Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
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Buddhism, Science and Technology
No full textThis Special Issue gathers studies from ten scholars who discuss the relationship between Buddhism, Science, and Technology, focusing on the challenges that Buddhism faces in the processes of modernization and digitization. This relationship can be discussed from multiple angles, such as the relationship between Buddhism and astronomy or how new AI language models are being used to translate scriptures. Buddhists have also consciously engaged in scientific pursuits in the past, evidence of which is found in diverse sources. In some instances, modern Buddhist authors have had to address theoretical models from Western science and then connect them with the Buddhadharma. This Special Issue gathers diverse voices to investigate this important aspect of Buddhism requiring ongoing consideration
Becoming Somebody Else
No full textA study of homelessness and addiction exploring the void of drug-induced blackout and its impact on identity and time. What does it mean to exist outside the normative temporality of life, of housed living, and, ultimately, of selfhood? Becoming Somebody Else takes up this question, offering a window into the fragmented and chaotic lives of people experiencing homelessness in urban London as they drink and drug themselves into blackout in post-austerity Britain. A state of being where time, body, agency, and self collapse into a memoryless abyss, the blackout is a prism into how human beings make and unmake their selfhood in the wake of social suffering and personal trauma. Attending to the words and histories of several individuals, Joshua Burraway knits together structural, psychological, and phenomenological approaches to understand the ways in which memory, agency, and selfhood are sites of struggle and belonging, and in doing so, suggests new ways of thinking about addiction, homelessness, and therapeutic possibility
Sorcery and Jurisdiction in Angola
No full textWhen the Portuguese arrived at the mouth of the Zaire River in 1483, two vibrant normative regimes came into contact. The European traders, missionaries, and soldiers who followed the first explorers brought a jurisdictional system of government that accepted local uses and customs as biding and a theological understanding of natural law with universalist claims. They encountered complex African societies based on various normative systems, emphasizing arbitration and mediation between corporate groups and protection against evils attributed to preternatural forms of personal agency – what the Portuguese framed as feitiçaria or sorcery. João Figueiredo focuses on the intense cross-cultural translation of normative knowledge in West Central Africa following this initial encounter. He argues it was afforded by an evolving, shared understanding of sorcery and constant renegotiation of the limits and meanings of jurisdiction, the law, and the institutions of slavery
Analysing Knowledge Networks in Higher Education Policymaking
No full textLooking at higher education policy actors connecting the Finnish and the European Union (EU) contexts, this volume explores the power and influence of networks on decision-making and the utilisation of knowledge within higher education policy. It is unique in providing a new understanding of how European higher education policies are shaped and implemented in day-to-day policymaking. Building on existing literature and robust empirical work to focus on EU–Finland knowledge networks, the book develops a novel methodological approach that combines social network analysis, network ethnography, interviews, and observation data to capture how networks can significantly affect the way higher education is governed. Understanding how policy is shaped through knowledge networks is crucial as the EU faces political challenges to its cohesion from internal and external pressures through authoritarian and populist ideologies. This book represents a critical starting point for considering how to theorise, understand, and question the interdependence of knowledge and policy. The topical book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students involved with education policy and politics, higher education studies, and international and comparative education more broadly
Data Sharing Regulation in Europe
No full textThis book provides a comprehensive examination of data sharing within the EU, exploring the regulatory challenges and opportunities created by EU frameworks and policies. As data becomes a critical resource across sectors, EU regulators, policymakers and scholars face the urgent task of crafting frameworks that support data sharing while ensuring fairness, competition and protection of personal data. Through its chapters, the book adopts a holistic approach, analyzing data sharing from the perspectives of EU law, intellectual property, competition law, data protection and governance. It addresses the impact of recent EU legislation — including the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), Data Governance Act and Data Act — on enabling or limiting data-sharing practices, particularly in the private sector. Each chapter offers policy recommendations and insights, collectively building a robust theoretical framework for responsible data sharing. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and students of EU law, competition law, data protection, intellectual property and governance, offering timely insights and a nuanced exploration of the evolving EU data-sharing landscape
Decarbonizing Value Chains
