John Roberts – författare

Cruising on a small boat is a continuous learning experience. Sometimes you discover answers on your own, but more often the best lessons come from casual conversations with other cruisers. Why Didn't I Think of That? brings together the lessons learned, the tested advice, and the ingenious solutions of more than 200 sailors from around the world. Here you'll find nearly 1,200 tips on everything from anchors to bilge pumps, refrigeration to communication, food preparation to handy gadgets, finding just the right tool to weathering the weather, and cruising with children to making your boat a secure and comfortable home. Whether you're new to cruising or a full-time liveaboard, this book belongs on board.

Business firms around the world are experimenting with new organizational designs, changing their formal architectures, their routines and processes, and their corporate cultures as they seek to improve their current performance and their growth prospects. In the process they are changing the scope of their business operations, redrawing their organization charts, redefining the allocation of decision-making authority and responsibility, revamping the mechanisms for motivating and rewarding people, reconsidering which activities to conduct in-house and which to out-source, redesigning their information systems, and seeking to alter the shared beliefs, values and norms that their people hold. In this book, John Roberts argues that there are predictable, necessary relationships among these changes that will improve performance and growth. The organizations that are successful will establish patterns of fit among the elements of their organizational designs, their competitive strategies and the external environment in which they operate and will go about this in a holistic manner. The Modern Firm develops powerful conceptual frameworks for analyzing the interrelations between organizational design features, competitive strategy and the business environment. Written in a non-technical language, the book is nevertheless based on rigorous modeling and draws on numerous examples from eighteenth century fur trading companies to such modern firms such as BP and Nokia. Finally the book explores why these developments are happening now, pointing to the increase in global competition and changes in technology. Written by one of the world's leading economists and experts on business strategy and organization, The Modern Firm provides new insights into the changes going on in business today and will be of interest to academics, students and managers alike.

Business firms around the world are experimenting with new organizational designs, changing their formal architectures, their routines and processes, and their corporate cultures as they seek to improve their current performance and their growth prospects. In the process they are changing the scope of their business operations, redrawing their organization charts, redefining the allocation of decision-making authority and responsibility, revamping the mechanisms for motivating and rewarding people, reconsidering which activities to conduct in-house and which to out-source, redesigning their information systems, and seeking to alter the shared beliefs, values and norms that their people hold. In this book, John Roberts argues that there are predictable, necessary relationships among these changes that will improve performance and growth. The organizations that are successful will establish patterns of fit among the elements of their organizational designs, their competitive strategies and the external environment in which they operate and will go about this in a holistic manner.The Modern Firm develops powerful conceptual frameworks for analyzing the interrelations between organizational design features, competitive strategy and the business environment. Written in a non-technical language, the book is nevertheless based on rigorous modeling and draws on numerous examples from eighteenth century fur trading companies to such modern firms such as BP and Nokia. Finally the book explores why these developments are happening now, pointing to the increase in global competition and changes in technology.Written by one of the world's leading economists and experts on business strategy and organization, The Modern Firm provides new insights into the changes going on in business today and will be of interest to academics, students and managers alike.The Modern Firm was the Economist Best Business Book of the Year 2004.

This dictionary is part of the Oxford Reference Collection: using sustainable print-on-demand technology to make the acclaimed backlist of the Oxford Reference programme perennially available in hardback format. Authoritative, wide-ranging, and unrivalled in its accessibility, The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World is a concise and lucid survey of life in ancient Greece and Rome, spanning 776 BC - AD 180, from the first Olympic games to the death of Marcus Aurelius. An approachable, user-friendly abridgement of the highly acclaimed Oxford Classical Dictionary, this book offers over 2,500 A-Z entries on aspects of life in the classical world, from politics, medicine, philosophy, art, and architecture, to history, myth and religion, mathematics, and literature, with biographical entries on the important individuals - both real and mythological - of the period. Appendices include a clear and comprehensive account of money and its value in the classical world; a chronology of events across Greece

Theorists critique photography for "objectifying" its subjects and manipulating appearances for the sake of art. In this bold counterargument, John Roberts recasts photography's violating powers of disclosure and aesthetic technique as part of a complex "social ontology" that exposes the hierarchies, divisions, and exclusions behind appearances. The photographer must "arrive unannounced" and "get in the way of the world," Roberts argues, committing photography to the truth-claims of the spectator over the self-interests and sensitivities of the subject. Yet even though the violating capacity of the photograph results from external power relations, the photographer is still faced with an ethical choice: whether to advance photography's truth-claims on the basis of these powers or to diminish or veil these powers to protect the integrity of the subject. Photography's acts of intrusion and destabilization, then, constantly test the photographer at the point of production, in the darkroom, and at the computer, especially in our 24-hour digital image culture.In this game-changing work, Roberts refunctions photography's place in the world, politically and theoretically restoring its reputation as a truth-producing medium.

