Disabled women represent one of the most marginalised minority groups in the world, hence they are largely silent while their sexuality is ignored, suppressed, forbidden and buried underneath the carpet. Until recently, most of the Global Northern published literature on the subject of the sexuality of disabled women has predominantly been constructed from hearsay and second-hand narratives in studies which draw from the perspectives of parents, service providers and advocates, without much consultation of the relevant women. By facilitating the voice of disabled women in Zimbabwe and illuminating their experiences of sexuality, this book hopes to shift the experiences of sexuality of disabled women from the periphery of society to the fore. Disability and Sexuality in Zimbabwe presents original research on an issue that is thus far not found in local research data. Whilst addressing the paucity of literature on the subject, the book informs policy and practice and enhances the existing body of knowledge by making recommendations towards the development of a disability and sexuality framework that is rooted in the African context. This book is of interest to students and scholars of African studies, disability studies, sociology, psychology, social work, nursing, education studies, geography, women's and gender studies and interdisciplinary studies. Additional audiences include a wide range of health, social care, and educational professionals and practitioners, as well donors, disabled people's organisations, charities, government departments, NGOs, supranational organisations, and policy makers

After decades of mismanagement and direct military rule, Myanmar's contested transition to a more democratic government has rapidly shifted the outlook in this significant Southeast Asian nation. Since 2011, the removal of Western sanctions and new foreign investments have resulted in high rates of economic growth and an expanding middle class, albeit from a very low base. In a result unthinkable a few years earlier, former political prisoner and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), formed a national government in early 2016. However, despite significant political and economic reforms since the liberalisation process commenced, the transition to civilian rule remains constrained by the military's 2008 Constitution, which guarantees that it operates unfettered by civilian oversight. As a result, although some ethnic conflicts have abated, others continue to fester and new conflicts have erupted. With a daunting task ahead the NLD government has made some progress in removing the vestiges of repressive military-era laws but many remain untouched and some of the practices of the new government provide unwelcome reminders of its authoritarian history. This timely Handbook describes the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of this crucial period of transition in Myanmar. It presents explanations for contradictory trends, including those that defy some of the early narratives about the comprehensive transformation of Myanmar. The Handbook also considers the impact of major environmental, strategic, and demographic trends which help underscore that Myanmar's development will be an ongoing task. In addition to introductory and concluding chapters by the editors, the body of the Handbook is divided into seven core sections: * Fundamentals * Spaces * Cultures * Living * Governance * International * Challenges Written by an international team of scholars, with a mix of world-leading established academics and talented emerging researchers, the Handbook provides a rigorous scholarly overview of Myanmar's politics, economics, and society. As Myanmar opens to Western businesses and government agencies, this is an invaluable reference book that will provide a foundation for further research and offer the first port of call for scholars, students, and policy makers working on Myanmar and Asia.

This book examines the impact of Partition on refugees in East and Northeast India and their struggle for identity, space and political rights. In the wake of the legalisation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019, this region remains a hotbed of identity and refugee politics. Drawing on extensive research and in-depth fieldwork, this book discusses themes of displacement, rehabilitation, discrimination and politicisation of refugees that preceded and followed the Partition of India in 1947. It portrays the crises experienced by refugees in recreating the socio-cultural milieu of the lost motherland and the consequent loss of their linguistic, cultural, economic and ethnic identities. The author also studies how the presence of the refugees shaped the conduct of politics in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura in the decades following Partition. Refugees, Borders and Identities will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of refugee studies, border studies, South Asian history, migration studies, Partition studies, sociology, anthropology, political studies, international relations and refugee studies, and for general readers of modern Indian history.

This comprehensive book critically analyzes the successes and failures of federalism in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nepal and Myanmar for the political accommodation of ethno-regional diversity and assesses their comparative democratic significance for other countries in Asia. This revised new edition incorporates updated demographic, religious and linguistic data for the case study countries and examines some of the major changes that have taken place in formally federal states since 2010, including the 18th Amendment of the Constitution in Pakistan in 2010, which gave a major turn to decentralization by empowering the provinces; the new federal democratic Constitution that was introduced in Nepal in 2015; and the abolition of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council in India. The author thematically examines the growing tensions between nation and state-building in ethnically plural societies; modes of federation-building in Asia; persistent ethnic tensions in federations and the relationship between federalism and democracy; and federalism and decentralization. The book will be of use to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Asian politics, comparative federalism and modern Asian political history and institutions, as well as policy makers on ethnic conflict regulation and peace studies and stakeholders in ethnic power-sharing and political order.

