bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Youth First in Jackson Square! (¡Jovenes Primero!)
Authors: Delgado Melvin , Staples Lee
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents a case study to illustrate how youth-led community organizing can be done and how local circumstances help shape these efforts. Hyde/Jackson Square is an area that has been described by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay as one of the most densely populated minority-youth concentrations in the city of Boston. The chapter describes the formation of the Hyde Square Task Force and its participation in planning for the Jackson Square Development Area. It is shown that the campaign to establish a youth and family center emerged from the context of a traditional turf-based organizing effort by the Hyde Square Task Force that initially focused on gang and drug violence. As neighborhood residents joined together to gain greater control over the redevelopment of the area, the need for a youth center surfaced through a true “bottom-up” community-driven strategic planning process initiated by the task force’s executive director. Once it became clear that youth programming was an essential priority, and large numbers of young people became directly involved in the action group, strong elements of identity organizing based on age also emerged.
Challenges Inherent in Youth-Led Organizing
Authors: Delgado Melvin , Staples Lee
Published: January 2009

This chapter provides a comprehensive view of the considerations and challenges found in all phases of the youth-led community organizing process. In the case of youth organizing, particular attention is paid to how age and gender become both facilitating and hindering factors in campaigns for social change.
A Brief History of Interdependence
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: January 2009

The idea of interdependence has assumed a central role in contemporary Buddhism, especially in the West. This chapter traces the way by which dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada) in early Buddhism was transmuted from a causal chain binding beings to samsara—something to get free from—into contemporary interpretations of interdependence as a web of interconnected beings and events to celebrate, embrace, and become one with. The early conception of dependent origination is first reframed in the Mahayana, through ideas such as interpenetration in the Avatamsaka Sutra and the reverence for the natural world in East Asia. The concept then picks up western influences from Romanticism, Transcendentalism, systems theory, deep ecology, and popular accounts of quantum physics. The recent synthesis of these elements is a hybrid concept of interdependence unique to contemporary Buddhism that combines cosmology and world-affirming wonder with ethical, political, and ecological imperatives.
Mindfulness, Literature, and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life
Authors: McMahan David L.
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the conditions under which Buddhist practices of mindfulness have come to take on a new significance within the context of modernity’s broad affirmation of the ordinary world. More specifically, modern articulations of mindfulness are informed by modern literature’s valorization of the details of everyday life, its finely tuned descriptions of the flow of consciousness, and its new reverence for ordinary objects and their capacity to reflect the universal. These are reflected in the work of authors like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Herman Hesse, who have been hidden resources for a modern re-interpretation of mindfulness. Further, this understanding provides a distinctively modern way of re-sacralizing and re-enchanting the world without resort to the supernatural, as in the work of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Formulate an Answerable Practice Question
Authors: Macgowan Mark J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter describes the first stage of evidence-based group work (EBGW), formulating an answerable practice question. Questions may arise in five areas in group work: the group change theory, the individual group member, group structural factors, group processes, and group leadership. EBGW begins with a real clinical concern in these areas, developed into a well-constructed question. These questions must be relevant to members' issues, must be answerable, and be practical. They should be constructed a certain way, including three specific components: specific member or group challenge, intervention or technique, and an outcome. Questions should also be parsimonious, but include enough information to produce a manageable amount of evidence in the first search. Two case examples illustrate how answerable practice questions are formulated.
Apply the Evidence and Evaluate the Achievement of Desired Outcomes
Authors: Macgowan Mark J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter describes the fourth and final stage of evidence-based group work (EBGW), applying the evidence into practice and evaluating its effects. Application and evaluation are not separate endeavors but intertwined in a circular and iterative process. Group workers apply the best available evidence into practice, remaining as faithful to the original intervention/technique as possible adapting only where necessary, monitoring its effects using measures and a research design that structures the evaluation process, recording results, and determining how to improve both the evaluation and the practice. Thus, the process does not just end with knowing if the evidence “worked,” but continues with a systematic, critical process of improving practice based on the ongoing results of the application in practice and evaluation. Three case examples illustrate the two main steps of the chapter: application and evaluation to ensure desired results.
Advancing Evidence-Based Group Work in Research, Clinical Practice, and Education
Authors: Macgowan Mark J.
Published: January 2009

