This collection of essays critically engages with Charles Taylor’s idea of a Catholic modernity through focusing on the crucial issue of the shape and role of religion in modernity. Taylor launched the idea in his seminal 1996 essay 'A Catholic Modernity?', and the idea is here explored in relation to other Christian denominations and non-Christian traditions. Taylor’s proposal has the potential to become a central and encompassing perspective in thinking about relations between modernity...

We are increasingly realizing that, as a result of technological developments and globalization, problems are becoming so complex that they can only be solved through cooperation between scientists from different disciplines. Healthcare, climate change, food security, globalization, and quality of life are just a few examples of issues that require scientists to work across disciplines. In many cases, extra-academic stakeholders must be involved in order to arrive at robust solutions. Young a...

Even though office gossip is generally frowned upon, many studies show that gossip in organizations is not only inevitable, but can even be a positive communication tool. However, by gossiping in the wrong way, employees can easily lose the trust of their colleagues and be perceived negatively very quickly.

Research shows that people who claim to never gossip tend to be considered as socially inept, but those that are constantly gabbing at the coffee machine are quickly seen as untrustworthy....

Contributing to societal change starts with nurturing inner development: personal growth equips individuals with the skills, attitudes and awareness needed to contribute effectively to their communities and society.

Inner Development Conversation Starters is a powerful tool for transition makers, encouraging deep reflection and dialogue. Each of the 46 cards features a thought-provoking question, based on the Inner Development Goals.

Through guided explorations of skills and attitudes, such ...

This innovative introduction to literary studies takes 'the life of texts' as its overarching frame. It provides a conceptual and methodological toolbox for analysing novels, poems, and all sorts of other texts as they circulate in oral, print, and digital form. It shows how texts inspire each other, and how stories migrate across media. It explains why literature has been interpreted in different ways across time. Finally, it asks why some texts fascinate people so much that they are reprodu...

The ever increasing ability of medical technology to reshape the human body in fundamental ways - from organ and tissue transplants to reconstructive surgery and prosthetics - is something now largely taken for granted. But for a philosopher, such interventions raise fundamental and fascinating questions about our sense of individual identity and its relationship to the physical body. Drawing on and engaging with philosophers from across the centuries, Jenny Slatman here develops a novel argu...

This innovative textbook explores a variety of every facets of culture, both in past and present. How is it possible to study 'culture' when the topic covers the arts, literature, film, history, sociology, anthropology and gender studies? Culture examines the evolution of a concept with varying meanings depending on changing norms. Offering the first long-duration analysis of the relationship between culture and nature, this book looks at the origins of culture from an international perspective.

Using examples from the several scholarly traditions in the practice of studying culture, the book is a key introduction to the area. It identifies the history of interpreting culture as a meeting point between the long-standing historical investigation of 'humanism' and 'postmodernism' and is a comprehensive resource for those who wish to further their engagement with culture as both a historical and contemporary phenomen...

Interdisciplinary education has been identified by many educational organisations in Europe and the United States as important for what lies ahead, and it has become a buzzword in some debates about educating for the future. Now, more than ever, higher education is challenged to educate students to see beyond the limits of their own discipline and to come up with innovative integrated solutions for our global challenges. But how do you define interdisciplinarity? How do you measure whether a ...

At the occasion of the 25 anniversary of the Dutch Cultural Policy Act, Dutch academics in cultural policy research have compiled a volume to commemorate the quarter century in which Dutch cultural policy has developed and analyse the key debates in Dutch cultural policy for the coming years.

Historically, central public authority in the Netherlands has been problematic. The country's origin as a confederation of seven independent republics, has had effect in the sense that government usually...

When the Treaty of Lisbon went into effect in December 2009, the event seemed to mark the beginning of a longer phase of institutional consolidation for the EU. Since 2010, however, the EU has faced multiple crises, which have rocked its foundations and deeply challenged the narrative of 'the end of the history of integration'. The military crisis in eastern Ukraine and the refugee crisis call for a joint approach, but in practice reveal the difficulty of maintaining even the appearance of Eu...