In recent years, India has emerged as a major economic and political power: on the basis of purchasing-power parity, it was the world's third largest economy in 2013. Yet the country's cultural influence outside India has not been adequately analyzed in academic discourses. As the world's largest democracy with a vibrant and pluralist media system, India offers an excellent case study of the power of culture and communication in the age of mediated international relations. This book, a pioneering attempt, from an international communication/media perspective, is aimed to fill the existing gap in scholarship in this area. The discussion of India's rising soft power is located within a historical context, thus problematizing the notion of Soft Power itself. The book will be aimed at university courses on global media/international relations/area studies - among others.

Over the years, Mondo has received global recognition for its incredible art posters that bring to life classic films, TV shows, and comics in a refreshing and utterly striking new way, offering a unique perspective on everything from Star Wars to Robocop, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Game of Thrones, Godzilla, Kill Bill, and many, many more. For the first time, The Art of Mondo will bring together this much sought-after art in one deluxe volume that showcases the incredible ingenuity of the studio's diverse stable of artists whose vastly different styles are united by one guiding principle: limitless passion for their subject matter. This richly imaginative work is fueled by a love of pop culture that fans recognize and identify with, giving Mondo's output a rare and valuable synergy with its audience. While these posters are normally produced in a limited quantity and sell out in minutes, The Art of Mondo will allow fans to explore the studio's remarkable back catalog, including Olly Moss's iconic Star Wars trilogy work, Laurent Durieux's brilliantly subtle Jaws poster, and Tyler Stout's Guardians of the Galaxy art. Other key Mondo artists such as Jock, Martin Asin, and Aaron Horkey will also feature. Definitive, visually stunning, and filled with art that celebrates some of the biggest and best-loved properties in pop culture, The Art of Mondo will be the ultimate book for cult art fans everywhere.

Music has been a vital part of leisure activity across time and cultures. Contemporary commodification, commercialization, and consumerism, however, have created a chasm between conceptualizations of music making and numerous realities in our world. From a broad range of perspectives and approaches, this handbook explores avocational involvement with music as an integral part of the human condition. The chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure present myriad ways for reconsidering and refocusing attention back on the rich, exciting, and emotionally charged ways in which people of all ages make time for making music. The contexts discussed are broadly Western, including an eclectic variety of voices from scholars across fields and disciplines, framing complex and multifaceted phenomena that may be helpfully, enlighteningly, and perhaps provocatively framed as music making and leisure. This volume may be viewed as an attempt to reclaim music making and leisure as a serious concern for, amongst others, policy makers, scholars, and educators who perhaps risk eliding some or even most of the ways in which music - a vital part of human existence - is integrated into the everyday lives of people. As such, this handbook looks beyond the obvious, asking readers to consider anew, "What might we see when we think of music making as leisure?"

A fascinating survey of American food trends that highlights the key inventions, brands, restaurant chains, and individuals that shaped the American diet and palate in the 20th century. In the United States today, how and what we eat-with all of its myriad ethnic varieties and endless choices-is firmly entrenched in every part of our culture. The American diet underwent constant evolution throughout the 20th century, starting from the meat-and-potatoes fare of the early-20th century and maturing into a culture that embraced the cuisines of immigrant populations, fast-food chains, health fads, and emerging gourmet tastes. Societal changes moved women out of the kitchen and into the workforce, spawning the invention of convenience foods and time-saving kitchen appliances. American Food by the Decades is an entertaining chronological survey of food trends in the United States during the 20th century. The book is organized by decades to illustrate how changes in society directly influenced dietary and dining habits as they emerged over the last 100 years. Detailed encyclopedic entries provide fascinating glimpses into history by telling the true stories behind the foods, restaurants, grocery stores, and cooking trends of the previous century. Over 250 encyclopedic entries on the most prominent influences in American food during the 20th century Contains 10 recipes, each emblematic of a particular decade Over 15 sidebars with additional feature information Chronologically presents popular foods of the 20th century in the United States, with each of the ten chapters representing a decade Each chapter provides a "For Further Exploration" bibliography section

