Stories are central drivers of media today-not only do they propel plot-driven entertainment media, such as television, cinema, theatre, but also social media. Telling and having a story is widely deemed essential, both in the large and widely visible world of commerce and in the everyday social lives of individuals. Does this dynamic represent an intensification of what has always been part of…
This open access book revisits common notions on how to select and recruit the right employees. It reveals that the secret of successful individuals and teams lies in a combination of talent and four important performance indicators, offering an innovative approach that companies can fruitfully adopt. Bas Kodden has studied key performance indicators among over 1,100 executives, senior staf…
"Lúcia Nagib redefines realism not as a mere question of rhetoric or style, or a product of a certain age and place, but as a deep and steadfast commitment of filmmakers to an "ethics of the real" based on various forms of engagement with physical reality, which may include "passages" provided by the other arts. Her incisive theoretical arguments and finely nuanced close readings will change f…
This open access book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as business, health, fashion, sociology and geography, the editors and authors employ a cross-disciplinary approach to examine how this concept is being applied in higher education. Divided into three parts, the authors and contributors analyse broader…
This open access book is a comparative analysis of recent large scale education reforms that broadened curriculum goals to better prepare students for the 21st century. The book examines what governments actually do when they broaden curriculum goals, with attention to the details of implementation. To this end, the book examines system level reforms in six countries at various levels of develo…
This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man…
This open access book explores the experience of working as a craftsperson or designer maker in the contemporary creative economy. The authors utilise evidence from the only major empirical study to explore the skills required and the challenges facing contemporary makers in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Drawing upon 180 interviews with peak organisations, established and emerging makers…
All in the mix: class, race and school choice considers how parents choose secondary schools for their children and makes an important intervention into debates on school choice and education. The book examines how parents talk about race, religion and class – in the process of choosing. It also explores how parents’ own racialised and classed positions, as well as their experience of educa…
This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sciences to address the question of how recent work in the genetics, zoology, and epidemiology of plague's causative organism (Yersinia pestis) can allow a rethinking of the Black Death pandemic and its larger historical significance.
We all wait – in traffic jams, passport offices, school meal queues, for better weather, an end to fighting, peace. Time spent waiting produces hope, boredom, anxiety, doubt, or uncertainty. Ethnographies of Waiting explores the social phenomenon of waiting and its centrality in human society. Using waiting as a central analytical category, the book investigates how waiting is negotiated in m…