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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism
This insightful Handbook presents readers with a comprehensive
range of original research within the field of Collaborative Public
Management (CPM). As a central area of study and practice in public
administration, the Handbook explores the most important questions
facing collaboration and provides future research directions and
new areas of study. Featuring expert contributions from a diverse
range of scholars, this Handbook showcases the emergence of
collaborative governance research and charts connections among the
multiple arenas of CPM; including public/private partnerships,
emergency management and climate change management. Chapters cover
the fundamental practices and limitations of CPM as well as future
possibilities. Reflecting on leading theories and research, the
Handbook argues that CPM is both an evolving field, as well as a
varied and maturing one that is worthy of continued exploration.
The Handbook will be a valuable resource to scholars and graduate
students in subjects such as public administration and public
policy, who are interested in examining current research and
approaches within the field. The examination of collaborative
initiatives will also be beneficial to administrative leaders in
public services who want to understand how to lead and manage more
dynamic arrangements.
'This is an urgent and compelling account of great bravery and
passion. Delphine Minoui has crafted a book that champions books
and the individuals who risk everything to preserve them.' Susan
Orlean, author of The Library Book In 2012 the rebel suburb of
Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government
forces. Four years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling,
barrel bombs and chemical gas attacks. People's homes were
destroyed and their food supplies cut off; disease was rife. Yet in
this man-made hell, forty young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on
an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in
the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a
secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their
school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to
exchange ideas, to dream and to hope. Based on lengthy interviews
with these young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning
French journalist Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors of Daraya is
a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of
literature. Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.
First published in 2001, Achille Mbembe's landmark book, On the
postcolony, continues to renew our understanding of power and
subjectivity in Africa. This edition has been updated with a
foreword by professor of African literature, Isabel Hofmeyr, and a
preface by the author. In a series of provocative essays, Mbembe
contests die hard Africanist and nativist perspectives as well as
some of the key assumptions of postcolonial theory. Through his
provocation, the `banality of power', Mbembe reinterprets the
meanings of death, utopia and the divine libido as part of the new
theoretical perspectives he offers on the constitution of power in
Africa. He works with the complex registers of bodily subjectivity
- violence, wonder and laughter - to contest categories of
oppression and resistance, autonomy and subjection, and state and
civil society that marked the social theory of the late twentieth
century. On the postcolony, like Frantz Fanon's Black skins, white
masks, will remain a text of profound importance in the discourse
of anticolonial and anti-imperial struggles.
This book asks why socially innovative initiatives, including
attempts to rejuvenate democracy by introducing new modes of
participation, are not leading to a democratization of the State or
overcoming the gap between political leaders and people. It offers
a vivid and thought-provoking conversation on why we are at such an
impasse and explores concrete possibilities for change. Offering
insights on the failures of modern democracies from three leading
voices of contemporary social science, the book interrogates the
possibilities of progressive socio-political agendas, strategies,
and movements seeking to overcome these failures. It highlights
examples of bottom-linked forms of governance that provide signs of
positive change and focuses on the essential role that progressive
institutions play in enabling socio-political transformation. It
also analyses how processes of self-emancipation driven by social
innovation and political mobilization movements represent the most
promising form of political engagement today. Students and scholars
of social innovation and governance will find this to be an
invigorating read. It will also be helpful to politicians and
government officials seeking to understand, respond to, and explore
efforts towards democratizing political change.
