This book examines the theological worldview of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), a Chinese revolutionary movement whose leader, Hong Xiuquan (1814-64), claimed to be the second son of God and younger brother of Jesus. Despite the profound impact of Christian books on Hong's religious thinking, previous scholarship has neglected the localized form of Christianity that he and his closest followers created. Filling that gap in the existing literature, this book analyzes the localization of Christianity in the theology, ethics, and ritual practices of the Taipings. Carl S. Kilcourse not only reveals how Confucianism and popular religion acted as instruments of localization, but also suggests that several key aspects of the Taipings' localized religion were inspired by terms and themes from translated Christian texts. Emphasizing this link between vernacularization and localization, Kilcourse demonstrates both the religious identity of the Taipings and their wider significance in the history of world Christianity.

In May 1998 the fall of Suharto marked the beginning of a difficult and multi-layered transition process. It was accompanied by intensified conflict in the political arena, a dramatic increase of ethnic and religious violence and the danger of national disintegration. Ten years after the collapse of the New Order, Indonesia has made significant progress, however the quality of democracy is still low. Theoretically innovative and empirically sound, this book is an in-depth analysis of the Indonesian reform process since 1998. Marco Bunte and Andreas Ufen bring together a selection of noted Indonesia experts to provide new insights into the restructuring of core state institutions, the empowerment of Parliament, the slow and difficult evolution of the rule of law, and the transfer of power to locally elected regional governments (decentralization). Based on the results of extensive fieldwork, Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia will be an important read for scholars engaged in research on Indonesia and the politics of Southeast Asia.

Leading anthropologist Edward Hall analyzes the many aspects of non-verbal communication amd considers the concepts of space and time as tools for transmission of messages in this fascinating study. The Silent Language is a work of interest to both the intelligent general reader and the sophisticated social scientist.

Kazakhstan is emerging as the most dynamic economic and political actor in Central Asia. It is the second largest country of the former Soviet Union, after the Russian Federation, and has rich natural resources, particularly oil, which is being exploited through massive US investment. Kazakhstan has an impressive record of economic growth under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, and has ambitions to project itself as a modern, wealthy civic state, with a developed market economy. At the same time, Kazakhstan is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the region, with very substantial non-Kazakh and non-Muslim minorities. Its political regime has used elements of political clientelism and neo-traditional practices to bolster its rule. Drawing from extensive ethnographic research, interviews, and archival materials this book traces the development of national identity and statehood in Kazakhstan, focusing in particular on the attempts to build a national state. It argues that Russification and Sovietization were not simply 'top-down' processes, that they provide considerable scope for local initiatives, and that Soviet ethnically-based affirmative action policies have had a lasting impact on ethnic lite formation and the rise of a distinct brand of national consciousness.

This book examines entrepreneurship and small business in Russia and key countries of Eastern Europe, showing how far small businesses have developed, and discusses how far 'market reforms' and a market mentality have been taken up by ordinary people in the real everyday economy. For each of the countries examined - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Estonia - the book reviews the progress of market reforms within the wider context of social and economic transformation, surveys the development of entrepreneurship and small firms so far, and assesses the role of government in the process, and the strengths and weaknesses of the small business sector.

The idea of 'national identity' is an ambiguous one for Hong Kong. Returned to the national embrace of China on 1 July 1997 after 150 years as a British colony, the concept of national identity and what it means to "belong to a nation" is a matter of great tension and contestation in Hong Kong. Written by three academic specialists on Hong Kong cultural identity, social history, and mass media, this book explores the processes through which the people of Hong Kong are "learning to belong to a nation" by examining their relationship with the Chinese nation and state in the recent past, present, and future. It considers the complex meanings of and debates over national identity in Hong Kong over the past fifty years and especially during the last decade following Hong Kong's return to China. It also places these arguments within a larger, global perspective, to ask what Hong Kong can teach us about national identity and its potential transformations. Multidisciplinary in its approach, Hong Kong and China explores national identity in terms of theory, mass media, survey date, ethnography and history, and will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese history, cultural studies, and nationalism.

