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Curtains of Iron and Gold - - Bog - Taylor & Francis Ltd - Plusbog.dk

First published in 1999, this book examines the construction of new political, economic and mental borders in post-Cold War Europe. Various national and regional settings are analyzed along the old East-West divide. In post-Cold War Europe the East-West divide no longer exists in the form of the clear-cut Iron Curtain, separating two security blocs, two politico-economic systems, and two ideologically and culturally distinct worlds. Still, it remains clearly discernible, both in the form of unrelenting politico-cultural differences and as an economic Golden Curtain. At the same time, a more complicated system of intersecting political, economic and mental borders keeps developing. Today, there are various scales of interaction, which produce distinctive national, regional and local experiences of borders. In this book, the construction of new political, economic and mental borders is analysed by specialists from both sides of the former East-West divide. The future of European borders is discussed in various national and regional settings, from the Barents Region in the North to the Old Habsburgian lands in ‘Mitteleuropa’.

Raising Curtains on Education - Clar Doyle - Bog - Bloomsbury Publishing Plc - Plusbog.dk

Believing that transformation is possible and that it must come from within, Clar Doyle illustrates the vital connection between drama and critical pedagogy.

Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames - Vito Adriaensens - Bog - Edinburgh University Press - Plusbog.dk

Mystics Against Empire - Catherine Candy - Bog - Taylor & Francis Ltd - Plusbog.dk

This book traces the careers of Margaret and James Cousins, mystical revolutionaries who were key players in some of the most important cultural and political events of the first half of the twentieth century. Margaret Cousins (1878-1954), was a leading suffragist dynamo and radical feminist revolutionary presence in the Irish cultural revival. Her husband, James Cousins (1873-1956), was a writer in the circle of Yeats and Joyce and a life-long nationalist and cosmopolitan activist. As suffragists in Ireland and England, the Cousins helped shape the feminist movement in both places, especially in their efforts to tie it to the international labour movement. Migrating to India during the first world war, for the next four decades they were at the helm of the feminist, musical, literary and educational wings of the Indian freedom movement alongside, and sometimes against, Gandhi. Few people were so intimately and so passionately involved in both movements of Irish and Indian decolonization and this dual biography demonstrates the intricate interconnectedness of a number of disparate histories: of empire; feminism; religion; gender and sexuality; culture; and anti-colonial nationalism.

Tigers of a Different Stripe - Sydney Hutchinson - Bog - The University of Chicago Press - Plusbog.dk

Tigers of a Different Stripe takes readers inside the unique world of merengue tipico, a traditional music of the Dominican Republic. While in most genres of Caribbean music women usually participate as dancers or vocalists, in merengue tipico they are more often instrumentalists and even bandleaders something nearly unheard of in the macho Caribbean music scene. Examining this cultural phenomenon, Sydney Hutchinson offers an unexpected and fascinating account of gender in Dominican art and life. Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork in the Dominican Republic and New York among musicians, fans, and patrons of merengue tipico not to mention her own experiences as a female instrumentalist Hutchinson details a complex nexus of class, race, and artistic tradition that unsettles the typical binary between the masculine and feminine. She sketches the portrait of the classic male figure of the tiguere, a dandified but sexually aggressive and street-smart "tiger," and she shows how female musicians have developed a feminine counterpart: the tiguera, an assertive, sensual, and respected female figure who looks like a woman but often plays and even sings like a man. Through these musical figures and studies of both straight and queer performers, she unveils rich ambiguities in gender construction in the Dominican Republic and the long history of a unique form of Caribbean feminism.

Sweet Greeks - Ann Flesor Beck - Bog - University of Illinois Press - Plusbog.dk

Gus Flesor came to the United States from Greece in 1901. His journey led him to Tuscola, Illinois, where he learned the confectioner's trade and opened a business that still stands on Main Street. Sweet Greeks sets the story of Gus Flesor's life as an immigrant in a small town within the larger history of Greek migration to the Midwest. Ann Flesor Beck's charming personal account recreates the atmosphere of her grandfather's candy kitchen with its odors of chocolate and popcorn and the comings-and-goings of family members. "The Store" represented success while anchoring the business district of Gus's chosen home. It also embodied the Midwest émigré experience of chain migration, immigrant networking, resistance and outright threats by local townspeople, food-related entrepreneurship, and tensions over whether later generations would take over the business. An engaging blend of family memoir and Midwest history, Sweet Greeks tells how Greeks became candy makers to the nation, one shop at a time.

