bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Entornos inmersivos en la educación
Authors:   Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ecuador, Buele Jorge
Published: February 2025

En este capítulo se analiza el desarrollo del hardware y software para entornos inmersivos, con especial énfasis en la realidad virtual y aumentada. Se presenta una revisión de los avances históricos, desde los primeros experimentos en la década de 1960, con dispositivos rudimentarios como el "Sword of Damocles", hasta la aparición de visores modernos como Oculus Quest y Apple Vision Pro. La evolución del hardware ha permitido experiencias cada vez más realistas y accesibles, con dispositivos autónomos que eliminan la necesidad de computadoras externas. Paralelamente, los avances en software han permitido la creación de plataformas educativas interactivas, en las que los estudiantes pueden manipular objetos virtuales y participar en simulaciones en tiempo real. Se discuten las ventajas de estos entornos, como la posibilidad de aprendizaje práctico sin riesgos, la visualización tridimensional de conceptos abstractos y el fomento del pensamiento crítico. Además, se abordan los desafíos en la adopción de estas tecnologías, incluyendo los altos costos de implementación, la necesidad de formación docente y la resistencia al cambio en algunas instituciones educativas. En conclusión, los entornos inmersivos están revolucionando la educación al hacerla más visual, experimental e interactiva, permitiendo experiencias de aprendizaje más profundas y significativas.
Importancia de las aulas itinerantes en la recuperación de aprendizajes
Authors:   Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ecuador, Núñez Hernández Corina
Published: February 2025

La pandemia de COVID-19 generó grandes desafíos en la educación, ampliando las brechas de aprendizaje, especialmente en comunidades con acceso limitado a recursos digitales. Este capítulo explora el concepto de aulas itinerantes como una estrategia para mitigar los efectos del rezago educativo en sectores marginados. Se describen experiencias en las que estas aulas han permitido continuar con los procesos de enseñanza en contextos adversos, ofreciendo acceso a materiales didácticos, tutorías personalizadas y actividades adaptadas a las necesidades de cada estudiante. Se destaca cómo estas iniciativas han favorecido la equidad educativa al llegar a zonas rurales y urbanas con escasa infraestructura tecnológica. Además, se analizan los desafíos logísticos y económicos que implica su implementación, así como el rol de los docentes en la adaptación de metodologías flexibles para responder a los requerimientos de cada comunidad. Se presentan resultados de estudios que evidencian mejoras en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes que han participado en programas de educación itinerante. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre la necesidad de consolidar estas iniciativas como parte de políticas educativas a largo plazo, integrando estrategias de enseñanza híbrida que combinen lo presencial con lo digital para garantizar una educación accesible y de calidad.
Entornos virtuales para potenciar el aprendizaje y el emprendimiento
Authors:   Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ecuador, Naranjo Costales Mónica
Published: February 2025

Los entornos virtuales han cambiado la forma en que las personas adquieren conocimientos, ofreciendo nuevas oportunidades para el desarrollo de habilidades en diversos ámbitos, incluido el emprendimiento. Este capítulo examina el impacto de la educación en línea en adultos que buscan mejorar su capacidad para gestionar negocios, especialmente aquellos sin formación académica en administración. Se analiza el caso de un programa de capacitación virtual diseñado para apoyar a emprendedores en la mejora de sus estrategias comerciales, proporcionando herramientas digitales y metodologías adaptadas a sus necesidades. Se destacan las ventajas de estos entornos, como la accesibilidad, que permite a los participantes aprender sin restricciones geográficas, y la personalización del aprendizaje, ajustándose al ritmo y nivel de cada usuario. También se aborda el impacto en la sostenibilidad de los negocios, al proporcionar conocimientos sobre gestión financiera, mercadeo digital y toma de decisiones estratégicas. Se presentan testimonios de emprendedores que lograron mejorar la viabilidad de sus proyectos a partir de la formación recibida. Finalmente, se analizan los desafíos de estos programas, como la resistencia al cambio en algunos sectores y la necesidad de apoyo técnico para garantizar la efectividad de la enseñanza virtual en el ámbito del emprendimiento.
ONLINE BUSINESS PRACTICES FOR VIDEO-BASED LEARNING IN DISCOVERY ENGLISH ACADEMY
Authors: Yudha Indra Pradipa
Published: February 2025

