In this book, Israeli anthropologist Andre Levy returns to his birthplace in Casablanca to provide a deeply nuanced and compelling study of the relationships between Moroccan Jews and Muslims there. Ranging over a century of history-from the Jewish Enlightenment and the impending colonialism of the late nineteenth century to today's modern Arab state-Levy paints a rich portrait of two communities pressed together, of the tremendous mobility that has characterized the past century, and of the paradoxes that complicate the cultural identities of the present. Levy visits a host of sites and historical figures to assemble a compelling history of social change, while seamlessly interweaving his study with personal accounts of his returns to his homeland. Central to this story is the massive migration of Jews out of Morocco. Levy traces the institutional and social changes such migrations cause for those who choose to stay, introducing the concept of "contraction" to depict the way Jews deal with the ramifications of their demographic dwindling. Turning his attention outward from Morocco, he goes on to explore the greater complexities of the Jewish diaspora and the essential paradox at the heart of his adventure-leaving Israel to return home.

As intimate lives become more public, and discussions of gender and sexuality more complex, there is a need to rethink how we engage with our own perceptions and identifications with respect to intimacy. This book explores whether our intimate desires are limited by social norms and expectations, and if so what we might be able to do about it.

Eine interdisziplinare Verstandigung uber Kultur ist fallig und notwendig, um dem gegenwartig weit verbreiteten Eindruck entgegenzuwirken, "Kultur" habe sich als semantisches Irrlicht und als obsolet gewordener Gegenstand von Forschung erwiesen, weil der Begriff unuberschaubare wie unvereinbare Bedeutungsmomente bundele und aus einem blossen Gespinst von Mehrdeutigkeiten bestehe. Demgegenuber wird in diesem Buch die UEberzeugung vertreten, dass es gewinnbringend ist, die spezifischen Kompetenzen aus der Kultursoziologie und Popularkulturforschung, aus der Theorie des Kulturmanagements und der Medienkultur sowie aus der Kulturphilosophie zusammenzubringen, um zu zeigen, dass es trotz und gleichsam unterhalb der notorischen Vieldeutigkeit des Wortes "Kultur" einen gemeinsamen Sachzusammenhang namens Kultur gibt, von dem die einzelnen Fachdisziplinen jeweils bestimmte Faktoren in den Blick nehmen und kraft ihrer eigenen Methoden erhellen. Damit leistet der Band einen wichtigen Beitrag, um den vielschichtigen und komplexen Terminus "Kultur" als sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Schlusselbegriff wiederzugewinnen.

This book explores the identity of Texas as a state with a large and severe penal system. It does so by assessing the narratives at work in Texas museums and tourist sites associated with prisons and punishment. In such cultural institutions, complex narratives are presented, which show celebratory stories of Texan toughness in the penal sphere, as well as poignant stories about the witnessing of executions, comical stories that normalize the harsher aspects of Texan punishment, and presentations about prison officers who have lost their lives in the war on crime. In analysing these representations, the book shows that Texan history plays an important role in the production of Texan self-identity, and that to understand the Texan commitment to harsh punishment we must be prepared to focus on Texan myths and memories. Prisons and Punishment in Texas draws on diverse interdisciplinary work, including criminology, cultural studies about Southern values, as well as research on cultural memory and dark tourism. Museums are shown to be under-researched sites of criminological significance, which offer rich evidence through which penal imaginaries and the cultural role of punishment can be explored. The book will be of great interest to criminologists as well as scholars of sociology, cultural studies, museum studies and politics.

Providing a detailed account of contemporary outdoor advertising and its relationship with urban space, this book examines what the outdoor advertising industry tells us about the commercial production of urban space, what industry practices reveal about contemporary capitalism, and how ads and billboard structures interface with spaces of the city

The transformation of the Turkish state is examined here in the context of globalized frames of neo-liberal capitalism and contemporary schemas of Islamic politics. It shows how the historical emergence of two distinct yet intertwined imaginaries of state structuring, laiklik and Islam, continues to influence Turkish politics today.

Starting with 19th century narratives of African American travelers to the Holy Land, the following chapters probe Islam's role in urban social movements, music and popular culture, relations between African Americans and Muslim immigrants, and the racial politics of American Islam with the ongoing war in Iraq.

An in-depth study of a group of multilingual students from widening participation backgrounds on a first-year undergraduate academic writing programme. The book explores ways in which identity positions emerge in the spoken interaction, with a particular focus on gender.

This book contributes to the theoretical and policy debate on the existence of a European public sphere. It presents a critical discussion of the links between media, history and politics in Europe today, examining the re-organization of ideological and political dimensions and debates the existence of a European editorial culture.

This book uses political process theory to examine three cultural movements around Christopher Columbus. The author examines the religious, ethnic and anti-colonial movements most successful at rewriting national origin myth, demonstrating the political process model while telling the story of how a powerless public mobilized to rewrite its past.

IVP Readers' Choice Award Stop outsourcing justice! Many local churches don't know what to do about justice. We tend to compartmentalize it as merely a strategy for outreach, and we often outsource it to parachurch justice ministries. While these organizations do good work, individual congregations are left disconnected from God's just purposes in the world. Adam Gustine calls the local church to be just and do justice. He provides a theological vision for our identity as a just people, where God's character and the pursuit of shalom infuses every aspect of our congregational DNA. As we grow in becoming just, the church becomes a prophetic alternative to the broken systems of the world and a parable of God's intentions for human flourishing and societal transformation. This renewed vision for the church leads us into cultivating a just life together-in community, discipleship, worship, and more-extending justice out into the world in concrete ways. Let's hold being and doing together, so we can become just, compassionate communities that restore shalom and bring hope to the world.

