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Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Elections in Seattle (PLAC: Political Lessons from American Cities)
By Brian J. McCabe, Jennifer A. Heerwig. 2024
In 2017, Seattle inaugurated a new way for citizens to be involved in democracy: they introduced publicly financed vouchers for…
voters to donate to local candidates. The innovative plan is designed to level the playing field in campaign financing. Through the vouchers, residents allocate dollars to candidates of their choice in local elections, putting political money directly in the hands of voters. The intent is to increase political participation and ameliorate the long-standing representational inequalities of private donations. Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Elections in Seattle critically evaluates the success and impact of this program. Jennifer Heerwig and Brian J. McCabe emphasize how local elections now attract a much wider and more diverse field of both donors and candidates. They also consider external threats to the program, from litigation about the constitutionality of a voucher program to the rise of independent expenditures. Offering important lessons on how other cities can adopt a similar program, this compelling case study also highlights the obstacles that will likely arise in its implementation.
Contours of Israeli Politics: Jewish Ethnicity, Religious Nationalism, and Democracy
By Hannah M. Ridge. 2025
There is no single Jewish ethnicity, and no single Jewish ethnic group constitutes a clear majority of Jewish Israelis. These…
intra-Jewish differences permit a social hierarchy within the “in-group” – Jewish Israelis – that privileges the Ashkenazi Jews of European descent over Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews of Middle Eastern backgrounds. The timely Contours of Israeli Politics focuses on the socio-political ramifications of this hierarchy within the upper stratum of Israeli society. Using public opinion studies and qualitative data, Hannah Ridge examines the effects of this social hierarchy to address attitudes on Israeli ethnicity and religious majoritarianism, support for Israeli democracy, and preference for an expanded territorial state and peace with its neighbors. As various Jewish ethnic groups face greater pressure to assert their in-group membership (their Jewishness), they are more likely to protect the status privileges of that group. This can strengthen their ideas about identity, nationalism, democratic values, and conflict attitudes. Ridge’s findings reveal the ways in which Jewish ethnicity continues to influence the politics of Israel, a Jewish ethno-religious state.
Places of worship are important anchor institutions in communities, helping to create social capital through discussion groups, soup kitchens, and…
neighborhood clean-ups. While congregations face increasing pressures, from declining attendance to political polarization, community engagement is an overall positive for their members and for democracy. Faith and Community shows the benefits of religious people taking action in their communities. Through more than a decade of multi-method data collection, Rebecca Glazier surveyed over 4,000 congregants and nearly 500 clergy in Little Rock, Arkansas to gather opinions from members and leaders on community issues and engagement. Together with interviews and case studies, her findings indicate that active congregants are happier and more civically involved. Faith and Community provides valuable insights into the relationship between religion and community engagement. The data illustrates how community engagement benefits individuals, congregations, and democracy and offers one solution to what ails religion in America today.
In this collection, a diverse range of international contributors examine commemorative monuments from the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The…
book reveals how those monuments enable new perspectives and understanding of histories as well as a heightened involvement of viewers through not simply their subject matter but also, most crucially, their actual form and design. While some contributors explore new approaches to the art of commemoration that artists and designers have deployed in recent monuments, others examine how artists have undertaken creative engagements with historical statuary and sites, using these interventions to offer critique and commentary. Additionally, the contributions consider the impact of political change on ways in which an inherited commemorative landscape is interpreted and negotiated. Questions considered by the contributions include: How might new monuments be shaped and how might they function differently from those of the past? Is there a place for portraiture in the contemporary commemorative landscape? Should commemorative monuments be envisaged as permanent fixtures or are temporary approaches more viable? How effectively have artists disrupted the meanings of historical monuments and sites through installation, performance, video and other media? How has political change played out at historical sites, affecting how commemorative monuments from prior dispensations are understood in the 2020s?This collection will be of value to researchers in Art History, Visual Studies and Heritage Studies, as well as scholars in all disciplines and fields who are interested in public art, public memory and the politics of commemoration.