This business plan aims to analyze the business performance of online video-based learning of Discovery English Academy, to find out the comparison of business performance with the business plan of online video-based learning of Discovery English Academy, and to know the implementation of marketing strategies and production aspects in online video- based learning Discovery English Academy. In the implementing process of the online video-based learning Discovery English Academy6, it was found that there were two main problems when launching the online video-based learning product of Discovery English Academy, including; promotion issues, and also selling price issues. In implementing this business practice, Discovery English Academy uses the Digital Channel Revolution marketing strategy, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), Brand Awareness, as well as Pull and Push Marketing Strategy to overcome promotional problems. In addition to the problem of selling prices, Discovery English Academy uses a Discount Strategy using a promo code. From the implementation of its business practice, it can be concluded that the optimization of multiple social media channels and also the initial cost determination are the two most essential aspects in carrying out the Discovery English Academy's online video- based learning business practice.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF GRHASIA MENTAL HOSPITAL TRAINING AND INSTALLATION DEVELOPMENT WITH BALANCED SCORECARD METHOD
Authors: Handayu Tuti , Tjahjono Prof. Dr. Heru Kurnianto , Hidayah Dr. Dr. Nur
Published: February 2025

The Education Research and Development Installation of Grhasia Mental Hospital (RSJ) have never implement a performance measurement, then it is not known what extent the success of financial and non-financial management in achieving organization vision and goals. This research was conducted to analyze the performance of Training and Development Installation of RSJ Grhasia through balanced scorecard (BSC) method with 4 perspectives, called finance, customers, internal business processes, then learning and growth. This research is a descriptive research which is analyzed descriptively analytic. The quantitative data were obtained from secondary data and survey results from internal (employees) and external customers (practice students). The research results from financial perspective shows poor results for income level and effectiveness ratio. On the other hand, it shows good results for Cost Recovery Rate/CRR. Customer perspective that shows satisfied results on employee satisfaction level and good results on student satisfaction level with education and training installation services.
THE INFLUENCE OF MOTIVATION, SELF-EFFICACY AND FAMILY ENVIRONMENT ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Authors: Suprayitno Suprayitno , Ariati Viola Verli
Published: February 2025

This study aims to explain the impact of motivation, self-efficacy, and family environment on students' interest in entrepreneurship. The research was conducted using a survey method on 2018 students from the Management Study Program at the Faculty of Economics, Slamet Riyadi University. Data collection techniques included questionnaires and observations. The sampling method used was purposive sampling, with 80 respondents who had taken entrepreneurship courses and were active students from the class of 2018. Based on the t-test results, motivation and family environment significantly influenced students' interest in entrepreneurship, whereas self-efficacy did not have a significant effect. Meanwhile, the F-test results showed that motivation, self-efficacy, and family environment collectively influenced students' entrepreneurial interests. The coefficient of determination (R2) was found to be 0.420, indicating that 42% of students' entrepreneurial interest is influenced by motivation, self-efficacy, and family environment, while the remaining 58% is affected by other variables not examined in this study. Therefore, students need to enhance their motivation, self-efficacy, and family support for entrepreneurship as preparation for their careers after graduation.
THE CHALLENGE IDENTIFICATION OF GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTANT IN VIRTUAL ERA
Authors: Persulessy Grace , Kusumawati Dr. Andi , Nirwana Dr. Nirwana
Published: February 2025

This research aim to identify the problems and challenges of their accountants working in virtual technology era. The author believes that identifying the challenges government accountants face in this technological era will make it easier for them to work to serve the public. This study depends on the results of scientific studies as evidence of the kingdom of the field and analyzed under a phenomenological approach then we can present a valid and convincing finding in answering the problems of this research. The review processes conducted by researchers are data coding, evaluation, and in-depth interpretation to get valid findings. The data obtained from several literature sources through an electronic search system by installing keywords. From the study results and discussion, it concludes that the challenges faced by public accountants include the importance of them mastering technology and understanding how the public desires services. In other words, the challenge of the public accounting profession in globalization era is the liberalization of accounting services. These obstacles will result in the importance of education and qualifications that necessary for public accounting services. It is hoped that these findings will become an essential part of future policymaking.
ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC LITERACY AND BUSINESS CAPITAL ON ENTREPRENEURIAL DECISIONS IN STREET VENDORS IN THE FIELD KAREBOSI MAKASSAR
Authors: Nasir Nasir
Published: February 2025

Karebosi Square, Makassar, is one of the centers of economic activity that is a place for many street vendors (PKL) to run their businesses. In this context, entrepreneurial decisions are very important for street vendors to survive and develop in the midst of increasingly fierce competition. These decisions are often influenced by economic literacy and business capital, where economic literacy includes an understanding of financial management and business strategy, while business capital includes financial resources to start and run a business. This study aims to understand the influence of economic literacy and business capital on entrepreneurial decisions in street vendors in Karebosi Field, Makassar. This study uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 10 main informants, namely street vendors who have entrepreneurial experience in Karebosi Field. Field observations and documentation are also used to reinforce the data obtained. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis techniques to identify patterns and relationships between the variables studied. The results of the study show that economic literacy affects the way traders manage capital and face business challenges. A good understanding of economic literacy helps traders in making strategic decisions, such as capital allocation, cost control, and business development planning. In addition, access to business capital determines the ability of traders to start and maintain their business activities. This study concludes that economic literacy and business capital are key factors in entrepreneurial decision-making for street vendors.
'THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DOMESTIC INVESTMENT LAWS AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAWS IN THE FLOW OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT.'
Authors: Mazrui Rafaa
Published: February 2025

