George Soros is a legend in the world of finance. His Quantum Fund has been the best-performing investment fund in history and his foundations have helped reshape the post-Cold War world. Now Soros applies all of his wisdom, expertise and insight to explain what's happening in the collapsing global economy. The Russian economy has collapsed, leading to punishing inflation and economic hardship; scores of Japanese banks are in ruin; the once-booming economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have imploded; and even (...) in Europe and America the markets lurch violently, wiping out gains with each passing week. In THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM Soros dissects the current crisis and economic theory, revealing how theoretical assumptions have combined with human behaviour to lead to today's calamities. He shows how unquestioning faith in market forces blinds us to crucial instabilities, and how those instabilities have chain-reacted to cause the current crisis which has the potential to get much, much worse. Offering brilliant solutions to the global meltdown, this is essential reading for anyone involved with the new economy - that is, all of us. (shrink)

Unruly Practices brings together a series of widely discussed essays in feminism and social theory. Read together, they constitute a sustained critical encounter with leading European and American approaches to social theory. In addition, Nancy Fraser develops a new and original socialist-feminist critical theory that overcomes many of the limitations of current alternatives. First, in a series of critical essays, she deploys philosophical and literary techniques to assess the work of Michael Foucault, the French deconstructionists, Richard Rorty, and Jürgen Habermas. (...) Then, in a group of constructive essays, she incorporates their respective strengths in a new critical theory of late-capitalist political culture. Fraser breaks new ground methodologically by integrating the previously divergent insights of poststructuralism, critical social theory, feminist theory, and pragmatism. Thematically, she deals with varied forms of dominance and subordination in modern, industrial, late-capitalist societies. These themes are integrated in an original theory of 'the politics of need interpretation.' This concept becomes the linchpin of the socialist-feminist critical theory. (shrink)

Comparing government responsiveness to violence against women in 36 countries, Weldon (political science, Purdue U.) finds that the form and strength of social movements and political institutions determine that responsiveness. From that she generalizes to examine the impact of social structures on the policy process. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.