Drawing on original fieldwork, Carl Morris examines Muslim cultural production in Britain, with a focus on the performance-based entertainment industries: music, comedy, film, television and theatre. It is a seminal study that charts the growing agency and involvement of British Muslims in cultural production over the last two decades. Morris sets this discussion within the context of wider religious, social and cultural change, with important insights concerning the sociological profile, religious lives and public visibility of Muslims in contemporary Britain. Morris draws on theoretical considerations concerning the mediatization of religion and cosmopolitanization in a globally-connected world. He argues that a new generation of media-savvy and internationalist Muslim cultural producers in Britain are constructing counter narratives in the public sphere and are reshaping everyday religious lives within their own communities. This is having a profound impact upon areas that range from Islamic authority and religious practice, to political and public debate, and understandings of Muslim identity and belonging.

This book examines American screen culture and its power to create and sustain values. Looking specifically at the ways in which nostalgia colors the visions of American life, essays explore contemporary American ideology as it is created and sustained by the screen. Nostalgia is omnipresent, selling a version of America that arguably never existed. Current socio-cultural challenges are played out onscreen and placed within the historical milieu through a nostalgic lens which is tempered by contemporary conservatism. Essays reveal not only the visual catalog of recognizable motifs but also how these are used to temper the uncertainty of contemporary crises. Media covered spans from 1939's Gone with the Wind, to Stranger Things, The Americans, Twin Peaks, the Fallout franchise and more.

"Filmspeak" is an accessible, innovative book which uses specific examples to show how once arcane literary and cultural theory has infiltrated popular culture. Theory reaches us in ways we do not even realize. Issues such as the nature of knowledge or truth, the function of personal response in interpretation, the nature of the forces of politics, the female alternative to the male view of the world, are fundamental for all of us. And intelligent analysis of the relationship between literary theory and popular culture can help us to understand our fast-changing world.Here, experienced literary scholar and teacher Edward L. Tomarken explains how it is possible to study the rudiments of literary theory by watching and analyzing contemporary mainstream movies - from "The Dark Knight" to "Kill Bill," and from "The Social Network" to "The Devil Wears Prada." Theorists discussed include Foucault, Jameson, Iser, and Cixous. Tomarken brilliantly demonstrates that anyone can grasp modern literary theory by way of mainstream movies without having to wade through stacks of impenetrable jargon.

Why our democracies need urgent reform, before it's too late A generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world is once again on the edge of chaos. Demonstrations have broken out from Belgium to Brazil led by angry citizens demanding a greater say in their political and economic future, better education, heathcare and living standards. The bottom line of this outrage is the same; people are demanding their governments do more to improve their lives faster, something which policymakers are unable to deliver under conditions of anaemic growth. Rising income inequality and a stagnant economy are threats to both the developed and the developing world, and leaders can no longer afford to ignore this gathering storm. In Edge of Chaos, Dambisa Moyo sets out the new political and economic challenges facing the world, and the specific, radical solutions needed to resolve these issues and reignite global growth. Dambisa enumerates the four headwinds of demographics, inequality, commodity scarcity and technological innovation that are driving social and economic unrest, and argues for a fundamental retooling of democratic capitalism to address current problems and deliver better outcomes in the future. In the twenty-first century, a crisis in one country can quickly become our own, and fragile economies produce a fragile international community. Edge of Chaos is a warning for advanced and emerging nations alike: we must reverse the dramatic erosion in growth, or face the consequences of a fragmented and unstable global future.

Russia in Britain offers the first comprehensive account of the breadth and depth of the British fascination with Russian and Soviet culture, tracing its transformative effect on British intellectual life from the 1880s, the decade which saw the first sustained interest in Russian literature, to 1940, the eve of the Soviet Union's entry into the Second World War. By focusing on the role played by institutions, disciplines and groups, libraries, periodicals, government agencies, concert halls, publishing houses, theatres, and film societies, this collection marks an important departure from standard literary critical narratives, which have tended to highlight the role of a small number of individuals, notably Sergei Diaghilev, Constance Garnett, Theodore Komisarjevsky, Katherine Mansfield, George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf. Drawing on recent research and newly available archives, Russia in Britain shifts attention from individual figures to the networks within which they operated, and uncovers the variety of forces that enabled and structured the British engagement with Russian culture. The resulting narrative maps an intricate pattern of interdisciplinary relations and provides the foundational research for a new understanding of Anglo-Russian/Soviet interaction. In this, it makes a major contribution to the current debates about transnationalism, cosmopolitanism and 'global modernisms' that are reshaping our knowledge of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British culture.