Aliens in America - Jodi Dean - Bog - Cornell University Press - Plusbog.dk

In a provocative analysis of public culture and popular concerns, Jodi Dean examines how serious UFO-logists and their pop-culture counterparts tap into fears, phobias, and conspiracy theories with a deep past and a vivid present in American society. Aliens, the author shows, provide cultural icons through which to access the new conditions of democratic politics at the millennium. Because of the technological complexity of our age, political choices and decisions have become virtually meaningless, practically impossible. How do we judge what is real, believable, trustworthy, or authoritative? When the truth is out there, but we can trust no one, Dean argues, paranoia is indeed the most sensible response. Aliens have invaded the United States. No longer confined to science fiction and tabloids, aliens appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, at candy counters (in chocolate-covered flying saucers and Martian melon-flavored lollipops), and on Internet web sites. Aliens are at the center of a faculty battle at Harvard. They have been used to market AT&T cellular phones, Milky Way candy bars, Kodak film, Diet Coke, Stove-Top Stuffing, skateboard accessories, and abduction insurance. A Gallup poll reports that 27 percent of Americans believe space aliens have visited Earth. A Time/CNN poll finds 80 percent of its respondents believe the U.S. government is covering up knowledge of the existence of aliens. What does the widespread American belief in extraterrestrials say about the public sphere? How common are our assumptions about what is real? Is there any such thing as "common" sense? Aliens, the author shows, provide cultural icons through which to access the new conditions of democratic politics at the millennium. Because of the technological complexity of our age, political choices and decisions have become virtually meaningless, practically impossible. How do we judge what is real, believable, trustworthy, or authoritative? When the truth is out there, but we can trust no one, Dean argues, paranoia is indeed the most sensible response.

Materials for the 21st Century - David Segal - Bog - Oxford University Press - Plusbog.dk

What does cotton candy, which dissolves at the touch, have in common with Kevlar, used for bullet-proof vests? How can our understanding of such materials help us to tackle essential problems of the 21st century?Materials play a key role in our search for solutions to many pressing issues. They underpin many industries, are critical for the development of consumer goods, are essential components of medical diagnostic techniques, offer hope for the treatment of currently incurable diseases, and provide answers to environmental problems. This handbook is a guide to the materials we rely on for the future. Materials for the 21st Century serves as a useful resource for undergraduate and high school students preparing for a career in physical sciences, life sciences,or engineering, by helping them to identify new areas of interest. It is also an excellent reference for readers interested in learning more about the diverse range of materials that underlie key aspects of our economy and everyday lives.

Seen and Heard - Nichola D. Gutgold - Bog - Lexington Books - Plusbog.dk

As a messenger of television news, an anchorperson must hook the audience and make them pay attention. In America, there has been a strong tradition of male news anchors_Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings. These men, perched at their ''electronic hearths'', recounted the details of America''s most significant history to its citizens. Today, women are visible in every area of television news, even in the hallowed anchor chair, but their presence has been hard-fought and continues to present unique challenges. When Oprah Winfrey edorsed the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, it reinforced the tremendous power a broadcaster can wield. Seen and Heard examines the lives, careers, and communication styles of twelve of the most compelling and recognizable women of television news, including Christiane Amanpour, Elizabeth Vargas, Diane Sawyer, Paula Zahn, Judy Woodruff, and Candy Crowley. From Barbara Walters''s vast career that spans more than half a century to Katie Couric''s historic appointment as the sole anchor of the CBS Evening News, this book explores the obstacles and opportunities for women in broadcasting.

A History of the Oxford University Press - Harry Carter - Bog - Oxford University Press - Plusbog.dk

History of Universities is a periodical devoted to the study of every aspect of university history development, structure, teaching, and research from the Middle Ages to the modern period, as well as to the history of scholarship more generally. The bi-annual volumes contain a mix of learned articles, unpublished documents, book reviews, research notes, and bibliographical information, which makes this publication an indispensable tool not only for higher education researchers, but historians of all stripe. The contents of the periodical range widely geographically, chronically, and in subject-matter while its contributors are drawn from all parts of the world, giving the volumes a decidedly international flavor.

