This text involves students in understanding and using the "tools" of critical social and literary theory from the first day of class. It is an ideal first introduction before students encounter more difficult readings from critical and postmodern perspectives. Nealon and Searls Giroux describe key concepts and illuminate each with an engaging inquiry that asks students to consider deeper and deeper questions. Written in students' own idiom, and drawing its examples from the social world, literature, popular culture, and advertising, The Theory Toolbox offers students the language and opportunity to theorize rather than positioning them to respond to theory as a reified history of various schools of thought. Clear and engaging, it avoids facile description, inviting students to struggle with ideas and the world by virtue of the book's relentless challenge to common assumptions and its appeal to common sense. Updated throughout, the second edition of The Theory Toolbox includes a discussion of new media, as well as two new chapters on life and nature.

Throughout the 20th century, electricity was considered to be the primary vehicle of modernity, as well as its quintessential symbol. In India, electrification was central to how early nationalists and planners conceptualized Indian development, and huge sums were spent on the project from then until now. Yet despite all this, sixty-five years after independence nearly 400 million Indians have no access to electricity. Electrifying India explores the political and historical puzzle of uneven development in India's vital electricity sector. In some states, nearly all citizens have access to electricity, while in others fewer than half of households have reliable electricity. To help explain this variation, this book offers both a regional and a historical perspective on the politics of electrification of India as it unfolded in New Delhi and three Indian states: Maharashtra, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. In those parts of the countryside that were successfully electrified in the decades after independence, the gains were due to neither nationalist idealism nor merely technocratic plans, but rather to the rising political influence and pressure of rural constituencies. In looking at variation in how public utilities expanded over a long period of time, this book argues that the earlier period of an advancing state apparatus from the 1950s to the 1980s conditioned in important ways the manner of the state's retreat during market reforms from the 1990s onward.

Conspiracy theories are not just outlandish ideas. They can also be political weapons. Conspiracy theories have come to play an increasingly prominent role in political systems around the world. In Revealing Schemes, Scott Radnitz moves beyond psychological explanations for why people believe conspiracy theories to explore the politics surrounding them, placing two questions at the center of his account: What leads regimes to promote conspiracy claims? And what effects do those claims have on politics and society? Focusing on the former Soviet Uniona region of the world where such theories have long thrivedhe shows that incumbent politicians tend to make conspiracy claims to demonstrate their knowledge and authority at moments of uncertainty and threat. They emerge more often where there is serious political competition rather than unbridled autocracy and in response to events that challenge a regime's ability to rule. Yet conspiracy theories can also be habit-forming and persist as part of an official narrative even where immediate threats have subsideda strategy intended to strengthen regimes, but that may inadvertently undermine them. Revealing Schemes explores the causes, consequences, and contradictions of conspiracism in politics with an original collection of over 1,500 conspiracy claims from across the post-Soviet region, two national surveys, and 12 focus groups. At a time of heightened distrust in democratic institutions and rising illiberal populism around the world, understanding how conspiracy theories operate in a region where democracy came lateor never arrivedcan be instructive for concerned citizens everywhere.

Building on the intellectual and political momentum that established the Critical Ethnic Studies Association, this Reader inaugurates a radical response to the appropriations of liberal multiculturalism while building on the possibilities enlivened by the historical work of Ethnic Studies. It does not attempt to circumscribe the boundaries of Critical Ethnic Studies; rather, it offers a space to promote open dialogue, discussion, and debate regarding the field's expansive, politically complex, and intellectually rich concerns. Covering a wide range of topics, from multiculturalism, the neoliberal university, and the exploitation of bodies to empire, the militarized security state, and decolonialism, these twenty-five essays call attention to the urgency of articulating a Critical Ethnic Studies for the twenty-first century.

Practical, example-driven introduction to maximum likelihood for the social sciences. Emphasizes computation in R, model selection and interpretation.

Adolph illustrates the policy differences between central banks run by former bankers relative to those run by bureaucrats.

Whether planning a long weekend in Mexico, a business trip to Ghana, or a semester abroad in Vietnam, travelers need current and practical information on protecting their health in foreign countries. Staying Healthy Abroad gives straightforward and easy-to-follow recommendations for those traveling for pleasure, study, business, or volunteer work; for short- or long-term stays; and to destinations ranging from rural areas to large cities, in both developing and industrialized nations. Observing that risk is determined less by where you go than by what you do, physician and educator Christopher Sanford provides succinct overviews and commonsense advice on how to prevent communicable diseases, malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses, and travelers’ diarrhea; avoid traffic and water accidents; and evaluate post-trip symptoms; and addresses many other concerns. His emphasis is on ailments and injuries that travelers are most likely to encounter, because “if something occurs less frequently than one-in-a-million, it probably isn’t going to happen to you.” Staying Healthy Abroad also covers concerns unique to women, men, children, LGBTQ individuals, and travelers with chronic illnesses. International travel can be a business requirement, a study-abroad opportunity, an exciting adventure, or a quick getaway outside the normal routine. The majority of health and safety risks for travelers can be avoided with sensible pre-travel precautions, such as immunizations, and attention to safe behavior while away. From altitude sickness to Zika virus, the clear and concise information in Staying Healthy Abroad helps make global travel less stressful and more enjoyable.

This comprehensive guide provides a step-by-step approach to data collection, cleaning, formatting, and storage, using Python and R.

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.