Providing a wealth of empirical research on the everyday practise of Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia, this book gives a detailed account of how Islam is understood and practised among ordinary Muslims in the region, focusing in particular on Uzbekistan. It shows how individuals negotiate understandings of Islam as an important marker for identity, grounding for morality and as a tool for everyday problem-solving in the economically harsh, socially insecure and politically tense atmosphere of present-day Uzbekistan. Presenting a detailed case-study of the city of Bukhara that focuses upon the local forms of Sufism and saint veneration, the book shows how Islam facilitates the pursuit of more modest goals of agency and belonging, as opposed to the utopian illusions of fundamentalist Muslim doctrines.

Drawing on theories of place, consumption and identity, Sarah Chaplin details the evolution of the love hotel in urban Japan since the 1950s. Love hotels emerged in the late 1950s following a ban of licensed prostitution, then were extremely popular in the 1970s, were then legislated against in the 1980s and are now perceived as 'leisure', 'fashion' or 'boutique' hotels.

Representing a timely opportunity to capture and evaluate the dying manifestations of an important era in Japanese social and cultural history, this book provides a critical account of the love hotel as a unique typology. It considers its spatial, aesthetic, semiotic, and locational denotations and connotations, which results in a richly nuanced cultural reading.

The love hotel is presented as a key indicator of social and cultural change in post-war Japan, and as such this book will be of interest to a wide and international readership including students of Japanese culture, society and architecture.

Using a wide range sources, this book explores the ways in which the Russians governed their empire in Siberia from 1598 to 1725. Paying particular attention to the role of the Siberian Cossaks, the author takes a thorough assessment of how the institutions of imperial government functioned in seventeenth century Russia.

It raises important questions concerning the nature of the Russian autocracy in the early modern period, investigating the neglected relations of a vital part of the Empire with the metropolitan centre, and examines how the Russian authorities were able to control such a vast and distant frontier given the limited means at its disposal. It argues that despite this great physical distance, the representations of the Tsar's rule in the symbols, texts and gestures that permeated Siberian institutions were close at hand, thus allowing the promotion of political stability and favourable terms of trade. Investigating the role of the Siberian Cossacks, the book explains how the institutions of empire facilitated their position as traders via the sharing of cultural practices, attitudes and expectations of behaviour across large distances among the members of organisations or personal networks.

In the medieval period, the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (the mawlid) was celebrated in popular narratives and ceremonies that expressed the religious agendas and aspirations of ordinary Muslims, including women.

This book examines the Mawlid from its origins to the present day and provides a new insight into how an aspect of everyday Islamic piety has been transformed by modernity. The book gives a window into the religious lives of medieval Muslim women, rather than focusing on the limitations that were placed on them and shows how medieval popular Islam was coherent and meaningful, not just a set of deviations from scholarly norms.

Concise in both historical and textual analysis, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of contemporary Muslim devotional practices and will be of great interest to postgraduate students and researchers of Islam, religious studies and medieval studies.

Having identified early material that goes back to the Buddha himself, the author argues that the two teachers of the Buddha were historical figures. Based on the early Brahminic literature, namely the early Upanishads and Moksadharma, the author asserts the origin of the method of meditation learned by the Buddha from these teachers, and attempts to use them to identify some authentic teachings of the Buddha on meditation.

Stimulating debate within the field of Buddhist Studies, the following claims are put forward:

• the Buddha was taught by Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, as stated in the literature of numerous early Buddhist sects, is historically authentic
• Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta taught a form of early Brahminic meditation
• the Buddha must consequently have been trained in a meditative school whose ideology was provided by the philosophical portions of early Upanishads

Shedding new light on a fascinating aspect of the origins of Buddhism, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Buddhist studies, Asian religion and South Asian studies.

Written by an international team of experts from the US, UK, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Canada, this important and interesting book examines and explores the relationship between the international political and economic system, and China's economic and political transition.

Exploring international relations theory with a China-centric view, the book addresses key and significant questions such as:

• Has the outside world shaped China's position within the global polity and economic, and affected the way China deals with the world economy?
• Have Chinese leaders and foreign policy makers internalized the norms and values of the global economic activity?
• Who are the key players in China in this process of globalization?

Giving vital insights into China's likely development and international influence in the next decade, China's Reforms and International Political Economy is an essential and invaluable read.