This final chapter discusses how evidence-based group work (EBGW) can be advanced in clinical settings, research, and education. There is a need for more research evidence about group work and articles about the application of EBGW in practice, including studies on the effectiveness of EBGW. The chapter includes strategies for building support for EBGW in organizations. It also describes how to advance EBGW in higher and continuing education and it highlights the validity of problem-based learning in teaching about EBGW. The Translational Research approach is offered as a model to advance EBGW research, practice, and education. In that model, there would be a planned and systemic collaboration between researchers, educators, and practitioners. Organizational structures would be supportive of EBGW, research would be practice-relevant and readily available to group workers, and education and consultation would be ongoing.
Access Challenges to Service Delivery
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses how service access has been conceptualized over an extended period of time, and offers a variety of frameworks from which to develop a better understanding of different ways of viewing culture as an important construct in the development of services. It also provides a framework for a multifaceted perspective on access to services. These two frameworks in combination serve as theoretical and practical guides for understanding the barriers Latinos face in receiving social services, and must be utilized simultaneously to achieve their intended goals. Finally, two critical social systems with particular relevance to the issue of access are discussed (correctional and child welfare).
A Cultural Assets Paradigm: A Conceptual Foundation
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses a Latino cultural assets paradigm. The paradigm is based on scholarship originating in the 1980s and 1990s, and integrates empirically-based evidence with practice wisdom achieved during a career developed in urban practice with marginalized communities of color, particularly Latinos. It argues that federal, state, and local government, and other sectors must work with community assets in any formation of social policies and programs. Failure to do so will essentially result in wasted resources and further alienating communities in the process.
Epilogue
Authors: Delgado Melvin
Published: January 2009

This epilogue focuses on the lessons learned in planning and implementing a cultural assets paradigm with Latinos. It identifies overarching themes related to the use of this paradigm, drawing from the case studies presented in Chapter 8, along with theoretical matters covered in the literature. The chapter presents key factors, issues, and considerations that emerged through the writing of this book, with implications for future social work practice.
Epidemiology of Child Maltreatment
Authors: Trocmé Nico
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents a summary of current research on the epidemiology of child maltreatment in the United States and Canada to provide a better understanding of the scope and distribution of child maltreatment. It presents definitions of terms such as child maltreatment, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. It then discusses Child Protection Services (CPS)-investigated maltreatment, severity of cases of reported maltreatment, and implications for research, policy, and practice.
How Do We Know What Works? The Quality of Published Reviews of Evidence-Based Practices
Authors: Littell Julia H.
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the development and dissemination of information on the efficacy and effectiveness of one of the most prominent evidence-based practices for youth and families — multisystemic therapy (MST). MST has been widely implemented with families of juvenile delinquents and has been proposed as a solution to the perceived “failure” of family preservation services (FPS) in child welfare. The chapter presents a critique of the evidence supporting MST, articulates how evidence can be misused, and offers rigorous procedures for establishing the quality of studies.
New Permanency Strategies for Children in Foster Care
Authors: Testa Mark
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the use of subsidized guardianship as a permanency alternative. It outlines an analytical framework for charting the broad cycle of public child welfare change in the United States. It traces the origins of the permanency planning movement, and considers the latest round of debate being generated by the expanded public reliance on kinfolk and foster families for the permanent care and guardianship of abused and neglected children. It outlines the theoretical foundations of the use of kinship care as a placement resource of choice, drawing on an emerging body of evidence to support this position.
Moving Restorative Justice Interventions into Domestic Violence Treatment
Authors: Friend Colleen
Published: January 2009

This chapter traces the traditional conceptualizations of domestic violence and the theories that are at the foundation of nationwide methods for addressing this issue. It examines some key literature about what is currently known about the effectiveness of batterers’ intervention programs (BIP). Principles of restorative justice practice as well as its critique are outlined. An innovative treatment approach — Constructing Circles of Peace (CCP) — is presented that draws on restorative justice principles. This experimental treatment model is currently in operation in Nogales, Arizona, and is being evaluated.
Decision Making in Child Welfare: Constraints and Potentials
Authors: Gambrill Eileen
Published: January 2009

Child welfare practitioners make life-altering decisions on a daily basis. This chapter describes factors affecting decisions drawing on literature concerning decision making, problem solving and judgement in multiple areas. The importance of thinking critically about decisions, including related uncertainties, is highlighted. Topics discussed include structuring problems, identifying goals, the importance of situational awareness, cognitive biases that affect the quality of decisions and the use of simplifying strategies such as fast and fugal heuristics as well as analytical thinking. The importance of recognizing errors as inevitable and as providing learning opportunities is highlighted as is the limited information regarding these in child welfare. Barriers to sound decision making are discussed including self imposed barriers such as inflated views of one’s own competencies. The need for a systemic approach is emphasized including attention to professional education programs, as well as organizational factors, and the importance of using valid assessment frameworks and measures, and learning from our errors.
Self-Evaluation: Using Data to Guide Policy and Practice in Public Child Welfare Agencies
Authors: Webster Daniel , Usher Charles L. , Needell Barbara , Wildfire Judith
Published: January 2009

