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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary
Human Rights Watch's World Report 2014 is the global rights
watchdog's flagship 24th annual review of global trends and news in
human rights. An invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats,
and citizens, it features not only incisive country surveys but
also hard-hitting essays highlighting key human rights issues and
striking photo essays by award-winning photographers. Customers
outside of the UK and Europe: copies are available from
Sevenstories.com
From the Great Game to the present, an international cultural and
political biography of one of our most evocative, compelling, and
poorly understood narratives of history. The Silk Road is rapidly
becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of
the twenty-first century. Yet, for much of the twentieth century
the Silk Road received little attention, overshadowed by
nationalism and its invented pasts, and a world dominated by
conflict and Cold War standoffs. In The Silk Road, Tim Winter
reveals the different paths this history of connected cultures took
towards global fame, a century after the first evidence of contact
between China and Europe was unearthed. He also reveals how this
remarkably popular depiction of the past took hold as a platform
for geopolitical ambition, a celebration of peace and cosmopolitan
harmony, and created dreams of exploration and grand adventure.
Winter further explores themes that reappear today as China seeks
to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century. Known across
the globe, the Silk Road is a concept fit for the modern world, and
yet its significance and origins remain poorly understood and are
the subject of much confusion. Pathbreaking in its analysis, this
book presents an entirely new reading of this increasingly
important concept, one that is likely to remain at the center of
world affairs for decades to come.
Scholars commonly take the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen of 1789, written during the French Revolution, as the
starting point for the modern conception of human rights. According
to the Declaration, the rights of man are held to be universal, at
all times and all places. But as recent crises around migrants and
refugees have made obvious, this idea, sacred as it might be among
human rights advocates, is exhausted. It's long past time to
reconsider the principles on which Western economic and political
norms rest. This book advocates for a tradition of political
universality as an alternative to the juridical universalism of the
Declaration. Insurgent universality isn't based on the idea that we
all share some common humanity but, rather, on the democratic
excess by which people disrupt and reject an existing political and
economic order. Going beyond the constitutional armor of the
representative state, it brings into play a plurality of powers to
which citizens have access, not through the funnel of national
citizenship but in daily political practice. We can look to recent
history to see various experiments in cooperative and insurgent
democracy: the Indignados in Spain, the Arab Spring, Occupy, the
Zapatistas in Mexico, and, going further back, the Paris Commune,
the 1917 peasant revolts during the Russian Revolution, and the
Haitian Revolution. This book argues that these movements belong to
the common legacy of insurgent universality, which is characterized
by alternative trajectories of modernity that have been repressed,
hindered, and forgotten. Massimiliano Tomba examines these events
to show what they could have been and what they can still be. As
such he explores how their common legacy can be reactivated.
Insurgent Universality analyzes the manifestos and declarations
that came out of these experiments considering them as collective
works of an alternative canon of political theory that challenges
the great names of the Western pantheon of political thought and
builds bridges between European and non-European political and
social experiments.
This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of how water,
energy and food are interconnected, comprising a coherent system:
the nexus. It considers the interlinkages between natural
resources, governance processes seeking coherence among water,
energy and food policies, and the adoption of transdisciplinary
approaches in the field. With contributions covering a broad range
of disciplinary perspectives and cross-cutting themes, the Handbook
has a well-balanced mix of conceptual chapters and empirical
studies. It includes a state-of-the-art analysis of the concepts
and experiences in implementing the nexus in different policy
environments, providing examples of successful integrated
decision-making across the domains of water, energy and food.
Offering a global perspective on water, energy and food security,
the Handbook contains insights into achieving both national
development goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Chapters
further highlight how to understand the concepts of the nexus in
practice, impacts of the nexus in governance, policy and business,
and methods and tools to strengthen the nexus. Interdisciplinary
and thorough, this Handbook will be critical reading for
environmental management, public policy and human geography
scholars. It will also be a useful tool for policymakers looking
for successful examples of policy coherence towards an integrated
management of water, energy and food resources.
'Beautifully written, sumptuously illustrated, constantly
fascinating' The Times On 26 November 1922 Howard Carter first
peered into the newly opened tomb of an ancient Egyptian boy-king.
When asked if he could see anything, he replied: 'Yes, yes,
wonderful things.' In Tutankhamun's Trumpet, acclaimed Egyptologist
Toby Wilkinson takes a unique approach to that tomb and its
contents. Instead of concentrating on the oft-told story of the
discovery, or speculating on the brief life and politically
fractious reign of the boy king, Wilkinson takes the objects buried
with him as the source material for a wide-ranging, detailed
portrait of ancient Egypt - its geography, history, culture and
legacy. One hundred artefacts from the tomb, arranged in ten
thematic groups, are allowed to speak again - not only for
themselves, but as witnesses of the civilization that created them.
Never before have the treasures of Tutankhamun been analysed and
presented for what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian culture,
its development, its remarkable flourishing, and its lasting
impact. Filled with surprising insights, unusual details, vivid
descriptions and, above all, remarkable objects, Tutankhamun's
Trumpet will appeal to all lovers of history, archaeology, art and
culture, as well as all those fascinated by the Egypt of the
pharaohs. 'I've read many books on ancient Egypt, but I've never
felt closer to its people' The Sunday Times
Music Downtown Eastside draws on two decades of research in one of
North America's poorest urban areas to illustrate how human rights
can be promoted through music. Harrison's examination of how
gentrification, grant funding, and community organizations affect
the success or failure of human rights-focused musical initiatives
offers insights into the complex relationship between culture,
poverty, and human rights that have global implications and
applicability. The book takes the reader into popular music jams
and music therapy sessions offered to the poor in churches,
community centers and health organizations. Harrison analyzes the
capabilities music-making develops, and musical moments where human
rights are respected, promoted, threatened, or violated. The book
offers insights on the relationship between music and poverty, a
social deprivation that diminishes capabilities and rights. It
contributes to the human rights literature by examining critically
how human rights can be strengthened in cultural practices and
policy.
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