Sociology and Education is a sound introduction to sociology of education. The book examines the respective logics behind the contemporary sociological approaches to education, their assumptions and their limits. It clarifies the links between psychology of cognitive development, micro-sociology and macro-sociology, as well as the role ascribed to human reason in social action. Special attention is given to major scientific discussions and empirical findings regarding inequality of educational opportunity.
Rooted in both American and European sociology, the book helps the reader...

What does learning a language involve? Obviously, a rapid and definitive answer cannot be provided for this question since the aspects and situations affecting language learning are many and varied. From the role of culture to the use of new technologies in foreign language learning, this work aims to offer its readers some of the current research being carried out in different areas relevant to the topic.
A long developing project has become reality thanks to the work of several researchers who are also experienced teaching professionals. In this sense, it is worth mentioning that most...

The focus of this volume is on the business letter genre, a seminal and widely used genre in business communication. Since the introduction of the Internet, interest in this genre has increased once again, because of the digital format of the letter. E-mail has partially taken over the multiple functions of the traditional business letter and bypassed, again partially, the fax. However, the letter has also survived in its written form.
Since the 1990s, genre theory has been receiving a lot of attention, both in academic and pedagogical circles. Discourse analysts have increasingly...

This volume brings together the latest work in Russian labour history, based on exciting materials from previously closed archives and collections. Sixteen essays, focusing on peasants and workers, explore the lives and struggles of working people. Ranging over a century of dramatic upheaval, from the late 1800s to the present, the essays are organized around three broad themes: workers politics, incentives and coercion within industrial and rural workplaces, and household strategies. The volume explores the relationship between the peasantry and the working class, a nexus that has been...

How to read Walter Benjamin today? This book argues that the proper way is through an approach which recognizes and respects his own peculiar theorization of the act of reading and the politics of interpretation that this entails. The approach must be figural, that is, focused on images, and driven by the notion of actualization. Figural reading, in the very sui generis Benjaminian way, understands figures as constellations, whereby an image of the past juxtaposes them with an image of the present and is thus actualized. To apply this method to Benjamin s own work...

In today s world, children s development is increasingly under threat. Basic experiences (such as joy, tenderness, learning how to love, well-being etc.) which are crucial for healthy development are often deficient or tainted. As a result, more and more children show signs of restlessness, anxiety and relational problems.
This study examines the profound functioning at the root of human life and analyses the characteristics of these functional processes the forms they present at different stages of development, how they may be supported by adults, what dysfunctions can occur and how such...

The volume is based on papers given at the London Symposium Vienna Meets Berlin: Culture in the Metropolis Between the Wars which took place at the Institute of Germanic Studies in December 2001.
The book surveys the cultural links between Vienna and Berlin with a focus on the inter-war years and some post-1945 continuities. It includes a centenary tribute to Odon von Horvath and contributions on theatre, film, journalism (the feuilleton in particular), literature, music and socio-political issues. Together, the studies can be read as a narrative of interaction between the two...

Public education has received increasing criticism since the beginning of the nineties. Four major areas of concern can be discerned: the technical backwardness of the schools, the disappearance of political legitimization, financial limitations and the conservative school development. Worldwide, educational systems are being reorganized and developed beyond the traditional forms. These efforts are accompanied by increasingly complicated and complex research which assumes an international form. The international symposium Futures of Education, which took place in Zurich from 28th to...

The full story of modernism is yet to be written. This collection of essays provides an important page in this complex and inconclusive story of fluidities and hybridities by rendering problematical the linear sequence from modernism to postmodernism.
This book explores the many facets of modernism in a variety of essays written by an international group of scholars. It deals with and puts in question the western literary tradition in many of its transcontinental and trans-hemispheric encounters. Criticism of high modernism is put in perspective by discussions of German reactionary...

This is a collection of papers presented at the conference -Anglo-German Linguistic Relations-, held at Queen Mary, University of London in November 2007. The papers cover a wide variety of topics about the relationship between the English and German languages or relate to cultural and literary contacts between English-speaking and German-speaking regions. Individual papers discuss Anglo-German linguistic interplay and affinities both as contemporary phenomena and from a historical perspective. Themes include codification, translation and discourse production from the 17th century to the...