Self-evaluation provides a method for child welfare agencies to structure and implement programs and practice. Today, self-evaluation is not simply a reflective exercise but a practiced methodology for assessment, planning, and operation. This chapter discusses some of the challenges and successes encountered by university technical assistants, child welfare agency administrators, frontline workers, and community partners as they have worked together toward using data to improve their social work practices. It discusses the basic aspects of self-evaluation, including review of the organizational culture, attitude adjustment, intra-agency cooperation, and the recasting of personal opinions. It also discusses computer software that can assist in mapping and geographic study and some new possibilities for gathering and analyzing data. A team concept for agency organization and the consequent improvement of delivery of services by using neighborhood targeting and better assignment of case workers is presented.
Promoting Child Well-Being Through Early Intervention: Findings from the Chicago Longitudinal Study
Authors: Reynolds Arthur J. , Mersky Joshua
Published: January 2009

This chapter presents evidence from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) on the impacts of the Chicago Child-Parent-Center (CPC) program, which provides educational and family support services to economically disadvantaged children and their parents from preschool through third grade. It describes its basic philosophy and service model, and highlights some of the salient effects attributed to the CPCs, including impacts on child maltreatment and child welfare services. The program theory is then linked to the estimated effects by detailing the hypothesized mechanisms of change through which the intervention operates. The implications of findings for tailoring effective prevention programs and child welfare policy are discussed.
The Effect of Children on the Income Status of Female-Headed Households: An Intercountry Comparison
Authors: Ozawa Martha N. , Lee Yongwoo
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the degree to which the number of children lowers the income status of female-headed households. The US situation is compared with that of other industrialized countries. In the United States, female heads of households are relatively well educated, have a relatively larger number of children, and are more likely to work. At the descriptive level, their after-tax income status is the highest among those in these six countries. Yet, after public and private income transfers are distributed, their income status plunges to the second lowest, next only to Canadians’. In the Nordic and European countries, social policy interventions have improved the income status of households with children, particularly female-headed households. The provision of various forms of public income transfers, including children’s allowances, maternity benefits, Social Security benefits, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation, has effectively smoothed out the distribution of disposable household income, mitigating the impact of children on the income status of female-headed households in these countries.
Ethics and Qualities of Life
Authors: Kupperman Joel J.
Published: January 2009

This book looks at what enters into ethical judgment and choice. Interpretation of a case and of what the options are is always a factor, as is a sense of the possible values at stake. Intuitions also enter in, but often are unreliable. For a long time it seemed only fair that oldest sons inherited, and it struck few people as unfair that women were not allowed to attend universities. A moral judgment is putatively part of a moral order in a society that any reasonable person would accept. But what counts as “reasonable” is generally contestable. The unreliability of intuitions leads naturally to ethical theory. Kantian, contractualist, and consequentialist theories all have some important truth in them, but not the whole truth. Contractualism lacks the resources required for a fully determinate account of what counts as “reasonable.” Broad general rules are important to Kant and are at the center of everyday morality. But can Kantian ethics explain why they have to have this central role? Our evolving social contract now contains elements (e.g., the rejection of racism and sexism) that once would have seemed counter-intuitive to most people. But could consequentialists have predicted with entire confidence the consequences of social changes that we now think were desirable? The last part of this book contains a double argument. One is that ethical theory is employed by humans in a state of semi-ignorance of relevant factors, grasping at likely truths and evolved intuitions. The other is that consequentialist considerations have a major role at the fundamental level, but much more in justification or criticism than in ethical discovery.
Introduction
Authors: Kupperman Joel J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter begins with a discussion of the term “qualities of life”, as well as the contrast between the practice of ethical thought and ethical theory. It then elucidates the book's strategy, which seeks to lessen the tension between complexity and readability in two ways. The first is by explaining the meanings of the eight key terms used in the book; the second is through the management of references.
The Relevance of Construal and Valencing to Good Choice
Authors: Kupperman Joel J.
Published: January 2009

