peter lang peter lang sep 2009 (353 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Das Auenland war vor langer Zeit, und Narnia liegt nur hinter der richtigen magischen Pforte - sei es ein Kleiderschrank oder ein Wandbild. Zufällig ist in den Ländern der Magie nichts, ebenso wenig wie in der dazugehörigen Literatur. Besonders die textliche Konstitution von Raum und Zeit bestimmt diese kontraempirischen Weltentwürfe bis in kleinste Detail und verfestigt sich zu genrespezifischen Strukturen, die dem erfahrenen Leser als unbewusste Orientierung dienen. Einmal erkannt, wird Fantasy dadurch dekodierbar: Als Puzzle kulturhistorischer Versatzstücke, als historiographischer Gegenentwurf und als chronotopisches Konstrukt. Stellvertretend für das junge Genre wird Tolkiens The Hobbit betrachtet, der sich als äußerst vielschichtiger Text entpuppt. 148 pp.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -School Teachers provides insightful empirical findings on crucial issues including: highly qualified teachers teacher diversity alternative certification teacher attrition inequity in the distribution of quality teachers teacher education in the context of school-university partnershipThis book is a useful resource for teacher educators, policymakers, and researchers.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 240 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In The Shame That Lingers: A Survivor-Centered Critique of Catholic Sin-Talk, A. Denise Starkey argues that the dominant legal model of sin in the Catholic Church is inadequate for hearing the experience of sin for survivors of childhood and domestic violence because it functions to shame rather than to heal. A universal understanding of the sinner, as found in mainstream Catholic sin-talk and confession, impedes human flourishing by silencing radical suffering in ways that make survivors complicit for the harm done to them. Starkey argues that a shame-free theology of sin is necessary if survivors are to encounter the profound love of God. Understanding sin from the perspective of the sinned-against makes possible a transformative solidarity with the other by reinvisioning the roles of speaker and listener.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 214 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This study is an attempt to semantically decompose the most popular metaphorical expressions associated with two particular Web 2.0 practices: social networks and folksonomies. What is a friend on a social networking Web site like MySpace and StudiVZ Is it polite to poke strangers on Facebook and give them fives on hi5 How can we subscribe to RSS feeds, if we don¿t pay subscription fees Do we really broadcast ourselves on our YouTube channels These and other similar questions are dealt with from the perspective of the referential and the conceptual approaches to meaning, i.e., what these words stand for (referential/extensional approach) and which concepts they signify (conceptual/intensional approach). Thus, from the referential point of view, a friend on MySpace is only a hyperlink directing to a profile page of another MySpace user. But from the intensional point of view, a friend is a subscriber to the content generated by the profile owner. 150 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Gegenstand der Arbeit ist, die zivilrechtliche Gestaltung und die steuerliche Optimierung der Strukturen von Management Buy-Outs unter Berücksichtigung der Unternehmensteuerreform 2008 (Zinsschranke, Verrechnung von Verlusten) zu erklären. Bei der Darstellung der Akquisitionsstruktur wird maßgeblich auf den Interessenkonflikt von Käufer und Verkäufer beim Asset- und Share-Deal und auf die in der Praxis früher und noch heute angewandten Konfliktlösungsmodelle eingegangen. Ferner werden die bei einem Buy-Out möglichen Finanzierungsinstrumente und die nach dem Erwerb in Betracht kommenden Finanzierungsstrukturen vorgestellt. Abgerundet wird die Arbeit durch eine Darstellung der optimalen Ausgestaltung der Managementbeteiligung selbst.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -In the current era of rampant incarceration and an ever-expanding prison-industrial complex, this crucial book breaks down the distorted and sensationalistic version of imprisonment found on U.S. television. Examining local and national television news, broadcast network crime dramas, and the cable television prison drama Oz, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the stories and images of incarceration most widely seen by viewers in the U.S. and around the world. The textual analysis is augmented by interviews with individuals who have spent time in U.S. prisons and jails; their insights provide important context while encouraging readers to critically reflect on their own responses to television images of imprisonment. Appropriate for both undergraduates and postgraduates, Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV is useful for courses in media criticism, media literacy, popular culture, television studies, and criminology.