en-US Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:54:02 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 372928 220 Per Hage 0521273110 Q 0 4.67 1984
author: Per Hage
name: Q
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: currently-reading, network-science
review:

]]> 2544521
The first part of this book looks at the philosophy of experimental science and discusses the stratification of nature, showing how biological structures are founded on chemical ones yet are not reducible to them. This paves the way, in part two, for a discussion of the human sciences which demonstrates that the world they study is also rooted in and emergent from nature. Bhaskar’s concept of an “explanatory critique�� (an explanation that is also a criticism, not in addition to, but by virtue of, its explanatory work) is discussed at length as a key concept for ethics and politics. Collier concludes by looking at the uses to which critical realism has been put in clarifying disputes within the human sciences with particular reference to linguistics, psychoanalysis, economics and politics.]]> 292 Andrew Collier 0860916022 Q 4 critical-realism 4.24 1994
author: Andrew Collier
name: Q
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: critical-realism
review:

]]> 30851889 226 Roy Bhaskar 1134867956 Q 0 4.00 2011
author: Roy Bhaskar
name: Q
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: currently-reading, critical-realism
review:

]]> 57933312 In this lively journey through human psychology, bestselling author and creator of the You Are Not So Smart podcast David McRaney investigates how minds change--and how to change minds.

What made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change take place only when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, How Minds Change is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation.

When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone's mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther's conversion blew up his theories--inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, How Minds Change explores the limits of reasoning, the power of group-think, and the effects of deep canvassing. Told with McRaney's trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it's an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists, from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California--that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?]]> 352 David McRaney 0593190297 Q 4 society, brain
So how do you convince one of something?

Make a personal connection then introduce facts.

Is this new? Not really, but definitely reaffirms it.]]> 4.13 2022
author: David McRaney
name: Q
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/27
shelves: society, brain
review:
Americans continue down the anti-intellectualism path.

So how do you convince one of something?

Make a personal connection then introduce facts.

Is this new? Not really, but definitely reaffirms it.
]]> 4894077 Book by Melko, Matthew 221 Matthew Melko 0875580440 Q 4 civilization
I came to this book via a reference to General Systems Theory in the Social Sciences.]]> 4.00
author: Matthew Melko
name: Q
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/09
date added: 2020/08/09
shelves: civilization
review:
This is great! "Comparative history" written in sections short 3-6 page chapters, with chapter and section notes.

I came to this book via a reference to General Systems Theory in the Social Sciences.
]]> 4582506 234 T. Downing Bowler 0444004203 Q 4 systems-theory 4.00 1981
author: T. Downing Bowler
name: Q
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/04
date added: 2020/07/04
shelves: systems-theory
review:
Chpts 6 and 12 saved this book from a 2star. The whole book seems helpful in getting more perspectives on GST, so I'd recommend.
]]> 583766 Originally published in 1975 and reprinted more than twenty times over a quarter century -- and now available for the first time from Dorset House Publishing -- the text uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and virtually any kind of system.

Scientists, engineers, organization leaders, managers, doctors, students, and thinkers of all disciplines can use this book to dispel the mental fog that clouds problem-solving. As author Gerald M. Weinberg writes in the new preface to the Silver Anniversary Edition, "I haven’t changed my conviction that most people don’t think nearly as well as they could had they been taught some principles of thinking.��

Now an award-winning author of nearly forty books spanning the entire software development life cycle, Weinberg had already acquired extensive experience as a programmer, manager, university professor, and consultant when this book was originally published.

With helpful illustrations, numerous end-of-chapter exercises, and an appendix on a mathematical notation used in problem-solving, An Introduction to General Systems Thinking may be your most powerful tool in working with problems, systems, and solutions.]]> 320 Gerald M. Weinberg 0932633498 Q 3 systems-theory
And that feeling was that the book doesn't do a very good job explaining a method of thinking.

On the other hand, anyone who approvingly quotes Bakunin is someone to take seriously! ]]> 3.97 1975
author: Gerald M. Weinberg
name: Q
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/08
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves: systems-theory
review:
I can't tell if I didn't like the style or the content. Weinberg and I are both "computer guys" and so felt I was understanding.

And that feeling was that the book doesn't do a very good job explaining a method of thinking.

On the other hand, anyone who approvingly quotes Bakunin is someone to take seriously!
]]> 1234200 536 Lars Skyttner 9812564675 Q 4 systems-theory
After years of then reading him, I often think back and feel that was a great way to be introduced to him. I am hoping the same from this book and GST: This book was an easy and clear read, understandable presentation of ideas, and long (ha!)

