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Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them
by Adrienne RaphelA delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history by a brilliant young writerAlmost as soon as it appeared, the crossword puzzle had already become indispensable to our lives. Invented practically by accident in 1913, when a newspaper editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill empty column space, it became a roaring commercial success practically overnight. Ever since then, the humble puzzle--consisting of a grid of blank squares in which solvers write answers in response to clues--has been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt. The puzzle's daily devotees include everyone from subway riders looking to pass the time to cultural icons such as Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, and Yo-Yo Ma. Today, its popularity is greater than ever, even as the media world has undergone a perilous digital transformation. But why, exactly, are the crossword's satisfactions so sweet that it is a fixture of breakfast tables, nightstands, and commutes, and has even given rise to competitive crossword tournaments? There are mysteries beyond the clues.Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of its rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she rubs shoulders with elite solvers of the world; aboard a crossword- themed cruise, she picks the brains of the enthusiasts whose idea of a good time is a week on the high seas with nothing but crosswords to do; and, visiting the home and office of Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor and NPR's official "Puzzlemaster," she goes behind the scenes to see for herself how America''s gold standard of puzzles is made.As ingenious as it is fun, Thinking Inside the Box is a love letter not just to the abiding power of the crossword but to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language itself. This book will be a treat for die-hard cruciverbalists and first-time solvers alike.
Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them
by Adrienne Raphel'Beautifully researched account, full of humour and personal insight'David Crystal, author of Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar'A witty, wise, and wonderfully weird journey that will change the way you think . . . This book is a delight'Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste'Delightfully engrossing, charmingly and enthusiastically well-written history of the crossword puzzle' Benjamin Dreyer, author of Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style 'Full of treasures, surprises and fun . . . richly bringing to life the quirky, obsessive, fascinating characters in the crossword world' Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game 'A gold mine of revelations. If there is a pantheon of cruciverbalist scholars, Adrienne Raphel has established herself squarely within it'Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma QueenEqual parts ingenious and fun, Thinking Inside the Box is a love letter to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language, a treat for die-hard cruciverbalists and first-time crossword solvers alike.The crossword is a feature of the modern world, inspiring daily devotion and obsession from millions. It was invented in 1913, almost by accident, when an editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill some empty column space for that year's Christmas edition. Almost overnight, crosswords became a phenomenal commercial success, and have been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt since then. Indeed, paradoxically, the popularity of crosswords has never been greater, even as the world of media and newspapers, the crossword's natural habitat, has undergone a dramatic digital transformation. But why, exactly, are the satisfactions of a crossword so sweet that over the decades they have become a fixture of breakfast tables, bedside tables and commutes, and even given rise to competitive crossword tournaments?Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of the crossword's rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she rubs shoulders with elite solvers from all over the world, doing her level best to hold her own; aboard a crossword-themed cruise she picks the brains of the enthusiasts whose idea of a good time is a week on the high seas with nothing to do but crosswords; and, visiting the home and office of Will Shortz, New York Times crossword puzzle editor and US National Public Radio's official Puzzlemaster, she goes behind the scenes to see for herself how the world's gold standard of puzzles is made.
Thinking Life with Luce Irigaray: Language, Origin, Art, Love (SUNY series in Gender Theory)
by Gail M. SchwabFeaturing a highly accessible essay from Irigaray herself, this volume explores her philosophy of life and living. Life-thinking, an important contemporary trend in philosophy and in women's and gender studies, stands in contrast to philosophy's traditional grounding in death, exemplified in the work of philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Schopenhauer. The contributors to Thinking Life with Luce Irigaray consider Irigaray's criticisms of the traditional Western philosophy of death, including its either-or dualisms and binary logic, as well as some of Irigaray's "solutions" for cultivating life. The book is comprehensive in its analyses of Irigaray's relationship to classical and contemporary philosophers, writers, and artists, and produces extremely fruitful intersections between Irigaray and figures as diverse as Homer and Plato; Alexis Wright, the First-Nations novelist of Australia; and twentieth-century French philosophers like Sartre, Badiou, Deleuze, and Guattari. It also develops Irigaray's relationship to the arts, with essays on theater, poetry, architecture, sculpture, and film.
