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Searching for the Just City: Debates in Urban Theory and Practice (Questioning Cities)
By Peter Marcuse, Johannes Novy, James Connolly, Ingrid Olivo, Cuz Potter, Justin Steil. 2009
Cities are many things. Among their least appealing aspects, cities are frequently characterized by concentrations of insecurity and exploitation. Cities…
have also long represented promises of opportunity and liberation. Public decision-making in contemporary cities is full of conflict, and principles of justice are rarely the explicit basis for the resolution of disputes. If today’s cities are full of injustices and unrealized promises, how would a Just City function? Is a Just City merely a utopia, or does it have practical relevance? This book engages with the growing debate around these questions. The notion of the Just City emerges from philosophical discussions about what justice is combined with the intellectual history of utopias and ideal cities. The contributors to this volume, including Susan Fainstein, David Harvey and Margit Mayer articulate a conception of the Just City and then examine it from differing angles, ranging from Marxist thought to communicative theory. The arguments both develop the concept of a Just City and question it, as well as suggesting alternatives for future expansion. Explorations of the concept in practice include case studies primarily from U.S. cities, but also from Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The authors find that a forthright call for justice in all aspects of city life, putting the question of what a Just City should be on the agenda of urban reform, can be a practical approach to solving questions of urban policy. This synthesis is provocative in a globalised world and the contributing authors bridge the gap between theoretical conceptualizations of urban justice and the reality of planning and building cities. The notion of the Just City is an empowering framework for contemporary urban actors to improve the quality of urban life and Searching for the Just City is a seminal read for practitioners, professionals, students, researchers and anyone interested in what urban futures should aim to achieve.Many residents of the Middle East - and more recently, Western powers - have placed great hope in democratization in…
the region. Yet authoritarianism remains the norm and movement towards democracy is both slow and uneven. The Struggle over Democracy in the Middle East examines democracy and democratization in the light of regional realities rather than the wishful thinking of outsiders. Specialists from the region analyze democratic prospects in the region, while accomplished scholars from the United States and the United Kingdom analyze Western policy, providing a wide-ranging survey of the efforts of individual countries and the effect of external influences. Addressing themes including sectarianism, culture, religion, security and the promotion of democracy, the book examines the experiences of activists, political parties, religious groups and governments and highlights the difficulties involved in bringing democracy to the Middle East. Providing a multifaceted approach to the issue of democratization, this book will be a valuable reference for courses on Middle Eastern politics, political science and democracy.The Strange Death of Soviet Communism: A Postscript (The National Insterest)
By Nikolas Gvosdev. 2008
The collapse of communism marked the close of an era of world history. What took place in the Soviet Union…
between 1917 and 1991, in the eyes of its proponents, constituted a "great experiment" in the application of new modes of organization to social life, the largest such experiment in history. The Strange Death of Soviet Communism, which first appeared as a special issue of The National Interest, brings together leading scholars of Soviet history, who show why the experiment failed and how it has destroyed the laboratory of socialist utopias.Francis Fukuyama considers the role of long-term social and intellectual modernization while Vladimir Kontorovich examines the related factor of economic stagnation. Myron Rush then analyzes the accidental and precedent-breaking accession and leadership of Gorbachev. Charles Fairbanks looks at the more general factors of change and rigidity within communist political culture. Chapters by Peter Reddaway and Stephen Sestanovich conclude this section by assessing respectively the role of internal pressure from Soviet citizens and external pressure from the West. The next chapters deal with why the West was surprised by the communist collapse. This involves a critique of Western Sovietology both for its scholarly failures and its ideological prejudices. Here, Peter Rutland and William Odom deal with social science interpretations of the Soviet Union while Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes reflect on historians' readings of Soviet history. Martin Malia then offers a comparative assessment of both. In the third section Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer discuss communism in relation to the intellectuals in the West.Although the authors are united in their anti-communist stance, the volume is diverse in its perspectives and assessments of Soviet communism. Taken together, these contributions show that the debate on the legacy of communism and a subsequent rethinking of modern history is just beginninUnderstanding Genres in Comics (Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels)
By Nicolas Labarre. 2020
This book offers a theoretical framework and numerous cases studies – from early comic books to contemporary graphic novels –…
to understand the uses of genres in comics. It begins with the assumption that genre is both frequently used and undertheorized in the medium. Drawing from existing genre theories, particularly in film studies, the book pays close attention to the cultural, commercial, and technological specificities of comics in order to ground its account of the dynamics of genre in the medium. While chronicling historical developments, including the way public discourses shaped the horror genre in comics in the 1950s and the genre-defining function of crossovers, the book also examines contemporary practices, such as the use of hashtags and their relations to genres in self-published online comics.Swiss Public Administration: Making the State Work Successfully (Governance and Public Management)
