John Thackara's Books

In the Bubble

Designing in a Complex World

By: John Thackara

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In the Bubble

Designing in a Complex World

By: John Thackara

How to design a world in which we rely less on stuff, and more on people. We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World. These are tough questions for the pushers of technology to answer. Our economic system is centered on technology, so it would be no small matter if "tech" ceased to be an end-in-itself in our daily lives. Technology is not going to go away, but the time to discuss the end it will serve is before we deploy it, not after. We need to ask what purpose will be served by the broadband communications, smart materials, wearable computing, and connected appliances that we're unleashing upon the world. We need to ask what impact all this stuff will have on our daily lives. Who will look after it, and how? In the Bubble is about a world based less on stuff and more on people. Thackara describes a transformation that is taking place now—not in a remote science fiction future; it's not about, as he puts it, "the schlock of the new" but about radical innovation already emerging in daily life. We are regaining respect for what people can do that technology can't. In the Bubble describes services designed to help people carry out daily activities in new ways. Many of these services involve technology—ranging from body implants to wide-bodied jets. But objects and systems play a supporting role in a people-centered world. The design focus is on services, not things. And new principles—above all, lightness—inform the way these services are designed and used. At the heart of In the Bubble is a belief, informed by a wealth of real-world examples, that ethics and responsibility can inform design decisions without impeding social and technical innovation.

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Page Count

340

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262250373

ISBN 13

9780262250375

Sketches of the First Emigrant Settlers in Newton Township, Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey

By: John Clement

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Sketches of the First Emigrant Settlers in Newton Township, Old Gloucester County, West New Jersey

By: John Clement

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

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Page Count

450

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3385537959

ISBN 13

9783385537958

In the Bubble

Designing in a Complex World

By: John Thackara

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In the Bubble

Designing in a Complex World

By: John Thackara

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334

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MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262701154

ISBN 13

9780262701150

My Life Before the World War, 1860--1917

A Memoir

By: John J. Pershing

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My Life Before the World War, 1860--1917

A Memoir

By: John J. Pershing

The president of the United States traditionally serves as a symbol of power, virtue, ability, dominance, popularity, and patriarchy. In recent years, however, the high-profile candidacies of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann have provoked new interest in gendered popular culture and how it influences Americans' perceptions of the country's highest political office. In this timely volume, editors Justin S. Vaughn and Lilly J. Goren lead a team of scholars in examining how the president and the first lady exist as a function of public expectations and cultural gender roles. The authors investigate how the candidates' messages are conveyed, altered, and interpreted in "hard" and "soft" media forums, from the nightly news to daytime talk shows, and from tabloids to the blogosphere. They also address the portrayal of the presidency in film and television productions such as Kisses for My President (1964), Air Force One (1997), and Commander in Chief (2005). With its strong, multidisciplinary approach, Women and the White House commences a wider discussion about the possibility of a female president in the United States, the ways in which popular perceptions of gender will impact her leadership, and the cultural challenges she will face.

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Page Count

746

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813141990

ISBN 13

9780813141992

Designing Designing

By: John Chris Jones

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Designing Designing

By: John Chris Jones

designing designing is one of the most extraordinary books on design ever written. First published in 1984 and reprinted with this title and cover in 1991, the book was the product of ten years of auto-critique, reflection and experimentation on writing on designing. Offering a savage auto-critique of his own work on “methods”, as well as of the wider methods and ends of advanced industrial societies as a whole, this book challenges the traditional product- and progress- orientated focus on design by insisting that the world now coming into being requires designing to be understood as 'a response to the whole of life.' But designing designing is also unique in modern design thinking in its exploration of what writing on designing might be. Combining essays, interviews, reflections, performances, plays, poems, chance procedures, photographs, collages and quotes, Jones experiments with both form and content in an attempt to make a book which 'is not simply about designing but is instead itself an instance of the ideas and processes explored within it.

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Page Count

435

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1350070688

ISBN 13

9781350070684

Environmental Chemicals Desk Reference

By: John H. Montgomery,Thomas Roy Crompton

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Environmental Chemicals Desk Reference

By: John H. Montgomery,Thomas Roy Crompton

Environmental Chemicals Desk Reference is a concise version of the widely read Agrochemicals Desk Reference and Groundwater Chemicals Desk Reference. This up-to-date volume was inspired by the need for a combination of the material in both references, together with the large number of research publications and the continued interest in the fate, transport, and remediation of hazardous substances. Much new data has been added to this unique edition, including global legislation (REACH) and sustainability, thereby reflecting the wealth of literature in the field. Featured are environmental and physical/chemical data on more than 200 compounds, including pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

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Page Count

2616

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351687700

ISBN 13

9781351687706

What is the Future?

