This book provides a comprehensive overview of the nature of explanations as given in both natural and social sciences. It discusses models of explanation adopted in natural and social sciences. The author also elaborates upon naturalistic and anti-naturalistic views and other types of explanations such as functional, purposive, etc in social science. The volume elaborates upon themes like bridge principle; functional explanation; purposive explanation; teleological explanation; prediction; methodological individualism; methodological collectivism; illocutionary redescription; principle of action; and dispositional explanations, to understand whether the explanations given in the realm of social sciences are the same or different from the explanations that are given in the field of natural sciences. This introductory book is a must read for students and scholars of philosophy of science, logic, science and technology studies, social sciences, and philosophy in general.

This book on urban water bodies, catchment areas and drainage pattern is set against the backdrop of the unprecedented heavy rainfall that severely deluged metropolitan cities and other parts of India in recent years. It discusses how the processes and implementation of colonial urban development policies and projects have radically transformed the water bodies and their catchment areas - traditional water holding systems of Varanasi city. In this imperative colonial process, through the case study of Varanasi, the book mainly engages with the reasons behind the elimination of the temple tanks and ponds after the annexation of Varanasi by the British from 1775 till 1947. The book investigates the colonial notion of 'dry city', and how this notion crafted the process of separating land and water bodies, which arguably resulted in the reclamation and draining of water bodies, and also gave rise to water pollution. Additionally, the book analyzes the elimination of water bodies and loss of catchment areas through the ongoing processes of restoring the ancient city's natural and cultural heritage. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Addresses the relationship between law and the visual and the importance of photography in show trials. Includes case studies from Albania, East Germany, and Poland. Will appeal to legal and cultural theorists.

Based on data from beauty vlogs published by well-known YouTubers, Bhatia explores how they discursively negotiate multiple identities in a creative and participatory space, giving rise to complexities in the definition of categories such as expert, layperson, learner, and teacher in fluid and dynamic digital contexts. In this insightful book, Bhatia sets out to investigate the interdiscursive construction of identity on YouTube. Taking a multi-methodological approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, Bhatia examines beauty vlogs at the levels of socio-cognition, language, and genre to provide a better understanding of some of the measures of success and effect as well as new practices of expertise in online communication. The book contributes to a better understanding of how young people work online, often collaboratively, to conform to or resist mainstream notions of expertise, authenticity, race, and beauty; as well as the linguistic and semiotic tools they use to perform their identity, in order to become digital entrepreneurs and cultural influencers. Students and scholars in the field of discourse analysis, situated within the contexts of popular culture and social media, will find this book a valuable read. This volume also enhances the everyday person’s understanding of the complexities of new media communication and a new generation of cultural intermediaries.

This comprehensive book brings together reflections, lessons and insights relating to the post Covid-19 era in Zimbabwe. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has immensely affected all facets of humanity globally. Its impact on Zimbabwe is evident through its effect on socio-economic and education systems, politics, religion, infrastructural development, and health delivery systems. This book provides scholarly introspections into the lessons drawn from the pandemic in an effort to re-imagine the future possibilities of public health in Zimbabwe and beyond. Providing a platform for research that seeks to re-think global public health matters from a Decolonial school of thought, the book asks questions such as: What is the role of religion, linguistics, communication, education, economics, politics, and science in preparing Zimbabwe for possible future pandemics? How can the lessons drawn from the pandemic inform scholars to re-imagine the future trajectories of the country in the various domains? How can researchers evaluate the power and economic dialectics of COVID-19, navigate the tumultuous challenges generated, and come up with appropriate systems for future pandemics? Offering a realistic picture of the post COVID-19 era in Zimbabwe, the book will be a key resource to students and researchers across the fields of political communication, science communication, decolonial discourse, language and culture, as well as African Studies more broadly.

