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SOCIAL SCIENCES

Social sciences examine human behavior, social structures, and interactions in various settings. Fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics study social relationships, cultural norms, and institutions. By using different research methods, social scientists seek to understand community dynamics, the effects of policies, and factors driving social change. This field is important for tackling current issues, guiding public discussions, and developing strategies for social progress and innovation.

Posts in Social Sciences
Classics and Race: A historical reader

Sarah Derbew (Editor), Daniel Orrells (Editor), Phiroze Vasunia (Editor)

Classics and Race: A historical reader provides scholars and students with an exploratory intellectual history of the complex relationships between Classics and racist/anti-racist thought-systems. It collects together a series of readings of historical primary sources from the late medieval period until the mid-twentieth century, bringing to light how the classical tradition and post-ancient constructions of race have informed each other. Each reading is accompanied by an essay, written by a leading specialist who offers a discussion of the primary source.

The volume is arranged chronologically, from the late medieval period to the Renaissance, crucial for understanding classical humanism, and on to the eighteenth century with texts foundational to the modern emergence of classical studies as a discipline and its relationship to the transatlantic slave trade. The essays show how the classical tradition has continuously been structured by debates about race, racism and anti-racism. Including voices from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and North and South America, the essays demonstrate why the primary text is important for understanding this intellectual and cultural history, and the global reach of the classical tradition.

London: UCL Press, 2025. 506p.

Performing Violence: Limits and Transformative Means in Staged Violence

Edited by Davide Giovanzana

This book offers an exhaustive approach to all forms of staged violence and an in-depth analysis of their emergence and repercussions (dramaturgically and physically). This study explores instruments to surpass the dichotomic opposition victim-oppressor, to demystify the spell of violence, and to get rid of the morbid voyeurism often connected to staged violence, and eventually, it proposes transformative tools to explore empowering experiences through violence. Considering all the aspects of a theatre performance engaging with staged violence (the story displaying violence, the actors’ embodiment of violence, the spectators’ experiences of being exposed to violence, and the process of performing violence), this book proposes analytical and practical tools to explore the limit and to transform the experience of performing violence. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies.

Oxford; New York: Routledge, 2024, 179p.

Political Expression in Sport: Transnational Challenges, Moral Defences

By Cem Abanazir

This powerful new book looks at how private institutions governing and organising sport restrict political expression. Uniquely, it makes a case for the freedom of expression for athletes, spectators and audiences built upon philosophical foundations. In the era of Colin Kaepernick and taking a knee, politics and protest in sport have never been more visible and immediate. Drawing on a wide range of international cases, including protest actions from athletes such as Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Naomi Osaka and Feyisa Lilesa, as well as the reactions from sport organisations including the IOC, FIFA, UEFA and the NFL, the book argues that the organisation of sport at the hands of associations and leagues and their transnational power to regulate, adjudicate and enforce matters according to their interests lead to the restriction of freedom of expression. Focusing on the individual, the book presents a framework for the defence of freedom of expression in sport on moral grounds and also explores the limits to freedom of expression, especially those arising from hate speech, that might better serve both the individual and sport as an institution. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the ethics, philosophy or politics of sport, sport governance, the relationship between sport and wider society, or moral or political philosophy

London; New York, Routledge, 2023. 212p.

Building an International Cybersecurity Regime: Multistakeholder Diplomacy

Edited by Ian Johnstone, Arun Sukumar, and Joel Trachtman

Providing a much-needed study on cybersecurity regime building, this comprehensive book is a detailed analysis of cybersecurity norm-making processes and country positions, through the lens of multi-stakeholder diplomacy. Multidisciplinary and multinational scholars and practitioners use insights drawn from high-level discussion groups to provide a rigorous analysis of how major cyber powers view multi-stakeholder diplomacy.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023. 282p.

Revisiting Judicial Politics in the European Union

Edited by Mark Dawson, Bruno de Witte, and Elise Muir

Addressing the tensions between the political and the legal dimension of European integration as well as intra-institutional dynamics, this insightful book navigates the complex topic of judicial politics. Providing an overview of key topics in the current debate and including an introductory chapter on different conceptions of judicial politics, experts in law and politics interrogate the broader political role of the European Court of Justice.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 388p.

