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"In this volume, Amy Best offers critical youth studies an epistemological compass, a collection of essays that spans across nations, methods, sexualities, ethnicities, generations and age, reflecting provocatively on how we create knowledge with, for and by youth. This book promises to be a classic for the next generation of scholars perched to engage critically, respectfully, theoretically and provocatively with youth, to inscribe a twenty-first century signature on critical youth studies."
--Michelle Fine, co-author of "Working Method: Research and Social Justice"

"A powerful and compelling book that represents cutting-edge new directions in critical youth studies. This is a passionate call for a critical moral consciousness that will create more humane spaces for today's youth in our complex global culture."
--Norman K. Denzin, co-editor of "The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research"

From youth culture to adolescent sexuality to the consumer purchasing power of children en masse, studies are flourishing. Yet doing research on this unquestionably more vulnerable--whether five or fifteen--population also poses a unique set of challenges and dilemmas for researchers. How should a six-year-old be approached for an interview? What questions and topics are appropriate for twelve year olds? Do parents need to give their approval for all studies?

In Representing Youth, Amy L. Best has assembled an important group of essays from some of todayas top scholars on the subject of youth that address these concerns head on, providing scholars with thoughtful and often practical answers to their many methodological concerns. Theseoriginal essays range from how to conduct research on youth in ways that can be empowering for them, to issues of writing and representation, to respecting boundaries and to dealing with issues of risk and responsibility to those interviewed. For anyone doing research or working with children and young adults, Representing Youth offers an indispensable guide to many of the unique dilemmas that research with kids entails.

Contributors include: Amy L. Best, Sari Knopp Biklen, Elizabeth Chin, Susan Driver, Marc Flacks, Kathryn Gold Hadley, Madeline Leonard, C.J. Pascoe, Rebecca Raby, Alyssa Richman, Jessica Taft, Michael Ungar, Yvonne Vissing, and Stephani Etheridge Woodson.

This international comparison of pension plans lends great understanding to the transformation taking place in almost every nation around the world. It covers ten of the twelve countries of the European Union, as well as the United States and Japan. The project is interdisciplinary, covering a number of fields, such as economics, law, actuarial science, sociology, and political science, that contribute to the analysis of retirement income systems. The chapters vary in scope - some are comparative, some are restricted to a single country or to one type of plan in one country. Despite their diversity, the chapters share a common awareness of three aspects of pension plans: the importance of actors' roles in shaping each system, the different economic and social domains affected by retirement plans, and the interconnections between social security and supplementary plans.

The authors state at the beginning of this provocative new book that one of the most distinctive features of the American persona is a preoccupation and underlying concern in the United States with what is or is not American.' How far can an ethnic group in the United States go to maintain its identity before it trespasses into what is perceived as un-American terrain? This is the underlying theme of Lambert and Taylor's community based investigation which studies the attitudes of Americans toward ethnic diversity and intergroup relations. Directed toward social psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and ethnic scholars, this study deals with the peculiar U.S. dichotomy of cultural diversity and assimilation.

The research is conducted in a metropolitan area among working class adults; some are established mainstream citizens, others are newcomers, but all experience ethnic and racial diversity as a daily fact of life. The authors examine the perspectives of mainstream White Americans and Black Americans. They interview ethnic immigrant groups--Polish, Arab, Albanian, Mexican, and Puerto Rican Americans--in two urban settings and offer insight to the reality as well as the exciting possibilities of multiculturalism. Students and scholars of all the social sciences will find "Coping with Cultural and Racial Diversity in Urban America" as a source of stimulating ideas.

Katherine Anne Porter's life closely paralleled that of her century not only in its span (1890-1980) but in its interests and contradictions. A communist sympathizer who became a quasi fascist, a cosmopolitan who embraced southern agrarianism, a femme fatale whose writings nonetheless evince feminist feeling, Porter embodied, often at their extremes, the major currents of her time and ours. In this new biography Janis P. Stout argues that these inconsistencies can be viewed as part and parcel of modernism itself.