The previous chapters explored processes that are important to virtue ethics, but that on the problem-solving-software view of ethics would be seen largely as stage setting. This chapter argues that, even on the problem-solving-software view, they are not merely stage setting but in fact can be a crucial part of ethical decision. It addresses the question of why philosophers who take the problem-solving-software view usually ignore this. One reason is that the recent philosophical literature tends to dwell on examples in which factors of construal and valencing can be taken for granted and thus ignored.
The Importance of Character
Authors: Kupperman Joel J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter argues that character is not merely a part of the stage setting for ethical judgment, but in fact often plays a crucial role in the quality of judgment. It begins by discussing what character is and how it is related to virtues. It then covers the causal role of character traits in behavior, the formation and dominance of character, and style and attitude as factors in choice.
The Bases of Ethical Theory
Authors: Kupperman Joel J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the three foundations—fairness, respect for persons, and sympathy—and examines how the considerations that they point toward might be combined in a single theory. It considers one influential attempt to reduce all moral considerations to consideration of consequences, namely act consequentialism.
Evaluating Scientists: Examining the Effects of Sexism and Nepotism
Authors: Wray K. Brad
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines a variety of contexts in which scientists evaluate their peers and the impact such evaluations have on science. Section 4.2 draws the distinction between implicit and explicit judgments of competence and give examples of each sort of judgment. Section 4.3 reviews a number of studies that suggest scientists are influenced by nonepistemic values when they make explicit judgments of competence. In particular, scientists are affected by sexism and nepotism. Section 4.4 examines the epistemic consequences of scientists' biased explicit judgments of competence and focus on the adverse effects of nepotism. Section 4.5 explains why scientists are not prone to the same problems when making implicit judgments of competence.
Is Logical Empiricism Committed to the Ideal of Value‐Free Science?
Authors: Roberts John T.
Published: January 2009

This chapter argues that logical empiricism is (implicitly) committed to rejecting the ideal of value-free science. Section 7.2 explains the meaning of the logical empiricist approach to philosophy of science. Section 7.3 discusses the meaning of the ideal of value-free science. Section 7.4 returns to the logical empiricist approach to philosophy of science and fills in a few more details. Section 7.5 considers and rejects an argument that seems to show that the logical empiricist approach to philosophy of science must be committed to the ideal of value-free science. Section 7.6 presents the main argument of the chapter, and concluding remarks are offered in Section 7.7.
The Value Ladenness of Scientific Knowledge
Authors: Doppelt Gerald
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines post-Kuhnian insights and debates concerning the relativity of scientific knowledge and their impact on rationality, objectivity, and realism. The focus on scientific knowledge will take us to the nub of the question of whether science is, or can be, “value free.” The claim that science, as we know it, is not and cannot be value free, while gaining an almost theological status for many scholars today, obscures several distinct dimensions of science and the roles different sorts of values may or may not play in each of these dimensions.
From Fieldwork to Facts to Firearms Control: Research and Advocacy Toward Stricter Firearms Control Legislation in South Africa
Authors: King Maylene Shung , Proudlock Paula , Michelson Lori
Published: January 2009

Firearms were found to be a major cause of injury and death among children in the 5- to 18-year-old age group and the leading cause of death in young men in their late teens in South Africa. In the 1990s, the high incidence of firearm deaths and injuries spurred government policy and law reform, culminating in a new Firearms Control Act, which replaced the ineffective and outdated Arms and Ammunition Act. This chapter considers the role research played in this complex process by examining the activities and impact of a research and advocacy project undertaken by an academic policy research organization called the Child Health Policy Institute (CHPI) at the University of Cape Town. The chapter describes the political context within which the project was initiated; outlines the research findings and how they were disseminated and utilized in relation to the law reform process; describes the law reform process and broader advocacy strategy related to it; and reflects on lessons learned.
Dissemination and Impact: Issues, Lessons, and Future Directions
Authors: Chaskin Robert J.
Published: January 2009

This chapter reviews the key themes and lessons suggested by the case studies in the preceding chapters. It considers the relations among them and the contributions they make toward improving theory and practice. It presents some of the implications of these lessons for research, policy, and practice.
Six Constructing a Usable Past
Authors: Murphy Andrew R.
Published: January 2009

This chapter attends more closely to the competing ways of constructing and drawing on the past that each type of jeremiad employs. The chapter opens with a consideration of the U. S. Supreme Court's decision in Abington v. Schempp(1963), which outlawed public school prayer. It goes on to explore the uses of the past in traditionalist jeremiads, focusing on traditionalist appeals to nostalgia and an American Golden Age. The progressive jeremiad looks to the past as well, seeking to renarrate founding principles in language appropriate to changing times. Thus the progressive jeremiad is not concerned so much with the way “things really were” in the past, and even less in casting the future into the mold of the past. But the progressive jeremiad's past, containing such a powerful founding promise, is equally constructed, and equally mythic. Both types of jeremiads construct a past in accord with their fundamental political values and agenda, and in doing so call forth critical counternarratives from their political opponents.
Knowledgeable Adults’ Experiences and Perspectives
Authors: Haight Wendy , Ostler Teresa , Black James , Kingery Linda
Published: January 2009

