The British bestseller "Straw Dogs "is an exciting, radical work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche and Marx, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. John Gray argues that this belief in human difference is a dangerous illusion and explores how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned. The result is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question our deepest-held beliefs. Will Self, in the "New Statesman," called "Straw Dogs "his book of the year: "I read it once, I read it twice and took notes . . . I thought it that good." "Nothing will get you thinking as much as this brilliant book" ("Sunday Telegraph").

This book focuses on the spread of public and private environmental and food safety regulations from Europe and North America to Asia and Africa. It explores the growth of policy diffusion and standard alignment on sustainability observed in non-Western follower countries in a globalizing world. The book examines the role of both developed and developing non-Western countries as followers that adopt food safety, environmental and sustainability policies under different conditions to those of the originating country. Chapters analyse non-state forms of transnational regulation, and how these have diffused to non-Western countries. They showcase how standard alignment efforts lead to multiple localized regulations determined by specific circumstances, highlighting the dilemma in designing policy in an era of globalization. The use of in-depth case studies by renowned experts will make this book an important read for political science and economics scholars interested in trade, standards and international regulation. Policy-makers concerned with issues of sustainability in follower countries will find the book's lessons on how to adapt policies helpful.

Emerging out of the theoretical and practical urge to reflect on key contemporary debates arising in biopolitical scholarship, this timely book launches an in-depth investigation into the concept and history of biopolitics. In light of tumultuous political dynamics across the globe and new developments in this continually evolving field, the book reconsiders and expands upon Michel Foucault's input to biopolitical studies. Featuring rigorously structured investigations into the genealogies, dimensions, and practices of biopolitics, this incisive book introduces novel voices and perspectives into the biopolitical corpus. Contributions from eminent scholars investigate core topics of governing populations, community, and sovereignty, as well as exploring areas that remain undertheorized in the field of biopolitics, including the political accounts of non-human entities, developments in sexual health policy, and the biopolitics of time. Broad in scope, the book draws from the foundations of the biopolitical canon to forge new horizons and create opportunities for novel theoretical and empirical analysis. Debating Biopolitics will be an invaluable tool for scholars and postgraduate students of political science and political philosophy. Its empirically driven research will also benefit practitioners and policymakers interested in the biopolitical dimension of decision-making and policy analysis.

Anglo-Japanese Cultural Pioneers 1945-2015 covers interviews with ten prominent people in the field of Anglo-Japanese exchange, showing the rich cultural diversity and interaction between professional people in the UK, Europe and Japan during the last 70 years since 1945. Coming from diverse backgrounds, diplomats, scholars, musicians, business people, journalists, gardeners, and humanitarian activists, all of whom have made an impact in the field of international understanding, and contibuted to the social history of of our era.

Capturing the important place and power role that culture plays in the decision-making process of migration, this Handbook looks at human movement outside of a vacuum; taking into account the impact of family relationships, access to resources, and security and insecurity at both the points of origin and destination. Utilising case studies from around the world, chapters look at migration from the perspectives of a broad range of migrants, including refugees, labour migrants, students, highly educated migrants, and documented and undocumented movers. The Handbook moves beyond an understanding of the economics of migration, looking at the importance of love, skilled movers, food and identity in migrants' lives. It analyses the assumption that migrants follow direct pathways to new destinations where they settle, recognising the dynamic ways in which movers travel, following circular routes and celebrating new opportunities. Highlighting the challenges migrants face, disputes around belonging and citizenship are explored in relation to rising nationalism and xenophobia. The insightful studies of the choices migrants make around both perceived and real needs and resources will make this Handbook a critical read for scholars and students of migration studies. It will also appeal to policy makers looking to understand the complexity of the impetus to migrant movement, and the important role that culture plays.