Digital Media and Grassroots Anti-Corruption: cContexts, Platforms and Data of Anti-Corruption Technologies Worldwide

Edited by Alice Mattoni

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Delving into a burgeoning field of research, this enlightening book utilises case studies from across the globe to explore how digital media is used at the grassroots level to combat corruption. Bringing together an impressive range of experts, Alice Mattoni deftly assesses the design, creation and use of a wide range of anti-corruption technologies

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 286p.

Dictionary of Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security

By Mark Elliot, Anna M. Mandalari, Miranda Mourby, and Kieron O’Hara

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. The Dictionary of Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security explains the complex technical terms, legal concepts, privacy management techniques, conceptual matters and vocabulary that inform public debate about privacy.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 652p.

“To be listened to... and actually heard” Women's perspectives on effective substance use treatment and support

By Centre for Justice Innovation

For some women, substance use can cause significant harm and problems for themselves and for those around them. Problems with substance use among women have well-established links to gendered experiences of trauma, abuse and exploitation, and women deserve to receive the kind of support that is appropriate for them. Our previous research identified that many of the mainstream, mixed-gender treatment services we looked at were not working well for women. We found evidence that women were accessing treatment services in spaces that exposed them to risks of abuse or exploitation, and that did not give them space to explore their gendered experiences. Our research indicated that treatment services were not able to effectively respond to the needs of women with trauma. This project set out to explore what a better system of substance use treatment would look like from the perspective of women in treatment. Working with women’s centre and treatment provider The Nelson Trust, we spoke to women accessing treatment in seven different locations, and asked about their experiences of a range of treatment provision and what they wanted from treatment services. We explored their perceptions of effective treatment and what support they would want women to be able to access in an ideal system. The women who participated identified six key characteristics of effective treatment: 1. Effective treatment is holistic. It considers and responds to all of a woman’s needs and strengths, including issues like domestic abuse, mental health, offending and children’s social care involvement. 2. Effective treatment is compassionate and respectful. It respects women’s dignity and agency, and responds to their individual needs and experiences with understanding rather than judgement. 3. Effective treatment is person-led and non-coercive. It enables women to determine what treatment and recovery looks like for themselves and to work towards it in their own time, without threat of further scrutiny or punitive measures. 4. Effective treatment addresses the root causes of substance use problems. It supports women to work through drivers of their substance use, heal from past traumas and have their wider needs met. 5. Effective treatment is trauma-responsive. It embeds understanding of trauma and shame throughout, following principles of safety, collaboration and transparency. It does not label women or discharge them when they go quiet. 6. Effective treatment builds strength and resilience. It promotes women’s agency through interventions aimed at promoting self-worth, confidence and acceptance, providing them with new skills and ways of coping. Delivering an effective treatment system requires a significant shift in the way treatment services are commissioned and managed. Current funding models have usually promoted the delivery of large-scale, one-size-fits-all provision in isolation from other services. Whole system approaches – where all services with a role in supporting women are integrated into a cohesive system of care – represent an alternative model that could more effectively address women’s needs. Local areas seeking to implement whole system approaches face significant challenges in breaking down funding silos, supporting information sharing and securing sufficient resources. One solution may be found in place-based approaches to funding and commissioning – approaches that work at local or regional levels to combine funding from multiple sources to co-commission a range of services for women. We therefore call on central government to remove the structural barriers inhibiting the growth of whole system approaches, and for local commissioners to explore place-based approaches as a way of implementing more whole system ways of working. Adopting these new approaches would not only improve the efficacy and efficiency of services, but it would also, more importantly, enable women to lead fulfilling lives. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2025. 56p.

Restrictive measures: the challenges in front of the EU

By Giovanni Nicolazzo , Bohdan Bernatsky , et al.

This report, carried out by Transcrime – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, explores the results of the first comprehensive analysis of the recurrent schemes used by sanctioned entities to evade international sanctions, with the aim of reducing the current gaps in sanctions enforcement thanks to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

After a general assessment of the nature and effectiveness of sanctions (a more detailed review on this topic is available here) and of shortcomings in the enforcement framework, the report focuses on:

🔹 Most violated sanctions by category, region, goods, and assets.

🔹 The role of facilitators, corporate vehicles, and satellite jurisdictions.

🔹 Recurrent evasion schemes and transactions.

🔹 Policy implications and risk indicators.

This document provides a comprehensive resource for public and private sector stakeholders for both investigation and due diligence purposes, and enabled the development of an advanced tool for assessing high-risk entities and for tracing and re-covering illicit assets, which is now made available to interested EU competent authorities for the purpose of tracing criminal assets and sanction evasion schemes.

