Looks at the wide range of contrasting images of the gay male body in Japanese popular culture, both mainstream and gay, and relate these images to the experience of an interview sample of Japanese gay men.

Examines one of the most exciting and dynamic periods in the development of medieval Islam, from the late 9th to the early 11th century, through the thought of five of its principal thinkers, prime among them al-Farabi. This great Islamic philosopher, called 'the Second Master' after Aristotle, produced a recognizable school of thought in which others pursued and developed some of his own intellectual preoccupations. Their thought is treated with particular reference to the most basic questions which can be asked in the theory of knowledge or epistemology. The book thus fills a lacuna in the literature by using this approach to highlight the intellectual continuity which was maintained in an age of flux. Particular attention is paid to the ethical dimensions of knowledge.

Das Buch untersucht das Verhältnis von Ethnizität und Internet. Ausgehend von der Annahme, daß Ethnizität eine Ressource kollektiver Selbstorganisation sein kann, wird eine Analyse des Phänomens der Ethnizität an den Anfang gestellt. Ihr folgt die empirische Untersuchung des Zusammenhanges zwischen ethnischer/kultureller Identität und der Nutzung des Internets sowie seiner Dienste. Die Ergebnisse sind die Basis des Ansatzes der Virtuellen Ethnizität, mit dem eine Perspektive für die generelle Betrachtung der vielfältigen Beziehung zwischen Identität, Globalität und neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien entworfen wird. Die Bedeutung dieses Ansatzes zeigt sich im besonderen bei Fragen der Repräsentation und der Bedeutungszuweisungen von und an Gruppen.

How do the Japanese and Okinawans remember Occupation? How is memory constructed and transmitted? Michael Molasky explores these questions through careful, sensitive readings of literature from mainland Japan and Okinawa. This book sheds light on difficult issues of war, violence, prostitution, colonialism and post-colonialism in the context of the Occupations of Japan and Okinawa.

Nineteenth-Century Energies explores the idea of 'energy', a concept central to new directions in interdisciplinary studies today. It examines the cultural perceptions and uses of energy in the nineteenth century - both in terms of pure and applied science, and as an idea with widespread diffusion in the popular imagination - in contributions by scholars drawing on a variety of fields, such as literature, philosophy, history, French studies, Latin American studies, cinema studies, and art history. These contributions explore the rise of insomnia as a recognized ailment, the role of guns and gun culture in the perception of human agency, the first uses of the barometer to predict massive cyclonic weather systems, and the hallucinatory, almost occult effects of radiant energy in early film. Exemplifying innovative research in twenty-first century academia, this volume also speaks to the wider cultural concerns of today's global citizen about the preservation and renewal of natural resources around the world; the emergence of devices and technologies that have both improved and impaired human life; the aggrandizement of nation-states around large technological systems; and the centrality of the image in our perception and absorption of contemporary culture. This book was originally published as a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Contexts.

This volume covers the first one hundred years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, formerly the Royal Central Asian Society. It traces its fons et origo in the Central Asian Question, within the context of the 'Great Game', and continues its fascinating chronology through the two World Wars to the present day. There are separate chapters on its widely drawn membership, variety of activities and archive collection. Throughout the pages are glimpses and vignettes of some of its extraordinary, even eccentric, members and their astonishing adventures. The wealth of factual and often amusing detail makes it a very lively account, which is also valuable as a work of reference for all interested in Asia. The book is generously illustrated and includes some of the Society's unique archival photographs not previously published.

The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) - MODERNITY, FRONTIERS AND REVOLUTIONS were compiled with the intent to establish a multidisciplinary platform for the presentation, interaction and dissemination of research. It also aims to foster awareness of and discussion on the topics of Harmony and Proportion with a focus on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design, Engineering, Social and Natural Sciences, and their importance and benefits for the sense of both individual and community identity. The idea of modernity has been a significant driver of development since the Western Early Modern Age. Its theoretical and practical foundations have become the working tools of scientists, philosophers, and artists, who seek strategies and policies to accelerate the development process in different contexts.