This much-needed work on ethnicity in Asia offers a major sociological analysis of Hui Muslims in contemporary China. Using both qualitative and quantitative data derived from fieldwork in Lanzhou between March 2001 and July 2004, it looks at the contrast between the urban life of the Han people, the ethnic majority in the city of Lanzhou, and the Hui people, the largest ethnic minority in the city, and assesses the link between minority ethnicity and traditional behaviour in urban sociology and research on ethnic groups of China.

In-depth interviews and survey data provides a fresh perspective to the study of ethnic behaviour in China, and offers a rich account of Hui behaviour in seven aspects of urban life: neighbouring interaction, friendship formation, network behaviour, mate selection methods, spouse choice, marital homogamy, and household structure.

Contributing to the global discourse on Islam, religious fundamentalism and modernity, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in Chinese society, Islam, religion, development, urban studies, anthropology and ethnicity.

Examining some of the most critical issues in Malaysian politics today, including human rights, law and democracy, gender and Islam, this book explores the contours of the contemporary landscape of Malaysian politics, focusing especially on politics among the majority ethnic Malay community.

In particular, the book explains why changes in patterns of political mobilization and the rhetoric of the dominant parties - particularly the PAS and UMNO - have been so limited, despite the overt and growing dissatisfaction shown by Malaysians with the state of their political system and the ability of these parties to represent their interests. It considers the recent history of events and discourses within Malaysian society, and UMNO and PAS, and goes on to analyze why important transitions have occurred in society yet political parties have not adapted themselves to these changes and remained reticent about instituting meaningful reforms involving these matters.

Political Reform in Japan argues that the quality of political leadership is the crucial determinant of whether parties in positions of dominance, like the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, pass or reject policies such as electoral system and campaign finance reforms that could harm the party's future electoral chances.

By comparing successful reform drives led by Miki Takeo, Ozawa Ichiro and Koizumi Junichiro with unsuccessful reform efforts pursued by Kaifu Toshiki, Miyazawa Kiichi and Kono Yonhei, Alisia Gaunder forces a reconsideration of the structure versus agency debate in political science, and of the conventional wisdom on Japanese politics that consensus decision-making norms and factional power balancing produce little in the way of political leadership.

Providing an excellent overview of the latest thinking in Maimonides studies, this book uses a novel philosophical approach to examine whether Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed contains a naturalistic doctrine of salvation after death.

The author examines the apparent tensions and contradictions in the Guide and explains them in terms of a modern philosophical interpretation rather than as evidence of some esoteric meaning hidden in the text.

This collection of essays addresses and defines the state of contemporary theories and practices of space: it is concerned with the growing importance of technology and communications, the effects of globalization and the change of social demands. Within the current urban and geopolitical contexts, it addresses the emergence of new social and political theories that raise questions of identity and difference in modern society. The book reiterates feminist concerns with space from the critical stance of the new millennium.

With contributions from the leading theorists and thinkers from around the world representing the fields of architecture, art, philosophy and gender studies, this book has a truly international and interdisciplinary reach.

Leading specialists from Europe and Japan examine the institutional mechanisms of governance at the global level and provide concrete evidence of the role Japan plays in these institutions. An excellent introduction to the concept of global governance, the volume analyzes how global governance actually works through the global institutional mechanisms of governance. It provides an up-to-date and contemporary analysis of the six most important global institutions, namely:

• the Group of 7/8
• the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
• the World Bank
• the International Monetary Fund
• the World Trade Organization
• the United Nations.

Written clearly and concisely, the book provides a thorough and accessible discussion on Japan s role within these institutions and uses supporting case studies to ask whether Japan is reactively or proactively involved in trying to shape these institutions in order to promote its own interests. As such, it will be a valuable resource for undergraduates and scholars with an interest in global governance, Japanese politics and political economy.

This text looks at the ways in which Jews, Muslims and the conflict between them has been covered in the modern media. Both Jews and Muslims generally receive a 'bad press'. This book will try to reveal why. The media have clearly played a pro-active role in the Middle East conflict, the coverage of which is obscured by the contrasting images of Jew and Muslim in western thought.

This topical new book seeks to understand the relationship between elite dynamics and strategies and the lack of profound political change in Algeria after 1995, when the country's military rulers returned to electoral processes.