This chapter focuses on the perspectives and experiences of knowledgeable adults. Child welfare workers, other community professionals (educators, counselors, law enforcement personnel, and substance misuse treatment providers), and foster parents described their experiences with families involved with methamphetamine. They described children's exposure to environmental danger, chaos, neglect, abuse, loss, and isolation. They believe that children develop anti-social beliefs and practices such as lying and stealing, drug misuse and violence. They described children as displaying psychological, emotional, and social disturbances. They also described individual variation in functioning across children that they attributed, in part, to individual, familial, and community characteristics. They noted a need for effective child mental health services in rural areas, and substance misuse treatment for their parents.
Conceptual and Empirical Bases of Life Story Intervention for Rural Foster Children
Authors: Haight Wendy , Ostler Teresa , Black James , Kingery Linda
Published: January 2009

This chapter describes the conceptual and empirical bases of Life Story Intervention: a six- to eight-month-long, individualized program for school-aged children. It is evidence-based and draws on the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry guidelines for intervention with children who have experienced trauma, clinical discussions of substance-involved families, narrative therapy, and research on community- and relationship-based interventions. It also draws upon indigenous, oral narrative traditions in rural Illinois. It provides children with an opportunity to develop a supportive relationship with a healthy, reliable adult who can help them to express their feelings, and interpret and contextualize their experiences, including troubling or traumatic memories. It is delivered to children in their homes and communities by local professionals (e.g., social workers, child welfare workers, educators) who take on one child or two siblings and who are supervised by PhD- or MD-level licensed clinicians experienced in working with traumatized children.
Implementing Life Story Intervention
Authors: Haight Wendy , Ostler Teresa , Black James , Kingery Linda
Published: January 2009

This chapter describes implementation issues for Life Story Intervention, including child eligibility, identification and recruitment of participating community professionals, the setting of the intervention, and assessing children. It also discusses the phases of the intervention: relationship-building, co-constructing the child's life story and termination. Also presented are the caregiver component, communication with child welfare professionals, and supervision of community professionals implementing the intervention. Challenges to implementing Life Story Intervention and suggested strategies are described.
Institution
Authors: Baggett Jerome P.
Published: January 2009

This chapter considers parishioners' awareness of the various institutional dilemmas that encumber their church, as well as the ways in which these influence their perceptions of themselves as members of the broader institution. It argues that parishioners tend to be quite critical and self-conscious in their use of Catholic symbols when thinking about themselves as both individuals and members of a hierarchical institution.
Community
Authors: Baggett Jerome P.
Published: January 2009

This chapter shows that Catholics' personally tailored projects of identity construction are both highly localized and communal in nature. They also complicate one of the most broadly accepted master narratives of contemporary social analysis: the inexorable decline of community that it is presumed accompanies the transformation from traditional to individualistic, modern societies.
Paradox
Authors: Baggett Jerome P.
Published: January 2009

This chapter reflects on an inherent paradox of religious traditions. Characterized by both stasis and flux, traditions conserve cultural meanings for new generations of people who, in reinterpreting these as novel situations require, ultimately alter those very meanings. To comprehend this is to grasp more fully the perennial and dynamic nature of religious faith. This pushes us to acknowledge two additional points. The first is that the analytical categories we frequently utilize in investigating religious traditions must also adapt if we are truly to do justice to tradition's paradoxical character. The second point is that the ending of one iteration of a religious tradition is often tantamount to the beginning of another.
Constitutional Interpretation
Authors: Barber Sotirios A. , Fleming James E.
Published: January 2009