This new work surveys how rapid changes taking place at the start of the twenty-first century in social, cultural, political and economic domains impact on sexuality, health and human rights. The relationships between men, women and children are changing quickly, as are traditional family structures and gender norms. What were once viewed as private matters have become public, and an array of new social movements - transgender, intersex, sex worker, people living with HIV - have come into the open. The book is split into three sections: Global 'Sex' Wars - discusses the notion of sexualities, its political landscapes internationally, and the return of religious fervour and extremism Epistemological Challenges and Research Agendas - examines modern 'scientific' understandings of sexuality, its history and the way in which AIDS has drawn attention to sexuality The Promises and Limits of Sexual Rights - discusses human rights approaches to sexuality, their strengths and limitations and new ways of imagining erotic justice Offering a unique framework for understanding this new world, set in the context of the major theoretical debates of recent decades, this book will be of interest to professionals, advocates and policy researchers and is suitable for a wide range of courses covering areas such as gender studies, human sexuality, public health and social policy.

This new work surveys how rapid changes taking place at the start of the twenty-first century in social, cultural, political and economic domains impact on sexuality, health and human rights. The relationships between men, women and children are changing quickly, as are traditional family structures and gender norms. What were once viewed as private matters have become public, and an array of new social movements - transgender, intersex, sex worker, people living with HIV - have come into the open. The book is split into three sections: Global 'Sex' Wars - discusses the notion of sexualities, its political landscapes internationally, and the return of religious fervour and extremism Epistemological Challenges and Research Agendas - examines modern 'scientific' understandings of sexuality, its history and the way in which AIDS has drawn attention to sexuality The Promises and Limits of Sexual Rights - discusses human rights approaches to sexuality, their strengths and limitations and new ways of imagining erotic justice Offering a unique framework for understanding this new world, set in the context of the major theoretical debates of recent decades, this book will be of interest to professionals, advocates and policy researchers and is suitable for a wide range of courses covering areas such as gender studies, human sexuality, public health and social policy.

Over the course of her career, Barbara Stafford has established herself the preeminent scholar of the intersections of the arts and sciences, articulating new theories and methods for understanding the sublime, the mysterious, the inscrutable. Omnivorous in her research, she has published work that embraces neuroscience and philosophy, biology and culture, pinpointing connections among each discipline's parallel concerns. Ribbon of Darkness is a monument to the scope of her work and the range of her intellect. At times associative, but always incisive, the essays in this new volume take on a distinctly contemporary purpose: to uncover the ethical force and moral aspects of overlapping scientific and creative inquiries. This shared territory, Stafford argues, offers important insights into--and clarifications of--current dilemmas about personhood, the supposedly menial nature of manual skill, the questionable borderlands of gene editing, the potentially refining value of dualism, and the limits of a materialist worldview. Stafford organizes these essays around three concepts that structure the book: inscrutability, ineffability, and intuitability. All three, she explains, allow us to examine how both the arts and the sciences imaginatively infer meaning from the "veiled behavior of matter," bringing these historically divided subjects into a shared intellectual inquiry and imbuing them with an ethical urgency. A vanguard work at the intersection of the arts and sciences, this book will be sure to guide readers from either realm into unfamiliar yet undeniably fertile territory.

In the wake of the MeToo movement, revelations of sexual assault and harassment continue to disrupt sexual politics across the globe. Reports of widespread misconduct--in workplaces from doctors' offices to factory floors--precipitate firings, legal actions, street protests, and policy punditry. Meenakshi Gigi Durham situates media culture as a place in which these broader social struggles are produced and reproduced. The media figures whose depravity sparked the #MeToo movement are symbols of the complexities of sexual desire and consent. Pop culture fuels controversies about rape culture; social media users have launched feminist resistance that turned to real-world activism; and investigative journalists have broken stories of assault, offering a platform for survivors to speak truth to patriarchal power. Arguing that the media are a linchpin in these events, Durham provides a feminist account of the interrelated contexts of media production, representation, and reception. She situates the media as the key site where the establishment of sexuality and social relations takes place, and traces the media's powerful role in both reifying and challenging rape culture. This timely and stimulating book will be of interest to students and scholars of media, communication, gender studies, and sociology, as well as to anyone concerned by the current state of sexual politics.

