The United States was founded on principles enshrined in the Constitution. One of the foremost of these principles is religious freedom. Unfortunately, this freedom has not been shared by all equally. The place of Islam in the United States has always been controversial. This controversy expanded following the attacks on 9/11 and the rise of nationalist movements that aimed to narrowly define American identity. The hatred of Islam, otherwise known as Islamophobia, has risen to new heights fueled by recurring events and various anti-Muslim hate groups. This has manifested in anti-mosque protests, hate crimes and prejudicial legislation. This book is focused on one form of this legislation, the anti-Sharia laws, otherwise known as the foreign law bans. Sharia is also known as Islamic law and as the physical manifestation of Islam in practice. Several states have passed these laws with many other states introducing them several times with the intention of banning the use of Sharia in civil courts. This book is a study of the factors most closely associated with whether a state has this law and how many times this bill has been introduced in the legislature. These include political, demographic, religious and ideological factors.

* This book is comprehensive in nature, challenging in concept, written in the context of the current and future situation faced by public services and informed by relevant academic research findings where available. * Grounded in practical experience in public services policy and implementation. * Incorporates consideration of practices in other countries. * The authors have extensive experience of academic research, policy development and publications, coupled with extensive direct experience of public services, at a senior level, in the areas that they write about.

* This book is comprehensive in nature, challenging in concept, written in the context of the current and future situation faced by public services and informed by relevant academic research findings where available. * Grounded in practical experience in public services policy and implementation. * Incorporates consideration of practices in other countries. * The authors have extensive experience of academic research, policy development and publications, coupled with extensive direct experience of public services, at a senior level, in the areas that they write about.

While French laicite is often considered something fixed, its daily deployment is rather messy. What might we learn if we study the governance of religion from a dynamic bottom-up perspective? Using an ethnographic approach, this book examines everyday secularism in the making. How do city actors understand, frame and govern religious diversity? Which local factors play a role in those processes? In Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe, Julia Martinez-Arino brings the reader closer to the entrails of laicite. She provides detailed accounts of the ways religious groups, city officials, municipal employees, secularist actors and other civil-society organisations negotiate concrete public expressions of religion. Drawing on rich empirical material, the book demonstrates that urban actors draw and (re-)produce dichotomies of inclusion and exclusion, and challenge static conceptions of laicite and the nation. Illustrating how urban, national and international contexts interact with one another, the book provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the multilevel governance of religious diversity.

Distance, in its traditional sense, connotates "estrangement" and "division". But in the context of modern political studies, it means a controllable resource that can be manipulated to change the relationship between the government and the public. Drawing on this concept from Western political science, the author explores the law and mechanisms of China's political communication. In this volume, the author introduces a creative theoretical framework of distance, which is a dynamic system comprised of physical and psychological distance, ideal distance and real distance, and natural distance and consequent distance. Psychological distance is the core, because it signifies not only whether there is trust between a government and the public, but also whether the political community can maintain a high degree of harmony, stability, unity, and vitality. Events in the past five years in China are used as cases to illustrate the point. Students and scholars who are interested in political science and political communication, especially Chinese politics, would find this title a useful reference.

Distance, in its traditional sense, connotates "estrangement" and "division". But in the context of modern political studies, it means a controllable resource which can be manipulated to change the relationship between the government and the public. Drawing on this concept from western political science, the author explores the law and mechanisms of China's political communication. In this volume, the author introduces the empirical investigation of the distance between government and the public in China. First, it discusses how the use of online social media, such as Weibo, can be used strategically to mediate the distance of offline communication. Then, it points out that social media can also lead to unlimited expression of general will, to which governments should pay attention. An empirical study on how rural residents of five provinces in China obtain political information is used to illustrate the point. Students and scholars who are interested in political science and political communication, especially Chinese politics, would find this title a useful reference.

Originally published in 1974, this study concerns the politics of local government reform between 1942-1974 and describes the struggles between the Ministries, the Local Government Associations and political parties. The political manoeuvrings of the various groups involved are analysed and a theory proposed about the reform of political structures in general.