Driven by two imperatives - the need to identify, classify and assess Western technology and culture, as well as advance a dialogue for reviewing the so-called "unequal treaties", the new Meiji government of 1868 dispatched a top-level ministerial team to the West, arriving first in the United States in January 1872. In all, the mission spent 205 days in America, followed by 122 days in Britain and two months in France, including visits to Belgium, Germany, Russia, Sweden and Italy. The sheer scale of the mission's "vision", and logistics was remarkable, even more so, however, was the Japanese government's decision to allow so many of its top people to be away together for such an extended period of time. The findings of the mission were to have enormous significance regarding the future direction of the new state of Japan. Drawing on the papers given at the triennial conference of the European Association of Japanese Studies in 1997 (which coincided with the 125th anniversary of the Iwakura mission), this overview of the mission's goal and achievements separately assesses the content and impact of the visit to each country.

In the wake of demands by the Turkish Alevi for due recognition, there has been a rising interest in Alevi folklore and religious practices, and in what this branch of Islamic heterodoxy represents in terms of old and new identities.

What happens when we can no longer believe what we see? Show the AI technologies that create deepfakes enough images of a celebrity or a politician and they will generate a convincing video in which that person appears to say and do things they have never actually said or done. The result is a media environment in which anyone's face and image can be remixed and manipulated. Graham Meikle explains how deepfakes (synthetic media) are made and used. From celebrity porn and political satire to movie mash-ups and disinformation campaigns, this book explores themes of trust and consent as face-swapping software becomes more common. Meikle argues that deepfake videos allow for a new perspective on the taken-for-granted nature of contemporary media, in which our capacity to remix and share content increasingly conflicts with our capacity to trust. The book analyses how such videos deepen the social media environment in which the public and the personal converge, and in which all human experience becomes data to be shared. Timely, clear, and accessibly written, this is an essential text for students and scholars of media, communication, cultural studies, and sociology as well as general readers.

The first major political biography of General Ioannis Metaxas, who assumed dictatorial power in Greece in 1936 and oversaw the resistance to the Italian invasion in the Second World War. As a political portrait of the man, the book puts much emphasis on the early career of Metaxas and his journey to state power, from 1920 to 1936. Drawing heavily on original Greek sources, the book makes extensive use of Metaxa's diary, his correspondence, and the evidence of his close friends and associates.

This is a multi-purpose reference work which should become an indispensable companion for anybody who comes into touch with the complex phenomenon on Hinduism, and not least for the followers of the Hindu tradition elves. It should serve as a dictionary of Sanskrit and vernacular terms used in Hindu literature and works on Hinduism and as a glossary of terms and concepts important for the understanding of Hindu ritual and spiritual practices as well as Hindu religious and philosophical teachings.

The first to appear in Curzon's well respected 'Popular Dictionary' series.

The statistics are pretty grim - the young people of the US face an ever increasing tide of poverty, alcohol, and drug abuse, violence, suicide, and family dysfunction. However, society's response has been slow. Too many young people do not receive consistent, positive, and realistic validation of themselves from the adults on whom they depend. The problems facing today's youth demonstrate the critical need for responsible adults to establish close, helping relationships with our young people. This means not only helping them achieve academically, but also teaching them skills such as assertiveness, decision making, conflict resolution, impulse control, anger management, empathy, sensitivity, and tolerance of difference. This book goes beyond the stilted rhetoric on the problems of youth and the dilemma for society by outlining specific treatment intervention and prevention strategies that address the full spectrum of dysfunctional behavior. It introduces structured intervention strategies for school and community collaboration, with an emphasis on remediation and treatment. Educators and helping professionals will find counseling strategies and psychoeducational techniques that focus on primary prevention. These primary prevention strategies are supported by an understanding of critical social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Each chapter introduces the latest demographic data and the factors that make children and adolescents vulnerable to self-defeating or self-destructive behaviors, and then counteracts these factors with structured intervention and prevention

This book addresses issues of ISS utilization and operations from all perspectives, especially the commercial viewpoint, as well as for scientific research and technological development, and education in the widest sense of the word. It will be of great interest to those working in industry, academia and government, particularly in public-private partnerships.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Through a balanced selection of texts with commentaries, this work combines an approach to the renaissance of Hinduism and the reformation of Indian society. The authors chosen are those deemed to be leaders of thought in 19th- and 20th-century India, who may be considered to be the inheritors of the Hindu religious and social traditions and contributors to the renewal of Hinduism.

