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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > General
Recent research in Africa has shown a wide range of political systems, from small societies of wandering hunters to large states of several million people comparable with mediaeval European feudal kingdoms. In between are many societies in which a central government is lacking; the political system is based upon a balance of power between many small groups, which with their lack of classes or specialized political offices, have been called 'ordered anarchies'. First published in 1958.
To date, the notion of repatriation has been formulated as a highly polarized debate with museums, archaeologists, and anthropologists on one side, and Native Americans on the other. This volume offers both a retrospective and a prospective look at the topic of repatriation. By juxtaposing the divergent views of native peoples, anthropologists, museum professionals, and members of the legal profession, it illustrates the complexity of the repatriation issue.
Some of the most far-reaching and innovative parliamentary reform is occurring in Africa. While these reforms are not yet widespread across the continent, parliaments in some African countries are asserting their independence as policymakers, as overseers of government and as the guardian of citizens' rights and needs. African Parliamentary Reform presents recent reforms in selected African parliaments - Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also presents cross-cutting innovations by African parliaments - in fighting corruption, in providing development to constituents and in combatting climate change. Many of the chapters are authored by African MPs. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of African Politics, and to those international institutions that support parliamentary development. African Parliamentary Reform is a joint initiative by the World Bank Institute, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Parliamentary Centre (Africa).
This book explores new avenues of international research in comparative federal studies. It re-examines the conceptual tools and methodologies for understanding federal systems, and the role of comparative federalism in the dissemination and implementation of federal concepts. It highlights the influence of comparative federalism on constitution-making as well as constitutional reforms. The volume provides innovative and pragmatic perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South, with case studies drawn from established federations such as India, Canada, Australia, and Austria, and emerging federal systems such as Italy and South Africa. Advocating a combined approach that integrates modern and traditional theoretical routes with practical insights and contemporary analyses, it discusses the issues of multilevel elections and federal governance; coalition governments and multiparty democracy in parliamentary federal systems, such as India; minority empowerment; gender budgeting; self-governance; multinational federalism; unitary states; the nation-state; and degenerating federalism. It also breaks new ground by looking at federalism from a gender perspective and deals with tools for measuring fiscal responsibility, and a social and cultural index. A tribute to the intellectual legacy of Ronald L. Watts, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, federalism, comparative federal studies, political studies, comparative politics, governance, public administration and law, development studies, South Asian studies, and Global South and North studies as well policymakers, international government bodies, research institutes, development experts, and other organisations working in the area.
This book explores the challenges facing food security, sustainability, sovereignty, and supply chains in the Arctic, with a specific focus on Indigenous Peoples. Offering multidisciplinary insights and with a particular focus on populations in the European High North region, the book highlights the importance of accessible and sustainable traditional foods for the dietary needs of local and Indigenous Peoples. It focuses on foods and natural products that are unique to this region and considers how they play a significant role towards food security and sovereignty. The book captures the tremendous complexity facing populations here as they strive to maintain sustainable food systems - both subsistent and commercial - and regain sovereignty over traditional food production policies. A range of issues are explored including food contamination risks, due to increasing human activities in the region, such as mining, to changing livelihoods and gender roles in the maintenance of traditional food security and sovereignty. The book also considers processing methods that combine indigenous and traditional knowledge to convert the traditional foods, that are harvested and hunted, into local foods. This book offers a broader understanding of food security and sovereignty and will be of interest to academics, scholars and policy makers working in food studies; geography and environmental studies; agricultural studies; sociology; anthropology; political science; health studies and biology.
The high growth performance of the Indian economy since the launch of economic reforms in the early 1990s has been much lauded. But how much of this growth has made its way to the poor? In a radical assessment of 'inclusive growth', this book probes the impact of neo-liberal policies on employment, poverty and inequality. It critiques the claim that market-friendly economic reform policies 'trickle down' to the poor and reduce poverty and deprivation. The author uses exhaustive data - from the formal and informal sectors - to create a profile of the aam aadmi. He advocates the need for a broad-based growth and development strategy that alone will address the many-sided social and economic inequalities in India. The volume will be useful to scholars and students of economics, development studies, labour studies, and sociology.
**This book was originally printed as a hardback in 2001. The paperback released in 2014 is a reprint of the original** Garden suburbs were the almost universal form of urban growth in the English-speaking world for most of the twentieth century. Their introduction was probably the most fundamental process of transformation in the physical form of the Western city since the Middle Ages. This book describes the ways in which these suburbs were created, particularly by private enterprise in England in the 1920s and 1930s, the physical forms they took, and how they have changed over time in response to social, economic and cultural change. Twentieth-Century Suburbs is concerned with the history, geography, architecture and planning of the ordinary suburban areas in which most British people live. It discusses the origins of suburbs; the ways in which they have been represented; the scale and causes of their growth; their form and architectural style; the landowners, builders and architects responsible for their creation; the changes they have undergone both physically and socially; and their impact on urban form and the implications for urban landscape management.
