Fraught Balance

Fraught Balance PDF Author: Shayna M. Silverstein
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819501042
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Dabke, one of Syria's most beloved dance music traditions, is at the center of the country's war and the social tensions that preceded conflict. Drawing on almost two decades of ethnographic, archival, and digital research, Shayna M. Silverstein shows how dabke dance music embodies the fraught dynamics of gender, class, ethnicity, and nationhood in an authoritarian state. The book situates dabke politically, economically, and historically in a broader account of expressive culture in Syria's recent (and ongoing) turmoil. Silverstein shows how people imagine the Syrian nation through dabke, how the state has coopted it, how performances of masculinity reveal—and play with—the tensions and complexities of the broader social imaginary, how forces opposed to the state have used it resistively, and how migrants and refugees have reimagined it in their new homes in Europe and the United States. She offers deeply thoughtful reflections on the ethnographer's ethical and political dilemmas on fieldwork in an authoritarian state. Silverstein's study ultimately questions the limits of authoritarian power, considering the pleasure and play intrinsic to dabke circles as evidence for how performance cultures sustain social life and solidify group bonds while reproducing the societal divides endemic to Syrian authoritarianism.

Fraught Balance

Fraught Balance PDF Author: Shayna M. Silverstein
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819501042
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dabke, one of Syria's most beloved dance music traditions, is at the center of the country's war and the social tensions that preceded conflict. Drawing on almost two decades of ethnographic, archival, and digital research, Shayna M. Silverstein shows how dabke dance music embodies the fraught dynamics of gender, class, ethnicity, and nationhood in an authoritarian state. The book situates dabke politically, economically, and historically in a broader account of expressive culture in Syria's recent (and ongoing) turmoil. Silverstein shows how people imagine the Syrian nation through dabke, how the state has coopted it, how performances of masculinity reveal—and play with—the tensions and complexities of the broader social imaginary, how forces opposed to the state have used it resistively, and how migrants and refugees have reimagined it in their new homes in Europe and the United States. She offers deeply thoughtful reflections on the ethnographer's ethical and political dilemmas on fieldwork in an authoritarian state. Silverstein's study ultimately questions the limits of authoritarian power, considering the pleasure and play intrinsic to dabke circles as evidence for how performance cultures sustain social life and solidify group bonds while reproducing the societal divides endemic to Syrian authoritarianism.

The Green Planet

The Green Planet PDF Author: Simon Barnes
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473532418
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Praise for The Green Planet (BBC One) 'David Attenborough's gobsmacking, awe-inspiring return' The Guardian 'The Green Planet reveals the secret lives of plants in the same way The Blue Planet opened our eyes to the oceans' New Scientist There's something new under the sun Plants live secret, unseen lives - hidden in their magical world and on their timescale. From the richest jungles to the harshest deserts, from the snowiest alpine forest to the remotest steaming swamp, Green Planet travels from one great habitat to the next, showing us that plants are as aggressive, competitive and dramatic as the animals on our planet. You will discover agents of death, who ruthlessly engulf their host plant, but also those that form deep and complex relationships with other species, such as the desert cacti who use nectar-loving bats to pollinate. Although plants are undoubtedly the stars of the show, a fascinating new light will be shed on the animals that interact with them. Using the latest technologies and showcasing over two decades of new discoveries, Green Planet reveals the strange and wonderful life of plants like never before - a life full of remarkable behaviour, emotional stories and surprising heroes.

Discourse of Twitter and Social Media

Discourse of Twitter and Social Media PDF Author: Michele Zappavigna
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441123032
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Social media such as microblogging services and social networking sites are changing the way people interact online and search for information and opinions. This book investigates linguistic patterns in electronic discourse,looking at online evaluative language, Internet slang, memes and ambient affiliation using a large Twitter corpus (over 100 million tweets) alongside specialized case studies. The author argues that we are currently witnessing a cultural movement from online conversation to what can be termed 'searchable talk' - online talk where people affiliate by making their discourse findable (for example, via metadata such as Twitter hashtags) by others holding similar interests. This cutting edge text will be of interest to all scholars and students dealing with electronically mediated discourse.

Divine Self, Human Self

Divine Self, Human Self PDF Author: Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441176810
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The Gita is a central text in Hindu traditions, and commentaries on it express a range of philosophical-theological positions. Two of the most significant commentaries are by Sankara, the founder of the Advaita or Non-Dualist system of Vedic thought and by Ramanuja, the founder of the Visistadvaita or Qualified Non-Dualist system. Their commentaries offer rich resources for the conceptualization and understanding of divine reality, the human self, being, the relationship between God and human, and the moral psychology of action and devotion. This book approaches their commentaries through a study of the interaction between the abstract atman (self) and the richer conception of the human person. While closely reading the Sanskrit commentaries, Ram-Prasad develops reconstructions of each philosophical-theological system, drawing relevant and illuminating comparisons with contemporary Christian theology and Western philosophy.

