Choosing, deciding and changing constitute the common thread of everything that we want and that we do. The deep transformation of all social system, in all its dimensions has profoundly resented of the diverse possibility or in other respects, of the absence of possibility, precisely of choosing, deciding and changing. What are we really choosing today? The hetero-direction and the conditioning seem to have become the norm, individuals are passively accustomed to an input that come from subjects and locations not identifiable. Annamaria Rufino analyzes the mystifications of new social and political “geographies” of the middle-global world that disseminate topos which they self reproduce, generating untying between our will and our real capacity of doing. Invasive dynamics overlap imperceptibly the human relations, also permeating and infecting them. The risk is, then, the loss of control of the experience, main cause of the incapacity of choosing, deciding and changing.

The middle - globality is the time of the “not occurring”. The uncertainty of not existing, in all its – individual, social, institutional and economical – manifestations dizzily transforms the social system, destroying it in the immediacy of here and now, contributing then to generate words, images and gestures that are expressed very often in violence and uncertainty. A violence above all, of “system”, of complex definition and solution. The Annamaria Rufino’s pamphlet, leads the gaze behind the scenes of a communicative representation for which everyone is co-author, often unaware and “transitional”. As total institution, the communication “force” to be negation of our existence, as victims of a disarming narration, where the presumption of consciousness denies the historical inheritance, which has been the cornerstone of the modern society that is struggling, despite everything, for the construction of the future.

The theme of this pamphlet is the knowledge, reread in its own origins and in the transformations of the middle-global world where the deep meaning appears lost in the conscious awareness. The risks, fears and conflicts that cross the society, especially in its own virtual dimension, seem to affect the sense and memory of the humanistic culture, as conscious relationship between knowledge and reality and then, make us forget the meaning of freedom as common value. Annamaria Rufino with this pamphlet “throws a stone into a pond, not only for the contemporary melancholy but also for the conventional praise of the only communication, individualization and liberation, of the there is no alternative…”. This is not an academic text but a book “against the world position statement as it is, for the world as it could be”. (J. Spurk)

This book explores how Western European psychotherapists, interviewed between 2016 and 2019, understand spirituality and how they address spiritual matters in clinical sessions. By studying a purposive sample of 15 Clinicians from Spain, England, Switzerland, Greece, Norway and Denmark, it was found that these shared similar views about spirituality, understood as dynamic, fluid and independent from religion. The interviewed psychotherapists showed great variation in their psychotherapy trainings, theoretical background and spiritual stances. However, the participants’ rich narratives illustrate that independently from their personal and professional background they all approached spiritual matters from a client centered, humanistic perspective. Spirituality was often addressed heuristically, integrating different approaches in a creative manner through an array of interventions. Differences in the participants’ religious and cultural background did not appear to determine the clinicians’ views and approaches. Recommendations for practice are discussed, stressing the relevance of implementing a non-materialistic scientific paradigm that acknowledges different personal experiences, as a source of spiritual knowledge. The importance of keeping a non-judgmental perspective and the need to acknowledge views and practices of those considering themselves as spiritual but not religious are also highlighted. Different audiences may find this book relevant, for instance psychotherapists and those in charge of psychotherapy training programs wishing to integrate a spiritual perspective in clinical work independent from religious doctrines. Likewise, those interested in historical perspectives about the traditional exclusion of spirituality from clinical work as well as the current re-integration of non- dogmatic, fluid spiritual perspectives may find relevant information. The theoretical discussions and methodological explanations could be of interest for those considering to implement thematic analysis or to pursue qualitative studies from a collaborative and reflexive stance.

Nowadays we are used to think of design in terms of quality and beauty of the tangible or intangible artefacts that are generated by an industrialised system. Considering objects, graphic representations, interfaces or services, the main difference between craftsmanship and design stays in the replicability and scalability of the proposed solution measured against an existent market and its hierarchical dynamics. This implies an order that on the surface seems to be naturally stirred by the so-called “taste”, or a series of trends that reflect the preferences of the overall public: however, looking closer, all the design production involves a carefully controlled balance driven by economical, political and social interests.

This volume is based on an anthropological fieldwork among the Asmat people for many years, and investigates the cultural significances of Asmat’s dugout canoes by using ‘symbolic and interpretive anthropology’ as theoretical framework.

