Explores the hidden political and ethical dimensions of the work of Samuel Beckett, an author who might otherwise be considered indifferent to such considerations.

Explores the hidden political and ethical dimensions of the work of Samuel Beckett, an author who might otherwise be considered indifferent to such considerations.

This book provides a conceptually and empirically rich introduction to religious indifference on the basis of original anthropological, historical and sociological research. Religious indifference is a central category for understanding contemporary societies, and a controversial one. For some scholars, a growing religious indifference indicates a dramatic decline in religiosity and epitomizes the endpoint of secularization processes. Others view it as an indicator of moral apathy and philosophical nihilism, whilst yet others see it as paving the way for new forms of political tolerance and solidarity. This volume describes and analyses the symbolic power of religious indifference and the conceptual contestations surrounding it. Detailed case studies cover anthropological and qualitative data from the UK, Germany, Estonia, the USA, Canada, and India analyse large quantitative data sets, and provide philosophical-literary inquiries into the phenomenon. They highlight how, for different actors and agendas, religious indifference can constitute an objective or a challenge. Pursuing a relational approach to non-religion, the book conceptualizes religious indifference in its interrelatedness with religion as well as more avowed forms of non-religion.

As the postwar international system continues its dramatic transformation, the fundamental question of what role China will play is becoming increasingly central. Contributors to the volume focus on the developments of the post-Tiananmen years, addressing the issues raised by China's expanding and increasingly complex relationships with a rapidly changing global environment. They consider such questions as: What is the principal challenge of post-Tiananmen foreign policy? How will China cope with the call for a more peaceful, equitable, democratic, and ecological world order? How has the nexus between China and the world changed in this transition period, and why? What are the implications for China's future and for the future of the rest of the world?Combining a broad theoretical framework with specific case studies, this text tackles themes that have long puzzled Westerners. Seeking the often elusive sources of Chinese foreign policy, the contributors assess the relative influences of domestic and foreign factors in shaping policy goals. They also examine the changes and continuities that have characterized Chinese foreign relations over the years, identifying the patterns underlying China's interactions with the major global actors and its policies on specific international issues. Special attention is paid to the word/deed (and at times word/word) disjuncture in Chinese foreign relations, with several chapters probing the discrepancies between rhetoric and reality, policy pronouncements and policy performance, and intent and outcome. The human-rights component of China's foreign policy and China's foreign policy options for the last decade of the century are also discussed.New to this revised and updated edition of China and the World are discussions concerning Chinese foreign policies and international relations theories, the relationship between China and the Third World, and China's environmental diplomacy.

This is the first book about the emerging field of utility indifference pricing for valuing derivatives in incomplete markets. René Carmona brings together a who's who of leading experts in the field to provide the definitive introduction for students, scholars, and researchers. Until recently, financial mathematicians and engineers developed pricing and hedging procedures that assumed complete markets. But markets are generally incomplete, and it may be impossible to hedge against all sources of randomness. Indifference Pricing offers cutting-edge procedures developed under more realistic market assumptions. The book begins by introducing the concept of indifference pricing in the simplest possible models of discrete time and finite state spaces where duality theory can be exploited readily. It moves into a more technical discussion of utility indifference pricing for diffusion models, and then addresses problems of optimal design of derivatives by extending the indifference pricing paradigm beyond the realm of utility functions into the realm of dynamic risk measures. Focus then turns to the applications, including portfolio optimization, the pricing of defaultable securities, and weather and commodity derivatives. The book features original mathematical results and an extensive bibliography and indexes. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Pauline Barrieu, Tomasz R. Bielecki, Nicole El Karoui, Robert J. Elliott, Said Hamadène, Vicky Henderson, David Hobson, Aytac Ilhan, Monique Jeanblanc, Mattias Jonsson, Anis Matoussi, Marek Musiela, Ronnie Sircar, John van der Hoek, and Thaleia Zariphopoulou. The first book on utility indifference pricing Explains the fundamentals of indifference pricing, from simple models to the most technical ones Goes beyond utility functions to analyze optimal risk transfer and the theory of dynamic risk measures Covers non-Markovian and partially observed models and applications to portfolio optimization, defaultable securities, static and quadratic hedging, weather derivatives, and commodities Includes extensive bibliography and indexes Provides essential reading for PhD students, researchers, and professionals

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Living with Indifference is about the dimension of life that is utterly neutral, without care, feeling, or personality. In this provocative work that is anything but indifferent, Charles E. Scott explores the ways people have spoken and thought about indifference. Exploring topics such as time, chance, beauty, imagination, violence, and virtue, Scott shows how affirming indifference can be beneficial, and how destructive consequences can occur when we deny it. Scott's preoccupation with indifference issues a demand for focused attention in connection with personal values, ethics, and beliefs. This elegantly argued book speaks to the positive value of diversity and a world that is open to human passion.

In Indifference, Naisargi N. Davé examines the complex worlds of animalists and animalism in India. Through ethnographic fieldwork with animal healers, animal activists, farmers, laborers, transporters, and animals themselves, and moving across animal shelters and dairy farms to city streets and abattoirs, Davé shows how human-animal relations often manifest through care and violence. More surprisingly, what Davé also finds animating interspecies relationality in India is an ethic of indifference---that is, an orientation of mutual regard rather than curiosity, love, desire, or animus. For Davé, indifference is a respect for others in their otherness that allows human and nonhuman animals to flourish in immanent encounters. Indifference, then, becomes the basis for an interspecies ethics and a method of care and practice in everyday life. With indifference, Davé describes both a mode of relationality in the world and a scholarly approach: seeking what is possible when we approach ethico-political concepts with indifference rather than commitment or antagonism. Moments of indifference, Davé contends, offer the promise of otherwise worlds.

Have European citizens become increasingly Eurosceptic over the last two decades, turning their backs on European integration? Though many journalists, politicians and academics argue that they have, this book suggests that reactions to European integration cannot be reduced uniquely to a rise in Euroscepticism, but that indifference and ambivalence need also to be brought into the picture when studying EU legitimacy and its politicisation. Drawing on new evidence from survey data from eight founding member states, and focus groups conducted in francophone Belgium, France and Great Britain, Integrating Indifference explores the various faces of citizens’ indifference, from fatalism, to detachment, via sheer indecision. This book adopts a pioneering mixed-methods approach to analysing the middle-of-the-road attitudes of ordinary citizens who consider themselves neither Europhiles nor Eurosceptics. Complementing existing quantitative and qualitative literature in the field, it opens up new perspectives on attitudes towards European integration.