Milan: Transcrime, 2025. 82p.

Systemic Racism in Mass Violence and Atrocity Prevention

By Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate D. Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan

This paper examines global systemic racism’s influence on mass atrocities. The authors, Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan, explore policy changes that can help bring about shared and sustainable peace, leading to greater recognition and dignity for survivors and communities harmed by racial injustice worldwide. Each of the three sections of the paper is geared to challenge thinking on systemic racism in mass atrocity prevention.

The authors analyze racism during the time of the founding of the United Nations, as well as in its present-day application in different international mechanisms such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and domestic mechanisms such as the United States Atrocities Prevention Board and subsequent Atrocity Prevention Task Force. The countries discussed include South Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, the United States, and Nigeria. The issues discussed include the interplay on the international and domestic levels where there was, at times, mutual reinforcement of the dynamics of racism and mass atrocities. Read the full report which consists of the following three sections:

How the Quest for Racial Equality Led to a Modern Human Rights Movement

Pratima Narayan

The institutions, policies, and initiatives introduced to eradicate racism have fallen short in consistently providing victims and communities of racially- motivated violations adequate redress, and have arguably perpetuated racial subordination. This section explores that systemic failure.

Institutional Racism in the Conceptualization and Implementation of the Principle of Sovereignty

Ronnate D. Asirwatham

This section explores the conceptualization of state sovereignty, its use to further structural racial injustice and resulting mass atrocities, and the use and application of sovereignty by the UN Security Council, including through the Responsibility to Protect.

Ending Business as Usual: Mass Atrocities of People of African Descent

Abiola Afolayan

The paper’s final section examines the intentional exclusion of people of African descent from the originating conversations that formed such central mechanisms as the United Nations, US Constitution, and US Atrocities Prevention Board, as well as the consequences thereof.

Muscatine, IA: The Stanley Center for Peace and Security, 2022. 36p.

The Costs of Political Violence in the United States The Benefits of Investing in Communities 

By Andrew Blum

The core goal of this report is to explore how “democracy can provide the antidote” to political violence within the United States. In the last several years, we have seen extremist attacks, a surge in hate crimes, protests by heavily armed militias, and vicious acts of brutality by law enforcement. Violence and the threat of violence are harming communities throughout the U.S. and undermining our democracy 

At the same time, hard-won experience from communities within the United States and around the world has revealed concrete strategies that can be used to prevent, respond to, and recover from political violence. Political violence imposes real costs, but it also drives communities to create real solutions. Many of those solutions were on display during the 2020 election, which contributed to creating a largely peaceful election. The polarization and violent rhetoric on display during the election, however, also makes clear that we have work to do moving forward. Now is time to start that work. Now more than ever people understand the risk of political violence and the urgent need to invest in efforts to prevent it. Our goal must be to leverage that awareness and that energy into creating longer-term, sustainable, democracy-strengthening solutions to prevent political violence in the United States. This paper thus focuses on two basic questions: • Why should we care about political violence? What are the human and economic impacts of political violence? After the headlines cease and attention fades, what are the real costs of political violence to communities? • What can communities do about political violence? What are the community-centered strategies that address political violence? What does the evidence say about which strategies are most effective? How do we build communities that are resilient to various forms of political violence? We pose these questions primarily to funders. Democracy Fund has commissioned this research to inform the community of funders to which it belongs— funders committed to strengthening democracy within the United States 

Washington, DC: Democracy Fund, 2021. 40p.

“HOW SCARED ARE YOU?” Mapping the Threat Environment of San Diego’s Elected Officials

