In National Poets, Cultural Saints Marijan Dovic and Jon Karl Helgason explore the ways in which certain artists, writers, and poets in Europe have become major figures of cultural memory, emulating the symbolic role formerly played by state rulers and religious saints. The authors develop the concept of cultural sainthood in the context of nationalism as a form of invisible religion, identify major shifts in canonization practices from antiquity to the nationally-motivated commemoration of the nineteenth century, and explore the afterlives of two national poets, Slovenia's France Preseren and Iceland's Jonas Hallgrimsson. The book presents a useful analytical model of canonization for further studies on cultural sainthood and opens up fruitful perspectives for the understanding of national movements.

Unique volume articulating the "gender critical" feminist position 15 chapters by an interdisciplinary team of highly-regarded contributors Engages with an important - but highly polarised - political and social debate.

Puerto Rico's colonial history under the United States has shaped the character of development and education in that territory. In 1898, when the United States invaded Puerto Rico, the language, culture, and development of the latter was arrested by a colonialist mandate involving the social, political, and economic spheres. The role that the development of a mass public school system would play in sustaining colonial relationships was seen as paramount. Since then the developments in public school reform policies have contributed to and have been defined and determined within the linguistic and ideological framework of the colonizers' conceptualization of development for Puerto Rico. If development is more than growth, and if it includes self-determination and cultural expression within the context of political and economic arrangements, then Puerto Rico remains a classic example of colonialism 500 years after Columbus.

This edited volume focuses on women’s empowerment for a sustainable future. It takes cultural and transcultural and positive psychology perspectives into consideration and explores the topic of women’s empowerment from diverse stances, across social strata, cultural divides as well as economic and political divisions. It addresses the critique of the overly Western focus of positive psychology on this topic by adopting a transnational and transcultural lens, and by taking non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) samples into in-depth consideration. The chapters therefore focus on women from diverse socio-cultural, political, socio-economic backgrounds and discuss their ways of empowering others and being empowered. They also discuss related positive psychology constructs, such as: coping, resilience, transformation, growth, leadership, creativity, identity development, sustainable action, as well as positive socio-economic, political and eco-sustainable thought and action. The volume as a whole looks at women's leadership as a factor of empowerment. A further fundamental assumption is that women’s empowerment is needed to create a sustainable future at micro-, meso- and macro levels, which presumes safety, peace, ecological considerations, and compassionate leadership. 

This book examines magic's generally maleficent effect on humans from ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages, including tales from classical mythology, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cultures. It shows that certain magical motifs lived on from age to age, but that it took until the Italian Renaissance for magic tales to become fairy tales.

This book offers a new approach by combining the disciplines of history, psychology, and religion to explain the suicidal element in both Western culture and the individual, and how to treat it. Ancient Greek society displays in its literature and the lives of its people an obsessive interest in suicide and death. Kaplan and Schwartz have explored the psychodynamic roots of this problem--in particular, the tragic confusion of the Greek heroic impulse and its commitment to unsatisfactory choices that are destructively rigid and harsh. The ancient Hebraic writings speak little of suicide and approach reality and freedom in vastly different terms: God is an involved parent, caring for his children. Therefore, heroism, in the Greek sense, is not needed nor is the individual compelled to choose between impossible alternatives.

In each of the first three sections, the authors discuss the issues of suicide from a comparative framework, whether in thought or myth, then the suicide-inducing effects of the Graeco-Roman world, and finally, the suicide-preventing effects of the Hebrew world. The final section draws on this material to present a suicide prevention therapy. Historical in scope, the book offers a new psychological model linking culture to the suicidal personality and suggests an antidote, especially with regard to the treatment of the suicidal individual.

Technological progress in the 21st Century still remains monopolized by the developed countries, thereby determining the direction and rhythm of growth in developing countries which must import their technological infrastructure. This colonialized model of industrialization leads to a perpetual outflow of resources abroad and to structured social exclusion that placed narrow limits on democracy and the distribution of overall wellbeing. Why did Latin American societies fail to create an internal division of labour that could adequately provide for the development of productive forces? How did this affect the prospects for democracy in the region? Development and Democracy: Relations in Conflict examines the conflicting relations between technological development and democracy as they unfold in a new and ever more challenging environment. Contributors are: Irma Lorena Acosta Reveles, Leonel Alvarez Yanez, Jesus Becerra Villegas, Ximena de la Barra, Hector de la Fuente Limon, R. A. Dello Buono, Sergio Octavio Contreras Padilla, Silvana Andrea Figueroa Delgado, Victor Manuel Figueroa Sepulveda, Ernesto Menchaca Arredondo, Miguel Omar Munoz Dominguez, Alexandre M. Quaresma de Moura, Cristina Recendez Guerrero.

