This is the first full-scale study of the work of Clifford Geertz, who is one of the best-known anthropologists in the world today. In a lively and accessible introduction to his work, Fred Inglis situates Geertz's thought in the context of his life and times, reviewing its forty-year range. The book begins with a chapter-long biography, and places Geertz in the anthropological tradition from which he broke so decisively. This break was inspired by the work of Wittgenstein and Kenneth Burke, who provided Geertz with the lead to construct his theory of symbolic action. This theory was vigorously at odds with the dominant idiom of scientistic inquiry in the human sciences, and since then Geertz has led the practice of these sciences in quite a different direction. Geertz's progress is charted in detail by his field work in Java, Bali and Morocco, as well as his work in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His two remarkable collections of essays, the Interpretation of Cultures and Local Knowledge, are enthusiastically summarized and criticized. The celebrated and controversial essay on the Balinese cock fight is defended against its critics, and in an extended conclusion, his account of the Balinese Theatre-State is, as Geertz suggests, proposed as a more adequate method for the combined study of culture and politics than the professionals' routine application of heavy-handed concepts such as 'power' and 'status'. This book provides a comprehensive overview of one of the most gripping, lucid and entertaining of contemporary thinkers, and in so doing, makes anthropology once again the popular science. It will be of great interest to anthropologists and to students and scholars of cultural studies.

Provides a methodology to achieve cultural customization in international web site design. A tool for helping executives successfully localize their web sites for countries and cultures around the world. Accessible to readers at various levels.

The customers prefer small lot sizes, multimodels with model variations, short delivery lead times, and low cost. The organization that cannot transition to the new manufacturing paradigm of buyer-centric strategy, their rigidity of the current mass production (seller-centric), will eliminate them from the industry. There are many organizations that implemented robotics and automation to reduced labor, but, they have also increased their changeover time and made the internal processes more complex, rigid and created imbalance to the flow due to the single-minded focus of only labor reduction. To survive and succeed in the fierce market competition, the organizations must transition to the new manufacturing paradigm. The organizations must develop their people capabilities, agility, speed, responsiveness and be able to deliver products at the lowest cost. The concept of mass production of large lot sizes and lesser model changeovers are not acceptable, this thinking must be evaporated to succeed in the new customer-centric business. This book introduces practically proven concepts that will transition the manufacturing organization from the mass production focus built on rigidity to a high-performing organization equipped with agility, flexibility, short lead times, multimodel production, and new organization culture that drives daily continuous improvement and problem-solving. This book shows the whats and hows to transition to the new manufacturing paradigm and successfully compete to win in the fierce customer-centric business.

In a career that spanned over thirty years, Iain M. Banks became one of the best-loved and most prolific writers in Britain, with his space opera series concerned with the pan-galactic utopian civilisation known as 'the Culture' widely regarded as his most significant contribution to science fiction. The Culture of 'The Culture' is the first critical monograph to focus solely on this series, providing a comprehensive, thematic analysis of Banks's Culture stories from Consider Phlebas to The Hydrogen Sonata. It explores the development of Banks's political, philosophical and literary thought, arguing that the Culture offers both an image of a harmonious civilisation modelled on an alternative socialist form of globalisation and a critique of our neo-liberal present. As Joseph S. Norman explains, the Culture is the result of an ongoing utopian process, attempting through the application of technoscience to move beyond obstacles to progress such as imperialism, capitalism, the human condition, religious dogma, patriarchy and crises in artistic representation. The Culture of 'The Culture' defines Banks's creation as culture: a utopian way of doing, of being, of seeing: an approach, an attitude and a lifestyle that has enabled, and is evolving alongside, utopia, rather than an image of a static end-state.

