This monograph presents a novel typology of relational and territorial perspectives on legitimacy and identity. This typology is then applied to two different political and historical contexts, namely the trajectories of the metropolitan region Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the metropolitan region Ruhr in Germany. The historical discussion spans 500 years, providing valuable depth to the study. Taken as a whole, the book provides a new perspective within the territorial-relational dichotomy and the geographies of discontent debate. Its key insights are that identity and political legitimacy are embedded in history and that both relational and territorial perspectives on these issues are time and place dependent. This book will be stimulating reading for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers working in political geography, human geography, regional studies, and broader social and political sciences.

This book critically challenges the usual territorial understanding of borders by examining the often messy internal, transborder, ambiguous, and in-between spaces that co-exist with traditional borders. By considering those less visible aspects of borders, the book develops an inclusive understanding of how contemporary borders are structured and how they influence human identity, mobility, and belonging. The introduction and conclusion provide theoretical and contextual framing, while chapters explore topics of global labor and refugees, unrecognized states, ethnic networks, cyberspace, transboundary resource conflicts, and indigenous and religious spaces that rarely register on conventional maps or commonplace understandings of territory. In the end, the volume demonstrates that, despite being "invisible" on most maps, these borders have a very real, material, and tangible presence and consequences for those people who live within, alongside, and across them.

This book studies India's foreign policy through the lens of Kautilya's Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on state and statecraft. It assesses the extent of influence of the foundational elements/core beliefs extrapolated from the Arthashastra on the nation's international behaviour to understand the grand strategic preferences of independent India. The volume examines the basic realist and cultural underpinnings of statecraft such as Yogakshema (Political End Goal), Saptanga (Seven Elements of State), Sadgunyas (Six Measures of Foreign Policy), Rajdharma (Duty of a King), Rajamandala (Circle of kings), and Dharma (Order), mooted in the Arthashastra which have withstood the test of time and space. It evaluates the continuity of strategic cultural traits under the themes of nonalignment, bilateral relations with China and Pakistan, and nuclear policy. An important intervention in the study of India's foreign policy, the book will be useful for scholars and researchers of foreign policy, defence policy, international relations, defence and strategic studies, political science, Indian political thought, political philosophy, classical literature, and South Asian studies.

This book is a contribution to the global history of the transfer of political ideas, as exemplified by the case of modern Ethiopia. Like many non-European nation-states, Ethiopia adopted a western model of statehood, that is, the nation-state. Unlike the postcolonial polities that have retained the mode of statehood imposed on them by their colonial powers, Ethiopia was never successfully colonized leaving its ruling elite free to select a model of 'modern' (western) statehood. In 1931, via Japan, they adopted the model of unitary, ethnolinguistically homogenous nation-state, in turn copied by Tokyo in 1889 from the German Empire (founded in 1871). Following the Ethiopian Revolution (1974) that overthrew the imperial system, the new revolutionary elite promised to address the 'nationality question' through the marxist-leninist model. The Soviet model of ethnolinguistic federalism (originally derived from Austria-Hungary) was introduced in Ethiopia, first in 1992 and officially with the 1995 Constitution. To this day the politics of modern Ethiopia is marked by the tension between these two opposed models of the essentially central European type of statehood. The late 19th-century 'German-German' quarrel on the 'proper' model of national statehood for Germany - or more broadly, modern central Europe - remains the quarrel of Ethiopian politics nowadays. The book will be useful for scholars of Ethiopian and African history and politics, and also offers a case in comparative studies on the subject of different models of national statehood elsewhere.