As violence and turmoil continue to define the former Yugoslavia, basic questions remain unanswered: What are the forces behind the Serbian expansionist drive that has brought death and destruction to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo? How did the Serbs rationalize, and rally support for, this genocidal activity?

Heavenly Serbia traces Serbia's nationalist and expansionist impulses to the legendary battle of Kosovo in 1389. Anzulovic shows how the myth of "Heavenly Serbia" developed to help the Serbs endure foreign domination, explaining their military defeat and the loss of their medieval state by emphasizing their own moral superiority over military victory. Heavenly Serbia shows how this myth resulted in an aggressive nationalist ideology which has triumphed in the late twentieth century and marginalized those Serbs who strive for the establishment of a civil society.

"Modern Serbian nationalism...and its contradictory connections...have been sources of considerable scholarly interest...Branimir Anzulovic's compendium is a good example of the genre, made all the more useful by Anzulovic's excellent command of the literature."
--Ivo Banac, "History of Religions"

Author interview with CNN: http: //www.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/branimir_chat.html

This volume in Greenwood's American Popular Culture through History series recreates the many ways in which a new American culture took root during the Revolutionary period. Tavern culture and pamphlet literature played integral parts in debates surrounding the Revolution. Newspapers spread information while printing the first advertisements. Courtship and marriage rituals varied greatly among the rich and poor, and among city and country folk. Public performance art was a hotly debated component of the increased schism between secular and religious concerns, though many Americans enjoyed recreations of recent military battles. Foodways were distinctly regional, yet food rationing was a universal hardship among army personnel. Randall Huff's narrative essays, as well as many extra front- and back-matter resources, help describe citizen's lives in the newly formed United States of America as the nation fought to win its independence. American Popular Culture through Historyis the only reference series that presents a detailed, narrative discussion of United States popular culture. This volume is one of 17 in the series, each of which presents essays on Everyday America, The World of Youth, Advertising, Architecture, Fashion, Food, Leisure Activities, Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Travel, and Visual Arts.

The stories of six veteran U.S. teachers who have studied about, taught, and lived in Japan and China show that intensive international experience can profoundly affect a teacher's life and work. Reflections about culture shock, friendships across borders, fundamental transformation and school reform recommendations are integrated with wonderfully creative pedagogies.

Six U.S. teachers who lived and taught in Japan and China tell their stories with introspection and enthusiasm. Their experiences improved their teaching and contributed to their cultural awareness and empathy. How these teachers contribute to classroom practice abroad, how they develop personal friendships with their Chinese and Japanese hosts and colleagues, and how they begin to change their school environments upon returning to the U.S. clearly demonstrates the tremendous effects of their international experience.

Frank portrayals of some of their difficult living conditions and reactions to culture shock caution those who would try this life and teaching adventure without adequate preparation. The book concludes with specific recommendations on preparation for such an experience.

Are you sceptical about the importance of arts and culture, especially about their possible impact on politics and the economy? This volume outlines a new framework for analysis of democratic participation and economic growth and explores how these new patterns work around the world. The new framework joins two past traditions; however, their background histories are clearly separate. Democratic participation ideas come mostly from Alexis de Tocqueville, while innovation/bohemian ideas driving the economy are largely inspired by Joseph Schumpeter and Jane Jacobs. New developments building on these core ideas are detailed in the first two sections of this volume. But these chapters in turn show that more detailed work within each tradition leads to an integration of the two: participation joins innovation. This is the main theme in the book's third section, the buzz around arts and culture organizations, and how they can transform politics, economics, and social life.

Written by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of ethnic relations, this volume examines the role of ethnicity in modern day society and the impact of government policy on ethnic relations. International in scope, the essays look at a number of different but interrelated issues--aging, identity, minority groups, and others--examining each from a multidisciplinary perspective. Coverage ranges from the problems of Asian Americans to integration issues in Israel and the relationship between ethnic diversity and patterns of retirement. The contributions include both theoretical and empirical works.