The ways in which rapid urbanization of the Global South are transforming food systems and food supply chains, and the food security of urban populations is an often neglected topic. This international group of authors addresses this profound transformation from a variety of different perspectives and disciplinary lenses, providing an important corrective to the dominant view that food insecurity is a rural problem requiring increases in agricultural production. Starting from the premise that food security in urban areas is primarily a challenge of food access, the chapters explore the various economic, social, and governance policies and structures that constrain and inhibit the access of all to food of sufficient quantity and quality. As the Global South continues to urbanize, the challenge of feeding hungry cities will become even more daunting, and this Handbook explains why the existing food system, although undergoing rapid change, is inadequate for this task and cannot meet the challenge without substantial reform. The Handbook as a whole, and the individual chapters, provide comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples for university readership teaching and taking courses on food systems, migration and urbanization, urban policy and planning, geography, agricultural economics, public health, and international development. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations. The Handbook's comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples are ideal for university readership. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations.

You need to read this book if you have an interest in where new technology is taking storytelling. "Set the Storyworld to Random" is about storytelling, media and modern audiences.

As the World Heritage Convention enters its 50th year, questions are being raised about its failures and successes. This topical book draws together perspectives across law and heritage research to examine the Convention and its implementation through the novel lens of compliance. The book challenges the widely held view that managing the 'world's heritage' is a non-regulatory, incentive-based task with limited sanctioning options. Combining theoretical perspectives with deep technical analysis and historical investigation, the book tackles the compliance question through an examination of 12 diverse cases. Analysing past World Heritage properties like the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (Oman) and Dresden Elbe Valley (Germany), as well as at-risk properties, like the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), Group of Monuments at Hampi (India) and Everglades National Park (United States), chapters trace the evolution and application of key non-compliance mechanisms like Reactive Monitoring, the In Danger List, and the Deletion procedure. In so doing, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of the Convention's compliance architecture and the tools available to respond to instances of non-compliance. Illustrating how an improved compliance system is a critical component of a functioning and legitimate World Heritage regime, this book provides an invaluable resource to heritage and environmental policymakers and organisations looking to understand obligations under the Convention, as well as students and scholars coming to terms with the impact of the regime.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Setting out a new, path-breaking research agenda for global rural development, this timely book offers an innovative and embedded rural social science capable of both understanding and enacting progress towards diverse and sustainable pathways. It relocates rural development at the heart of global trends associated with widespread but uneven urbanisation, climate change and severe resource depletion, rising population growth, density and inequality, and global political, economic and health crises. Chapters collapse traditional binary notions of development as north-south, rural-urban, global-local and traditional modern, embracing a revised conceptualisation of uneven development as a process dependent upon multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks. It offers potential routes for substantive, interlinked research agendas, including new ruralities, governance, land rights, agro-ecology, financialisation, power relations, family farming, and the role of markets. Scholars of geography, planning, rural sociology and rural-urban studies looking for a broader understanding of the topic will find this book essential. It will also be beneficial for those engaged in rural development policy and practice.

'Instagram's answer to David Sedaris.' ST STYLE MAGAZINE 'Irresistibly readable' DOLLY ALDERTON 'You'll laugh. You'll cry.' LENA DUNHAM A hilarious, smart and incredibly singular debut from Raven Smith, whose exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is totally unique and painfully relatable. Is being tall a social currency? Am I the contents of my fridge? Does yoga matter if you're not filthy rich? Is a bagel four slices of bread? Are three cigarettes a meal? From IKEA meatballs to minibreaks, join Raven Smith as he reflects on the importance we place in the least important things and our frivolous attempts to accomplish and attain. He also tackles his single-parent upbringing, his struggles as a lonely teenager and his personal experience of coming out. Packed with brilliant humour, great tenderness and lingering pathos, Raven Smith's Trivial Pursuits is a book for anyone who has ever asked 'when I get to the pearly gates of heaven, will a viral tweet count for or against my entry?'

In this study of fandom at its most intense, Will Brooker examines the "Star Wars" phenomenon from the audience's perspective, and discovers that the saga exerts a powerful influence over the social, cultural and spiritual lives of those drawn into its myth. From a Boba Fett-loving police officer in Indiana to the webmistress of the "Star Wars chicks" site; from an 11-year-old boy in south London to a Baptist Church in South Carolina; from the director of "George Lucas in Love" to the custodians of the Jedi Hurtaholics Archive - Brooker unearths a seemingly endless array of fans who use and interpret the saga in a number of creative ways This book explores what it means to be a fan, examining the role of gender and generation in creating sub-communities within the larger group of Star Wars devotees. It discusses the films and stories created by thousands of fans around the world, and asks whether this apparently unstoppable creativity can be controlled by an organization that has - completely unintentionally - positioned itself in the role of the Empire and turned loyal fans into Rebels. Ultimately, the book serves as a testament to the extraordinary power of the "Star Wars" films