What is the nature of the US Constitution? How ought it to be interpreted? Ronald Dworkin famously argued that fidelity in interpreting the Constitution as written calls for a fusion of constitutional law and moral philosophy. Sotirios A. Barber and James E. Fleming take up that call, arguing for a philosophic approach to constitutional interpretation. In doing so, they systematically criticize competing approaches — textualism, consensualism, originalism, structuralism, doctrinalism, minimalism, and pragmatism — that aim and claim to avoid a philosophic approach. They show that none can responsibly avoid philosophic reflection and choice in interpreting the Constitution. At the same time, Barber and Fleming demonstrate that a philosophic approach, properly understood, does not turn its back on traditional sources of constitutional meaning. It is in fact the most defensible approach to constitutional text and history. They emphasize that the philosophic approach is a fusion of approaches. Within such a fusion, interpreters would view text, intentions, consensus, structures, and doctrines not as alternatives to but as sites of philosophic reflection and choice about the best understanding of our constitutional commitments. Nor does the philosophic approach demand that judges and other interpreters of the Constitution become philosophers. It demands only that interpreters think self-critically and take public responsibility for the moral choices that they inevitably make in faithfully interpreting the Constitution. The book offers both a succinct overview of approaches to constitutional interpretation and a powerful argument for a philosophic approach.
Textualism and Consensualism
Authors: Barber Sotirios A. , Fleming James E.
Published: January 2009

The textualist says we can find what the Constitution means by consulting the plain words of the constitutional document. The consensualist consults a current social consensus on what the words of the document mean. This chapter treats these approaches together because both claim to consult conventional understandings of the meanings of the words. It concludes that the textualist and the consensualist reason, not from plain words or social consensus, but from a conception of democracy that is controversial enough to require a philosophic defense — a defense that textualists and consensualists would but cannot responsibly avoid. The chapter also distinguishes a plain words version of textualism from an abstract version of textualism, showing that the latter is equivalent to the philosophic approach. It sketches a preliminary view of the philosophic approach and previews objections that it would be undemocratic, un-American, dangerous, and/or fruitless.
Social Communication About Specific Persons
Authors: Craik Kenneth H.
Published: January 2009

This chapter analyzes the ongoing social communication process through which news, observations, and impressions about an individual circulate along that person’s reputational network via chat, gossip sessions, occasions of qualified privilege, and more formal means. In the network interpretation of reputation, the daily ebb and flow of information through the media of various forms of communication and discourse will be deemed the “discursive reputation,” referring to what is said about the person. Reputational networks are activated by social communication. In everyday life, we are surrounded by and awash in chat and gossip, and much of it is about specific persons. Much of what we know about most individuals we claim to know is indirect in this sense, derived from everyday, informal surveillance.
Introduction
Authors: Saposnik Arieh Bruce
Published: January 2009

This chapter explains the book's central foci—the ways in which Zionism's vision of a new Hebrew nation was translated into the concrete institutions, practices, and rituals that generated a national entity in Palestine. This is placed within the context of the existing literature on the history of Zionism and the Jewish community of Palestine and is framed in terms of the implications of this study for understanding nationalism, secularization, and Jewish modernity. In this context, the chapter sets out the three principal areas in which the book seeks to shed new light. These include chronology (an earlier dating of the formative years to the prewar decade); the relationship between the new Hebrew culture of Palestine and traditional Jewish cultures; and a thicker description of what that culture entailed, based in a methodology that incorporates discourse and imagery with praxis and ritual.
The Uganda Affair
Authors: Saposnik Arieh Bruce
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the impact of the “Uganda proposal” on Zionist cultural activity in Palestine. The small Zionist Yishuv (prestate community) was deeply divided between supporters and opponents of a British offer of what some understood to be Jewish statehood in East Africa. In the bitter debate that ensued, political‐organizational divisions and personal rivalries fused with ideological discord and divergent visions of Jewish nationhood and the future national culture. Both sides considered their opponents to be exemplars of “exilic” thinking, evidence of Jewish disease, and lack of a healthy national constitution. Ultimately, the chapter argues, the controversy helped to give new form to the discourse of Zionism in Palestine and to the character of the Yishuv's public spaces, as holidays and community celebrations were given the form of a national liturgy.
A Mother Tongue in the Fatherland
Authors: Saposnik Arieh Bruce
Published: January 2009

This chapter begins with the centrality of the Hebrew language in the creation of the Yishuv's culture. Aside from the goal of establishing linguistic unity in a multilingual reality, the language was also deemed critical in molding the character of Palestine's “Hebrews”—the men and women who were to constitute the new nation. Accent and mannerism were considered reflections of central elements of the new culture, shaping new masculinities and femininities and placing the Hebrews in their new “Oriental” environment. Educational institutions, new popular songs, journalism, fashion, theater, and more were all enlisted in the effort to fashion a new Hebrew‐speaking person in a national Hebrew public sphere. Rooted in part in Jewish mystical tradition in which Hebrew was deemed a cosmically creative force, the Hebrew language emerges as a leading tool in the formation of the nation.
Beauty Out of Zion?
Authors: Saposnik Arieh Bruce
Published: January 2009