This book examines the social and legal regulation of domestic violence (DV) within the Kesarwani business community following the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. It analyses the existence of the formal law in Kolkata and the relevance of the law in the familial lives of the Kesarwani community. The book offers a new conceptualisation of examining the relationship between formal law and social life. It provides a deep insight into how living with violence becomes a way of living and how the disposition to familial violence exists with social advantage and privilege. Explaining the functioning of the formal DV framework in non-legal terms as it exists on the paper, the book shows the ways in which this one law sought to democratise the family unit and overhaul the legal process in favour of DV victims in India. Most of all it hopes to show through the Kolkata study that caste and class, social structures that regulate and define social life globally, must remain critical to discussions of the social and legal regulation of DV in Kolkata, India or anywhere in the world. The book uses ethnography as a research methodology and traverses different locations in the Kesarwani community, and outside the community in Kolkata, to examine the relevance of the formal law in the lives of Kesarwani women. While the study is in India (and in a non-western context), the theme of the study - the social and legal regulation - remains relevant to contemporary debates on the efficacy of formal law in addressing coercive control in the western world. Notably, the book makes the formal domestic violence law legible for non-legal professionals by explaining the formal legal framework of domestic violence envisaged in the PWDVA. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of law, criminal justice, sociology, anthropology, women's studies, and political science. It will also appeal to social service providers and practitioners working in the area of domestic violence, legal regulation, social control of women, gender, caste, class and family business.

This book examines the controversial 103rd Constitutional Amendment to the Indian Constitution that introduced an income and asset ownership-based new constitutional standard for determining backwardness marking a significant shift in the government's social and public policy. It also analyses state level policies towards backwardness recognition of upper-caste dominant groups through case studies of Maharashtra, Haryana, and Gujarat. It provides an analytical and descriptive account of the proliferation of reservation policy in India and critiques these interventions to assess their implication on constitutional jurisprudence. Further, it assesses the theoretical and empirical challenges such developments pose to the principle of substantive equality and scope of affirmative action policies in Indian constitutional law and general discrimination law theory. The monograph shows how opening up of reservations for dominant upper-caste groups and general category will have implications for the constitutional commitment to addressing deeply entrenched marginalisation emanating from the traditional social hierarchy and the understanding of substantive equality in Indian Constitutional law. Further, it highlights key contradictions, incoherence, and internal tension in the design of the reservations for Economically Weaker Sections Critical, comprehensive, and cogently argued, this book will contribute and shape ongoing constitutional policy and judicial debates. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of law, Indian politics, affirmative action, social policy, and public policy.

Churchill and India. It is a story where much is known but much remains concealed. A brilliant orator and a powerful leader, Winston Churchill stood against the tide of history. But how does postcolonial history view him? This book studies the extraordinary connection he had with India. Beginning with the early years of his career in India when he spent 22 months between 1896 and 1899 as a subaltern with the 4th Hussars, it traces his rise as a politician, his years as the Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Second World War, his profound distrust of the Indian Independence Movement, and his machinations in preserving the British Empire's rule over India. Churchill's failure to understand India and decolonization, and manipulation of events on the subcontinent add a different dimension to the man. His pervasive yet hidden shadow over the Indian subcontinent and his often-veiled role in the actions that led to Partition in 1947 are at the center of this study. Rich in archival sources, this book provides a fresh and holistic perspective on the final phase of the British Empire. It will be an indispensable resource to students and researchers of colonial history, imperialism, modern history, international history, Partition of India, and South Asian studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in the history of Britain's endgame in India.

Fills a gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive picture of the dimensions, components and contexts of livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries. An interdisciplinary text that incorporates examples of multiple methods that can be used in data collection and analysis and will draw on experience and research from low- and middle-income countries across the world. This Handbook reflects a diversity of concerns recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals, covering a range of contexts and issues from a livelihoods perspective.

This book looks at the representation and practice of chastity in selective ancient Indian texts. It studies how and when the concept originated and in what ways it was intertwined with the social, cultural, and economic notions of Indian society. Drawing on seminal Indian texts such as the MahaPuranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sattasai and the Jatakas, the volume delves into the social and reproductive rights of women through an examination of the norms of chastity, virginity, and Pativratya, which were construed according to a patriarchal hierarchy of the society and implemented as a means of strengthening patriarchal authority. It also examines the interinfluence of various religious traditions that emerged on the very concept of chastity and the ideologies they later gave rise to. A comprehensive study of sexuality and gender in early India, the book will be indispensable to students, teachers, and researchers of gender studies, literature, women's studies, women's rights, feminism, South Asian studies, and social history of Ancient India.