This book scrutinizes the role of Hong Kong in the expansive, and contested, vision of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In two main sections, it first discusses the defining features of the BRI and the evolving expectations of the role of Hong Kong in the BRI from the perspectives of policy makers and the professional sectors of accountancy-finance and the law. The second section contemplates the potential opportunities for Hong Kong from the perspectives of recipient countries of Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. Utilizing an action research approach and engaging the views of a broad spectrum of actors, the authors observe the critical role of agency and innovations in a context of institutional contradictions, the impact of BRI governance structure for the deficits in international participation, gaps between grand state visions and commercial interests, and the salience of effective communication in navigating complex policy initiatives. Taking these together unpacks the complex processes shaping Hong Kong's participation and role in the BRI. This book will appeal to students and researchers interested in the BRI and Hong Kong, in the contexts of institutional contradictions, agency innovations and political dynamics as well as sustainable development.

Focusing on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in the Arab Gulf states, the authors consider both sociolinguistic and pedagogical perspectives, and explore practical implications. This edited volume features chapters covering how teachers are negotiating the linguistic challenges posed by EMI; issues of ownership, choice and agency; the scaffolding of academic literacies; how to support the development of content teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in EMI settings as well as the benefits of a bilingual education. Chapter authors all have extensive local experience that they draw upon reflectively in their writing. Policy-makers, teachers and teacher educators wondering how they can best balance the need to develop competence in English in students of all ages on the Arabian Peninsula in a globalizing world, together with the concern to nurture Arabic language, culture and identity, will gain rich insights from this book. Postgraduates and researchers exploring issues surrounding EMI, both locally and internationally, will benefit from the arguments presented in this volume.

This book analyses the key livelihood and governance challenges that the urban poor experience while navigating public spaces in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using data collected through extensive fieldwork in Bangladesh, the book contributes to the emerging scholarship of resilient cities, gendered space, spatial justice, and poverty in cities of the Global South. The book assesses the everyday politics of survival for the urban poor; how the poor negotiate different levels of formal and informal modes of power and governance; and the dynamics of gender. It explores how tenuous counterspaces are created when these factors combine to provide a valuable framework for work in other urban contexts in the Global South beyond Bangladesh. Using cross-disciplinary perspectives, this book investigates the issues of human development, urban governance, urban planning and the gendered nature of urban space to outline how these issues enable or constrain poor people's livelihood practices and their rights to be in the city. Exploring debates surrounding placemaking and inclusive cities and their connection to poor people's livelihoods, this book will be of interest to scholars in the field of Sociology, Development Studies, Planning, Geography and Anthropology.

In this book the experiential history of the Soviet-style social transformation projects between 1945 and 1980 is discussed through the example of rural Hungary. The book interprets state socialism as a (modernization) project. Existing socialism was a form of dictatorship in which authorities sought to transform the mentalities of their subjects from the individual level to the global scale. This project depended on socio-economic homogenization; one important method of asserting state power was the transformation of property rights (land redistribution, collectivization). Communist modernization discriminated against the inhabitants of rural areas, who were the primary victims of collectivization and the discriminatory effects of the rules implemented by policymakers. The resulting radical changes in peasant lifestyles would become a source of social pathologies. However, not the authorities but contemporary scholars considered the social costs of these actions. The book aims at Weberian disenchantment and contributes to the deconstruction of the common image of Hungarian socialism, "the happiest barrack". The intended audience includes readers at the graduate level in the fields of history, political science, and anthropology, general readers interested in the history of communism. It is hoped that the research questions inspire new research for exploring convergent and divergent elements in social transformation in former communist countries.

With a range of case studies from every continent, the contributors to this book analyze the challenges that arise for states living with much larger neighbors, and the policies they develop to account for this asymmetry. Bringing together the perspectives of bilateral relations and the study of small states, this book analyzes a range of scenarios where one or more smaller countries must manage relations with a much larger neighbor or neighbors, from the perspective of the smaller countries. Each case presents different priorities, depending on the relationship between the states concerned, while highlighting the commonalities across the various scenarios. The range of cases and contributors is wide and diverse, with examples including Togo’s relationship with Ghana, Mongolia’s with China, and Colombia’s with Brazil – as well as more widely known examples such as Canada and the United States, or Australia and New Zealand. A valuable resource for scholars and students of international relations, and public policy of small- and medium-sized states.

Islam in India: History, Politics and Society is based on the historical and contemporary relevance of the religion and its related culture(s) in India. Besides being a major religious doctrine, Islam has been the main political ideology for many dynasties in India such as Delhi Sultanate (1206-1451); the Illbaris Turks (also known as Mamluk 1206-90); Khiljis (1290-1320); Tughlaqs (1320-1414); Sayyids (1414-51), Afghans and the Mughal Empire. Islam played a pivotal role in shaping the polity and society during the period of each dynasty. This book argues that Islam in India ought to be seen not only as a political and religious ideology of the dynasties, but also as a significant force that shaped the cultural fabric of the country. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Originally published in 1991, this book includes a detailed case study of Kenya’s co-operative movement – one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. Co-operatives have been given a major role in rural development strategies in both socialist and capitalist states. However in both context the results they have achieved have fallen short of expectations. The book focuses on specific elements of the institutional setting within which agricultural marketing co-operatives operate. Factors like land tenure, market regulations, co-operative legislation and direct development support are discussed and shown to have had dire effects on the managerial behaviour and social impact of the co-operative sector.

Brave New Hungary focuses on the rise of a "brave new" anti-liberal regime led by Viktor Orban who made a decisive contribution to the transformation of a poorly managed liberal democracy to a well-organized authoritarian rule bordering on autocracy during the past decade. Emerging capitalism in post-1989 Hungary that once took pride in winning the Eastern European race for catching up with the West has evolved into a reclusive, statist, national-populist system reminding the observers of its communist and pre-communist predecessors. Going beyond the self-description of the Orban regime that emphasizes its Christian-conservative and illiberal nature, the authors, leading experts of Hungarian politics, history, society, and economy, suggest new ways to comprehend the sharp decline of the rule of law in an EU member state. Their case studies cover crucial fields of the new authoritarian power, ranging from its historical roots and constitutional properties to media and social policies. The volume presents the Hungarian "System of National Cooperation" as a pervasive but in many respects improvised and vulnerable experiment in social engineering, rather than a set of mature and irreversible institutions. The originality of this dystopian "new world" does not stem from the transition to authoritarian control per se but its plurality of meanings. It can be seen as a simulacrum that shows different images to different viewers and perpetuates itself by its post-truth variability. Rather than pathologizing the current Hungarian regime as a result of a unique master plan designed by a cynical political entrepreneur, the authors show the transnational dynamic of backsliding - a warning for other countries that suffer from comparable deadlocks of liberal democracy.

Drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches, this monograph explores the drivers of urban development. Through an evolutionary lens, cities are shown to find a development path amidst an ever-changing landscape, sometimes facing extreme externalities such as wars and economic crises. Key themes covered include urban growth, decentralization, path dependence, institutional change, governance, entrepreneurship and culture. Detailed case studies of the history-rich metropolises of Berlin, Budapest and Warsaw allow the author to examine the adaptive abilities of cities in flux, and draw conclusions with broader international relevance. This monograph will be valuable reading for advanced students and researchers in urban economics, evolutionary economics, institutional economics and Central European studies.

This book investigates how extractive capitalism has developed over the past three decades, what dynamics of resistance have been deployed to combat it, and whether extractivism can ever be transformed into being a part of a progressive development path. It was not until the 21st century that the extraction of natural resources and raw materials took on a decidedly capitalist form, with the global north extracting primary commodities from the global south as a means of capital accumulation. This book investigates whether extractivism, despite its well-documented negative and destructive socioenvironmental impacts and the powerful forces of resistance that it has generated, could ever be transformed into a sustainable post-development strategy. Drawing on diverse sectoral forms of extractivism (mining, fossil fuels, agriculture), this book analyses the dynamics of both the forces of resistance generated by the advance of extractive capital and alternate scenarios for a more sustainable and liveable future. The book draws particularly on the Latin American experience, where both the propensity of capitalism towards crisis and the development of resistance dynamics to 'extractive' capital have had their greatest impact in the neoliberal era. This book will be of interest to researchers and students across development studies, economics, political economy, environmental studies, indigenous studies, and Latin American affairs.

This book is one of the first ethnographic works on small-town stringers or informal news workers in Indian journalism. It explores existing practices and cultures in the field of local journalism and the roles and spaces stringers occupy. The book outlines the caste, gender, class, and region-based biases in the production in Indian-language journalism with a specific focus on stringers working in Telugu dailies in small towns or 'mofussil' areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, states in south India. Further, it captures their daily work and processes of news production, and precarious lives they often lead while working in small towns or 'mofussils'. The author, by using Bourdieu's field theory introduces the journalistic practices of stringers working on the margins and how they negotiate the complex hierarchies that exist within the journalistic field and outside it. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of ethnography, media sociology, journalism and media studies, labour studies and Area studies, especially South Asian studies.

This book focuses on the 3.11 disaster in Japan, involving a powerful earthquake and tsunami, from an anthropological perspective. It critically reflects on the challenges of conducting anthropological research when encountering disaster at home and the position of social scientist as sufferer. Emphasizing the role of culture in disaster mitigation, the book offers theoretical consideration of the role of cultural heritage in risk management, in line with recent trends in international policy on disaster risk reduction. Taking an approach 'with the people in', the author explores how culture features in disaster recovery at community level and considers implications for policy. The chapters explore the response and adaptation by local cultural practitioners and performing arts groups, as well as farmers and fishers. Japanese farming and fishing are presented as an innovative and dynamic part of the recovery process. The book will be of interest to scholars and policy makers working in disaster studies, Japan studies, and fields including anthropology, geography, sociology and heritage management.

This book explores the twists and turns in Argentina's modern economic history and the debates that raged there around a problem common to all former colonies: how to achieve a level of economic growth for its population in a world characterized by unequal economic relations between the industrialized nations of the north and the commodity producers of the south. This new perspective examines the history of ideas surrounding industrialization and economic development in Argentina, drawing on a rigorous investigation of multiple sources. It demonstrates Argentina's role as a laboratory for and disseminator of ideas that would eventually become the common property of all the developing world. Influential thinkers such as Raul Prebisch and Aldo Ferrer, leading figures in twentieth century Latin American economic thought, developed important ideas such as unequal international trade relations, the promise and limits of Import Substitution Industrialization, the role of the state in the development of a national capitalism. These were the forerunners of similar concerns in other countries in Latin America and elsewhere in the world. The book will be of interest to historians, economists, sociologists of economic development, and related disciplines concerned with questions of global economic inequality.

i) Its primary audience will likely be scholars and postgraduate students researching or interested in social psychology and public opinion in China. ii) Another key fact to remember is that the book will be of interest to those scrutinizing Chinese society and Chinese media. iii) This book anticipates that both North American and European scholars and students interested in new media and social change will also be interested. iv) Scholarly groups throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia have an interest in such works. v) This book will be relevant for university courses in social psychology and public opinion, as well as seminars on social psychology, media, and online public opinion.

With contributions from 22 scholars and empirical material from 29 countries within and beyond Latin America, this book identifies subtypes of populism to further understand right-wing populist movements, parties, leaders, and governments. It seeks to examine whether the term populism continues to have any validity and what relationship(s) it has to democracy. Part 1 is an exploration of populism as an analytical concept. It asks how populism can and should be defined; whether populism can be broken down into subtypes; and whether the use of the term within and beyond Latin America in recent scholarship has been consistent. Part 2 focuses on political economy, and specifically whether political economy explanations of both the causes and consequences of right-wing populism fit recent cases in Latin America, Europe, and the Philippines. Part 3 examines institutions, and in particular institutions of coercion and digital communication. It contains chapter studies on various aspects of populism in Brazil, Spain, India, and Italy. Part 4 concerns the coronavirus pandemic and the specific case of right-wing populism in Brazil. It examines the Bolsonaro government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, and how that response exacerbated the health crisis and reduced the government's popularity. Right-Wing Populism in Latin America and Beyond is a timely and socially relevant contribution to the understanding of contemporary challenges to democracy. It will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners eager to understand the rise in right-wing agendas across the globe.

