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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2021

        Disciplined agency

        Neoliberal precarity, generational dispossession and call centre labour in Portugal

        by Patrícia Alves de Matos

        Since the mid-2000s, the harsh reality of call centre employment for a generation of young workers in Portugal has been impossible to ignore. With its endless rows of small cubicles, where human agents endure repetitive telephone conversations with abusive clients under invasive modes of technological surveillance, discipline and control, call centre work remains a striking symbol of labour precarity, a condition particularly associated with the neoliberal generational disenchantment that 'each generation does better than its predecessor'. This book describes the emergence of a regime of disciplined agency in the Portuguese call centre sector. Examining the ascendancy of call centres as icons of precarity in contemporary Portugal, this book argues that call centre labour constitutes a new form of commodification of the labouring subject. De Matos argues that call centres represent an advanced system of non-manual labour power exploitation, due to the underestimation of human creativity that lies at the centre of the regimented structures of call centre labour. Call centres can only guarantee profit maintenance, de Matos argues, through the commodification of the human agency arising from the operators' moral, relational and social embedded agentive linguistic interventions of creative improvisation, decision-making, problem-solving and ethical evaluation.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2013

        Lisbon rising

        Urban social movements in the Portuguese Revolution, 1974–75

        by Pedro Pinto

        Lisbon rising explores the role of a widespread urban social movement in the revolutionary process that accompanied Portugal's transition from authoritarianism to democracy. It is the first in-depth study of the widest urban movement of the European post-war period, an event that shook the balance of Cold War politics by threatening the possibility of revolution in Western Europe. Using hitherto unknown sources produced by movement organisations themselves, it challenges long-established views of civil society in Southern Europe as weak, arguing that popular movements had an important and autonomous role in the process that led to democratisation, inviting us to rethink the history and theories of transitions in the region in ways that account for popular agency. Lisbon rising will be of interest not only to students of twentieth-century European history, but across disciplines to students of democratisation, social movements and citizenship in political science and sociology. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        June 2019

        China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation:

        Case Studies and Plans

        by Secretariat of the First China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo Organizing Committee

        China-Africa Economics and Trade Cooperation: Case Studies and Plans comes in 3 languages: Chinese(2 volumes), English(2 volumes), and French(2 volumes). This book series include 101 excellent case studies , which related to 21 Chinese provinces and cities and 31 countries in Africa, containing agriculture, manufacturing, commerce and trade, infrastructure, industrial parks, energy and mining, financing and other fields in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. This set of books is practical and useful for all readers. In addition, the book gives the vivid interpretation on the concept of common prosperity, win-win cooperation, mutual negotiation and construction, shared innovation and progression of Belt and Road Initiative.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2014

        The education system in colonial Algeria (1833-1962)

        Statistical and historiographical review

        by Kamel Kateb

        ‘‘The means of dominating a people and assimilating it is to take possession of childhood and youth: this cannot be done by coercion, but the moral means are numerous and effective... The object of our efforts must be the extension of Arabic-French teaching: it is through this that we will take possession of the new generations almost from the cradle.’’ (Leroy-Beaulieu, 1887). (Leroy-Beaulieu, 1887). What is the record of French education in Algeria during the period of colonisation? After 132 years of French presence in Algeria (annexed to France in 1838), how many Algerians (French Muslims, indigenous French subjects) had a sufficient knowledge of the French language, and how many of them had learned to read and write in French? Was compulsory schooling for children aged 6 to 13, in accordance with the J. Ferry law of 1882, applied in Algeria? How many Algerian children attended state schools? How many went to lycée and university? What was the number of students at the time of the country's independence? How many doctors, engineers, primary and secondary school teachers did Algeria have at the time of its independence? What was the status of local languages (Arabic, dialectal Arabic, Berber) in the Algerian education system? As well as answering the questions listed above, this book attempts to analyse the objectives assigned to French schools in Algeria and to study the attitudes of the various populations to the objectives pursued. What role did education play in the various forms of colonial ‘confrontation’? What was the role of the elites produced by the colonial education system? And what role and place did they occupy in the struggle for Algerian independence? Were they the driving force behind the independence movement, as the Europeans in Algeria feared? Or did they mediate between colonisation and the mass of the colonised, as the enlightened ideologists of the colonial system hoped?