During the next few years, most European and World cities will be developing urban agendas. Materials published on the subject have been relatively scarce until now. This edited volume introduces a case study implementation of the European Urban Agenda (EUA) in a cross-border region in the Iberian Peninsula between Spain (Galicia) and Portugal. It explores the implementation of a number of urban core principles in two distinctive regions, serving as the basis for a comparative analysis on how such galvanizing principles work, contained in the EUA. The case presented in this edited volume is the first cross-border urban agenda to be drafted. It is a unique piece that contributes to our understanding of the complexities of implementing and translating a common set of urban European principles to variety of different local milieus. The chapters of the book closely examine the various strands of the implementation of urban policies through the lenses of land use, economic competition, innovation, culture and creative industries, energy, ecology, demographic challenges, housing, social inclusion and democratic governance. These chapters are written by international renowned scholars who were involved in the drawing up of the urban agenda for this territory. The ideas, principles and concepts that they impart can be extrapolated to most cities.

In April of 2005 Shell sought an injunction in a Dublin court against residents of Erris in northwestern Republic of Ireland who were obstructing the laying of pipelines across their lands. On June 29, 2005 the court convicted and jailed five people for failing to comply with the order of the High Court restraining them from interfering with Shell's project. When Communities Confront Corporations examines the issues and events that led to the incarceration of the Rossport Five and how it resonates with events in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It argues that conflicts between communities and corporations, though pervasive, do not appear to receive adequate scholarly attention. The book compares the altercations between Shell and the Erris communities in Ireland and the responses to these conflicts, with similar conflicts generated in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria by the presence of the oil giant. It challenges the so-called conspiracy theory, which is often associated with the oil company's operations in the Niger Delta and argues that the key difference between the two sets of conflicts and responses to them is the context. ________________________ Austin Onuoha did his graduate studies at the Conflict Transformation Program (now Center for Justice and Peacebuilding) at the Eastern Mennonite University, in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is currently a PhD student in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, USA. He had worked as the executive secretary and head of conflict resolution at the Human Rights Commission (now Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Centre) Abakaliki, Nigeria. He currently monitors Chevron's community engagement initiatives in Nigeria for the Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility (CSCR) based in Nigeria. He was elected Ashoka Fellow in 2001 for his innovative work in harnessing conflict energy for development. He also conducts training in conflict resolution, corporate social responsibility, human rights, non-violence and peace-building and development. He is an adjunct fellow at the West African Peacebuilding Institute in Ghana and is the author of the book: From Conflict to Collaboration Building Peace in Nigeria's Oil-Producing Communities (London, Adonis & Abbey Publishers, 2005)

* A classic study of urban politics praised for the clarity of its writing, careful research, and distinctive theme - that urban politics in the United States has evolved as a dynamic interaction between governmental power, private actors, and a politics of identity. * Offers persuasive explanation, anchored in careful attention to historical detail, of the structural reasons for the spatial polarization and racial and ethnic segregation evident across and within American urban regions. * Includes a number of important updates, including the #MeToo Movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Coronavirus pandemic, the November 2020 US presidential election, climate change, inequality in the public education system, and police reform. * The most recent census data has been integrated throughout the text to provide up to date figures for analysis, discussion, and a nuanced understanding of current trends. * Can be taught as a core text for undergraduate and graduate students or as a resource for well-established researchers in the discipline. May be used on its own, or supplemented with optional reader American Urban Politics in a Global Age (also forthcoming in a new edition) for more advanced readers.

This book examines the national legal frameworks in place for internally displaced people in Nigeria and considers how they can be extended to provide further legal protection.

Despite a growing global awareness of the importance of developing solutions to the problem of internal displacement, how that translates to national level response is often under-researched. This book focuses on Nigeria, where conflict and violence continue to drive high levels of displacement. The book begins by examining the definitions and causes of internal displacement in the national context, before considering the state of national law, and the applicability of the Kampala Convention for furthering protection and assistance for internally displaced persons.

This book will be of interest to researchers of African studies and internal displacement, as well as to policy makers, civil society organizations, humanitarian actors and other regional and international stakeholders.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Context

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Clarification

1.3 The Essence of Law

1.4 Sources of Nigerian Law

1.5 Scope and Objective

Chapter 2. Internal Displacement in Nigeria

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Definition

2.3 Causes

2.4 Conclusion

Chapter 3. Applicable Frameworks on Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria

3.1 Introduction

3.2 The 1999 Nigerian Constitution

3.3 Relevant Legal Frameworks

3.4 Legal Stopgap: the Kampala Convention as supplementary law

3.5 Conclusion

Chapter 4. Reflection on the National Policy on internally displaced persons, 2021

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Brief background

4.3 The Policy framework

4.4 Conclusion

Chapter 5. Conclusion

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The central objective of this edited volume is to help unlock a set of intriguing puzzles relating to changing power dynamics in Eurasia, a region that is critically important in the changing international security landscape.

"The Mississippi Secession Convention" is the first full treatment of any secession convention to date. Studying the Mississippi convention of 1861 offers insight into how and why southern states seceded and the effects of such a breech. Based largely on primary sources, this book provides a unique insight into the broader secession movement.

There was more to the secession convention than the mere act of leaving the Union, which was done only three days into the deliberations. The rest of the three-week January 1861 meeting as well as an additional week in March saw the delegates debate and pass a number of important ordinances that for a time governed the state. As seen through the eyes of the delegates themselves, with rich research into each member, this book provides a compelling overview of the entire proceeding.

The effects of the convention gain the most analysis in this study, including the political processes that, after the momentous vote, morphed into unlikely alliances. Those on opposite ends of the secession question quickly formed new political allegiances in a predominantly Confederate-minded convention. These new political factions formed largely over the issues of central versus local authority, which quickly played into Confederate versus state issues during the Civil War. In addition, author Timothy B. Smith considers the lasting consequences of defeat, looking into the effect secession and war had on the delegates themselves and, by extension, their state, Mississippi.

The empirical research that has shaped this book was drawn from a combined literature stream comprising political psychology, applied economics, and public management issues such as decentralization, local government finance, local governance, and organization and budget theories. The principal premise of this monograph is that a greater autonomy of the local state helps improve the effectiveness of decentralization and good local governance. Bearing in mind the broader challenge of problems with decentralization in Bangladesh, the main research concern here is the exploration of nature, cause, and consequences of a specific deep-rooted problem - the dimensions of influence and magnitude of autonomy in budgeting decisions of local government Union Councils in Bangladesh. The study explores the de facto and de jure issues that affect the autonomy of local government Union Councils of Bangladesh in their budgeting decision-making process, leading to poor or good local governance. The study looks at how and to what extent the budgetary autonomy of local government Union Councils is affected. It also explores the impact of this autonomy on local governance.

Examines the sources behind state-local conflict to better understand where critical intergovernmental relationships may be breaking down Offers a framework for understanding possible sources behind state-local conflict, with a recognition that intergovernmental relationships have historical roots, are place-based, and dependent on context Defines the basic institutional structures and offices and addresses the intergovernmental legal environment Explores concrete issues that have become ensnared in intergovernmental conflict via case studies including environmental (plastic bags, climate change), social and constitutional (confederate statues, transgender bathrooms), and economic (living wage, affordable housing) to name a few Identifies solutions and policy tools that build upon the strengths of state and local governments, mitigate conflicts, and improve the quality of life for citizens

Examines the sources behind state-local conflict to better understand where critical intergovernmental relationships may be breaking down Offers a framework for understanding possible sources behind state-local conflict, with a recognition that intergovernmental relationships have historical roots, are place-based, and dependent on context Defines the basic institutional structures and offices and addresses the intergovernmental legal environment Explores concrete issues that have become ensnared in intergovernmental conflict via case studies including environmental (plastic bags, climate change), social and constitutional (confederate statues, transgender bathrooms), and economic (living wage, affordable housing) to name a few Identifies solutions and policy tools that build upon the strengths of state and local governments, mitigate conflicts, and improve the quality of life for citizens

This book investigates the experiences of women city councilors in India. It follows the careers of women in Jaipur, Rajasthan, who were brought into public office through a gender quota instituted over two decades ago. It reveals how, even in office, women continue to face stigma and normative restrictions imposed by a society not entirely willing to accept them in a public and independent position; and how men, technically blocked by the gender quota from holding office themselves, continue to exert control and influence over women officeholders, even sidelining them in many cases as proxies. The volume also documents the role of these men, colloquially known as parshad-patis, who have uniquely subverted the gender quota without violating any of the formal quota rules. To combat these challenges, the author presents pragmatic approaches to empower women in political offices at the grassroots and highlights the need for a comprehensive support structure to aid gender quota institutions in delivering equality in highly patriarchal environments. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with elected members and their spouses, as well as journalists, women's rights activists, and student political leaders, this book provides fascinating insights into the everyday politics of India. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, politics, political processes, and South Asian studies.

The Government of World Cities assesses the future of metropolitan administrations in the light of some spectacular challenges to their operation, notably the collapse of the "metro model" in cities as diverse as London, Barcelona and Copenhagen. This key collection of essays from recognised authorities, including the final publication by the late Jean Gottmann, the doyen of urban studies, provides a balanced and provocative view of the strengths and weaknesses of metropolitan government at possibly the most crucial point in its history. The purpose of this book is to take stock of the concept of the metropolitan government idea as it currently seems to be faring in a variety of contexts and examples throughout the world. Specific cities that exemplify the three categories (outright abolition, under fire, and successfully thriving) are examined to determine why the experience of each has differed so markedly. Each essay offers an up-to-date account of the relative success of each metro government and its prospects for the future. This book also evaluates whether it is possible to make some judgement as to how far the existence of a metropolitan government has improved the governance of the big city. This is an invaluable book for students of geography, urban studies, urban politics and planning, as well as professionals in local government.

The book investigates how teenage girls in South Africa encounter and consume pornography, situating their experiences within wider sociocultural and affective relations of power. It focuses on girls’ online playful and pleasurable pursuits as they explore and expand upon their sexual curiosities.

In this digital moment, the book directs us to the multi-layered meanings around porn, as an everyday normative experience. The book takes on an interdisciplinary approach drawing from and inspired by new feminist materialism and assemblage theorising. For teenage girls porn is freely available to see in billboards, magazines, books, on television, music videos, games, online streaming and social media sites. Girls do not have to view hardcore porn to see porn: it is everywhere. It argues that girls’ online playful adventures are a critical site for learning, developing, and negotiating gender and sexuality. These meanings are constitutive of pleasure and the pursuit of learning sexually, but they also provide a launchpad for girls to contest race, gender, and heterosexual domination while opening up online porn to broader interrogation and critique.

The book will be of interest to researchers across African studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, youth, gender and sexuality studies, porn studies, and childhood studies.

This volume describes and analyzes alternative and emerging models of non-territorial autonomy (NTA), particularly in relation to decentralization. The authors push the NTA debate in new directions by offering a re-conceptualization based on ethno-cultural bottom-up decentralized action that redefines autonomy into its true sense of autonomous action. Through description, critical analysis, and evaluation of several case studies, this book assesses the potential for new paradigms within decentralized systems. The authors explore two approaches to political decentralization which add to the theoretical debate on NTA - network governance, which focuses on new dynamics in policy processes, and normative pluralism, which focuses on accommodating the distinctness of the groups through the subsidiarity principle with regard to their own affairs. The book explores the potential ramifications of ethno-cultural NTA institutions acting within the wider framework of state institutions and assesses the functions of these institutions as another dimension of decentralization and thus another 'layer' of democracy. With contemporary examples from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South Africa, as well as theoretical aspects of the conceptualization of autonomy, this book offers a truly global perspective. It will be of great interest to policy-makers in countries experiencing adverse developments due to the pressure on public management, as well as advanced students and scholars questioning the ability of the Westphalian system to address cultural diversity.

This book investigates how customary practices in South Africa have led to negotiation and contestation over human rights, gender and generational power.

Drawing on a range of original empirical studies, this book provides important new insights into the realities of regulating personal relationships in complex social fields in which customary practices are negotiated. This book not only adds to a fuller understanding of how customary practices are experienced in contemporary South Africa, but it also contributes to a large discussion about the experiences, impact and ongoing negotiations around changing structures of gender and generational power and rights in contemporary South Africa.

It will be of interest to researchers across the fields of sociology, family/customary law, gender, social policy and African Studies.

Table of Contents

1. Generation, gender and negotiating custom in South Africa (Elena Moore) 2. Lobolo and the making of men (Refiloe Makama) 3. Very long engagements: The persistent authority of bridewealth in a post-apartheid South African community (Michael W. Yarbrough) 4. Inhlawulo, Kin and Custom: Young men negotiating fatherhood and respectable masculinity (Deevia Bhana and Francesca Salvi) 5. Negotiating sisterarchy within polygynous marriages (Zamambo Mkhize) 6. Women’s historical recollections of familial power, ukuthwala marriage and sexual violence (Nyasha Karimakwenda) 7. The power of state law: Female initiation, consent and generational entanglements (Elena Moore and Chuma Himonga) 8. Negotiation of inheritance rights by widows: A case study in rural South Africa (Fatima Osman) 9. Resisting for one and all: Gender and generations amidst guns in rural KwaZulu-Natal (Sindiso Mnisi Weeks) Glossary and Notes

A vividly written and timely polemic tackling the burning injustices shaping British society today. ‘Intelligently written and powerfully argued.’ Paul Mason ‘Witty, scathing, and entertaining.’ Danny Dorling Journalist Sam Bright is a Northerner living in London. He is just one of the millions of people clinging on to the coattails of the capital, sucked in by the prospect of opportunities that the rest of the United Kingdom does not enjoy. Our capital is a vast melting pot of languages, cultures, and ideas, and rightly celebrated for it. For many, though, there is no other option. The only place to access the opportunities this country offers is London. Banking, law, politics, advertising, architecture, the arts and the media are all concentrated here. It is almost impossible to reach the heights of any profession without joining the grey hoards queuing for the next tube. As the economic, political, and cultural epicentre of the country, Fortress London acts more like a renaissance city-state like Florence or Venice than the capital of a modern nation-state. And the gluttony of London, compared to the malnourishment of our regions, dramatically affects life chances in Britain. Fortress London argues that to address Britain’s manifold problems, we need first to end the hegemony of its capital. Enriched by a vast array of interviews and statistics, it will examine how our individual destinies, from childhood to death, are determined by the disproportionate power of London. It will explain why regional inequality has fallen off the Left’s radar, even as the Right pays lip service to it, and it will draw on international comparisons to show where we have gone wrong and, crucially, how we can fix it. Sam Bright’s clear-eyed intervention will convince you that regional inequality is the problem — and that now is the time for change. Featuring exclusive interviews with: Andy Burnham, Lisa Nandy, Steve Rotheram, Aditya Chakrabortty, David Blunkett, Jess Phillips, Andrew Adonis and more…

The aim of this work of reference is to provide a full year-by-year list of officials from archaic and classical Athens, along with, where appropriate, a short notice of their activities, including all the evidence pertaining to an individual’s office in a particular year. It also contains all state decrees datable to any year or which contain relevant information. It offers a basic reference, of a kind that has previously been lacking, for the study of Athenian magistracies and official life. The introduction gives essential details of the positions included, and the indexes give an alphabetic listing of individuals with their offices, a listing by geographical provenance (demes), and an indication of documents of disputed date. As far as possible the use of Greek and Latin has been avoided in order that the book should be accessible to a wide readership. It should prove a fundamental tool for future research.

First published in 1966, Local Government in Crisis presents a comprehensive overview of the challenges and limitations of the local government in Britain. William A. Robson discusses major themes like loss of municipal functions and public utilities; transfer of powers from county districts to county councils; increased central control and dependence on central finance; attitude of local authorities to municipal reforms; the Local Government Act, 1958; and work of the Local Government Commission, to showcase the demand for far reaching substantial changes in a) the structure and finance of local government, b) the relations of local authorities with central departments and c) the power entrusted to local councils. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of public administration, political science, and public policy.

This book provides a guide to becoming an empowered citizen, capable of achieving success when advocating with local government. Based on interviews with mayors, together with documentary evidence, analyses of public meetings, and the author's own experience of advocacy, volunteering on city committees, and work on political campaigns, it describes how to advocate with local government officials, whom to contact, what to say when and where, and how to locate the facts, figures, and stories that can lend credence to an advocacy campaign. Guided by the ideas that persuasion efforts can succeed, are not difficult to undertake, and are in fact appreciated by public officials; that the system is open and that citizens have a fair chance of advancing their point of view; and that democracy depends upon citizen engagement, it presents concrete case studies in order to illustrate the guidance provided. With advice on how to organize and implement a successful advocacy campaign at a local level-and what to avoid-Persuading Local Government provides an antidote to the alienation of national politics, showing that local efforts at persuasion are meaningful and effect change on matters that affect people's everyday lives.