This book Analyses the role of museums in transforming lives and creating a just future. Explores how museums help ordinary people overcome loss suffered during conflict. Draws on fieldwork in a range of museums in Vietnam, alongside interviews with museum workers and stakeholders, and analyses of museum exhibitions. Also brings in question the dynamics between history and memory; the capacity of the museum to repair injury, loss or suffering; and the limits of historical memory beyond the control of a one-party state. Will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums, heritage, Asia, tourism and anthropology.

Originally published in 1972, this volume contains selected significant documents to illustrate Soviet foreign policy between 1953 and 1970, according to its author, 'in the words of Soviet leaders and Soviet people.' Extracts from speeches by Khrushchev, Mikoyan, Brezhnev and Kosygin are included, together with commentary from other communist leaders, including Hoxha of Albania and Nagy of Hungary. The invasion of the former Czechoslovakia and the Chinese view of Soviet foreign policy are fully covered. A comprehensive and informative introduction traces the course of Soviet foreign policy since 1953. Some general considerations are given in the conclusion, and short explanatory comments elucidate the documents themselves.

Entangled Fictions: Nonhuman Animals in an Indian World studies the ethical and affective relationships between human and nonhuman animals in Indian fictional worlds. While drawing upon existing theoretical and philosophical texts with nonhumanist underpinnings, Entangled Fictions argues that the corpus is limited epistemologically and politically when it comes to their examinations of the nonhuman in India. Deeply influenced by the political/existential expediencies of our times, the book traverses several genres, shifts from fictional to anecdotal, and transitions from autobiographical to spectra in effort to introduce readers to fictional worlds marked by human-nonhuman fluidity and trans-species contiguity that was imagined and lived much before the telos of human extinction became either a global or local concern.

Excessive groundwater pumping, groundwater contamination, and subsurface thermal anomalies have occurred frequently in Asian coastal cities, greatly disturbing the urban aquifer and the subsurface environment. In this volume, the relationship between the stage of a city s development and subsurface environment issues have been explored. Intensive field surveys were done in Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila. New, advanced methods, including satellite, tracer techniques, and the social economy model, were developed to evaluate subsurface conditions. Groundwater storage and groundwater recharge rates, as well as the accumulation and transport of pollutants, have been compiled as integrated indices of natural capacities under climate and social changes, and used to evaluate the vulnerability risk for all cities. The indices have been made on a yearly basis for seven cities for a century (1900 2000). Using these indicators it is now possible to manage groundwater resources in a sustainable fashion. This volume is indispensable to researchers in hydrology, coastal oceanography, civil engineering, urban geography, social economy, climatology, geothermics, and urban management.

1. This accessible volume and comprehensive subject guide comprises key readings on law and social justice, with a focus on dispossessions, marginalities and rights. 2. A topical volume that brings together expert analyses and emerging research on contemporary themes. 3. It will be of interest to departments of law, socio-legal studies, legal history, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioner of law, and those in public administration, development studies, environment studies, migration studies, cultural studies, labour studies and economics.

1) This accessible volume and comprehensive subject guide comprises key readings on law and social justice, with a focus on environment, rights and governance. It examines issues in biodiversity, agro-ecology, disaster, and forest rights. The book covers critical themes such as ecology, families and governance and establishes the trajectory of contemporary ecology and law. 2) A topical volume that brings together expert analyses and emerging research on contemporary themes. 3) It will be of interest to departments of law, socio-legal studies, environment studies and ecology, social exclusion studies, development studies, legal history, South Asian studies, human rights, jurisprudence and constitutional studies, gender studies, history, politics, conflict and peace studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to legal historians and practitioners of law, environmentalists, and those in public administration, migration studies, cultural studies, labour studies and economics.

This book explores the politics of gendered labor migration in Southeast Asia through the stories and perspectives of Indonesian and Filipina women presented in films, fiction, and performance to show how the emotionality of these texts contribute to the emergence and vitality of women's social movements in Southeast Asia. By placing literary and filmic narratives of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore within existing conversations concerning migration policies, the book offers an innovative approach towards examining contemporary issues of Asian migration. Furthermore, through rich ethnographic accounts, the book unpacks themes of belonging and displacement, shame and desire, victimhood and resistance, sacrifice, and grief to show that the stories of Filipina and Indonesian migrant women don't just depict their everyday lives and practices but also reveal how they mediate and make sense of the fraught politics of gendered labor diaspora and globalization. Contributing to the "affective turn" of feminist and transnational scholarship, the book draws insight from the importance and centrality of affect, emotions, and feelings in shaping discourses on women's subjectivity, labor, and mobility. In addition, the book demonstrates the issues of vulnerability and agency inherent in debates on social exclusion, human rights, development, and nation-building in Southeast Asia. Offering an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to analyses of Asian migration, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, literary and cultural studies, film studies, gender and women's studies, and migration studies.

