Interconnected Realities

Explore how the metaverse is changing our lives In Interconnected Realities, Leslie Shannon, Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting at Nokia, delivers an energizing and optimistic new take on the Metaverse. Starting with metaverse realms already in existence today, the book explores the purpose that each independent platform serves, as well as how all these disparate realms will ultimately be stitched together to permanently transform our personal and business lives. A singularly insightful and informed exploration of a fascinating subject at the intersection of technology, business, and society, Interconnected Realities is an essential resource for executives, managers, board members, and other business leaders at companies in a wide range of industries, as well as tech enthusiasts, futurists, and anyone with an interest in the future of social interaction, business, or technology.

Explore how the metaverse is changing our lives In Interconnected Realities, Leslie Shannon, Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting at Nokia, delivers an energizing and optimistic new take on the Metaverse. Starting with metaverse realms already in existence today, the book explores the purpose that each independent platform serves, as well as how all these disparate realms will ultimately be stitched together to permanently transform our personal and business lives. A singularly insightful and informed exploration of a fascinating subject at the intersection of technology, business, and society, Interconnected Realities is an essential resource for executives, managers, board members, and other business leaders at companies in a wide range of industries, as well as tech enthusiasts, futurists, and anyone with an interest in the future of social interaction, business, or technology.

Plucked from a humble nomad family to become the leader of one of Tibet’s oldest Buddhist lineages, the young Seventeenth Karmapa draws on timeless values to create an urgent ethic for today’s global community. We have always been, and will always be, interconnected—through family, community, and shared humanity. As our planet changes and our world grows smaller, it is vital we not only recognize our connections to one another and to the earth but also begin actively working together as interdependent individuals to create a truly global society. The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, is uniquely positioned to guide us in this process. Drawing on years of intensive Buddhist training and a passionate commitment to social issues, he teaches how we can move from a merely intellectual understanding to a fully lived experience of connection. By first seeing, then feeling, and finally living these connections, we can become more effective agents of social and ethical change. The Karmapa shows us how gaining emotional awareness of our connectedness can fundamentally reshape the human race. He then guides us to action, showing step by step how we can change the way we use the earth’s resources and can continue to better our society. In clear language, the Karmapa draws connections between such seemingly far-flung issues as consumer culture, loneliness, animal protection, and self-reliance. In the process, he helps us move beyond theory to practical and positive social and ethical change.

The world is one of increasing diversity and pluralism. Our world is one of the different and of the many. Even the individual personality and the social self are increasingly diverse and plural. This is especially evident in racial and ethnic identities. The Ohioan, the New Yorker, the Texan, all became, after the cauldron of the Civil War, the American. Now the American is continually being hyphenated: Native-American, African-American, Latino-American, Asian-American, and a host of other hyphens. In the academy, the dichotomy between the fox who knows many things, and the hedgehog who knows one big thing (Archilocus), is giving way to different combinations and variations of learning, teaching, and expertise, as demanded by and reflecting the diversity and complexity of society and world. While these differences and pluralisms can lead to fragmentation, these fractures can also be creative. The ethnically hyphenated person who straddles two cultures need not be marginal to both, but can use the riches of his/her diverse experiences to cross-fertilize the cultures of which they are now part and parcel. The other, the different, especially the poor, must not be marginalized, pushed to the margins of society as outcasts; they need to be empowered for their betterment and for the common good of society. The academic, well-versed in several disciplines, should not be considered master of none, but can bring the insights of one discipline to tame the fundamentalism of another discipline and to expand the horizons of all. In one form or another, to a greater or lesser extent, this is what I have tried to do in the essays gathered in this second collection, the first being Critical Intersections (2006).

Putting a New Spin on Groups: The Science of Chaos, Second Edition continues to challenge orthodoxy and static ideas about small group dynamics. A primary goal is to offer an alternative model of group development that addresses three factors: *The model integrates old ideas from previous models of group development with new concepts from chaos theory and the work of Arthur Young. *The book emphasizes the importance of conflict in group development and recognizes that group growth--while progressive--is neither linear or unidimensional. *Particular attention is focused on how groups change, evolve, and mature. In addition, this book highlights certain group phenomena that have been given only cursory attention in many group textbooks, including women in authority, group metaphors, regressive groups, and the transpersonal potential of small groups. This book has been revised in response to feedback from reviewers and colleagues and includes new ideas, applications of chaos theory in social sciences, and thinking about group behavior. It is an intellectually challenging read with just the right amount of world application.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art analysis on the fourth wave of far-right politics in Germany by leading scholars in the field. Innovatively, the book focuses not only on the role of the electoral breakthrough of AfD, the Federal Republic’s first-ever nationally established far-right party, but also on the many crucial instances of non-party activism, such as the ‘New Right’ intellectual circles, PEGIDA street protest, and political violence. For a long time, Germany was regarded as an exceptional case because of the lack of an established far-right party on the national level. Times have changed – but Germany still remains unique. The book highlights four features that continue to make the case exceptional within Western Europe: (I) The strong diversity of vibrant far-right political players in Germany and their many interconnections, (II) the electoral success of AfD, i.e. the delayed electoral breakthrough of a far-right party on the national level, (III) the importance of ‘militant democracy’, specifically how established players have responded to AfD, and (IV) the relevance of the east-west divide for understanding far-right politics in Germany. Contributions on these topics highlight the broader theoretical relevance of the analysis of the German far-right, connecting to many research questions that have occupied scholars also in other contexts. The book is essential reading for all those with an interest in the far right, German and European politics, as well as in the interconnections between political parties, social movements, and subcultural milieus.

This publication provides a historical and ethnographic analysis about the geopolitics and biopolitics of a European securitization process with regard to Senegalese migration history. It examines the way a European border regime was externalized to Senegal in light of the West African maritime route that came to a head in 2006. Beyond a policy-dimension, this publication analyses narratives about migration and about Europe from the viewpoint of a politically engaged urban youth perspective, the Senegalese hip-hop milieu. This provides an external perception of the European Union.

Corporate Communication: A Marketing Viewpoint offers an overview of the framework, key concepts, strategies and techniques from a unique marketing perspective. While other textbooks are limited to a managerial or PR perspective, this book provides a complete, holistic overview of the many ways communication can add value to an organization. Step by step, this text introduces the main concepts of the field, including discipline and function frameworks, corporate identity, corporate and employer branding, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, storytelling, corporate associations, identification, commitment and acceptability. In order to help reinforce key learning points, grasp the essential facts and digest and retain information, the text offers a comprehensive pedagogy, including: chapter summaries; a list of key words and concepts; case studies and questions at the end of each chapter. Principles are illustrated through a wealth of real life examples, drawn from a variety of big, small, global and local companies such as BMW Group, Hidria, Lego, Mercator, Krka, Barilla, Domino's Pizza, Gorenje, Si Mobil, BP, Harley-Davidson and Coca-Cola. This exciting new textbook is essential reading for all professional corporate marketing and communication executives, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students of marketing and public relations, not to mention managers who need a complete and accurate view of this increasingly important subject.