Using evidence from extensive fieldwork, Isabelle Werenfels exposes successful survival strategies of an opaque authoritarian elite in a changing domestic and international environment. The main focus is on:

• the changing balance of power between different elite segments
• the modes of generation change and the different emerging young elite types
• constraints, obligations and opportunities arising from elite embeddings in clienteles networks and in specific social and economic structures.

Building rare evidence from fieldwork into a multidisciplinary analytical framework, this book presents a significant input to the more general literature on transition processes and is particularly relevant as the West pushes for democratic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.

This book analyzes India's impressive efforts in responding to sensational and easily visible disasters in contrast to the 'silent emergency' of drought-induced under nutrition and starvation deaths. Building on Amartya Sen's famous claim that no famine has ever occurred in a democratic country, it re-examines the relationship between democracy, public action and famine prevention. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data in India at national, state and local levels as well as in-depth field visits to two states on India's east coast, Orissa and West Bengal, the author analyzes the following issues:

• the interaction between specific institutions in India and their accountability to the public
• the role of the media in highlighting problems of extreme poverty and destitution and the effectiveness of political and administrative responses to such reports
• the extent to which tribal groups are vulnerable to starvation and famine, and an analysis of whether starvation deaths in drought-prone Kalahandi district in Orissa are unique in India
• the impact of two major nutrition programmes, the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), in reducing the incidence, duration and impact of starvation deaths.

Starvation and India's Democracy will be of interest to researchers in economics, political science, philosophy, development studies and South Asian studies.

Leading specialists from Europe and Japan examine the institutional mechanisms of governance at the global level and provide concrete evidence of the role Japan plays in these institutions. An excellent introduction to the concept of global governance, the volume analyzes how global governance actually works through the global institutional mechanisms of governance. It provides an up-to-date and contemporary analysis of the six most important global institutions, namely:

• the Group of 7/8
• the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
• the World Bank
• the International Monetary Fund
• the World Trade Organization
• the United Nations.

Written clearly and concisely, the book provides a thorough and accessible discussion on Japan's role within these institutions and uses supporting case studies to ask whether Japan is reactively or proactively involved in trying to shape these institutions in order to promote its own interests. As such, it will be a valuable resource for undergraduates and scholars with an interest in global governance, Japanese politics and political economy.

At a time when the expanded projection of US political, military, economic and cultural power draws intensified global concern, understanding how that country understands itself seems more important than ever.

This collection of new critical essays tackles this old problem in a new way, by examining some of the hundreds of US films that announce themselves as titularly 'American'. From early travelogues to contemporary comedies, national nomination has been an abiding characteristic of American motion pictures, heading the work of Porter, Guy-Blache, DeMille, Capra, Sternberg, Vidor, Minnelli and Mankiewicz. More recently, George Lucas, Paul Schrader, John Landis and Edward James Olmos have made their own contributions to Hollywood's Americana.

What does this national branding signify? Which versions of Americanism are valorized, and which marginalized or excluded? Out of which social and historical contexts do they emerge, and for and by whom are they constructed?

Edited by Mandy Merck, the collection contains detailed analyses of such films as The Vanishing American, American Madness, An American in Paris, American Graffiti, American Gigolo, American Pie and many more.

At a time when the expanded projection of US political, military, economic and cultural power draws intensified global concern, understanding how that country understands itself seems more important than ever. This collection of new critical essays tackles this old problem in a new way, by examining some of the hundreds of US films that announce themselves as titularly 'American'. From early travelogues to contemporary comedies, national nomination has been an abiding characteristic of American motion pictures, heading the work of Porter, Guy-Blache, DeMille, Capra, Sternberg, Vidor, Minnelli and Mankiewicz. More recently, George Lucas, Paul Schrader, John Landis and Edward James Olmos have made their own contributions to Hollywood's Americana. What does this national branding signify? Which versions of Americanism are valorized, and which marginalized or excluded? Out of which social and historical contexts do they emerge, and for and by whom are they constructed? Edited by Mandy Merck, the collection contains detailed analyses of such films as The Vanishing American, American Madness, An American in Paris, American Graffiti, American Gigolo, American Pie and many more.

This book examines the Hong Kong media over a forty year period, focusing in particular on how its newspapers and TV stations have struggled for press freedom under the colonial British administration, as well as Chinese rule.

Making full use of newly declassified material, extensive interviews and specific case-studies, it provides an illuminating analysis of the dynamics of political power and its relationship with media censorship.