Eurotrash: Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025
By Christian Kracht. 2024
'Odd and evocative, a frolicking rumination' TIMES CRITICS' BEST BOOK OF 2024'Hilarious, unsettling and unexpectedly moving' FINANCIAL TIMES BEST TRANSLATED…
BOOK OF 2024'Resonant and spiky' DAILY MAIL'Brilliantly caustic' i PAPERRealising he and she are the very worst kind of people, a middle-aged man embarks on a dubious road trip through Switzerland with his eighty-year-old mother, recently discharged from a mental institution. Traversing the country in a hired cab, they attempt to give away the wealth she has amassed from investing in the arms industry, but a fortune of such immensity is surprisingly hard to squander. Haunted in different ways by the figure of her father, an ardent supporter of Nazism, mother and son can no longer avoid delving into the darkest truths about their past.Eurotrash is a bitterly funny, vertiginous mirror-cabinet of familial and historical reckoning. The pair's tragicomic quest is punctuated by the tenderness and spite meted out between two people who cannot escape one another. Intensely personal and unsparingly critical, Eurotrash is a disorientingly brilliant novel by a writer at the pinnacle of his powers.Praise for Christian Kracht:'Christian Kracht is the great German-language writer of his generation' Joshua Cohen'Astonishing and captivating' Karl Ove KnausgaardTRANSLATED BY DANIEL BOWLES
Vesuvius
By Cass Biehn. 2025
'A thrilling star-crossed romance filled with intrigue, longing, and the looming dread of impending disaster. The explosive finale will have…
readers holding their breath'Erik J. Brown, author of All That's Left in the WorldFelix is a cunning thief. Loren is a temple attendant. Thrown together, the boys have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city. A stunning queer YA fantasy debut set in ancient Pompeii, for fans of THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END, ALL THAT'S LEFT IN THE WORLD and LIES WE SING TO THE SEA. Give him your heart. Grasp your destiny. Get out alive.Clever thief Felix seizes an opportunity to steal a helmet in Pompeii. But as he's chased by a mysterious patrician, Felix discovers the helmet is not only a priceless artefact but a relic of the god Mercury. When Felix touches it, pieces of his forgotten past begin to simmer.Loren, an aspiring councilman and temple attendant, is plagued by nightmares of Pompeii's destruction. Nightmares that feature Felix, who stumbles into Loren's temple as an earthquake rocks the city.Loren knows they have mere days to uncover Felix's ties to the relic and to Loren's own dreams if they have any hope of saving Pompeii from the boiling fury of Mount Vesuvius. But the Ancient Roman world is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, with dangerous, desperate people lurking in every shadow. Felix and Loren will have to piece together their fates - and their growing feelings for one another - to make it out of a burning city alive."Stunning prose meets heart-pounding thrills in this tense, fast-paced work of art. A must-read for lovers of history, fantasy and thriller connoisseurs, and those who prefer their romances burning" - Sophie Gonzales, author of Only Mostly Devastated"Delightful characters and a wonderful queer love story that explodes with heart" - C.S. Pacat, author of Dark Rise"A beautiful tale of love and self-discovery set against the fall of Pompeii, VESUVIUS is equal parts heart-wrenching and healing. Cass Biehn's stunning debut is sure to cement itself in reader's hearts for years to come" - Pascale Lacelle, author of Curious Tides "A smart, tender, queer love story set on the precipice of one of the greatest natural disasters in history, Vesuvius seethes with tension, magic, longing, and mystery. I loved the beautifully reimagined world of Pompeii, and I was absolutely rooting for Loren and Felix, two broken boys who find a home in each other, despite the apocalyptic times they find themselves in" - Jamie Pacton, author of The Absinthe Underground and The Vermilion Emporium"Felix and Loren are your next obsession! Weaving myth and mystery with prose defter than a pickpocket's fingers, Biehn guides readers through lively Roman streets, two boys excavating shadowy histories to find their own fortunes, and what matters most when the world is ending. Vesuvius sings - not of distant heroes but piercingly human defiance, ambition, protectiveness, and a love eternal as any epic" - Leanne Schwartz, author of A Prayer for Vengeance and To a Darker Shore"Vesuvius is breathtaking and atmospheric, replete with secrets, hauntings, and tender longing. Readers will love this whirlwind visit to Pompeii, and they will fall in love with Felix, Loren, and their dreams - to survive, to remember, and to belong." - Jen St. Jude, author of If Tomorrow Doesn't Come
With a Vengeance: the twisty new locked-room thriller from the master of the genre
By Riley Sager. 2025
One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.'A locked room thriller at its best! Nonstop suspense with…