The Liberal International Order (LIO), established in the aftermath of World War II, is underpinned by political and economic liberalism, alongside liberal internationalism, emphasizing liberal democracy, open markets, and cooperative security. However, a dialectical tension between nationalism and internationalism shapes the evolution of international organizations and their governance, impacting their effectiveness in promoting the global common good versus state-centric interests. This paper explores the dynamics of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) within this framework, particularly considering recent trends of de-globalization, exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have led to a notable decline in global trade and FDI flows.
Kant and the Foundations of Morality
Authors: Kim Halla
Published: February 2025

Halla Kim explores the leading themes in Kant’s philosophical ethics from a structural-methodological point of view to highlight the activities of reason vis-à-vis the blind forces of brute nature. Basing the study on Kant's short, but monumental, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kim also draws on other major writings by Kant and his critics. Kim shows that philosophical ethics, as Kant conceived it, must capture the gist of the ineluctable, inescapable, and irreducible freedom we strive to exemplify in our practical lives. Viewed this way, the moral law is none other than the law of the will determining itself. It is the law of the self-activity of the will. Contending that the concepts and doctrines in Kant’s ethics should be understood as an ethics of the self-activity of the will, Kim argues that the categorical imperative is the particular way this moral law is addressed to finite rational beings.

Kant and the Foundations of Morality provides new perspective on the philosopher's thought to benefit studies of eighteenth-century philosophy, epistemology, modern philosophy, moral theory, moral philosophy, and ethics.
Classify and Label
Authors: Drabek Matt L.
Published: February 2025

Classify and Label: The Unintended Marginalization of Social Groups is a philosophical treatment of classification in the social sciences and everyday life, focusing on moral, social, and political implications. The use of labels is essential to how people navigate and understand the world. Classifications and labels also have a dark side, as they may unintentionally misrepresent groups and individuals. These misrepresentations disrupt how people think about themselves and how they treat others, sometimes leading to marginalization.

Matt L. Drabek analyzes classification by considering rich case studies across a variety of domains, including the classification of gender and sexual orientation, the psychiatric classification of sadomasochism and gender disorders, and the classification of people in everyday life through the production of pornography and use of gender identities. This broad sample reveals deep connections between the classifications proposed by social scientists and the classifications used by society at large. Drabek explores how classifications evolve from and eventually affect such seemingly disconnected issues as the situation of under-represented groups in academia, new models of parenting and the family, the nature of sexual orientation, and the nature of scientific bias.
Women's Lives and Livelihoods in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan
Authors: Tursunova Zulfiya
Published: February 2025

Women in Uzbekistan have been labeled as victims of patriarchy and submissive, voiceless bodies who lack agency and decision-making power. They are also often symbolized as preservers of rituals and culture and also the victims of socio-economic transformations. During the years of land tenure changes from collectivization to de-collectivization, World War II and the five-year plan economy, women played a vital role in pursuing a diverse range of livelihood opportunities to sustain their families and communities. But what kind of livelihood activities do women pursue in rural areas in Uzbekistan? What do they think about themselves? Do they exercise agency? What are their values, desires, dreams, and inspirations in the post-Soviet period in Uzbekistan?

Women’s Lives and Livelihoods in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan presentswomen’s voices and their experiences of carrying out livelihood activities such asfarming, trading, baking, sewing, building greenhouses, and establishing furniture workshops. In a major contribution to the study of post-Soviet transformations, Zulfiya Tursunova demonstrates how women exercise multi-dimensional empowerment by joining social and economic saving networks such as gap and chernaya kassa. These networks represent a collective movement and action against economic dependency of women on men and the state micro-loan bank system. The networks that do not require external donor interventions have been able to empower women for social justice, knowledge, redistribution of resources, and conflict resolution in ways that are vital to community development.