Go beyond traditional approaches to therapy, research, and teaching Psychotherapy works toward change, but has traditionally focused solely on the individual. Today it is understood that discrimination and other adverse social conditions adversely affect the mental health of minority groups. Activism and LGBT Psychology takes note of the influence of social factors and offers examples of how mental health professionals can use their professional skills to empower the LGBT community. Respected leaders in the field of psychotherapy describe theoretical, clinical, community interventions, and personal approaches to changing attitudes toward LGBT people and within LGBT communities. Prejudice against a minority has an undeniable impact on mental health treatment. Recognizing and understanding this dynamic, Activism and LGBT Psychology reveals strategies to lessen societal discrimination, work for positive change, and reinforce LGBT-affirmative mental health practices. This valuable guide shows how to integrate the mental health professional's unique skills into activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Topics in Activism and LGBT Psychology include: integrating activism into clinical practice theoretical alternatives for clinical practice mental health issues as the consequences of social injustice strategies for using liberation psychology in psychotherapy with LGBT clients practical strategies to bring an integrated clinical approach which encourages client empowerment and self-definition how research can be social activism providing training and support to make educational professionals agents of change personal accounts of integrating professional work with an activist role and more! Activism and LGBT Psychology is a positive, insightful guide for change that is valuable for community psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, educators, students, and professionals in the mental health field.

This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on interpretive, critical, and cultural approaches to health communication. It includes an international collection of contributors, and highlights non-traditional (non-Western) perspectives on health communication.

This book offers an introduction to politics in three Southern European countries, providing a comparative case study analysis of why democratization outcomes vary across them.

One of the important questions that social scientists continue to struggle to answer is the question of why some countries manage to convert themselves from authoritarian rule to stable, fully functioning democracies and others do not. The three countries chosen for analysis represent a wide array of democratization experiences: Italy, with its slow, uncertain start at democratizing after the Second World War; Spain with its remarkably speedy conversion from a seemingly stable authoritarian to stable democratic regime; and Turkey with its extremely slow and - as of yet - still incomplete democratic transition. In contrast to the different types of outcomes these regimes have all experienced, they have shared many common features.

Democratization in Southern Europe examines potential variables, including: problems with stateness, previous experience with democracy, the process of creating constitutions and other important rules, and the structure and functioning of institutions within these countries - with a focus on explaining differences in democratic consolidation and providing an analysis of the likely impact of each.

Globalization, European integration, and social change have devaluated traditional social democratic policy instruments. This book compares and explores how social democratic governments have had to adapt and whether they have successfully managed to uphold old social democratic goals and values in the light of these challenges. This volume examines the policy measures of social democratic parties in government in a comparative framework. The authors focus on traditional social democratic goals and tools, in particular, fiscal, employment, and social policy, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. They identify three policy patterns in social democratic governments: traditional, modernized, and liberalized social democracy and provide a comparative account of the explanatory power of the national context for policy adopted by social democratic parties. Finally, the extent to which social democratic parties have been able to use the European Union as a political space for social democratic governance and policy-making is examined. Social Democracy in Power will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, comparative politics, European studies and public policy.

The Munda group of languages of the Austroasiatic family are spoken by so-called 'tribals' in central and eastern India. They are the least well-known and most poorly documented languages of the Indian subcontinent. This work - unprecedented and original - draws together a distinguished group of international experts in the field of Munda language research, presents current assessments of a wide range of typological and comparative-historical issues, and offers agendas for future research. Never before has there been the real possibility of putting together a volume such as this one, for there is now greater interest in the Munda languages than ever before, and good descriptions of almost all of the languages in the family can now be offered, as well as broader studies on such topics as the typology or historical phonology of the Munda language family, and how Munda fits in the greater South Asian linguistic area.
The Munda language family is old in eastern and central India - older than the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages now found in their territory. The ancestor language of Proto-Munda and the cognate Mon-Khmer (Khmer-Nicobar) languages, viz. Proto-Austroasiatic, is at least as ancient as Proto-Indo-European, and is as important culturally and archaeologically for Southeast Asia, South China and eastern India, as Proto-Indo-European is for its part of the world.
The Munda Languages consists of 21 chapters, and Introductory Chapter and a Preface. The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents synchronic descriptions of the eleven main Munda languages. Part II offers a range of sociolinguistic and literary/philological studies of the Munda languages, while Part IIIdiscusses an array of typological, a real, and comparative-historical topics in current Munda linguistics, presenting an assessment of past successes (and failures) in these domains, the status of current work, and suggested paths for future research.