By Andreas Ladner, Nils Soguel, Yves Emery, Sophie Weerts, Stéphane Nahrath. 2019
Swiss citizens approve of their government and the way democracy is practiced; they trust the authorities and are satisfied with…
the range of services Swiss governments provide. This is quite unusual when compared to other countries. This open access book provides insight into the organization and the functioning of the Swiss state. It claims that, beyond politics, institutions and public administration, there are other factors which make a country successful. The authors argue that Switzerland is an interesting case, from a theoretical, scientific and a more practice-oriented perspective. While confronted with the same challenges as other countries, Switzerland offers different solutions, some of which work astonishingly well.Performances of Suffering in Latin American Migration: Heroes, Martyrs and Saints
By Ana Elena Puga, Víctor M. Espinosa. 2020
This book questions the reliance on melodrama and spectacle in social performances and cultural productions by and about migrants from…
Mexico and Central America to the United States. Focusing on archetypal characters with nineteenth-century roots that recur in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries – heroic saviors, saintly mothers and struggling fathers, martyred children and rebellious youth – it shows how theater practitioners, filmmakers, visual artists, advocates, activists, journalists, and others who want to help migrants often create migrant melodramas, performances that depict their heroes as virtuous victims at the mercy of evil villains. In order to gain respect for the human rights that are supposedly already theirs on paper and participate in a global market that trades in performances of suffering, migrants themselves sometimes accept the roles into which they are cast, or even cast themselves. Some express their suffering publicly, often on demand. Others find ways to twist, parody, resist, or reject migrant melodrama.This book discusses Brexit’s implications for the two most important security institutions in Europe, the EU’s Common Foreign and Security…
Policy (CFSP) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While Brexit is still unfolding, this book asks what it would mean for the future embedding of the UK into CFSP and NATO, as well as how it will most likely affect the inner mechanics of the transatlantic alliance (NATO) and CFSP in particular, in the years to come. The book is divided into two parts. Part I provides a historical overview of the evolution of the relationships between the UK and NATO and the EU, respectively. Part II discusses the geopolitical contexts and potential impacts of Brexit, focusing on the contemporary security environment, as well as the options that the EU has, in the event an agreement is concluded. Using both predictive and normative arguments, this book provides likely scenarios for an event that continues to be a source of much uncertainty for the global community.Making an important contribution to one of the most important policy debates in international security affairs today, this book is of interest to students and researchers of international security affairs, European politics, and global governance as well as policymakers and practitioners working on the Brexit file.Making Believe: Questions About Mennonites and Art
By Magdalene Redekop. 2020
Making Believe responds to a remarkable flowering of art by Mennonites in Canada. After the publication of his first novel…
in 1962, Rudy Wiebe was the only identifiable Mennonite literary writer in the country. Beginning in the 1970s, the numbers grew rapidly and now include writers Patrick Friesen, Sandra Birdsell, Di Brandt, Sarah Klassen, Armin Wiebe, David Bergen, Miriam Toews, Carrie Snyder, Casey Plett, and many more. A similar renaissance is evident in the visual arts (including artists Gathie Falk, Wanda Koop, and Aganetha Dyck) and in music (including composers Randolph Peters, Carol Ann Weaver, and Stephanie Martin). Confronted with an embarrassment of riches that resist survey, Magdalene Redekop opts for the use of case studies to raise questions about Mennonites and art. Part criticism, part memoir, Making Believe argues that there is no such thing as Mennonite art. At the same time, her close engagement with individual works of art paradoxically leads Redekop to identify a Mennonite sensibility at play in the space where artists from many cultures interact. Constant questioning and commitment to community are part of the Mennonite dissenting tradition. Although these values come up against the legacy of radical Anabaptist hostility to art, Redekop argues that the Early Modern roots of a contemporary crisis of representation are shared by all artists. Making Believe posits a Spielraum or play space in which all artists are dissembling tricksters, but differences in how we play are inflected by where we come from. The close readings in this book insist on respect for difference at the same time as they invite readers to find common ground while making believe across cultures.This book analyses the response of the Indonesian state to violence against Ahmadiyah and Shi’a minority communities by foregrounding the…