This book examines the distinctive formation of Christianity in Nagaland, Northeast India, since 1947. It argues that an understanding of the history of Christianity in the region can be found in its cultural milieu and the changing political, social and religious environment. In Nagaland, almost 90 per cent of the population are Christians. This book shows that segmentation as a cultural characteristic of Naga society inspired both unity and divisiveness in the Naga churches, which subsequently shaped the beliefs and practices of the churches in the region. Using the methodology of cultural history, the author examines ecclesiastical events and suggests that the history of Christianity should be examined in the light of its interaction with its cultural context rather than as an isolated phenomenon. The book demonstrates that the ethnic status which the Christian faith assumed, the extent of its identification with the local culture, and the scope of the mission of the Naga churches as key stakeholders in society, offers a new angle on the history of Christianity in India. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, particularly those concerned with Northeast India and Christian history, historiography, cultural history, history of Christianity in India and faith-culture interface, religious studies, history and South Asian Studies.

This book analyses efforts of Bangladeshi government and NGOs to strengthen local governance, and identifies the challenges posed by collaboration with NGOs. Presenting a dominantly qualitative study, the analysis explores whether engagement between the Sharique project to strengthen local governance and the Union Parishads has translated into success. In doing so, it argues that evidence points to a positive impact on institutionalising good governance and fiscal autonomy through widening participation in planning and decision-making, reinforcing accountability of functionaries and enhancing tax collection. Furthermore, this book demonstrates that the collaboration has aided the process of development of social capital between officials of councils and NGOs, as well as amongst the community members, encouraging future partnership governance. However, with the phasing out of the project as a propelling force, it also shows that the results fall short of being sustainable and, as such, that statuary support, unequivocal political commitment, and incentivising engagements are required to stabilise outcomes. Bridging a gap in the Development Studies literature, this book presents new findings on the collaboration of NGOs at the local level. It will be of interest to academics working in the field of South Asian Studies, Development Studies, and Asian Politics.

Strong critical geographical perspective Coverage of key geographical concepts to frame the book contents Offers a fresh perspective focusing on inequality, uneven production and legacies of colonialism by taking an intersectional approach to difference and power The food systems lens through which to discuss issues of sustainability, food insecurity and food justice, and the histories and uneven outcomes of commodity chains The use of specific and relatable examples throughout but especially in chapter 7 through 11, these are all relevant to contemporary systems, experiences and trends in food production and consumption that my students care about and are questioning and will be working to improve/change.

Strong critical geographical perspective Coverage of key geographical concepts to frame the book contents Offers a fresh perspective focusing on inequality, uneven production and legacies of colonialism by taking an intersectional approach to difference and power The food systems lens through which to discuss issues of sustainability, food insecurity and food justice, and the histories and uneven outcomes of commodity chains The use of specific and relatable examples throughout but especially in chapter 7 through 11, these are all relevant to contemporary systems, experiences and trends in food production and consumption that my students care about and are questioning and will be working to improve/change.

This book investigates how borders in former Soviet Union territories have evolved and shifted in the thirty years since the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to fifteen independent states and numerous de facto states; but this process of rebordering is not finished, and social, economic, infrastructural, cultural and political networks and spaces continue to develop. This book explores the intersection between these geopolitical shifts and the individual lived experience, drawing on cases from across border regions in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Throughout, the book introduces and frames the case studies with well-informed theoretical, conceptual and methodological overviews that situate them within border studies in general and post-Soviet border spaces in particular. Overall, the book demonstrates that like a kaleidoscope, the dynamic elements in these newly evolved border regions are similar yet strikingly different in their juxtapositions, with the appearance of new configurations often dependent on changing geopolitical constellations. This timely guide to the post-Soviet world thirty years after the Cold War will be of interest to researchers across border studies, politics, geography, social anthropology, history, Eastern European Studies, Central Asian Studies, and Caucasian Studies.

