In Chris Barker's sequel to Cultural Studies, the author addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the discipline and investigates its practical and academic boundaries. The author also clarifies its underlying themes of study.

What is reality and how do we make sense of it in everyday life? Why do some realities seem more real than others, and what of seemingly contradictory and multiple realities? This book considers reality as we represent, perceive and experience it. It suggests that the realities we take as ‘real’ are the result of real-time, situated practices that draw on and draw together many things - technologies and objects, people, gestures, meanings and media. Examining these practices illuminates reality (or rather our sense of it) as always ‘virtually real’, that is simplified and artfully produced. This examination also shows us how the sense of reality that we make is nonetheless real in its consequences. Making Sense of Reality offers students and educators a guide to analysing social life. It develops a performance-based perspective (‘doing things with’) that highlights the ever-revised dimension of realities and links this perspective to a focus on object-relations and an ecological model of culture-in-action.

The only way to change culture is to create culture. Andy Crouch says we must reclaim the cultural mandate to be the creative cultivators God designed us to be. In this expanded edition of his award-winning book he unpacks how culture works and gives us tools to partner with God's own making and transforming of culture.

Cultural Revolution Culture, often denigrated as pure propaganda, was liked not only in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. Considering this art--music, stage works, posters, comics, literature--in its longue durée, Barbara Mittler suggests it builds on a tradition of earlier works, allowing for proliferation in contemporary China.

This book lies within two interdisciplinary fields that should be bridged: cross-cultural management and international human resource management. The consequences of globalization lead to a more extensive recruitment process of global talents to fit the different work structures and competitive work environment of tomorrow. The emergence of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) further intensify the challenges faced by multinational organizations because people are searching for better career prospects and they are willing to re-locate in order to obtain competitive salary or compensation packages. With the emergence of SIEs, multinational corporations need to acknowledge the influence of culture on management practices because the expatriates will bring their own cultural baggage and uniqueness to the company’s doorsteps. By integrating both fields, this book provides a valuable understanding in order to educate SIEs on the richness of cultural behaviors. Indeed, the complexities of human behaviours opens up the window of opportunities to recognize that we are all human beings with unique characteristics, personality and attitudes. It is until and when we equally acknowledge that culture is an essence of humankind and that culture continues to shape people with a magical touch of diversity and uniqueness, only then will the global world greet people inclusively by embracing ‘tolerance, appreciation, and happiness!’ Culture has a paramount impact on how leaders manage their colleagues and teams in the workplace. One’s attitudes, values, beliefs and perceptions all matter when people work with culturally diverse colleagues. Cultural differences cannot be ignored as a work structure that thrives only in a monoculture environment is hardly in existence for multinational corporation of today. Instead, the multi-cultured environment takes priority with the soaring number of demands for global talents and workforces that need to be recruited. It is clearly established in the field of international human resources that there are increasing trends and phenomenon of burgeoning SIEs in newly occupied cosmopolitan cities in the world such as Dubai, Qatar, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and many others. At the end, one key question matters for the journey of cultural sense making to begin: What is it like to experience the forces and effects of culture in the workplace when one is an expatriate?

Making Sense of World History is a comprehensive and accessible textbook that helps students understand the key themes of world history within a chronological framework stretching from ancient times to the present day. To lend coherence to its narrative, the book employs a set of organizing devices that connect times, places, and/or themes. This narrative is supported by: Flowcharts that show how phenomena within diverse broad themes interact in generating key processes and events in world history. A discussion of the common challenges faced by different types of agent, including rulers, merchants, farmers, and parents, and a comparison of how these challenges were addressed in different times and places. An exhaustive and balanced treatment of themes such as culture, politics, and economy, with an emphasis on interaction. Explicit attention to skill acquisition in organizing information, cultural sensitivity, comparison, visual literacy, integration, interrogating primary sources, and critical thinking. A focus on historical “episodes” that are carefully related to each other. Through the use of such devices, the book shows the cumulative effect of thematic interactions through time, communicates the many ways in which societies have influenced each other through history, and allows us to compare and contrast how they have reacted to similar challenges. They also allow the reader to transcend historical controversies and can be used to stimulate class discussions and guide student assignments. With a unified authorial voice and offering a narrative from the ancient to the present, this is the go-to textbook for World History courses and students. The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Chosen for their accessibility and variety, the readings in Making Sense of Language: Readings in Culture and Communication, Third Edition, engage students in thinking about the nature of language--arguably the most uniquely human of all our characteristics--and its involvement in every aspect of human society and experience. Instead of taking an ideological stance on specific issues, the text presents a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives and bolsters them with pedagogical support, including unit and chapter introductions; critical-thinking, reading, and application questions; suggested further reading; and a comprehensive glossary. Questions of power, identity, interaction, ideology, and the nature of language and other semiotic systems are woven throughout the third edition of Making Sense of Language, making it an exemplary text for courses in language and culture, linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and four-field anthropology.