close connections between state officials and vigilante groups, which influenced the way the post-Soeharto democratic Indonesian governments addressed the problem of violence against religious minorities. Arguing that the violence stemmed in part from the state officials’ close connection with vigilante groups, and a general tendency for the authorities to forge mutual and material interests with such groups, the author demonstrates that vigilante groups were able to perpetrate violence against the minority congregations with a significant degree of impunity. While the Indonesian state has become far more democratic, accountable, and decentralized since 1998, the violence against Ahmadiyah and Shi’a communities shows a state that is still unwilling in assisting or allowing minority groups to practice their religion. The research undertaken for this book draws upon a lengthy period of ethnographic fieldwork in the communities of West Java and East Java. Research material includes in-depth interviews with community and religious leaders, state officials and security forces, and other prominent politicians. A novel approach to the problem of Islam, violence, and the state in Indonesia, the book will be of interest to researchers studying Southeast Asian Politics, Islam and Politics, Conflict Resolution, State and Violence, and Terrorism and Political Violence.The Elements of a Home reveals the fascinating stories behind more than 60 everyday household objects and furnishings. Brimming with…
amusing anecdotes and absorbing trivia, this captivating collection is a treasure trove of curiosities.With tales from the kitchen, the bedroom, and every room in between, these pages expose how napkins got their start as lumps of dough in ancient Greece, why forks were once seen as immoral tools of the devil, and how Plato devised one of the earliest alarm clocks using rocks and water—plus so much more.• A charming book for anyone who loves history, design, or décor• Readers discover tales from every nook and cranny of a home.• Entries feature historical details from locations all over the world, including Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa.As a design historian and former managing editor of Design*Sponge, author Amy Azzarito has crafted an engaging, whimsical history of the household objects you've never thought twice about.The result is a fascinating book filled with tidbits from a wide range of cultures and places about the history of domestic luxury.• Filled with lovely illustrations by Alice Pattullo• Perfect for anyone who adores interior design, trivia, history, and unique facts• Great for those who enjoyed The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer, An Uncommon History of Common Things by Bethanne Patrick and John Thompson, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin JenkinsSelling Sex in Kenya: Gendered Agency under Neoliberalism
By Eglė Česnulytė. 2020
As Kenyan women traditionally have fewer formal employment opportunities, often occupying lower-paid jobs in the informal sector, the experiences of…
women who earn money in unorthodox ways can offer revealing insights into the agency of women and its limits. Grounded in the narratives and life stories of women selling sex in Kenya, Eglė Česnulytė reveals the range of gendered and gendering effects that neoliberal policies have on everyday socio-political realities. By contextualising and historicising contemporary debates in the field, this important interdisciplinary study explores the societal structures that neo-liberal narratives and reforms influence, their gendered effects, and the extent to which individuals must internalise neoliberal economic logics in order to make or improve their living. In so doing, Česnulytė counters the prevailing male-dominated studies in political science to place women, and female-based narratives at the forefront.Staging the Blazon in Early Modern English Theater (Studies In Performance And Early Modern Drama)
By Sara Morrison, Deborah Uman. 2013
Offering the first sustained and comprehensive scholarly consideration of the dramatic potential of the blazon, this volume complicates what has…
become a standard reading of the Petrarchan convention of dismembering the beloved through poetic description. At the same time, it contributes to a growing understanding of the relationship between the material conditions of theater and interpretations of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The chapters in this collection are organized into five thematic parts emphasizing the conventions of theater that compel us to consider bodies as both literally present and figuratively represented through languge. The first part addresses the dramatic blazon as used within the conventions of courtly love. Examining the classical roots of the Petrarchan blazon, the next part explores the violent eroticism of a poetic technique rooted in Ovidian notions of metamorphosis. With similar attention paid to brutality, the third part analyzes the representation of blazonic dismemberment on stage and screen. Figurative battles become real in the fourth part, which addresses the frequent blazons surfacing in historical and political plays. The final part moves to the role of audience, analyzing the role of the observer in containing the identity of the blazoned woman as well as her attempts to resist becoming an objectified spectacle.Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy
By Chelsea Pace. 2020
Staging Sex lays out a comprehensive, practical solution for staging intimacy, nudity, and sexual violence. This book takes theatre practitioners…
step-by-step through the best practices, tools, and techniques for crafting effective theatrical intimacy. After an overview of the challenges directors face when staging theatrical intimacy, Staging Sex offers practical solutions and exercises, provides a system for establishing and discussing boundaries, and suggests efficient and effective language for staging intimacy and sexual violence. It also addresses production and classroom specific concerns and provides guidance for creating a culture of consent in any company or department. Written for directors, choreographers, movement coaches, stage managers, production managers, professional actors, and students of acting courses, Staging Sex is an essential tool for theatre practitioners who encounter theatrical intimacy or instructional touch, whether in rehearsal or in the classroom.Sports in America: From Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century
By Steven Riess. 2011
Provides practical help for the day-to-day concerns that keep managers awake at night. This book aims to fill the gap…