twists and turns that will leave your head spinning' FREIDA MCFADDEN'Sager wields a deft hand in bringing all the elements together into a rip-roaring, tension-filled tale of greed, murder and revenge' DAVID BALDACCIIn 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson's family. Twelve years later, she's ready for retribution.Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family's downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who've wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.But Anna's plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge-and that they won't stop until everyone else is dead.With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them-even though it means putting her own life at risk. PRAISE FOR RILEY SAGER:'Full of tension, urgency, atmosphere and feeling' Lee Child'Propulsive . . . a dizzying Gothic whodunit' New York Times Book Review'Riley Sager is an auto-buy for me' Laura Dave'Riley Sager is one of my favourite authors . . . Fun, scary and so absorbing' Rachel Hawkins'If you're not already reading Riley Sager, you're missing out' Catherine Ryan Howard'Clever, twisty, spine-chilling' Ruth Ware'Terrific' Karin Slaughter'A dark, frightening and twisty story that you won't be able to put down' Shari Lapena'The work of a master storyteller . . . An unputdownable page-turner' Alex Michaelides'Brilliantly written with a dark and clever twist on a well-worn trope, and as for that ending...?!' Susi Holliday
A moving, honest and revealing memoir of living with chronic illness, and an examination of the ways a relationship with…
the natural world can affect us, from debut author and nature writer Nic WilsonWhen Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realizes her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness.Now in her forties, and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness - past and present - and learn to reach for steady ground?With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
Global Crisis and Insecurity: The Human Condition, Darkly
By Paul James. 2025
From the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, to the escalating effects of climate change, public consciousness of existential…
threat waxes and wanes. Despite the occasional intense capacity to imagine the global consequences of our cumulative actions, we seem to lack a collective will to act alternatively and systematically to conserve the fundamental conditions for human life. This book confronts the basic challenges of insecurity, violence, genocide, refugee displacement and technoscientific intrusions on embodiment and identity – but it also points to other worlds that are possible. It argues for an engaged cosmopolitanism, grounded in place and guided by local and global debates around principles of what constitutes good ways of living. In order to create a positive change, we must better understand the human condition in crisis, the causes of the global crisis and the possible pathways to human flourishing.
We Came to Rebuild New Orleans: Stories of the Hurricane Katrina Volunteers
By Christopher E. Manning. 2025
When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, causing more than 1,800 deaths and more than $100 billion in damages, it was…
deemed a “once-in-a-lifetime storm.” After the hurricane, over 1.5 million volunteers came to New Orleans through various nonprofit organizations, and around 500 new charities were established to aid the city’s recovery. We Came to Rebuild New Orleans documents this significant movement through interviews with the activists who spearheaded the city’s recovery.Despite widespread acknowledgment of the crucial role of nonprofit organizations in New Orleans’s recovery, scholarly examinations of these recovery workers’ experiences remain scarce. We Came to Rebuild New Orleans fills this gap, drawing on a vast corpus of interviews with more than fifty leaders and staff involved in Katrina recovery across various areas, including housing, criminal justice reform, legal aid, and wetlands restoration. The interviews seek to understand what motivates individuals to devote significant portions of their lives to recovery, and to assess whether nonprofit volunteer labor was an effective recovery strategy. Analysis of the testimonies of participants reveals that most of the disaster recovery corps, even those in their early twenties, had histories of activism or civic engagement before committing to New Orleans recovery work. While significant, their recovery work in New Orleans tended to represent a single chapter in a broader life story of service and civic engagement. Despite the good intentions of the volunteers, their testimonies also highlight the limitations of relying on volunteer nonprofit organizations for disaster recovery. We Came to Rebuild New Orleans thus offers an extraordinary new look at long-term disaster recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sharing the personal stories of nonprofit workers from many walks of life, the book emphasizes their persistent spirit of activism and civic engagement, while also reflecting critically on the effectiveness of volunteer-based disaster recovery initiatives.