Settling Nature

Settling Nature PDF Author: Irus Braverman
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452969035
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
A study of Palestine-Israel through the unexpected lens of nature conservation Settling Nature documents the widespread ecological warfare practiced by the state of Israel. Recruited to the front lines are fallow deer, gazelles, wild asses, griffon vultures, pine trees, and cows—on the Israeli side—against goats, camels, olive trees, hybrid goldfinches, and akkoub—which are affiliated with the Palestinian side. These nonhuman soldiers are all the more effective because nature camouflages their tactical deployment as such. ​Drawing on more than seventy interviews with Israel’s nature officials and on observations of their work, this book examines the careful orchestration of this animated warfare by Israel’s nature administration on both sides of the Green Line. Alongside its powerful protection of wildlife biodiversity, the territorial reach of Israel’s nature protection is remarkable: to date, nearly 25 percent of the country’s total land mass is assigned as a park or a reserve. Settling Nature argues that the administration of nature advances the Zionist project of Jewish settlement and the corresponding dispossession of non-Jews from this space.

The Good Fight

The Good Fight PDF Author: Jim McDowell
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN: 0717175707
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
The year is 1969. The start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. For Jim McDowell, a rookie reporter, it was the beginning of a life at the heart of one of world's most notorious and bitter conflicts. His gripping memoir reveals what it was like to live under constant fear of attack and delves into Northern Ireland's criminal underworld, including Jim's tense encounters with infamous terrorist drug dealers and killer gang godfathers like Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair and Billy 'King Rat' Wright. McDowell's career spanned 45 years as he rose to become northern editor of Ireland's Sunday World, facing down threats, beatings and the murder of one of his reporters, Martin O'Hagan, to expose the stories that needed to be told. Always fighting the good fight. 'Those stories – even the ones that put my life in danger – had to be told. That was my job. That was what I did. It is what I do. And this, now, is my story.' 45 years. 21 death threats. Over 2,000 front pages. This is Jim's story.

The Routledge Research Companion to Anthony Trollope

The Routledge Research Companion to Anthony Trollope PDF Author: Deborah Denenholz Morse
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317044134
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 929

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Book Description
Bringing together leading and newly emerging scholars, The Routledge Research Companion to Anthony Trollope offers a comprehensive overview of Trollope scholarship and suggests new directions in Trollope studies. The first volume designed especially for advanced graduate students and scholars, the collection features essays on virtually every topic relevant to Trollope research, including the law, gender, politics, evolution, race, anti-Semitism, biography, philosophy, illustration, aging, sport, emigration, and the global and regional worlds.

Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs

Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs PDF Author: Greg Dimitriadis
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 9780807743850
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Looks at the complex lives of contemporary black youth, offering a view of the lives of two very different young black men and a discussion of the meaning of success as defined by the individual.

Jokowi and the New Indonesia

Jokowi and the New Indonesia PDF Author: Darmawan Prasodjo
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462922759
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
In 2014, Joko Widodo--popularly known as Jokowi--was elected the seventh president of the Republic of Indonesia, going on to win a second five-year term in 2019. Raised amid poverty in a riverside slum and with a background in the furniture export trade, Jokowi broke the mold for political leaders in the world's third-largest democracy. His meteoric rise came without the benefit of personal connections to the traditional elites who have dominated Indonesian politics for three-quarters of a century, making this a true "rags to riches" story. This new official biography tells the story of how the boy from the riverbank made it to the presidential palace in record time. Readers will learn how his personal background and heritage have created a distinctive style of politics and informed his ambitious development goals--including massive infrastructure projects, universal healthcare and a reimagining of Indonesia's educational system. It also looks at how a man raised with a traditionally Javanese worldview negotiates the tensions, contradictions and conflicts of this vast archipelagic nation. Written by a political insider with unparalleled access to the president and an intimate first-hand knowledge of his decision-making processes, this book is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the political present--and the future--of Southeast Asia's largest nation.

China's Challenges

China's Challenges PDF Author: Jacques deLisle
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 081229176X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
When the "fifth generation" of Communist Party leaders in China assumed top political positions in 2012-2013, they took the helm of a country that has achieved remarkable economic growth, political stability, and international influence. Yet China today confronts challenges at least as daunting as any it has faced since the reform era began in the late 1970s. In November 2013, the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee announced ambitious reforms to address vital issues, such as giving market forces a "decisive role" in the economy, strengthening the social safety net, assigning greater weight to factors other than economic growth and social order in evaluating local officials, promoting urbanization, and relaxing the "one child" policy. China's Challenges brings together fourteen experts on China's social, economic, political, legal, and foreign affairs to examine some of the nation's pivotal policy issues. Their wide-ranging analyses cover economic and social inequality, internal migration and population control, imperatives to "rebalance" China's economy toward domestic demand and consumption, problems of official corruption, tensions between legal reform and social order, and the strained relationships with neighboring countries and the United States that stem from China's rising power, military modernization, enduring territorial disputes, and rising nationalism in domestic politics. This timely volume offers a broad and comprehensive look at the issues facing China today and lays the groundwork for understanding the shifts to come. How—and how well—China handles these challenges not only will define China's trajectory for years to come, but will have repercussions far beyond China's borders. Contributors: Yong Cai, Jacques deLisle, Jane Duckett, Andrew Erickson, M. Taylor Fravel, Avery Goldstein, Yasheng Huang, Zai Liang, Benjamin Liebman, Melanie Manion, Barry Naughton, Daniela Stockmann, Robert Sutter, Guohui Wang.