This book unpacks the media dynamics within the socio-cultural, political, and economic context of Pakistan. It provides an in-depth, critical, and scholarly discussion of contemporary issues such as media, state, and democracy in Pakistan; freedom of expression in Pakistani journalism; Balochistan as a blind spot in mainstream newspapers; media control by state institutions; women and media discourses; TV talk shows and coverage of Kashmir; feminist narrative and media images of Malala Yousufzai and Mukhtaran Mai; jihad on screen; and Osama bin Laden's death on screen, to understand the relation between media and terrorism. The book covers diverse media types including TV, radio, newspapers, print media, films, documentary, stage performance, and social media. Detailed, interdisciplinary, analytical, and with original perspectives from journalists as well as academics, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of media studies, Pakistan studies, politics and international affairs, military and terrorism studies, journalism and communication studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest general readers, policy makers, and those interested in global journalism, mass media, and freedom of expression.

This book unpacks the media dynamics within the socio-cultural, political, and economic context of Pakistan. It provides an in-depth, critical, and scholarly discussion of contemporary issues such as media, state, and democracy in Pakistan; freedom of expression in Pakistani journalism; Balochistan as a blind spot in mainstream newspapers; media control by state institutions; women and media discourses; TV talk shows and coverage of Kashmir; feminist narrative and media images of Malala Yousufzai and Mukhtaran Mai; jihad on screen; and Osama bin Laden's death on screen, to understand the relation between media and terrorism. The book covers diverse media types including TV, radio, newspapers, print media, films, documentary, stage performance, and social media. Detailed, interdisciplinary, analytical, and with original perspectives from journalists as well as academics, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of media studies, Pakistan studies, politics and international affairs, military and terrorism studies, journalism and communication studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest general readers, policy makers, and those interested in global journalism, mass media, and freedom of expression.

The emergent culture of crime writings in late 19th century colonial Bengal (India) is an interesting testimony to how literature is shaped by various material forces including the market. This book deals with true crime writings of the late 1800s published by 'lowbrow publishing houses' - infamous for publishing 'sensational' and the 'vulgar' literature - which had an avid bhadralok (genteel) readership. The volume focuses on select translations of true crime writings by Bakaullah and Priyanath Mukhopadhyay who worked as darogas (Detective Inspectors) in the police department in mid-late nineteenth century colonised Bengal. These published accounts of cases investigated by them are among the very first manifestations of the crime genre in India. The writings reflect their understandings of criminality and guilt, as well as negotiations with colonial law and policing. Further, through a selection of cases in which women make an appearance either as victims or offenders, (or sometimes as both,) this book sheds light on the hidden gendered experiences of the time, often missing in mainstream Bangla literature. Combining a love for suspense with critical readings of a cultural phenomenon, this book will be of much interest to scholars and researchers of comparative literature, translation studies, gender studies, literary theory, cultural studies, modern history, and lovers of crime fiction from all disciplines.

Published in 1998, Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century examines a number of related themes including: the traditional approach of local and regional planning initiatives developed within the context of national goals; the current decline of bi-polar political and ideological blocs; political decentralization and concurrent economic centralization including the growth of multi-national corporations; devolution of centralized planning powers to regions and localities, and the rise and acceptance of sustainable development concepts. The book is divided into five parts addressing: 1 - adjustments to political, economic and social change; 2 the problems of urban housing and housing and health; 3 - adjustments to environmental change, development policies and sustainability; 4 - the problem of rapid urban growth and mega cities; 5 - adjustments of changing urban networks. The contributors are from several countries worldwide and the chapters examine the issues at a global level.

Published in 1939, this book provides a comprehensive observation of Ceylon and the Ceylonese people. Covering topics including the rest-house; the Lord Buddha; the Lost cities; Sigiriya, Buddhist temples and the Jungle, the book considers the human geography of the island calibrating it with the diverse archaeology of the island, religious practice, and the British occupation of Ceylon.

