'The Hidden Form of Capital' presents evidence from several parts of the changing world about how the realm of the spirit affects the economy. The idea that societies have economic cultures as well as aesthetic, literary, and artistic cultures is well-embedded in a number of major studies attempting to identify the origins of national wealth and progress. This book provides an original contribution to the debate, by discussing the relationship between religion and the economy not via further theoretical speculation, but through the presentation of analytical evidence from real-life case studies in Europe, Asia, Africa, Russia, and the United States. There is currently a major re-assessment of assumptions about the foundations of societal progress, as the market rationality model is exposed for its moral weaknesses. The emergence of socio-economics as a scholarly field, as well as the embracing of complexity theory and the societal effect in economic analysis, brings the question of cultural effects to the forefront. This collection of studies offers more practical and tangible evidence, especially unique and useful for its comparative aspect. The book skilfully combines this comparative and descriptive character with an accessible writing style intended for a wide audience.

Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important, best-selling book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful 'class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case? Drawing on 175 interviews across four case studies – television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – they explore the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile. This is a rich, ambitious book that demands we take seriously not just the glass but also the class ceiling.

This book addresses the complications and implications of parental involvement as a policy, through an exploratory theoretical approach, including historical and sociological accounts and personal reflection. This approach represents the author's effort to understand the origins, meanings, and effects of parental involvement as a prerequisite of schooling and particularly as a policy 'solution' for low achievement and even inequity in the American educational system. Most of the policy and research discourse on school-family relations exalts the partnership ideal, taking for granted its desirability and viability, the perspective of parents on specific involvement in instruction, and the conditions of diverse families in fulfilling their appointed role in the partnership. De Carvalho takes a distinct stance. She argues that the partnership-parental ideal neglects several major factors: It proclaims parental involvement as a means to enhance (and perhaps equalize) school outcomes, but disregards how family material and cultural conditions, and feelings about schooling, differ according to social class; thus, the partnership-parental involvement ideal is more likely to be a projection of the model of upper-middle class, suburban community schooling than an open invitation for diverse families to recreate schooling. Although it appeals to the image of the traditional community school, the pressure for more family educational accountability really overlooks history as well as present social conditions. Finally, family-school relations are relations of power, but most families are powerless. De Carvalho makes the case that two linked effects of this policy are the gravest: the imposition of a particular parenting style and intrusion into family life, and the escalation of educational inequality. Rethinking Family-School Relations: A Critique of Parental Involvement in Schooling--a carefully researched and persuasively argued work--is essential reading for all school professionals, parents, and individuals concerned with public schooling and educational equality.

Politicians win elections by promising 'Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!' but in practice these promises quickly fall by the wayside. The Goals of Macroeconomic Policy asks why. It begins with the observation that there is no convincing economic argument that full employment should be the primary objective of economic policy in all circumstances. In the light of this it examines whcy policy has failed so consistantly. It explains this by a theory of the labour market which shows why most workers are happy to operate in a way which militates against full employment. It then proceeds to analyse the rather dire consequences of this for the budget deficit.

Volume V extends the study of the Oxford History of Dissenting Protestant Traditions series into the twentieth century, following the spatial, cultural, and intellectual changes in dissenting identity and practice as these once European traditions globalized and settled down in other places.

The notion of thinking skills as a key component of a 21st century school education is now firmly entrenched in educational policy and curriculum frameworks in many parts of the world. However, there has been relatively little questioning of the manner in which educational globalisation has facilitated this diffusion of thinking skills, curriculum and pedagogy in a cultural context. This book will help to redress such an imbalance in its critical assessment of the cross-cultural validity of transplanting thinking skills programs from one educational system to another on an international scale. Culture, Transnational Education and Thinking provides an international comparative study of the intersection of three educational concepts: culture, education and thinking. Drawing on case studies from Malaysia, South Africa and Australia/USA for the purposes of comparative analysis, the book employs the context of an international school program in the teaching of thinking skills, Future Problem Solving Program International. The book explores the associations between Future Problem Solving educators, their cultural background, and their approaches to thinking, evaluating the relevance of transferring thinking skills programs derived in one cultural framework into another. The book also discusses the wider implications of these cross-cultural comparisons to curriculum and pedagogy within schools and higher education, with a particular emphasis on the teaching of multicultural school-based classes and cross-cultural understandings in teacher education and professional development. This book will be of relevance to academics and higher education students who have an interest in the fields of cross-cultural and intercultural understanding, comparative studies in education, and theories and practices of cognition, as well as the development of tertiary and secondary curricula and associated pedagogies that specifically acknowledge the cultural diversities of both teacher and learner.

Cultural Theory: An Anthology is a collection of the essential readings that have shaped and defined the field of contemporary cultural theory Features a historically diverse and methodologically concise collection of readings including rare essays such as Pierre Bourdieu’s “Forms of Capital” (1986), Gilles Deleuze “Postscript on Societies of Control” (1992), and Fredric Jameson’s “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture” (1979) Offers a radical new approach to teaching and studying cultural theory with material arranged around the central areas of inquiry in contemporary cultural study —the status and significance of culture itself, power, ideology, temporality, space and scale, and subjectivity Section introductions, designed to assist the student reader, provide an overview of each piece, explaining the context in which it was written and offering a brief intellectual biography of the author A large annotated bibliography of primary and secondary works for each author and topic promotes further research and discussion Features a useful glossary of critical terms