This charming book, packed with unique artwork and engaging photographs, celebrates scooter mania. In a feast of nostalgia, it takes us through the evolution of the scooter, focusing naturally on all things Lambretta and Vespa, but also covering plenty of obscure and eccentric machinery along the way. Scooter enthusiasm in all its forms receives generous attention, whether as fashion accessory for fifties movie stars, style-conscious transport choice for the Mod generation, or object of worship for today's retro-loving adherents. Scooters take off: rising from the rubble of post-war Italy, Piaggio emerged first with its Vespa (meaning 'wasp'), soon followed by Innocenti and its Lambretta (named after a Milan suburb). Evolution: numerous Lambretta and Vespa models over the years are illustrated and explained, accompanied by a look at the myriad accessories available for them. Not just in Italy: a survey of classic-era scooters from Britain (such as Brockhouse Corgi, Sun Wasp and Triumph Tigress), Germany (such as Glas Goggo, Zündapp Bella and Heinkel Tourist), Japan (such as Fuji Rabbit, Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon and Honda Juno) and elsewhere. Mod culture: emerging in the sixties and entwined with music and fashion, it made a unique contribution to scooter fandom that has since embraced the globe. Scooters as classics: the resurgence of interest since the late seventies and all that has come with it, from restoration and racing to customising and clubs. Scooter tales worldwide: Cesare Bataglini's round-the-world Lambretta odyssey; Mod revivalists in Tokyo; elderly scooters soldiering on in Africa; Indonesia's Rebel Riders and their crazy Vespa-derived creations; scaling Ben Nevis on a Lambretta; and much more. Quotes in the book such as "The scooters, clothes and music -- an unforgettable time of my life" and "Exciting, fun and carefree days when anything seemed possible" sum up the enduring appeal of classic scooters. Anyone afflicted with the obsession will adore this book.

Challenged by the recent economic crisis, the building and construction industry is currently seeking new orientation and strategies. Here mass customisation is uncovered as a key strategy in helping to meet this challenge. The term mass customisation denotes an offering that meets the demands of each individual customer, whilst still being produced with mass production efficiency. Today mass customisation is emerging from a pilot stage into a scalable and sustainable strategy... The first dedicated publication of its kind, this book provides a forum for the concept within an applied and highly innovative context. The book includes contributions from some of the most prominent thinkers and practitioners in the field from across the world, including Kasper S. Vibaek, Steve Kendall, Martin Bechthold, Mitchell M. Tseng, and Masa Noguchi. Bringing together this panel of experts who have carried out research both in academia and practice, this book provides an overview of state-of-the-art practice related to the concept of customisation and personalisation within the built environment.

Medieval manuscripts resisted obsolescence. Made by highly specialised craftspeople (scribes, illuminators, book binders) with labour-intensive processes using exclusive and sometimes exotic materials (parchment made from dozens or hundreds of skins, inks and paints made from prized minerals, animals and plants), books were expensive and built to last. They usually outlived their owners. Rather than discard them when they were superseded, book owners found ways to update, amend and upcycle books or book parts. These activities accelerated in the fifteenth century. Most manuscripts made before 1390 were bespoke and made for a particular client, but those made after 1390 (especially books of hours) were increasingly made for an open market, in which the producer was not in direct contact with the buyer. Increased efficiency led to more generic products, which owners were motivated to personalise. It also led to more blank parchment in the book, for example, the backs of inserted miniatures and the blanks ends of textual components. Book buyers of the late fourteenth and throughout the fifteenth century still held onto the old connotations of manuscripts—that they were custom-made luxury items—even when the production had become impersonal. Owners consequently purchased books made for an open market and then personalised them, filling in the blank spaces, and even adding more components later. This would give them an affordable product, but one that still smacked of luxury and met their individual needs. They kept older books in circulation by amending them, attached items to generic books to make them more relevant and valuable, and added new prayers with escalating indulgences as the culture of salvation shifted. Rudy considers ways in which book owners adjusted the contents of their books from the simplest (add a marginal note, sew in a curtain) to the most complex (take the book apart, embellish the components with painted decoration, add more quires of parchment). By making sometimes extreme adjustments, book owners kept their books fashionable and emotionally relevant. This study explores the intersection of codicology and human desire. Rudy shows how increased modularisation of book making led to more standardisation but also to more opportunities for personalisation. She asks: What properties did parchment manuscripts have that printed books lacked? What are the interrelationships among technology, efficiency, skill loss and standardisation?