The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for things").

And despite the mind-numbing hardships of daily life, it was a place of extraordinary intellectual ferment.

Still, the last four years have seen extraordinary ferment in the schools, especially in the South, where public education was widely perceived as lagging.

It is a sign of extraordinary ferment in the justice system.

He was working 12- to 14-hour days in the Office of Legal Counsel in a period of what colleagues describe as extraordinary intellectual ferment that marked them for life.

The humble pay for the 120,000 home-care workers in New York State and the muscle of the state's largest labor union have made these workers the focus of extraordinary political ferment.

But at a time of extraordinary ferment in public education, charter schools have caught fire for many parents and educators as the best hope for offering real choices within the framework of public education.

The election of Annette Strauss, a City Council member, capped a year of extraordinary political ferment in the city.

The period since the election has proved to be a time of extraordinary ferment in Middle East diplomacy.

But most experts agree that the posturing and proposals over parental rights and parental responsibility reflect an extraordinary ferment about society's views on parenting that is driven by interrelated economic, social and political trends.