Science, Bread, and Circuses

Science, Bread, and Circuses PDF Author: Gregory Schrempp
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 0874219701
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
In Science, Bread, and Circuses, Gregory Schrempp brings a folkloristic viewpoint to the topic of popular science, calling attention to the persistence of folkloric form, idiom, and worldview within the increasingly important dimension of popular consciousness defined by the impact of science. Schrempp considers specific examples of texts in which science interpreters employ folkloric tropes—myths, legends, epics, proverbs, spectacles, and a variety of gestures from religious traditions—to lend credibility and appeal to their messages. In each essay he explores an instance of science popularization rooted in the quotidian round: variations of proverb formulas in monumental measurements, invocations of science heroes like saints or other inspirational figures, the battle of mythos and logos in parenting and academe, the meme's involvement in quasi-religious treatments of the problem of evil, and a range of other tropes of folklore drafted to serve the exposition of science. Science, Bread, and Circuses places the relationship of science and folklore at the very center of folkloristic inquiry by exploring a range of attempts to rephrase and thus domesticate scientific findings and claims in folklorically imbued popular forms.

Science, Bread, and Circuses

Science, Bread, and Circuses PDF Author: Gregory Schrempp
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 0874219701
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book

Book Description
In Science, Bread, and Circuses, Gregory Schrempp brings a folkloristic viewpoint to the topic of popular science, calling attention to the persistence of folkloric form, idiom, and worldview within the increasingly important dimension of popular consciousness defined by the impact of science. Schrempp considers specific examples of texts in which science interpreters employ folkloric tropes—myths, legends, epics, proverbs, spectacles, and a variety of gestures from religious traditions—to lend credibility and appeal to their messages. In each essay he explores an instance of science popularization rooted in the quotidian round: variations of proverb formulas in monumental measurements, invocations of science heroes like saints or other inspirational figures, the battle of mythos and logos in parenting and academe, the meme's involvement in quasi-religious treatments of the problem of evil, and a range of other tropes of folklore drafted to serve the exposition of science. Science, Bread, and Circuses places the relationship of science and folklore at the very center of folkloristic inquiry by exploring a range of attempts to rephrase and thus domesticate scientific findings and claims in folklorically imbued popular forms.

Science, Bread, and Circuses

Science, Bread, and Circuses PDF Author: Gregory Schrempp
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1492017043
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
In Science, Bread, and Circuses, Gregory Schrempp brings a folkloristic viewpoint to the topic of popular science, calling attention to the persistence of folkloric form, idiom, and worldview within the increasingly important dimension of popular consciousness defined by the impact of science. Schrempp considers specific examples of texts in which science interpreters employ folkloric tropes—myths, legends, epics, proverbs, spectacles, and a variety of gestures from religious tradition—to lend credibility and appeal to their messages. In each essay he explores an instance of science popularization rooted in the quotidian round: variations of proverb formulas in monumental measurements, invocations of science heroes like saints or other inspirational figures, the battle of mythos and logos in parenting and academe, how the meme has become embroiled in quasi-religious treatments of the problem of evil, and a range of other tropes of folklore drafted to serve the exposition of science. Science, Bread, and Circuses places the relationship of science and folklore at the very center of folkloristic inquiry by exploring a range of attempts to rephrase and thus domesticate scientific findings and claims in folklorically imbued popular forms.

Bread and Circuses

Bread and Circuses PDF Author: Paul Veyne
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
The phenomenon, known as "euergetism", is one of the most striking features of the ancient world. It can be seen as a form of altruism, civic pride or wealth redistribution, a means of buying honour, prestige or political power. This book examines this phenomenon in ancient Greece and Rome.

Bread and Circuses

Bread and Circuses PDF Author: Patrick Brantlinger
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501707639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Lively and well written, Bread and Circuses analyzes theories that have treated mass culture as either a symptom or a cause of social decadence. Discussing many of the most influential and representative theories of mass culture, it ranges widely from Greek and Roman origins, through Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Ortega y Gasset, T. S. Eliot, and the theorists of the Frankfurt Institute, down to Marshall McLuhan and Daniel Bell, Brantlinger considers the many versions of negative classicism and shows how the belief in the historical inevitability of social decay—a belief today perpetuated by the mass media themselves—has become the dominant view of mass culture in our time. While not defending mass culture in its present form, Brantlinger argues that the view of culture implicit in negative classicism obscures the question of how the media can best be used to help achieve freedom and enlightenment on a truly democratic basis.

The Aesop's Fable Paradigm

The Aesop's Fable Paradigm PDF Author: K. Brandon Barker
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253059232
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
The Aesop's Fable Paradigm is a collection of essays that explore the cutting-edge intersection of Folklore and Science. From moralizing fables to fantastic folktales, humans have been telling stories about animals—animals who can talk, feel, think, and make moral judgments just as we do—for a very long time. In contrast, scientific studies of the mental lives of animals have professed to be investigating the nature of animal minds slowly, cautiously, objectively, with no room for fanciful tales, fables, or myths. But recently, these folkloric and scientific traditions have merged in an unexpected and shocking way: scientists have attempted to prove that at least some animal fables are actually true. These interdisciplinary chapters examine how science has targeted the well-known Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Pitcher" as their starting point. They explore the ever-growing set of experimental studies which purport to prove that crows possess an understanding of higher-order concepts like weight, mass, and even Archimedes' insight about the physics of water displacement. The Aesop's Fable Paradigm explores how these scientific studies are doomed to accomplish little more than to mirror anthropomorphic representations of animals in human folklore and reveal that the problem of folkloric projection extends far beyond the "Aesop's Fable Paradigm" into every nook and cranny of research on animal cognition.