I am hoping the same in this case: a good and well-prepared base for going deep and wide into GST.

Note, one of my favorite aspects of this book is its Reference; it has helped to fill out my shelf! ]]> 3.70 2006
author: Lars Skyttner
name: Q
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/03
date added: 2020/05/03
shelves: systems-theory
review:
25years ago(!) I read a book on Chomsky; not by him but about him and his work as an activist and his philosophy/politics/ethics.

After years of then reading him, I often think back and feel that was a great way to be introduced to him. I am hoping the same from this book and GST: This book was an easy and clear read, understandable presentation of ideas, and long (ha!)

I am hoping the same in this case: a good and well-prepared base for going deep and wide into GST.

Note, one of my favorite aspects of this book is its Reference; it has helped to fill out my shelf!
]]> 38397182 176 Adam Kotsko 1503607127 Q 5 4.10 2018
author: Adam Kotsko
name: Q
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 19285628 91 Mark Fisher Q 5 Fantastic summary of "late capitalism" (2020)

Summarizes life under "late capitalism" -- political, economic and cultural -- as metronomical managed by Kafka'n bureaucracy. Resonates to me!]]> 4.29 2009
author: Mark Fisher
name: Q
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/20
date added: 2020/01/20
shelves:
review:
Fantastic summary of "late capitalism" (2020)

Summarizes life under "late capitalism" -- political, economic and cultural -- as metronomical managed by Kafka'n bureaucracy. Resonates to me!
]]> 36690909
Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems—rather than humans—control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor.

In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile.

The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values.

This deeply researched and passionate book could not be more timely.]]> 283 Virginia Eubanks 1466885963 Q 5 tech, society 4.00 2018
author: Virginia Eubanks
name: Q
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/12/24
date added: 2018/12/24
shelves: tech, society
review:

]]> 9778945 Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.

Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.

Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.]]> 280 Nicholas Carr 0393339750 Q 5 tech, brain 3.90 2010
author: Nicholas Carr
name: Q
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/01
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: tech, brain
review:

]]> 20723810 From the best-selling author of The Shallows, an urgent examination of the human consequences of automation.

What kind of world are we building for ourselves? That’s the question Nicholas Carr tackles in this important, absorbing book. Digging behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, personalized apps and computerized medicine, Carr explores the hidden costs of allowing software to take charge of our jobs and our lives. He draws on science, economics, and philosophy to make a compelling case that the dominant Silicon Valley ethic is sapping our skills and narrowing our horizons.

The Glass Cage is not just a timely critique of society’s growing dependence on computers. It’s a riveting story of humankind’s entanglement with machines. From nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits of modern jets, from the frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to the “augmented reality�� of Google Glass, Carr takes us on an unforgettable voyage of discovery culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to expand life’s possibilities rather than narrow them.]]> 288 Nicholas Carr 0393240762 Q 5 tech 3.71 2014
author: Nicholas Carr
name: Q
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/05/01
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: tech
review:

]]> 27776577 7 J.D. Vance 0062477528 Q 2 listened-to, society
I am not really sure what, how, or even why a review will be useful.

TL;DR: Talks about an "honor" culture that is nationalistic & venerates the military. Blames them. "Social" programs won't help. Concluding chapter: 'Shrug, I don't know what to do. (But, another social program won't help the lazy culture of my people that I love.)'

I guess I will start with how it left me feeling: I loved the book! It simply reenforced my opinion of "conservative" beliefs and philosophy. The "hillbilly" culture needs to die. As he makes clear, it is mostly an "honor" culture. He would beat the crap out of someone if they "dishonored" his mom. Hard work is "honorable" and if you don't work hard, then you are lazy. It is extremely nationalistic. I actually can't remember anything good from the "hillbilly" culture he describes, and even more important I can't remember HIM saying anything good about it either; except that he loved it, the feeling of belonging to a strong and powerful family and people.

As for specifics/facts, he bashes "social" programs, the most important being these two ways: (1) Food-stamps just allowed people to buy steaks, iPhones, etc while living in squalor and food-insecurity for their children; (2) (Some parts of) Section 8 housing policy congregates the poor which is demonstrably bad. From this, there is no "social" program, anywhere, that will help. I assume then, we should get rid of them all? But, he doesn't say, so ... what the hell is he saying?