By  Rachel Locke , Cari Luna

Democracy cannot function without individuals stepping up to serve as representatives of their community. The presence and growth of threats and harassment directed towards elected representatives poses a direct risk to our democracy, weakening community cohesion and our ability to address collective challenges. While our research found threats and harassment to be present across political parties, it identified women as far more likely to be on the receiving end both in terms of quantity and severity. If under-represented groups are pushed out of the processes of debate and decision-making, solutions will not be oriented around the diversity of our society. Without clear data on the scale of the problem, the rise in threats and ad hominem attacks are too easily discounted by public officials, the media and the public at large. Possible consequences range from an increased potential for physical violence and the resignation from public life of elected officials. The research outlined in this report helps to expose the scale of threats and harassment, while in turn providing recommendations from those directly impacted, concerned community members and scholars on how to reinforce safe and non-threatening local governance. While several studies have shown that cities, counties and states across the country are experiencing an increased level of hostility towards elected officials, very few geographically designated areas are measuring incidents in any structured way. The research outlined in this report aims to set a clear baseline on the extent of aggressive behavior towards nearly all categories of elected office in San Diego County. Our research looked at all County School Boards, Community College Boards, City Councils, Mayors, and the County Board of Supervisors. Using a mixed methods approach that included surveys, interviews, a traditional media review and social media review, our team was able to get a clear picture of the problem both objectively and subjectively. Our findings confirm that the rise in threats and harassments targeting elected officials identified in national studies is also occurring at the local level in San Diego County. This rise in hostile threatening behavior towards elected officials is having a measurable impact on a) the ability of elected office holders to effectively participate in the public policy process; b) the likelihood of elected officials seeking to encourage others to enter public life or remain in public life themselves; and c) the psychological and physical health of office holders and their families. The vitriol we are seeing risks significantly and negatively impact the vitality of local democracy, civic engagement and effective policy making on across the policy spectrum. The vast majority of local elected officials in San Diego County are impacted. Seventyfive percent of all elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment. Of these, 47% reported the threats and harassment occurs monthly. Thus, not only do threats and harassment impact most of San Diego County elected officials, but the aggression is taking place on a regular basis. Of those who have not themselves been threatened or harassed, nearly half said they had witnessed threats and harassment against others. These data indicate nearly 90% of all San Diego County elected officials have either been threatened or harassed or have witnessed such abuse directed at their peers. While there is not a significant partisan difference, with moderates most likely to be on the receiving end of threats and harassment, there is a big gender divide. Women are far more impacted than men. Eighty-two percent of female elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment compared with 66% of all men. Of the 24 incidents of threats and harassment reported in local media, 19 incidents involved women, and five involved men. On social media, when examining men and women of comparable Twitter usage and prominence of position, women received 15 to 20 times the aggressive interaction as their male peers. With 66% of survey respondents reporting that threats and harassment have gone up over the course of their time in office, the implications of a continued rise are concerning. Roughly half (52%) of all survey respondents have considered leaving public service because of the threats and harassment they endure. Disaggregating by gender, twice as many women considered leaving public office as did men (61% compared to 32%). This is alarming, although not surprising given the elevated frequency and intensity of threats and harassment women face compared to men. Forty-five percent of those we surveyed stated they think new solutions are needed to handle the increasingly vitriolic environment. Several initiatives have been developed in the San Diego area in the last 2 years to provide new solutions, but more work is needed. As part of our effort to understand potential solutions, we conducted three “community conversations” across the County. The group discussions, and the recommendations that came from them, form the backbone of our recommendations, alongside insights from other national studies and academic sources. A summary of those recommendations is here, with detail provided in the relevant section below. 

San Diego: University of San Diego, Kroc School, Violence, Inequality and Power Lab: Institute for Civil Civic Engagement,  2023. 36p.

Understanding and Addressing: Misinformation About Science

By K. Viswanath, Tiffany E. Taylor, and Holly G. Rhode

This headline is an outstanding example of how misinformation is perceived in the public arena. The headline makes a causal assumption that misinformation is “getting in the way” of recovery from the hurricane’s devastating impact. The degree of accuracy of this assumption is a question for further study and empirical examination, but the very assumption that misinformation has a direct causal impact on relief efforts with significant negative consequences is noteworthy. And newsworthy. And is part of what motivated this report. Information, and misinformation, is everywhere—on our phones, televisions in the gym, social media. Some of this misinformation is brain candy, simple entertainment, and inconsequential; some of it, though, has the potential to impact public health, inform policy responses, and shape people’s perceptions of the world. If misinformation about science leads to beliefs that are in conflict with accepted science, the consequences can be profound. False perceptions and beliefs may lead to behaviors and support for policies that are not supported by accepted science and/or are not aligned with individual preferences and goals, with negative consequences for individuals, communities, and broader society.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine (2025), 356 pages