The first section of the study presents the primary issues and central concepts involved in the study of multiculturalism in modern day societies. Specific chapters address such issues as the vesting of ethnic interests in state institutions, state policies toward subordinate ethnics, and government efforts to address multiculturalism. Particularly valuable is a retrospective analysis of Canada's "Bilingual and Bicultural Report." The next section contains detailed case studies which identify specific ethnic groups and analyze their current societal roles. In the final chapters, the contributors present two projections of what ethnic relations will be like in the twenty-first century as North America becomes more multi-ethnic and multilingual. Taken together, the essays offer an illuminating overview of the nature of multiculturalism in widely diverse societies.

In this book the seventeenth century, heavy with significance for the future of Europe, is fully explored by Professor Bergin and six major authors as they address, in turn, economy, society, politics, war and international relations, science, thought and culture ('The Age of Curiosity'), and Europe in the wider world. In a set of chapters covering and contrasting the European experience across the full century and the full continent, the reader is offered a rich, lively, and provocative introduction to the period, and students a superbly authoritative context for more detailed work.

An intellectual history of contrasting ideas around the power of the arts to bring about personal and societal change - for better and worse. A fascinating account of the value and functions of the arts in society, in both the private sphere of individual emotions and self-development and public sphere of politics and social distinction.

Southeast Asia's recent economic dynamism has helped to stimulate renewed interest in the study of many aspects of this complex region. This collection of essays explores the evolution of various disciplinary approaches to Southeast Asia. Basing their approaches on anthropology, sociology, geography, economics, history, politics, international relations and on a consideration of literature, the authors examine many of the crucial debates and controversies of the past, and aim to provide a picture of the current scholarship in each discipline as it relates to the region.

In this major new work, Thompson develops an original account of ideology and relates it to the analysis of culture and mass communication in modern Societies.

Thompson offers a concise and critical appraisal of major contributions to the theory of ideology, from Marx and Mannheim, to Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas. He argues that these thinkers - and social and political theorists more generally - have failed to deal adequately with the nature of mass communication and its role in the modern world. In order to overcome this deficiency, Thompson undertakes a wide-ranging analysis of the development of mass communication, outlining a distinctive social theory of the mass media and their impact.

Monsters show us our deepest fears and anxieties, our discomfort with difference, and our simultaneous repulsion with and fascination for the other. Understanding that the concept of the monster can be a political tool used to dehumanize opponents and a psychological tool that can help us reconsider our beliefs, Interdisciplinary Essays on Monsters and the Monstrous analyses and explores the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human societies. Introducing the innovative practice of "imagining monsters" as a way to rethink the key organizing principles in our society that we have traditionally taken for granted, the authors explore not only what monsters are but, most importantly, what monsters reveal about us. This cutting-edge collection of chapters challenges us to contradict worldviews, such as the binary of gender, that have organized our thinking for millennia. Showcasing discussions loaded with ontological, ideological, socio-political, and aesthetic implications, the monstrous is rendered uncannily familiar as our own public and domestic socio-political and psycho-emotional realities are subjected to scrutiny. Launching a critical question: when faced with an existential threat, what can we do? The authors show us how the study of monsters and monstrosity is perfectly positioned to answer. Tackling this question from a unique interdisciplinary scope, the research presented in the chapters are interesting reading for a variety of researchers interested in monsters and the monstrous from across sub-disciplines.

Ross McKibbin investigates the ways in which `class culture' characterized English society and intruded into every aspect of life, during the period from 1918 to the mid-1950s. He shows how this division into separate social classes manifested itself within the mini `cultures' which together help constitute society: families and family life, friends and neighbours, the workplace, schools and colleges, religion, sexuality, sport, music, film, radio, and examines the effects of increasing Americanization. This fascinating and original study is invaluable for an understanding of the fundamental structures and belief systems underpinning English society in the first half of the twentieth century.

In the age of globalization, digitization, and media convergence, traditional hierarchies between media are breaking down. This book offers new approaches to understanding the politics and their underlying ideologies that are reshaping our global media landscape, including questions of audience participation and transmedia storytelling.

The volume forms a part of the celebrations marking the anniversary of the invention of the telescope. From its Renaissance beginnings to yesterday's Cold War, the essays contributed here throw a spotlight on a number of significant episodes in the continuing adventures of this well-loved instrument, which has played a crucial role in Man's thinking about his position - literally and philosophically - in the universe. Drawn from various conferences held by the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science between 2007 and 2009, these papers make a substantial contribution to our current knowledge about this fascinating optical instrument.

What does it mean to be a young Muslim American woman in the US educational system? This book answers this question by presenting the counter-narratives of 15 young women. These accounts debunk prevalent stereotypes and biases, and reveal an educational climate marked by Islamophobia. Through these overall educational experiences, readers are able to explore the role of family, faith-based education, the mosque, and community in these women's lives. The social and academic learning opportunities showcase instances of both inclusion and marginalization which lead students to experience a double consciousness. What this study ultimately shows is that these students experience the dichotomous pull of religious and cultural values as they navigate their intersectional identities.

The book provides a systematic review of research results on regional economic competitiveness, and constructs an evaluation index system based on nine key aspects: the development of a micro-economy; industrial development; enterprise strength; the sciences; education; innovation; environment governance and protection; financial development; and the degree of opening to the outside world. The book subsequently provides policy suggestions on how to enhance the economic and social development of the West of China based on a comprehensive evaluation and analysis. In addition to comparing the recent social development of the provinces in the West, the book also calls upon the central government to play the leading role, encourage mass participation and promote the opening up of the West of China.

Scholars across the humanities and social sciences are increasingly examining the importance of European integration and Europeanisation to changing notions of local, regional, national and supranational identity in Europe. As part of this interest, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, political scientists and others have paid particular attention to the roles which EU policies and initiatives have played in the construction of local, regional and national identity in Europe, and in the reframing of various forms of culture. This volume provides the first multidisciplinary look at the impact of European integration and Europeanisation on changing culture and identity in one member state of the EU, namely Ireland (including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and the first such look at the ways in which the cultures and identities of a member state have had an impact on various versions of 'Europe', in and outside of the EU.

Contemporary critical studies have recently experienced a significant spatial turn. In what may eventually be seen as one of the most important intellectual and political developments in the late twentieth century, scholars have begun to interpret space and the embracing spatiality of human life with the same critical insight and emphasis that has traditionally been given to time and history on the one hand, and social relations and society on the other. "Thirdspace" is both an enquiry into the origins and impact of the spatial turn and an attempt to expand the scope and practical relevance of how we think about space and such related concepts as place, location, landscape, architecture, environment, home, city, region, territory, and geography.

The book's central argument is that spatial thinking, or what has been called the geographical or spatial imagination, has tended to be bicameral, or confined to two approaches. Spatiality is either seen as concrete material forms to be mapped, analyzed, and explained; or as mental constructs, ideas about and representations of space and its social significance. Edward Soja critically re-evaluates this dualism to create an alternative approach, one that comprehends both the material and mental dimensions of spatiality but also extends beyond them to new and different modes of spatial thinking.

"Thirdspace" is composed as a sequence of intellectual and empirical journeys, beginning with a spatial biography of Henri Lefebvre and his adventurous conceptualization of social space as simultaneously perceived, conceived, and lived. The author draws on Lefebvre to describe a trialectics of spatiality that threads though all subsequent journeys, reappearing in many new forms in bell hooks evocative exploration of the margins as a space of radical openness; in post-modern spatial feminist interpretations of the interplay of race, class, and gender; in the postcolonial critique and the new cultural politics of difference and identity; in Michel Foucault's heterotopologies and trialectics of space, knowledge, and power; and in interpretative tours of the Citadel of downtown Los Angeles, the Exopolis of Orange County, and the Centrum of Amsterdam.

How do individuals perceive the increasingly open-ended nature of mediated surveillance? In what ways are mediated surveillance practices interwoven with identity processes, political struggles, expression of dissent and the production of social space? One of the most significant issues in contemporary society is the complex forms and conflicting meanings surveillance takes. Media, Surveillance and Identity addresses the need for contextualized social perspectives within the study of mediated surveillance. The volume takes account of dominant power structures (such as state surveillance and commercial surveillance) and social reproduction as well as political economic considerations, counter-privacy discourses, and class and gender hegemonies. Some chapters analyse particular media types, formats or platforms (such as loyalty cards or location based services), while others account for the composite dynamics of media ensembles within particular spaces of surveillance or identity creation (such as consumerism or the domestic sphere). Through empirically grounded research, the volume seeks to advance a complex framework of research for future scrutiny as well as rethinking the very concept of surveillance. In doing so, it offers a unique contribution to contemporary debates on the social implications of mediated practices and surveillance cultures.