Overall, this book is an impressive discussion of the evolving face of the Hong Kong media, and is an important contribution to theoretical debates on the relationship between political power, economics, identity and journalism.

China's stunning record of economic development since the 1970s has been marred by an increasingly obvious gap between the country's 'haves' and its 'have-nots'. While people living in some parts of the country have enjoyed dramatically improved conditions of life, those in other districts and regions have slipped ever further behind in terms of access to health, wealth, education, security and opportunity.

Paying for Progress in China is a collection of essays which trace the causes of this growing inequality, using new data including surveys, interviews, newly available official statistics and in-depth fieldwork. Their findings expose the malfunctioning of China's 'broken' intergovernmental fiscal system, which has exacerbated the disequalizing effects of emerging market forces. Whilst the government's deliberately 'pro-poor' development policies have in recent years sought to reduce the gap between rich and poor, both markets, and also state institutions and policies, are continuing to create perverse equity outcomes across the country, confounding hopes for better-balanced and more inclusive growth in China.

The interdisciplinary approach of this collection, incorporating work by economists, sociologists and political scientists, makes it a valuable resource for students of contemporary Chinese political economy and social development.

The Tarikhnamah is a history of the world and the oldest surviving work of Persian prose. This book examines it as a political and cultural document and why it became such an influential work in the Islamic world.

The Germans were a very substantial minority in Russia, and many leading figures, including the Empress Catherine the Great, were German. Using rarely seen archival information, this book provides an account of the experiences of the Germans living in the Soviet Union from the early post-revolution period to the post-Soviet era following the collapse of communism. Setting out the history of this minority group and explaining how they were affected by the Soviet regime's nationality policies, the book:

• describes the character of the ethnic Germanic groups, demonstrating their diversity before the execution of the policy of systematic deportations by the Stalinist authorities from 1937 to 1947
• argues that there was not one but several episodes of deportation within this period
• considers the different dimensions of this policy, including the legal and economic structures of, and everyday life in, the Soviet special settlements
• investigates the 'women's dimension' of deportation, especially the role of women in the preservation of ethnic identity among the afflicted groups
• explores the long term consequences of Soviet deportations and exile on the identity of the Soviet Germans.

Japan's Contested War Memories is an important and significant book that explores the struggles within contemporary Japanese society to come to terms with Second World War history. Focusing particularly on 1972 onwards, the period starts with the normalization of relations with China and the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, and ends with the 60th anniversary commemorations.

Analyzing the variety of ways in which the Japanese people narrate, contest and interpret the past, the book is also a major critique of the way the subject has been treated in much of the English-language. Philip Seaton concludes that war history in Japan today is more divisive and widely argued over than in any of the other major Second World War combatant nations. Providing a sharp contrast to the many orthodox statements about Japanese 'ignorance', amnesia' and 'denial' about the war, this is an engaging and illuminating study that will appeal to scholars and students of Japanese history, politics, cultural studies, society and memory theory.

The health care system in Malaysia has undergone a fundamental transformation over the last two decades. This book examines this transformation and explores the pressing issues it faces today. It includes coverage of:

• 
  
• the evolution of the system since independence, from the colonial legacy of national provision bequeathed from the British to the impact of the global ideological shift against statism in the 1980s
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• considers the responses of the Malaysian state and government policy
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• issues such as equity of provision, women's access to health care, HIV-AIDS health care, care for the elderly.

The book offers a detailed examination of the changing face of health care in Malaysia, and its impact on Malaysian citizens, users and society.

The striking parallels between Derrida's deconstruction and certain strategies eschewing oppositional hierarchies in Asian thought, especially in Buddhism and Daoism, have attracted much attention from scholars of both Western and Asian philosophy. This book contributes to this discussion by focusing on the ethical dimension and function of deconstruction in Asian thought.

Examining different traditions and schools of Asian thought, including Indian Buddhism, Zen, other schools of East Asian Buddhism, the Kyoto School, and Daoism, the contributors explore the central theme from different contexts and different angles. Insights and notions from the contemporary discussion of Derridean deconstruction and its ethic or Derridean-Levinasian ethic as a paradigm for comparison or interpretation are used as a framework.

Furthering our understanding of the relationship between deconstruction and the ethical in Asian traditions, this book also enriches the contemporary ethical discourse from a global perspective by bridging Asia and the West.