Social Analysis

"Big Data" is on the covers of Science, Nature, The Economist, and Wired magazines, on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. But despite the media hyperbole, as Christine Borgman points out in this examination of data and scholarly research, having the right data is usually better than having more data; little data can be just as valuable as big data. Borgman, an often-cited authority on scholarly communication, argues that data have no value or meaning in isolation; they exist within a knowledge infrastructure.

Born in 1858, Franz Boas permanently changed the standards and practices of anthropology. A German-born secular Jew, he became known for his distinctive approach to the discipline - non-hierarchical, open to diverse inputs, and unbiased. Throughout his career, Boas used his scholarship to effect social change. His work convinced his colleagues to abandon the theories that had decided one race (Caucasian) and one culture (Western European) were more fully developed and worthier than others.

What if you could figure out the people you meet in a matter of seconds? Do you know that your body language tells all about your personality? If you want to learn how to analyze people in seconds then keep reading.

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career.

Bhabha investigates concepts such as "hybridity," the notion that ideas are made up of all the different cultures with which they have contact, and "mimicry," the way in which a person or group adopts an idea from another culture, to express a postcolonial world, where we are all "in between" cultures. These concepts have been important to postcolonial studies, but have also been taken up in such diverse areas as architecture and literature. Although criticized by some for insisting that the written word was as powerful as armed resistance in the struggle against colonizing forces.

We can encounter chaos in every system around us - even the smallest and simplest ones. Any system can fall into chaos, which prevents us to accurately predict its behavior. Even a small change in the initial conditions can lead to unexpectedly large-scale consequences. Therefore, we can often enter in panic, blame actors for events they are not responsible for, and our sense of security in the world can generally decrease.

The history of philosophy is beset by unresolved disputes. These disputes are passed down from generation to generation as problems to be solved. If not solved, they engender skepticism. Philosophical disputes, posed as problems, can be resolved or dissolved if we first acknowledge that some things are clear to reason.

A former US naval intelligence worker, Milton William Cooper published his manifesto Behold a Pale Horse in 1991. Since then it has gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, becoming the number-one best seller in the American prison system. According to Behold a Pale Horse, JFK was assassinated - because he was about to reveal that extraterrestrials were about to take over the earth - by his driver, an alien himself; AIDS is a government conspiracy; and much more.

Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact gives the listener insightful ways to engage an audience. The book has examples of phrases and questions you can use in any situation to guide your audience’s behavior to the results you want. NinjaReads summaries are made for go-getters who have an itch to learn and grow. Not only will you learn faster, but you’ll also be more productive as you save hours of your day. As you grow smarter from each listen, your family and friends may notice and give you compliments on how much you have grown.

Thoughts Out of Season is a collection of paramount importance consisting of four notable essays written between 1873 and 1876.

Author Michael Pollan digs through decades of research and plays human guinea pig to illustrate the potential of psychedelics to alter the mind. Please note: This is a summary and analysis of the book and not the original book. If you'd like to purchase the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.

American lawyer-turned-sociologist David Riesman published his first book, The Lonely Crowd, in 1950. Aimed at academics, it nonetheless gained a large popular audience. In it, Riesman explores the links between social character - the ways in which members of a society are similar to one another - and social structures. Riesman's work popularized sociology, helping to establish it as an academic discipline, and today it provides a fascinating window into the 1950s American psyche.

Scattered over the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea lie the remnants of failed peace proposals, international summits, secret negotiations, UN resolutions, and state-building efforts. The conventional story is that these well-meaning attempts at peacemaking were repeatedly, perhaps terminally, thwarted by violence. Through a rich interweaving of reportage, historical narrative, and powerful analysis, Nathan Thrall presents a startling counterhistory.

Invoking Mnemosyne—Greek goddess of memory and eloquence, daughter of Heaven and Earth, mother of the Muses, and archetypal deity of the Asklepion dream temple tradition—this book initiates you into full dream consciousness, offering a lucid-dreaming ritual experience in the spirit of the Mystery Schools of antiquity. Sharing her more than a decade of research on Sleep Temples and Mystery Schools of the Esoteric Tradition, lucid-dreaming instructor Sarah Janes explores the evolution of imagination, memory, and consciousness throughout the ages.

Max Weber was the first to identify beliefs and practices that influenced economic behavior. He found Catholics generally less motivated to succeed in business than Protestants because of their religious belief that everyone could achieve salvation. The branch of Protestants known as Calvinists, on the other hand, believed God determined everyone's salvation status before birth. Nothing a person might do on earth could save a soul marked for damnation.

Short on time? Or maybe you’ve already read the book, but need a refresh on the most important takeaways. In a quick, easy read, you can take the main principles from Outliers: The Story of Success. Outliers asserts that a person’s background and environment are every bit as important as intelligence and drive in achieving success. Critics have complained that Gladwell’s explanations for success are simply interesting, but too simplistic. However, the book has sold millions of copies and remains popular.

This audiobook is a vital tool for anyone who wants to become more aware of their body language as well as learn how to read and analyze verbal and nonverbal clues of others.

Short on time? Or maybe you’ve already read the book, but need a refresh on the most important takeaways. In a quick, easy listen, you can take the main principles from Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It! Ever find yourself in a difficult business situation? Or do you have a difficult time relating to others when conversing? Never Split the Difference, written by Chris Voss, addresses one of the most difficult subjects that most of us learn but never master: The art of a good negotiation.

Anthropologist Geert Hofstede's 1980 work, Culture's Consequences, was the first study to look at cultural differences using data. The Dutchman took advantage of the enormous global span of his employer, the technology company IBM, to gather survey data in 20 languages and across 70 countries, and to produce a unique study of national values.

Michel Foucault had already written extensively about medicine, madness, and prisons. But in the latter days of his career, he turned to the subject of sexuality, planning six volumes on the subject. He completed three before dying of an AIDS-related illness in 1984. Foucault's History of Sexuality Vol. 1 is a study of the evolution of cultural ideas about sex in the West since the end of the 17th century. Volume two looked at attitudes toward sex in ancient Greece; volume three investigated sex in ancient Rome.