The end of communism and accession to the European Union have had a huge impact on Poland. This book provides an overall assessment of the post-1989 transformation in Poland. It focuses in particular on four key themes: economic transformation and its outcomes; the heritage of the past and national identity; regional development in Poland including the implications of EU accession for regional development; and political developments both before and after EU accession. In addition the book shows how changes in all these areas are related, and emphasises the overall common themes. The book is in memory of George Blazyca, of the University of Paisley, whose work on the political economy of transition in Poland is highly regarded, and who did a great deal to support the work of Polish academic colleagues and to promote the work of young scholars.

Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analysing Print Journalism explores contemporary UK national and local newspapers at a significant and pivotal moment in their development when some pundits are busily, if mistakenly, announcing their demise. The book offers a detailed examination of features which previous studies have tended to neglect, such as editorial formats (News, Op Ed pages, readers' letters, cartoons, obituaries, advice columns, features and opinion columns), aspects of newspaper design (page layout, photographs, supplements, online editions, headlines, the emergence of the compact and Berliner editions), newspaper contents (sport, sex and Page 3, royalty, crime, moral panics and politics) as well as the content of newspapers which is not generated by in house journalists (advertising, TV listings, horoscopes, agency copy and public relations materials). This innovative and accessibly written collection provides journalism and media students with an invaluable study of newspapers in the digital age.

Religious procession is a significant dimension of religion in South Asia. Processions are central not only in Hinduism, but also Islam, Christianity, Jainism and Sikhism, which have large procession rituals. The last years have seen an increase in processions and ritualizations of space both in South Asia and in the South Asian Diaspora. Processions are religious display events and the increase in processions are functions of religious pluralism and competition about public space as well as economic prosperity and a revival of religious identities. Processions often bring together religion and politics since they are about public space, domination and contestation. Written by leading specialists on religious processions and ritualization of public space in South Asia and in the Diaspora, this volume presents current research on the interpretations of the role of processions, the recent increase in processions and changes in the procession traditions. South Asian Religions on Display will appeal to students and scholars of Asian studies, anthropology, religion and political science.

With the unleashing of the "War on Terror" in the aftermath of 9/11, Afghanistan has become prominent in the news. However, we need to appreciate that no substantive understanding of contemporary history, politics and society of this country can be achieved without a thorough analysis of the Afghan encounter with cultural and literary modernity and modernization. Modern Persian Literature in Afghanistan does just that. The book offers a balanced and interdisciplinary analysis of the rich and admirable contemporary poetry and fiction of a land long tormented by wars and invasions. It sets out to demonstrate that, within the trajectory of the union between modern aesthetic imagination and politics, creativity and production, and representation and history, the modernist intervention enabled many contemporary poets and writers of fiction to resist the overt politicization of the literary field, without evading politics or disavowing the modern state. The interpretative moves and nuanced readings of a series of literary texts make this book a major contribution to a rather neglected area of research and study. Winner of the Iranian World Prize for Book of the Year in Islamics Studies 2009

Despite its recent rapid economic growth, China's political system has remained resolutely authoritarian. However, an increasingly open economy is creating the infrastructure for an open society, with the rise of a non-state sector in which a private economy, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and different forms of social forces are playing an increasingly powerful role in facilitating political change and promoting good governance. This book examines the development of the non-state sector and NGOs in China since the onset of reform in the late 1970s. It explores the major issues facing the non-state sector in China today, assesses the institutional barriers that are faced by its developing civil society, and compares China's example with wider international experience. It shows how the 'get-rich-quick' ethos of the Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin years, that prioritised rapid GDP growth above all else, has given way under the Jiantao Hu regime to a renewed concern with social reforms, in areas such as welfare, medical care, education, and public transportation. It demonstrates how this change has led to encouragement by the Hu government of the development of the non-state sector as a means to perform regulatory functions and to achieve effective provision of public and social services. It explores the tension between the government's desire to keep the NGOs as "helping hands' rather than as autonomous, independent organizations, and their ability to perform these roles successfully.

This book examines the relationship between the Russian Communist Party and the Russian working class between 1920-24, immediately after the civil war and during the first years of the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Based on extensive original research, which casts much new light on this period, both from the perspective of the rank and file as well as the leadership, the book discusses working-class collective action in 1920, workers' responses to the 1921 crisis, including the Kronstadt revolt, and the successes of the non-party workers' movement in the elections of 1921. It shows how during and after the 1921 crisis the working class was politically expropriated by the Bolshevik party, and how democratic forms such as soviets and factory committees were deprived of decision-making power. Simon Pirani examines how during this period the Soviet ruling class began to take shape, preferring in 1922-23 mass mobilization campaigns in which workers remained politically passive, rather than the participatory mass democracy which had flourished in 1917. The Russian Revolution in Retreat, 1920-24 shows how, whilst some people argued that the principles of 1917 had been betrayed, others accepted a social contract under which workers were assured of improvements in living standards in exchange for increased labour discipline and productivity, and a surrender of political power, with political power becoming concentrated in the party, and, increasingly, in the party elite.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the contemporary Maghreb. Made up of contributions from leading academics in the field, it highlights specific issues of importance, including international and security affairs.