When a country experiences a civil war, media reports are mainly
brought to the attention of the outside world by those who can only
report on the surface impressions obtained during a short visit or
from the comfort of a studio thousands of miles away. My
experiences, living and working at the grass roots level, during
and after the crisis in Nigeria in the 1960s has a different
perspective. As a young Scotswoman married to a Nigerian from the
breakaway republic of Biafra we lived as refugees with our young
family, forced to leave our home seven times in the 30 months of
the civil war as the war raged around us. Cut off from the outside
world, in a situation the British High Commissioner in Nigeria had
predicted at the onset, would be over in two weeks, we lived a life
full of experiences which gave me a `qualification in survival' no
university could have imparted. Without electricity, gas, petrol or
phones, and often without money, medicine or safe drinking water we
learned to appreciate the basic necessities of life. I was 18 years
old, living in Dunfermline, Scotland when the man I was to marry
asked me for a dance at the Kinema Ballroom. Two years later my
career plan to qualify as a nurse was over and I was married to Len
Ofoegbu, with a baby daughter and we were on our way to a new and
very different life. Our first home was in the capital, Lagos, and
was a big culture shock to Len and I. The newly independent West
African country was already experiencing political and civil
unrest, leading to violence, massacres, coups, and the inability of
the central government to control the situation. Hundreds of
thousands of Easterners who had settled throughout the whole of the
country now `went home' as they had become the targets of
slaughtering mobs. The secession of the Eastern Region, calling
itself Biafra, followed and a David and Goliath bitter conflict
ensued. The word `kwashiorkor' and pictures of starving children
and adults appeared in the Western press for the first time. I was
one of around a dozen, mainly British, foreign wives of Biafrans
who remained with their husband throughout the civil war. I worked
voluntarily with relief agencies in feeding centres, clinics, an
orphanage and, after Biafra surrendered in January 1970, in a
children's hospital in return for food for my growing family. In
May 1970 we moved back to live in Lagos where we went through more
crises as a family. I became an early member of Nigerwives, an
organisation for foreign wives and partners of Nigerians which
became like an extended family as we gave mutual support and strove
to resolve anomalies in Nigerian laws which put unnecessary
restrictions affecting our particular circumstances. By the 1980s I
accepted that my husband and I had grown so far apart that I could
no longer remain with him. My legal reason to remain in Nigeria was
`to accompany him' and he could withdraw his immigration
responsibility for me at any time. I needed a security which he
could not give me and I left him and Nigeria to begin a new life
and career in Britain in 1985. I was advised when I completed the
original manuscript in the 1970s not have it published as Nigeria
was extremely sensitive about any account which was sympathetic to
the Biafran side of the civil war. In 1986 a much shorter version
of Together in Biafra, titled Blow The Fire, telling the story up
to 1970 was printed by Tana Press in Nigeria. I retain the
copyright. It was published under my married name Leslie Jean
Ofoegbu. It has been cited in academic papers. An example is A
Lingering Nightmare: Achebe, Ofoegbu and Adichie on Biafra,
Francoise Ugochukwu 2011.
When a country experiences a civil war, media reports are mainly
brought to the attention of the outside world by those who can only
report on the surface impressions obtained during a short visit or
from the comfort of a studio thousands of miles away. My
experiences, living and working at the grass roots level, during
and after the crisis in Nigeria in the 1960s has a different
perspective. As a young Scotswoman married to a Nigerian from the
breakaway republic of Biafra we lived as refugees with our young
family, forced to leave our home seven times in the 30 months of
the civil war as the war raged around us. Cut off from the outside
world, in a situation the British High Commissioner in Nigeria had
predicted at the onset, would be over in two weeks, we lived a life
full of experiences which gave me a `qualification in survival' no
university could have imparted. Without electricity, gas, petrol or
phones, and often without money, medicine or safe drinking water we
learned to appreciate the basic necessities of life. I was 18 years
old, living in Dunfermline, Scotland when the man I was to marry
asked me for a dance at the Kinema Ballroom. Two years later my
career plan to qualify as a nurse was over and I was married to Len
Ofoegbu, with a baby daughter and we were on our way to a new and
very different life. Our first home was in the capital, Lagos, and
was a big culture shock to Len and I. The newly independent West
African country was already experiencing political and civil
unrest, leading to violence, massacres, coups, and the inability of
the central government to control the situation. Hundreds of
thousands of Easterners who had settled throughout the whole of the
country now `went home' as they had become the targets of
slaughtering mobs. The secession of the Eastern Region, calling
itself Biafra, followed and a David and Goliath bitter conflict
ensued. The word `kwashiorkor' and pictures of starving children
and adults appeared in the Western press for the first time. I was
one of around a dozen, mainly British, foreign wives of Biafrans
who remained with their husband throughout the civil war. I worked
voluntarily with relief agencies in feeding centres, clinics, an
orphanage and, after Biafra surrendered in January 1970, in a
children's hospital in return for food for my growing family. In
May 1970 we moved back to live in Lagos where we went through more
crises as a family. I became an early member of Nigerwives, an
organisation for foreign wives and partners of Nigerians which
became like an extended family as we gave mutual support and strove
to resolve anomalies in Nigerian laws which put unnecessary
restrictions affecting our particular circumstances. By the 1980s I
accepted that my husband and I had grown so far apart that I could
no longer remain with him. My legal reason to remain in Nigeria was
`to accompany him' and he could withdraw his immigration
responsibility for me at any time. I needed a security which he
could not give me and I left him and Nigeria to begin a new life
and career in Britain in 1985. I was advised when I completed the
original manuscript in the 1970s not have it published as Nigeria
was extremely sensitive about any account which was sympathetic to
the Biafran side of the civil war. In 1986 a much shorter version
of Together in Biafra, titled Blow The Fire, telling the story up
to 1970 was printed by Tana Press in Nigeria. I retain the
copyright. It was published under my married name Leslie Jean
Ofoegbu. It has been cited in academic papers. An example is A
Lingering Nightmare: Achebe, Ofoegbu and Adichie on Biafra,
Francoise Ugochukwu 2011.
