Social Society

What do people in the United States and Europe think about the rich? There are several thousand books and articles on stereotypes and prejudices directed at women, people of various races or nationalities, and even the poor. In contrast, there has only been sporadic research into stereotypes about the rich, and no published comprehensive, scientific study on the topic—until now.

From government to business, banks to media, trust in institutions is at an all-time low. But this isn't the age of distrust - far from it. Rachel Botsman reveals that we are at the tipping point of one of the biggest social transformations in human history. A new world order is emerging: We might have lost faith in institutions and leaders, but millions of people rent their homes to total strangers, exchange digital currencies, or find themselves trusting a bot. This is the age of "distributed trust", a paradigm shift driven by innovative technologies that are rewriting the rules....

The perfect gift to help a teenager get happy, be successful, and make good decisions. Being a teen ain't easy. And unfortunately, there aren't any classes to help navigate through those teen years. Luckily, Dad's Great Advice for Teens provides 25 short pieces of unorthodox great advice, filled with humor, wisdom, and inspirational quotes. Dad’s Great Advice for Teens will help teens become the best version of themselves they can possibly be. It’s the perfect self-help survival and success guide for teens looking to build positive habits and get an edge up.

Eleven-year-old Tommy has dreamed of being on the Bulldogs sports team forever. The Bulldogs eat, breathe, and fart sports. They’re part of the elusive Super Sports Society in his hometown, and Tommy knows that if he makes the team, he’ll be set up for life. Meanwhile, Pel would rather be at home gaming in the air conditioning, but his mom decided that he has to “be a role model” to his little siblings (ugh!), and now he’s trying out for the Bulldogs too. At least that means the two BFFs won’t be in competition for the spot . . . right? (Wrong.)

In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed media scholar and technology author Douglas Rushkoff calls on us to abandon the monopolist, winner-takes-all values we are unwittingly embedding into the digital economy and to embrace the more distributed possibilities of these platforms. He shows how we can optimize every aspect of the economy - from central currency and debt to corporations and labor - to create sustainable prosperity for business and people alike.

We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how - rather than what - we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity.

When we think about trust, we naturally think about personal relationships or bank vaults. That's too narrow. Trust is much broader, and much more important. Nothing in society works without trust. It's the foundation of communities, commerce, democracy - everything. In this insightful and entertaining book, Schneier weaves together ideas from across the social and biological sciences and technologies to explain how society induces trust.

In June 2004, Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe visited the Mises Institute to deliver an ambitious series of lectures titled Economy, Society, and History. What followed was an intellectual tour de force few academics would even attempt. Over 10 lectures, one each morning and afternoon for a week, Dr. Hoppe presented nothing short of a sweeping historical narrative and vision for a society rooted in markets and property. Delivered only from notes, to an audience of academics and intellectuals, the lectures showed astonishing depth and breadth.

Quel point commun y a-t-il entre spiritualité, médias et politique ? L'attention. Médias, industriels et politiques se l'arrachent, c'est le célèbre " temps de cerveaux disponible ". Or l'attention est la clé de notre liberté intérieure. C'est aussi le cœur même de toute vie spirituelle. Dès lors, comment, dans ce monde où notre vigilance est sans cesse " capturée ", développer sa spiritualité (laïque ou religieuse), c'est-à-dire la vie de l'esprit ? Dans ce livre, Lionel Cruzille aborde les plus grands freins à l'attention puis propose des antidotes pour reprendre le pouvoir sur notre intériorité.

Is philanthropy, by its very nature, a threat to today's democracy? Though we may laud wealthy individuals who give away their money for society's benefit, Just Giving reveals how such generosity not only isn't the unassailable good we think it to be but might also undermine democratic values and set back aspirations of justice.

Von jeher muss der Mensch seinen "Stoffwechsel mit der Natur" organisieren. Für Marx war der wichtigste Faktor dabei die Arbeit. Als Prometheus, dem Mythos zufolge, das Feuer auf die Erde brachte, kam ein weiterer entscheidender Input hinzu. Seit Hunderttausenden Jahren wird es genutzt, um Nahrung zu garen und Werkzeuge zu härten. In diesem Sinne lässt sich sagen: Alle Geschichte bedeutet die Geschichte von Applikationen des Feuers.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887 - 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, entrepreneur, and orator who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914. He was one of the first black leaders to encourage black people to discover their cultural traditions and history, and to seek common cause in the struggle for freedom and political recognition. He became a leading pan-Africanist in the United States, where he urged black Americans to return to Africa and preached solidarity among blacks around the world.

A leading American philosopher brings the tools of his trade to contentious contemporary debates. How can we have meaningful debates with political opponents? How can we distinguish reliable science from overhyped media reports? How can we talk sensibly about God? In What Philosophy Can Do, Gary Gutting takes a philosopher's scalpel to modern life's biggest questions and the most powerful forces in our society - politics, science, religion, education, and capitalism - to show how we can improve our discussions of contentious contemporary issues.

Let's take stock of young America. Compared to previous generations, American youth have more schooling (college enrollments have never been higher); more money ($100 a week in disposable income); more leisure time (five hours a day); and more news and information (Internet, The Daily Show, RSS feeds). What do they do with all that time and money? They download, upload, IM, post, chat, and network. (Nine of their top ten sites are for social networking.) They watch television and play video games (2 to 4 hours per day).

Lawyer, activist, and former Chatelaine legal columnist Linda Silver Dranoff details her trailblazing journey from a traditional 1950s childhood to the battlegrounds of the courts of law where she and a generation of women lawyers, supporting a larger feminist movement, championed the rights of Canadian women and families.

Reissued on the 10th anniversary of its publication, this classic work on our environmental crisis features a new introduction by the author, reviewing both the progress and ground lost in the fight to save the Earth. This impassioned plea for radical and life-renewing change is today still considered a groundbreaking work in environmental studies. McKibben's argument that the survival of the globe is dependent on a fundamental, philosophical shift in the way we relate to nature is more relevant than ever.

Le texte qui suit fut rédigé en 1913, dans un contexte social et culturel marqué notamment par l'industrialisation de la France, l'émergence du modèle capitaliste en Occident et les changements profonds qu'implique le basculement d'un modèle de société vers un autre. Et c'est justement de la critique d'un système de représentation dont il est ici question, de la remise en cause d'une idéologie naissante qui place désormais l'argent au sommet des valeurs.

Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming's extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of 404 interlinked dictionary entries, inviting listeners to choose their own path through its radical vision. Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure can be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has selected and edited one of these potential narratives to create Surviving the Future.

Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human.

Cuteness has taken the planet by storm. Global sensations Hello Kitty and Pokémon, the works of artists Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum and E.T. - all reflect its gathering power. But what does “cute” mean, as a sensibility and style? Why is it so pervasive? Is it all infantile fluff, or is there something more uncanny and even menacing going on - in a lighthearted way? In The Power of Cute, Simon May provides nuanced and surprising answers.