Not quite the Cotton Kingdom or the free labor North, the nineteenth-century border South was a land in between. Here, the era's clashing values -- slavery and freedom, city and country, industry and agriculture -- met and melded. In factories and plantations along the Ohio River, a unique regional identity emerged: one rooted in kinship, tolerance, and compromise. Border families articulated these hybrid values in both the legislative hall and the home. While many defended patriarchal households as an essential part of slaveholding culture, communities on the border pressed for increased mutuality between husbands and wives.Drawing on court records, personal correspondence, and prescriptive literature, Marriage on the Border: Love, Mutuality, and Divorce in the Upper South during the Civil War follows border southerners into their homes through blissful betrothal and turbulent divorce. Allison Dorothy Fredette examines how changing divorce laws in the border regions of Kentucky and West Virginia reveal surprisingly progressive marriages throughout the antebellum and postwar Upper South. Although many states feared that loosening marriage's gender hierarchy threatened slavery's racial hierarchy, border couples redefined traditionally permanent marriages as consensual contracts -- complete with rules and escape clauses. Men and women on the border built marriages on mutual affection, and when that affection faded, filed for divorce at unprecedented rates. Highlighting the tenuous relationship between racial and gendered rhetoric throughout the nineteenth century, Marriage on the Border offers a fresh perspective on the institution of marriage and its impact on the social fabric of the United States.

Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood is a collection of colorful historical vignettes of an ethnically diverse neighborhood just west of the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. Its 1850s row houses have been home to a wide variety of immigrants. During the Revolutionary War, Frog Hollow was a progressive hub, and later, in the mid-late 19th century, it was a hotbed of industry. Reporter Susan Campbell tells the true stories of Frog Hollow with a primary focus on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the inventors, entrepreneurs and workers, as well as the impact of African American migration to Hartford, the impact of the Civil Rights movement and the continuing fight for housing.

After a long absence from national political debate, the housing issue has forcefully returned following the protracted economic crisis of the past decade. In general, the significant impoverishment of housing policies in the wake of welfare restructuring decisions has deeply impacted the geography of social inequality. The present study analyses the housing issue in Milan in order to account both for the ways in which national austerity policies and the specific welfare model have influenced possible answers to such a crisis and for the specific local initiatives that have been or are being experimented (e. g. social housing, cohousing, urban regeneration). The inquiry confirms the hypothesis of the third sector’s leading role in the management of new social risks in this southern European metropolis, along with all of the questions that such a role entails in terms of a possible emphasis on the local territorial imbalances that could stem from it.

In its entire range of media and product worlds, Design is decisively involved in the cultural production and distribution of related images and interpretations of gender. This anthology examines why this is the case and what happens when it is changed from different perspectives and knowledge disciplines relevant to design. The contributions collected in this book enter into an interdisciplinary dialogue on the design of gender and provide theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the social, cultural and political functions of design.

The first of many homestead communities designed during the rollout of the New Deal, Arthurdale, West Virginia, was a bold experiment in progressive social planning. At the center of the settlement was the school, which was established to improve the curriculum offered to Appalachian students. Offering displaced and unemployed coal miners and their families new opportunities, the school also helped those in need to develop a sense of dignity during the Great Depression. The first book-length study of the well-known educational experiment, The Arthurdale Community School illuminates the institution's history, influence, and impact. Founded on American philosopher and reformer John Dewey's idea that learning should be based not on competition but on community, and informed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's guidance, the Arthurdale project sought to enable both children and adults to regain a sense of identity and place by studying the history and culture of Appalachia. Its goal was not to produce workers for global capitalism but to provide citizens with the tools to participate in a democracy.Author Sam F. Stack Jr. examines both the successes and failures of this famous progressive experiment, providing an in-depth analysis of the Arthurdale School's legacy. A fascinating study of innovation and reform in Appalachia, Stack's book also investigates how this project's community model may offer insights into the challenges facing schools today.

Is there a connection between the increasingly widespread concept of Social Innovation (SI) and the success of today’s model of capitalist regulation? According to most studies focusing on SI, the existing relation is restorative in nature: SI intervenes to fix some negative effects brought about by the neoliberal regime. This volume is based on a different assumption, namely that SI is a dispositif inscribed in neoliberal govern mentality, functional in supporting the new production forms of cognitive capitalism. In light of this assumption, the transition from a production mode to another generates a series of contradictions in social relations that change the space in which they are inevitably inscribed. In this regard, SI practices are an ideal research field to observe the modes of production of subjectivity, along with the spatial practices of the subjects interested in/affected by SI.