The principal focus of this chapter is the creation in 1906 of the Bezalel art school and museum. In its organizational structure as in the content of its art, Bezalel reflected the growing centrality of Palestine for Zionism and the increasing bond between Palestine and the Hebrew language. Bezalel would quickly emerge as an icon and a center of Hebrew culture. Its founder, Boris Schatz, conceived of Bezalel as a national temple and of art as the basis for a new Torah—highlighting the struggle to forge a transformed sense of sacred and profane that informed many Zionist undertakings. The Palestine office, established in 1908 and headed by Arthur Ruppin, became not only a further marker of Palestine's new prominence in Zionist thinking and praxis but also the fulcrum of a close alliance and eventually a near identity of interests between the Zionist Organization and the Yishuv.
Conclusion
Authors: Saposnik Arieh Bruce
Published: January 2009

The concluding chapter revisits the process that led, within little more than a decade, from a sense of impending “national death” to the emergence of a budding national entity. Aimed at a thorough recasting of Jewishness in the modern world, the Zionist project in Palestine had set a deeply revolutionary transformation in motion. It was one, however, that maintained a complex relationship with the traditions it had renounced and, while secularizing, also sought to create a new national sacrality. The chapter places this undertaking in the contexts of modern Jewish politics, the interconnectedness of “culture” and “politics,” and a methodology that combines the study of mentalities with their tangible manifestations in the form of cultural practice, in the process shedding light on the nature of culture as a historical force and on the combined workings of the traditional and the new in the making of modern nationalism.
7 Determining the Sources of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence
Authors: Ramadan Tariq
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines scriptural sources in an attempt to understand what they tell us about the role of the Universe, creation, and the human and social contexts in the elaboration of Islamic law and jurisprudence. It analyzes revelations in the Quran that refer to the created Universe, elements of Nature, and the “signs” that pervade it. It is shown that inference in scripture follows exactly the same logic as seen with the scholars of fundamentals (al-usûliyyûn), from ash-Shâfi'î to ash-Shâtibî, about establishing links between texts, expressive contexts, and, more broadly, social and human environments: the search for the effective cause (al-'illah), the explanatory principle of an observation, a sign from the real endowed with meaning. All this echoes the research carried out in the human sciences about observing constants in the behavior of men and societies.
8 The Context (al‐Wâqi') as a Source of Law
Authors: Ramadan Tariq
Published: January 2009

This chapter examines the typology and organization of context (al-wâqi')-related knowledge. It shows that it is possible to undertake a global approach to the two Revelations (the text and the Universe), setting them face to face and constantly seeking complementarity.
4 World, Incorporated
Authors: Clark Andy
Published: January 2009

This chapter begins with a discussion of niche construction, which is defined as the activities, choices, and metabolic processes of organisms, through which they define, choose, modify, and partly create their own niches. The discussion then turns to human cognitive niche construction. Debates concerning ‘the extended mind’ and the BRAINBOUND vs EXTENDED models of the mind are considered.
5 Mind Re‐bound?
Authors: Clark Andy
Published: January 2009

The EXTENDED model suggests that physical mechanisms of mind are simply not all in the head. This chapter examines a range of worries whose starting points concern real or apparent differences between what the brain accomplishes and what the other elements' problem-solving matrices provide.
8 Painting, Planning, and Perceiving
Authors: Clark Andy
Published: January 2009

‘Strongly sensorimotor’ models of perception state that perceptual experience gains its content and character courtesy of an agent's implicit knowledge of the ways sensory stimulation will vary as a result of movement. Perceptual experience, on such accounts, is said to be enacted. This chapter argues that despite the important role of embodied action both in information pickup and in initially tuning the circuitry that supports perceptual awareness, strong sensorimotor models end up tying the contents and character of human experience too closely to the fine details of human embodiment. In so doing, they fail to accommodate the substantial firewalls, disintegrations, and special-purpose streamings that form the massed strata of human cognition.
The Limits of Uncertainty
Authors: Vermeule Adrian
Published: January 2009

This chapter indicates the limits of the veil mechanism by discussing three tradeoffs: (1) between impartiality and information; (2) between impartiality and motivation; and (3) between impartiality and ex post enforceability. A heavily veiled government might possess too little information to act effectively. Less intuitively, its officials might lack the motivation to introduce many beneficial projects, and might thus display an insufficient level of activity or energy.
Introduction
Authors: Moreman Christopher M.
Published: January 2009