Tursunova provides accounts of such ceremonies as mavlud, ihson, Bibi Seshanba, and Mushkul Kushod. These ceremonies show the ways the conflict resolution practices of women are woven into their everyday life, and function autonomously from the hierarchical elite-driven Women’s Committees and state court systems established in the Soviet times. Many local healers and otins (religious teachers) use their discursive knowledge, based on Islam, Sufism, shamanism, and animism to challenge and transform women’s subordination, abuse, and other practices that impinge on women’s needs and rights. These female religious leaders, through different ceremonial practices, create space for raising the critical consciousness of women and transform the social order for maintaining peace in the communities.
Western-Centrism and Contemporary Korean Political Thought
Authors: Kang Jung In
Published: February 2025

This book is an outgrowth of critical examination of Western political theory embedded in Western-centrism and the tumultuous ideational processes by which contemporary Korean political theory and reality have intensely interacted (both in convergent and divergent ways) with it. To conduct such examination the book addresses complex and variegated questions regarding Western-centrism: What is Western-centrism? How is Western-centrism to be compared and contrasted with other forms of centrism such as Sinocentrism, capitalism (bourgeois-centrism), patriarchy (male-centrism), and racism (white-centrism)? How has Western-centrism evolved in world history and in the history of Western political thought? How has Western-centrism shaped the evolution of contemporary Korean political thought? What kinds of ill effects has Western-centrism brought about in Korean society and academia? And, ultimately, how can Western-centrism be overcome?
The Impact of YouTube on U. S. Politics
Authors: Ricke LaChrystal D.
Published: February 2025

The Impact of YouTube on U.S. Politics provides a historical, descriptive, and conceptual analysis of the broad and evolving political impact of YouTube. It specifically addresses how politicians, campaigns, the media, and the public utilize YouTube for political campaigning, communication, and engagement. The text provides a synthesized illustration of the ways in which YouTube has become a requisite political tool and normalized as a central platform for political communication in the United States. LaChrystal Ricke discusses political YouTube videos and strategies spanning across the 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles, and addresses the potential impact of YouTube in future U.S. elections.
Worldly Virtue
Authors: Andre Judith
Published: February 2025

Worldly Virtue argues that general discussions of virtue need to be complemented by attention to specific virtues. Each chapter addresses a single virtue, most of them traditional (e.g., honesty, generosity, and humility), and sometimes newly framed (“earthly virtue,” for instance, and “open hope.”) The final essay breaks ground by identifying virtues specific to the fact that we age. The book draws upon various spiritual traditions, especially Christianity and Buddhism, for what they value and the practices that sustain those values; at times it identifies ways in which each can mislead. The book also draws from contemporary sciences, natural but especially behavioral. Anthropologists and sociologists, for instance, have identified a universal norm of reciprocity; virtuous generosity must respect this need to give back. In another example, new understandings of addiction suggest that temperance requires dealing with pain as much as resisting pleasure. Because no single template applies to every virtue, different questions are asked about each. Nevertheless each chapter addresses the often-neglected question of how the virtue in question is acquired, and how social context can support or impede its acquisition. The book is addressed to philosophers, but may also be of interest in religious studies, for its philosophical development of religious themes.
Work and Family Commitments of Low-Income and Impoverished Women
Authors: Hennessy Judith
Published: February 2025

Conflict between work and family life is an all too familiar experience for many Americans. The difficult choices facing women who combine paid work with childcare are the subject of a deluge of books and articles in addition to an ongoing public debate about how women and men should balance their work and family commitments. Although we know a great deal about the social and cultural environment fueling these contradictions among middle-class and upper middle class women, we know little about the forces that influence poor and low-income women. Work and Family Commitments of Low-Income and Impoverished Women addresses this omission and gives voice to women in poverty as it traces the moral and cultural structures that help shape the meaning and value of paid work and motherhood among a group of mothers who rely on welfare or a combination of low-wage work and welfare to provide and care for their families. This portrayal of poor women’s lives rarely enters the work-life debate over women’s choices, generally characterized as between mothers who have to work versus those who choose to. Judith Hennessy puts low-income women front and center to shed light on less explored aspects of the moral and cultural foundations of contemporary work and family conflict from interviews and survey data of a group of low-income and poor mothers on and off welfare.

Hennessey explores the paradox in American society where combining paid work with caring for children continues to generate considerable ambivalence (and often guilt) on the part of married middle-class mothers for devoting too much time to paid work and supposedly neglecting their children. While poor and working class mothers who might otherwise rely on welfare are relegated to working at low-wage jobs outside the home in fulfillment of their family responsibilities.
Small World, Big Market
Authors: Hebert Budd
Published: February 2025

Small World, Big Market: Global Business provides an overview of the development of international business with special emphasis on oil production, an essential part of economic development. The book focuses on major trade patterns, including the Silk Road that connected China with Europe beginning at the turn of the millennium; the Chinese Tribute Trade that connected China to Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Mideast beginning in the thirteenth century; the spice trade between Southeast Asia and India by the early fifteenth century; and European-dominated world trade.