I suppose this review is as bad as the book: What is the point? The point is that I am listening to this during the last months of the 2016 presidential election. Tumps has millions of supporters, many people of this "culture". How the hell can they vote for him? This is the context in which Vance's book came out and of course it has exploded in popularity. Why? Because everyone is trying to understand Trump's appeal, and I think this book explains it quite well. Trump is appealing to this "culture": Nationalistic, macho, in-group. Vance documents the culture and thus makes Trump's popularity understandable, even if JD Vance cant and wont own it.
]]> 3.62 2016
author: J.D. Vance
name: Q
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: listened-to, society
review:
(If it matters, I listened to the audio for this book, twice on my daily commute at 1.3x speed.)

I am not really sure what, how, or even why a review will be useful.

TL;DR: Talks about an "honor" culture that is nationalistic & venerates the military. Blames them. "Social" programs won't help. Concluding chapter: 'Shrug, I don't know what to do. (But, another social program won't help the lazy culture of my people that I love.)'

I guess I will start with how it left me feeling: I loved the book! It simply reenforced my opinion of "conservative" beliefs and philosophy. The "hillbilly" culture needs to die. As he makes clear, it is mostly an "honor" culture. He would beat the crap out of someone if they "dishonored" his mom. Hard work is "honorable" and if you don't work hard, then you are lazy. It is extremely nationalistic. I actually can't remember anything good from the "hillbilly" culture he describes, and even more important I can't remember HIM saying anything good about it either; except that he loved it, the feeling of belonging to a strong and powerful family and people.

As for specifics/facts, he bashes "social" programs, the most important being these two ways: (1) Food-stamps just allowed people to buy steaks, iPhones, etc while living in squalor and food-insecurity for their children; (2) (Some parts of) Section 8 housing policy congregates the poor which is demonstrably bad. From this, there is no "social" program, anywhere, that will help. I assume then, we should get rid of them all? But, he doesn't say, so ... what the hell is he saying?

I suppose this review is as bad as the book: What is the point? The point is that I am listening to this during the last months of the 2016 presidential election. Tumps has millions of supporters, many people of this "culture". How the hell can they vote for him? This is the context in which Vance's book came out and of course it has exploded in popularity. Why? Because everyone is trying to understand Trump's appeal, and I think this book explains it quite well. Trump is appealing to this "culture": Nationalistic, macho, in-group. Vance documents the culture and thus makes Trump's popularity understandable, even if JD Vance cant and wont own it.

]]> 289751 Goodnight Moon to an expert reader of Proust, and finally to an often misunderstood child with dyslexia whose gifts may be as real as the challenges he or she faces. As we come to appreciate how the evolution and development of reading have changed the very arrangement of our brain and our intellectual life, we begin to realize with ever greater comprehension that we truly are what we read. Ambitious, provocative, and rich with examples, Proust and the Squid celebrates reading, one of the single most remarkable inventions in history. Once embarked on this magnificent story of the reading brain, you will never again take for granted your ability to absorb the written word.]]> 308 Maryanne Wolf 0060186399 Q 5 brain 3.84 2007
author: Maryanne Wolf
name: Q
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/22
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: brain
review:

]]> 8694125
In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically alter our social lives. It’s a nuanced exploration of what we are looking for—and sacrificing—in a world of electronic companions and social networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving of today’s self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next generation who will chart the path between isolation and connectivity.]]> 360 Sherry Turkle 0465010210 Q 4 tech 3.61 2011
author: Sherry Turkle
name: Q
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/25
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: tech
review:

]]> 16086444 496 Nell Irvin Painter Q 4 race 4.50 2010
author: Nell Irvin Painter
name: Q
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2016/11/08
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: race
review:

]]> 27209433 In her groundbreaking history of the class system in America, extending from colonial times to the present, Nancy Isenberg takes on our comforting myths about equality, uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing––if occasionally entertaining–��"poor white trash."

The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement. They were alternately known as “waste people,�� “offals,�� “rubbish,�� “lazy lubbers,�� and “crackers.�� By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters�� and “sandhillers,�� known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.

Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery.

Reconstruction pitted "poor white trash" against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics��-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, "white trash" have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity.

We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation’s history. With Isenberg’s landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.]]> 460 Nancy Isenberg 0670785970 Q 4 race 3.75 2016
author: Nancy Isenberg
name: Q
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/01/01
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: race
review:

]]> 6494620
Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Dr. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide.

