Bitter-Sweet Harvest

Bitter-Sweet Harvest

Set in a Malaysia emerging from the outbreak of racial conflict in 1969, Bitter-Sweet Harvest tells of the difficulties and tensions involved in a marriage between a Malay Muslim and a Chinese Christian. Atmospheric, dramatic, action-packed and intriguing, it is peppered with local flavour evoking the heat, colours and sounds of Southeast Asia. Prepare to be taken on a spell-binding journey through contrasting cultures: from the learned spires of Oxford in England to the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia; from vibrant Singapore to Catholic Rome and developing Indonesia.Bitter-Sweet Harvest is the sequel to the novel Sweet Offerings. The stories can be read in any order and are complete in themselves.

Bitter-Sweet Harvest

The Ainu of Japan

The Ainu of Japan

Taking an in-depth look at distinct aboriginal cultures, these comprehensive volumes balance information about both traditional and modern lifeways. From their history and cultural practices to their religions and the landscapes they call home, discover the intricacies of each featured native culture. Supports the national curriculum standards Culture; Time, Continuity, and Change; People, Places, and Environments; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Power, Authority, and Governance; Production, Distribution, and Consumption; Science Technology and Society; and Global Connections as outlined by the National Council for the Social Studies. The Ainu of Japan have shared their homeland with the Japanese people for centuries. Although the two cultures were very different in ancient times, the Ainu have since been forced to adopt many Japanese customs. After years of discrimination, the Ainu still strive to be treated as equals in modern Japanese society while retaining their independent culture.

The Ainu of Japan

Cambridge Handbook of Culture, Organizations and Work

Cambridge Handbook of Culture, Organizations and Work

It is now widely recognized that countries around the world are becoming increasingly interconnected, and that both public and private organizations are of necessity becoming increasingly global. As political, legal, and economic barriers recede in this environment, cultural barriers emerge as a principal challenge to organizational survival and success. It is not yet clear whether these global realities will cause cultures to converge, harmonize, and seek common ground or to retrench, resist, and accentuate their differences. In either case, it is of paramount importance for both managers and organizational scholars to understand the cultural crosscurrents underlying these changes. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this 2009 book reviews, analyzes, and integrates available theory and research to give the best information possible concerning the role of culture and cultural differences in organizational dynamics.

Cambridge Handbook of Culture, Organizations and Work

On Music

On Music

Opinionated and example-filled, this extremely concise and accessible book provides a survey of some fundamental and longstanding debates about the nature of music. The central arguments and ideas of historical and contemporary philosophers are presented with the goal of making them as accessible as possible to general readers who have no background in philosophy. The emphasis is on instrumental music, but examples are drawn from many cultures as well as from Western classical, jazz, folk, and popular music.

On Music

The Reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe

The Reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is now widely recognised not only as one of the most representative figures of the British fin de sicle, but as one of the most influential Anglophone authors of the nineteenth century. In Britain Wilde suffered a long period of comparative neglect following the scandal of his conviction for gross indecency’ in 1895; and it is only recently that his works have been reassessed. But while Wilde was subjected to silence in Britain, he became a European phenomenon. His famous dandyism, his witticisms, paradoxes and provocations became the object of imitation and parody; his controversial aesthetic doctrines were a strong influence not only on decadent writers, but also on the development of symbolist and modernist cultures.

The Reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe

Crime Culture

Crime Culture

By broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American ‘hard-boiled’ crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Cultures breathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema. Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and ‘true crime’, crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of ‘senseless’ murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society.