This book explores the challenges of transitional justice in West Africa, specifically how countries in the region have dealt with transitional justice problems in the last 30 years (1990-2020), and how they have managed the process. Using comparative, historical, and legal analyses it examines the politics of justice after violent conflicts in West Africa, the major transitional justice mechanisms established in the region, and how countries have used these institutions to address injustice and the pains of war in some West African countries. The book examines how transitional justice mechanisms have contributed to victims' rights, reconciliation, and peace in transitional societies, and whether transitional justice mechanisms deployed in West Africa were suitable or ill-fitted, and the politics of deploying them. The book is addressed to a wide audience: policymakers, and graduate and post-graduate students of transitional justice, conflict resolution, peace studies, conflict transformation, international criminal law, law and similar subjects. This book will be of great value to academics and researchers, as well as lecturers in tertiary institutions offering relevant courses; legal practitioners; peace practitioners/NGOs; and those working in the field of transitional justice and human rights.

This book analyses how independent filmmakers from Bangladesh have represented national identity in their films. The focus of this book is on independent and art house filmmakers and how cinema plays a vital role in constructing national and cultural identity. The authors examine post-2000 films which predominantly deal with issues of national identity and demonstrate how they tackle questions of national identity. Bangladesh is seemingly a homogenous country consisting 98% of Bengali and 90% of Muslim. This majority group has two dominant identities - Bengaliness (the ethno-linguistic identity) and Muslimness (the religious identity). Bengaliness is perceived as secular-modern whereas Muslimness is perceived as traditional and conservative. However, Bangladeshi independent and art house filmmakers portray the nationhood of the country with an enthusiasm and liveliness that exceeds these two categories. In addition to these categories, the authors add two more dimensions to the approach to discuss identity: Popular Religion and Transformation. The study argues that these identity categories are represented in the films, and that they both reproduce and challenge dominant discourses of nationalism. Providing a new addition to the discourse of contemporary national identity, the book will be of interest to researchers studying international film and media studies, independent cinema studies, Asian cinema, and South Asian culture, politics, and identity politics.

This book outlines challenges to the effective operation of regional economic communities (RECs) with regards to peacebuilding in Africa. Critically examining these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on comparative analysis of the status, role, and performances of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), it examines particular constraints to their effective participation in regional initiatives. Focussing on inadequate technical capabilities, the complicity of state and non-state actors in conflicts within a region, the domestic politics of member states, it additionally addresses related theories and practices of peacekeeping, security, development, and the peacebuilding nexus. It also engages provisioning, regionalism, and regional peacekeeping interventions, the legal and institutional framework of RECs, and civil society and peacebuilding. Fundamentally, the book asks how effective the alliances and partnerships are in promoting regional peace and security and how much they are compromised by the intervention of external powers and actors, exploring new ideas and actions that may strengthen capacities to address the peacebuilding challenges on the continent effectively. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of African politics and studies, peace and security studies, regionalism studies, policy practitioners in the field of African peacebuilding, and more broadly to international relations. The Open Access version of this book, available at: http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003093695, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book analyses the processes of social and economic change in Brunei Darussalam. Drawing on recent studies undertaken by both locally based scholars and senior researchers from outside the state, the book explores the underlying strengths, characteristics, and uniqueness of Malay Islamic Monarchy in Brunei Darussalam in a historical context and examines these in an increasingly challenging regional and global environment. It considers events in Brunei's recent history and current socio-cultural transformations, which give expression to the traumatic years of decolonisation in Southeast Asia. A wide range of issues focus on foreign, non-Bruneian narratives of Brunei as against insider or domestic accounts of the sultanate, the status of minority ethnic groups in Brunei and the concept of 'Brunei society', as well as changes in the character and composition of the famous 'water village', Kampong Ayer, as the cultural heartland of Brunei Malay culture and the socio-cultural and economic effects of the resettlement of substantial segments of the population from a 'life on water' to a 'life on land'. A timely and very important study on Brunei Darussalam, the book will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, historians, geographers, and area studies specialists in Southeast Asian Studies and Asian Studies.