With profiles of individual countries and regional issues, such as migration, gender, integration, economics, and war in Western Sahara, as well as a section dealing with international relations and the Maghreb, including US and EU foreign policy and security issues, North Africa: Politics, Region, and the Limits of Transformation is a major resource for all students of Middle Eastern Studies and North African Politics.

This volume will mark a new trend in dealing with women's varied experiences of life: individual introductions situate the narrator in a context - and then her voice takes over, with no intervention from the editors (except to provide footnotes wherever necessary). The personal narrative - be it an autobiography, a letter or a diary - has come to be recognised as an acceptable data source in history and social science. Literary critics and students of literature too find considerable use in reading the personal writings of poets, fiction and crime writers. In this book, readings of personal narratives help in painting various images of lives that we can only know at second hand. The melange includes memoirs, published articles, 'portraits from memory', a collection of essays , and an oral interview. In all, the self was the focus. The writings of Sailabala, Li Gotami, and Shakuntala go beyond a recounting of their lives and deal with spiritual and travel experiences. Three of the essays are excerpts from published autobiographies - Sarala Devi Chaudhurani's Jeevaner Jharapata (Life's Fallen Leaves), Kalpana Dutt's Reminiscences and Sailabala Das's A Look Before and After. Vidyagauri Nilkanth's writings are essays and a selection of amazingly candid letters exchanged with her husband. Anasuya Sarabahi's is an interview in Gujarati with niece Gira and Monica's a selection from an unpublished memoir. Li Gotami, whose original name was Rutty Petit, travelled to Manasarovar, and a few of the magazine articles on this amazing journey have been reproduced here. Whichever form a woman chooses, writing about her self, is emancipatory; she may be a person who has so far received little attention from the family or the world. Or she may be one who is a well-known public figure - yet little is known about her childhood. So she writes about many selves - life is not about one coherent self but rather one of many lives and experiences. In other words, the pen gives woman agency - she moves out from under the shroud of victim hood and becomes one who can write about her lives. The volume also has some carefully chosen photographs, gleaned from personal collections, so far a neglected area of use in academic study. These provide an important visual context to the many worlds that the women inhabited.

This book tracks the phases of Singapore's economic and political development, arguing that its success was always dependent upon the territories links with the surrounding region and the wider global system, and suggests that managing these links today will be the key to the country's future. Singapore has followed a distinctive historical development trajectory. It was one of a number of cities which provided bases for the expansion of the British empire in the East. But the Pacific War provided local elites with their chance to secure independence. In Singapore the elite disciplined and mobilized their population and built successfully on their colonial inheritance. Today, the city-state prospers in the context of its regional and global networks, and sustaining and nurturing these are the keys to its future. But there are clouds on the elite's horizons; domestically, the population is restive with inequality, migration and surplus-repression causing concern; and internationally, the strategy of constructing a business-hub economy is being widely copied and both Hong Kong and Shanghai are significant competitors. This book discusses these issues and argues that although success is likely to characterize Singapore's future, the elite will have to address these significant domestic and international problems.

This is the first examination of how China is currently dealing with environmental problems and challenges, and of its successes, failures and dilemmas. This new book gives special attention to the development of 'environmental governance' in contemporary China, especially on the urban industrial and infrastructure sectors, showing how the rapid economic growth that has transformed China in recent years has major implications for the environment, as well as future economic development. Leading international scholars explore a range of key issues, including: economic growth and the environment the environmental policy process the legal framework for environmental protection the role of environmental NGOs energy policy water issues biotechnology and GMOs the international dimension. This book shows how environmental policy, politics and governance are core issues posed by China's accelerated economic development. At the same time it analyzes, illustrates and argues that major steps are under way in taking up these challenges. In doing so the book provides an in-depth, balanced and comprehensive assessment of contemporary environmental reforms in China. This book was previously published as a special issue of Environmental Governance.