Understanding Salafism: Seeking the Path of the Pious Predecessors
By Yasir Qadhi. 2025
A comprehensive overview of the most misunderstood movement in modern Islam: Salafism.The Salafi movement invokes fear and dread in outsiders…
who treat Salafism as synonymous with religious extremism. For Salafis themselves, it&’s a jealously guarded title, always in danger of dilution. Salafism has changed the face of Islam; its ideas reach far outside its own ranks. Yet popular portrayals never go beyond hackneyed stereotypes. In Understanding Salafism, Dr Yasir Qadhi delves into the origins of the movement, from the earliest debates in Islam to Salafism today, in both the Western and Islamic worlds. In an analysis covering Salafism in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Africa, he illuminates Salafism&’s theological ideas, the debates within Salafism about political participation, and its relationship to other schools in Sunni Islam.----- Yasir Qadhi is a resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Texas, and dean of the Islamic Seminary of America. He is one of the few people who has combined a traditional Eastern Islamic seminary education with Western academic training in the study of Islam. ----- Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface Conventions 1 Introduction: A Bird&’s Eye View of Salafism 2 A Comprehensive History of Salafi Thought: From its Origins to Modernity 3 Wahhabism and Salafism 4 Salafism and Islamism: A Case Study of the Muslim Brotherhood 5 The Phenomenon of Jihadi-Salafism 6 Global Salafism in the Contemporary World Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index
Investigation in the Creep-Fatigue Coupled Effect of Rock Salt
By Chunhe Yang, Tongtao Wang, Jinyang Fan, Zongze Li. 2025
This open access book provides the uniaxial, triaxial, fatigue, creep, creep-fatigue loading tests in order to investigate the salt mechanical…
response and the related damage mechanisms defining relation between plastic deformation, dilatancy and damage. Based on the experimental results, a new creep-fatigue constitutive model for salt rock that considers creep-fatigue interaction was established by incorporating a state variable that characterizes rock hardening level on the basis of the Norton creep model. Different salt rock mechanical test data sets with varying stress paths were used to validate this creep-fatigue constitutive model. The fit curves and test curves of the stress paths demonstrate good consistency, indicating that the model comprehensively considers the effects of time, load, and state on salt rock's creep-fatigue, effectively describing the creep-fatigue plastic deformation features of salt rock under different stress paths.
Learn about the most common and known threats and attacks in the gaming industry. Cybersecurity is a critical concern in…
the gaming industry due to the significant financial investments, personal data, and intellectual property at stake. Game developers, publishers, and players all have a vested interest in maintaining a secure gaming environment. This pocketbook is about why cybersecurity in the gaming industry is essential to protect player data, maintain a secure gaming environment, and safeguard intellectual property. Both players and game developers need to remain vigilant, educate themselves about potential threats, and employ best practices to ensure a safe and enjoyable gaming experience. We will describe the most common type of targeted games facing cybersecurity attacks as well as some of the most common types of cyber threats faced by the gaming industry such as malware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, data breaches, etc. What You Will Learn Describes the importance cybersecurity in the gaming industry Explains key aspects of cybersecurity in the gaming Describes the common types of cyber threats faced by the gaming industry Who Is This Book For The book assumes you have strong gaming development and security knowledge. The book will be written mainly for developers who want to learn how to choose the right tools, what are the best practice, the threats, and vulnerabilities
This book states that the proceedings gathers selected papers from 7th International Conference on Civil Engineering and Architecture (ICCEA 2024),…
which was held in Da Nang, Vietnam on December 7-9, 2024. The conference is the premier forum for the presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and practical civil engineering and architecture. And this proceedings from the conference mainly discusses architectural design and project management, environmental protection and spatial planning, design and analysis of building materials, and structural engineering and safety. And these materials can be useful and valuable sources for researchers and professionals working in the field of civil engineering and architecture.
Rough Sets: International Joint Conference, IJCRS 2025, Chongqing, China, May 11–13, 2025, Proceedings, Part I (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #15708)
By Richard Jensen, Xinbo Gao, Guoyin Wang, Chris Cornelis, JingTao Yao, Shuyin Xia, Qinghua Zhang, Christopher Henry. 2025
This three-volume set LNAI 15708-15709-15110 constitutes the proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Rough Sets, IJCRS 2025, held in…
Chongqing, China, during May 11–13, 2025.The 90 full papers included in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from 187 submissions. They are organized in topical sections as follows:Part I: Rough Set Models and Foundations; Fuzzy Rough Sets and Rough Fuzzy Sets; and Granular Computing.Part II: Rough Set Applications; Feature Selection and Knowledge Discovery; and Cognitive Computing.Part III: Three-way Data Analytics and Decision; Medicine and Health Data Mining; and Applications of Deep Learning and Soft Computing.