      • Trusted Partner
        September 1999

        Portugal

        by Wulf, Kirsten

      • The Grotto Corridor of China

        by 《The Grotto Corridor of China》 film crew

        ​What is the appearance of the famous Liangzhou statue? Why is the image of the newly arrived Bodhisattva in Beiliang so different from that in the mainland?​ What "The Grotto Corridor of China" does is to focus on presenting this cultural birthmark and artistic treasure left by the Silk Road to Gansu, to revive the millennium grottoes, and to let the audience enter the history and discover a wonderful China in the grottoes.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2014

        Ireland during the Second World War

        Farewell to Plato’s Cave

        by Bryce Evans

        In the first book detailing the social and economic history of Ireland during the Second World War, Bryce Evans reveals the real story of the Irish emergency. Revealing just how precarious the Irish state's economic position was at the time, the book examines the consequences of Winston Churchill's economic war against neutral Ireland. It explores how the Irish government coped with the crisis and how ordinary Irish people reacted to emergency state control of the domestic marketplace. A hidden history of black markets, smugglers, rogues and rebels emerges, providing a fascinating slice of real life in Ireland during a crucial period in world history. As the first comparison of economic and social conditions in Ireland with those of the other European neutral states - Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal - the book will make essential reading for the informed general reader, students and academics alike. ;

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        April 2022

        Tourism Planning and Development in Western Europe

        by Konstantinos Andriotis, Carla Pinto Cardoso, Dimitrios Stylidis

        For many decades, Western European countries have undertaken diverse pathways in tourism development and planning. Most have experienced fast or even unlimited growth, resulting in overtourism and, now, the introduction of policies that respect the limits of communities and the sustainability of their resources. Focusing exclusively on tourism development, planning and policy, this book draws together new voices to discuss issues across Belgium, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It: - Provides both successful and unsuccessful case studies to illuminate real, practical solutions, developed by tourism scholars who are experts in their researched context countries. - Adopts a range of methodological approaches to cover diverse and less-covered areas such as industrial tourism, saltpans, natural and cultural heritage, and micro-destinations. - Considers post-COVID tourism and the significant role of tourism stakeholders in Western Europe's re-development. An invaluable collection for policy-makers, researchers and academics, this book is also an insightful source of engaging contemporary case studies for use in the classroom.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        February 2023

        Love for Northeast China

        by Laoteng, whose real name is Teng Zhenfu, is a member of the Tenth Presidium of the China Writers Association and is currently the Party Secretary and Chairman of the Liaoning Writers Association. He has published ten novels, includingThe Northeast China, The Numerous Armed Conflicts,and The Forests of Beizhang;eight collections of novels, such as The Black Thrush and A City Without Crows; and three cultural essays, such as Confucian Notes. He has won the 15th and 16th Five-One Project Awards,respectively, and The Northeast China has been selected on the list of 2021 Chinese Good Books.

        "Never invest beyond theShanhai Pass", as the saying goes.The particular cultural environment and openness make the brain drain in Northeast China extremely serious. However, Miao Qing, a seemingly delicate doctoral student from a famous school, resolutely went northward because she had a personal plan thatwas related to both her father and herself, namely, to design a world-leading large aircraft. Her father once said that just as a poet without imagination must be a lousy poet, a country without advanced aircraft could never escape the fate of a backward country. For this reason, Miao Qing started her career atKunpeng Group, later went to Feiying Company to produce a leading small low-altitude aerial drone, and then sheplayed the leading role in the national G-31 project that designed a stealth supersonic aircraft and made a successful trial flight.