Dams and Reservoirs in Evaporites - Petar Milanovic - Bog - Springer Nature Switzerland AG - Plusbog.dk

This book shares essential insights on evaporites and their effects on dams and reservoirs. The intensity of the solution and suffusion process in evaporites (gypsum and salt) is much greater than the solution of carbonates, and evaporites are particularly vulnerable at dam and reservoir sites. Moreover, the presence of evaporites in the vicinity of dams or reservoirs often leads to serious problems: numerous dams in countries around the world (e.g. China, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Peru, Russia, Spain, the Unites States, and Venezuela) have been affected by evaporite dissolution problems. Several of these dams were seriously endangered or ultimately abandoned, even though the best available engineering prevention and remediation practices were applied. Conventional geotechnical methods based on treating the underground (e.g. grout curtains) or surface (e.g. protective blankets) were not successful. This book presents and analyzes revealing case studies in this regard. To improve geotechnical remediation in connection with preventing seepage from reservoirs situated in evaporites, particularly in gypsum, it puts forward a new chemical solution that, after painstaking laboratory testing, was successfully applied in the field.

On Reading the History of Philosophy - Daniel Whistler - Bog - Anthem Press - Plusbog.dk

This is a book about what the historian of philosophy does when reading . It is a book, therefore, that attempts to catalogue the various types of thinking produced in and through the act of reading a philosophical tex). Since Descartes, the philosopher has been persistently imagined as someone who thinks rather than reads, as someone who throws away the books handed down by tradition in order to properly begin meditating. And this binary has determined the image of the historian of philosophy too: the very practice of rational reconstruction informing so much contemporary history of philosophy is one which attempts to ‘draw the curtains of words’ to access what Danto called the ‘pure units of philosophy’ lying behind the text. Beginning from a series of problems set by Martial Gueroult, this book contests both the mutually exclusive binary of thinking and reading and the image of the historian of philosophy it gives rise to. And it does so by giving an account of history of philosophy as a readerly

A Board Game Education - Jeffrey P. Hinebaugh - Bog - Bloomsbury Publishing Plc - Plusbog.dk

A Board Game Education is an entertaining and valuable resource for parents, teachers, educators, and anyone who appreciates the fun and entertainment provided by classic, traditional board games. The book provides an informative analysis of how classic board games that everyone has played—and probably owns—are not only great family entertainment but also develop core educational skills that have been proven to lead to academic achievement. Through A Board Game Education readers learn a bit of the fascinating history trivia and little-known facts regarding the most loved board games of all time (i.e., how Monopoly was used by WWII POWs to escape). At the same time, Hinebaugh identifies the distinct educational skills developed by each of these games and explores in detail how the play of these games cultivates such skills. A Board Game Education also provides valuable suggestions about how to modify and vary these classic board games to specifically enhance additional core educational skills and concepts. Who would have thought that Candy Land could be modified into a strategy game and Chutes and Ladders could be used to teach algebraic equations and advanced math.

Experimental Games - Professor Patrick Jagoda - Bog - The University of Chicago Press - Plusbog.dk

In our unprecedentedly networked world, games have come to occupy an important space in many of our everyday lives. Digital games alone engage an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide as of 2020, and other forms of gaming, such as board games, role playing, escape rooms, and puzzles, command an ever-expanding audience. At the same time, “gamification”—the application of game mechanics to traditionally nongame spheres, such as personal health and fitness, shopping, habit tracking, and more—has imposed unprecedented levels of competition, repetition, and quantification on daily life. Drawing from his own experience as a game designer, Patrick Jagoda argues that games need not be synonymous with gamification. He studies experimental games that intervene in the neoliberal project from the inside out, examining a broad variety of mainstream and independent games, including StarCraft, Candy Crush Saga, Stardew Valley, Dys4ia, Braid, and Undertale. Beyond a diagnosis of gamification, Jagoda imagines ways that games can be experimental—not only in the sense of problem solving, but also the more nuanced notion of problem making that embraces the complexities of our digital present. The result is a game-changing book on the sociopolitical potential of this form of mass entertainment.

Habit Forming - Elizabeth Kelly Gray - Bog - Oxford University Press Inc - Plusbog.dk

Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Habit Forming traces the history of unregulated drug use and dependency before 1914, when the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act limited sales of opiates and cocaine under US law. Many Americans used opiates and other drugs medically and became addicted. Some tried Hasheesh Candy, injected morphine, or visited opium dens, but neither use nor addiction was linked to crime, due to the dearth of restrictive laws. After the Civil War, American presses published extensively about domestic addiction. Later in the nineteenth century, many used cocaine and heroin as medicine. As addiction became a major public health issue, commentators typically sympathized with white, middle-class drug users, while criticizing such use by poor or working-class people and people of color. When habituation was associated with middle-class morphine users, few advocated for restricted drug access. By the 1910s, as use was increasingly associated with poor young men, support for regulations increased. In outlawing users'' access to habit-forming drugs at the national level, a public health problem became a larger legal and social problem, one with an enduring influence on American drug laws and their enforcement.