Ecological and Social Determinants of Suicidal Behavior (South Asian Perspectives in Mental Health and Psychology)
By S. M. Yasir Arafat, Sujita Kumar Kar. 2025
This book discusses the association between ecological and social determinants and suicidal behavior. Suicidal behavior is an extremely complex human…
behavior. It is an outcome of complex interactions among multiple factors like gene and environment, biopsychosocial, proximal and distal factors. Several risk factors such as psychiatric disorders, life events, social deprivation, personality traits and disorders, and substance abuse have been identified even though those vary based on culture, time, country, and methods of assessment. In recent times, evidence has shown associations among ecological variables like the human development index, the income of the country, the GINI index, educational attainment, the green environment, climate change, and suicidal behavior. At the same time, there are interlinked confounding variables that challenge the findings. Given the lack of literature discussing these findings, this book seeks to compare and contrast the ecological aspects and suicidal behavior holistically.
Directional and Multivariate Statistics: A Volume in Honour of Ashis SenGupta
By Barry C. Arnold, Arnab Kumar Laha, Somesh Kumar, Kunio Shimizu. 2025
This book contains select chapters on a range of topics in directional statistics, multivariate statistical inference, financial statistics, statistical machine…
learning and reliability inference. At the 43rd Annual Convention of the Indian Society for Probability and Statistics (ISPS) held in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India, from 6–8 February 2024, attribute was paid to Prof. Ashis SenGupta on the occasion of his 70th birthday. He has pioneered research on directional statistics in the modern era in India and enhanced it worldwide and contributed significantly to the advancement of the following topics: Highly flexible distributions on manifolds Statistical machine learning in data science Big data on manifolds Optimal multiparameter, multivariate statistical inference Reliability inference and stress-dependent-strength models Directional statistics for highly volatile financial models Cylindrical, spherical and toroidal regression analysis Innovative applications of emerging real-life directional data
Diversity and Inclusion in Italy: Societal and Organizational Perspectives (Diversity and Inclusion Research)
By Simone Pulcher, Stefano Basaglia, Simona Cuomo, Zenia Simonella. 2025
History, geography, culture, and the legal framework influence the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in and around organisations. Yet, most…
academics and practitioners still approach themes of diversity in organisations relying on standardised discourses and practices, often transferred uncritically from the Anglo-Saxon context. Adopting a contextual approach that takes into account the specificities of the Italian context, this book explores a wide array of themes related to diversity and inclusion in organisations and society. Focusing on the Italian context, the book offers new insights into themes already well-established in the diversity debate, such as gender, age and disability. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on categories, organisational forms, and stakeholders rarely associated with diversity, such as social class, family businesses, and trade unions, but also to consider the role of technology and the arts as tools for both inclusion and exclusion. The contributions draw on different disciplines and perspectives and provide insights relevant not only with respect to Italy but also to other national and international contexts. This volume is aimed at both researchers and practitioners who wish to develop a more nuanced and mature understanding of diversity in organisations and society.
Preventing Violence: The Past, Present and Future of the Public Health Approach
By Tim Newburn, Alistair Fraser, Luke Billingham, Keir Irwin-Rogers, Susan McVie, Fern Gillon. 2025
Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Preventing Violence argues that we can move towards safer and better societies by…
advancing holistic public health approaches to violence prevention. It explores the serious limitations of contemporary public health approaches and proposes an alternative path forward. Based on data from a three-year, ESRC-funded project 'Public Health, Youth and Violence Reduction', it also examines in-depth the work of 20 Violence Reduction Units in England and Wales. The book makes clear recommendations for policy makers, practitioners and researchers working to prevent violence and improve the lives of children and young people.
Liberty: Treasure from the archives of the London department store
By Marie-Therese Rieber. 2021
Liberty is the last word in bohemian luxury, a destination and brand celebrated for its unique blend of avant-garde design…
and expert craftsmanship.Liberty: The History celebrates the historic beginnings of the iconic store as well as their contemporary vision - from their 'Eastern Bazaar' of objets d'art, rugs and textiles from Japan and the East to the brand's association with the developing Art Nouveau movement, their whimsical window displays and quintessential Art Fabrics, to the innovations in design and printmaking and the savvy collaborations and creative direction that have kept Liberty at the forefront of the fashion world.With treasures from the Liberty archives including classic silk scarves, designs spanning over a century and original sketches for Liberty Art Fabrics, this is the official invitation into a London institution and a global icon.This deluxe edition features a cloth-bound hardback book, 10 exquisite art prints and a stunning collectible gift box.