Product Description: In 1999 the Xunta de Galicia called an International Architecture Competition to build the City of Culture of Galicia on Mount Gaiás in Santiago de Compostela. Twelve proposals by renowned national and international architects' studios were initially submitted to this competition for ideas...read more

In adopting the theme of What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? This book aims at presenting afresh, a highly specialized discussion of primary sources related to the diverse aspects and episodes of that long disputed question. The book covers a wide range of topics, beginning with an initial presentation of different Ancient Egyptian types of library institutions, with a special focus on the later Coptic Nag Hamadi Library. It then deals with the troubled times under later Ptolemies and Romans, when the Royal Library, the Daughter Library and the Mouseion, came under a succession of threats: Caesar's Alexandrian War in 48 B.C., and during the tragic developments in the third and fourth centuries which ultimately culminated in the destruction of the Serapeum that housed the Daughter Library.A discussion of the intellectual milieu during the fourth and fifth centuries, follows, as well as the conflicting attitudes within the Church with regard to classical learning. An analysis of historical and new archaeological evidence confirms the fact that Alexandria continued to be a city of books and scholarship centuries after the destruction of the Library. Finally, the late medieval Arab story of the destruction of the Library by order of Caliph Omar, is fully considered and refuted through textual analysis of the original sources. The contributors include: William J. Cherf, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Maria Dzielska, Mostafa A. El-Abbadi, Jean-Yves Empereur, Fayza M. Haikal, Georges Leroux, Bernard Lewis, Grzegorz Majcherek, Mounir H. Megally, Birger A. Pearson, Lucien X. Polastron, Qassem Abdou Qassem, and Ismail Serageldin.

Product Description: This comprehensive collection aims to provide a reasoned account and definition of the concept of social capital. It covers both theoretical and empirical studies and includes contributions from a number of globally renowned scholars.

Product Description: This book had its genesis in Alexandria, Egypt in March 2002 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, when the new library hosted a conference on Biotechnology and Sustainable Development: Voices of the South and North. Here, a group of modern scholars met to review the state of the art in relation to the applications of biosciences in human health, food and agriculture and the environment, and address the ethical, institutional, regulatory and socio-economic issues that affect their use...read more

Product Description: This book provides an account of the current understanding of social capital. It covers both theoretical and empirical studies, and the concept is debated throughout. Also included in this volume is the classic 1987 article by the late James Coleman, 'Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital', which formed the basis for the development of social capital as an organizing concept in the social sciences...read more

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Product Description: In this collection of essays, contributors debate the definition of social capital—-broadly understood as the effect social networks and shared attitudes can have on economic performance—and ask how the concept can be applied to development policy and analysis...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: The Architecture of Empowerment People, Shelter and Livable Cities Edited by Ismaïil Serageldin Foreword by Muhammad Yunus The architecture of empowerment is about challenging architects to do more than build for the poor . It invites them to rethink the premises of the process of design as much as the process of building...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: This volume features the projects entered for the 1995 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. An introductory chapter discusses the award and explores spirituality in buildings and contemporary society. The book includes descriptions of the winning designs in Yemen, Tunisia, Pakistan, Senegal and India...read more

Product Description: * Provides a valuable new insight into contemporaneous mosque theory and design * Defines current mosques within the global context of comparative religions * No other building type is so charged with symbolism * This book will be of particular interest to Islamic/Muslim architects worldwide, students, historians and religion leader...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)