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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > General
As the world evolves in increasingly unpredictable directions, one of the key determinants of the future global order will surely be the impact of China. No country and no society can escape China's reach-indeed many seek its embrace. China brings benefits to many-but it's also a problematic interlocutor for others. In China and the World, one of the world's leading China specialists David Shambaugh has assembled fifteen leading international authorities on China to create the most comprehensive and up-to-date scholarly assessment of China's foreign relations and roles in international affairs. The volume covers China's contemporary position in all regions of the world, with all major powers, and across multiple arenas of China's international interactions. It also explores the sources of China's grand strategy, how the past shapes the present, and the impact of domestic factors that shape China's external behavior. China and the World is a uniquely focused and well-organized volume that provides many insights into China's calculations and behavior, and identifies a number of challenges China will face in the future.
When we think of surveillance in our society, we usually imagine "Big Brother" scenarios with the government tracking our every move. The actual surveillance of our everyday lives is much more subtle, however, and may be more insidious. William G. Staples shows how our lives are tracked by both public and private organizations-sometimes with our consent, and sometimes without-through our internet use, cell phones, public video cameras, credit cards, license plates, shopping habits, and more. Everyday Surveillance is a provocative exploration of the myriad ways we are watched each day, and how this surveillance shapes our lives. Thoroughly revised, the second edition considers new topics, such as the rise of social media, and updates research throughout. Everyday Surveillance introduces students to concepts of social control and incites classroom discussion about how surveillance impacts the ways we understand people and our lives at home, work, school, or in the community.
In Disobedience and Democracy, the inimitable leftist thinker Howard Zinn lays out a clear and dynamic case for civil disobedience and protest as legitimate vehicles for social change. Zinn challenges the dominant arguments against forms of protest that challenge the status quo. He solidifies his argument, exploring the politics of direct action, nonviolent civil disobedience and strikes, while also offering lessons for protestors of the present and future generations. This book is a passionate, humanist argument for group-led change.
Author Dariusz Galasinski employs a discourse analytical approach to the study of deception in The Language of Deception. The book focuses on the deceptive messages themselves -- how language is used to deceive others and what kinds of linguistic devices are used. Galasinski develops a theory of deception based on his extensive study of debates and interviews of American and British politicians. Actual exchanges such as the one in which a politician is asked the same question 14 times and evades it 14 times, provide fascinating insight into deceptive linguistic practices.
Can a game change the world? The Ten are chosen - they are reckless, driven and strong. They are tested. Ten become Four. In a country where everyone is tracked, how can the Four hide from the police? DI Clive Lussac hates the system that controls everything, but he's ill and it's helping him. He must decide: conform or fight. As Clive's world unravels, he and his partners DC Ava Miller and DS Zoe Jordan can't believe the entry price to the game. They strive to answer the real questions. Why does the ultimate Augmented Reality game have four different finishes? And how is a simple game wrapped up in politics, religion and the environment? No Signal is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games, The Black Mirror TV series, The Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's 1984. The iMe series are fast paced crime thrillers set in an eerily believable near future world. Starring Detective Inspector Clive Lussac - think Roy Grace meets Black Mirror. Book 1 - Proximity Book 2 - No Signal Each book can be read as a stand-alone novel. 'A BUREAUCRAT navigating the pandemic would chew their right arm off for an iMe...Even now, tech is being made the seems like a precursor to the iMe' New Scientist - May 2020
"Absorbing... Ambitious... Indispensable. A genuine gift to social movements everywhere." -Naomi Klein From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and #BlackLivesMatter, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.
A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm 'Sebastian Junger bears witness to a hard-won and an uncertain new world, framed in vital and brilliant prose: a true and honest accounting of everything that underlies the frantic performance of life' Philip Hoare, author of Albert and the Whale Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don't coexist easily: we value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines this tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. For much of a year, Junger and three friends-a conflict photographer and two Afghan war vets-walked the railroad lines of the east coast. It was an experiment in personal autonomy, but also in interdependence. Dodging railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over fires and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another. In Freedom, Junger weaves his account of this journey together with primatology and boxing strategy, the role of women in resistance movements and apache renegrades, and the brutal reality of life on the Pennsylvania frontier. Written in exquisite, razor-sharp prose, the result is a powerful examination of the primary desire that defines us.