By: John Urry

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What is the Future?

By: John Urry

Thinking about the future is essential for almost all organizations and societies. States, corporations, universities, cities, NGOs and individuals believe they cannot miss the future. But what exactly is the future? It remains a mystery – perhaps the greatest mystery, especially because futures are unpredictable and often unknowable, the outcome of many factors, known and unknown. The future is rarely a simple extrapolation from the present. In this important book, John Urry seeks to capture the many efforts that have been made to anticipate, visualize and elaborate the future. This includes examining the methods used to model the future, from those of the RAND Corporation to imagined future worlds in philosophy, literature, art, film, TV and computer games. He shows that futures are often contested and saturated with different interests, especially in relation to future generations. He also shows how analyses of social institutions, practices and lives should be central to examining potential futures, and issues such as who owns the future. The future seems to be characterized by 'wicked problems'. There are multiple 'causes' and 'solutions', long-term lock-ins and complex interdependencies, and different social groups have radically different frames for understanding what is at stake. Urry explores these issues through case-studies of 3D printing and the future of manufacturing, mobilities in the city, and the futures of energy and climate change.

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Page Count

200

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

0745696570

ISBN 13

9780745696577

The Return of the Perennial Philosophy

The Supreme Vision of Western Esotericism

By: John Holman

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The Return of the Perennial Philosophy

The Supreme Vision of Western Esotericism

By: John Holman

Intelligent and perceptive, this examination of the universal truths inherent in all cultures and religions is a powerful, scholarly analysis of Western esotericism’s deepest teachings. John Holman contends that the perennial philosophy is not only at the heart of all world religions, but also of all major schools of thought and writings by the great thinkers and philosophers—no matter how diverse the presentation of their perceived truths. In an accessible way, Holman sheds light on a number of esoteric topics including: The Absolute and the One, the Great Chain of Being, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Seven Spirits, the evolution of consciousness and the Eternal Now—paying particular attention to the subject of time. This thought-provoking book helps us to develop a better understanding of the nature of reality and our potential for transcendence—and revolutionizes the debate on the perennial philosophy.

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Page Count

235

Publisher

Watkins Media Limited

Published Date

ISBN 10

178028344X

ISBN 13

9781780283449

International Law and Agroecological Husbandry

Building legal foundations for a new agriculture

By: John W. Head

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International Law and Agroecological Husbandry

Building legal foundations for a new agriculture

By: John W. Head

Remarkable advances are being made in life science and agricultural research to reform the methods of food production, particularly with regard to staple grain and legume crops, in ways that will better reflect ecological realities. However, advances in science may be insufficient to ensure that these possibilities for agricultural reform are realized in practice and in a sustainable way. This book shows how these can only be achieved through changes in legal norms and institutions at the global level. Interdisciplinary in character, the book draws from a range of issues involving agricultural innovation, international legal history and principles, treaty commitments, global institutions, and environmental challenges, such as climate change, to propose broad legal changes for transforming global agriculture. It first shows how modern extractive agriculture is unsustainable on economic, environmental, and social grounds. It then examines the potential for natural-systems agriculture (especially perennial-polyculture systems) for overcoming the deficiencies of modern extractive agriculture, especially to offset climate change. Finally it analyses closely the legal innovations that can be adopted at national and international levels to facilitate a transition from modern extractive agriculture to a system based more on ecological principles. In particular the author argues for the creation of a Global Convention on Agroecology.

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Page Count

449

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315446502

ISBN 13

9781315446509

Ministry in the Anglican Tradition from Henry VIII to 1900

By: John L. Kater

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Ministry in the Anglican Tradition from Henry VIII to 1900

By: John L. Kater

Once Henry VIII declared the Church of England free of papal control in the sixteenth century and the process of Reformation began, the Church of England rapidly developed a distinctive style of ministry that reflected the values and practices of the English people. In Ministry in the Anglican Tradition from Henry VIII to 1900, John L. Kater traces the complex process by which Anglican ministry evolved in dialogue with social and political changes in England and around the world. By the end of the Victorian period, ministry in the Anglican tradition had begun to take on the broad diversity we know today. This book explores the many ways in which laypeople, clergy, and missionaries in multiple settings and under various conditions have contributed to the emergence of a uniquely Anglican way of responding to the call to serve Christ and the world. That ministry preserved many of the insights of its Reformation ancestors and their heritage, even as it continued to respond to the new and often unfamiliar contexts it now calls home.