This volume compares and contrasts British and German colonialist discourses from a variety of angles: philosophical, political, social, economic, legal, and discourse-linguistic. British and German cooperation and competition are presented as complementary forces in the European colonial project from as early as the sixteenth century but especially after the foundation of the German Second Empire in 1871 - the era of the so-called 'Scramble for Africa'. The authors present the points of view not only of the colonizing nations, but also of former colonies, including Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Namibia, Tanzania, India, China, and the Pacific Islands. The title will prove invaluable for students and researchers working on British colonial history, German colonial history and post-colonial studies.

This book breaks new ground by examining trans-oceanic connectivity through the perspective of coastal shrines and maritime cultural landscapes across the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. It covers a period of expanding networks and cross-cultural encounters from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The book examines the distinctiveness of these shrines, and highlights their interconnections, and their role in social integration in South and Southeast Asia. By drawing on data from shipwreck sites, the author elaborates on the material and religious intersections and transmissions between cultures across the seas. Many of these coastal shrines survived into the colonial period when they came to be admired for their aesthetic value as 'monuments'. As nation states of the region became independent, these shrines were often inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List on account of their Outstanding Universal Values. The book argues that in the 21st century there is a need to promote the cultural connectivity of the past as transnational heritage on UNESCO's global platform to preserve and protect our shared heritage. The volume will be essential reading for academics and researchers of archaeology, anthropology, museum and heritage studies, history of South and Southeast Asia, religious studies, cultural studies, and Asian studies.

Positioned within the discourse of neoliberalism and precarious work, this book draws on Guy Standing's notion of "the precariat" in an examination of the role of recruiting individuals as the key actors in labour recruitment and management practices that produce precarious work conditions. Based on extensive empirical work on migrant construction workers and their recruiters in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, it explores the ways in which exploitative employment relationships contribute to various pressures and insecurities amongst migrant workers and limit the scope for labour protection. Offering new insights into the field of labour migration by unpacking the interconnections between rural-urban labour migration, recruitment and precarious employment, The Construction Precariat conceptualises the domination of recruiters as producing "hyper-individualised employment", and sheds light on the manner in which this relationship of domination and dependence contributes heavily both to the conditions of precariousness and to the control and exploitation of migrant workers.

Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and political power structures in which they are enacted. This book explores these connections in South Asia from the early Common Era until the present day. The essays in the volume examine a wide range of themes, including a genealogy of ideas concerning Vedic rituals in European thought; Buddhist donative rituals of Gandhara and Andhra Pradesh in the early Common Era; land endowments, festivals, and temple establishments in medieval Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; Mughal court rituals of the Mughal Empire; and contemporary ritual complexes on the Nilgiri Plateau. This volume argues for the need to redress a historical neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges existing theoretical and methodological forms of documentation to propose new ways of understanding rituals in history. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, religion, archaeology, and historical geography.

This book explores the discipline of social-cultural anthropology through an extensive study of the Nicobarese people in one of the remotest human settlements of the Indian Ocean. It examines the social, cultural, economic, political and magico-religious beliefs of the Nicobarese, and traces their ritualistic upbringing from conception till after death. The book also discusses the nature-man-spirit complex observed in the life of the Nicobarese. The author further utilises this study to examine the complex role of anthropologists in maintaining objectivity and authenticity in ethnographic accounts, and discusses several critical epistemological issues concerning social-cultural anthropology as a field of study today. Based upon extensive field research by the author conducted over four decades, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of sociology and social-cultural anthropology, human geography, social sciences, minority studies, as well as South Asian studies.

This book explores the ways in which modern Hindu identities were constructed in the early nineteenth century. It draws parallels between sixteenth and eventeenth Cecntury Protestantism and the rise of modernity in the West, and the Hindu reformation in the nineteenth century which contributed to the rise of Vedantic Hindu modernity discourse in India. The nineteenth century Hindu modernity, it is argued, sought both individual flourishing and collective emancipation from Western domination. For the first time Hinduism began to be constructed as a religion of sacred texts. In particular, texts belonging to what could be loosely called Vedanta: Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. In this way, the main protagonists of this Vedantist modernity were imitating Western Protestantism, but at the same time also inventing totally novel interpretations of what it meant to be Hindu. The book traces the major ideological paths taken in this cultural-religious reformation from its originator Rammohun Roy up to its last major influence, Rabindranath Tagore. Bringing these two versions of modernity into conversation brings a unique view on the formation of modern Hindu identities. It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of religious, Hindu and South Asian studies, as well as religious istory and interreligious dialogue.

