Building on the work of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Capitalizing on Culture presents an innovative, accessible, and timely exploration of critical theory in a cultural landscape dominated by capital. Despite the increasing prevalence of commodification as a dominant factor in the production, promotion, and consumption of most forms of mass culture, many in the cultural studies field have failed to engage systematically either with culture as commodity or with critical theory. Shane Gunster corrects that oversight, providing attentive readings of Adorno and Benjamin's work in order to generate a complex, non-reductive theory of human experience that attends to the opportunities and dangers arising from the confluence of culture and economics. Gunster juxtaposes Benjamin's thoughts on memory, experience, and capitalism with Adorno's critique of mass culture and modern aesthetics to illuminate the key position that the commodity form plays in each thinker's work and to invigorate the dialectical complexity their writings acquire when considered together. This blending of perspectives is subsequently used to ground a theoretical interrogation of the comparative failure of cultural studies to engage substantively with the effect of commodification upon cultural practices. As a result, Capitalizing on Culture offers a fresh examination of critical theory that will be valuable to scholars studying the intersection of culture and capitalism.

After two decades of exceptional economic growth and cultural change, Ireland faces the greatest challenge yet: creating a sustainable competitive advantage to guarantee its success in the future. Finbarr Bradley and James Kennelly recommend a renewed sense of national identity as social and cultural capital to maintain and enhance Ireland’s economic development.

What does it mean to turn something into capital? What does considering things as assets entail? What does the prevalence of an investor’s viewpoint require? What is this culture of valuation that asks that we capitalize on everything? How can we make sense of the traits, necessities and upshots of this pervasive cultural condition?This book takes the reader to an ethnographic stroll down the trail of capitalization. Start-up companies, research centers, consulting firms, state enterprises, investment banks, public administrations: the territory can certainly prove strange and disorienting at first sight, with its blurred boundaries between private appropriation and public interest, economic sanity and moral breakdown, the literal and the metaphorical, the practical and the ideological. The traveler certainly requires a resolutely pragmatist attitude, and a taste for the meanders of signification. But in all the sites in which we set foot in this inquiry we recognize a recurring semiotic complex: a scenario of valuation in which things signify by virtue of their capacity to become assets in the eye of an imagined investor.A ground-breaking anthropological investigation on the culture of contemporary capitalism, this work directs attention to the largely unexplored problem of capitalization and offers a critical resource for current debates on neoliberalism and financialization.

Americans love "this year's model," relying on the "new" to be always "improved." Enthusiasm for the new, says Stanley Buder, is essential to American business, where innovation and change stoke the engines of economic energy. To really understand the his

While race and culture remain important variables in how young people experience schools, they are often misunderstood by educators and school personnel. Building on three studies that investigated schools successful in closing the achievement gap, Tyrone Howard shows how adopting greater awareness and comprehensive understanding of race and culture can improve educational outcomes. Important reading for anyone who is genuinely committed to promoting educational equity and excellence for all children, this accessible book: Outlines the changing racial, ethnic, and cultural demographics in U.S. schools. Calls for educators to pay serious attention to how race and culture play out in school settings. Presents empirical data from schools that have improved achievement outcomes for racially and culturally diverse students. Focuses on ways in which educators can partner with parents and communities.

Now available in paperback, the sixth edition of this definitive text provides students a strong background in the conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical issues in multicultural education from a leading authority and scholarly leader of the field---James A. Banks. In the opening chapter author Banks presents his well-known and widely used concept of Dimensions of Multicultural Education to help build an understanding of how the various components of multicultural education are interrelated. He then provides an overview on preparing students to function as effective citizens in a global world; discusses the dimensions, history, and goals of multicultural education; presents the conceptual, philosophical, and research issues related to education and diversity; examines the issues involved in curriculum and teaching; looks at gender equity, disability, giftedness, and language diversity; and focuses on intergroup relations and principles for teaching and learning. This new edition incorporates new concepts, theories, research, and developments in the field of multicultural education and features: A new Chapter 5, "Increasing Student Academic Achievement: Paradigms and Explanations" provides important explanations for the achievement gap and suggests ways that educators can work to close it. A new Chapter 7, "Researching Race, Culture, and Difference," explains the unique characteristics of multicultural research and how it differs from mainstream research in education and social science. A new Chapter 14, "Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society" contains research-based guidelines for reforming teaching and the school in order to increase the academic achievement and social development of students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and gender groups. A new Appendix—"Essential Principles Checklist"—designed to help educators determine the extent to which practices within their schools, colleges, and universities are consistent with the research-based findings described in the book.

Educators remove over 3.45 million students from school annually for disciplinary reasons, despite strong evidence that school suspension policies are harmful to students. The research presented in this volume demonstrates that disciplinary policies and practices that schools control directly exacerbate today's profound inequities in educational opportunity and outcomes. Part I explores how suspensions flow along the lines of race, gender, and disability status. Part II examines potential remedies that show great promise, including a district-wide approach in Cleveland, Ohio, aimed at social and emotional learning strategies. Closing the School Discipline Gap is a call for action that focuses on an area in which public schools can and should make powerful improvements, in a relatively short period of time. Contributors include Robert Balfanz, Jamilia Blake, Dewey Cornell, Jeremy D. Finn, Thalia González, Anne Gregory, Daniel J. Losen, David M. Osher, Russell J. Skiba, Ivory A. Toldson “Closing the School Discipline Gap can make an enormous difference in reducing disciplinary exclusions across the country. This book not only exposes unsound practices and their disparate impact on the historically disadvantaged, but provides educators, policymakers, and community advocates with an array of remedies that are proven effective or hold great promise. Educators, communities, and students alike can benefit from the promising interventions and well-grounded recommendations.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “For over four decades school discipline policies and practices in too many places have pushed children out of school, especially children of color. Closing the School Discipline Gap shows that adults have the power—and responsibility—to change school climates to better meet the needs of children. This volume is a call to action for policymakers, educators, parents, and students.” —Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children’s Defense Fund

Focusing on intercultural understanding as the foundation for a successful global business, this invaluable book will guide those managers just entering the field and serve as a quick reference for global human resource veterans.

Many organizations are embracing knowledge management as a source of strategic advantage. But already people are asking: "what comes next?" Likewise almost every large organization is heavily involved in e-commerce and turning their organizations into e-businesses. At the moment most e-commerce is focused on selling traditional products and services through the new medium of the Internet. However, the more an organization evolves into an e-business, the more they can exploit knowledge flows between themselves and their marketplace. This book draws together the two strands of knowledge and e-business into the emerging field that this book has called k-business. A k-business is one that turns an organization's knowledge assets into knowledge products and services and uses the Internet to market and deliver them online. Despite its newness, the Delphi Group have forecast that within 5 years person-to-person information e-commerce (a major aspect of k-business) will be a $5 billion business leveraging $50 billion in sales of other products and services. Capitalizing on Knowledge aims to give professionals and managers early insights into how to develop successful k-businesses. It takes a critical and balanced view of the building blocks of a k-business including knowledge productizing, e-commerce enablers and Internet marketing. It draws on lessons from successes and failures in the dot.com landscape and of the early pioneers of knowledge markets. The writing style engenders interest and readability supported by diagrams, screen images, check lists and frameworks. There are 'points to ponder' to stimulate thinking and decision-making. Five case studies and over 50 illustrative examples provide insights into the application of the book's concepts. No other book brings all the elements of a k-business together in one place to provide a thought provoking yet practical companion for those who want to capitalize on their knowledge.