Thinking Like a Climate: Governing a City in Times of Environmental Change
by Hannah KnoxIn Thinking Like a Climate Hannah Knox confronts the challenges that climate change poses to knowledge production and modern politics. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among policy makers, politicians, activists, scholars, and the public in Manchester, England—birthplace of the Industrial Revolution—Knox explores the city's strategies for understanding and responding to deteriorating environmental conditions. Climate science, Knox argues, frames climate change as a very particular kind of social problem that confronts the limits of administrative and bureaucratic techniques of knowing people, places, and things. Exceeding these limits requires forging new modes of relating to climate in ways that reimagine the social in climatological terms. Knox contends that the day-to-day work of crafting and implementing climate policy and translating climate knowledge into the work of governance demonstrates that local responses to climate change can be scaled up to effect change on a global scale.
Thinking Like an Abolitionist to End Sexual Violence in Higher Education
by Chris Linder Nadeeka Karunaratne Niah S. GrimesThis book brings abolitionist ideas into higher education contexts as a way to address the problem of sexual violence on college campuses. Despite college and university administrators spending millions of dollars each year to address sexual violence among students, rates of sexual violence have not budged. This cutting-edge book examines the histories of policies enacted to address sexual violence on campuses, drawing parallels between campus movements and mainstream feminist movements, describes contexts contributing to ongoing harm and violence among students with minoritized identities, and explores healing through community accountability processes. Thinking Like an Abolitionist to End Sexual Violence in Higher Education provides promising strategies for leaders in higher education to consider, including embracing mistakes, moving through fear, facilitating individual and collective healing, and employing transformative approaches to accountability. With suggestions for engaging in reflection and specific calls to action, practitioners, researchers, activists, educators, and policymakers alike will find this resource to be a transformative keystone text.
Thinking Like an Anthropologist
by John OmohundroThis exciting text teases out the common core of the cultural anthropological way of thinking, makes it explicit in a set of eleven questions, and uses those questions to enhance learning. Each question receives treatment in a brief chapter, accompanied by several exercises and classroom demonstrations. The textbook is intended to be accompanied by--and applied to--a reader, a few ethnographies, or a monograph with topical focus such as language, globalization, technology, art, or gender. The eleven questions that organize the text can be applied singly and cumulatively to address the cultures presented in the ethnographies or case studies chosen by each instructor. A comprehensive guide written by John Omohundro assists instructors who adopt this novel approach and suggests numerous examples of ethnographies and readers that would be effective companions for the text.
Thinking Media and Beyond: Perspectives from German Media Theory
by Briankle G. Chang and Florian SprengerMedia – old or new, in the cloud or underground – constitutes the very condition in which our world takes shape. Media is reshaped continuously, marked for both the profound effects it produces and the acceleration it exhibits. It is the site in which we signal some of the most pressing issues we face in our ever-widening technologized world. Written by authors working at the forefront of media theory today, this book charts an original and compelling path across various media forms, bringing to light the wonderful yet persistently unsettling role that media plays, and will continue to play, in the making of our future. It not only establishes media as a serious and interdisciplinary concept, but also demonstrates how this concept can be developed beyond the current limited form and content dichotomy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Cultural Studies.
Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe: Firm Beliefs on Shaky Ground
by Rienk VermijThis book is the first extensive study of ideas on earthquakes before the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. The earthquake had a deep impact on European culture, and the reactions to it stood in a long tradition that, before this study, had yet to be explored in detail. Thinking on Earthquakes investigates both scholarly theories and views that were propagated among the early modern European population. Through a chronological approach, Vermij reveals that in contrast to the Ancient and medieval philosophers who suggested rational explanations for earthquakes, supernatural ideas made a powerful comeback in the sixteenth century. By analysing a variety of sources such as pamphlets, sermons, and treatises, this study shows how changes in the ideas on earthquakes were a result of social and political demands as well as from improvements in the means of communication, rather than from scientific methods. Thus, Vermij presents an illuminating case for the production of knowledge in early modern Europe. A range of events are explored, including the Ferrara earthquake in 1570 and the Vienna earthquake in 1590, making this study an invaluable source for students and scholars of the history of science and the history of ideas in early modern Europe.
