Bicycle Citizens

Bicycle Citizens PDF Author: Robin M. LeBlanc
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520920613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
While the typical Japanese male politician glides through his district in air-conditioned taxis, the typical female voter trundles along the side streets on a simple bicycle. In this first ethnographic study of the politics of the average female citizen in Japan, Robin LeBlanc argues that this taxi-bicycle contrast reaches deeply into Japanese society. To study the relationship between gender and liberal democratic citizenship, LeBlanc conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in suburban Tokyo among housewives, volunteer groups, consumer cooperative movements, and the members of a committee to reelect a female Diet member who used her own housewife status as the key to victory. LeBlanc argues that contrary to popular perception, Japanese housewives are ultimately not without a political world. Full of new and stimulating material, engagingly written, and deft in its weaving of theoretical perspectives with field research, this study will not only open up new dialogues between gender theory and broader social science concerns but also provide a superb introduction to politics in Japan as a whole.

Bicycle Citizens

Bicycle Citizens PDF Author: Robin M. LeBlanc
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520920619
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
While the typical Japanese male politician glides through his district in air-conditioned taxis, the typical female voter trundles along the side streets on a simple bicycle. In this first ethnographic study of the politics of the average female citizen in Japan, Robin LeBlanc argues that this taxi-bicycle contrast reaches deeply into Japanese society. To study the relationship between gender and liberal democratic citizenship, LeBlanc conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in suburban Tokyo among housewives, volunteer groups, consumer cooperative movements, and the members of a committee to reelect a female Diet member who used her own housewife status as the key to victory. LeBlanc argues that contrary to popular perception, Japanese housewives are ultimately not without a political world. Full of new and stimulating material, engagingly written, and deft in its weaving of theoretical perspectives with field research, this study will not only open up new dialogues between gender theory and broader social science concerns but also provide a superb introduction to politics in Japan as a whole.

Bicycle Citizens

Bicycle Citizens PDF Author: Robin M. LeBlanc
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520920613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book

Book Description
While the typical Japanese male politician glides through his district in air-conditioned taxis, the typical female voter trundles along the side streets on a simple bicycle. In this first ethnographic study of the politics of the average female citizen in Japan, Robin LeBlanc argues that this taxi-bicycle contrast reaches deeply into Japanese society. To study the relationship between gender and liberal democratic citizenship, LeBlanc conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in suburban Tokyo among housewives, volunteer groups, consumer cooperative movements, and the members of a committee to reelect a female Diet member who used her own housewife status as the key to victory. LeBlanc argues that contrary to popular perception, Japanese housewives are ultimately not without a political world. Full of new and stimulating material, engagingly written, and deft in its weaving of theoretical perspectives with field research, this study will not only open up new dialogues between gender theory and broader social science concerns but also provide a superb introduction to politics in Japan as a whole.

Pedaling Revolution

Pedaling Revolution PDF Author: Jeff Mapes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
"From traffic-dodging-bike messengers to tattooed teenagers on battered bikes, from riders in spandex to well-dressed executives, ordinary citizens are becoming transportation revolutionaries. Jeff Mapes traces the growth of bicycle advocacy and explores the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling. He rides with bicycle advocates who are taming the streets of New York City, joins the street circus that is Critical Mass in San Francisco, and gets inspired by the everyday folk pedaling in Amsterdam, the nirvana of American bike activists. Chapters focused on big cities, college towns, and America's most successful bike city, Portland, show how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are claiming a share of the valuable streetscape."--BOOK JACKET.

Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism

Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism PDF Author: Paul Sabin
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393634051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The story of the dramatic postwar struggle over the proper role of citizens and government in American society. In the 1960s and 1970s, an insurgent attack on traditional liberalism took shape in America. It was built on new ideals of citizen advocacy and the public interest. Environmentalists, social critics, and consumer advocates like Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, and Ralph Nader crusaded against what they saw as a misguided and often corrupt government. Drawing energy from civil rights protests and opposition to the Vietnam War, the new citizens’ movement drew legions of followers and scored major victories. Citizen advocates disrupted government plans for urban highways and new hydroelectric dams and got Congress to pass tough legislation to protect clean air and clean water. They helped lead a revolution in safety that forced companies and governments to better protect consumers and workers from dangerous products and hazardous work conditions. And yet, in the process, citizen advocates also helped to undermine big government liberalism—the powerful alliance between government, business, and labor that dominated the United States politically in the decades following the New Deal and World War II. Public interest advocates exposed that alliance’s secret bargains and unintended consequences. They showed how government power often was used to advance private interests rather than restrain them. In the process of attacking government for its failings and its dangers, the public interest movement struggled to replace traditional liberalism with a new approach to governing. The citizen critique of government power instead helped clear the way for their antagonists: Reagan-era conservatives seeking to slash regulations and enrich corporations. Public Citizens traces the history of the public interest movement and explores its tangled legacy, showing the ways in which American liberalism has been at war with itself. The book forces us to reckon with the challenges of regaining our faith in government’s ability to advance the common good.

The Art of the Gut

The Art of the Gut PDF Author: Robin M. LeBlanc
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520259173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
"A beautifully written book, The Art of the Gut reads as easily as a fast-paced novel. Searching beyond the formal structures, regulations, and demographic counts associated with elections to consider the potential for one man to make a difference takes LeBlanc into an investigation of codes of masculinity in contemporary Japan as she studies how these men both employ and defy these codes in their political lives."—Jan Bardsley, Associate Professor, Japanese Humanities, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The Bicycle — Towards a Global History

The Bicycle — Towards a Global History PDF Author: P. Smethurst
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137499516
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This is the first history of the bicycle to trace not only the technical background to its invention, but also to contrast its social and cultural impact in different parts of the world, and assess its future as a continuing global phenomenon.

The Green Bicycle

The Green Bicycle PDF Author: Haifaa Al Mansour
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698183487
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In the vein of Year of the Dog and The Higher Power of Lucky, this Middle Eastern coming-of-age story is told with warmth, spirit, and a mischievous sense of humor Spunky eleven-year-old Wadjda lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with her parents. She desperately wants a bicycle so that she can race her friend Abdullah, even though it is considered improper for girls to ride bikes. Wadjda earns money for her dream bike by selling homemade bracelets and mixtapes of banned music to her classmates. But after she's caught, she’s forced to turn over a new leaf (sort of), or risk expulsion from school. Still, Wadjda keeps scheming, and with the bicycle so closely in her sights, she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Set against the shifting social attitudes of the Middle East, The Green Bicycle explores gender roles, conformity, and the importance of family, all with wit and irresistible heart.

Analyses of Successful Provincial, State, and Local Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs in Canada and the United States

Analyses of Successful Provincial, State, and Local Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs in Canada and the United States PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bicycle commuting
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description


Cycling and Recycling

Cycling and Recycling PDF Author: Ruth Oldenziel
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782389717
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Technology has long been an essential consideration in public discussions of the environment, with the focus overwhelmingly on creating new tools and techniques. In more recent years, however, activists, researchers, and policymakers have increasingly turned to mobilizing older technologies in their pursuit of sustainability. In fascinating case studies ranging from the Early Modern secondhand trade to utopian visions of human-powered vehicles, the contributions gathered here explore the historical fortunes of two such technologies—bicycling and waste recycling—tracing their development over time and providing valuable context for the policy successes and failures of today.

The Citizen Almanac

The Citizen Almanac PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Almanacs, American
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description