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past examines contemporary representations of colonialism, by developing a historically and culturally specific theory of neocolonialism in U.S. media culture. Noting how colonialism never officially ended in the United States, Kent A. Ono draws together race, gender, sexuality, and nation to examine neocolonialism in popular media narratives. The book asks, «What are the lingering traces within contemporary culture that provide evidence not only of what colonialism was but also of what it continues to be today » Offering five case studies on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the sale of the Seattle Mariners, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Pocahontas, and Star Trek: The Next Generation¿and providing current media examples in the introduction and conclusion, the book documents the persistence of colonialism in media culture. White vigilantism, prototypical colonial rescue plots, and cloaked and not-so-hidden anxieties about racial and national miscegenation all contribute towards a continuation of colonialism and a neocolonial mind-set. The book¿s critical examination from a historical and cultural perspective makes it possible to alter colonialism for future generations.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Postcolonial Challenges in Education traces the palimpsest histories of imperialism and colonialism, and puts to work the catachrestic interventions of anti-imperialist and decolonizing projects. This book functions as a set of theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical challenges to two fields of scholarship. It points out the inadequate attention to issues of education in studies of imperialism and colonialism as well as the relative absence of empire as a relevant category of analysis in studies of education. It brings together many of the world¿s leading and emerging scholars who engage with the key debates and dilemmas in postcolonial and educational studies, and ushers in a collective of dissident voices that unabashedly aim to contest and reconfigure the current local-global order.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 392 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Die Geschichte der Nietzsche-Rezeption ist nicht von den Verstellungen und politischen Zurichtungen der Nietzsche-Texte durch die Tätigkeit des Weimarer Nietzsche-Archivs zu trennen. Die Arbeit untersucht die historischen und geistesgeschichtlichen Bedingungen im Vorfeld der Archivgründung. Sie beleuchtet Nietzsches eigene Editionstätigkeit ebenso wie die Beziehungen zu seinen Verlegern, sein Ringen um die typographische Gestalt der Schriften und die Entstehung der ersten Gesamtausgabe. Die Arbeit zeigt Tendenzen einer problematischen Nietzsche-Rezeption und -Edition bereits vor der Gründung des Archivs auf. War es Nietzsches Intention für ein zwar kleines aber erlesenes Publikum zu schreiben, bedient die Editionspolitik des Archivs eine denkbar breite Leserschaft. Ein von der Archivleitung autorisierter, kanonisch gewordener Textkorpus wird in diversen Ausstattungsvarianten vom limitierten Prachtband bis zur preiswerten Kriegsausgabe dem Buchmarkt zur Verfügung gestellt. 200 pp. Deutsch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious public health problem, especially in developing countries. Hence, evaluating the nutritional impacts of market and policy changes requires more than just a calorie focus. This work extends the traditional perspective and analyzes the effects of income, food price, and sociodemographic developments on vitamin and mineral adequacies at the household level. The author proposes two approaches to estimate income and price elasticities of nutrient consumption and presents a procedure for assessing the nutrition situation in populations based on food consumption data. Using both approaches demand models are applied in two empirical studies with data from rural East Africa and Malawi. Results suggest that the nutritional status is highly income-responsive. Price elasticities are lower in absolute values, albeit with notable differences between nutrients. Policy implications are discussed. 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Poverty and inequality persist in many regions of the developing world. This may be due mainly to an ineffective targeting of policies to address the root causes of poverty. Sustainable policy interventions are in need of reliable concepts of poverty and of a thorough understanding of the underlying mechanism that lead to such deprivation. The three essays of this book add to the debate concerning appropriate statistical tools in empirical development economics. The work proposes specific methodologies to analyze the extent of poverty and its underlying factors based on recent household surveys. The first chapter deals with a concept of poverty comparisons when panel data is at hand. The second chapter studies the determinants of spatial inequality using multilevel modelling. The third chapter analyzes the relation between a child¿s nutritional status and its survival probability. 