This book introduces students to the collection, uses, and interpretation of statistical data in the social sciences. It would suit all social science introductory statistics and research methods courses. Separate chapters are devoted to data in the fields of demography, housing, health, education, crime, the economy, wealth, income, poverty, labor, business statistics, and public opinion polling, with a concluding chapter devoted to the common problem of ambiguity. Each chapter includes multiple case studies illustrating the controversies, overview of data sources including web sites, chapter summary and a set of case study questions designed to stimulate further thought.
Considers situations and interventions that can foster more inclusive representation and ways, both theoretically and practically, and that a common ingroup identity can facilitate more harmonious intergroup relations.
First published in 1980, this book presents an important critique of prevailing political doctrine in Western societies at a time of major change in circumstances of Western civilization. G. Lowell Field and John Higley stress the importance of a more realistic appraisal of elite and mass roles in politics, arguing that political stability and any real degree of representative democracy depend fundamentally on the existence of specific kinds of elites.
Adolescents in Humanitarian Crisis investigates the experiences of adolescents displaced by humanitarian crisis. The world is currently seeing unprecedented levels of mass displacement, and almost half of the world's 70 million displaced people are children and adolescents under the age of 18. Displacement for adolescents comes with huge disruption to their education and employment prospects, as well as increased risks of poor psychosocial outcomes and sexual and gender-based violence for girls. Considering these intersectional vulnerabilities throughout, this book explores the experiences of adolescents from refugee, internally displaced persons and stateless communities in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Rwanda. Drawing on innovative mixed-methods research, the book investigates adolescent capabilities, including education, health and nutrition, freedom from violence and bodily integrity, psychosocial wellbeing, voice and agency, and economic empowerment. Centring the diverse voices and experiences of young people and focusing on how policy and programming can be meaningfully improved, this book will be a vital guide for humanitarian students and researchers, and for practitioners seeking to build effective, evidence-based policy. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003167013, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
This book tells the story of a citizen group through the example and results of their participation in local civic life. The book draws attention to the complicated conditions under which civic participation may succeed. The story is about the individuals and organizations in the regional Japanese town of Takefu, but these events are also placed in the context of the surrounding Japanese Sea region of west Japan and the wider currents of the Japanese nation-state at the time. Also inlcludes maps.
In this ground-breaking new work, Dan Goodley makes the case for a novel, distinct, intellectual, and political project - dis/ability studies - an orientation that might encourage us to think again about the phenomena of disability and ability. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary areas, including sociology, psychology, education, policy and cultural studies, this much needed text takes the most topical and important issues in critical disability theory, and pushes them into new theoretical territory. Goodley argues that we are entering a time of dis/ability studies, when both categories of disability and ability require expanding upon as a response to the global politics of neoliberal capitalism. Divided into two parts, the first section traces the dual processes of ableism and disablism, suggesting that one cannot exist without the other, and makes the case for a research-driven and intersectional analysis of dis/ability. The second section applies this new analytical framework to a range of critical topics, including: The biopolitics of dis/ability and debility Inclusive education Psychopathology Markets, communities and civil society. Dis/ability Studies provides much needed depth, texture and analysis in this emerging discipline. This accessible text will appeal to students and researchers of disability across a range of disciplines, as well as disability activists, policymakers, and practitioners working directly with disabled people.
This book explores the series of issues that emerge at the intersection of disability, care and family law. Disability studies is an area of increasing academic interest. In addition to a subject in its own right, there has been growing concern to ensure that mainstream subjects diversify and include marginalised voices, including those of disabled people. Family law in modern times is often based on an "able-bodied autonomous norm" but can fit less well with the complexities of living with disability. In response, this book addresses a range of important and highly topical issues: whether care proceedings are used too often in cases where parents have disabilities; how the law should respond to children who care for disabled parents - and the care of older family members with disabilities. It also considers the challenges posed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly around the different institutional and state responsibilities captured in the Convention, and around decision-making for both disabled adults and children. This interdisciplinary collection - with contributors from law, criminology, sociology and social policy as well as from policy and activist backgrounds - will appeal to academic family lawyers and disability scholars as well as students interested in issues around family law, disability and care.
