Paradoxes of Authenticity


Book Description

Authenticity is one of the most crucial, but also most contested concepts in literary and cultural studies. Hollowed out by postmodernist theory, it paradoxically enough persists as an important backdrop for the discussion of literature, film, and the visual arts. The essays in this volume explore perspectives on authenticity and case studies dealing with »the authentic«. They thereby seek to show how the paradoxical persistence of authenticity in contemporary critical discourse can be turned into a fruitful point of departure for an analysis of literary texts, but also films, and the visual arts.




Challenging Coaching


Book Description

A real-world, timely, and provocative book which provides a wakeup call to move beyond the limitations of traditional coaching




You and Your Profile


Book Description

More and more, we present ourselves and encounter others through profiles. A profile shows us not as we are seen directly but how we are perceived by a broader public. As we observe how others observe us, we calibrate our self-presentation accordingly. Profile-based identity is evident everywhere from pop culture to politics, marketing to morality. But all too often critics simply denounce this alleged superficiality in defense of some supposedly pure ideal of authentic or sincere expression. This book argues that the profile marks an epochal shift in our concept of identity and demonstrates why that matters. You and Your Profile blends social theory, philosophy, and cultural critique to unfold an exploration of the way we have come to experience the world. Instead of polemicizing against the profile, Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio outline how it works, how we readily apply it in our daily lives, and how it shapes our values—personally, economically, and ethically. They develop a practical vocabulary of life in the digital age. Informed by the Daoist tradition, they suggest strategies for handling the pressure of social media by distancing oneself from one’s public face. A deft and wide-ranging consideration of our era’s identity crisis, this book provides vital clues on how to stay sane in a time of proliferating profiles.




Paradoxes of Learning


Book Description

As more is discovered about the powerful impact of lifelong learning on adults, educators are changing their views about how, when and where we learn. Learning is no longer defined only in the context of formal educational settings but in social context as well – including families, the workplace, and religious and political groups. This book explores how learning is our lifetime quest to understand personal identity, purpose and meaning while conforming and adapting to the perceived and real confines of our paradoxical society. The author examines the complex social experience of learning, revealing how culture, gender, race and other societal factors shape an individual’s identity and ability to function in relationships – the basis of all learning. He also discusses the difficult paradox of cultivating creative thinking and reflective action in a society that values the acquisition of degrees, certificates and titles over actual learning and growth.




Authentic Leadership (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)


Book Description

What does it mean to be yourself at work? As a leader, how do you strike the right balance between vulnerability and authority? This book explains the role of authenticity in emotionally intelligent leadership. You'll learn how to discover your authentic self, when emotional responses are appropriate, how conforming to specific standards can hurt you, and when you need to feel like a fake. This volume includes the work of: Bill George Herminia Ibarra Rob Goffee Gareth Jones This collection of articles includes: "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer; "The Authenticity Paradox" by Herminia Ibarra; "What Bosses Gain by Being Vulnerable" by Emma Seppala; "Practice Tough Empathy" by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones; "Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color" by Sylvia Ann Hewitt; "For a Corporate Apology to Work, the CEO Should Look Sad" by Sarah Green Carmichael; and "Are Leaders Getting Too Emotional?" an interview with Gautam Mukunda and Gianpiero Petriglieri by Adi Ignatius and Sarah Green Carmichael. How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.




The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership


Book Description

Become a next generation leader—rich in emotional and social intelligence and orchestrating outstanding collaborative results—by mastering these eight status quo-shattering paradoxes. The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership unpacks the fresh strategies and new mindset required today from a next generation leader. Author Dr. Tim Elmore helps leaders of all kinds navigate increasingly complex, rapidly changing environments, as well as manage teams who bring a range of new demands and expectations to the workplace that haven’t been seen even one generation prior. After working alongside John C. Maxwell for twenty years, Tim offers counter-intuitive paradoxes that, when practiced, enable today’s leader to differentiate themselves and better connect with their team and customers. The book furnishes ideas that equip leaders to inspire team members in a way a paycheck never could. Having trained hundreds of thousands of young professionals to develop into leaders—Dr. Elmore shares the secrets of next generation leaders who have practiced the unique paradoxes outlined in this book and inspired their team members in a way that a paycheck never could. In The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership, readers will: Learn how today’s team members require a combination of different qualities from their leaders than they did in even the recent past; Grasp the importance of eight key paradoxes that are critical for next generation leaders to put into practice right now; Be inspired by historic and modern-day leaders who lived the eight paradoxes; and Understand how they too can lead with the eight paradoxes, guiding them to emotional and social intelligence that resonates with their teams and leads to outstanding collaborative results.




The Paradox of Authenticity in a Globalized World


Book Description

Authenticity in our globalized world is a paradox. This collection examines how authenticity relates to cultural products, looking closely at how a particular "ethnic" food, or genre of popular music, or indigenous religious belief attains its aura of originality, when all traditional cultural products are invented in a certain time and place.




Point of Purchase


Book Description

This accessible, smart, and expansive book on shopping's impact on American life is in part historical, stretching back to the mid-19th century, yet also has a contemporary focus, with material on recent trends in shopping from the internet to Zagat's guides. Drawing inspiration from both Pierre Bourdieu's work and Walter Benjamin's seminal essay on the shopping arcades of 19th-century Paris, Zukin explores the forces that have made shopping so central to our lives: the rise of consumer culture, the never-ending quest for better value, and shopping's ability to help us improve our social status and attain new social identities.




Paradoxes of Individualization


Book Description

Paradoxes of Individualization addresses one of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary sociology: whether a process of individualization is liberating selves from society so as to make them the authors of their personal biographies. The book adopts a cultural-sociological approach that firmly rejects such a notion of individualization as naïve. The process is instead conceptualized as an increasing social significance of moral notions of individual liberty, personal authenticity and cultural tolerance, which informs two paradoxes. Firstly, chapters about consumer behavior, computer gaming, new age spirituality and right-wing extremism demonstrate that this individualism entails a new, yet often unacknowledged, form of social control. The second paradox, addressed in chapters about religious, cultural and political conflict, is concerned with the fact that it is precisely individualism's increased social significance that has made it morally and politically contested. Paradoxes of Individualization, will therefore be of interest to scholars and students of cultural sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, and cultural, religious and media studies, and particularly to those with interests in social theory, culture, politics and religion.




Authentic Leadership


Book Description

What is authentic leadership? Does it require a leader to express his or her true self even if that true self is less than •wonderfulê? How do followers know the difference between real and fake leaders anyway? What happens when cultural expectations o