148 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This volume presents three interviews with Paul Ricoeur with the purpose to scrutinize the complex philosophical evolution of his thought. The main question which arises, therefore, and on which are centered the two volumes is how to «think together» the difference between the issues of Ricoeur¿s first works and those of his later ones, concerning the problems of the self and its relation to being, transcendence and language. Other discussed subjects are: Why philosophy today If philosophy and religion are two autonomous fields, is there a possibility of elaborating a religious philosophy within the method of hermeneutic phenomenology What is the primary object of hermeneutics What are the potentialities of language and its bounds, respectively the limits of interpretation 160 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The German banking system is characterized by high fragmentation, low profitability and low foreign ownership. Main reason for this is its particular structure that can best be described as forced segmentation. This structure produces local banking markets. The book argues that local bank competition is not as pronounced as national concentration ratios predict and presents a bank pricing study which indicates that local banks, banks located in less densely populated areas and less productive banks tend to charge higher prices for retail bank services than banks that operate nationally. These results as well as lessons drawn from international reforms suggest that the German banking system could benefit from cross-pillar consolidation which promises to export competition from the national to local banking markets. Last but not least, the book analyzes political economy implications of banking reforms and provides suggestions on status quo resolution by identifying ways to facilitate reform implementation in the German banking system. 248 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Welche Möglichkeiten und Chancen eröffnen Sprachbegegnungen und Sprachkontakte in einem sich ständig verändernden Europa Welche gesellschafts- und bildungspolitischen Zielsetzungen lassen sich in verschiedenen Kontexten sinnvoll und nachhaltig verfolgen Wie wirken gesellschaftliche Rahmenbedingungen und individuelle Sprachkontakte ineinander In welchem Zusammenhang stehen Sprachbegegnung und Sprachenlernen Welche Möglichkeiten einer konstruktiven Umsetzung sind denkbar und wie werden sie realisiert Diese und andere Fragen standen im Mittelpunkt der 2. Internationalen -Tagung, die vom 5.-7. Juli 2007 an der Universität Augsburg stattfand. Der Forschungsverbund vereint zahlreiche Forscherinnen und Forscher der Fremdsprachendidaktik aus verschiedenen europäischen Ländern. 22 der gehaltenen Vorträge sind in diesem Band publiziert. 356 pp. Englisch, Französisch, Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Local colour is an undertheorized notion. Although the expression itself is nowadays used in everyday speech in both French and English, its ¿domestication¿ only further highlights the need for a clarifying study of this concept, which has come to be crucial in aesthetic debates. From the seventeenth-century rift between ¿Poussinistes¿ and ¿Rubénistes¿, to the genesis of Romanticist aesthetic theories in early nineteenth-century France, to the North American regionalist prose of the Local colour movement; from Roger de Piles, to Benjamin Constant, Victor Hugo, Prosper Mérimée, and Hamlin Garland, this book sets out to map for the first time couleur locale¿s three-hundred-year journey across centuries, languages and genres. In addition to proposing a genealogy of the concept and the paths of its semantic evolution, it also initiates a reflection on the factors that could have prompted the mobility of the term across cultures, art forms and their metalanguages.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Despite the concern among donors, governments and practitioners about their success in reaching the poor, the lack of reliable low-cost tools makes it difficult to determine if development programs meet their poverty targeting objectives. This study develops an operational assessment tool of monetary poverty for Peru. In a comparative step-by-step procedure, it discusses aspects like the practicability of indicators, methods for indicator selection, comparisons of logistic, least-square, and quantile regression, the poverty classification of households, robustness of the tools over time and across sub-groups, and what Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves can contribute. In doing that, it also provides a general methodological pathway for the development of tools used for time and cost-saving targeting assessments. 288 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The major problem of philosophy is that of its nature. Is it a universal discourse or a cultural phenomenon This question, in Western philosophy, has been approached from two dimensions. The universalists and the pragmatists. Most analytical philosophers think that philosophy is universal. The pragmatists oppose them and posit that every philosophy has a cultural origin and is ethnocentric. In African Philosophy the debate about the nature of philosophy is between the universalists and the traditionalists. The universalists conceive philosophy as a theoretical discipline with universal character. The traditionalists on their own are made up of professional philosophers and as well as some other African intellectuals. The argument of the traditionalists is that African Philosophy can be extracted from African peoples¿ morality, oral tradition, ethics, religion, folklore; in short from their collective world views or metaphysics. Within the context of this debate this book outlines the challenge of African Philosophy to the universality of Western philosophy. It is anchored on Rorty¿s anti-universalist conception of philosophy which deconstructs the notion of «general theory of representation» and instead postulates «cultural genre» and «social practice» as modes of philosophical investigation. 208 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Joyce was the first Modernist to use the religious term epiphany to describe an unexpected insight, often within a trivial, mundane biographical or fictional context. But prose fiction around 1900 is full of similar concepts under various names: moment of vision, moment of being, anderer Zustand, mémoire involontaire. This book asks three questions: Where does the concept of the epiphanic moment come from What does it look like Why was it so valuable for prose fiction around 1900 Finally the study looks at the present use of the term only to discover that «epiphany» has recently had an astonishing comeback ¿ even Homer Simpson has had his epiphany. 224 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Seit den 1960er Jahren verlassen aus unterschiedlichen Motiven (Arbeitssuche, Armut, Globalisierung, Asyl) hunderttausende Menschen jährlich ihre Heimat, um sich andernorts niederzulassen. Die vielen Migranten aus fremden Ländern und fernen Ethnien bringen für Schule und Gesellschaft in den Einwanderungsländern neue, große Herausforderungen mit sich. Eine davon ist das Thema der Beiträge in deutscher und englischer Sprache in diesem Buch: die Mehrsprachigkeit und wie sie Sprache, Sprechen und Lernen dort verändert. International ausgewiesene Experten stellen ihre Forschung zum Thema «Migration und Mehrsprachigkeit» vor. Sie beleuchten die dabei entstehenden Probleme des Spracherwerbs, des Sprachunterrichts, der sprachlichen Identitätsbildung und der gesellschaftlichen Positionierung von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen mit Migrationshintergrund in den Mehrheitsgesellschaften. 294 pp. Englisch, Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Test results are often used to make major decisions, whether for educational or research purposes. But what intervening factors affect the reliability and validity of the tests And how can we design better tests This book draws on a theoretical framework from research in reading and language testing, and investigates the results of a set of reading comprehension tests that were delivered to 750 Japanese university students. Its objective is to improve the quality of language tests by addressing the following questions:¿ How do different kinds of text organisation affect students¿ performance ¿ What are the effects of different response formats such as summary writing and open-ended questions ¿ What can examiners do to ensure that test results provide a more accurate measure of learners¿ language abilities This book aims to make the full set of the author¿s research findings available for the first time.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 326 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -The contributions to this volume explore eleven key developments in the external history of the German language, that is, the combination of social, political and cultural circumstances which influenced the language and its speakers. Some of these ¿landmarks¿ are individuals or groups of people who have exerted influence over the language: Charlemagne, Luther, the early modern grammarians and lexicographers. Others are studies of particular periods, places or groups which have not found their place in more narrative accounts: standardisation in the nineteenth century, the role of Low German, the state of German at the Stunde Null in 1945. An overarching theme is the role of deliberate intervention in the development of German, whether it took the form of education, prescriptivism, purism or political manipulation. The essays, a number of which were originally delivered as lectures in the University of Cambridge and all of which are by specialists in the field, combine to provide a history of the German language in its social context.