This book is a comprehensive, historical bible on the subject of urban street dance and its influence on modern dance, hip hop, and pop culture. Urban street dance-which is now referred to across the globe as "break dance" or "hip-hop dance"-was born 15 years prior to the hip hop movement. In today's pop culture, the dance innovators from "back in the day" have been forgotten, except when choreographic echoes of their groundbreaking dance forms are repeatedly recycled in today's media. Sadly, this is still the case when dance moves that were engendered from 1965 through the 1970s on the streets of Reseda, South Central Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Fresno, CA; or in the Bronx in New York City, are utilized by modern performers. In Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era, an urban street dancer who was part of the scene in the early 1970s sets the record straight, blowing the lid off this uniquely American dance style and culture. This text redefines hip hop dance and the origins of a worldwide phenomenon, explaining the origins of classic forms such as Funk Boogaloo, Locking, Popping, Roboting, and B'boying-some of the most important developments in modern dance that directly affect today's pop culture. Includes coverage of all of the major players in urban dance Places current dance phenomena-from the moves of Usher to the choreography of High School Musical-in a historical context that stretches half a century Includes interviews and photos to further bring the rich history of urban dance to life

This text comprehensively covers the rituals, traditions and receipts of ancestral processes of bread making from multiple countries, including the scientific and technological character of the science of bread making and sourdough biotechnology. Individual chapters cover the scientific aspects of bread making in different cultures and traditions as well as the technological phenomena occurring during the bread making process, utilizing the full network of SOURDOMICS from the COST initiative. Pictures and illustrations are used to explain the science behind bread making processes and the cultural, historical and traditional elements associated with bread making in multiple countries. Authored by bread making experts from the breadth of Europe, the process of bread fermentation in each country and region is covered in detail. The traditions surrounding bread making are simply the empirical know-how passed between generations, and this book's main purpose is to perpetuate these traditions and know-how. Provides a description of the culture of European peoples with respect to the technology of bread making and sourdough biotechnology; Explains the process of bread fermentation using simple language combined with scientific rigor; High quality pictures and illustrations enrich the scientific and cultural elements mentioned in each chapter.

A Companion to Border Studies introduces an exciting and expanding field of interdisciplinary research, through the writing of an international array of scholars, from diverse perspectives that include anthropology, development studies, geography, history, political science and sociology. * Explores how nations and cultural identities are being transformed by their dynamic, shifting borders where mobility is sometimes facilitated, other times impeded or prevented * Offers an array of international views which together form an authoritative guide for students, instructors and researchers * Reflects recent significant growth in the importance of understanding the distinctive characteristics of borders and frontiers, including cross-border cooperation, security and controls, migration and population displacements, hybridity, and transnationalism

This is a book about the dynamics of the aspirational society. It explores the boundaries of permissible thought--deviations and transgressions that create constant innovations. When confronted with a problem, an innovative mind struggles and brings forth something distinctive--new ideas, new inventions, and new programs based on unconventional approaches to solve the problem. But this can be done only if the culture creates large breathing spaces by leaving people alone, not as a matter of state generosity but as something fundamental in being an American. Consequently, the Constitutional mandate of "Congress shall make no law..." has encouraged fearless speech, unrestrained thought, and endless experimentation leading to newer developments in science, technology, the arts, and not least socio-political relations. Most of all, the First Freedoms liberate the mind from irrational fears and encourage an environment of divergent thinking, non-conformity, and resistance to a collective mindset. The First Freedoms encourage Americans to be iconoclastic, to be creatively crazy, to be impure, thus, enabling them to mix and re-mix ideas to design new technologies and cultural forms and platforms, anything from experimental social relations and big data explorations to electing our first black president.

