Balai Pustaka and the Politics of Knowledge

During the colonial period of Indonesia the Dutch government was an important source of knowledge which was disseminated through the production of books, such as textbooks and other printed material. In response to the establishment of many new commercial printers and publishers, the colonial government, in 1917, set up its own publishing company, Balai Pustaka, which also published attractive and popular books. This new publishing house intentionally and unintentionally served several goals at a time that was characterized by the rise of young Indonesian intellectuals who were part of new political movements formed in the first decades of the 20th century.

Author Popular Books

Authoring popular books presents both pros and cons for researchers. It will increase your visibility as an authority in your field, making it easier for you to get the attention of important lay audiences and even your colleagues, but it requires the discipline to spend years researching, writing, and going through the long publishing process. To be successful, a book must be based on a marketable idea that features having something new to say, telling an engaging story, and having a broader point. For researchers, collaborating with a professional writer has both advantages and pitfalls. Writing a book requires the literary equivalent of training for a marathon. It will also require attracting an agent or publisher, which involves writing a query letter and proposal. Authoring a book also means committing to publicizing it.

Metodologi Abū Al-‘Abbās Al-Qurṭubī Dalam Menangani Musykil Al-Hadis Di Dalam Kitab Al-Mufhim Li-Ma Asykal Min Talkhis Kitab Muslim: Tumpuan Terhadap Hadis Terpilih Bermula Bab Al-Iman Sehingga Bab Al-Janazah

Abū al-‘Abbās al-Qurṭubī is known as one of the lecturers of authentic Muslim hadis books. Many of his works have become references and among his popular books is the book Al-Mufhim Li-Ma Asykal Min Talkhis Kitab Muslim. It has been a reference to the hadis scholars after him when reciting the hadis of the Prophet. Through this work, you can see the greatness of Abū al-‘Abbās al-Qurṭubī in various fields of knowledge including musykil al-hadis. This study is a literature study in analyzing the method of Abū al-‘Abbās al-Qurṭubī to deal with the musykil al-Hadis in ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Inductive and deductive studies have been used to see the ability of al-Qurṭubī to remove the ambiguity that exists in the ṣaḥīḥ Muslim hadis. The results of the study found that al-Qurṭubī has followed the method of the majority of hadis scholars in solving the musykil hadiss, namely radd al-ḍa’īf. It is then followed by the method of jama ', nasakh and tarjīh. Studies have found that al-Qurṭubī solves the problem of musykil al-hadis which is contrary to the Qur'an, contrary to other hadiss, contrary to history, contrary to the ijmā or deeds of the people of Medina and that there is ambiguity in the content of the hadis itself.

Thought Leader Insights on Innovation Ecosystems and Clusters

This article provides short, “book reviews” and selected comments on recent, popular books that focused on ecosystems and clusters. They include: AnnaLee Saxenian (reflections and lessons from “Regional Advantage”; Leslie Berlin (the building of Silicon Valley from “Troublemakers”); Richard Florida (reflections and extensions of “The Creative Class”); and, Greg Horowitt (lessons from “Rainforest”).

What Do SoTL Practitioners Need to Know about Learning?

What does someone embarking on a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project need to know about how students learn? And how can the SoTL novice reconcile their goals to improve teaching and learning with the vastness of the literature on the science of learning? In this article, we consider the complexity of this literature and its intersection with SoTL. We also review several popular books and websites that might be used by the SoTL novice as entry points for grounding their SoTL studies, informing the questions they ask and narrowing the literature they read. In these brief reviews, we offer practical tips and advice on how to use these resources effectively so that one does not have to become an expert in the science of learning to perform outstanding SoTL research.

What Do SoTL Practitioners Need to Know about Learning?

What does someone embarking on a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project need to know about how students learn? And how can the SoTL novice reconcile their goals to improve teaching and learning with the vastness of the literature on the science of learning? In this article, we consider the complexity of this literature and its intersection with SoTL. We also review several popular books and websites that might be used by the SoTL novice as entry points for grounding their SoTL studies, informing the questions they ask and narrowing the literature they read. In these brief reviews, we offer practical tips and advice on how to use these resources effectively so that one does not have to become an expert in the science of learning to perform outstanding SoTL research.

India–China ‘Connectedness’

Native-language source materials shed much light on the nature of modern subaltern perception of India–China ‘connectedness’. They have, however, remained scantily used. In this context, this chapter provides an overview of ‘native voices’ available in Hindi and other languages in burgeoning local print media in the late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century north India. Published in popular books, journals, and newspapers, they present an alternative discourse and open up new vista in our comprehension of areas of India–China interactions. Examples of this may be seen in books in Hindi on China by Thakur Gadadhar Singh and Dr Mahendulal Garg, or in editorials and independent commentaries on various events in China by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Rabindranath Tagore, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, and many other contemporary native intellectuals. Demonstrating yearnings for unity and harmony, these writings provide context to explore various vicissitudes of ‘connectedness’ as well as sources to the contemporary invocations of common ideas of ‘Asian values’ and pan-Asianism.

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in the Mythologem of “Heavenly Customs”, between Rumanian Popular Books and Folklore

The article shows that the mythologem associated with the ascension of the soul, despite its very antique origin and its presence as a citation in the writings of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, emerges with time displaying specific connotations, thanks to which it enters the Gnostic imaginary, to be refracted later in Christianized key in the hagiographic-eschatological narrative hinged on S. Basil the Younger. Saint Basil, who lived in the 10th century and died probably circa 950, becomes a protagonist of a hagiographic narration. In fact, although the manuscript tradition received by Acta Sanctorum does not diverges from the canonical elements displayed by the life of a saint, a conspicuous numer of Greek testimonies introduces in the narration attributed to Gregory (a disciple of the saint), an eschatological part that includes a description of the afterworld, of the Hell and the punishments received by the sinners, together with textual inserts, considered to be later than the “life” as such. The narrative begins with the story of Theodora, who describes to Gregory the path of her soul through 21 heavenly customs. The mythologem of Theodora’s heavenly customs is attested by tens of codices from the whole Orthodox area, but it is the Rumanian area only to retransmit and rework, also at folkloric level, the suggestive belief in the heavenly customs. Dualistic memory, oral tradition, and Orthodox hagiography seem to blend, at last, without any contradiction into an extraordinarily vivid and imaginative psychanody.

Whyte-Out: How the Creator of Groupthink Became Unseen by Management's History

Irving Janis’ (1971) concept of ‘groupthink’, the idea that the desire for consensus overrides the realistic appraisals of alternatives and leads to poor decision making, is a staple of management and organizational behavior textbooks. Despite gaining little support in empirical studies, Janis’ eight symptoms of groupthink remains a popular framework taught to budding managers. What has been forgotten, however, is that nearly 20 years before Janis’ supposed invention, groupthink was created by William H Whyte, author of one of the 1950s’ most influential and popular books on management. We investigate how Whyte’s link to groupthink became invisible to management’s history, why this matters, and how recovering Whyte’s ideas can provide fresh, critical insights into people dynamics in contemporary organizations."