Portable Communities


Book Description

Looks at the social implications of having constant access to others through cell phones, wireless computers, and other electronic devices.




The Portable Community


Book Description

This book explores the various ways in which individuals use music and culture to understand and respond to changes in their natural and built environments. Drawing on over 15 years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and participant observation, the author develops the thesis that the relationships, networks, and intimate forms of social interaction in the “portable” community cultivated at bluegrass festival events are significant cultural formations that shape participants’ relationships to their localities. With specific attention to the ways in which the strength of these relationships are translated into meaningful sites of community identity, place, and action following devastating local floods that destroyed homes and businesses, displacing residents for years, The Portable Community: Place and Displacement in Bluegrass Festival Life sheds light on the strength of such communities when tested and under external threat. A study of the central role of arts and music in grappling with social and environmental change, including their role in facilitating disaster relief and recovery, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in symbolic interactionism, the sociology of music, culture, and the sociology of disaster.




Communities of Style


Book Description

This book focuses on the production and circulation of portable luxury goods in the early Iron Age (1200-600 BCE). The study is particularly interested in community formation as mediated by artthough not at the national level, as is customary with most studies of antiquity. Rather, it is concerned with the complex networks that gave rise to extended communities across a range of spaces near and far. It tells a story about many communities coming together, overlapping, interacting, and reforming through various relationships between human beings and objects. It studies these processes for the early Iron Age Levant (including present-day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan), focusing on portable luxury arts, in particular ivories and metal works."




Portable Faith


Book Description

Help church members to talk their faith into their everyday worlds. Portable Faith provides simple but effective ways to help people go public with their faith. Author Sarah Cunningham provides samples of activities and exercises that encourage people to meet others in the community—for example: begin by mapping out where your church members live; create a fellowship meal of ethnic foods that come from the church's surrounding community; start a reading group at work; or simply participate in a neighborhood watch. These activities are flexible and workable even with small budgets. They can be done by individuals, Bible study groups, Sunday morning classes, or by the entire church. By the end of the book, Sarah Cunningham hopes that readers will look at their church community with new eyes.




More Mobile


Book Description

The allure of mobile, portable architecture is worldwide and centuries old. From the desert tents of the Bedouin to the silvery capsules of the Airstream trailer, mobile architecture has inspired designers with its singular characteristics of lightness, transience, and practicality. In "More Mobile", the follow-up to her groundbreaking 2002 book Mobile, Jennifer Siegal explores the ever-growing range of possibilities of portable, demountable structures. From serious Refuge Wear to the playful Bar Rectum and the practical Kunsthallen, "More Mobile" explores the working methods and finished work of the most exciting contemporary designers and presents today’s most dynamic, active mobile structures in beautiful color images, detailed drawings, and thoughtful text. Contributors include Studio-Orta, Dré Wapenaar, Andrea Zittel, Andrew Maynard, Andreas Vogler, Horden Cherry Lee Architects, N55, Atelier Bow-Wow, Mark Fisher Studio, MMW, LOT-EK, and the Office of Mobile Design. A foreword by Jude Stewart discusses life on the move, while an introduction by William J. Mitchell considers the house as a robot in which to live.




Community-Centered Journalism


Book Description

Contemporary journalism faces a crisis of trust that threatens the institution and may imperil democracy itself. Critics and experts see a renewed commitment to local journalism as one solution. But a lasting restoration of public trust requires a different kind of local journalism than is often imagined, one that engages with and shares power among all sectors of a community. Andrea Wenzel models new practices of community-centered journalism that build trust across boundaries of politics, race, and class, and prioritize solutions while engaging the full range of local stakeholders. Informed by case studies from rural, suburban, and urban settings, Wenzel's blueprint reshapes journalism norms and creates vigorous storytelling networks between all parts of a community. Envisioning a portable, rather than scalable, process, Wenzel proposes a community-centered journalism that, once implemented, will strengthen lines of local communication, reinvigorate civic participation, and forge a trusting partnership between media and the people they cover.