This reference work contains over 1000 entries on Shinto, ranging from brief definitions and Japanese terms to short essays dealing with aspects of Shinto practice, belief and institutions from early times up to the present day. Shinto regards itself as the ancient indigenous tradition of Japan, yet has gone through transformations even in the 20th century. The introduction considers the problematic notion of "Shinto" itself, while the main body of the dictionary explains terms relating to such matters as festivals, shrines, rituals, "kami", Shinto-related religious movements, significant events and key figures in the development of Shinto. The book contains explanations of Shinto terms, coverage of the dimensions of Shinto, and a religious studies approach to the subject which deals with Shinto ideas and practices.

Modern Japan's repressed anxieties, fears and hopes come to the surface in the fantastic. A close analysis of fantasy fiction, film and comics reveals the ambivalence felt by many Japanese towards the success story of the nation in the twentieth century.
The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature explores the dark side to Japanese literature and Japanese society. It takes in the nightmarish future depicted in the animated film masterpiece, Akira, and the pastoral dream worlds created by Japan's Nobel Prize winning author Oe Kenzaburo. A wide range of fantasists, many discussed here in English for the first time, form the basis for a ground-breaking analysis of utopias, dystopias, the disturbing relationship between women, sexuality and modernity, and the role of the alien in the fantastic.

Modern Japan's repressed anxieties, fears and hopes come to the surface in the fantastic. A close analysis of fantasy fiction, film and comic strips reveals the ambivalence felt by many Japanese towards the success story of the nation in the twentieth century
The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature explores the dark side to Japanese literature and Japanese society. It takes in the nightmarish future depicted in the animated film masterpiece, Akira, and the pastoral dream worlds created by Japan's Nobel Prize winning author Oe Kenzaburo. A wide range of fantasists, many discussed here in English for the first time, form the basis for a ground-breaking analysis of utopias, dystopias, the disturbing relationship between women, sexuality and modernity, and the role of the alien in the fantastic.

How far was the end of the Ottoman Empire the result of Great Power imperialism and how far the result of structural weaknesses within the Empire itself? These studies of the foreign policy of each of the Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire examine these fundamental issues.

This is a single volume account of the first rebirth of a national literature in the national language, tracing the course of its development and full maturity from the beginning of the 9th century to the end of the 15th century.

Karma, the law of cause and effect, of nature's retribution for lost harmony, and Rebirth, from which it is inseperable, have been described as the oldest doctrine in the world. In today's turmoil, an understanding of Karma is one of the foundations on which we can build a more reasonable world.

This work embraces a wide range of aspects of Indian mysticism, displaying the structural patterns in mystical experiences and the mystic paths in different traditions and schools, while there are also significant contributions to comparative mysticism, Eastern and Western. A glossary of terms employed provides a helpful appendix.

The term sacred science may appear contradictory to those for whom "science" is identified with that particular mode of knowledge which has come to monopolize to a large extent the term science for itself since the 17th century in the West. Science, thus understood, has by definition nothing to do with sacred, while what is called sacred has little to do with science. This work presents basic notions concerning the sacred sciences and the meaning of such sciences in ths modern world. In the words of the author, "we hope ...that the work will be a humble contribution to a better understanding of the traditional and sacred sciences so much needed by the modern world, lost in the maze caused by its forgetfulness of the traditional and perennial wisdom of which these very sciences are applications and depositories".