Stigma is a corrosive social force by which individuals and communities throughout history have been systematically dehumanised, scapegoated and oppressed. From the literal stigmatizing (tattooing) of criminals in ancient Greece, to modern day discrimination against Muslims, refugees and the 'undeserving poor', stigma has long been a means of securing the interests of powerful elites. In this radical reconceptualisation Tyler precisely and passionately outlines the political function of stigma as an instrument of state coercion. Through an original social and economic reframing of the history of stigma, Tyler reveals stigma as a political practice, illuminating previously forgotten histories of resistance against stigmatization, boldly arguing that these histories provide invaluable insights for understanding the rise of authoritarian forms of government today.
From the Preface to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition: This was a controversial book, and likely remains so.... The world 25 years later looks quite different. With the end of the Cold War, the United States is now the world's only superpower. If this country cannot shape the international system and bring peace and stability to much of the world, surely no other state can. Yet the will to a broadly internationalist foreign policy cannot currently be found in the United States. The near-consensus that ranged across foreign policy elites before the Vietnam War has never been restored. Maybe that's just as well. But I hold to much of the basic perspective of this book as offering some guidance for fellow "cooperative internationalists." The power to shape international affairs is limited; military intervention is a costly, blunt, and dangerous instrument. The five questions I ask on page 108 of this book remain appropriate. I do believe there are appropriate circumstances for military action in international affairs. In most circumstances I do not believe that it is desirable, effective, or just to try to spread democracy or other American values by force of arms. Much more could be done by way of financial assistance as well as consistent ideological and technical support to create a more democratic and interdependent environment within which peace can be secured.... If the Vietnam War derived in substantial part from an overconfident and unilateral interpretation of history, that is a mistake from which we can still learn.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were increasingly drawn together by an imperial press system. This is the first scholarly study of the development of that system. Simon J. Potter examines key debates during episodes such as the South African War and the First World War, and reveals the ambiguous impact of the system on local, national, and imperial identities.
Now in its fourth edition, After the People Vote remains an indispensable concise guide to help students and all citizens understand this critical and controversial American political institution. The mechanisms that lead to the final selection of a president are complex. Some procedures are sketched out in the original Constitution and its amendments, and others in federal law, congressional rules and procedures, state laws, and political party rules. This new, expanded edition of After the People Vote--featuring new sections on public opinion on the Electoral College and proposals for amending the Electoral College system--explains how our system of electing a president works, especially the processes that kick in after the November general election date.
Against a backdrop of increasing democracy and the associated
process of aristocratic decline, this book examines the political
influence of the leading Tory hostesses, the Marchionesses of
Londonderry. Over one hundred and fifty years, from 1800-1959,
these women were patrons and confidantes to key political figures
such as Disraeli, Bonar Law, Edward Carson and Ramsay MacDonald. By
the late 19th century upper-class women were at the height of their
prowess, exerting political sway by private means whilst exploiting
more public avenues of political work: canvassing, addressing
meetings and leading the new associations established in an attempt
to educate a mass electorate. At that time this hybrid of private
and public aristocratic politicking aroused little criticism but,
by the interwar period, the hold that the 7th Marchioness of
Londonderry, Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, allegedly had over
MacDonald prompted widespread criticism of her role as the 'Mother'
of the National Government.
The mechanisms that lead to the final selection of a president are complex. Some procedures are sketched out in the original Constitution and its amendments, and others in federal law, congressional rules and procedures, state laws, and political party rules. This new, expanded edition of After the People Vote—featuring new sections on public opinion on the Electoral College and proposals for amending the Electoral College system—explains how our system of electing a president works, especially the processes that kick in after the November general election date.