Thinking on Housing: Words, Memories, Use (Routledge Focus on Housing and Philosophy)
by Peter KingIf we do stop to think on housing, what do we see? What is housing and what does it do? These seem deceptively simple questions, but they are often left unanswered. The reason for this is that a lot of discourse on housing is really a concern for policy-making and the critical evaluation of existing policies. Discourse, is not, properly speaking, on housing at all. It is concerned with provision, distribution and access, but this thinking on housing stops at the front door. It is only concerned with what is actually external to housing. But for most people, housing already exists and they have access to it. Housing is not then about policy, but about how we can use what is a complex object in a manner that allows us to live well. Housing, for most of us, is about what we do when the front door is firmly shut and we are free from the external world. These essays explore this idea of housing as an object that exists for use. Housing is pictured as an object that contains activity. These pieces look at what we do with housing once we have it and so provides a necessary underpinning for any understanding of why housing is important. A further purpose of these pieces is to present different ways of thinking and writing on housing. It is an attempt to show that housing is a suitable topic for philosophical discourse. It is suggested that we can and should seek to establish a philosophy of housing, rather than just relying on the traditional social sciences.
Thinking Past ‘Post-9/11’: Home, Nation and Transnational Desires in Pakistani English Novels and Hindi Films
by Jayana JainThis book offers new ways of constellating the literary and cinematic delineations of Indian and Pakistani Muslim diasporic and migrant trajectories narrated in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks. Focusing on four Pakistani English novels and four Indian Hindi films, it examines the aesthetic complexities of staging the historical nexus of global conflicts and unravels the multiple layers of discourses underlying the notions of diaspora, citizenship, nation and home. It scrutinises the “flirtatious” nature of transnational desires and their role in building glocal safety valves for inclusion and archiving a planetary vision of trauma. It also provides a fresh perspective on the role of Pakistani English novels and mainstream Hindi films in tracing the multiple origins and shifts in national xenophobic practices, and negotiating multiple modalities of political and cultural belonging. It discusses various books and films including The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Burnt Shadows, My Name is Khan, New York, Exit West, Home Fire, AirLift and Tiger Zinda Hai. In light of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 attacks, current debates on terror, war, paranoid national imaginaries and the suspicion towards migratory movements of refugees, this book makes a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary debates on border controls and human precarity. A crucial work in transnational and diaspora criticism, it will be of great interest to researchers of literature and culture studies, media studies, politics, film studies, and South Asian studies.
Thinking Popular Culture: War, Terrorism and Writing
by Tara BrabazonThis book is about war and popular culture, and war in popular culture. Tara Brabazon summons, probes, questions and reclaims popular culture, challenging the assumptions of war, whiteness, Christianity, modernity and progress that have dominated our lives since September 11. Addressing modes of thinking, design, music and visual media, Thinking Popular Culture offers a journey through courageous, interventionist and thoughtful ideas, performers and cultures. It welcomes those who ask difficult questions of those in power. Addressing the lack of imagination and dissent that characterizes this new century, it is essential reading for any scholar of cultural studies and popular culture, media and journalism, creative writing and terrorism studies.
Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind
by Mr Johnny SaldanaWritten in Johnny Saldaña's elegant and accessible style, Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind boldly pursues the challenge of teaching students not just how to collect and analyze data, but how to actively think about them. Each chapter presents one “method of mind” (thinking analytically, realistically, symbolically, ethically, multidisciplinarily, artistically, summarily, interpretively, and narratively), together with applications, a vignette or story related to the thinking modality, points to remember, and exercises. Designed to help researchers “rise above the data,” the book explores how qualitative research designs, data collection, data analyses, and write-ups can be enriched through over 60 different lenses, filters, and angles on social life. Venturing into more evocative and multidimensional ways to examine the complex patterns of daily living, the book reveals how the researcher's mind thinks heuristically to transcend the descriptive and develop "highdeep" insights about the human condition. “This is a book for all qualitative methodologists. Not just a ‘how-to’ manual but an epistemological exercise in understanding qualitative methods.” —Cassie F. Quigley, Clemson University “This book fills an important void in the field. The market is crowded with books on techniques and strategies for conducting qualitative research. Saldaña’s volume provides a vital complement by encouraging students to develop the core analytical skills and interpretive frames they need to be truly successful in their research endeavors. He helps students flex and hone the epistemological muscles that are at the center of capable qualitative research.” —John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio “The focus of the book is clear and consistent. The writing is superb. It deals with sophisticated ideas in a clear and highly communicative style. It weaves important and relevant scholarship in ways that help the reader grasp the key ideas. It’s one of the best books I have read.” —Liora Bresler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Thinking Qualitatively invites students to think before they act and offers a rich set of options for qualitative researchers to consider.” —Michael Brown, University of Wyoming “This book brings together key ways of thinking about our work as qualitative researchers. In many ways, it captures the breadth and depth of our work, while calling for us to be ever reflexive about our practices. I see this book as positively informing the work of novice and experienced researchers. It is a much needed addition to the qualitative research community.” —Jessica Nina Lester, Indiana University
Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind
by Mr Johnny SaldanaWritten in Johnny Saldaña's elegant and accessible style, Thinking Qualitatively: Methods of Mind boldly pursues the challenge of teaching students not just how to collect and analyze data, but how to actively think about them. Each chapter presents one “method of mind” (thinking analytically, realistically, symbolically, ethically, multidisciplinarily, artistically, summarily, interpretively, and narratively), together with applications, a vignette or story related to the thinking modality, points to remember, and exercises. Designed to help researchers “rise above the data,” the book explores how qualitative research designs, data collection, data analyses, and write-ups can be enriched through over 60 different lenses, filters, and angles on social life. Venturing into more evocative and multidimensional ways to examine the complex patterns of daily living, the book reveals how the researcher's mind thinks heuristically to transcend the descriptive and develop "highdeep" insights about the human condition. “This is a book for all qualitative methodologists. Not just a ‘how-to’ manual but an epistemological exercise in understanding qualitative methods.” —Cassie F. Quigley, Clemson University “This book fills an important void in the field. The market is crowded with books on techniques and strategies for conducting qualitative research. Saldaña’s volume provides a vital complement by encouraging students to develop the core analytical skills and interpretive frames they need to be truly successful in their research endeavors. He helps students flex and hone the epistemological muscles that are at the center of capable qualitative research.” —John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio “The focus of the book is clear and consistent. The writing is superb. It deals with sophisticated ideas in a clear and highly communicative style. It weaves important and relevant scholarship in ways that help the reader grasp the key ideas. It’s one of the best books I have read.” —Liora Bresler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Thinking Qualitatively invites students to think before they act and offers a rich set of options for qualitative researchers to consider.” —Michael Brown, University of Wyoming “This book brings together key ways of thinking about our work as qualitative researchers. In many ways, it captures the breadth and depth of our work, while calling for us to be ever reflexive about our practices. I see this book as positively informing the work of novice and experienced researchers. It is a much needed addition to the qualitative research community.” —Jessica Nina Lester, Indiana University
Thinking Russia's History Environmentally (Environment in History: International Perspectives #25)
by Catherine Evtuhov, Julia Lajus, and David MoonHistorians of Russia were relative latecomers to the field of environmental history. Yet, in the past decade, the exploration of Russian environmental history has burgeoned. Thinking Russia’s History Environmentally showcases collaboration amongst an international set of scholars who focus on the contribution that the study of Russian environments makes to the global environmental field. Through discerning analysis of natural resources, the environment as a factor in historical processes such as industrialization, and more recent human-animal interactions, this volume challenges stereotypes of Russian history and in so doing, highlights the unexpected importance of Russian environments across a time frame well beyond the ecological catastrophes of the Soviet period.
Thinking Seriously About Gangs: Towards a Critical Realist Approach
by Paul AndellThis book examines the current debate about UK street gangs termed the ‘UK Gang Thesis’ debate. It argues that policy formations in the UK aimed at addressing street gangs preceding and succeeding the English riots of 2011 have encompassed positions of both gang denial and gang blame. The policy pendulum of denial and blame raises questions about where UK gang-policy stands, and which ideas and influences have framed our responses to this issue. The book will explore the UK Gangs Thesis using an analysis of empirical evidence from three sites in three English regions which encompasses periods of both gang denial and gang blame. This book is an examination of the relationship between theory, policy and practice in the context of the current UK gangs-discourse, and one of the first to examine the country lines phenomena. There is a need to formulate a less partisan analysis of gangs in the UK, and to recapture the debate from analyses which understate or overstate the gang problem. In order to do so, Andell argues that a realist approach is needed which defines what constitutes social reality and overcomes theoretical and methodological difficulties in order to critique present formulations of gangs. This book provides this critique and makes suggestions for a more comprehensive and democratic approach to gang policy, in what can be termed a critical realist approach to gangs.
Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns (Haney Foundation Series)
by Valerie TraubWhat do we know about early modern sex, and how do we know it? How, when, and why does sex become history? In Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns, Valerie Traub addresses these questions and, in doing so, reorients the ways in which historians and literary critics, feminists and queer theorists approach sexuality and its history. Her answers offer interdisciplinary strategies for confronting the difficulties of making sexual knowledge.Based on the premise that producing sexual knowledge is difficult because sex itself is often inscrutable, Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns leverages the notions of opacity and impasse to explore barriers to knowledge about sex in the past. Traub argues that the obstacles in making sexual history can illuminate the difficulty of knowing sexuality. She also argues that these impediments themselves can be adopted as a guiding principle of historiography: sex may be good to think with, not because it permits us access but because it doesn't.
Thinking Space (Critical Geographies)
by Mike Crang Nigel ThriftAs theorists have begun using geographical concepts and metaphors to think about the complex and differentiated world, it is important to reflect on their work, and its impact on our thoughts on space. This revealing book explores the work of a wide range of prolific social theorists. Included contributions from an impressive range of renowned geographical writers, each examine the work of one writer - ranging from early this century to contemporary writers. Among the writers discussed are Georg Simmel, Mikhail Bakhtin, Gilles Deleuze, Helene Cixous, Henri Lefebvre, Jacques Lacan, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault and Franz Fanon. Ideal for those interested in the 'spatial turn' in social and cultural theory, this fascinating book asks what role space plays in the work of such theorists, what difference (if any) it makes to their concepts, and what difference such an appreciation makes to the way we might think about space.
Thinking the Twentieth Century
by Tony Judt Timothy Snyder"Ideas crackle" in this triumphant final book of Tony Judt, taking readers on "a wild ride through the ideological currents and shoals of 20th century thought." (Los Angeles Times) One of our most brilliant historians, Tony Judt brings the past century vividly to life in this unprecedented and original history. Structured as a series of intimate conversations between Judt and his friend and fellow historian Timothy Snyder, Thinking the Twentieth Century presents the triumphs and the failures of the twentieth century's most prominent intellectuals and their ideas, guiding readers through the debates that defined our world. Spanning an era with unprecedented clarity and insight, Thinking the Twentieth Century is a tour de force: a masterful analysis of the life of the mind and an unforgettable guide to leading the mindful life.
Thinking Theory Thoroughly: Coherent Approaches To An Incoherent World
by James RosenauThink theory is thoroughly removed from explaining international crises such as Bosnia, Rwanda, and Korea? Think again! James Rosenau and Mary Durfee have teamed up to show how the same events take on different coloration depending on the theory used to explain them. In order to better understand world politics, the authors maintain, theory does make a difference.Thinking Theory Thoroughly is a primer for all kinds of readers who want to begin theorizing about international relations (IR). In this second edition, realism (the dominant theoretical perspective in IR), postinternationalism (Rosenau's famed turbulence paradigm), and liberalism are treated together in a chapter that compares them along various analytic dimensions, which makes the book even more useful.In this new edition, the order and content of case chapters have been changed to better reflect the ways theory can be used to organize empirical material. The chapter on crises, which is now at the beginning, shows how systemic theories might cope with problems and evidence of a more local and temporally constrained nature. A chapter on the U.N. illustrates how systemic theories can cope with institutions, and the last chapter, on Antarctica, delineates how systemic theories can be used to generate hypotheses that then demand different kinds of evidence.
Thinking Through Art: Reflections on Art as Research (Innovations In Art And Design Ser.)
by Katy Macleod Lin HoldridgeFocusing on a unique arena, Thinking Through Art takes an innovative look at artists’ experiences of undertaking doctorates and asks: If the making of art is not simply the formulation of an object but is also the formation of complex ideas then what effect does academic enquiry have on art practice? Using twenty-eight pictures, never before seen outside the artists’ universities, Thinking Through Art focuses on art produced in higher educational environments and considers how the material product comes about through a process of conceiving and giving form to abstract thought. It further examines how this form, which is research art sits uneasily within academic circles, and yet is uniquely situated outside the gallery system. The journal articles, from eminent scholars, artists, philosophers, art historians and cultural theorists, demonstrate the complexity of interpreting art as research, and provide students and scholars with an invaluable resource for their art and cultural studies courses.