'Bread and Circuses'

'Bread and Circuses' PDF Author: Tim Cornell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134756321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Cities in the ancient world relied on private generosity to provide many basic amenities, as well as expecting leading citizens to pay for 'bread and circuses' - free food and public entertainment. This collection of essays by leading scholars from the UK and USA explores the important phenomenon of benefaction and public patronage in Roman Italy. Ranging from the late republican period to the later Roman Empire, the contributions cover a wide range of topics, including the impact of benefactions and benefactors on the urban development of Roman Italy, on cultural and economic activity, and on the changing role of games and festivals in Roman society. They also explore the relationship between communities and their benefactors, whether these were local notables, senators, or the emperor himself, and examine how the nature of benefaction changed under the Empire.

Mechanique

Mechanique PDF Author: Genevieve Valentine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781607012535
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Now nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 2011." Come inside and take a seat; the show is about to begin... Outside any city still standing, the Mechanical Circus Tresaulti sets up its tents. Crowds pack the benches to gawk at the brass-and-copper troupe and their impossible feats: Ayar the Strong Man, the acrobatic Grimaldi Brothers, fearless Elena and her aerialists who perform on living trapezes. War is everywhere, but while the Circus is performing, the world is magic. That magic is no accident: Boss builds her circus from the bones out, molding a mechanical company that will survive the unforgiving landscape. But even a careful ringmaster can make mistakes. Two of Tresaulti's performers are entangled in a secret standoff that threatens to tear the circus apart just as the war lands on their doorstep. Now the Circus must fight a war on two fronts: one from the outside, and a more dangerous one from within.

The SAGE Handbook of Social Science Methodology

The SAGE Handbook of Social Science Methodology PDF Author: William Outhwaite
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446206459
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
"An excellent guidebook through different approaches to social science measurement, including the all-important route-maps that show us how to get there." - Roger Jowell, City University "In this wide-ranging collection of chapters, written by acknowledged experts in their fields, Outhwaite and Turner have brought together material in one volume which will provide an extremely important platform for consideration of the full range of contemporary analytical and methodological issues." - Charles Crothers, Auckland University of Technology This is a jewel among methods Handbooks, bringing together a formidable collection of international contributors to comment on every aspect of the various central issues, complications and controversies in the core methodological traditions. It is designed to meet the needs of those disciplinary and nondisciplinary problem-oriented social inquirers for a comprehensive overview of the methodological literature. The text is divided into 7 sections: Overviews of methodological approaches in the social sciences Cases, comparisons and theory Quantification and experiment Rationality, complexity and collectivity Interpretation, critique and postmodernity Discourse construction Engagement. Edited by two leading figures in the field, the Handbook is a landmark work in the field of research methods. More than just a ′cookbook′ that teaches readers how to master techniques, it will give social scientists in all disciplines an appreciation for the full range of methodological debates today, from the quantitative to the qualitative, giving them deeper and sharpen insights into their own research questions. It will generate debate, solutions and a series of questions for researchers to exploit and develop in their research and teaching.

Beer and Circus

Beer and Circus PDF Author: Murray Sperber
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 142993669X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A no-holds-barred examination of the troubled relationship between college sports and higher education from a leading authority on the subject Murray Sperber turns common perceptions about big-time college athletics inside out. He shows, for instance, that contrary to popular belief the money coming in to universities from sports programs never makes it to academic departments and rarely even covers the expense of maintaining athletic programs. The bigger and more prominent the sports program, the more money it siphons away from academics. Sperber chronicles the growth of the university system, the development of undergraduate subcultures, and the rising importance of sports. He reveals television's ever more blatant corporate sponsorship conflicts and describes a peculiar phenomenon he calls the "Flutie Factor"--the surge in enrollments that always follows a school's appearance on national television, a response that has little to do with academic concerns. Sperber's profound re-evaluation of college sports comes straight out of today's headlines and opens our eyes to a generation of students caught in a web of greed and corruption, deprived of the education they deserve. Sperber presents a devastating critique, not only of higher education but of national culture and values. Beer & Circus is a must-read for all students and parents, educators and policy makers.

Research Methods for the Social Sciences

Research Methods for the Social Sciences PDF Author: Jerry Wellington
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441140867
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to provide an introductory but not simplistic guide to research in the social and behavioural sciences. The book sets out to tackle difficult issues and concepts in a scholarly but accessible manner, providing ample guidance and signposts to further reading. We explore a wide range of questions about research and research methods, including: * What counts as 'good research'? * Research approaches, paradigms, methods and methodology: what are they and what is the difference? * What is the so-called 'qualitative/ quantitative'? * When and where is quantitative research indispensable? * If one suggests that research should be 'scientific' what does that mean? * What methods and methodologies are used in social research? * What is the role of statistics in social and behavioural research? How should statistical evidence be interpreted? * What are the ways in which research can, and should, be disseminated and presented? This book is aimed as much at the reflective, researching professional as for the professional researcher.