This volume examines gold and silver trade from the Americas to Europe in the sixteenth century, and also covers the development of the Americas, together with existing African slave trade throughout Eurasia, giving rise to the expansion of African slave. Budd Hebert also discusses common principles and personal character tools for bringing together diverse cultures to facilitate international business. Small World, Big Market culminates by highlighting selected trends that impact international business.
Interreligious Hermeneutics and the Pursuit of Truth
Authors: Hustwit J. R.
Published: February 2025

Philosophical hermeneutics provides a model of interreligious dialogue that acknowledges the interpretive variability of truth claims while maintaining their relation to a preinterpretive reality. The dialectic and tensive structure of philosophical hermeneutics directly parallels the tension between the diversity of belief and the ultimacy of the sacred. By placing philosophers like Gadamer, Ricoeur, Peirce, and Whitehead in conversation, J. R. Hustwit describes religious truth claims as coconstituted by the planes of linguistic convention and uninterpreted otherness. Only when we recognize that religious claims emerge from a dalliance back and forth across the limits of the understanding can we appreciate the engagement between religions. In terms of dialogue, this approach treats religious truth claims as tentative hypotheses, but hypotheses that are frequently commensurable and rationally contestable. Interreligious dialogue goes beyond facilitating bonhomie or negotiating tolerance; dialogue can and should be a disciplined space for rationally adjudicating claims about what lies beyond the limits of human understanding.
The Effects of Globalization in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
Authors: Irogbe Kema
Published: February 2025

In TheEffects of Globalization in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Kema Irogbeargues the forces of globalization, which include the IMF/World Bank, WTO, and Western media technology, are subordinated to the interests of multinational corporations under the tutelage of a lone superpower in strangling the development efforts of poor countries. Irogbe subjects the operations and the existing relationships among these international governmental and nongovernmental actors to the test of empirical reality and logical plausibility by drawing from the experiences of a varied selection of marginalized countries, such as Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil in Latin America; Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana in Africa; and Iraq, Iran, India, Afghanistan, and Vietnam in Asia. The book argues that globalization is a sophisticated lexicon for the pursuit of a homogenized political, economic, and cultural world order, which is a recipe for unending global crises.
The Mythologies of Capitalism and the End of the Soviet Project
Authors: Baysha Olga
Published: February 2025

The purpose of The Mythologies of Capitalism and the End of the Soviet Project is to show that in order to understand popular disillusionment with democratization, liberalization, and other transformations associated with the attempts of non-Western societies to appropriate the ideas of Western modernity, one must consider how these ideas are mythologized in the course of such appropriations. Olga Baysha argues that the seeds of popular post-revolutionary frustration should be sought in pre-revolutionary discourses on democracy, liberalism, and other concepts of Western modernity that are produced outside local contexts and introduced through the channels of global communication and the interpretations of politicians, activists, and experts. Analyzing the opinions of working people and intellectuals published in two Ukrainian newspapers of perestroika times, the author shows how the concepts of democracy, the market, and the West acquired schizophrenic mythical significations. The study is situated within the context of Ulrich Beck’s theory of world risk society and Gregory Bateson’s theory of schizophrenia as communicative disorder. The author argues that schizophrenic mythologies constructed through globalized networks can lead to disorientation, frustration, and the sense of uncertainty and insecurity on the part of mass publics.
Biltong Hunting As a Performance of Belonging in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Authors: Goodrich Andre
Published: February 2025

Since the early 1990s, the seventeen-fold growth in South African sport hunting has made the South African wildlife ranching industry the sixth largest contributor to South Africa’s agricultural sector, bringing in $680 million per annum. Biltong Hunting as a Performance of Belonging in Post-Apartheid South Africa links biltong hunting’s rapid growth to the 1990s disassembly of the apartheid state and analyzes how the hierarchy, and belonging that biltong hunters associate with it, emerges anew in the post-apartheid context. It examines the narrative and embodied strategies employed by hunters and farmers to create a space that naturalizes the mythic Afrikaner nationalist past in the post-apartheid present.
Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism
Authors: Koehler Benedikt
Published: February 2025

Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism proposes a strikingly original thesis—that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed.

Early Islam made a seminal but largely unrecognized contribution to the history of economic thought; it is the only religion founded by an entrepreneur. Descending from an elite dynasty of religious, civil, and commercial leaders, Muhammad was a successful businessman before founding Islam. As such, the new religion had much to say on trade, consumer protection, business ethics, and property. As Islam rapidly spread across the region so did the economic teachings of early Islam, which eventually made their way to Europe.

Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism demonstrates how Islamic institutions and business practices were adopted and adapted in Venice and Genoa. These financial innovations include the invention of the corporation, business management techniques, commercial arithmetic, and monetary reform. There were other Islamic institutions assimilated in Europe: charities, the waqf, inspired trusts, and institutions of higher learning; the madrasas were models for the oldest colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. As such, it can be rightfully said that these essential aspects of capitalist thought all have Islamic roots.
Social Ties, Resources, and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China
Authors: Becker Jeffrey
Published: February 2025

The growth of China’s internal migrant labor population is one of the most important issues emerging from the Hu Jintao regime. As China continues to undergo an urbanization process as profound as any in modern history, there is little doubt migrant workers are affecting economic and political decision making at the central and local levels. Relying on interviews with over 250 Chinese migrant workers—peasant farmers who have moved to the cities in search of work—as well as interviews with Chinese labor activists, this book explores the evolution of migrant labor protest in China over the past three decades. It examines how migrant workers engage in protest today, and how they choose from available protest strategies.

While past studies of Chinese rural to urban migration have long acknowledged the importance of traditional rural ties between family members, this book demonstrates how new urban ties:

help migrant workers learn of new protest options,

navigate the legal system,

connect with others sharing similar disputes,

and identify additional resources.

The book also examines the growth and importance of Chinese migrant labor rights organizations and the role of information communication technology in migrant labor protest activity.

The findings presented here shed new light on Chinese state-society relations and economic development. Moreover, the findings from this book, which demonstrate how economic reforms create opportunities for protest, and how migrant workers take advantages of these opportunities, have implications for our understanding of contentious politics in other authoritarian states undergoing similar economic and demographic transition.
The Daily Grind
Authors: Walker Marquita R.
Published: February 2025

The Daily Grind:How WorkersNavigate the Employment Relationship introduces students to the tensions between labor and management within the U.S. employment relationship and explores how workers, operating in a socially and culturally structured system of capitalism, are influenced and manipulated by economic institutions and polity which exploit, devalue, and dehumanize workers in the name of corporate profit. The text covers how the American work ethic of the early nineteenth century helped shape the current perspective on the labor-management relationship, and how, over time, the Protestant and patriarchal influences of that period have countered the collective actions of workers in profound ways. The text further explores the effect of societal, cultural, and economic structures, both global and local, which limit workers’ ability to achieve the "American Dream" and result in depressed economic conditions and discouraged workers. The text’s focus on the current economic inequality and lack of social mobility challenges the current neoliberal ideology that capitalism is the best economic system.

The overarching framework for The Daily Grind: How Workers Navigate the Employment Relationship is situated in Labor Process Theory (LPT) which explores the control and resistance dichotomy between labor and management, the systematic deskilling of the workforce in order to increase production and increase owners’ profits, and examines conflict over control of the labor process. An extension of Marxist theory about the organization of work, LPT explores the employment relationship, the control of work, the payment of work, the skills necessary for work, and the facilitation of work.
Relativism, Alternate History, and the Forgetful Reader
Authors: Thiess Derek
Published: February 2025

The writer of alternate history asks “what if?” What if one historical event were different, what would the world look like today? In a similar way, the postmodern philosopher of history suggests that history is literature, or that if we read certain historical details differently we would get a distinctly different interpretation of past events. While the science fiction alternate history means to illuminate the past, to increase our understanding of past events, however, the postmodern approach to history typically suggests that such understanding is impossible. To the postmodern philosopher, history is like literature in that it does not offer the reader access to the past, but only an interesting story. Building on criticism that suggests personal psychological reasons for this obscuring the past, and using a literary theory of readership, this book challenges the postmodern approach to history. It channels the speculative power of science fiction to read the works of postmodern philosophy of history as alternate histories themselves, and to map the limits and pathology of their forgetful reading of the past.
Rapid Qualitative Inquiry
Authors: Beebe James
Published: February 2025

Practitioners in need of timely results for program and policy planning—and students looking for realistic research projects—will find solutions in Rapid Qualitative Inquiry (RQI), a team-based, applied research method designed to quickly develop an insider’s perspective on and preliminary understanding of complicated “on-the-ground” situations. In this accessible field guide to RQI, James Beebe provides an introduction to research that substitutes teamwork for long-term fieldwork; uses iterative data collection, data analysis, and

additional data collection; triangulates data from multiple sources; and applies techniques and concepts from ethnography and case study research. Extensive examples make clear that “rapid”

does not mean “rushed” and that rigorous RQI depends upon flexibility rather than an arbitrary

list of techniques. Throughout, Beebe’s clear prose guides interdisciplinary readers through the process, promise, and potential pitfalls of RQI.
Historical Dictionary of the U. S. Supreme Court
Authors: Ward Artemus , Brough Christopher , Arnold Robert
Published: February 2025