Good Kids - Isabel Jijon - Bog - Stanford University Press - Plusbog.dk

One in ten children worldwide is involved in some form of child labor. While almost half are in occupations that put their safety at risk, the other half have "gray" jobs like industrial farming or selling candy on the street. Children in these positions often defend the value of their work, and some even join social movements to demand the "right to work with dignity." In Good Kids, Isabel Jijon reveals how global campaigns against child labor are often met with resistance from the very children they are meant to protect. Conducting interviews in Bolivia and Ecuador with children who defend their labor, Jijon explores what they mean by "value," "rights," and "dignity" in this context. She finds that working children seek a sense of self-worth, as well as worthiness in their closest relationships; they use work to prove that they are "good sons/daughters," "good friends," or simply "good kids." Drawing, also, on interviews with reformers invested in ending child labor, Jijon produces a nuanced picture of the ways that global campaigns can, unintentionally, undermine these relationships and make working children feel stigmatized rather than protected. This fascinating and challenging study of moral meaning-making upends simple understandings of harm and worthiness in a vast but poorly understood labor market.

Human Health Benefits of Plant Bioactive Compounds - - Bog - Apple Academic Press Inc. - Plusbog.dk

Focusing on the importance of functional foods and their secondary metabolites for human health, this volume presents new insights with scientific evidence on the use of functional foods in the treatment of certain diseases. The plants covered and their bioactive compounds are easily accessible and are believed to be effective with fewer side effects in comparison with modern drugs in the treatment of different diseases. The plants contain chemical compounds that can modify and modulate biological systems, eliciting therapeutic effects. Some plants and derived products mentioned include black carrot, olive oil, citrus peel, grapes, candy leaf, cereals and grains, and green and black tea. The volume is divided into four sections that cover these topics: - Functional foods for human health: the available sources, biochemistry, structural composition, and different biological activities, especially antioxidant activity. - Pharmacological aspects of fruits and vegetables: the extraction of bioactive molecules, phytochemistry, and biological activities of a selection of plants. - Pharmacological aspects of natural products: bioactive compounds, structural attributes, bioactivity of anthocyanin, piceatannol, and a review of the ethnobotany and medicinal properties of green and black tea. - Pharmacological aspects of cereals and grains: the health benefits of flaxseed, wheatgrass juice, and use and therapeutic potential as supplements for disease management.

Contemporary Collecting - - Bog - Scarecrow Press - Plusbog.dk

While the importance of collections has been evident in the sciences and humanities for several centuries, the social and cultural significance of collecting practices is now receiving serious attention as well. As reflected in programs like Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers, and websites such as eBay, collecting has had a consistent and growing presence in popular culture. In tandem with popular collecting, institutions are responding to changes in the collecting environment, as library catalogs go online and museums use new technologies to help generate attendance for their exhibits. In Contemporary Collecting: Objects, Practices, and the Fate of Things, Kevin M. Moist and David Banash have assembled several essays that examine collecting practices on both a personal and professional level. These essays situate collectors and collections in a contemporary context and also show how our changing world finds new meaning in the legacy of older collections. Arranged by such themes as “Collecting in a Virtual World,” “Changing Relationships with Things,” “Collecting and Identity—Personal and Political,” and “Collecting Practices and Cultural Hierarchies,” these essays help illuminate the role of objects in our lives. Covering a breadth of interdisciplinary perspectives and subjects—from PEZ candy dispensers and trading cards to sports memorabilia and music—Contemporary Collecting will be of interest to scholars of cultural studies, anthropology, popular culture studies, sociology, art history, and more.

Handbook of Community-Based Clinical Practice - - Bog - Oxford University Press Inc - Plusbog.dk

This sweeping volume builds the much-needed bridge between books on community practice and on clinical practice, including 33 chapters written by expert social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists specifically for clinicians making the transition to community-based work. This is the first handbook to specifically address this gap and provide meaningful guidance for today''s community practitioners. Its overarching goal is to support the ongoing development of community-based mental health care, drawing on a wealth of practical examples. This groundbreaking collection not only outlines the history and philosophy of community practice but richly illustrates the state of the art with examples from early intervention and development programs, school-based practice, and community mental health services for children, families, and adults. Community-based clinicians of every stripe will find this handbook indispensable for understanding, improving, and evaluating their practice while enriching the health and well-being of their clients and their communities.