Taiwan has been hailed as a successful case of democratization. Compared with many other nations, the transition from authoritarian rule occurred in a rather orderly fashion. Group consciousness emerged as a reaction to the decades-long suppression of cultural diversity under martial law as different social groups competed fiercely to exert their political subjectivity. This volume is the first study to examine the politics of difference in Taiwan. It aims to go beyond ethnic identity as the sole concern for group boundary, to acknowledge the interests of other marginalized groups, and to look behind reified group boundaries in order to discover group differences as mediated social relations based on overlapping boundaries rather than exclusive opposition. In exploring the politics of difference among minority groups and the problems arising from their struggle over political recognition, the book challenges the assumptions that groups are ontologically given, that groups are internally homogenous, and that the particularistic identities have no overlap. The chapters offer a broad coverage of major social groups including ethnic minorities, recent migrants, gay and lesbian groups, and marginalized workers. They offer perspective analyses of the ongoing struggles by minority groups to overcome subordination. .
Is Chinatown a ghetto, an area of exotic sensations or a business venture? What makes a European Chinese, Chinese? The histories of Chinese communities in Europe are diverse, spanning (amongst others) Teochiu speaking migrants from French Indochina to France, and Hakka and Cantonese speaking migrants from Hong Kong to Britain. This book explores how such a wide range of people tends to be - indiscriminately - regarded as 'Chinese'. Christiansen explains Chinese communities in Europe in terms of the interaction between the migrants, the European 'host' society and the Chinese 'home' where the migrants claim their origin. He sees these interactions as addressing several issues: citizenship, political culture, labour market exclusion, generational shifts and the influences of colonialism and communism, all of which create opportunities for fashioning a new ethnic identity. Chinatown, Europe examines how many sub-groups among the Chinese in Europe have developed in recent years and discusses many institutions that shape and contribute ethnic meaning to Chinese communities in Europe. Chinese identity is not a mere practical utility or a shallow business emblem. For many, China remains a unifying force and yet local and national bonds in each European state are of equal importance in giving shape to Chinese communities. Based on in-depth interviews with overseas Chinese in many European cities, Chinatown, Europe provides a complex yet enthralling investigation into many Chinese communities in Europe.
First published in 1952, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (anthropology, economics, political science and sociology) is well established as a major bibliographic reference for students, researchers & librarians.
With increasing pressure on resources, the looming spectre of climate change and growing anxiety among eaters, ecology and food are at the heart of the political debates surrounding agriculture and diet. This unique contribution unravels agri-environmental issues at different spatial levels, from local to global, documenting the major shifts in agriculture from a long-term perspective. The book begins by exploring the changes in the industrialisation and socialisation of agriculture over time, through the lens of institutional economics including The French Regulation School and Conventions Theory. Building on Polanyi's 'Great Transformation', the chapters in this volume analyse long-term and contemporary changes in agriculture and food systems that have occurred throughout the last few centuries. Key chapters focus on the historical changes in provisioning and the social relations of production, consumption, and regulation of food in different socio-political contexts. The future of agriculture is addressed through an analysis of controversial contemporary political claims and their engagement with strategies that aim to improve the sustainability of agriculture and food consumption. To shed light on ongoing changes and the future of food, this book asks important environmental and social questions and analyses how industrial agriculture has played out in various contexts. It is recommended supplementary reading for postgraduates and researchers in agricultural studies, food studies, food policy, the agri-food political economy and political and economic geography.
Published in 1999, this book explores the emergence of contemporary urban agriculture as well as official attitudes toward this practice. Using three theoretical models, the author tells us who is more likely to be involved in urban agriculture. In line with this, he explains why, contrary to expectations, in Ghana there are more males than females involved in urban agriculture. The author also addresses issues such as the influence of social inequality and the effects of social networks on urban agriculture. Furthermore, he identifies the problems urban cultivators encounter as city farmers and how they cope with such problems. Finally, the author predicts the future trend in urban agriculture. This thought-provoking book will be of interest not only to public policy makers and planners, but also to students and teachers of African studies, urban studies, and sociology.
Taking the subject chronologically from the 1890s to when the book was initially published in 1989, this book analyses those films specifically concerned with working-class conditions and struggle, and discusses them within the context of the debate on the social significance of the feature film. It concentrates on films which depict labour organizations and political activists, as well as life in working-class communities and actors with working-class identities such as James Cagney. Reviews of the original edition: '...fills a gap in film studies...the study of social and labour history, and the development of popular culture in Britain and the United States.'