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Offering an extensive and coherent presentation of theory on the experience economy, this stimulating Advanced Introduction discusses what experiencing is and why people are seeking experiences. Jon Sundbo defines the experience concept in contrast to similar concepts such as culture and creative economies, and presents measurements of the value of the experience economy. Key features include: Analysis of how experiences are replacing services and knowledge as a key driver for the economy Discussion of the future of the experience economy and the impacts Covid-19 may have on this Different perspectives on the experience economy including ones from: evolutionary economics, micro-economics, psychology, marketing, innovation and production, sociology and digitalization. Concise and invigorating, this Advanced Introduction will be a helpful read for marketing, economics, tourism, culture studies and management scholars looking for a stronger theoretical understanding of the experience economy. It will also be interesting to data science scholars, including those focusing on web and social media construction.

An intriguing account of what has attracted musicians, artists, writers and people of the theatre to the delights of coastal Suffolk over the last 200 years and beyond. Inspiration has been drawn from the constantly changing North Sea, the generously proportioned skies, vast areas of serene marshes and abundant wildlife. All appear to be persuaded that there is something very special about the area. The likes of JMW Turner, Philip Wilson Steer and Charles Rennie Mackintosh found what they wanted here. The same applied to Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin, EM Forster and WH Auden. Elizabeth Jane Howard's books are as popular as ever and Jill Freud's Summer Theatre continues to thrive. There is something for everyone in coastal Suffolk.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Twenty-five years ago, after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Gerald Ford promised a return to normalcy. "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over," President Ford declared.

But it was not. The Watergate scandal, and the remedies against future abuses of power, would have an enduring impact on presidents and the country. In Shadow, Bob Woodward takes us deep into the administrations of Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton to describe how each discovered that the presidency was forever altered. With special emphasis on the human toll, Woodward shows the consequences of the new ethics laws, and the emboldened Congress and media. Powerful investigations increasingly stripped away the privacy and protections once expected by the nation's chief executive.

Shadow is an authoritative, unsettling narrative of the modern, beleaguered presidency.

The Civil War in Missouri was a time of great confusion, violence, and destruction. Although several major battles were fought in the state between Confederate and Union forces, much of the fighting in Missouri was an ugly form of terrorism carried out by loose bands of Missouri guerrillas, by Kansas "Jayhawkers," or by marauding patrols of Union soldiers. This irregular warfare provided a training ground for people like Jesse and Frank James who, after the war, used their newly learned skills to form an outlaw band that ultimately became known all over the world.

Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri discusses the underlying causes of the Civil War as they relate to Missouri and reveals how the war helped create both the legend and the reality of Jesse James and his gang. Written in an accessible style, this valuable little book will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the Civil War, the legend of Jesse James, or Missouri history.

From the Occupy protests to the Black Lives Matter movement and school strikes for climate action, the twenty-first century has been rife with activism. Although very different from one another, each of these movements has created alliances across borders, with activists stressing that their concerns are not confined to individual nation states. In this book, Daniel Laqua shows that global efforts of this kind are not a recent phenomenon, and that as long as there have been borders, activists have sought to cross them. Activism Across Borders since 1870 explores how individuals, groups and organisations have fostered bonds in their quest for political and social change, and considers the impact of national and ideological boundaries on their efforts. Focusing on Europe but with a global outlook, the book acknowledges the importance of imperial and postcolonial settings for groups and individuals that expressed far-reaching ambitions. From feminism and socialism to anti-war campaigns and green politics, this book approaches transnational activism with an emphasis on four features: connectedness, ambivalence, transience and marginality. In doing so, it demonstrates the intertwined nature of different movements, problematizes transnational action, discusses the temporary nature of some alliances, and shows how transnationalism has been used by those marginalized at the national level. With a broad chronological perspective and thematic chapters, it provides historical context, clarifies terms and concepts, and offers an alternative history of modern Europe through the lens of activists, movements and campaigns.