between the legal and policy issues that are the mainstay of human resources and supervision courses and the real-world needs of managers as they attempt to cope with the human side of their jobs.Sportscasters/Sportscasting: Principles and Practices
By Linda Fuller. 2008
A comprehensive introduction to the workings of the business, Sportscasters/Sportscasting: Principles and Practices explains all of the information essential to…
anyone looking to begin a career in sports media. This unique volume explores topics in print and broadcast media, sports psychology, technology issues, politics and legalities, ethics, and even the role of sports and sportscasting in society. Other topics discussed include the historical development and economics of sports and sportscasting, sports spectators, sports controversies, sociological perspectives, and sports journalism. Sportscasters/Sportscasting: Principles and Practices is filled with knowledge essential to the craft of sportscasting, including numerous appendices containing acronyms and biographic information about over 200 sportscasters, and a complete Instructor’s Manual with exercises to help guide students toward mastery of the topic.The Study of Comparative Government and Politics (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science #10)
By Gunnar Heckscher. 1957
Originally published in 1957, the first part of the book discusses the general problems of approach, classification, typology and terminology,…
and examines ancillary fields of study and the methods of teaching comparative government. Part Two is concerned with studies of particular areas, democratic control of foreign policy, political parties, contemporary revolutionary movements, parliamentary procedures, electoral systems and elections, and nationalized industries.Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism)
By Margaret Gouin. 2010
This book describes and analyses the structure and performance of Tibetan Buddhist death rituals, and situates that performance within the…
wider context of Buddhist death practices generally. Drawing on a detailed and systematic comparative survey of existing records of Tibetan funerary practices, including historical travel accounts, anthropological and ethnographic literature, Tibetan texts and academic studies, it demonstrates that there is no standard form of funeral in Tibetan Buddhism, although certain elements are common. The structure of the book follows the twin trajectories of benefiting the deceased and protecting survivors; in the process, it reveals a rich and complex panoply of activities, some handled by religious professionals and others by lay persons. This information is examined to identify similarities and differences in practices, and the degree to which Tibetan Buddhist funeral practices are consistent with the mortuary rituals of other forms of Buddhism. A number of elements in these death rites which at first appear to be unique to Tibetan Buddhism may only be ‘Tibetan’ in their surface characteristics, while having roots in practices which pre-date the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Filling a gap in the existing literature on Tibetan Buddhism, this book poses research challenges that will engage future scholars in the field of Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Anthropology.Understanding the CDM 2007 Regulations (Understanding Construction)
By Owen Griffiths, Alun Griffiths. 2011
Almost 3000 lives have been lost in the UK construction industry over the last twenty-five years, in addition to those…
seriously injured or made ill. The need to reduce this rate has required tight controls to be introduced throughout the planning and management of construction projects in the UK. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 outline the responsibilities and liabilities for the various professionals and agents involved. Straightforward and practical, Understanding the CDM 2007 Regulations demonstrates the rationale behind the regs, covers the duties of the five core duty holders (client, CDM coordinator, designer, principal contractor and contractor), explains the importance of the hazard management process on every project and also sets out the consequences of failing to successfully plan, design and manage for safety. Any client, architect, engineer, CDM co-ordinator, project manager, construction professional, or student will find this a simple but thorough and dependable guide and should value the management toolkit and the numerous practical examples of best practice and guidance on how to use the Approved Code of Practice appropriately. This book shows how to unleash the potential of the regulations and add real value to the industry.During the last two decades, the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have attempted to address the…
numerous human rights abuses that characterized the decades of communist rule. This book examines the main processes of transitional justice that permitted societies in those countries to come to terms with their recent past. It explores lustration, the banning of communist officials and secret political police officers and informers from post-communist politic, ordinary citizens’ access to the remaining archives compiled on them by the communist secret police, as well as trials and court proceedings launched against former communist officials and secret agents for their human rights trespasses. Individual chapters explore the progress of transitional justice in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovenia and the successor states of the former Soviet Union. The chapters explain why different countries have employed different models to come to terms with their communist past; assess each country’s relative successes and failures; and probe the efficacy of country-specific legislation to attain the transitional justice goals for which it was developed. The book draws together the country cases into a comprehensive comparative analysis of the determinants of post-communist transitional justice, that will be relevant not only to scholars of post-communist transition, but also to anyone interested in transitional justice in other contexts.Inside Gilligan's Island
By Sherwood Schwartz. 1994