Roberts seeks to show how and why world citizenship and mundialism—the building of global institutions—are essential for the human race to solve the growing problems of the environment, international violence, and other major world challenges. World citizenship is described from its origins, and its importance to solving current problems is made clear. Its necessary connection to federalism and democracy is stressed, while the inevitable consequent requirement of mundialism is discussed and emphasized.Mundialism describes the creation of structures needed by the emerging world community; it means, as Roberts points out, working for a new political organization of humankind involving the transfer of certain parts of national sovereignty to a World Federal Authority. This is an important synthetic and original work that will be of concern to those interested in world citizenship and peace issues.

Today we often hear academics, commentators, pundits, and politicians telling us that new media has transformed activism, providing an array of networks for ordinary people to become creatively involved in a multitude of social and political practices.But what exactly is the ideology lurking behind these positive claims made about digital publics? By recourse to various critical thinkers, including Marx, Bakhtin, Deleuze and Guattari, and Gramsci, Digital Publics systematically unpacks this ideology. It explains how a number of influential social theorists and management gurus have consistently argued that we now live in new informational times based in global digital systems and new financial networks, which create new sbjectivities and power relations in societies.Digital Publics traces the historical roots of this thinking, demonstrates its flaws and offers up an alternative Marxist-inspired theory of the public sphere, cultural political economy and financialisation.The book will appeal to scholars and students of cultural studies, critical management studies, political science and sociology.

Revolution and Improvement: The Western World 1775–1847 offers a sweeping yet incisive study of the formative decades that defined the modern West. John Roberts situates the period between the American Revolution and the revolutions of 1848 as a decisive “zone of change,” where the intertwined forces of revolution and improvement reshaped politics, economies, and mentalities. From the upheavals of the French Revolution and the consolidation of new nation-states to the rise of industrial society, Roberts draws out both the transformative shocks and the inertial weight of traditions that continued to structure everyday life.Balancing narrative breadth with interpretive sharpness, Roberts frames Western ascendancy as a story of uneven development and contested meaning. He highlights the paradox of simultaneous rupture and continuity, exploring how liberal ideals, Enlightenment mentalities, and emerging market economies collided with ancien régime institutions, corporate privilege, and entrenched hierarchies. Richly illustrated with maps and images, Revolution and Improvement provides both a fresh synthesis of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Western history and a reflective meditation on how revolutions, reforms, and resistances remade the foundations of global modernity.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

Revolution and Improvement: The Western World 1775–1847 offers a sweeping yet incisive study of the formative decades that defined the modern West. John Roberts situates the period between the American Revolution and the revolutions of 1848 as a decisive “zone of change,” where the intertwined forces of revolution and improvement reshaped politics, economies, and mentalities. From the upheavals of the French Revolution and the consolidation of new nation-states to the rise of industrial society, Roberts draws out both the transformative shocks and the inertial weight of traditions that continued to structure everyday life.Balancing narrative breadth with interpretive sharpness, Roberts frames Western ascendancy as a story of uneven development and contested meaning. He highlights the paradox of simultaneous rupture and continuity, exploring how liberal ideals, Enlightenment mentalities, and emerging market economies collided with ancien régime institutions, corporate privilege, and entrenched hierarchies. Richly illustrated with maps and images, Revolution and Improvement provides both a fresh synthesis of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Western history and a reflective meditation on how revolutions, reforms, and resistances remade the foundations of global modernity.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

After modernism and postmodernism, it is argued, the everyday supposedly is where a democracy of taste is brought into being - the place where art goes to recover its customary and collective pleasures, and where the shared pleasures of popular culture are indulged, from celebrity magazines to shopping malls.John Roberts argues that this understanding of the everyday downgrades its revolutionary meaning and philosophical implications. Bringing radical political theory back to the centre of the discussion, he shows how notions of cultural democratization have been oversimplified. Asserting that the everyday should not be narrowly identified with the popular, Roberts critiques the way in which the concept is now overly associated with consumption and 'ordinariness'.Engaging with the work of key thinkers including, Lukács, Arvatov, Benjamin, Lefebvre, Gramsci, Barthes, Vaneigem, and de Certeau, Roberts shows how the concept of the everyday continues to be central to debates on ideology, revolution and praxis. He offers a lucid account of different approaches that developed over the course of the twentieth century, making this an ideal book for anyone looking for a politicised approach to cultural theory.

