Offers vivid first hand accounts of encounters with fellow socialists following the fall of the Soviet Union Most westerners glimpsed the breakup of the Soviet Union at a great distance, through a highly distorted lens which equated the expansion of capitalism with the rise of global democracy. But there were those, like Helena Sheehan, who watched more keenly and saw a world turning upside down. In her new autobiographical history from below, Until We Fall, Sheehan shares what she witnessed first-hand and close-up, as hopes were raised by glasnost and perestroika, only to be swept away in the bitter and brutal counterrevolutions that followed. In Until We Fall, we come along on Sheehan’s travels as she tracks the fallout from the transition from flawed forms of socialism to a particularly predatory form of capitalism. As a sequel to Navigating the Zeitgeist — which captured 1950s cold-war America, the 1960s new left, the 1970s social movements and communist parties of Europe — Until We Fall takes us through Eastern Europe from the 1980s onward and moves on to offer vivid accounts of encounters with fellow socialists in many other places, such as Britain, Greece, and Mexico. It includes an entire chapter on South Africa, where Sheehan participated in its political and intellectual life for extended intervals of the post-apartheid period. And it offers her unique take on her birthplace, the United States, along with the unfolding realities confronting her chosen home, Ireland. She also reveals major changes in the culture of academe in the decades she has taught in universities. As a philosopher, she scrutinizes the various intellectual currents prevailing, particularly positivism and postmodernism, and makes a persuasive case for the explanatory and ethical superiority of Marxism. As she moves through time and space, Sheehan pursues the perspectives of the vanquished in a world where the triumphalist narratives of the victors hold sway. The central storyline of the book is her political activism as waves of history swept through the left and challenged it in ever more formidable ways, bringing some victories but many defeats. She raises questions of how to keep going in this time of monsters, when the old is dying and the new cannot be born, when capitalism is decadent yet still dominant.

This volume addresses the question, "How are the U.S. education and training communities riding the back of current technologies to make us a better educated and more competitive nation in today's global economy." The [editors] have reviewed the literature and selected key statements that respond to the issue ... There is a pressing need for a publication that brings together this wealth of pertinent information on the successful implementation of current technology into schools, homes and businesses as well as the new hardware/software applications that have made this possible ... This volume is designed for use by educators involved in preservice and inservice education of educators, trainers, and administrators. It is also intended for parents, students, school board members and others concerned about the use and impact of computers on today's education and training activities.-To the reader

The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life reveals how people are managing, exploiting, and resisting technological developments in the digital age. In this unique volume, distinguished experts from a broad range of fields candidly show how the latest technologies are being used to transform and control nitty-gritty aspects of life from conception onward and the surprising benefits and consequences. Bold and provocative, The Culture of Efficiency is for everyone concerned with efficiency and effectiveness. It offers fresh insights about social trends, practical suggestions for improving everyday life, and vital forecasts about the future of work and leisure. This is essential reading for researchers, professionals, and students in communication, sociology, education, anthropology, psychology, organizational science, operations management, marketing, gender studies, environmental studies, American studies, healthcare, and social policy. Overall, the volume offers a rich interpretation of the meaning of living in a culture of efficiency.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, k, p, e, i, s, t.

This title was first published in 2002.The educational potential of information and communications technology (ICT) has been speculated upon endlessly - from the early days of the micro-computer to the present excitement surrounding virtual education and e-learning . Now, with current multi-billion dollar initiatives such as the UK National Grid for Learning and US Technology Literacy Challenge, ICT is an unavoidable element of education. Yet despite a plethora of promises and policies, new technologies have failed to be wholly integrated into education. Telling Tales on Technology critically examines the role of ICT in education and explores how, given its assumed importance, new technology remains a peripheral part of much of what goes on in education. Based on in-depth qualitative studies, the book takes a comprehensive yet questioning look over the past two decades of educational technology policy and practice and positions it within the wider social, cultural, political and economic notion of the information age . Drawing on interviews with students, teachers, politicians and business people as well as comprehensive documentary analysis, this is an essential text for anyone thinking seriously about the use of ICT in education.