Társadalomtudomány

Africa is home to hundreds of ethnic groups, who together speak more than a thousand languages. It is not surprising, then, that Africa's enormous range of peoples, cultures, and ways of life has engendered a wide diversity of religious practices.This Very Short Introduction offers a wide-ranging look at the myriad indigenous religious traditions on the African continent. Drawing on archeological research, historical evidence, ethnographic studies, and archival materials such as missionaryrecords, Jacob Olupona-one of the world's leading authorities on African religions-captures a wealth of information in a short compass. The book not only gives the reader a full and vivid sense of African religious belief-exploring myths, gods and localdeities, ancestor worship, rites of passage, festivals, divination, and much more-but it also underscores the role these religions play in everyday African life. Indeed, traditional religions inform everything from birthing and death, marriage and familydynamics, to diet, dress and grooming, health care, and even governance. Monarchs, chiefs, and elders play both political and religious roles, imparting secular and spiritual guidance to their subjects, while also being guardians of religious centressuch as shrines, temples, and sacred forests. The author also examines the spread of Christianity and Islam throughout Africa, both the moderate sects (which often blend aspects of indigenous faith into their own practice) and the more extremefundamentalist sects, which the author states have had a dire effect on African life. In fact, radical forms of Christianity and Islam-both of which decry tradition religion as paganism-have driven a near total collapse of indigenous practice. But iftraditional religions are engaged in a battle for their lives in Africa, Olupona shows that they are thriving elsewhere in the world-particularly in the Americas and in Europe.

Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane

Most of us recognize that organizations are everywhere. You meet them on every street corner in the form of families and shops, study in them, work for them, buy from them, pay taxes to them. But have you given much thought to where they came from, whatthey are today, and what they might become in the future? How and why do they have so much influence over us, and what influences them? How do they contribute to and detract from the meaningfulness of lives, and how might we improve them so they betterserve our needs and desires?This Very Short Introductions addresses all of these questions and considers many more. Mary Jo Hatch introduces the concept of organizations by presenting definitions and ideas drawn from the a variety of subject areas including the physical sciences,economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, literature, and the visual and performing arts. Drawing on examples from prehistory and everyday life, from the animal kingdom as well as from business, government, and other formal organizations, Hatchprovides a lively and thought provoking introduction to the process of organization.

Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives.Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the impact borders have on a range of issues, such aseconomic development, inter- and intra-state conflict, global terrorism, migration, nationalism, international law, environmental sustainability, and natural resource management. Diener and Hagen demonstrate how and why borders have been, are currently,and will undoubtedly remain hot topics across the social sciences and in the global headlines for years to come.

Kiadás dátuma: 2018Szerkesztő(k): Kende Tamás, Szűcs Tamás, Jeney PetraAjánlóAz Európai Unió közjogi és politikai felépítményét áttekintő első magyar nyelvű, tudományos igényű szakkönyv legújabb kiadása a hazai könyvpiac régen várt eseménye.Az először 1995-ben megjelent, a felsőoktatásban, a közigazgatásban és az EU-val foglalkozók által széles körben használt kézikönyv 2018 őszi változata az uniós intézményi és jogi kérdések mellett a legfrissebb eseményeket, a gazdasági és a migrációsválságot, az Egyesült Királyság kilépéséről folyó Brexit tárgyalásokat, valamint az Európa jövőjére vonatkozó terveket is értékeli, kitekintve már a 2019-ben esedékes európai parlamenti választásokra.A téma elismert kutatói, egyetemi oktatók és uniós tisztviselők vizsgálják az európai integráció jogi, politikai és gazdasági fejlődésének folyamatát. Részletesen és tárgyilagosan elemzik az Európai Unió intézményrendszerét, az uniós jogrendet ésMagyarország kapcsolódását az uniós intézményekhez. A kötet kitüntetett figyelmet fordít az uniós intézmények szervezeti, működési és hatásköri szabályaira, az Unió és a tagállamok közötti hatáskörmegosztásra és az uniós jog végrehajtási mechanizmusaira.Önálló rész dolgozza fel az Európai Unió pénzügyi és külkapcsolati rendszerét is.Szemléletes ábrák és táblázatok könnyítik meg az eligazodást az anyagban, amelynek összeállításánál a szerzők figyelembe vették az előző kiadások felhasználóinak tapasztalatait is.

Drawing on studies of social class, crime and deviance, education, work in bureaucracies and changes in religious and political organizations, this Very Short Introduction explores the tension between the individual's place in society and society's rolein shaping the individual, and demonstrates the value of sociology for understanding the modern world.In this new edition Steve Bruce discusses the continuing arguments for social egalitarianism, considering issues such as gay marriage, women in combat roles, and the 2010 Equality Act to debunk contemporary arguments against parity. As gender divisionsare increasingly questioned he looks ahead to the likely consequences of this for society. Delving into the theory of sociology, Bruce also argues that the habit of dividing sociology into apparently competing 'sects' is misleading, and shows how a newunderstanding of the disciplinary background of many of the most famous theorists, which shows that much social theory is actually philosophy or literary theory, will prove useful to today's sociologists.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combinefacts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was chosen as the next Pope in one of the shortest conclaves in history. He is thefirst Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope to come from Latin America. Who is this man, and how did he come to such high position?This book begins with the arrival of Bergoglio's family in Buenos Aires in 1929, travelling from Italy, explores his childhood as one of a family of five, his first job as a factory cleaner and the bout of pneumonia which forced him to reassess his lifecompletely. Then from his early days as a seminarian through his experience as a teacher of psychology and literature, through to his consecration as a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, Bergoglio shares his experiences of faith and life.The difficult subjects are met head on, from the declining numbers of priests to celibacy and even the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the church - and through it all, Bergoglio's humble approach and desire to live an austere and faithful life shinethrough.This is a Pope who will not allow himself to be fitted to a traditional mould - and the world waits with bated breath to see what his time as leader of the world's largest church will bring.

Critical Theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose-and, if at all possible, cure-the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen EricBronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukács and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empiricalinvestigations. This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency,alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hiddentransformative possibilities. Only a critique of critical theory can render it salient for a new age. That is precisely what this very short introduction provides.