How do ordinary Muslims deal with and influence the increasingly pervasive Islamic norms set by institutions of the state and religion? Becoming Better Muslims offers an innovative account of the dynamic interactions between individual Muslims, religious authorities, and the state in Aceh, Indonesia. Relying on extensive historical and ethnographic research, David Kloos offers a detailed analysis of religious life in Aceh and an investigation into today's personal processes of ethical formation. Aceh is known for its history of rebellion and its recent implementation of Islamic law. Debunking the stereotypical image of the Acehnese as inherently pious or fanatical, Kloos shows how Acehnese Muslims reflect consciously on their faith and often frame their religious lives in terms of gradual ethical improvement. Revealing that most Muslims view their lives through the prism of uncertainty, doubt, and imperfection, he argues that these senses of failure contribute strongly to how individuals try to become better Muslims. He also demonstrates that while religious authorities have encroached on believers and local communities, constraining them in their beliefs and practices, the same process has enabled ordinary Muslims to reflect on moral choices and dilemmas, and to shape the ways religious norms are enforced. Arguing that Islamic norms are carried out through daily negotiations and contestations rather than blind conformity, Becoming Better Muslims examines how ordinary people develop and exercise their religious agency.

"America is a Christian nation." "All men are created equal." "We are the land of the free and the home of the brave." Except when we're not. These commonly held ideas break down in the light of hard realities, the study of Scripture, and faithful Christian witness. The president is not the Messiah, the Constitution is not the Bible, and the United States is not a city on a hill or the hope for the world. The proclaimed hope of America rings most hollow for Native peoples, people of color, the rural poor, and other communities pressed to the margins. Jonathan Walton exposes the cultural myths and misconceptions about America's identity. Focusing on its manipulation of Scripture and the person of Jesus, he redirects us to the true promises found in the gospel. Walton identifies how American ideology and way of life has become a false religion, and shows that orienting our lives around American nationalism is idolatry. Our cultural notions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are at odds with the call to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Ultimately, our place in America is distinct from our place in the family of Jesus. Discover how the kingdom of God offers true freedom and justice for all.

*Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Biography and Autobiography

This is the story of the making of a world-famous sociologist. It is even more the story of a boy hustling to survive. Here in an astonishing and candidly written memoir by one of America's premier social scientists recounting the intensely personal story of his tormented youth in a ghetto within a ghetto. It etches the painful details of a boy's overcoming alienation and isolation in a hostile place in an unloving family.

In the 1930s a small remnant community of Eastern European Jewish immigrants still resided in predominantly black Harlem. As shopkeepers trying to make out a marginal existence, Harlem's Jews were a minority within a minority. Into this restricted world the author of this book was born. Irving Louis Horowitz's parents had fled Russia, his father the victim of persecution in the Tsarist army during World War I. The boy's schoolmates were the children of black sharecroppers who had immigrated to the North. Poverty, language, and culture all cut off the Horowitz family from traditional community life, and the stress of a survival existence led to the trauma of a deteriorating family unit.

Harlem and its environs, the Apollo and the Alhambra theaters, the Polo Grounds, and Central Park were the stage on which a youngster from this ghetto built a kind of self-reliance at the cost of social graces. The recipient of the National Jewish Book Award for Biography and Autobiography, this new, augmented edition contains the author's reflection of the impact of the Great Depression on Harlem family life.

This book covers significant new ground, examining the impact and imprint of new leading technology on a range of popular expressions. This technology includes the internet, the computer, the cell phone, television, and radio, among others. Best argues that Caribbean culture has gone wireless, virtual, and simulated in the age of the machines.

Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays examines current cinematic and media landscapes from the perspective of transnational feminist practices and methodologies. Focusing on film, media art, and video essays, the contributors chart innovative strategies for exploring contemporary visual cultures.

Identity Trouble assembles contributions from a variety of discourse fields to discuss the pressures on traditional understandings of identity. The focus is on failures and uncertainties in people's construction of their identities when faced change and the contributors raise critical questions about identity and how it may be reconfigured.

In the early 1930s Soviet authorities launched a campaign to create "socialist" retailing and also endorsed Soviet consumerism. How did the Stalinist regime reconcile retailing and consumption with socialism? This book examines the discourses that the Stalinist regime's new approach to retailing and consumption engendered.

Amish culture has been rooted in the soil since its beginnings in 1693. But what happens when members of America's oldest Amish community enter non-farm work in one generation? How will hundreds of cottage industries and micro-enterprises reshape the heart of Amish life? Will traditional eighth grade education still prove adequate? What about gender roles, child-rearing practices, leisure activities, and growing ties with outsiders? "Amish Enterprise" was the first book to discuss these dramatic changes that are transforming Amish communities across North America. Based on interviews with more than 150 Amish entrepreneurs, the authors trace the rise and impact of businesses in Lancaster's Amish settlement in recent decades. In this new edition, the authors update demographic and technological changes, and also describe Amish enterprises outside of Pennsylvania in a new chapter.

How people relate to time is one of the oldest questions of mankind. This book centers on life phases to show how the life cycle is structured, and it discusses how various theological and literary models denote and divide up the different phases of life. These life-phase models reflect congruent or contrasting overall concepts of time. Using examples from texts from the Ancient Near Eastern era up to the 20th century, the contributions in the book discuss how the different life phases were construed and what potential the respective life phases offer for a time-critical reflection."

Looking at a variety of countries, this book explores the influence of cultural dimensions on the interrelations between personal and social identity, and the impact of identity salience on attitudes, stereotypes, and the structures of consciousness.