The Great Cat and Dog Massacre - Hilda Kean - Bog - The University of Chicago Press - Plusbog.dk

The tragedies of World War II are well known. But at least one has been forgotten: in September 1939, four hundred thousand cats and dogs were massacred in Britain. The government, vets, and animal charities all advised against this killing. So why would thousands of British citizens line up to voluntarily euthanize household pets? In The Great Cat and Dog Massacre, Hilda Kean unearths the history, piecing together the compelling story of the life and death of Britain's wartime animal companions. She explains that fear of imminent Nazi bombing and the desire to do something to prepare for war led Britons to sew blackout curtains, dig up flower beds for vegetable patches, send their children away to the countryside and kill the family pet, in theory sparing them the suffering of a bombing raid. Kean's narrative is gripping, unfolding through stories of shared experiences of bombing, food restrictions, sheltering, and mutual support. Soon pets became key to the war effort, providing emotional assistance and helping people to survive a contribution for which the animals gained government recognition. Drawing extensively on new research from animal charities, state archives, diaries, and family stories, Kean does more than tell a virtually forgotten story. She complicates our understanding of World War II as a "good war" fought by a nation of "good" people. Accessibly written and generously illustrated, Kean's account of this forgotten aspect of British history moves animals to center stage forcing us to rethink our assumptions about ourselves and the animals with whom we share our homes.

Theaters of Pardoning - Bernadette Meyler - Bog - Cornell University Press - Plusbog.dk

From Gerald Ford''s preemptive pardon of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump''s claims that as president he could pardon himself to the posthumous royal pardon of Alan Turing, the power of the pardon has a powerful hold on the political and cultural imagination. In Theaters of Pardoning , Bernadette Meyler traces the roots of contemporary understandings of pardoning to tragicomic "theaters of pardoning" in the drama and politics of seventeenth-century England. Shifts in how pardoning was represented on the stage and discussed in political tracts and in Parliament reflected the transition from a more monarchical and judgment-focused form of the concept to an increasingly parliamentary and legislative vision of sovereignty. Meyler shows that on the English stage, individual pardons of revenge subtly transformed into more sweeping pardons of revolution, from Shakespeare''s Measure for Measure , where a series of final pardons interrupts what might otherwise have been a cycle of revenge, to later works like John Ford''s The Laws of Candy and Philip Massinger''s The Bondman , in which the exercise of mercy prevents the overturn of the state itself. In the political arena, the pardon as a right of kingship evolved into a legal concept, culminating in the idea of a general amnesty, the "Act of Oblivion," for actions taken during the English Civil War. Reconceiving pardoning as law-giving effectively displaced sovereignty from king to legislature, a shift that continues to attract suspicion about the exercise of pardoning. Only by breaking the connection between pardoning and sovereignty that was cemented in seventeenth-century England, Meyler concludes, can we reinvigorate the pardon as a democratic practice.

Anatomy of Game Design - Tom Smith - Bog - Taylor & Francis Ltd - Plusbog.dk

People have played games forever, but it’s only in the past few decades that people really started thinking about what games are, how they work, and how to make them better. Anatomy of Game Design takes some of the most popular and beloved games of all time and dissects them to see what makes them tick. By breaking down the systems and content of each game, the underlying systems of game design are laid bare. Eight games are analyzed – including Settlers of Catan; Centipede; Candy Crush Saga; Papers, Please ; Magic: The Gathering ; and more – each representing a different genre or era of game design. Each game is discussed in detail, using the same methods for each game. What are the verbs of the game that give the player agency? How do those verbs fit together to form a core loop that makes the game engaging? What are the systems that power the gameplay? What is the larger flow that makes the game interesting over and over again? Each game is then used as an example to tie back to one or more larger topics in game design, such as systems design, randomness, monetization, game theory, and iterative approaches to game development. Key Features: - Uses well-known games to provide specific, discrete examples of broader game design theory - Discusses eight popular games using the same methodology to allow comparison of different types of games - Includes both high-level theory and academic perspective and practical, real-world guidance from a working game designer who has created these games for commercial release - Provides clear direction for deeper inquiry into game design or related fields such as psychology, anthropology, game development, or systems thinking