This book uses narrative responses to the 2010 Haiti earthquake as a starting point for an analysis of notions of disaster, vulnerability, reconstruction and recovery. The turn to a wide range of literary works enables a composite comparative analysis, which encompasses the social, political and individual dimensions of the earthquake. This book focuses on a vision of an open-ended future, otherwise than as a threat or fear. Mika turns to concepts of hinged chronologies, slow healing and remnant dwelling. Weaving theory with attentive close-readings, the book offers an open-ended framework for conceptualising post-disaster recovery and healing. These processes happen at different times and must entail the elimination of compound vulnerabilities that created the disaster in the first place. Challenging characterisations of the region as a continuous catastrophe this book works towards a bold vision of Haiti's and the Caribbean's futures. The study shows how narratives can extend some of the key concepts within discipline-bound approaches to disasters, while making an important contribution to the interface between disaster studies, postcolonial ecocriticism and Haitian Studies.

Dr Pechlaner and Dr Innerhofer, the editors of Competence-Based Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism, argue that the industry operates within highly challenging and competitive environments. Changing environmental and market conditions continually force hotel businesses and service providers to offer their customers new and modified products and services, in order to remain competitive; those which respect value perceptions of markets and sustainable stakeholder reactions. This then raises the question of how innovations within this industry must be developed in order to achieve competitive differentiation. The book demonstrates that the development and analysis of successful innovation strategies should integrate the resource-based view and its advancements, the competence-based view, as well as the dynamic capabilities approach and the relational view. Resource-based strategic management approaches view the firm as a bundle of resources and competences. They point to the importance of firm-specific resources and competences in explaining variations in competitive positions and performance differentiation between companies. The challenge of hospitality and tourism is to develop resources and competences that drive innovations. This book will serve to advance the status quo of tourism research literature by combining innovation theories with network theories and tourism and destination development, by illustrating the development of cooperative competences and innovations in tourism and by showing, in a tailored way, how the challenge of the development of resources and competences that drive innovations in tourism can be managed.

As societies across the globe are becoming increasingly interwoven at an unprecedented speed and across an impressive scope, so too is the world of food, allowing the English language to develop an ever-widening culinary vocabulary. This book examines the lives of such words in today's discourse on eating and drinking, focusing on foreign - particularly East Asian - influences on culinary terms in English, and how words are born and evolve in a modern transcultural environment. Through the lens of culinary words, this book demonstrates that foreign-origin and hybrid words, previously considered marginal, have become a main source of new imports into our daily lexicon. With case studies from Japan to Mongolia, Hong Kong to Korea, China to Vietnam, and beyond, this book examines how more and more words are becoming borderless and forming their own new global identities. By showcasing some lesser-known regional cuisines, alongside staple dishes that many of us already know and love, this book offers a wide range of examples in order to illustrate the metamorphosis of the manner in which we engage with food words. This book will be of interest to general readers, as well as those who are engaged in East Asian studies, English linguistics, intercultural communication studies, translation studies, and lexicography.

This edited volume presents new research on Russian-Asian connections by historians, art historians, literary scholars, and linguists. Of particular interest are imagined communities, social networks, and the legacy of colonialism in this important arena of global exchanges within the imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. Individual chapters investigate how Russians imagined Asia and its inhabitants, how these different populations interacted across political and cultural divides, and how people in Siberia, China, and other parts of Asia reacted to Russian imperialism, both in its formal and informal manifestations. A key strength of this volume is its interdisciplinary approach to the topic, challenging readers to synthesize multiple analytical lenses to better understand the multivalent connections binding Russia and Asia together.

