service sectors, superstar firm phenomena, automation, the heterogeneity of capital, increasing returns to scale, and the information and financial service sectors on inequalities and labor share decline. These analyses are based on multifactor, multisector general equilibrium, the goods market, and the labor market’s imperfectly competitive framework. In addition, the book covers the relevant empirical data analyses that involve top wealth dynamics in the U.S. Forbes 400, the effect of deepening ICT capital on the labor share in major Japanese industries, and the emergence of increasing returns to scale in the Japanese information and financial sectors.
Structural Changes in U.S. Labour Markets: Causes and Consequences
by Randall E. Eberts Erica L. Groshen Lee HoskinsDuring much of the 1980s, US wage growth has been unexpectedly slow in the face of relatively low unemployment rates and high capacity utilization rates. This collection of papers resulting from the Wage Structure Conference held by the Federal Research Bank of Cleveland, November 1989, helps explain labour market behaviour in that period. The contributors - academic and research economists in labour economics - provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the wage-setting process in the US labour market.
Structural Dividers in the Qur'an (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an)
by Marianna KlarThis volume showcases a wide range of contemporary approaches to the identification of literary structures within Qur’anic surahs. Recent academic studies of the Qur’an have taken an increasing interest in the concept of the surah as a unity and, with it, the division of complete surahs into consecutive sections or parts. Part One presents a series of case studies focussing on individual Qur’anic surahs. Nevin Reda analyzes the structure of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (Q 3), Holger Zellentin looks at competing structures within Sūrat al-ʿAlaq (Q 96), and A.H. Mathias Zahniser provides an exploration of the ring structures that open Sūrat Maryam (Q 19). Part Two then focusses on three discrete aspects of the text. Nora K. Schmid assesses the changing structural function of oaths, Marianna Klar evaluates how rhythm, rhyme, and morphological parallelisms combine in order to produce texture and cohesion, while Salwa El-Awa considers the structural impact of connectives and other discourse markers with specific reference to Sūrat Ṭāhā (Q 20). The final section of the volume juxtaposes contrasting attitudes to the discernment of diachronic seams Devin Stewart examines surah-medial oracular oaths, Muhammad Abdel Haleem questions a range of instances where suggestions of disjointedness have historically been raised, and Nicolai Sinai. explores the presence of redactional layers within Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (Q 4) and Sūrat al-Māʾidah (Q 5). Bringing a combination of different approaches to Qur’an structure into a single book, written by well-established and emerging voices in Qur’anic studies, the work will be an invaluable resource to academics researching Islam, religious studies, and languages and literatures in general. Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license at
Structural Dynamic Systems Computational Techniques and Optimization: Techniques in Buildings and Bridges
by Cornelius T. LeondesThere are various techniques to optimize either structural parameters, or structural controllers, but there are not many techniques that can simultaneously optimize the structural parameters and controller. The advantage of integrating the structural and controller optimization problems is that structure and controller interaction is taken into account in the design process and a more efficient overall design (lower control force/lighter weight) can be achieved, and also multidisciplinary design optimization can be performed. The down side is that the combined optimization problem is more difficult to formulate and solve, and computations are increased. This volume is a comprehensive treatment of dynamic analysis and control techniques in structural dynamic systems and the wide variety of issues and techniques that fall within this broad area, including the interactions between structural control systems and structural system parameters.
Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications
by Rick H. HoyleThis largely nontechnical volume reviews some of the major issues facing researchers who wish to use structural equation modeling. Individual chapters present recent developments on specification, estimation and testing, statistical power, software comparisons and analyzing multitrait/multimethod data. Numerous examples of applications are given and attention is paid to the underlying philosophy of structural equation modeling and to writing up results from structural equation modeling analyses.
Structural Equation Modeling: Foundations and Extensions
by David W. KaplanUsing detailed, empirical examples, Structural Equation Modeling, Second Edition, presents a thorough and sophisticated treatment of the foundations of structural equation modeling (SEM). It also demonstrates how SEM can provide a unique lens on the problems social and behavioral scientists face. Intended Audience While the book assumes some knowledge and background in statistics, it guides readers through the foundations and critical assumptions of SEM in an easy-to-understand manner.
Structural Factors in Turkic Language Contacts
by Lars JohansonTurkic languages present particularly rich sources of data for the study of language contact, given the number and diversity of languages with which they have been in contact. Many common, false generalisations are laid bare and the methodology used in evaluating particular instances of language contact can also be used with profit by students of languages other than the Turkic.
Structural Foundations for Regional Financial Integration
by Patricia BrennerThis book was prepared as part of the Central America Financial Sector Regional Project (FSRP). The countries covered in the FSRP comprise the six Spanish-speaking countries of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Although relatively small, they are large as a group and confront many common policy challenges. With about 40 million people, Central America's population is as large as Spain's or Argentina's. Besides geographic proximity and a common language, the region shares a dependence on raw material exports, close economic ties to the United States, and vulnerabilities to natural disasters and terms-of-trade shocks. Several of the countries have also suffered from long periods of civil strife, which slowed economic growth generally, and hampered the development of legal and judicial systems. The chapters cover: an overview of the principal issues and findings of the project; background on financial development and soundness in the six countries; trends in regional financial integration and supervisory responses; development of the insurance sector; development of payment and securities settlement arrangements; and worker remittances.
Structural Markedness and Syntactic Structure: A Study of Word Order and the Left Periphery in Mexican Spanish
by Rodrigo Gutiérrez-BravoFirst Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Structural Racism: The Dynamics of Opportunity and Race in America
by Stephen MenendianThis book explains how racial inequality in the United States is produced and perpetuated and what should be done about it. It develops the elusive concept of “structural racism,” presenting a precise definition that is clear and comprehensible, and illustrates how it operates methodically and rigorously.Many other books are long on problems and short on solutions, whereas this book develops the key principles that must ground a structural reform agenda, and then presents a broad-ranging set of interventions organized around ten themes that will reduce racial disparities while expanding opportunity for all.Unlike most books on race which focus on a particular issue or sector, this book is comprehensive in its scope, encompassing the vital systems that shape racial inequality in contemporary American society: from education and public schools to income and wealth disparities to housing and health care to policing and the criminal justice system. As such, this book is the ideal text for readers seeking to learn more about structural racial inequality in society, how it came to be that way, and what we should do about it, while deepening our understanding and challenging many misguided or simplistic prevailing notions.In a time of backlash to racial justice and growing doubts about racial equity initiatives, this book is a timely and necessary entry. A must read for advocates, students, policymakers, and researchers alike.