This chapter introduces the subject of teaching courses on death and dying from a religious studies perspective. It outlines the structure of the book and introduces the chapters which follow.
The Virtual Resurrection: Technology, Violence, and Interpretations of Death in a Southern University Classroom
Authors: Pasulka Diana Walsh
Published: January 2009

This chapter explores contemporary representations of death in American popular culture, and elaborates on their meaning for today's youth. Death appeals to the young for several reasons. The heroes of television shows and movies present a way to negotiate the finality of death. Such characters can be interpreted as modern versions of the psychopomp. Current representations of death, particularly those that target youth, avoid a traditional interpretation of death characterized as final. Instead, death in popular culture is an extension of life—one where good and evil are more clearly defined, and where the fantastic lives. Although the apparent whimsical aspects of these representations seem to indicate that today's youth are denying death, the experiences of the classes the author of this chapter has taught suggests otherwise. The students in those classes maintained a healthy “suspension of belief” while consuming these images. These representations allow students to reflect upon death without the emotional involvement associated with more realistic portrayals of death.
What Would Spielberg Do? Using Mainstream Films to Teach Visions of the Afterlife
Authors: McKenzie Michael
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the use of popular films to teach about death and dying in an introductory level course in religion. Specifically, it argues that a pedagogy that combines these films and primary religious texts has proven to be an effective and engaging method to reach students and promote learning. The narrative within the films acts with the textual narrative in a powerful dialectic that spurs students to question both various traditions as well as their own views regarding death and dying. Thus, experience suggests that modern-day writers and directors have assumed the roles once played by ancient storytellers and rhapsodes, and that the interest in death and the afterlife remains as one of the most powerful and enduring of all human questions. Thus, in such a pedagogy, the use of popular films can serve as a critical bridge between one's experience and the experiences and thoughts of others.
Death and Dying in History
Authors: Hamscher Albert N. , Davis Kenneth S.
Published: January 2009

Based on nearly thirty years experience of teaching a university course on “death and dying in history,” the first section of this chapter offers practical advice about organizing such a course: topics worthy of consideration, appropriate readings, written assignments, and strategies for engaging student interest and participation. The chapter's second section goes out of the classroom and into the cemetery, where students can experience the “hands-on” dimension of historical study. A broad range of possible research projects is reviewed that students can undertake either alone or in small groups. Research in the cemetery need not be confined to a specific course on death and dying in history. It can also be integrated into traditional courses that explore the collective values and attitudes of past generations.
“Listen to the Dark”: Death and Dying in Music, Film, and Literature
Authors: Hussain Amir
Published: January 2009

This chapter discusses the uses of music, film, and literature in teaching courses on death and dying. The approach taken is that of one who has been concerned with effective pedagogy for the past decade. The chapter begins by describing an exercise where students bring in a work that speaks to them about death and dying. This is followed by a discussion on how various works of literature can be integrated into the course. The use of music allows students to bring into the classroom the songs that are most meaningful to them, and is useful in introducing the important roles that race, ethnicity, and language play in religion. The final section of the chapter ends with a discussion on the use of films. Two resources are included as appendices at the end of this chapter.
Teaching Religion and Film
Authors: Ostwalt Conrad
Published: January 2009

In the 1995 book Screening the Sacred, Joel Martin and Conrad Ostwalt (the author of this chapter) organized a group of essays around a tripartite typology for studying religion and film: theological, mythological, and ideological approaches. This typology helps facilitate the understanding of various ways in which religion and culture interact in our society. While these types of critical approach introduce the student to religious studies categories through the medium of film, they are less useful in exploring the uniqueness of film as a cultural product. This chapter explains the tripartite typology and introduces a fourth type of criticism that brings in visual‐auditory criticism, thereby teaching film students to view and listen critically. The visual and auditory component of film affects us in unique ways and provides a more participatory experience that more closely mimics religious experience.
Is It All aboutLove Actually?
Authors: Marsh Clive
Published: January 2009

By using the three best‐known films of Richard Curtis as case material (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually), this chapter examines the problems and opportunities in using romantic comedy to teach theology and religion. Using Ed S. Tan and Nico Frijda's recent work on the role of cinematic sentimentality within the “cognitive turn” in film studies and building upon John Lyden's insights into the contemporary religious function of film in the West, the chapter considers the way in which popular cinema explores the theme of love. It shows how the labeling of these films as “sentimental” is misleading and fails to recognize their cultural function as contributions to society's discussion about commendable, loving relationships. Such a function cannot but be of interest to theology and religion and to those who teach in these fields.