In discussions about people power or nonviolent action, most people
will immediately think of Gandhi or Martin Luther King, a few will
recall the end of the Marcos regime in the Philippines in the
mid-1980s, and some others will remember or have heard of the
Prague Spring nearly two decades earlier. Moreover, for most
activists and others involved in peace action and movements for
social change, there will be little knowledge of the theories of
nonviolent action and still less of the huge number of actions
taken in so many countries and in such different circumstances
across the world. Even recent events across the Middle East are
rarely put in a broader historical context. Although the focus of
this book is on post-1945 movements, the opening section provides a
wide-ranging introduction to the history and theoretical bases of
nonviolent action, and reflects the most recent contributions to
the literature, citing key reference works.
Sankara's legacy, unclear as it may be, still lives and he remains
immensely popular. If you travel through Africa his image is
unmistakable. His picture, with beret and broad grin, is pasted on
run-down taxis and is found on the walls of local bars.
Internationally Sankara is often referred to as the `African Che
Guevara' and like his South American counterpart; it is his
perseverance, dedication and incorruptibility that appeal to the
imagination. Voices of liberation: Thomas Sankara starts with a
comprehensive timeline covering Thomas Sankara's life and major
events in the history of the continent and region. His Life section
provides the most critical and fraternal assessment of the 1980s
radical experiment within the broader history of the country, the
region and continent. His Voice section succinctly provides a
selection of Sankara's speeches, broadcasts and interviews and
gives us insight to his outlook on the world. His Legacy section
combines an almost poetic tribute to the flawed through heroic
period of Sankara's `revolution' with an incredibly relentless and
honest analysis. This is done through the story of last year's
uprising against Compaore - with haunting lessons for South Africa.
The Postscript is an indispensable update to the extraordinary
events in Burkina Faso during 2015, chiefly the resistance to the
coup in September. The authors look at Sankara's influence on the
popular movements and its wider significance for Africa.
This timely Handbook examines the causes, costs and consequences of
state fragility, advancing key debates in the field. Demonstrating
the multidimensionality of fragility by applying diverse theories
and methodologies, it provides new insights on effective policy
development and application in the context of fragile states.
Drawing on a wide variety of disciplines, approaches and case
studies, the Handbook pays particular attention to the root causes
and drivers of fragility. It centres authority, legitimacy and the
citizen-state relationship alongside state capacity, revealing the
flaws in the reasoning behind previous Western policy interventions
in fragile states. Chapters address a broad range of issues facing
fragile states, from fragility traps, refugees and urbanisation to
recent events including the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine
war and the increasing pressures of climate change. Ultimately, the
Handbook advances the state of both academic and policy knowledge
on state fragility, revealing the deep links between the two. This
Handbook will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of
political science, international relations, development studies,
economics, and sociology. It will also benefit practitioners
seeking to improve the effectiveness of their policy proposals.
Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful
introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and
law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to
be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of
the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject
areas. This updated and revised second edition of Advanced
Introduction to International Conflict and Security Law provides a
concise and insightful guide to the key principles of international
law governing peacetime security, arms control, the use of force,
armed conflict and post-conflict situations. Nigel D. White
explores the complex legal regimes that have been created to
control levels of armaments, to limit the occasions when
governments can use military force, to mitigate the conduct of
warfare and to build peace. Key Features: Analysis of new efforts
to regulate nuclear weapons Extended coverage of peacekeeping and
analysis of war crimes Updated coverage of recent state practice
and academic literature New analysis of recent and on-going
conflicts, in particular Syria and Ukraine With updated analysis of
peacekeeping, the law surrounding nuclear weapons, war crimes and
extensive coverage of conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, this
thoroughly revised second edition is an essential text for
academics, researchers and students interested in international law
and world peace.
This timely book offers a novel theory of constitutional
revolutions, providing a new and engaging framework for critically
assessing how revolutions and contra-revolutions, transitional
periods and the phenomenon of oblivion influence constitutional
change. Contributions by leading scholars in the field explore the
relationship between revolutions and constitutional order and
disorder, considering in particular the impact of political
transitions, situations of emergency, coup d´etat and the role of
memory and oblivion during times of revolution. Through a series of
case studies, the book identifies ways in which these phenomena
have, and will, affect the formation and amendment of constitutions
in both the short and long term. This includes, most notably, those
changes which seem to go against the spirit of constitutionalism.
In so doing, it provides important insight into how constitutions
and constituent powers deal with the influences of the past.
Students and scholars engaged in the study of constitutional law,
legal theory, theories of the state, transitions of democracy and
the philosophy of law will find this ground-breaking book to be a
must read.
Through a pioneering analysis of two critical junctures in EU
counter-terrorism, this topical book examines the drivers,
conditions and impediments for policy integration and
information-exchange institutionalisation in EU counter-terrorism.
Taking a deep dive into the key questions surrounding EU
counter-terrorism, Christine Andreeva utilises distinct terrorism
case studies over two decades to investigate the evolution of
information-sharing in EU counter-terrorism. Using an innovative
theoretical framework combining historical and constructivist
institutionalism, the book examines key events in EU
counter-terrorism development: the 2015-2016 Paris and Brussels
attacks and the 2004-2005 Madrid and London attacks. Identifying a
post-2015 paradigm policy shift, the book traces the increased
efficiency of cross-border and inter-agency co-ordination in the
EU's counter-terrorism policy. Andreeva demonstrates how
institutionalisation, information-sharing and improved legislative
frameworks have led to further policy integration and added
significant value to international EU counter-terrorism efforts.
Illustrating the importance of practitioners' perception of EU
added value in counter-terrorism, this book will be essential to
scholars and students of public policy, particularly those studying
EU and international politics and EU counter-terrorism. Its
empirical findings will also be useful to policymakers and
practitioners in security and counter-terrorism fields.
Across the world, millions of people are taking to the streets
demanding urgent action on climate breakdown and other
environmental emergencies. Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future
and Climate Strikes are part of a new lexicon of environmental
protest advocating civil disobedience to leverage change. This
groundbreaking book -- also a Special Issue of the Journal of Human
Rights and the Environment -- critically unveils the legal and
political context of this new wave of eco-activisms. It illustrates
how the practise of dissent builds on a long tradition of
grassroots activism, such as the Anti-Nuclear movement, but brings
into focus new participants, such as school children, and new
distinctive aesthetic tactics, such as the mass 'die-ins' and
'discobedience' theatrics in public spaces. Expert international
authors offer fresh insights into the strategies and goals of these
protest movements, the changing vocabulary of environmental
activism, such as the 'climate emergency', and the contribution of
specific protest actors, particularly youth and Indigenous peoples.
They also consider how some governments have responded to these
actions with draconian anti-protest legislation, and by using the
Covid-19 pandemic as cover to keep protesters off the streets. The
scholarly analyses are complemented with first-hand interviews of
some leading protagonists, including Extinction Rebellion leaders
and Green Party politicians. The result is an unrivalled analysis
of the role of new environmental protest movements seeking to drive
a new generation of policies and laws for climate action and social
justice. This impressive book will prove an important and
insightful read for students and scholars interested in
environmental law, climate law, and grass roots activism
specifically.
