Love and family life in the global age: grandparents in Salonika and their grandson in London speak together every evening via Skype. A U.S. citizen and her Swiss husband fret over large telephone bills and high travel costs. A European couple can finally have a baby with the help of an Indian surrogate mother. In their new book, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim investigate all types of long-distance relationships, marriages and families that stretch across countries, continents and cultures. These long-distance relationships comprise so many different forms of what they call ‘world families’, by which they mean love and intimate relationships between individuals living in, or coming from, different countries or continents. In all their various forms these world families share one feature in common: they are the focal point in which different aspects of the globalized world become embodied in the personal lives of individuals. Whether they like it or not, lovers and relatives in these families find themselves confronting the world in the inner space of their own lives. The conflicts between the developed and developing worlds come to the surface in world families- they acquire faces and names, creating confusion, surprise, anger, joy, pleasure and pain at the heart of everyday life. This path-breaking book will appeal to a wide readership interested in the changing character of love in our times.

Real Sex Films explores one of the most controversial movements in international cinema through an innovative interdisciplinary combination of theories of globalization and embodiment. Risk sociology, feminist film theory, and critical feminist mapping theory are brought together with concepts of production, narrative, genre, authorship, stardom, spectatorship, and social audience as several lenses of understanding and extension in ways of seeing real-sex cinema. Notions of personal subjectivity and critical distance, disciplinary co-operation and critique, and cinematic perceptions of the utopia and dystopia of love within risk modernity are the tensions exposed reflexively and in parallel, as each chapter focuses different lenses communicating intimacy, desire, risk and transgression. This book substantively, methodologically, and theoretically embraces and engages in its consideration of the images, ethics, double standards, and embodiments of brutal cinema. Crossing the boundaries of film studies, media and cultural studies, the ethnographic turn, risk sociology, feminist psychoanalytical, and geopolitical studies, this is a book for students, academics, as well as general and professional audiences.

In highly mobile America, not enough attention has been paid to the increasingly common relationship between parents and adult children who live far apart, argues Climo, an anthropologist at Michigan State University. While his study of 40 faculty members and their spouses turns up some useful information, it is hampered by turgid academic language and a preoccupation with the banal. He detects three types of children: the "displaced," who wish they were physically closer to their parents, the "well-adapted," who have a secure relationship with their parents and the "alienated," who are happy to live far away from their parents because they lack emotional closeness. Using that typology, Climo analyzes his subjects' memories of leaving home, their communication via letters and phone calls, routine visits (he probes the five phases of a visit, including preparation and settling in) and their responses to their parents' health problems and to transitions such as death and remarriage. Finally, he advises ways children can improve the relationship: work on communication skills and believe that parents can change and grow through self-help.

In the vast and intricate landscape of human emotions, friendship and love often intertwine, creating bonds that can either uplift or weigh us down. This collection of poems delves into the delicate dance of relationships—friendships forged, love unspoken, and the inevitable distance that time and choices create. These verses chronicle the journey of two souls, bound by an unwavering connection, navigating the complexities of growing up, misunderstandings, and unexpressed feelings. Through the innocence of school days, whispered secrets, and fleeting moments of closeness, the poems explore the deep emotions that lie beneath the surface of every shared glance and every spoken word. As you read, you’ll walk alongside them—feeling the joy of reunion, the pain of separation, the warmth of unspoken affection, and the confusion of love that never fully took root. The collection reflects the heart's many shades, from hope to heartache, from silent yearnings to the ultimate choice of self-discovery. This book is a tribute to those friendships that shape us, the moments that leave an indelible mark, and the bittersweet reality that sometimes, letting go is the only way forward. These poems are not just stories of two individuals, but of all of us who have ever struggled to understand love, friendship, and the fine line between the two.

DISTANT HEARTS would not have been possible without the active participation of so many people, so expressing a sense of gratitude to each one of them. We extend our gratitude to the almighty for the wisdom and to parents for giving them a suitable niche to develop. They are highly obliged to their family and friends for inspiration and guidance. They acknowledge the co-authors with thanks for their efforts and cooperation. A heartfelt thanks to the editors, designers and other social media partners who made the book a success for the publication and the authors. Thank you.

Amongst the troubadour poets, Giraut de Borneil was one of the most important and influential. This 1989 edition covers Giraut's entire output.

At a time when women were expected to stick to their household duties, according to Peter Matheson, Argula von Grumbach burst through every barrier. Matheson offers here a biography of the Reformation's first woman writer. Argula von Grumbach's first pamphlet in 1523 was reprinted all over Germany. Thousands of copies of her eight pamphlets appeared. Through her writing, von Grumbach defied her Bavarian princes (and her husband), denounced censorship, argued for an educated church and society, and developed her own understanding of faith and Scripture. She even intervened in the Imperial Diets at Nuremberg and Augsburg. Drawing for the first time on her correspondence, the author shows how von Grumbach paid dearly for her outspokenness but remained undaunted. Though some saw her as a she-devil and others as a harbinger of a new age, Matheson shows von Grumbach as a woman engaged in the life of the villages where she lived, as one motivated by the dreams she had for her children. In a time of sweeping change and risking everything for the light and truth she was given, Argula von Grumbach showed what the vision and determination of one person could achieve.

This book is the first comprehensive study of the music and career of contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho. Born in Finland in 1952, Saariaho received her early musical training at the Sibelius Academy, where her close circle included composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has since become internationally known and recognized for her operas L'amour de loin and Adriana Mater and other works that involve electronic music. Her influences include the spectral analysis of timbre, especially string sounds, micropolyphonic techniques, as well as the visual and literary arts and sounds in the natural world. Pirkko Moisala approaches the unique characteristics of Saariaho's music through composition sketches, scores, critical reviews, and interviews with the composer and her trusted musicians.

Om Sri Sai Ram. Sri Sathya Sai International Organization (SSSIO) offers the November 2023 Special Birthday issue of Sathya Sai–The Eternal Companion at the divine lotus feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba with love, reverence, and gratitude. This issue contains a divine discourse given by Swami on November 23, 1996, urging us to fill our hearts with love and be happy. He explains how love can overcome all obstacles and lead one Godward. Swami emphasizes that God can be won only through divine love and not through anything else. The editorial, Loving Service–The Way to Self-Realization, explains why service is the easiest and most effective means of expressing love, leading to Self-Realization, the ultimate goal of human life. Through examples and anecdotes, the editorial expounds on the various aspects of service, its practice in daily life, obstacles to service, and the benefits of service. The publication contains unique personal experiences of devotees with Bhagawan. It also features articles on the glory of womanhood, ideal Sai Young Adults, Sathya Sai Education, and an illuminating letter written by Swami. An in-depth article describes the widely-acclaimed recent International Conference held in Sri Lanka. A heartwarming overview is presented on the medical camp held in Fiji, serving over 2,500 needy residents.