Seven decades since Indian Independence, education takes the centre stage in every major discussion on development, especially when we talk about social exclusion, Dalits and reservations today. This book examines social inclusion in the education sector in India for Scheduled Castes (SCs). The volume: * Foregrounds the historical struggles of the SCs to understand why the quest for education is so central to shaping SC consciousness and aspirations; * Works with exhaustive state-level studies with a view to assessing commonalities and differences in the educational status of SCs today; * Takes stock of the policymaking and extent of implementations across Indian states to understand the challenges faced in different scenarios; * Seeks to analyse the differential in existing economic conditions, and other structural constraints, in relation to access to quality educational facilities; * Examines the social perceptions and experiences of SC students as they live now. A major study, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of education, sociology and social anthropology, development studies and South Asian studies.

The contributors to this volume examine the actual workings and on-the-ground effects of contemporary political economic shifts in the Global South, and implications for reconfiguring social networks, conceptions and practices of governance, and burgeoning social movements. How do various groups in the Global South respond to and manage chronic states of insecurity and precarity concomitant with contemporary globalization processes? While drawing on diverse ethnographic viewpoints in the Philippines, the authors analyze the impact of these processes through the conceptual framework of "emergent sociality," a purported connectedness among individuals fostered through interactions, copresence, and conviviality within a community over a long duration. In so doing, the case studies in this volume suggest, illuminate, and debate insecurities that may be commonly shared among populations in the Philippines and throughout the Global South. This anthology will be of great interest to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, globalization and Philippines society.

This book examines the shifting, non-linear relationship between religion, nationalism and politics in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the wake of the revocation of Article 370, the state's plural and relatively harmonious society has come under multiple strains, with religion often informing day-to-day politics. The chapters in this volume: Trace the formation of the political entity of Jammu and Kashmir and the seemingly secular politics of its three regions Discuss the rise of militancy and resistance movements in the Kashmir Valley Highlight the intersection between everyday life, nationalism and resistance through a study of the literary traditions of Kashmir, contemporary resistance photography and everyday communalism located in the changing food practices of Hindu and Muslim communities Religion and Politics in Jammu and Kashmir will be an indispensable read for students and researchers of religion and politics, democratization and democracy, secularism, sociology, cultural studies and South Asian studies.

This book analyses problems of governance, development and environment affecting contemporary Pakistan; issues that lie at the centre of federal and provincial policy deliberations, formulation and implementation. The book offers a comprehensive assessment of the policies, or lack thereof. Authors from a variety of disciplines empirically and conceptually evaluate latest developments, events and data regarding law and order, economic under-performance, social intolerance and climate crisis. The book offers varied perspectives on state sovereignty, civil-military relations, spousal violence, rural development, CPEC, nuclear governance and transboundary climate risk. Arguing that the conclusions should be adopted by the social, political and economic stakeholders of Pakistan, as well as the region at the higher level of governability, the book demonstrates that it would both boost national morale and inspire individuals to further investigate to come up with innovative solutions. Examining some of the most pressing and persistent problems Pakistan and South Asia is facing, the book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of Political Science, in particular South Asian Politics, Development Studies and Environmental Studies.

Asian countries are among the largest contributors to climate change. China, India, Japan and South Korea are among the top ten largest carbon emitters in the world, with South Korea, Japan and Taiwan also some of the largest on a per capita basis. At the same time, many Asian countries, notably India, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand are among those most affected by climate change, in terms of economic losses attributed to climate-related disasters. Asia is an extremely diverse region, in terms of the political regimes of its constituent countries, and of their level of development and the nature of their civil societies. As such, its countries are producing a wide range of governance approaches to climate change. Covering the diversity of climate change governance in Asia, this book presents cosmopolitan governance from the perspective of urban and rural communities, local and central governments, state-society relations and international relations. In doing so it offers both a valuable overview of individual Asian countries' approaches to climate change governance, and a series of case studies for finding solutions to climate change challenges.

First published in 1999, this volume explores how African agriculture has always had a strong appeal for the people of the Netherlands. This is due to (1) a long-established interest in tropical agriculture going back to the days when Indonesia was a Duth colony; (2) a broad-based desire to help the Third World; and (3) the view that Tropical Africa is highly dependent on agriculture. As practical expertise in Africa and systematic research on African agriculture grew, specialization became both possible and necessary. This volume reflects the specialization in marketing which has been welcomed by economists, geographers and scholars of agricultural marketing. In addition to a general introductory chapter, this book includes five contributions on staple food grains, two on export crops, two on cattle and one on horticulture. Nine of the chapters are country-specific, covering Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia.