The Eclipse of the Demos

The Eclipse of the Demos
Author: Kyong-Min Son
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0700629203

As populism presaging authoritarianism surges worldwide and political rights and civil liberties erode, pundits, politicians, and political scientists agree: democracy is in crisis. But where many blame the rise of neoliberalism, Kyong-Min Son suggests that a longer historical perspective is in order. His book, The Eclipse of the Demos, traces the crisis of democracy back to a fateful transformation of democratic theory during the Cold War, when the idea of the demos—a public body configured for the common good—gave way to a view of democracy as an instrument used by individuals to serve their private interests. While the postwar pressures of totalitarianism and communism did not directly cause this transformation, Son contends that they did activate instrumental democracy’s three constitutive motifs: fear of the masses, faith in rational systemic management, and an ambivalence about the relationship between capitalism and democracy. Forged of these elements drawn from disparate intellectual traditions, instrumental democracy displaced a citizenry disposed to judge competing public claims according to the principles of the common good and political equality. In the instrumental model, citizens are seen as consumers whose political claims are equivalent—simply because each is willing to pay the same price: a vote. It is this transactional view of democracy, Son argues, that led to the unchallenged dominance of finance capital and growing social divisions that have fueled the rise of neoliberalism. The Eclipse of the Demos envisions an answer to our present predicament: a democracy that rests on a demos engaging in collective inquiry and judgment rather than on a group of individuals concerned exclusively with their private welfare. By providing a clearer understanding of democracy before neoliberalism, this book begins the hard work of realizing that vision.

Undoing the Demos

Undoing the Demos
Author: Wendy Brown
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-02-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1935408704

Tracing neoliberalism's devastating erosions of democratic principles, practices, and cultures. Neoliberal rationality—ubiquitous today in statecraft and the workplace, in jurisprudence, education, and culture—remakes everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus. What happens when this rationality transposes the constituent elements of democracy into an economic register? In Undoing the Demos, Wendy Brown explains how democracy itself is imperiled. The demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice bow to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings, and investment climates; liberty submits to the imperative of human capital appreciation; equality dissolves into market competition; and popular sovereignty grows incoherent. Liberal democratic practices may not survive these transformations. Radical democratic dreams may not either. In an original and compelling argument, Brown explains how and why neoliberal reason undoes the political form and political imaginary it falsely promises to secure and reinvigorate. Through meticulous analyses of neoliberalized law, political practices, governance, and education, she charts the new common sense. Undoing the Demos makes clear that for democracy to have a future, it must become an object of struggle and rethinking.

1831

1831
Author: Louis P. Masur
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2002-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780809041190

Everyone knew that the great eclipse of 1831 was coming--and most Americans feared it. The United States was no longer a young, uncomplicated republic but, rather, conflicted and dynamic, inching toward cataclysm. Louis P. Masur organizes his remarkable book around the principal themes underlying the dangerous developments that marked this tumultuous year: continuing conflict over slavery in some states and uncertainty about its extension into new ones; the unresolved tension between states' rights and national priorities; competing passions about religion and politics; and the often alarming effects of new machinery on Americans' relationship to the land. In this important and challenging interpretation of antebellum America, Masur argues that disparate events relating to these issues decisively affected the very nature of the American character. -- Back cover.

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11
Author: Frank Luna
Publisher: Mercury Learning and Information
Total Pages: 1029
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1937585964

This updated bestseller provides an introduction to programming interactive computer graphics, with an emphasis on game development using DirectX 11. The book is divided into three main parts: basic mathematical tools, fundamental tasks in Direct3D, and techniques and special effects. It includes new Direct3D 11 features such as hardware tessellation, the compute shader, dynamic shader linkage and covers advanced rendering techniques such as screen-space ambient occlusion, level-of-detail handling, cascading shadow maps, volume rendering, and character animation. Includes a companion CD-ROM with code and figures. eBook Customers: Companion files are available for downloading with order number/proof of purchase by writing to the publisher at [email protected].

Freax

Freax
Author: Tamás, Polgár
Publisher: CSW-Verlag
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2016-04-17
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3941287974

FREAX – the biggest book ever written about the history of the computer demoscene. The book tells the complete history of the Commodore 64 and the Amiga, both about the machines and about the underground subcultures around them, from the cracker- and warez-scene to the demoscene, from hacking and phreaking to the ASCII art scene. Interviews with scene celebrities, former key persons of the computer industry, citations from contemporary magazines and fanzines make the narrative history of the big adventure complete. The book contains 350 pages and is illustrated with 480 color photos and screenshots. This is the comprehensive guide to the golden era of home computers.

Professional Android Application Development

Professional Android Application Development
Author: Reto Meier
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2009-06-17
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0470549254

A hands-on guide to building mobile applications, Professional Android Application Development features concise and compelling examples that show you how to quickly construct real-world mobile applications for Android phones. Fully up-to-date for version 1.0 of the Android software development kit, it covers all the essential features, and explores the advanced capabilities of Android (including GPS, accelerometers, and background Services) to help you construct increasingly complex, useful, and innovative mobile applications for Android phones. What this book includes An introduction to mobile development, Android, and how to get started. An in-depth look at Android applications and their life cycle, the application manifest, Intents, and using external resources. Details for creating complex and compelling user interfaces by using, extending, and creating your own layouts and Views and using Menus. A detailed look at data storage, retrieval, and sharing using preferences, files, databases, and Content Providers. Instructions for making the most of mobile portability by creating rich map-based applications as well as using location-based services and the geocoder. A look at the power of background Services, using threads, and a detailed look at Notifications. Coverage of Android's communication abilities including SMS, the telephony APIs, network management, and a guide to using Internet resources Details for using Android hardware, including media recording and playback, using the camera, accelerometers, and compass sensors. Advanced development topics including security, IPC, advanced 2D / 3D graphics techniques, and user–hardware interaction. Who this book is for This book is for anyone interested in creating applications for the Android mobile phone platform. It includes information that will be valuable whether you're an experienced mobile developer or making your first foray, via Android, into writing mobile applications. It will give the grounding and knowledge you need to write applications using the current SDK, along with the flexibility to quickly adapt to future enhancements.

Democracy and Education

Democracy and Education
Author: John Dewey
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1916
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN:

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

Pro OGRE 3D Programming

Pro OGRE 3D Programming
Author: Gregory Junker
Publisher: Apress
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2007-02-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1430202335

Pro OGRE 3D Programming offers a detailed guide to the cross-platform Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine (OGRE) 3D engine. OGRE provides an object-oriented interface to render 3D scenes. Commonly used in game creation, it can be utilized to create a variety of 3D based applications, including architectural visualization and simulations. The authors begin with obtaining the source code, move on to using the rendering library, and conclude with the polishing of the final application. Beginning-level knowledge of game design practices, intermediate-level knowledge of the C++ language, and a familiarity with open-source project-management tools such as CVS and Subversion are all recommended.