Negro Politics: The Search For Leadership

By James Q. Wilson

This is a study of a phenomenon which many people be- JL lieve does not exist. Anyone wishing to examine Negro leadership in a city such as Chicago will be met at the outset with the assertion, particularly from intellectual Negroes, that “there is no Negro leadership.” At the same time, the person who makes this comment will very likely be himself a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) or the Urban League, or perhaps both; he will - be a member of one of the major political parties, probably the Democratic; he will often be in a fraternity, an organization which exists largely as a part of adult, rather than student, life; he may well be a member of a social club, a church, one or more organizations affiliated with the church, or a lodge; if he is a worker, he will likely be a union member; if he is a businessman, he will probably belong to a chamber of commerce; and it would not be unusual if he were a supporter of the YMCA, a boys’ club, a settlement house, a professional society, a neighborhood block club, or a conservation association. Each of these organizations will almost inevitably be led, at least at the local level, by a Negro. These men are, in some sense, Negro leaders. What is meant, of course, is that there are no “good” Negro leaders — leaders who are selflessly devoted to causes which will benefit Negroes as a race and as a community. One will also be told that Negroes are “unorganized.” But the simplest reckoning of the number of organizations in a Negro community will immediately suggest that this comment, like the • 3 4 NEGRO POLITICS one about leadership, cannot be taken at face value. In 1937, when Chicago had only 275,000 Negroes, an actual count revealed more than 4,000 formal associations among them.*1 Today, when the Negro population is about three times as large, there seems to be little doubt that the number of organizations is also comparably greater. In comparison with white communities of equivalent size, there is some evidence that Negroes are organized to an even greater extent than whites.2 Although Negroes, like whites, are more organized among middle-class than lower-class groups, on the whole, Negroes are fully as inclined to join associations as whites.3 The Negro community, whatever else its problems, is not characterized by an inability to create and sustain at least some kinds of organizations. What the Negro critics who argue that the Negro is “unorganized” mean is that he is not organized as a community to seek ends of benefit to the community or the race as a whole. There can be little doubt that the great majority of Negro associations have purposes other than Negro protest or improvement, and that these associations consume much of the time and money of Negroes which, their critics argue, should be devoted to race ends. Periodically, attempts are made to alter this, either by starting a new organization which will be the organization for the betterment of Negroes and to which all Negroes can flock, regardless of their special interests, or by creating an “umbrella” organization which will “co-ordinate” the plethora of existing Negro associations into collective action for communal goals. Such organizations have not endured.

STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, 1960, 338p.

LISREL APPROACHES TO INTERACTION EFFECTS IN MULTIPLE REGRESSION

By JAMES JACCARD and Cl-JO! K. WAN

This monograph is a companion to our earlier book Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression (Sage QASS No. 72, by Jaccard, Turrisi, and Wan). In this monograph, we guide the reader through the use of the computer program LISREL and how it can be applied to multiple-indicator analyses of interactions in regression frameworks. We assume that the reader is familiar with the material in our previous monograph, but we assume no prior knowledge of LISREL or structural equation models. Readers with limited background in structural equation modeling can consult other texts to familiar- ize themselves with the complex issues involved in such model testing (e.g., Bollen, 1989; Bollen & Long, 1993; Loehlin, 1987).

Our approach is pedagogically oriented and will disappoint more technically oriented readers. Our goal is to introduce the general analytic strategy to the reader so that he or she can gain a general overview of the analytic methods. This is an introductory treatment aimed at the applied researcher with a reasonable background in traditional multiple regression. It is not intended to be a text on structural equation modeling. Because of page restrictions, we were unable to discuss many topics that more experienced analysts probably would have liked us to consider. To counteract this, we have directed the reader to additional resource materials that we have found to be useful. Wherever possible, we have provided practical recommendations for analysts based on the current literature. At times, this was difficult because of a paucity of research on the issue in question. Rather then leave the analyst hanging, we decided to give our "best guess" in terms of practical advice, recognizing full well that future research may alter our recommendations and that some analysts may disagree with our recommendations.

Sage Publications, Inc.,1996 ,110p.