In Connected , the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, Connected overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.]]> 336 Nicholas A. Christakis 0316036145 Q 4 social-network 3.74 2008
author: Nicholas A. Christakis
name: Q
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/01
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: social-network
review:

]]> 31926 270 Nel Noddings 0813343232 Q 5 fem, phil
1. Offers a theory of education which has a real chance of resulting in the type of person we all want as fellow citizens and friends; AND

2. Gives a summary of various Philosopies such as: Pragmatism, Utilitarianism, Existenialism, Epistemology, and topics such as: Morality, Science, Testing, and Feminism, as they relate in and to Education.

Because Noddings is not a "philosopher", she is easy to read. This makes this book an accessible way into these ideas. Acedemia is far too abstruse, thus cutting it off from making real impact outside its rarified environment; and Noddings in general is a welcome corrective.

I feel this is a must read.
]]> 3.72 1995
author: Nel Noddings
name: Q
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: fem, phil
review:
This book does two things superbly:

1. Offers a theory of education which has a real chance of resulting in the type of person we all want as fellow citizens and friends; AND

2. Gives a summary of various Philosopies such as: Pragmatism, Utilitarianism, Existenialism, Epistemology, and topics such as: Morality, Science, Testing, and Feminism, as they relate in and to Education.

Because Noddings is not a "philosopher", she is easy to read. This makes this book an accessible way into these ideas. Acedemia is far too abstruse, thus cutting it off from making real impact outside its rarified environment; and Noddings in general is a welcome corrective.

I feel this is a must read.

]]> 4460367 216 Nel Noddings 0520050436 Q 5 fem, phil
This is the philosophy/ethic one ought to live by.]]> 3.80 1984
author: Nel Noddings
name: Q
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/01
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: fem, phil
review:
Most important book I own or have read.

This is the philosophy/ethic one ought to live by.
]]> 13221379
In What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets?

In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life—medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. Is this where we want to be?In his New York Times bestseller Justice, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes an essential discussion that we, in our market-driven age, need to have: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society—and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets don’t honor and that money can’t buy?]]> 256 Michael J. Sandel 0374203032 Q 4 listened-to, econ 3.91 2012
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Q
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/24
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: listened-to, econ
review:

]]> 17349126 Bestselling author Daniel Goleman returns with a groundbreaking look at today's scarcest resource and the secret to high performance and fulfillment: attention

For more than two decades, psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman has been scouting the leading edge of the human sciences for what's new, surprising, and important. In Focus, he delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long overdue discussion of this little-noticed and under-rated mental asset that matters enormously for how we navigate life. Attention works much like a muscle: use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to contend with, let alone thrive, in a complex world.

Goleman boils down attention research into a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. A well-lived life demands we be nimble at each. Goleman shows why high-achievers need all three kinds of focus, as demonstrated by rich case studies from fields as diverse as competitive sports, education, the arts, and business. Those who excel rely on what he calls Smart Practices such as mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery, positive emotions and connections, and mental "prosthetics" that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain excellence. Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus reveals what distinguishes experts from amateurs and stars from average performers. Ultimately, Focus calls upon readers not only to pay attention to what matters most to them personally, but also to turn their attention to the pressing problems of the wider world, to the powerless and the poor, and to the future, not just to the seductively simple demands of here-and-now.]]> 320 Daniel Goleman 0062114867 Q 5 brain 3.52 2013
author: Daniel Goleman
name: Q
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/02
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: brain
review:
great book about a basic skill we all need: executive control in order to focus our attention appropriately
]]> 28695425 Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country �� a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Russell Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets �� among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident �� people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Russell Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream �� and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Russell Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from "liberal" government intervention abhor the very idea?]]> 242 Arlie Russell Hochschild 1620972255 Q 4 society 4.11 2016
author: Arlie Russell Hochschild
name: Q
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/10/30
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: society
review:

]]> 34466958 From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.�� It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.

There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.

Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation.]]> 335 David Graeber 150114331X Q 5 econ 4.03 2018
author: David Graeber
name: Q
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: econ
review:
This book is a must read! Totally accurate wrt corporate environment.
]]> 32603498 For decades we have been told a story about the divide between rich countries and poor countries.

We have been told that development is working: that the global South is catching up to the North, that poverty has been cut in half over the past thirty years, and will be eradicated by 2030. It’s a comforting tale, and one that is endorsed by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations. But is it true?

Since 1960, the income gap between the North and South has roughly tripled in size. Today 4.3 billion people, 60 per cent of the world's population, live on less than $5 per day. Some 1 billion live on less than $1 a day. The richest eight people now control the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world combined.