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2003

        Vetter Basilio

        Roman

        by José Maria Eça de Queiroz, Rudolf Krügel

        Vetter Basilio ist einer der großen Liebesromane des 19. Jahrhunderts; er erschien 1878 und steht gleichrangig neben Flauberts Madame Bovary und Fontanes Effi Briest.José Maria Eça de Queiroz (1845–1900) erlangte mit diesem Roman Weltruhm.Erzählt wird die Geschichte der jungen Luiza, die mit einem Ingenieur in glücklicher Ehe lebt, durch den Gespielen ihrer Kinderjahre aber, den aus Südamerika zurückkehrenden reichen Vetter Basilio, in ein Liebesabenteuer gezogen wird. Im Rausche ihrer großen Leidenschaft, in dem sie alle Beglückungen erlebt und schließlich sogar die freiwillige Erniedrigung des Stelldicheins in einem billigen Absteigequartier auf sich nimmt, vergißt Luiza jede Vorsicht und liefert sich so dem Haß ihres Stubenmädchens Juliana aus, die sie zu erpressen beginnt. Die vom Dichter besonders eindrucksvoll geschilderte Passion der Gegenspielerin führt zwar nicht zum Ziel, aber Luizas Abenteuer bekommt durch sie eine tragische Wendung.Mit einer Meisterschaft der realistischen Darstellung, in der man die menschliche Anteilnahme des Autors spürt und die vollkommene Beherrschung aller Kunstmittel bewundert, ist dieses Frauenschicksal gestaltet.

      • Trusted Partner
        2024

        Where is Russia Heading?

        by Jens Siegert

        Vladimir Putin has been ruling Russia for 25 years. There is no end in sight to his dictatorship. He relies on repression at home and is waging a war of destruction against a neighbouring country. The conflict with the West has long become a systemic conflict between an illiberal-autocratic ideology and liberal-democratic principles. Nothing will change as long as Putin remains in power. Nevertheless, as far as can be ascertained under unfree conditions, the majority of the population seems to be supporting Putin. Does this mean that too many people in Russia do not want democracy or peace? Will everything remain the same after Putin? Or is there a chance that Russia will eventually take a different, more democratic path? Whatever the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia is not going to disappear. We will still have to deal with our big neighbour in the east. This makes it all the more important to focus on longer-term developments. As a recognised expert on Russian history and society, the author outlines what the post-Putin era might look like. His in-depth analysis makes it clear that Russia is partly Putin, but Putin is not everything about Russia.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2021

        Ireland and the European Union

        Economic, political and social crises

        by Michael Holmes, Kathryn Simpson, Dimitris Papadimitriou, Kathryn Simpson, Paul Tobin

        This book examines how Ireland's relationship with the EU was affected by a succession of crises in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The financial crisis, the Brexit crisis and the migration crisis were not of equal significance on the island of Ireland. The financial crisis was a huge issue for the Republic but not Northern Ireland, Brexit had a major impact in both polities, the migration and populism issues were less controversial, while foreign policy challenges had a minimal impact. The book provides a summary of the main features of each of the crises to be considered, from both the EU and the Irish perspective. Ireland and the European Union is the first volume of its kind to provide a comprehensive analysis on British-Irish relations in the context of Brexit. It assesses the Withdrawal Agreement and Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, the devolution settlement and the 1998 Agreement, as well as the European dimension to Northern Ireland's peace process. The contributors explore a number of policy areas that are central to the understanding of each of the crises and the impact of each for Ireland. Chapters examine issues such as security, migration and taxation as well as protest politics, political parties, the media, public opinion and the economic impact of each of these crises on Ireland's relationship with the EU.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2022

        Germany's Russia problem

        The struggle for balance in Europe

        by John Lough

        The relationship between Germany and Russia is Europe's most important link with the largest country on the continent. But despite Germany's unparalleled knowledge and historical experience, its policymakers struggle to accept that Moscow's efforts to rebalance Europe at the cost of the cohesion of the EU and NATO are an attack on Germany's core interests. This book explains the scale of the challenge facing Germany in managing relations with a changing Russia. It analyses how successive German governments from 1991 to 2014 misread Russian intentions, until Angela Merkel sharply recalibrated German and EU policy towards Moscow. The book also examines what lies behind efforts to revise Merkel's bold policy shift, including attitudes inherited from the GDR and the role of Russian influence channels in Germany.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2020

        Disciplined Agency

        by Patrícia Matos, Alexander Smith

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2019 - December 2024

        Concise history of China

        by Yang Ningyi,Zhao Shiyu, etc

        According to the chronological order, the book introduces the history of China from ancient times to modern society. It is rich in content, concise in writing and exquisite in pictures. It is a good book to understand the history of China.

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