Thursday, February 12, 2009

Introduction to Wireless Technology or Death Of The Guilds

Introduction to Wireless Technology

Author: Gary S Rogers

This text provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of wireless technology and networking. It covers the history of wireless communications, Wireless Application Protocol, Bluetooth, cellular telephony, public services, wireless LANs, satellite communications, and the Global Positioning System. Case studies are presented throughout to enhance the learning experience.



Book review: Roosevelt and the Holocaust or Understanding the Presidency

Death Of The Guilds: Professions, States, and the Advance of Capitalism, 1930 to the Present

Author: Elliott A Kraus

In a uniquely wide-ranging analysis of modern professional group power, Elliott A. Krause looks at four traditional professions: medicine, law, university teaching, and engineering. His richly detailed comparison of the autonomy and leverage these professions wield in five countries - the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Germany - reveals many differences among the countries and the professions. Yet in the past three decades each professional group in each country has experienced a marked decline in its powers in relation to the state and to capitalist institutions. With a shift toward capitalist control, Krause contends, the professions operate more on a for-profit basis, and increased rationing of services becomes more likely. For these professional groups, such powers as control over association and training for the profession, over the workplace, over the market for services, and over the group's relation to the state peaked by the late 1950s and early 1960s. After that, Krause's nation-by-nation social historical comparison shows, the actions of states, of capitalist employers of professionals, or of the two together have eroded professional group power. This loss of power, Krause cautions, will lead to fewer benefits for consumers of professional services as providers respond less to consumer needs and more to the priorities of capitalists who arrange the services and determine who will receive them. And, as the professions surrender noncapitalist values, they become no different from any other occupations.



Table of Contents:
Preface
1Guild Power and the Theory of Professions1
2The United States: Capitalism Dominant, Professions Pressured29
3Britain: Class-Divided Professions and an Amateur State79
4France: Strong State, Cliental Professions123
5Italy: Partitocrazia and Politicized Professions172
6Germany: Corporatist System, Professions Included214
7Comparative and International Perspectives252
8Conclusions: Guild Power and Social Change280
References287
Index303

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