The US Supreme Court is an institution that operates almost totally behind closed doors. This book opens those doors by providing a comprehensive look at the justices, procedures, cases, and issues over the institution’s more than 200-year history. The Court is a legal institution born from a highly politicized process. Modern justices time their departures to coincide with favorable administrations and the confirmation process has become a highly-charged political spectacle played out on television and in the national press. Throughout its history, the Court has been at the center of the most important issues facing the nation: federalism, separation of powers, war, slavery, civil rights, and civil liberties. Through it all, the Court has generally, though not always, reflected the broad views of the American people as the justices decide the most vexing issues of the day.

The Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Supreme Court covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on every justice, major case, issue, and process that comprises the Court’s work. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Supreme Court.
Preparing Children for Reading Success
Authors: Irwin Julia , Moore Dina
Published: February 2025

Preparing Children for Reading Success: Hands-On Activities for Librarians, Educators, and Caregivers will not only familiarize anyone who reads to young children with the essentials of promoting early and emerging literacy, but also contains more than 25 ready-to-go activities that can be immediately used to foster this critical skill development.

Following a basic overview of preliteracy skills that prepare children for reading success, the book contains field-tested, proven activities that promote success in each of the following skill sets:

· Alphabet knowledge

· Print concepts

· Book handling skills

· Phonological sensitivity

· Expressive vocabulary

Each of the activities is described in detail and linked to a popular children’s book.

This is a must-have how-to for anyone interested in promoting emerging literacy.
Social Ethics in a Changing China
Authors: He Huaihong
Published: February 2025

Over the past half-century, China has experienced some incredible human dramas, ranging from Red Guard fanaticism and the loss of education for an entire generation during the Cultural Revolution, to the Tiananmen tragedy, the economic miracle, and its accompanying fad of money worship and the rampancy of official corruption. Social Ethics in a Changing China: Moral Decay or Ethical Awakening? provides a rich empirical narrative and thought-provoking scholarly arguments, highlighting the imperative for an ethical discourse in a country that is increasingly seen by many as both a materialistic giant and a spiritual dwarf.

Professor He Huaihong was not only an extraordinary firsthand witness to all of these dramas, he played a distinct role as a historian, an ethicist, and a social critic exploring the deeper intellectual and sociological origins of these events. Incorporating ethical theories with his expertise in culture, history, religion, literature, and politics of the country, He reviews the remarkable transformation of ethics and morality in the People's Republic of China and engages in a global discourse about the major ethical issues of our time. The book aims to reconstruct Chinese social ethics in an innovative philosophical framework, reflecting China's search for new virtues.

Contents

1. Reconstructing China's Social Ethics

2. Historical and Sociological Origins of Chinese Cultural Norms

3. The Transformation of Ethics and Morality in the PRC

4. China's Ongoing Moral Decay?

5. Ethical Discourse in Reform Era China

6. Chinese Ethical Dialogue with the West and the World
Queen of the Professions
Authors: McClelland Charles E.
Published: February 2025

American medicine is under serious attack. The health care system is falling short of its major goal, improving the health of the population. The United States ranks only 35th in world life expectancy. But where American medicine arguably remains at a pinnacle in the world – in the status, wealth and power of the profession of medicine -- physicians are in danger of losing first rank. As other professions close the gap, their top economic position is threatened. Slippage may be measured also by other, less quantifiable factors, such as the highest prestige of physicians among all learned occupations.

Queen of the Professions: The Rise and Decline of Medical Prestige and Power in America is a colorful yet authoritative work of social history offering readers a sturdy platform from which to confront looming issues about the future of American medical care. Its unique perspective brings crucial context to current debates about modern medicine, exploring in entertaining detail its historical foundations and its present and future challenges.
Lessons from Abroad for the U. S. Entitlement Debate
Authors: Jackson Richard
Published: February 2025

The unsustainable federal budget outlook will inevitably push entitlement reform to the forefront of the national policy debate. As America’s leaders consider reform options, they will have much to learn from the experience of other developed countries, several of which have recently enacted far-reaching overhauls of their state pension systems that greatly reduce the long-term fiscal burden of their aging populations. "Lessons from Abroad for the U.S. Entitlement Debate" places America’s aging challenge in international perspective, examines the most promising reform initiatives in nine other developed countries, and draws practical lessons for U.S. policymakers.
From Bach's Goldberg to Beethoven's Diabelli
Authors: Kanwischer Alfred
Published: February 2025

In From Bach’s Goldberg to Beethoven’s Diabelli: Influence and Independence, music scholar and noted pianist Alfred Kanwischer takes readers on an extended exploration in which each of the thirty-three pieces making up Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations (Op. 120) is caringly examined and assessed for its ingredients, actions, personality, and influence on the whole. Counterpoint abounds, not only in the fugal variations, which are closely parsed, but throughout the Diabelli, revealing the noticeably baroque character of the technical compositional devices Beethoven employs.