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 324 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Der Vahldorfer Gesangbuchstreit 1806 führt in eine politisch und theologisch bedeutsame Zeit preußischer Geschichte. Singen besaß einen hohen Stellenwert mit gesellschaftlicher und sozialer Bindung. Der ebenso handgreiflich wie klug diplomatisch ausgetragene Gesangbuchstreit zeigt, wie eine kleine Gemeinde gegen die preußischen Behörden aufbegehrt und einen großen Sieg davonträgt. Primärquellen geben authentische Zeugnisse, die religiöse Bedeutung und emotionale Qualität der Gesangbücher zu werten und das örtliche Geschehen in die preußische Staats- und Religionspolitik unter König Friedrich Wilhelm III. einzuordnen. Das unter Friedrich II. begonnene aufklärerische Projekt der rationalistischen Gesangbücher als Bausteine innenpolitischer und staatskirchenorganisatorischer Zielsetzung war gescheitert. Die Macht der musikalischen Empfindung war letztlich stärker als der kühl-rationale Vernunftbegriff. 162 pp. Deutsch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Code switching seems to be natural for most multilingual speakers because they can switch from different languages freely depending on what is available in their linguistic repertoire. This collection of studies aims to bring current Malaysian code switching and language alternation research to the attention of a worldwide readership. In so doing we attempt to follow the path taken by our late friend, colleague and mentor, Professor Rodolfo Jacobson. The approach and conceptual framework adopted by the contributors in this volume tends to focus more towards the functional rather than the purely linguistic or grammatical. Research into Malaysian code switching demonstrates the need to seek out ways of merging these approaches, rather than keeping them separate, and several of the chapters in this volume attempt such a merger of approaches and methods. 250 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Der Konstruktivismus gilt innerhalb der Erziehungswissenschaft als eine ihrer attraktivsten theoretischen Grundlagen und als ausgesprochen praxisrelevantes Konzept. Er bringt nämlich nicht nur außerordentlich plausibel scheinende Erklärungen über den Prozess von Erkenntnis und Lernen bei. Er erweist sich auch als sehr fruchtbar für den Entwurf pädagogischer Handlungskonzepte. Dieses Buch bietet zum einen eine Einführung in die wichtigsten Spielarten des Konstruktivismus und eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit ihnen. Doch ist das nicht Selbstzweck. Denn zweitens wird die Leistungsfähigkeit des Konstruktivismus in seinen unterschiedlichen Varianten und Themen als Grundlagentheorie für die Pädagogik ausgelotet. Zu diesem Zwecke werden die Positionen der pädagogischen Richtungen, die sich als konstruktivistisch oder vom Konstruktivismus beeinflusst verstehen, ausgelotet. Drittens wird geklärt, ob und wie der Konstruktivismus fob und wie der Konstruktivismus für die Pädagogik anregend sein kann. 206 pp. Deutsch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -By focusing on one particular re-education institution, this book offers a multifaceted analysis of practices of diagnosis and curing what was defined as «delinquency», «criminality» or «disorderly behaviour» at the turn of the twentieth century. The study provides an important corrective to the existing accounts of re-education by proposing an approach in which institutional practices are analysed both from above and from below. The book draws attention to the process of reforming identities ¿ the construction of reformatory identities ¿ as the core of residential re-education. Special emphasis is placed on the interplay of notions of gender and social background.The book is based on extensive archival research drawing from a wide range of new and neglected sources. The primary material includes a unique collection of documents produced by the girls of the Vuorela State Reform School in Finland. Narrative analysis of correspondence, and careful scrutiny of the official sources created for re-educational purposes, form a basis for the investigation of the interaction between pupils¿ own self-expression and the aims of re-education in the construction of reformed identities. The practices developed in Finland are carefully contextualised in the European history of re-education.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 376 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -This book is concerned with the economic consequences of the rising obesity prevalence in affluent societies. A microeconomic model describing food consumption from the perspective of the individual consumer is developed. To maximise utility over lifetime, the marginal costs of food consumption must be adapted to the level of prices and to variations in the metabolic rate. This result holds independently of the weight status category and of the level of health-consciousness. Furthermore, extensions relevant to food overconsumption are introduced: The influence of diet composition and the rate of time preference, as well as the incorporation of addictive aspects and dynamic inconsistency. The theoretical framework is substantiated with an empirical analysis, and the implications for health insurance schemes ¿ namely the differentiation of premiums by risk ¿ are discussed. 274 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past examines contemporary representations of colonialism, by developing a historically and culturally specific theory of neocolonialism in U.S. media culture. Noting how colonialism never officially ended in the United States, Kent A. Ono draws together race, gender, sexuality, and nation to examine neocolonialism in popular media narratives. The book asks, «What are the lingering traces within contemporary culture that provide evidence not only of what colonialism was but also of what it continues to be today » Offering five case studies on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the sale of the Seattle Mariners, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Pocahontas, and Star Trek: The Next Generation¿and providing current media examples in the introduction and conclusion, the book documents the persistence of colonialism in media culture. White vigilantism, prototypical colonial rescue plots, and cloaked and not-so-hidden anxieties about racial and national miscegenation all contribute towards a continuation of colonialism and a neocolonial mind-set. The book¿s critical examination from a historical and cultural perspective makes it possible to alter colonialism for future generations.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -How does a liberation movement transform itself into a political party What are the burdens and liabilities that come about when these movements integrate in the democratic process The author tries to answer these questions analyzing SWAPO¿s war of independence against the South African apartheid regime and the changes it went through once the party won the first free elections in 1989. The authoritarian regime that emerged was the outcome of thirty years of exile in neighboring Zambia and Angola. The latter and the consequences of the earlier destruction of the African traditions, following the colonial intervention, gave way to a specific African version of democracy. Is this democracy going to develop into a full, all embracing system or it is going to end in democratic failure The author looks deeply into the historical and political past of the Namibian process and gives an optimistic, upbeat account of an African democracy. 504 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Flannery O¿Connor, the renowned short-story writer, lived and fought a tumultuous battle with lupus erythematosus most of her adult life. In her last five years, she sought insightful and helpful sources to alleviate her struggle with the disease. Among these sources were the ideas and thoughts of a Jesuit-paleontologist-mystic by the name of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an individual who opened doors of witness to the secular world and attracted suspicious questioning from his Catholic superiors. Like a moth drawn to a flame, Flannery O¿Connor, a devoted Thomist, increasingly admired the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin to the point that she incorporated his ideas into her last six short stories in the collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. This book adds significantly to the neglected study of Teilhard de Chardin¿s influence in the later literary development of Flannery O¿Connor. This book would be a valuable asset to students and scholars focusing on American literature, Southern literature, twentieth-century Southern female writers, and Flannery O¿Connor.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 172 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Medicine and Society in Late Imperial China explores the vibrant medical landscape in late imperial China (1600-1850), focusing on one of the most cultured and elegant cities in the lower Yangzi region, Suzhou. The central theme of the book is that the economic prosperity and intellectual vibrancy of late imperial Jiangnan fostered the emergence of a community of physicians who engaged in lively debates concerning qualifications and practice, leading to a growing sense of identity and new ways of theorizing and practicing medicine. It shows that the classical medical tradition interacted in a fluid relationship with both the state and the folk traditions. Medicine and Society in Late Imperial China is divided into two parts. Part I provides a broad framework on the discourse on the ideal physician, as well as examining the sanhuang miao (Temple of the Three Emperors) and challenges to existing medical theories by the wenbing (warm factor) school. Part II focuses on Suzhou physicians and their writings within the broad medical tradition, illustrates a local perspective of medicine¿s relationship with the state through an examination of the outbreak of epidemics in Suzhou, and discusses the development of the fields of specialties in medicine.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 220 pp. Englisch.