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Page Count

333

Publisher

Lexington Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1978714831

ISBN 13

9781978714830

Design Research Through Practice

From the Lab, Field, and Showroom

By: Ilpo Koskinen,John Zimmerman,Thomas Binder,Johan Redstrom,Stephan Wensveen

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Design Research Through Practice

From the Lab, Field, and Showroom

By: Ilpo Koskinen,John Zimmerman,Thomas Binder,Johan Redstrom,Stephan Wensveen

Design Research Through Practice: From the Lab, Field, and Showroom focuses on one type of contemporary design research known as constructive design research. It looks at three approaches to constructive design research: Lab, Field, and Showroom. The book shows how theory, research practice, and the social environment create commonalities between these approaches. It illustrates how one can successfully integrate design and research based on work carried out in industrial design and interaction design. The book begins with an overview of the rise of constructive design research, as well as constructive research programs and methodologies. It then describes the logic of studying design in the laboratory, design ethnography and field work, and the origins of the Showroom and its foundation on art and design rather than on science or the social sciences. It also discusses the theoretical background of constructive design research, along with modeling and prototyping of design items. Finally, it considers recent work in Lab that focuses on action and the body instead of thinking and knowing. Many kinds of designers and people interested in design will find this book extremely helpful. - Gathers design research experts from traditional lab science, social science, art, industrial design, UX and HCI to lend tested practices and how they can be used in a variety of design projects - Provides a multidisciplinary story of the whole design process, with proven and teachable techniques that can solve both academic and practical problems - Presents key examples illustrating how research is applied and vignettes summarizing the key how-to details of specific projects

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Page Count

223

Publisher

Elsevier

Published Date

ISBN 10

0123855039

ISBN 13

9780123855039

Design: A Very Short Introduction

By: John Heskett

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Design: A Very Short Introduction

By: John Heskett

This book will transform the way you think about design by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal to the medical equipment used to save lives. John Heskett goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalise objects.

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Page Count

169

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192854461

ISBN 13

9780192854469

Design for Micro-Utopias

Making the Unthinkable Possible

By: John Wood

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Design for Micro-Utopias

Making the Unthinkable Possible

By: John Wood

Everyone is already painfully aware of our predicament - ecological extinctions, dwindling fossil fuel reserves and economic chaos. The solutions are less obvious, despite the many opportunities that surround us. We have never had more access to resources, knowledge and technology but this is not the problem. What we lack most is creative thinking, fuelled by collective optimism. In a pragmatic world run by careerist experts this is hardly surprising. As voters and consumers we are trained to choose and complain, but not how to envisage what we really, really want. How can we design a better world unless we revive the art of dreaming? For without dreams we are lost. Perhaps it should be the duty of all citizens to imagine alternative futures; in effect, to think more like designers. After all, designers have always been dreamers, and have often found ways to realize their dreams. Design for Micro-Utopias does not advocate a single, monolithic Utopia. Rather, it invites readers to embrace a more pluralized and mercurial version of Thomas More's famous 1516 novel of the same name. It therefore encourages the proliferation of many 'micro-utopias' rather than one 'Utopia'. This requires a less negative, critical and rational approach. Referencing a wide range of philosophical thinking from Aristotle to the present day, western and eastern spiritual ideals, and scientific, biological and systems theory, John Wood offers remedies for our excessively individualistic, mechanistic and disconnected thinking, and asks whether a metadesign approach might bring about a new mode of governance. This is a daring idea. Ultimately, he reminds us that if we believe that we will never be able to design miracles we make it more likely that this is so. The first step is to turn the 'impossible' into the 'thinkable'.

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Page Count

231

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

135194519X

ISBN 13

9781351945196

Sherman

A Soldier's Passion for Order

By: John F. Marszalek

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Sherman

A Soldier's Passion for Order

By: John F. Marszalek

General William Tecumseh Sherman has come down to us as the implacable destroyer of the Civil War, notorious for his burning of Atlanta and his brutal march to the sea. A probing biography that explains Sherman's style of warfare and the threads of self-possession and insecurity that made up his character. Photos.