Write Portable Code


Book Description

Contains lessons on cross-platform software development, covering such topics as portability techniques, source control, compilers, user interfaces, and scripting languages.




Professional Learning Communities at Work


Book Description

Provides specific information on how to transform schools into results-oriented professional learning communities, describing the best practices that have been used by schools nationwide.




Beyond Conversations about Race: A Guide for Discussions with Students, Teachers, and Communities (How to Talk about Racism in Schools and Implement E


Book Description

Written by a collective of brilliant authors, this essential work provokes respectful dialogue about race that catalyzes school-changing action. The book masterfully weaves together an array of scenarios and discussions, and directly addresses challenging topics such as discomfort, violence, advocacy, bias, and responsibility. The authors call on their lived experiences and, most important, their work with tens of thousands of educators, leaders, and students to help all of us do better in our schools and communities. Learn how to talk about race in the classroom and advocate for racial equity in schools: Recognize the presence of systemic racism in schools and understand why racism is such an uncomfortable topic for many. Use scenarios and effective discussion questions to encourage challenging conversations. Learn how to advocate for underserved communities and those who suffer under racism. Resist racial stereotypes and promote equity in the classroom. Take appropriate action based on challenging conversations. Ultimately develop classrooms, schools, and districts into safe, anti-racist educational strongholds and promote positive learning experiences for marginalized students. Contents: Acknowledgments Table of Contents About the Authors Introduction: How to Get the Most out of This Book Part 1: Getting Ready for Challenging Conversations Chapter 1: Why Is Talking About Race So Hard? Chapter 2: Why Is Discomfort Required? Chapter 3: Why Scenarios as an Educational Tool? Chapter 4: How Can We Create a Safe Space for Conversation? Chapter 5: How Will Faculty and Staff Set the Standard for Challenging Conversations? Part 2: Using Scenarios for Important Conversations Chapter 6: Talking About Bias--How Can I Be Biased When I'm Not a Racist? Chapter 7: Talking About History--How Does the Shadow of 1619 Affect Us Today? Chapter 8: How Can Something Be My Responsibility When It's Not My Fault? Chapter 9: Talking About Advocacy--What Is My Duty to My Friends? Chapter 10: Talking About Law Enforcement--How Do Police Officers Help Us? How Do They Sometimes Hurt Us? Chapter 11: Talking About School--Where Are the Black People? Chapter 12: Talking About Violence--How Can We Talk About Terrible Things? Part 3: Moving From Discussion to Action Chapter 13: How Do We Engage Our Communities? Chapter 14: How Can We Advocate for Change? Chapter 15: Facing Disappointment and Loss--Why Isn't Being Right Enough? Chapter 16: How Do We Create Equity Consciousness? Chapter 17: The Next Chapter--How Do We Shift From Opposing Bigotry to Practicing Anti-Racism? References and Resources Index




Portable Property


Book Description

What fueled the Victorian passion for hair-jewelry and memorial rings? When would an everyday object metamorphose from commodity to precious relic? In Portable Property, John Plotz examines the new role played by portable objects in persuading Victorian Britons that they could travel abroad with religious sentiments, family ties, and national identity intact. In an empire defined as much by the circulation of capital as by force of arms, the challenge of preserving Englishness while living overseas became a central Victorian preoccupation, creating a pressing need for objects that could readily travel abroad as personifications of Britishness. At the same time a radically new relationship between cash value and sentimental associations arose in certain resonant mementoes--in teacups, rings, sprigs of heather, and handkerchiefs, but most of all in books. Portable Property examines how culture-bearing objects came to stand for distant people and places, creating or preserving a sense of self and community despite geographic dislocation. Victorian novels--because they themselves came to be understood as the quintessential portable property--tell the story of this change most clearly. Plotz analyzes a wide range of works, paying particular attention to George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, Anthony Trollope's Eustace Diamonds, and R. D. Blackmore's Lorna Doone. He also discusses Thomas Hardy and William Morris's vehement attack on the very notion of cultural portability. The result is a richer understanding of the role of objects in British culture at home and abroad during the Age of Empire.