New Guinea, and especially Papua New Guinea, is the last country in the world where ethnologists were able to closely observe, film and photograph the whole manufacturing chaînes opératoires of polished stone felling tools, from quarry extraction to finished tool use. Research on the polished blades of PNG has evolved over the years, following changing philosophies and research agendas. While it is clear that an exceptional sum of information has been gathered, it remains centered on that small part of the Highlands where conditions for field research were more pleasant than elsewhere. Our presentation of Irian Jaya axes therefore tackles a topic that remains mostly unexplored. Until now, stone tool research in New Guinea has followed an anthropocentric approach, in which tools are seen more as vectors for social exchanges than as means of acting on the environment. This monograph will take a different approach. Here, polished stone blades are placed at the center of the world, between, on one side, the transformed natural environment, and, on the other, the social and economic environment. This approach will allow us to suggest new avenues of inference in archaeology, as well as to test and abandon existing ones.In this volume, the stone blade is considered as a living being, existing in balance within its biotope. This idea is not far removed from the beliefs of Irian Jaya farmers, for whom life animates certain objects of their material culture. Following a brief presentation of Irian Jaya, we will describe the function of polished stone blades in Irian Jaya societies and the distribution of hafting styles, define and study the quarrying zones and the areas of diffusion and use of their production, and, if possible, the different trends noted in each area of polished blade production and exchanges. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion of the ethnoarchaeological potential of these contemporary observations.

The idea that America is a literate country is a misconception. There are more than thirty million adults in the United States today who cannot read, and spectator mentality and an obsession with instant gratification prevent many from retaining a true commitment to literacy. The issue persists despite a wealth of dedicated teachers across the country. Through no fault of their own, many educators are unable to excite students about learning to read and write. In response to this problem, James W. Parkinson argues that people must become responsible for their own education and learn the importance of being self-taught in reading and writing.In Autodidactic: Self-Taught, Parkinson shares his personal stories and discoveries about how to take charge of one's own learning, weaving together practical wisdom and historical statements issued by some of the world's most remarkable leaders. Parkinson details his failures and successes, his inability to engage intellectually in his youth, and his efforts to educate himself over a span of forty years -- all to remind readers that education is a lifelong challenge with no shortcuts. This book promises to motivate students, doctors, factory workers, and flight attendants alike to take matters into their own hands when it comes to learning in order to change their lives for the better.

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011 was a complex event. It was a disaster of multiple dimensions, unleashing the linked forces of seismic shock, tsunami, and nuclear radiation. This confluence left a varied array of damage in its wake. The personal traumas of death and loss combined with the social trauma of ruptured families, the economic trauma resulting from the physical destruction, and the psychic trauma arising from an uncertain future. Such a complex disaster demands a multifaceted exploration into its nature, implications, and meaning. The essays in this collection cross academic and geographic boundaries to explore the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami from a wide range of perspectives and to apply the analytical and interpretive tools of multiple disciplines to the study of the disaster and the various forms of trauma it inflicted.

Violence is the plague of our civilization. It threatens us daily through its many tentacles: domestic violence, criminal violence, sexual abuse, terrorism, state violence, revolution, war, and genocide. The recently evolved discipline of traumatology has amply described commonalities in the consequences of violence. But there was no corresponding discipline of violentology, which explained why violence occurred in the first place. Inexorably, Valent was drawn to take the leap from healing the minds of victims to try to understand the minds of perpetrators.Valent unpicks the minds of perpetrators in each field of violence. He develops a lens by which to understand violence from individual to international, and from primitive to spiritual dimensions. We come to understand how aggressions that helped our species to survive now threaten our species with extinction. Such understanding may help to eliminate our current plague, just as understanding helped to eliminate the original one. Valent explains his thesis through many stories accessible to both professionals and lay readers. One story interweaving throughout is Valent’s own story. From a child who survived the Holocaust, he ferrets out the minds of his perpetrators in his quest to prevent future violence. Violence, for Valent, is not an isolated feature of the human condition. Surprisingly close to violence are struggles for love. Readers also learn about that aspect of humanity.