No full textThis is an open access book. It gathers the proceedings of the 20th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, held on October 9–11, 2024, in Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. With a focus on sustainable manufacturing strategies for decarbonizing supply chains, the chapters selected for this book report on models applied to, and results achieved in the mobility, energy, and construction sector, covering both aspects of digitalization and the combined application of circular economy and artificial intelligence. Moreover, they discuss energy-efficient process, reassembly and reuse, and CO2 neutral production, giving a special emphasis to developing sustainable manufacturing in South-East Asia. This book offers extensive and timely information for both researchers and professionals in the field of manufacturing and business development
Jaina Culture in Medieval Karnataka
No full textJaina culture in Karnataka flourished from the early centuries CE, and by the eighth century had achieved a predominance which lasted nearly four centuries. Subsequently, however, the Jainas’ influence waned and they became heavily dependent on rival groups. This book is the first in-depth analysis of this decline. Contributions from history, religious studies, anthropology, and the history of art and architecture explore this neglected enigma
Influenze socioculturali, immagine corporea e chirurgia estetica
No full textThe research explores the role of Instagram in shaping body image and the acceptance of cosmetic surgery among young Italian women. The first study validated two scales to measure Instagram-related activities and appearance-based social comparisons. The second study found that engaging with one’s own images and those of celebrities is associated with greater acceptance of cosmetic surgery. The third experimental study showed that exposure to images with many likes increases body dissatisfaction and social physique anxiety, while the presence of a disclaimer mitigates the impact of likes on body self-awareness. The findings underscore the importance of designing interventions to encourage a more conscious and informed use of social media
Crises no Tempo
No full textThis book considers some of the ways in which time appears - and seemingly does it work - through moments of crisis. What can different concepts of time and diverse temporal frameworks tell us about how crises are configured and apprehended?
First-hand research is central to the fashioning of ethnography through fieldwork, yet always brings with it a specific time horizon. Recognizing that the ethnographer's present is not always the best vantage point from which to grasp contemporary issues offers a fresh entry into current debates on how both past and future stimulate social action, and thus reveal its temporal multiplicities. These essays turn to present-day Amazonia and Melanesia to examine in detail the production and reproduction of specific crises and the time horizons they mobilize.
The ethnographic themes explored include the transformation of crises prophesized in the past and their implications for the future; what it means to explore perceptions of crisis from the aftermath of recent armed conflict; the multifaceted nature of future horizons precipitated by changing economic policies, when these have bodily as well as social impact; and the amelioration of governmental crisis through initiatives that rely on specific temporal understandings of effective change. Such trajectories are set variously against backgrounds of continuing colonialism, environmental calamity, overt hostility, the absent or over-present state and perceptions of moral degradation.
Further analytic reflections examine the ways crisis holds the imagination through subsisting in time; configure international temporal frameworks through depictions of the climate crisis as the 'tragedy of the horizon'; and highlight a perspective from which to compare the diverse temporal frameworks presented in the preceding chapters.PublishedEste livro considera algumas das maneiras pelas quais o tempo aparece - e aparentemente funciona - através de momentos de crise. O que diferentes conceitos de tempo e modelos temporais podem nos dizer sobre como as crises são configuradas e apreendidas?
A pesquisa em primeira mão é central para a construção da etnografia através do trabalho de campo, mas sempre traz consigo um horizonte temporal específico. Reconhecer que o presente do etnógrafo nem sempre é o melhor ponto de vista para entender as questões contemporâneas possibilita uma nova via para os debates atuais sobre como o passado e o futuro estimulam a ação social, revelando assim suas multiplicidades temporais. Os capítulos do livro voltam-se para a Amazônia e Melanésia contemporâneas a fim de examinar em detalhes a produção e reprodução de crises específicas e os horizontes temporais que elas mobilizam.
Os temas etnográficos explorados incluem a transformação de crises profetizadas no passado e suas implicações para o futuro; o que significa explorar percepções de crise a partir das consequências de conflitos armados recentes; a natureza multifacetada dos horizontes futuros precipitados por mudanças nas políticas econômicas, quando estas têm impacto tanto corporal como social; e a melhoria de crises governamentais através de iniciativas que dependem de compreensões temporais específicas sobre mudanças eficazes. Tais trajetórias são definidas de várias maneiras em contextos de colonialismo contínuo, calamidades ambientais, hostilidade manifesta, o estado ausente ou excessivamente presente, e percepções de degradação moral.
Reflexões analíticas adicionais examinam as maneiras pelas quais a crise ocupa a imaginação ao subsistir no tempo; configuram marcos temporais internacionais através de representações da crise climática como a 'tragédia do horizonte'; e oferecem uma perspectiva para comparar os diferentes modelos temporais abordados nos capítulos anteriores