Vocabularies of Public Life


Book Description

First published in 1992, Vocabularies of Public Life explores the revolution that has taken place in our understanding of contemporary culture and decodes a number of the symbols which now dominate public life. Wuthnow divides the essays collected here into three distinct ‘vocabularies.’ Part I examines the ways in which religious and scientific languages function as vocabularies of conviction in public life, Part II focuses on music and art as vocabularies of expression, and Part III considers law, ideology, and public policy as vocabularies of persuasion. The contributors discuss such diverse subjects as American spiritualism, the syntax of modern dance and the social contexts of number one songs. What unifies the book is the common concern with the concrete, everyday manifestations of culture and the importance of understanding its basic structure. This book will be of interest to specialists and scholars of various disciplines such as linguistics, literature, media studies, popular culture, and sociology.




Bringing Words to Life


Book Description

Hundreds of thousands of teachers have used this highly practical guide to help K–12 students enlarge their vocabulary and get involved in noticing, understanding, and using new words. Grounded in research, the book explains how to select words for instruction, introduce their meanings, and create engaging learning activities that promote both word knowledge and reading comprehension. The authors are trusted experts who draw on extensive experience in diverse classrooms and schools. Sample lessons and vignettes, children's literature suggestions, "Your Turn" learning activities, and a Study Guide for teachers enhance the book's utility as a classroom resource, professional development tool, or course text. The Study Guide can also be downloaded and printed for ease of use (www.guilford.com/beck-studyguide). New to This Edition *Reflects over a decade of advances in research-based vocabulary instruction. *Chapters on vocabulary and writing; assessment; and differentiating instruction for struggling readers and English language learners, including coverage of response to intervention (RTI). *Expanded discussions of content-area vocabulary and multiple-meaning words. *Many additional examples showing what robust instruction looks like in action. *Appendix with a useful menu of instructional activities. See also the authors' Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples, which includes specific instructional sequences for different grade ranges, as well as Making Sense of Phonics, Second Edition: The Hows and Whys, by Isabel L. Beck and Mark E. Beck, an invaluable resource for K–3.




New Keywords


Book Description

Over 25 years ago, Raymond Williams’ Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society set the standard for how we understand and use the language of culture and society. Now, three luminaries in the field of cultural studies have assembled a volume that builds on and updates Williams’ classic, reflecting the transformation in culture and society since its publication. New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society is a state-of-the-art reference for students, teachers and culture vultures everywhere. Assembles a stellar team of internationally renowned and interdisciplinary social thinkers and theorists Showcases 142 signed entries – from art, commodity, and fundamentalism to youth, utopia, the virtual, and the West – that capture the practices, institutions, and debates of contemporary society Builds on and updates Raymond Williams’s classic Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, by reflecting the transformation in culture and society over the last 25 years Includes a bibliographic resource to guide research and cross-referencing The book is supported by a website: www.blackwellpublishing.com/newkeywords.




Elusive Togetherness


Book Description

Many scholars and citizens alike have counted on civic groups to create broad ties that bind society. Some hope that faith-based civic groups will spread their reach as government retreats. Yet few studies ask how, if at all, civic groups reach out to their wider community. Can religious groups--long central in civic America--create broad, empowering social ties in an unequal, diverse society? Over three years, Paul Lichterman studied nine liberal and conservative Protestant-based volunteering and advocacy projects in a mid-sized American city. He listened as these groups tried to create bridges with other community groups, social service agencies, and low-income people, just as the 1996 welfare reforms were taking effect. Counter to long-standing arguments, Lichterman discovered that powerful customs of interaction inside the groups often stunted external ties and even shaped religion's impact on the groups. Comparing groups, he found that successful bridges outward depend on group customs which invite reflective, critical discussion about a group's place amid surrounding groups and institutions. Combining insights from Alexis de Tocqueville, John Dewey, and Jane Addams with contemporary sociology, Elusive Togetherness addresses enduring questions about civic and religious life that elude the popular "social capital" concept. To create broad civic relationships, groups need more than the right religious values, political beliefs, or resources. They must learn new ways of being groups.




Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words


Book Description

This work demonstrates that every language has its "key concepts" (expressed in key words) and that these concepts reflect the core values of the culture in question. Examining empirical evidence from five lanuages, and using its own "natural semantic metalanguage" to provide an analytical framework, it shows that cultures can be revealingly studied, compared and explained to outsiders through their key concepts.




The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology


Book Description

Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world.Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts.




POLARITIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY


Book Description

'The present age needs to understand that human beings must hold the balance between the two extremes, between the ahrimanic and the luciferic poles. People always tend to go in one direction... The Christ stands in the middle, holding the balance.'– Rudolf Steiner These eleven lectures were given in post-war Stuttgart against a backdrop of struggle and uncertainty – not only within society at large but also within the anthroposophical movement. Rudolf Steiner and his supporters were working to introduce 'threefold' social ideas and – given Steiner's public profile – were coming under increasing personal and sometimes physical attack. Steiner responds to this turbulent situation by revealing the spiritual background to the forces of decline working in contemporary civilization. He speaks of retrogressive powers – spiritual beings referred to as luciferic or ahrimanic – that work directly into human culture, manifesting, for example, in what he refers to as the 'initiation streams' of Western secret societies, the Church-allied impulse of Jesuitism and the Bolshevik force of Leninism. The spiritual agents of adversity also encourage polarised thinking and false opposites such as East verses West, materialism and mysticism, or knowledge and belief. Only the threefold principle – represented by Christ – allows us to create a balance in the midst of these existential conflicts. This freshly-reworked translation is complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Matthew Barton.




The Language of Liberty


Book Description

The Language of Liberty: A Citizen's Vocabulary is a substantive lexicon of 101 political terms. These are not simply definitions, but explorations of each term's meaning in the broader context of American life and history. Addressing nearly every aspect of our political system, and doing so in a non-partisan, accessible, manner, The Language of Liberty will appeal to anyone wanting to understand our political system more fully. It amounts to an owner's manual for American government. This book is timeless, yet needed now more than ever. "At a time when the vocabulary of politics and governance has never been more devalued and skewed for partisan purposes, Ed Hagenstein's The Language of Liberty: A Citizen's Vocabulary offers an effective and indeed noble antidote. The book provides concise definitions of the terms we see thrown around so carelessly every day-from the specific (Chief of Staff, lame duck) to the complex and conceptual (meritocracy, identity politics). It brings clarity and sensible relief to the politically charged and often deliberately misleading public discourse to which we lately have been subjected. We need this book. Read it, and be reminded of what the language of liberty really means." -David Lambertson, retired Foreign Service Officer and former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand




Public Women, Public Words


Book Description

An expansive assemblage of historical sources recounts a public history written and spoken by women from colonial America to the end of the 19th century. Introductions to each of the sections place the documents (which include little-known texts as well as the classics) within their cultural and historical context, providing biographical information for each author. The texts are ordered chronologically, often subdivided by topics such as revolutionizing the family and relations between the sexes; education and women's literary culture; the anti-slavery movement; suffrage and other essential rights; and the professions and higher education. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.




The Political Philosophy of Zionism


Book Description

Zionism emerged at the end of the nineteenth century in response to a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and to the crisis of modern Jewish identity. This novel, national revolution aimed to unite a scattered community defined mainly by shared texts and literary tradition, into a vibrant political entity destined for the Holy Land. As this remarkable book demonstrates, however, Zionism was about much more than a national political ideology and practice. By tracing its origins in the context of a European history of ideas, and by considering the writings of key Jewish and Hebrew writers and thinkers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the book offers an entirely new philosophical perspective on Zionism as a unique movement based on intellectual boldness and belief in human action. In counter-distinction to the studies of history and ideology that dominate the field, this book also offers a new way of reflecting upon contemporary Israeli politics.