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Sequestered within the heart of a cosmopolitan city is an exotic world--a place where diamonds, astronomically priced, are bought and sold on the strength of a handshake, and business disputes are resolved according to ancient Jewish principles of arbitration. Yet it is also a modern industry facing the same fundamental global changes affecting all businesses today.In Diamond Stories, Renée Rose Shield leads us into the unexamined realm of wholesale diamond traders in New York. Related to several well-respected traders, she had unprecedented access to a society normally closed to outside inquiry. Here she deftly blends her personal relationship and her anthropological training to provide an...
Renee Rose Shield leads us into the unexamined realm of wholesale diamond traders in New York. Deftly blending her personal insights and her anthropological training, she provides a fascinating exploration of this tradition-bound industry, the new challenges it faces, and the ways both industry and individuals adapt to and endure change. Shields gained entrance into New York's diamond trade through her Uncles Moishe and Shmiel, who worked there for many decades and had a good reputation. "This book illustrates how trust, energy, skill, excitement, and fun bring job satisfaction to difficult, tedious, and anxiety-producing tasks." Photos.
"Students of many ilks will benefit from re-imagining Alzheimer's from the perspective of affected elders and their caregivers." - Peter Whitehouse, Case Western Reserve University
A tour of the diamond industry explores the historically rich network connecting Communist Siberia, Israel, and New York's diamond district, and profiles some of the industry's more colorful characters, including the author's father.
Focusing on terminally ill people in a German hospice, this study addresses the question, how meaningful experience is constructed for these patients in an attempt to preserve their dignity as persons. It is based on material from diary texts and active participation of the author in the role of a nurse.
The realities and misconceptions of long-term care and the challenges it presents for the ethics of autonomy are analyzed in this perceptive work. While defending the concept of autonomy, the author argues that the standard view of autonomy as non-interference and independence has only a limited applicability for long-term care. He explains that autonomy should be understood as a comprehensiveness that defines the overall course of a person's life rather than as a way of responding to an isolated situation. Agich distinguishes actual and ideal autonomy and argues that actual autonomy is better revealed in the everyday experiences of long-term care than in dramatic, conflict-ridden paradigm s...
Thirty-two million Americans have lost jobs because of permanent factory closings since 1970. Gregory Pappas here provides an intimate account of the economic, social, psychological, and medical consequences of one such closing. Once known as "the magic city" of economic opportunity, Barberton, Ohio, is an industrial working-class town of second- and third-generation factory workers. When the Seiberling tire plant in Barberton was closed in 1980, over 1200 jobs were eliminated. Drawing on extensive research, including surveys and interviews with workers laid off by the closing, Pappas offers an incisive analysis of their responses to unemployment. Pappas first details the ways in which the u...
Many indigenous Hawaiians who have moved to the islands' cities languish at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and are thought to have lost their cultural roots. Initially apolitical urban Hawaiians were often skeptical of activists who sought to revitalize traditional ways; yet, as Karen L. Ito shows, Hawaiian women in particular continue to maintain and express crucial aspects of their cultural heritage in their lifestyle and interactions with others. Ito conducted intensive fieldwork with six Honolulu families, all of which shared the distinguishing characteristics of Hawaii's matrifocal society. In her close examination of the friendships and family relations among the women in these ...
In 1970, a sixty-five-year-old Philadelphian named Maggie Kuhn began vocally opposing the notion of mandatory retirement. Taking inspiration from the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, Kuhn and her cohorts created an activist organization that quickly gained momentum as the Gray Panthers. After receiving national publicity for her efforts—she even appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson—she gained thousands of supporters, young and old. Their cause expanded to include universal health care, nursing home reform, affordable and accessible housing, defense of Social Security, and elimination of nuclear weapons. Gray Panthers traces the roots of Maggie Kuhn's social justice...
Almost forty percent of American adults age sixty-five and over spend some time in a nursing home, and residents in nursing homes will be increasingly diverse racially and ethnically because of changing demographics. The decision to place a family member in a nursing home is often extremely difficult, especially when the family belongs to a group with a strong tradition of filial responsibility. Despite these realities, little has been written about the stresses families of diverse cultural backgrounds experience in making this challenging decision. This book describes the experiences of seventy-five African American and Afro-Caribbean, white Jewish, and Latina/o residents and their relatives and friends who have been their caregivers. Integrating original qualitative research with quantitative data and theoretical perspectives and findings from other studies, Patricia Kolb not only presents new perspectives on how caregiving varies across racial and ethnic backgrounds but also dispels numerous stereotypes about nursing home placement among diverse groups.