Domestication challenges our understanding of human-environment relationships because it blurs the dichotomy between what is artificial and what is natural. In domestication, biological evolution, environmental change, techniques and practices, anthropological trajectories and sociocultural choices are inextricably interconnected. Domestication is essentially a hybrid phenomenon that needs to be explored with hybrid scientific approaches. Hybrid Communities: Biosocial Approaches to Domestication and Other Trans-species Relationships attempts for the first time to explore domestication viewed from across disciplines both in its origins and as an ongoing process. This edited collection proposes new biosocial approaches and concepts which integrate the methods of social sciences, archaeology and biology to shed new light on domestication in diachrony and in synchrony. This book will be of great interest to all scholars working on human-environment relationships, and should also attract readers from the fields of social anthropology, archaeology, genetics, ecology, botany, zoology, history and philosophy.

This book explores how social robots and synthetic social agents will change our social systems and intersubjective relationships. It is obvious that technology influences societies. But how, and under what conditions do these changes occur? This book provides a theoretical foundation for the social implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. It starts from philosophy of technology, with a focus on social robotics, to systematically explore the concept of socio- technical change. It addresses two main questions: To what extent will social robots modify our social systems? And how will human relationality be affected by human–robot interactions? The book employs resources from continental philosophy, actor–network theory, psychoanalysis, systemic theory, and constructivist cognitive theory to develop a theory of socio-technical change. It also offers a novel perspective on how we should evaluate the effectiveness of social robots, which has significant implications for how social robotics should be researched and designed. Hybrid Societies will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of technology, AI ethics, robot ethics, and continental philosophy.

Examines the threats to Latin American cultural identity in a global marketplace - now with a new introduction!

The era of hybrid governance is here. More and more organizations occupy a position between public and private ownership. And value is created not through business or public interests alone, but through distinct forms of hybrid governance. National governments are looking to transform their administrative systems to become more business driven. Likewise, private enterprises are seeing value gains in promoting public interest in their corporate social responsibility programs. But how can we conceptualize, evaluate and measure the value and performance of hybrid governance and organizations? This book offers a comprehensive overview of how hybrids produce value. It explores the drivers, obstacles and complications for value creation in different hybrid contexts: state-owned enterprises, urban policy-making, universities and non-profits from around the world. The authors address several types of value contents, for instance financial, social and public value. Furthermore, the book provides a novel way of understanding multiple forms of doing value in hybrid settings. The book explains mixing, compromising and legitimising as important mechanisms of value creation. Aimed at researchers and students of public management, public administration, business management, corporate social responsibility and governance, this book provides a theoretical, conceptual and empirical understanding of value creation in hybrid organizations. It is also an invaluable overview of performance evaluation and measurement systems and practices in hybrid organizations and governance.

`Hybrid Geographies is one of the most original and important contributions to our field in the last 30 years. At once immensley provocative and productive, it is written with uncommon clarity and grace, and promises to breathe new life not only into geographical inquiry but into critical practice across the spectrum of the humanities and social sciences - and beyond. An extraordinary achievement′ - Professor Derek Gregory, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia Hybrid Geographies critically examines the `opposition′ between nature and culture, the material and the social, as represented in scientific, environmental and popular discourses. Demonstrating that the world is not an exclusively human achievement, Hybrid Geographies reconsiders the relation between human and non-human, the social and the material, showing how they are intimately and variously linked. General arguments - informed by work in critical geography, feminist theory, environmental ethics, and science studies - are illustrated throughout with detailed case-study material. This exemplifies the two core themes of the book: a consideration of hybridity (the human/non-human relation) and of the `fault-lines′ in the spatial organization of society and nature. Hybrid Geographies is essential reading for students in the social sciences with an interest in nature, space and social theory.

Defining Hybrid Homeschools in America: Little Platoons explores the idea of hybrid homeschools, where students attend a formal school setting for part of the week and are homeschooled the rest of the week. Eric Wearne observes that school choice in America typically comes in two forms: programs set up for disadvantaged students, and the more common form of choice that wealthy parents can exercise—paying private tuition or moving to a more desirable school district. While disadvantaged families in many places and wealthy families everywhere can exercise choice when it comes to schooling, a sizeable group typically gets left out of those options—the large number of families who are too wealthy to access state or local programs, but not wealthy enough to pay for private schooling or moving expenses. Wearne argues that this is a long-term weakness for school choice in America; the middle class is generally a well-off demographic, but is almost completely unserved when it comes to this large aspect of their children’s lives. However, one low-cost option has arisen to address this niche: hybrid home schools. Wearne cites existing research to argue for this model’s efficacy for the middle class as a strong example of a healthy civil society and examines how policy definitions are breaking down and evolving in education as we challenge the existing definitions of schooling.

Is civil society’s influence favorable to the evolvement of democratic structures and democratic gender relations? While traditional approaches would answer in the affirmative, the authors highlight the ambivalences. Focusing on women’s organizations in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, they cover the full spectrum of civil society’s possible performance: from its important role in the overcoming of power relations to its reinforcement as backers of government structures or the distribution of antifeminist ideas.