"Capital is the defining feature of modern economies, yet most people have no idea where it actually comes from. What is it, exactly, that transforms mere wealth into an asset that automatically creates more wealth? The Code of Capital explains how capital is created behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, and why this little-known fact is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. In this revealing book, Katharina Pistor argues that the law selectively "codes" certain assets, endowing them with the capacity to protect and produce private wealth. With the right legal coding, any object, claim, or idea can be turned into capital - and lawyers are the keepers of the code. Pistor describes how they pick and choose among different legal systems and legal devices for the ones that best serve their clients' needs, and how techniques that were first perfected centuries ago to code landholdings as capital are being used today to code stocks, bonds, ideas, and even expectations--assets that exist only in law. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the different ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are coded to give financial advantage to their holders. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it."--Provided by publisher.

Effigy examines the images of a capital defendant portrayed during the guilt and penalty phases of a capital trial, the trial tactics used by attorneys to impart these images, and the consequences that result from the jury's attempt to reconcile contradictory images to place one in permanent record as a verdict. These images are starkly contrasted against the backdrop of a brutal murder in which the stereotypes of American fear are realized: Donta Page, the defendant, is an African American male from a low-income segment of society while Peyton Tuthill, the victim, was a Caucasian female from a middle-income suburb. The prosecuting attorneys depict the defendant as a "savage beast," juxtaposing their image against that of a "troubled youth" as Page is portrayed by the defense attorneys. Slowly and methodically developed as figures with diametrically opposed features, none of which overlap or congeal, both of the images are portrayed as real (buttressed by the testimony of witnesses) rather than constructed. The jury is expected to render a verdict that accepts one and rejects the other: there is no middle ground. Book jacket.

This book attempts to establish an inter-disciplinary discourse evaluation framework to analyze multi-dimensional discursive features along 4 dimensions in Chinese and American banks’ CSR reports: sentiment, readability, CSR keyword, and visualization. It analyzes Chinese and American banks’ different discursively constructed CSR images via the employment of various discursive features in CSR reports within their different contexts. Lastly, it examines the effects of Chinese and American banks’ discursively constructed CSR images on capital markets, with an inter-disciplinary approach of linguistics, management, and economics. Theoretically, this book contributes to the development of institutional identity’s cross-disciplinary research. Additionally, it reveals the problem-solving function of discourse. This sheds light on theoretical research into both corporate governance and business discourse. Practically, this book contributes to the improvement of Chinese banks’ awareness in CSR disclosure and the establishment of Chinese banks’ international images. Since more and more Chinese companies in different sectors are choosing overseas listings, findings in this book also have practical implications for their information disclosure, international images construction, and corporate value enhancement through corporate narratives, such as annual reports and IPO prospectuses.

"Most of these photographers were Jewish. New York: Capital of Photography examines their responses to their environment in the context of a Jewish sensibility, as manifested especially by the depiction of viewer-viewed relationships in the public - and not so public - spaces of the city. This book recognizes and newly analyzes the influence of Jewish consciousness on the photographic vision of a great metropolis."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

At a time of increasing city competition, national capitals are at the forefront of efforts to gain competitive advantage for themselves and their nation, to project a distinctive and positive image and to score well in global city league tables. They are frequently their country’s main tourist gateway, and their success in attracting visitors is inextricably linked with that of the nation. They attract not just leisure visitors; they are especially important in other growing tourism markets, for example, as centres of power they feature strongly in business tourism, as academic centres they are important for educational tourism, and they frequently host global events such as the Olympic Games. And there are more of them: first, the number of capitals has grown as the number of nation-states has increased and, secondly, pressures for devolution mean more cities are seeking national capital status, even when they are not at the head of independent states. We need to understand tourism in capitals better – but there has been little research in the past. This book develops new insights as it explores the phenomenon of capital city tourism, and uses recent research to examine the appeal of ‘capitalness’ to tourists, and explore developments in capitals across the world. This book was published as a special issue of Current Issues in Tourism.

William Taylor explores the use of local and regional shrines, and devotion to images of Christ and Mary, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, to get to the heart of the politics and practices of faith in Mexico before the Reforma.