Crime Culture

50 Jobs in 50 States

50 Jobs in 50 States

Like lots of college grads, Daniel Seddiqui was having a hard time finding a job. But despite more than forty rejections, he knew opportunities had to exist. So he set out on an extraordinary quest: fifty jobs in fifty states in fifty weeks. And not just any jobshe chose professions that reflected the culture and economy of each state. Working as everything from a cheesemaker in Wisconsin, a border patrol agent in Arizona, and a meatpacker in Kansas to a lobsterman in Maine, a surfing instructor in Hawaii, and a football coach in Alabama, Daniel chronicles how he adapted to the wildly differing people, cultures, and environments. From one week to the next he had no idea exactly what his duties would be, where hed be sleeping, what hed be eating, or how hed be received. He became a roving news item, appearing on CNN, Fox News, World News Tonight, MSNBC, and the Today showwhich was good preparation for his stint as a television weatherman. Tackling challenge after challengeovercoming anxiety about working four miles underground in a West Virginia coal mine, learning to walk on six-foot stilts (in a full Egyptian king costume) at a Florida amusement park, racing the clock as a pit-crew member at an Indiana racetrackDaniel completed his journey a changed man. In this book he shares stories about the people he met, reveals the lessons he learned, and explains the five principles that kept him going.

50 Jobs in 50 States

Japan and the League of Nations

Japan and the League of Nations

Japan joined the League of Nations in 1920 as a charter member and one of four permanent members of the League Council. Until conflict arose between Japan and the organization over the 1931 Manchurian Incident, the League was a centerpiece of Japan’s policy to maintain accommodation with the Western powers. The picture of Japan as a positive contributor to international comity, however, is not the conventional view of the country in the early and mid-twentieth century. Rather, this period is usually depicted in Japan and abroad as a history of incremental imperialism and intensifying militarism, culminating in war in China and the Pacific. Even the empire’s interface with the League of Nations is typically addressed only at nodes of confrontation: the 1919 debates over racial equality as the Covenant was drafted and the 1931-1933 League challenge to Japan’s seizure of northeast China. This volume fills in the space before, between, and after these nodes and gives the League relationship the legitimate place it deserves in Japanese international history of the 1920s and 1930s. It also argues that the Japanese cooperative international stance in the decades since the Pacific War bears noteworthy continuity with the mainstream international accommodatationism of the League years. Thomas Burkman sheds new light on the meaning and content of internationalism in an era typically seen as a showcase for diplomatic autonomy and isolation. Well into the 1930s, the vestiges of international accommodationism among diplomats and intellectuals are clearly evident. The League project ushered those it affected into world citizenship and inspired them to build bridges across boundaries and cultures.Burkman’s cogent analysis of Japan’s international role is enhanced and enlivened by his descriptions of the personalities and initiatives of Makino Nobuaki, Ishii Kikujir , Nitobe Inaz , Matsuoka Y suke, and others in their Geneva roles.

Japan and the League of Nations

Chronology of Organized Crime Worldwide, 6000 B.C.E. to 2010

Chronology of Organized Crime Worldwide, 6000 B.C.E. to 2010

Organized crime has played a significant social role in cultures all over the world. This is the first book to establish a timeline of global organized criminal activity, which spans eight millennia. Entries are arranged chronologically and represent many facets of the criminal underground, including the birth of major players in crime as well as law enforcement officials, the discovery or invention of drugs and weapons, the creation of law enforcement agencies, and the passage of statutes relevant to the control of criminal activity. A broadly useful examination of organized crime, this book encompasses all nations, races, religions and political philosophies.

Chronology of Organized Crime Worldwide, 6000 B.C.E. to 2010

Delta Theory and Psychosocial Systems

Delta Theory and Psychosocial Systems

Delta Theory establishes the foundation for a true scientific applied psychology, a theory of how human influence induces change in others. Delta Theory is unified and universal, applying to all cultures, historical periods, and goals for change. It integrates concepts and research from psychology, sociology, anthropology, evolution theory, philosophy, psychoneurology, cognitive science, and cultural-historical-activity theory. Yet Delta Theory is clear, economical, and elegant, with a full exposition of tactics for its practices. Rich examples are drawn from professional practices, but also from the creation and operations of criminals, healing ceremonies of indigenous peoples, and cross-species comparisons. This book ultimately seeks to describe how influence works, how it could be improved, and how it can be resisted.

Delta Theory and Psychosocial Systems