How does cultural hierarchy relate to social hierarchy? Do the more advantaged consume 'high' culture, while the less advantaged consume popular culture? Or has cultural consumption in contemporary societies become individualised to such a degree that there is no longer any social basis for cultural consumption? Leading scholars from the UK, the USA, Chile, France, Hungary and the Netherlands systematically examine the social stratification of arts and culture. They evaluate the 'class-culture homology argument' of Pierre Bourdieu and Herbert Gans; the 'individualisation arguments' of Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman; and the 'omnivore-univore argument' of Richard Peterson. They also demonstrate that, consistent with Max Weber's class-status distinction, cultural consumption, as a key element of lifestyle, is stratified primarily on the basis of social status rather than by social class.

Written by Jorge Gracia, one of the most influential thinkers of Hispanic/Latino descent, this volume provides a superb introduction to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity.

The book explores central historical and current debates surrounding Hispanic/Latino culture, thought, and identity in the United States, Spain, and Latin American countries. Gracia's interdisciplinary approach is systematic and he uses philosophical analysis along with the history of philosophy to clarify and illustrate his provocative theses.

This engaging and enlightening work is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in Hispanic/Latino studies, social policy, and the history of thought and culture.

This collection examines Blackpool, Britain's first and largest working-class seaside resort as a location for the production and consumption of British film and popular music, and the meaning of 'Blackpool' in films and songs. It examines representation of Blackpool in films such as Hindle Wakes, A Taste of Honey, Bhaji on the Beach, Away, Bob's Weekend, The Harry Hill Movie and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, linking it to the concepts of heterotopia, purgatory, fantasy, simulacra and the carnivalesque. It also presents music in Blackpool through the history of its venues and examines development of punk and grime music in this seaside town. The authors argue that Blackpool in filmic and musical texts often stands for British culture, but increasingly for culture which is remembered or imagined rather than present and real.

This book examines how state schooling in China has economically, culturally, and ideologically had an impact on and gradually transformed a traditional Muslim Hui village in rural Northwestern China. By discussing the interpretation and appropriation of dominant educational discourse of "quality" in the rural context, it illustrates the dichotomies of poverty and prosperity, civility and uncivility, and religiosity and secularity as they are perceived and understood by teachers, parents and students. Based on an original ethnographic research conducted in a secondary school, it further touches upon Muslim Hui students' negotiations of filial, rural, and ethnoreligious identities when they struggle to seek a life of their own in the journey to prosperity. The book introduces audiences to multiple ways in which Muslim Hui students construct and negotiate identities through state schooling, especially the educational heterogeneity experienced by various Muslim youth. It also captures the changing rural-urban dynamic as state schooling continues to guide local formal educational activities as well as create tensions and confusions for both teachers and parents. Most importantly, the book challenges stereotypes about Muslim Hui students in Northwest China being assimilated into the mainstream culture by demonstrating how local Muslims live, study, pray, and fulfil the five pillars of Islam. It will be highly relevant to students and researchers in the fields of education, anthropology, sociology, and religious studies.

Through insightful, high-paced commentary this book directs attention south, towards Argentina. Current events, political debates, and the cultural production of artists, authors and public figures, including Cesar Aira, Maria Moreno, Naty Menstrual and Copi, among others, provide case studies where heterosexual social models are rejected and, in their place, queer frameworks become the preferred model for living differently. Queer Argentina traces the movements of today's marginalized communities as they pass through and choose to remain within the closet: a space that is emblematic of collective struggles in silence and community formation outside the (hetero)norm.

This book focuses on reinterpreting mythical China from the perspective of the cultural theory of big tradition. It is divided into two parts: the first explains the theoretical development and features of the Chinese version of big tradition, identifying the differences between the Eastern and Western cultural traditions (big tradition and great tradition). The second part then reinterprets the core values and mythical ideas of Chinese civilization and traditional culture from the perspective of big tradition. Moving beyond the small tradition of text centrism and using new methods and materials, the book reveals the original meaning and the cultural coding function of big tradition during the preliterate period. Drawing on integrated evidence from literature handed down from ancient times, oral and intangible cultural heritage, tangible culture, cross-cultures, image culture and unearthed documents, the book interprets Chinese cultural traditions and spiritual values from local, archaeological, experiential and survival perspectives, to help readers better understand the mythical codes and genes of early Chinese culture.

Through research interviews with 19 clergymen of different religious affiliation, age, and race, this volume explores the views and attributes of ordained male ministers. Who is the man behind the pulpit? How does he balance personal and professional life? How do clergymen feel about their chosen profession? What events and family/societal influences led to a life of service? Through the interviews, the author examines these and other aspects of clergy life. The strength of the study lies in the delivery of extensive first-person commentary. From this, the reader gains access to the texture and tone of the voices as well as the men's thinking about theological, moral, and administrative leadership. People considering a life in the ministry, as well as students of sociology, religion, psychology, and anthropology, will be interested in this informative discourse.

This book argues that twenty-first-century neorealist fiction is inspired by political and journalistic discourses and, along with them, constitutes one of the many representations of the attacks on September 11 and their outcomes. Adopting a neorealist stance, this book is placed at the intersection of realism and fiction, with often reference to what is perceived as objective writing (media and political texts), not at all so divorced from the practice of literary writings on the event that shook the world on September 11, 2001.

Bonding Eros with virtue is neither unrealistic nor naive, contends Mike Martin. On the contrary, it's practical, even pragmatic. Virtues serve to focus, structure, and even define erotic love. In particular, caring, respect, faithfulness, honesty, fairness, wisdom, and gratitude are central to successful, long-term relationships.

"In Love's Virtues," Martin takes a look at why moral values enhance and solidify erotic and marital relationships. In the process, he challenges the widespread cynicism about marriage while remaining sensitive to the innumerable problems confronting couples. His approach to marital love is both traditional and modern. Traditional, by seeking to understand the moral significance of relationships based on long-term and lifelong commitments to love. Modern, by proceeding within a pluralist framework that affirms many kinds of erotic love, depending on the ideals partners embrace and their interpretations (within limits) of love's virtues.

Marriages, as Martin understands them, are moral relationships that involve sexual desires (at some time during the relationship) and are based on long-term commitment, whether or not those commitments are formally sanctioned by legal or religious authorities. In this sense, marriages are not restricted by the law, religious tenets, or the partners' sexual orientation.

Drawing on literature, psychology, and philosophy--from Plato and Shakespeare to Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bellah, and Carol Gilligan; from Tolstoy and D.H. Lawrence to Erich Fromm, Erica Jong, and Alice Walker--Martin reminds us that virtuous erotic love is a way to morally value another person. Understanding love as a virtue-structured way to appreciate others, he illustrates, is itself a step toward renewing marital faith.

This book is the first critical genealogy of Jacques Derrida's philosophy of technology. It traces the evolution of what Derrida calls "originary technicit"' via an appraisal of his own philosophy of technology together with that of key interlocutors including Marx, Freud, Lacan, Heidegger and Bernard Stiegler.

From the late eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, the British incarcerated tens of thousands of prisoners in South Asian jails and transported tens of thousands of convicts to penal settlements overseas in South East Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Islands. Legible Bodies explores the treatment of these native criminals and sheds light on a largely overlooked practice of empire. British penal administrators created a series of elaborate mechanisms to render criminal bodies legible. They introduced visual tags to identify prisoners and convicts, seeking to mark and/or read them both as individuals and as members of broader penal categories. The first broad theme of the book discusses the introduction of these new modes of identification - penal and decorative tattooing, clothing, photography, anthropometry and fingerprinting - exploring their frequent failures and prisoner and convict resistance against them. The second theme of the book considers the ways in which the colonial authorities atempted to use the Indian body to construct broader social groupings, both in relation to penal hierarchies and in the making of soiological categories of 'criminal types'. Thirdly, the author looks at the ways in which incarcerated communities comprised a convenient sample for colonial explorations of the nature and significance of race and caste in the Indian subcontinent. Scientists and ethnographers used prisoners to explore biological and social manifestations of the Indian other. Through a careful reading of convicts legible bodies, the author provides a new perspective on colonial history.

An inter-disciplinary, international collection that examines the mutual influences between law and culture through a series of sophisticated case studies showing how cultural phenomena are brought under legal regulation, how laws are resisted through cultural practices, and how those practices shape the way in which law is understood and applied.

Poised on the verge of World War II, America in 1939 was a land of contrasts. The nation was finally pulling out of the Great Depression, but war-clouds gathered on the horizon. Scientific developments offered promising new advances, yet they would soon become the tools of war. This study offers a detailed look at life in this watershed year to determine how Americans understood the conditions of their day and how they turned to escapism when their burdens became too heavy. From the royal visit to the World's Fairs, most Americans looked ahead to a brighter future. Professional athletics, Hollywood films, and the Big Bands were a welcome diversion to hard times and troubling events abroad in Europe and Asia. This account highlights the most important political, economic, and social concerns of 1939. The first part, Documenting America, focuses on the major social and economic concerns of the American people in 1939. Chapter one examines religion, race, and crime, while chapters two and three consider economic difficulties and proposed solutions. Part Two, Some Golden Ages, includes chapters on the Studio era in Hollywood, Big Bands and Broadway musicals, art and architecture of the period, scientific breakthroughs, and sports notables. The final part, It Happened Over There, completes the picture with two chapters on the ominous international situation and early American efforts to deal with the impending war.

This book addresses questions about theories of heritage, its methodologies of research, and where its boundaries lie with tourism, urban development, post-disaster recovery, collective identities, memory, or conflict. This book is a collection of heritage studies from a critical perspective as a product of the 2018 ACHS (Association of Critical Heritage Studies) Conference in Hangzhou, the largest conference of its kind in Asia. The contributors cover a wide spectrum of issues in heritage studies, such as heritage management, accessibility to heritage, heritage conservation and heritage policy, and heritage representation. It also examines the various contexts within which heritage emerges and how heritage is constructed within that context. Analyses are based on not only representations of heritage but also on the performativity. Explorations touch upon community involvement, landscape history, children's literature, endangered food, architecture, advertisement, allotment garden, and gender and visual art. As heritage has always been a locus of contested verities, the book offers a variegated approach to heritage studies. It provides students and scholars new perspectives on heritage study.

This volume is about the social identities of young Indigenous people in contemporary Australia, based on fieldwork in the rural community of Yarrabah, in Queensland. This case study of Yarrabah is based on seventeen ethnographic interviews with women and men in their twenties. With the aim of exploring how diverse social discourses have influenced the social identities of young Indigenous people in contemporary Australia, this book represents the life histories of these young people in Yarrabah in the context of both the institutions with which they interact and the everyday shape of life in Yarrabah. This volume also provides new material for discussion of the ways in which Indigenous value systems, broadly understood by the participants to be based on collectivism, constantly come into conflict with Western values based on individualism. While the young Indigenous people of Yarrabah do continuously interact not only with multi-cultural Australia but also with global influences, they are constantly aware of their own distinctiveness in both contexts.

This book examines service-learning - a valuable means of promoting civic engagement and youth leadership in students by enabling them to apply their knowledge to needy people in the community. It describes selected service-learning projects in different areas by highlighting the subjects being offered, service site(s), completed service projects, evaluation findings and teachers' reflections. Although service-learning has increased tremendously in the West, its development in different Chinese societies is still in its infancy. As such, this book provides valuable insights on the implementation and future directions of the service-learning movement in China by documenting lessons learned and sharing success stories. It also discusses related evaluation findings and impacts on students to show that service-learning can increase students' empathy, social awareness, social responsibility and psychosocial skills and as a result can improve their quality of life. In addition, the book highlights how service-learning activities promote the well-being of the clients and communities being served. It also stimulates thinking and sharpens the thoughts of educators, administrators and those who wish to promote the quality of life of students and service recipients through service-learning.

Catastrophes and crises are exceptions. They are disruptions of order. In various ways and to different degrees, they change and subvert what we regard as normal. They may occur on a personal level in the form of traumatic or stressful situations, on a social level in the form of unstable political, financial or religious situations, or on a global level in the form of environmental states of emergency. The main assumption in this book is that, in contrast to the directness of any given catastrophe and its obvious physical, economical and psychological consequences our understanding of catastrophes and crises is shaped by our cultural imagination. No matter in which eruptive and traumatizing form we encounter them, our collective repertoire of symbolic forms, historical sensibilities, modes of representation, and patterns of imagination determine how we identify, analyze and deal with catastrophes and crises.This book presents a series of articles investigating how we address and interpret catastrophes and crises in film, literature, art and theory, ranging from Voltaire's eighteenth-century Europe, haunted by revolutions and earthquakes, to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to the bleak, prophetic landscapes of Cormac McCarthy.

The book traces the literary journey that Proust's work made to China and back by means of translation, intertextual engagement, and the creation of a transcultural dialogue through migrant literature. It begins with a translation history of Proust's work in China and studies the different (re)translations and editions of La Recherche highlighting their culturally conditioned thematic emphases and negligence, such as time and memory over anti-Semitism and homosexuality. The book then moves on to explore three contemporary mainland Chinese writers' creative intertextual engagement with Proust against the backdrop of China's explosive development from modernity to post-modernity in the 1990s. Finally, back to France, the book examines the multifarious literary relations between Proust and the Franco-Chinese migrant writer Francois Cheng. It demonstrates how the cultural heritages of China and the West can be re-negotiated and put into dialogue through the fictional and creative medium of literature, as well as providing a means of understanding the economic, political, and cultural exchanges in our current global context.

This book explores the adaptation processes of German-speaking immigrants and their descendants into New Zealand's predominantly Anglophone society. Specifically, it considers the experiences and long-term consequences of the migration of more affluent European immigrants to New Zealand, where migration was predominantly a lifestyle choice. A comprehensive four-year study adds insights into the social integration and assimilation processes of the immigrants and their descendants, including intercultural marriage behaviour, work and educational achievements and community enrichments. It also considers the institutional and social reception of these immigrants and their children in New Zealand, and the effects these have had on them. Nexus Analysis reveals that strong motives for lifestyle migration enabled the immigrants to cope with unexpected institutional setbacks in New Zealand, and finds both shifts and maintenance in language and culture, and explores feelings of belonging and identities across three generations.

Through a unique combination of theoretical scope and material, and historical, breadth The Hermeneutics of Suspicion poses an original investigation into our understanding of alterity in Indian literature and history, and significantly contributes to an emerging discourse on East-West literary relations. Hans Georg Gadamer's notion of hermeneutical consciousness seeks to open up a cultural context through which to engage the other. It stands in opposition to the hermeneutics of suspicion advocated by recent popular theories, such as colonial discourse analysis, multiculturalism, postcolonial theory, the critique of globalism, etc. In his late work, Paul Ricoeur charts a middle path between the hermeneutics of suspicion and a hermeneutical consciousness that addresses the ontological and ethical categories of otherness. His approach reflects concerns voiced elsewhere, particularly in the historiography of Michel de Certeau and the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas. This volume follows the path proposed by Ricoeur and, alongside Certeau and Levinas, provides an examination of varying representations of the Indian Other in classical Greek and Sanskrit sources, the writings of Church Fathers, apocryphal literature, the Romance tradition, Portuguese and Italian travel narratives and Jesuit mission letters. In the various texts examined, the problems of translation are highlighted together with the sense that understanding can be found somewhere between the different approaches of hermeneutical consciousness and critical consciousness. This book not only looks at the European reception of the Indian other, but also looks at the ancient Indian view of its others and the cross-pollination of Indian concepts of otherness with the West.