What is causing this growing divide? We are told that poverty is a natural phenomenon that can be fixed with aid. But in reality it is a political problem: poverty doesn’t just exist, it has been created.

Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms. Aid only works to hide the deep patterns of wealth extraction that cause poverty and inequality in the first place: rigged trade deals, tax evasion, land grabs and the costs associated with climate change. The Divide tracks the evolution of this system, from the expeditions of Christopher Columbus in the 1490s to the international debt regime, which has allowed a handful of rich countries to effectively control economic policies in the rest of the world.

Because poverty is a political problem, it requires political solutions. The Divide offers a range of revelatory answers, but also explains that something much more radical is needed �� a revolution in our way of thinking. Drawing on pioneering research, detailed analysis and years of first-hand experience, The Divide is a provocative, urgent and ultimately uplifting account of how the world works, and how it can change.]]> 368 Jason Hickel 1785151126 Q 5 econ 4.64 2017
author: Jason Hickel
name: Q
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: econ
review:
Incredible!! Required corrective to the intellectual pablum of say Steven Pinker on these topics.
]]> 36221506
In Mistaken Identity, Asad Haider reaches for a different approach - one rooted in the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing from the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements, a retreat from the crucial passage from identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to collective struggle against an oppressive social structure.

Mistaken Identity is an urgent call for alternative visions, languages, and practices against the white identity politics of right-wing populism. Responding with a contrary, pluralist identity politics has proven successful. The idea of universal emancipation now seems old-fashioned and outmoded. But if we are attentive to the lines of struggle which lie outside the boundaries of the state, we will see that it has been placed on the agenda once again.]]> 144 Asad Haider 1786637383 Q 4 race 3.90 2018
author: Asad Haider
name: Q
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/11/11
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: race
review:

]]> 11716012

Bringing together the latest findings in sociology, anthropology, political science, and history, John Levi Martin traces how sets of interpersonal relationships become ordered in different ways to form structures. He looks at a range of social structures, from smaller ones like families and street gangs to larger ones such as communes and, ultimately, nation-states. He finds that the relationships best suited to forming larger structures are those that thrive in conditions of inequality; that are incomplete and as sparse as possible, and thereby avoid the problem of completion in which interacting members are required to establish too many relationships; and that abhor transitivity rather than assuming it. Social Structures argues that these "patronage" relationships, which often serve as means of loose coordination in the absence of strong states, are nevertheless the scaffolding of the social structures most distinctive to the modern state, namely the command army and the political party.]]> 408 John Levi Martin 0691150125 Q 4 social-network 4.33 2009
author: John Levi Martin
name: Q
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/21
date added: 2015/08/30
shelves: social-network
review:

]]> 13181436
Understanding Social Networks fills that gap by explaining the big ideas that underlie the social network phenomenon.
Written for those interested in this fast moving area but who are not mathematically inclined, it covers fundamental concepts, then discusses networks and their core themes in increasing order of complexity.
Kadushin demystifies the concepts, theories, and findings developed by network experts. He selects material that serves as basic building blocks and examples of best practices that will allow the reader to understand and evaluate new developments as they emerge.

Understanding Social Networks will be useful to social scientists who encounter social network research in their reading, students new to the network field, as well as managers, marketers, and others who constantly encounter social networks in their work.]]> 264 Charles Kadushin 0195379470 Q 4 social-network
It led me from small to large social network structures and a bit of the theory.]]> 3.76 2011
author: Charles Kadushin
name: Q
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/01
date added: 2015/06/14
shelves: social-network
review:
This book gave me the feeling that I got a great overview of the current state of "Social Network Theory". This is the first book I chose in my "study" of this topic so I really have no basis for whether or not it actually is a good overview.

It led me from small to large social network structures and a bit of the theory.
]]> 74034 184 Neil Postman 014303653X Q 4 listened-to
I loved this book's take down of TV via Marshall McLuhan's "The medium is the message." (which of course is not itself original).

In short Postman explains why TV NEVER can be a medium for deep learning.]]> 4.16 1985
author: Neil Postman
name: Q
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/01
date added: 2015/06/14
shelves: listened-to
review:
Sorry ŷ������ but I just dont have time to literally read everything! So, I am doing some audiobooks.

I loved this book's take down of TV via Marshall McLuhan's "The medium is the message." (which of course is not itself original).

In short Postman explains why TV NEVER can be a medium for deep learning.
]]>