The Professional Personal Chef - Greg Forte - Bog - John Wiley & Sons Inc - Plusbog.dk

The job of professional personal chef is one of the fastest growing careers in foodservice. People are choosing to become personal chefs in order to have a culinary career on their own terms, with a self-determined schedule and freedom from restaurant strictures. Not only do personal chefs have the chance to work with food in a more creative, personalized way, they are also able to approach their careers with a more entrepreneurial business sense. Written by Candy Wallace, the founder and Executive Director of the American Personal and Private Chef Association (APPCA) and Greg Forte, CEC, CCE, AAC, The Professional Personal Chef offers the definitive guide for starting and growing a successful professional personal chef business. It covers the skills and competencies required for the American Culinary Federation''s Personal Certified Chef certification, and lays out a practical road map for this challenging but rewarding career. Filled with resources rich in detail, this useful and engaging text covers: - - The evolution of the professional personal chef career path - - The benefits and disadvantages of various forms of business ownership - - Operating legally - - Writing an effective business plan - - Creating a vision statement, mission statement, and elevator speech for your personal chef business - - Managing and securing finances - - Identifying target markets and revenue streams - - Developing marketing and sales plans and quality customer service - - A day in the life of a personal chef - In each chapter, learning outcomes, key terms, and review questions reinforce the key concepts. From the Field features present interviews and real world experiences from working personal chefs. A complete instructor support package providing business resources, syllabi, and project suggestions is posted on a companion Web site at www.wiley.com, and also offers sample business plans, recipes for menus, forms, and other useful documents. Culinary arts instructors seeking a classroom text, as well as individual culinary professionals and amateurs interested in starting or growing a personal chef business, will find The Professional Personal Chef the essential A-to-Z guide to this exciting career.

Leaving Morality Where It Is - Daniel Patrone - Bog - Lexington Books - Plusbog.dk

Debates in moral theory have reached something of a deadlock due entirely to the concept of "contingency." Contingencies are features of the world, some outside ourselves, and some a part of ourselves, over which we lack control. For philosophers who describe the role and value of morality in a secular world, contingency threatens to undermine both the possibility of achieving happiness and the preconditions thought necessary for moral responsibility. In light of all this, there remains persistent debate amongst two especially established and pronounced positions. Kantians have long criticized Aristotelian "eudaimonism" for its failure to secure human happiness. Eudaimonists have, on the other hand, long criticized Kantianism for its inability to give a coherent account of moral responsibility and judgment. The debate surrounding contingency has therefore emerged as something of a litmus test for the acceptability of a moral theory. Both Kantians and Eudaimonists agree that any attempt to deal with the problems of contingency will force an abandonment of something important in our actual moral commitments and, as a result, the problems of contingency cannot, as Bernard Williams has written, "leave morality where it was." In this original new work Daniel Patrone makes clear the history and implications of this debate. Emerging from out of the deadlock between the Kantian and the Eudaimonist position is the particularist position. Leaving Morality Where It Is describes and thinks through every facet of this debate. It is an indispensable work for philosophers in general and ethicists (of every stripe) in particular.

Spirituality and the State - Kerry Mitchell - Bog - New York University Press - Plusbog.dk

An exploration of the production and reception of nature and spirituality in America's national park system America's national parks are some of the most powerful, beautiful, and inspiring spots on the earth. They are often considered "spiritual" places in which one can connect to oneself and to nature. But it takes a lot of work to make nature appear natural. To maintain the apparently pristine landscapes of our parks, the National Park Service must engage in traffic management, landscape design, crowd-diffusing techniques, viewpoint construction, behavioral management, and more—and to preserve the "spiritual" experience of the park, they have to keep this labor invisible. Spirituality and the State analyzes the way that the state manages spirituality in the parks through subtle, sophisticated, unspoken, and powerful techniques. Following the demands of a secular ethos, park officials have developed strategies that slide under the church/state barrier to facilitate deep connections between visitors and the space, connections that visitors often express as spiritual. Through indirect communication, the design of trails, roads, and vista points, and the management of land, bodies and sense perception, the state invests visitors in a certain way of experiencing reality that is perceived as natural, individual, and authentic. This construction of experience naturalizes the exercise of authority and the historical, social, and political interests that lie behind it. In this way a personal, individual, nature spirituality becomes a public religion of a particularly liberal stripe. Drawing on surveys and interviews with visitors and rangers as well as analyses of park spaces, Spirituality and the State investigates the production and reception of nature and spirituality in America's national park system.