'Let me say to Mr Botha: apartheid is doomed! It has been condemned in the
Councils of God, rejected by every nation on the planet and is no longer believed
in by the people who gave it birth. Apartheid is the god that has failed.' So
preached Bishop Peter Storey in 1986. Challenging apartheid wherever he could,
he led the SA Methodist Church into what many whites saw as uncomfortable
'political' territory.
Join him in his inspiring journey from sailor-turned-minister to the South African
Council of Churches leadership in its darkest hour, from tending to Robert
Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, through the forced removals of
District Six and the storm surrounding Stompie Seipei's murder. I Beg to Differ
spans a parish minister’s sorrows and joys, founding Life Line SA, the bombing
of Khotso House and a close shave with death with Desmond Tutu. Storey
shares the convictions that inspired him to minister amid the teargas, violence
and intimidation of the apartheid regime.
'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' This
landmark missive from one of the greatest activists in history
calls for direct, non-violent resistance in the fight against
racism, and reflects on the healing power of love. Penguin Modern:
fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic
Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a
concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here
are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman
Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson;
essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories
surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern
Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of
outer space.
Depuis l'ouvrage de John Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment.
Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Tradition (1975), on
connait l'importance de James Harrington dans la pensee politique
anglo-americaine a la periode moderne. Parce qu'au-dela de l'acte
de resistance a la tyrannie, il promeut la democratie et propose
les moyens constitutionnels de mettre en oeuvre la souverainete
populaire dans un pays de vaste etendue, Harrington a incarne une
forme distinctive de republicanisme. En retracant l'histoire de sa
reception dans la France des Lumieres, cet ouvrage a pour but de
combler un hiatus entre le grand recit pocockien du republicanisme
machiavelien et l'historiographie de la Revolution francaise. En
cela, il s'inscrit dans le panorama brosse en 2010 par
l'historienne Rachel Hammersley, et va au-dela. D'une part, il
accorde a Hume, Jaucourt ou Rousseau, aux cotes de ses nombreux
traducteurs et commentateurs, un role central dans l'actualisation
de la pensee de Harrington. D'autre part, il montre que son
heritage intellectuel fut pluriel. Celui-ci n'est en effet pas
seulement l'inspirateur de dispositions constitutionnelles
specifiques : a l'heure ou se developpe l'economie politique,
Harrington apparait comme le penseur d'une egalite relative des
fortunes, percue comme la seule base possible d'un ordre politique
stable. -- John Pocock's book The Machiavellian Moment. Florentine
Political Thought and the Atlantic Tradition (1975) has shown the
importance of James Harrington in Anglo-American modern political
thought. Beyond the act of resistance to tyranny, he vindicates
democracy and provides the constitutional means for implementing
popular sovereignty in a vast country. In doing so, Harrington has
incarnated a distinctive form of republicanism. By reconstructing
the history of his reception in eighteenth century France, this
book aims to bridge the gap between the great Pocockian narrative
of Machiavellian republicanism and the historiography of the French
Revolution. It is set against the panorama offered by Rachel
Hammersley in 2010 and aims to go further. On the one hand, it
shows how central Hume, Jaucourt or Rousseau have been in reviving
Harrington's thought, along with his numerous translators and
commentators. On the other hand, it shows that his intellectual
legacy was diverse. He did not only stand as the inspirer of
specific constitutional measures: as political economy developed,
Harrington also appeared as the theoretician of a relative equality
of wealth among the people, perceived by many as the true basis of
a stable political order.
“A brilliant biography that will transform your understanding of this young,
charismatic leader” — Joseph Nhini, BooksLive, Sunday Times
“Deeply thought-provoking” — Tyrone August, Cape Times
“Makes a good job of weaving together a number of strands that make the totality
of the powerful persona Biko became ... Sheds new light on more than just Biko”
— Sam Mkokeli, Business Day
Interest in the iconic Steve Biko has strongly revived, as the current generation of
activists calls on his legacy and thoughts. Biko is cited and disputed particularly in
the #RhodesMustFall and decolonisation movements. This comprehensive
biography, shortlisted for the Alan Paton award, explores Biko's life, the people
and ideas that shaped him, and his part in Black Consciousness and the struggle.
Updated in an affordable new edition, Biko: A Biography presents a new
generation with nuanced insights into the life and thought of a South African hero.
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