As the world evolves in increasingly unpredictable directions, one of the key determinants of the future global order will surely be the impact of China. No country and no society can escape China's reach-indeed many seek its embrace. China brings benefits to many-but it's also a problematic interlocutor for others. In China and the World, one of the world's leading China specialists David Shambaugh has assembled fifteen leading international authorities on China to create the most comprehensive and up-to-date scholarly assessment of China's foreign relations and roles in international affairs. The volume covers China's contemporary position in all regions of the world, with all major powers, and across multiple arenas of China's international interactions. It also explores the sources of China's grand strategy, how the past shapes the present, and the impact of domestic factors that shape China's external behavior. China and the World is a uniquely focused and well-organized volume that provides many insights into China's calculations and behavior, and identifies a number of challenges China will face in the future.
This book examines a series of questions associated with the increasing application and implications of biometrics in contemporary everyday life. In the wake of the events of 9/11, the reliance on increasingly sophisticated and invasive technologies across a burgeoning field of applications has accelerated, giving rise to the term 'biometric state'. This book explores how these 'virtual borders' are created and the effect they have upon the politics of citizenship and immigration, especially how they contribute to the treatment of citizens as suspects. Finally and most importantly, this text argues that the rationale of 'governing through risk' facilitates pre-emptory logics, a negligent attitude towards 'false positives', and an overall proliferation of borders and ubiquitous risk, which becomes integral to contemporary everyday life, far beyond the confined politics of national borders and frontiers. By focusing on specific sites, such as virtual borders in airports, trusted traveller programs like the NEXUS program and those delivered by airlines and supported by governmental authorities (TSA and CATSA respectively), this book raises critical questions about the emerging biometric state and its commitment and constitution vis-a-vis technology of 'governing through risk'. This book will be of interest to students of biopolitics, critical security, surveillance studies and International Relations in general. Benjamin J. Muller is assistant professor in International Relations at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. He completed his PhD in the School of Politics and International Studies at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2005."
The Dayton Accords brought the Bosnian war to an end in November 1995, establishing a detailed framework for the reconstitution of the Bosnian state and its consolidation through a process of democratisation. In Bosnia David Chandler makes the first in-depth critical analysis of the policies and impact of post-Dayton democratisation. Drawing on interviews with key officials within the OSCE in Bosnia and extensive original research exploring the impact of policies designed to further political pluralism, develop multi-ethnic administrations, protect human rights and support civil society, Chandler reveals that the process has done virtually nothing to develop democracy in this troubled country. Political autonomy and accountability are now further away than at any time since the outbreak of the Bosnian war.
Israel-Palestine in the Print News Media: Contending Discourses is concerned with conceptions of language, knowledge, and thought about political conflict in the Middle East in two national news media communities: the United States and the United Kingdom. Arguing for the existence of national perspectives which are constructed, distributed, and reinforced in the print news media, this study provides a detailed linguistic analysis of print news media coverage of four recent events in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in order to examine ideological patterns present in print news media coverage. The two news communities are compared for lexical choices in news stories about the conflict, attribution of agency in the discussion of conflict events, the inclusion or exclusion of historical context in explanations of the conflict, and reliance upon essentialist elements during and within print representations of Palestine-Israel. The book also devotes space to first-hand testimony from journalists with extensive experience covering the conflict from within both news media institutions. Unifying various avenues of academic enquiry reflecting upon the acquisition of information and the development of knowledge, this book will be of interest to those seeking a new approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
What role does ethics play in modern-day warfare? Is it possible for ethics and militarism to exist hand-in-hand? James Eastwood examines the Israeli military and its claim to be 'the most moral army in the world'. This claim has been strongly contested by human rights bodies and international institutions in their analysis of recent military engagements in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. Yet at the same time, many in Israel believe this claim, including the general public, military personnel and politicians. Compiled from extensive research including interviews with soldiers, Eastwood unpacks the ethical pedagogy of the Israeli military, as well as soldier-led activism which voices a moral critique, and argues that the belief in moral warfare doesn't exist separately from the growing violence of Israel's occupation. This book is ideal for those interested in military ethics and Israeli politics, and provides crucial in-depth analysis for students and researchers alike.