This book thus offers a fresh view on Japanese society focussing on the role of comportment for group cohesiveness. It explores the stereotype that Japan is the world's most polite country, examining how proper conduct is acquired and expressed, and how the apparent conflict with some of the concepts considered essential for Western modernity, such as society, freedom and the individual, are balanced with Japan's great emphasis on courtesy, politeness and civility. By comparing the present situation in Japan with behavioural standards of former periods as well as with other cultural traditions the book explains some of the distinctive features of present-day Japanese society. Overall the book argues that Japan is a prime example of multiple modernities concerning individuals, collectives and relationships between state and society.

A key objective of education in China is to cultivate one’s moral values, with the ultimate objective of becoming fully human (�人). Unlike the “West,� which regards moral cultivation as related to but separate from citizenship cultivation, East Asia (including China) views moral and citizenship cultivation as synonymous. The essays in this book offer various perspectives on and understandings of Chinese citizenship and education by a group of scholars of Chinese heritage situated inside and outside of China. They offer compelling evidence and rich theoretical discussions about the practice of teaching citizenship in the state education, the interplay between citizenship and China’s cultural and religious traditions, and the construction of citizenship from the groups from marginal positions. The book uses citizenship as a lens to examine the pressing issues of identity, democracy, religion and cosmopolitanism and sheds new light on China’s ongoing social and educational changes. Thinking through citizenship and citizenship education may act as an important driving force to transform the culture and paradigms of governance in China and the new meanings of becoming fully human. This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Education, Politics, Sociology and Public Policy. The chapters in this book were originally published in various Routledge journals.

This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian cities - developed and developing, large and small - and their urban development. Investigating the urban challenges and opportunities of cities from every nation in Asia, the Handbook engages not only the global cities like Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai, but also less studied cities like Dili, Male, Bandar Seri Begawan, Kabul, and Pyongyang. The Handbook discusses Asian cities in alignment to the United Nations' New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals in order to contribute to global policy debates. In doing so, it critically reflects on the development trajectories of Asian cities and imagines an urban future, in Asia and the world, in the post-globalisation and post-pandemic era. Presenting 43 chapters of original, insightful research, this book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, students, and general readers in the fields of urban development, urban policy and planning, urban studies, and Asian studies.

Foregrounding the ways in which men experience transnational migration, Migratory Men: Place, Transnationalism and Masculinities considers how we conceptualise and theorise mobile men in a global context. Bringing together studies from around the world (e.g. Australia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Italy, etc), the collection foregrounds how the transnational migratory experience profoundly reshapes men's complex identity practices. Specifically, the collection highlights how transnational migratory aspirations and experiences often lead men to reimagine local patterns of masculinity and/or reaffirm prescriptive gender roles as they encounter new spaces/places. In presenting interdisciplinary research, the international scholars consider the powerful roles of economics, politics and social class in shaping masculinities. Furthermore, they emphasise how men affectively and agentically experience migration and how interaction with new spaces/places can often lead to negotiations between disempowerment and empowerment. As such, the collection will appeal to both non-academic readers who share transnational migratory aspirations and experiences and academic readers across the social sciences with interests in gender and sexuality, migration and diaspora, transnationalism and contemporary masculinities.

This book presents a comparative ethnographic understanding of government and low-fee private schools in India within the context of ever-increasing privatization and commercialization of education and growing presence of non-state actors. Drawing on rich empirical data, the book provides an ethnographic account of a government and a low-fee private school in Hyderabad, India and explores life in these two distinct spaces through the lens of culture. While private schools catering to the poorer sections have been proliferating, little is known about how these low-fee private schools operate, how choices and negotiations unfold, the classroom discourses, subjective meanings of different stakeholders and the kind of education provided in these schools vis-a-vis the government schools. The book focuses on the educational experiences, schooling choices, processes, and voices of the children and teachers at these schools to reflect on how school culture influences the quality of education. Based on intensive fieldwork and qualitative data, the book provides contextual insights of what exactly happens inside the schools and classrooms of two contrasting schooling provisions in India and understand the world views of different stakeholders as they negotiate their daily lives. The book will be of interest to students, researchers, and teachers of education, sociology of education, childhood studies, urban education, and teacher education. It will also be useful for education policymakers, educationists, education professionals, and those working on private schooling in India.