Via a wide range of case studies, this book examines new forms of resistance to social injustices in contemporary Western societies. Resistance requires agency, and agency is grounded in notions of the subject and subjectivity. How do people make sense of their subjectivity as they are constructed and reconstructed within relations of power? What kinds of subjectivities are needed to struggle against forms of dominance and claim recognition? The participants in the case studies are challenging forms of dominance and subordination grounded in class, race, culture, nationality, sexuality, religion, age, disability and other forms of social division. It is a premise of this book that new and/or reconstructed forms of subjectivity are required to challenge social relations of subordination and domination. Thus, the transformation of subjectivity as well as the restructuring of oppressive power relations is necessary to achieve social justice. By examining the construction of subjectivity of particular groups through an intersectional lens, the book aims to contribute to theoretical accounts of how subjects are constituted and how they can develop a critical distance from their positioning.
In recent years there has been growing interest in the experiences of young people seeking asylum in Europe. While the significance of the role of age is recognized, both youth transitions and trajectories beyond the age of eighteen are still largely unexplored, the role and impact of mobility predominantly centering on experiences of movement from country of origin to country of settlement. Inhabiting Borders, Routes Home contends that in considering migration and settlement experiences of young refugees it is also important to consider the role of their mobility through age and transitions in the country of settlement. Based on narrative research with young refugees, this book explores how migration journeys are intertwined with life course journeys and transitions into adulthood, shedding light on the manner in which gender intersects with age in experiences of migration and settlement, with close attention to the processes by which 'home' is understood and constructed. Through the concept of 'home' the book draws together and reflects on interconnections between integration in areas such as education or housing and experiences of social networks. Examining experiences of the asylum process and the manner in which they are interwoven within a wider narrative of home both within and beyond, Inhabiting Borders, Routes Home will be of interest to social scientists working in the areas of migration, asylum, intersectionality and the life course.
This book assesses the role of microfinance in the construction of livelihoods for poverty reduction in the Northern Savannah of Ghana, analysing the current microfinance landscape and financial services in the region. The book analyses the current microfinance landscape and financial services in Ghana. In doing so, it demonstrates the key factors for designing microfinance products and services to ensure greater uptake and outreach enhancing the sustainability of microfinance service providers. Chapters explore the impact of access to microfinance on livelihood diversification, asset accumulation patterns and welfare outcomes. In addition to assessing the role as well as of microfinance as an anti-poverty tool, the book presents new theoretical frameworks and models, including the microfinance livelisystem framework (MFL). This unique framework, which combines and goes beyond existing frameworks, situates the microfinance industry within national and international financial and economic ecosystems and presents the interrelationships between institutions providing services for the construction of livelihoods. Offering new theoretical frameworks and models developed for the microfinance industry with universal application, this book will be of particular use to students and scholars of Development Studies, Development Finance, Poverty and Inequality Studies, Rural Development and Sustainable Finance.
Collecting together essays written by an international set of contributors, this book provides an important contribution to the emerging field of disability history. It explores changes in understandings of deformity and disability between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, and reveal the ways in which different societies have conceptualised the normal and the pathological. Through a variety of case studies including: early modern birth defects, homosexuality, smallpox scarring, vaccination, orthopaedics, deaf education, eugenics, mental deficiency, and the experiences of psychologically scarred military veterans, this book provides new perspectives on the history of physical, sensory and intellectual anomaly. Examining changes over five centuries, it charts how disability was delineated from other forms of deformity and disfigurement by a clearer medical perspective. Essays shed light on the experiences of oppressed minorities often hidden from mainstream history, but also demonstrate the importance of discourses of disability and deformity as key cultural signifiers which disclose broader systems of power and authority, citizenship and exclusion. The diverse nature of the material in this book will make it relevant to scholars interested in cultural, literary, social and political, as well as medical, history.
The Social Sciences Empowered contains papers presented at the 7th International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science 2018 (ICIBSoS 2018), held 21-22 July 2018, Bangkok, Thailand, 22-23 September 2018, Bali, Indonesia, 6-7 October 2018, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, and 24-25 November 2018, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. ICIBSoS 2018 provided the economic and social analysis necessary for addressing issues in Humanities disciplines such as Education, Sociology, Anthropology, Politics, History, Philosophy, Psychology as well as food security. Contributions to these proceedings give necessary insight into the cultural and human dimension of such diverse research areas as transport, climate change, energy and agriculture. ICIBSoS 2018 also analyses the cultural, behavioural, psychological, social and institutional drivers that transform people's behaviour and the global environment. ICIBSoS 2018 proposes new ideas, strategies and governance structures for overcoming the crisis from a global perspective, innovating the public sector and business models, promoting social innovation and fostering creativity in the development of services and product design. |
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