Throughout his study, Kanwischer integrates comparisons with Bach’s immortal Goldberg Variations. Both sets stand alone as among the greatest keyboard variations in the Western canon. During their creation, the composers were nearly the same age, at the zenith of their art, and in similarly felicitous frames of mind. Kanwischer underscores twenty essential similarities, from the use of melody and melodic outline and the comparability among variations in size, parallel design, ebullient outlook, increasing contrasts, daring virtuosic flights, Shakespearean blend of comic and tragic, and their respective cumulative rises to spiritual transcendence.

From Bach’s Goldberg to Beethoven’s Diabelli takes readers on a lively and stimulating journey of discovery. It considers not only questions of influence but those of insight and understanding, offering a work useful as a reference and as a guide to performers, music instructors, and devotees. This work also includes seventy visually annotated interpretive musical examples as aids to understanding.
A Life in Storytelling
Authors: Wilkin Binnie Tate
Published: February 2025

A Life in Storytelling contains the reflections and lessons from one of the most noted storytellers of our times. Fifty years of storytelling has provided Binnie Tate Wilkin with the experiences and insights to form the basis of a text for the storyteller, both for the professional librarian, teacher or parent wanting to provide children with substance through story. The sections of the book are designed to provide background material for the art and craft of storytelling, the methods and uses of storytelling, sources and examples of stories, and a broad selection of over 100 stories briefly annotated.

Included are sections that explain how to derive or adapt stories from current events, history, or imaginative writings and a detailed treatment in the use of dance in storytelling, a technique that, if not invented by Wilkin, has become a trademark of her approach. The treatment is always informal and personal and is interleaved with anecdotes drawn from the author’s more than 50 years of storytelling.
The Dementia Caregiver
Authors: Agronin Marc E.
Published: February 2025

Becoming a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another neurocognitive disorder can be an unexpected, undesirable, underappreciated—and yet noble role. It is heartbreaking to watch someone lose the very cognitive capacities that once helped to define them as a person. But because of the nature of these disorders, the only way to become an effective caregiver and cope with the role’s many daily challenges is to become well-informed about the disease. With the right information, resources and tips on caregiving and working with professionals, you can become your own expert at both caring for your charge and taking care of yourself.

In these pages, Marc Agronin guides readers through a better understanding of the changes their loved one may be going through, and helps them tap into the various resources available to them as they embark on an uncertain caregiving journey. Insisting that a caregiver also maintain his or her own health and well being, Agronin guides caregivers in their efforts to provide care, but to also look to themselves as recipients of care from themselves and others. Shedding light on the debilitating disorders themselves as well as their everyday realities, this book is a much-needed resource for anyone caring for another person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive disorders.
Pregnancy Outcomes in the COVID-19 Era: An Observational Retrospective Study
Authors: Salarvand Shahin , Jahangiri Maede , Anvari-Khorramabadi Behshid , Nasirzadeh Pardis , Geravand Mohammad-Reza , Kooshki Kousar , Ahmadi-Gharaei Hasan
Published: February 2025

Background: There are ongoing controversies regarding pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 era. Objectives: This observational study with a retrospective design was conducted to investigate the maternal and neonatal impacts of COVID-19 on pregnancy outcomes. Methods: An observational study with a retrospective design was carried out using census sampling from February 2020 to July 2021. The study population included pregnant women who were referred to Asalian Hospital in Khorramabad city, western Iran. A total of 769 mothers (107 with COVID-19 and 662 without COVID-19) were included in the study. Results: The most common symptoms reported by infected mothers were body pain/myalgia (68, 72.3%), fatigue (57, 60.6%), headache (47, 50%), and shivering (46, 48.9%). After adjusting for covariates, the risk of caesarean section (CS) in pregnant women with COVID-19 was found to be 3.2 times higher (95% confidence interval: 1.90 - 5.50). In contrast, the risks of newborn hospitalization, prematurity, low APGAR scores, respiratory distress, and smaller head circumference were higher among newborns of non-COVID-19-infected mothers than those of COVID-19-infected mothers (P < 0.05). Conclusions: While it is generally expected that COVID-19-infected mothers would experience adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, this retrospective study demonstrated that COVID-19 infection does not result in adverse outcomes for mothers or newborns, apart from a higher rate of CS.