This latest volume in the august Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change series carries on a long tradition of featuring only the best data-driven and multi-method research upon which useful theory can be painstakingly built. Part one focuses on old and new media platforms and their intersections with mobilization issues, highlighting protest websites and the US Tea Party movement. Part two investigates the roles elites play in advancing movement campaigns for increased rights and decreased inequalities in the US and Peru. The third section spotlights best and worst practices in conflict transformation and peacebuilding ventures in Croatia and Israel/Palestine, while the fourth section interrogates the use of consensus building processes in Local Social Forums and in the Occupy Movement. Finally, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Neil Smelser's A Theory of Collective Behavior, we close with a creative combining of Smelser's structural functionalist approach with social identity models for understanding crowd behaviors in the context of university party riots.
21st Century Urban Race Politics begins by offering a twenty-first-century understanding of minority representation in historically majority-Caucasian cities and draws on case studies in cities throughout the United States. The aim of this volume is to take stock of what we know about the advantages and disadvantages of the "racialized" and "deracialized" approaches to governance and to describe a third approach, the "universalized interest approach." The authors argue that minority elected officials, when given the power and resources to do so, often do more than represent constituent interests without acknowledging the representation of members of their racial/ethnic group in urban communities. Contributors describe how mayors of various backgrounds have sought to represent minority interests in electoral and governing contexts. In each case, the mayors are found to represent minority interests. In most cases, the representation of minority interests is accomplished without deemphasizing the significance of race and as the mayor maintains support from whites within their electoral and governing coalitions. With case studies from across the country, in medium-sized and large cities, and mayors of various backgrounds, the volume provides a vivid account of how different minority mayors have handled minority representation in historically majority Caucasian cities and what lessons academics and politicians can learn from them.
An introductory guide to some of the most significant perspectives on the subject of power within social and political theory. Contains extracts from such leading contemporary thinkers as Giddens, Lukes and Bourdieu alongside recent conceptions of power from important twentieth century figures including Weber, Arendt and Foucault. Each chapter concentrates on an individual theoretical perspective, and contains a substantial article or extract with its own comprehensive introduction which places the work in context. An excellent point of departure for understanding more about social and political power. -- .
Australia is less secure than it has ever been, and the greatest threat comes from our elected government. Political leaders increasingly promote secrecy, ignorance and fear to introduce new laws that undermine individual liberties and safety. It is a criminal offence to receive or publish a wide range of information unrelated to national security. Our defence weapons are so dependent on US technical support that Australia couldn't defend itself without US involvement. And comprehensive databases on citizens' digital fingerprints and facial recognition characteristics are being amassed by the Commonwealth. Conspiracy? Paranoia? Read Secret: The Making of Australia's Security State and you decide. Fresh archival material and revealing details of conversations between former CIA, US State Department and Australian officials will make you reconsider the world around you.
The U.S. government's prime enemy in the War on Terror is not a shadowy mastermind dispatching suicide bombers. It is the informed American citizen. With Manufacturing Militarism, Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall detail how military propaganda has targeted Americans since 9/11. From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the U.S. government has purposefully inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of a proactive military response. This biased, incomplete, and misleading information contributes to a broader culture of fear and militarism that, far from keeping Americans safe, ultimately threatens the foundations of a free society. Applying a political economic approach to the incentives created by a democratic system with a massive national security state, Coyne and Hall delve into case studies from the War on Terror to show how propaganda operates in a democracy. As they vigilantly watch their carry-ons scanned at the airport despite nonexistent threats, or absorb glowing representations of the military from films, Americans are subject to propaganda that, Coyne and Hall argue, erodes government by citizen consent. |
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