Liberty in the Modern State

By Harold J. Laski

I mean by liberty the absence of restraint upon the existence of those social conditions which, in modem civilization, are the necessary guarantees of individual happiness. I seek to inquire into the terms upon which it is attainable in the Western world, and, more especially, to find those rules of conduct to which political authority must conform if its subjects are, in a genuine sense, to be free. Already, therefore, I am maintaining a thesis. I am arguing, first, that liberty is essentially an absence of restraint. It implies power to expand, the choice by the individual of his own way of life without imposed prohibitions from without. Men cannot, as Rousseau claimed, be forced into freedom. They do not, as Hegel in- 1 LIBERTY IN THE MODERN STATE sisted, find their liberty in obedience to the law. They are free when the rules under which they live leave them without a sense of frustration in realms they deem significant. They are unfree whenever the rules to which they have to conform compel them to conduct which they dislike and resent. I do not deny that there are types of conduct against which prohibitions are desirable: I ought, for instance, to be compelled, even against my wish, to educate my children. But I am arguing that any rule which demands from me something I would not otherwise give is a diminution of my freedom.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK AND LONDON, 1930, 295p.

The History of Gambling in England

By John Ashton

Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen, meaning joy, pleasure, sports, or gaming—and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble—to play extravagantly for money, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later—as we see in Cotton’s Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word :— “ Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten between Idleness and Avarice-, an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula, are laughing themselves to death ; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow. It hath this ill property above all other Vices, that it renders a man incapable of prosecuting any serious action, and makes him always unsatisfied with his own condition ; he is either lifted up to the top of mad joy with success, or plung’d to the bottom of despair by misfortune, always in extreams, always in a storm

LONDON DUCKWORTH & CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C., 1898, 301p.

Grand Deception: The World's Most Spectacular and Successful Hoaxes.Impostures, Ruses, and Frauds

Edited by Alexander Klein

I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.------William Shakespeare There is a short period of infancy when, psychologists tell us, every human being feels himself omnipotent and unlimited. During this halcyon time the infant does not distinguish between himself and other objects: they are all himself, he is the whole universe. But, in due time, each infant makes the painful discovery that he is a limited being, dependent on others whose wishes do not always coincide with his own, imprisoned within his own skin, fated to live within the circumscribed orbit of his own experience. This loss of omnipotence is balanced, however, by the rise of the faculty of imagination, of dreaming and by the consequent creation of illusion and myth. A man is only as limited as his imagination.

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 1955, 378p.

Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom

By Norman G. Finkelstein

This book is not about Gaza. It is about what has been done to Gaza. It is fashionable nowadays to speak of a victim s agency. But one must be realistic about the constraints imposed on such agency by objective circumstance. Frederick Douglass could reclaim his manhood by striking back at a slave master who viciously abused him. Nelson Mandela could retain his dignity in jail despite conditions calibrated to humiliate and degrade him. Still, these were exceptional individuals and exceptional circumstances, and anyhow, even if he acquits himself with honor, the elemental decisions affecting the daily life of a man held in bondage and the power to effect these decisions remain outside his control. Gaza, as former British prime minister David Cameron observed, is an “open-air prison.”11116 Israeli warden is in charge. In the popular imagination confected by state propaganda, and dutifully echoed by everyone else in authority, Israel is almost always reacting to or retaliating against “terrorism.” But neither the inhuman and illegal blockade Israel imposed on Gaza nor the periodic murderous “operations” Israel has unleashed against it trace back to Hamas rocket fire.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2018, 424p.

Facial Recognition Technology: Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance

JAMES A. BAKER, R. ALTA CHARO, et al.

Facial recognition technology (FRT) is an increasingly prevalent tool for automated identification and identity verification of individuals. Its speed and accuracy have improved dramatically in the past decade. Its use speeds up identification tasks that would otherwise need to be performed manually in a slower or more labor-intensive way and, in many use cases, makes identification tasks practical that would be entirely infeasible without the use of these tools. FRT measures the pairwise similarity of digital images of human faces to estab- lish or verify identity. It uses machine learning models to extract facial features from an­ ­ image, creating what is known as a template. It then compares these templates to compute a similarity score. In one-to-one comparison, the claimed identity of a single individual is verified by comparing the template of a captured probe image with an exist- ing reference image (is this person who they say they are?). In one-to-many comparison, an individual is identified by comparing the template of a captured face image to the templates for many individuals contained in a database of reference images known as a gallery (what is the identity of the unknown person shown in this image?). FRT accuracy is affected by image quality. Good quality is associated with coopera- tive capture in which the subject is voluntarily facing a good camera at close range with good lighting. Good lighting is especially important to give correct contrast in subjects with darker skin tones. Non-cooperative capture, in which subjects may not even realize that their image is being captured, such as images taken from security cameras, gener- ally results in lower-quality images.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine, (2024), 160 pages