For an element so firmly fixed in American culture, the frontier myth is surprisingly flexible. How else to explain its having taken two such different guises in the twentieth century - the progressive, forward-looking politics of Rough Rider president Teddy Roosevelt and the conservative, old-fashioned character and Cold War politics of Ronald Reagan? This is the conundrum at the heart of Cowboy Presidents, which explores the deployment and consequent transformation of the frontier myth by four U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. Behind the shape-shifting of this myth, historian David A. Smith finds major events in American and world history that have made various aspects of the 'Old West' frontier more relevant, and more useful, for promoting radically different political ideologies and agendas. And these divergent adaptations of frontier symbolism have altered the frontier myth. Theodore Roosevelt, with his vigorous pursuit of an activist federal government, helped establish a version of the frontier myth that today would be considered liberal. But then, Smith shows, a series of events from the Lyndon Johnson through Jimmy Carter presidencies - including Vietnam, race riots, and stagflation - seemed to give the lie to the progressive frontier myth. In the wake of these crises, Smith's analysis reveals, the entire structure and popular representation of frontier symbols and images in American politics shifted dramatically from left to right, and from liberal to conservative, with profound implications for the history of American thought and presidential politics. The now popular idea that 'frontier American' leaders and politicians are naturally Republicans with conservative ideals flows directly from the Reagan era. Cowboy Presidents gives us a new, clarifying perspective on how Americans shape and understand their national identity and sense of purpose; at the same time, reflecting on the essential mutability of a quintessentially national myth, the book suggests that the next iteration of the frontier myth may well be on the horizon.

Food Rebellions! takes a deep look at the world food crisis and its impact on the global South and underserved communities in the industrial North. Eric Holt-Gimenez and Raj Patel unpack the planet's environmentally and economically vulnerable food systems to reveal the root causes of the crisis. They shows us how the steady erosion of local and national control over their food systems has made nations dependent on a volatile global market and subject to the short-term interests of a handful of transnational agri-food monopolies. Food Rebellions! is a powerful handbook for those seeking to understand the causes and potential solutions to the current food crisis now affecting nearly half of the world's people. Why are food riots occurring around the world in a time of record harvests? What are the real impacts of agrofuels and genetically engineered crops? Food Rebellions! suggests that to solve the food crisis, we must change the global food system-from the bottom up and from the top down. The book frames the current food crisis as unique opportunity to develop productive local food systems that are engines for sustainable economic development. Hunger and poverty, the authors insist, can be eliminated by democratising food systems and respecting people's right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food-producing resources-in short, by advancing food sovereignty.

This book is about machines: those that have been actualized, fantastical imaginal machines, to those deployed as metaphorical devices to describe complex social processes. Machines argues that they transcend time and space to emerge through a variety of spaces and places, times and histories and representations. They are such an integral fabric of daily reality that their disappearance would have immediate and dire consequences for the survival of humanity. They are part and parcel to our contemporary social order. From labor to social theory, art or consciousness, literature or television, to the asylums of the 19th century, machines are a central figure; an outgrowth of affective desire that seeks to transcend organic limitations of bodies that whither, age and die. Machines takes the reader on an intellectual, artistic, and theoretical journey, weaving an interdisciplinary tale of their emergence across social, cultural and artistic boundaries. With the deep engagement of various texts, Machines offers the reader moments of escape, alternative ways to envision technology for a future yet to materialize. Machines rejects the notion that technological innovations are indeed neutral, propelling us to think differently about those "things" created under specific economic or historical paradigms. Rethinking machines provides a rupture to our current technocratic impetus, shining a critical light on possible alternatives to our current reality. Let us sit back and take a journey through Machines, holding mechanical parts as guides to possible alternative futures.

Farmers markets are much more than places to buy produce. According to advocates for sustainable food systems, they are also places to "vote with your fork" for environmental protection, vibrant communities, and strong local economies. Farmers markets have become essential to the movement for food-system reform and are a shining example of a growing green economy where consumers can shop their way to social change.
"Black, White, and Green" brings new energy to this topic by exploring dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy. With a focus on two Bay Area markets--one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland--Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy.
Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors, and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food, and the ways that those meanings are raced and classed. She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not.
"Black, White, and Green" is one of the first books to carefully theorize the green economy, to examine the racial dynamics of food politics, and to approach issues of food access from an environmental-justice perspective. In a practical sense, Alkon offers an empathetic critique of a newly popular strategy for social change, highlighting both its strengths and limitations.