Boris Arvatov's Art and Production is a classic of the early Soviet avant-garde. Now nearing a century since its first publication, it is a crucial intervention for those seeking to understand the social dynamic of art and revolution during the period.Derived from the internal struggles of Soviet Constructivism, as it confronted the massive problems of cultural transformation after 'War Communism', Arvatov's writing is a major force in the split that occurred in the revolutionary horizons of Constructivism in the early 1920s. Critical of early Constructivism's social-aesthetic process of art's transformation of daily life - epitomised in studio-based painting, photography and object making - Arvatov polemicises for the devolution of artistic skills directly into the relations of production and the factory.Whilst acknowledging the problems of a pure factory-based Productivism, Arvatov remains overwhelmingly committed to a new role and function for art outside the conventional studio and traditional gallery. Addressing issues such as artistic labour and productive labour, the artist as technician, art and multidisciplinarity and a life for art beyond 'art' - finding new relevance amidst the extensive social turn of contemporary participatory art - Art and Production offers a timely and compelling manifesto.

Within many societies across the world, new social and political movements have sprung up that either challenge formal parliamentary structures of democracy and participation, or work within them and, in the process, fundamentally alter the ideological content of democratic potentials. At the same time, some parliamentary political parties have attracted a new type of ‘populist’ political rhetoric and support base.This collection, along with its accompanying volume 2, examines the emergence of, and the connections between, these new types of left-wing democracy and participation. Through an array of examples from different countries, it explains why left-wing activism arises in new and innovative spaces in society and how this joins up with conventional left-wing politics, including parliamentary politics. It demonstrates how these new forms of politics can resonate with the real life experiences of ordinary people and thereby win support for left-wing agendas.

Within many societies across the world, new social and political movements have sprung up that either challenge formal parliamentary structures of democracy and participation, or work within them and, in the process, fundamentally alter the ideological content of democratic potentials. At the same time, some parliamentary political parties have attracted a new type of ‘populist’ political rhetoric and support base.This collection, along with its accompanying volume 2, examines the emergence of, and the connections between, these new types of left-wing democracy and participation. Through an array of examples from different countries, it explains why left-wing activism arises in new and innovative spaces in society and how this joins up with conventional left-wing politics, including parliamentary politics. It demonstrates how these new forms of politics can resonate with the real life experiences of ordinary people and thereby win support for left-wing agendas.

Within many societies across the world, new social and political movements have sprung up that either challenge formal parliamentary structures of democracy and participation, or work within them and, in the process, fundamentally alter the ideological content of democratic potentials. At the same time, some parliamentary political parties have attracted a new type of ‘populist’ political rhetoric and support base.This collection, along with its accompanying volume 2, examines the emergence of, and the connections between, these new types of left-wing democracy and participation. Through an array of examples from different countries, it explains why left-wing activism arises in new and innovative spaces in society and how this joins up with conventional left-wing politics, including parliamentary politics. It demonstrates how these new forms of politics can resonate with the real life experiences of ordinary people and thereby win support for left-wing agendas.

Within many societies across the world, new social and political movements have sprung up that either challenge formal parliamentary structures of democracy and participation, or work within them and, in the process, fundamentally alter the ideological content of democratic potentials. At the same time, some parliamentary political parties have attracted a new type of ‘populist’ political rhetoric and support base.This collection, along with its accompanying volume 2, examines the emergence of, and the connections between, these new types of left-wing democracy and participation. Through an array of examples from different countries, it explains why left-wing activism arises in new and innovative spaces in society and how this joins up with conventional left-wing politics, including parliamentary politics. It demonstrates how these new forms of politics can resonate with the real life experiences of ordinary people and thereby win support for left-wing agendas.

In this stimulating collection of essays, John Roberts draws together a wide range of work on some of the most important artists of the post-war period. Written by leading art historians and artist-writers, the essays take a sharply critical look at the construction of modern art history. The artists discussed include Francis Picabia, Robert Smithson, Ad Reinhardt, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Mary Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Victor Burgin and Laurie Anderson.The extensive influence of post-structuralism on all schools of art history has brought about a widespread derogation of questions around intentionality and social agency. Free-ranging textual interpretation has come to outweigh causal analysis. Art Has No History! reverses this bias. Putting the artist back into art history, the essays reinstate the claims for historical materialism as a theory of the conflictual socialization of individuals. Acknowledging the dissemblances involved in the representations of artistic invention, the book challenges the self-image of traditional art history and the radical New Art History alike.In his introduction, John Roberts gives a fascinating account of the vicissitudes of Marxist writing on art, from Max Raphael and Arnold Hauser to T.J. Clark and Griselda Pollock. Placing the debates on intention and agency in their wider political context, he refers to what he calls "the continuing influence of historical materialism on the best Anglophone art writing today." Art Has No History! is a lively and iconoclastic contribution to that tradition.