Thinking Through Crisis: Depression-Era Black Literature, Theory, and Politics (Commonalities)
by James Edward Ford IIIIn Thinking Through Crisis, James Edward Ford III examines the works of Richard Wright, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes during the 1930s in order to articulate a materialist theory of trauma. Ford highlights the dark proletariat’s emergence from the multitude apposite to white supremacist agendas. In these works, Ford argues, proletarian, modernist, and surrealist aesthetics transform fugitive slaves, sharecroppers, leased convicts, levee workers, and activist intellectuals into protagonists of anti-racist and anti-capitalist movements in the United States.Thinking Through Crisis intervenes in debates on the 1930s, radical subjectivity, and states of emergency. It will be of interest to scholars of American literature, African American literature, proletarian literature, black studies, trauma theory, and political theory.
Thinking Through Methods: A Social Science Primer
by John Levi MartinSociological research is hard enough already—you don’t need to make it even harder by smashing about like a bull in a china shop, not knowing what you’re doing or where you’re heading. Or so says John Levi Martin in this witty, insightful, and desperately needed primer on how to practice rigorous social science. Thinking Through Methods focuses on the practical decisions that you will need to make as a researcher—where the data you are working with comes from and how that data relates to all the possible data you could have gathered. This is a user’s guide to sociological research, designed to be used at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Rather than offer mechanical rules and applications, Martin chooses instead to team up with the reader to think through and with methods. He acknowledges that we are human beings—and thus prone to the same cognitive limitations and distortions found in subjects—and proposes ways to compensate for these limitations. Martin also forcefully argues for principled symmetry, contending that bad ethics makes for bad research, and vice versa. Thinking Through Methods is a landmark work—one that students will turn to again and again throughout the course of their sociological research.
Thinking Through Resistance: A study of public oppositions to contemporary global health practice (Advances in Critical Medical Anthropology)
by Nicola BulledActs of public defiance towards biomedical public health policies have occurred throughout modern history, from resistance to early smallpox vaccines in 19th-century Britain and America to more recent intransigence to efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Central and West Africa. Thinking through Resistance examines a diverse range of case studies of opposition to biomedical public health policies – from resistance to HPV vaccinations in Texas to disputes over HIV prevention research in Malawi – to assess the root causes of opposition. It is argued that far from being based on ignorance, resistance instead serves as a form of advocacy, calling for improvements in basic health-care delivery alongside expanded access to infrastructure and basic social services. Building on this argument, the authors set out an alternative to the current technocratic approach to global public health, extending beyond greater distribution of medical technologies to build on the perspectives of a political economy of health. With contributions from medical anthropologists, sociologists, and public health experts, Thinking through Resistance makes important reading for researchers, students, and practitioners in the fields of public health, medical anthropology, and public policy.
Thinking Through Statistics
by John Levi MartinSimply put, Thinking Through Statistics is a primer on how to maintain rigorous data standards in social science work, and one that makes a strong case for revising the way that we try to use statistics to support our theories. But don’t let that daunt you. With clever examples and witty takeaways, John Levi Martin proves himself to be a most affable tour guide through these scholarly waters. Martin argues that the task of social statistics isn't to estimate parameters, but to reject false theory. He illustrates common pitfalls that can keep researchers from doing just that using a combination of visualizations, re-analyses, and simulations. Thinking Through Statistics gives social science practitioners accessible insight into troves of wisdom that would normally have to be earned through arduous trial and error, and it does so with a lighthearted approach that ensures this field guide is anything but stodgy.
Thinking Through the Environment: A Reader
by Mark J. SmithThis reader brings together material from ecological thought, environmental policy, environmental philosophy, social and political thought, historical sociology and cultural studies. The extracts tell the story of the way the natural environment has been understood in the modern world and how this has recently been questioned as contemporary societies are seen as characterised by uncertainty and complexity.The literature guides the reader through the conventiaonal grounds for thinking about rights and obligations in relation to future generations, non-human animals and the biotic commununities, bringing each into question. This then leads into a critical examination of social and political theories and their capacity for drawing on ecological thought. Each of the seven sections of readings is introduced by the editor who locates the set of readings within the specific themes and issues at the heart of each section.This broad-reaching and thought-provoking set of readings stresses the diversity of response to environmental problems both within and between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches and will encourage the reader to examine how they are manifested in the areas of environmental ethics, policy analysis and social and political theory.