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Page Count

692

Publisher

SIU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0809327856

ISBN 13

9780809327850

Naval Order of the U.S.

By: John C. Rice, Jr.

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Naval Order of the U.S.

By: John C. Rice, Jr.

The origins and history of the Naval Order of the U.S.

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Page Count

478

Publisher

Turner Publishing Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

1681621592

ISBN 13

9781681621593

Mobile Learning

Structures, Agency, Practices

By: Norbert Pachler,Ben Bachmair,John Cook

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Mobile Learning

Structures, Agency, Practices

By: Norbert Pachler,Ben Bachmair,John Cook

As with television and computers before it, today’s mobile technology challenges educators to respond and ensure their work is relevant to students. What’s changed is that this portable, cross-contextual way of engaging with the world is driving a more proactive approach to learning on the part of young people. The first full-length authored treatment of the relationship between the centrality of technological development in daily life and its potential as a means of education, Mobile Learning charts the rapid emergence of new forms of mass communication and their potential for gathering, shaping, and analyzing information, studying their transformative capability and learning potential in the contexts of school and socio-cultural change. The focus is on mobile/cell phones, PDAs, and to a lesser extent gaming devices and music players, not as "the next new thing" but meaningfully integrated into education, without objectifying the devices or technology itself. And the book fully grounds readers by offering theoretical and conceptual models, an analytical framework for understanding the issues, recommendations for specialized resources, and practical examples of mobile learning in formal as well as informal educational settings, particularly with at-risk students. Among the topics covered: • Core issues in mobile learning • Mobile devices as educational resources • Socioeconomic approaches to mobile learning • Creating situations that promote mobile learning • Ubiquitous mobility and its implications for pedagogy • Bridging the digital divide at the policy level Mobile Learning is a groundbreaking volume, sure to stimulate both discussion and innovation among educational professionals interested in technology in the context of teaching and learning.

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Page Count

389

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1441905855

ISBN 13

9781441905857

Groundwater Chemicals Desk Reference

By: John H. Montgomery

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Groundwater Chemicals Desk Reference

By: John H. Montgomery

Using a clear and consistent format, this fourth edition contains more than 1,700 additional references and additional adsorption data for more than 800 organic compounds and metals, Henry's Law constants for 1,850 compounds, aqueous solubility data for over 2,500 compounds, toxicity data for 1,100 compounds, more than 31,000 synonyms, and 2,224 degradation products cross-referenced to parent compounds. Additional organic and inorganic solubilities, conversion factors, octanol-water partition coefficients, environmental fate data, analytical test methods, dielectric properties of various materials and liquids, and other tables and indexes have been added along with references for numerous physical parameters.

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Page Count

2489

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1040061907

ISBN 13

9781040061909

Inclusive Design

Design for the Whole Population

By: P.John Clarkson,Roger Coleman,Simeon Keates,Cherie Lebbon

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Inclusive Design

Design for the Whole Population

By: P.John Clarkson,Roger Coleman,Simeon Keates,Cherie Lebbon

Inclusive Design: What's in It for Me? presents a comprehensive review of current practice in inclusive design. With emphasis on new ideas for improvement and arguments for wider implementation in future, a unique combination of leading opinions on inclusive design from both industry and academia are offered. The theme throughout encourages a positive view of inclusive design as a good and profitable process and to produce a change to more effective approaches to "design for all". Inclusive Design is composed of two parts with a common chapter structure so that the business and design arguments in favour of inclusive design can be easily compared and assimilated: The Business Case presents the industrial and management benefits of inclusive design. It concentrates on demographic, legal and ethical reasons for all businesses being better off taking inclusivity into account in the design of their products or services. Case histories demonstrating the commercial success of inclusive design are drawn from the experiences of companies such as Tesco, Fiat and The Royal Mail. The Designers' Case focuses on the factors a designer needs to take into account when dealing with inclusivity. "Who is going to use my design?" "What do they need from my design?" "How do I take any medical needs into account?" "Just how "inclusive" is my design?" are all questions answered in this section which presents the necessary tools for effective inclusive design. This part of the book aims to convince a designer that inclusive design is a realistic goal. Inclusive Design will appeal to designers, researchers and students and to managers making decisions about the research and design strategies of their companies.

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Page Count

611

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1447100018

ISBN 13

9781447100010

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