This book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and the changes in class and state formation emanating from it in Iran during the global neoliberal era. It demonstrates how there are inner... Show moreThis book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and the changes in class and state formation emanating from it in Iran during the global neoliberal era. It demonstrates how there are inner connections between the nature of contemporary development in Iran, the form of the state, the ongoing sociopolitical transformations in society and the geopolitical tensions with the West. Simultaneously, it highlights that these issues should be explored in terms of their internal relations to the motions and tendencies of neoliberal global capitalism and resulting geopolitics. Accordingly, the book demonstrates that Iranian neoliberalisation has brought about new contested class dynamics that have fundamentally reconstructed the Iranian ruling class, aggressively shaped and reshaped the working class and the poor, and drastically impacted the state form and its foreign policy. Show less
During funerals of nobles in the Kuba kingdom (Democratic Republic of Congo), visitors used to theatrically offer so-called bongotols to the deceased and the mourning family. These highly... Show moreDuring funerals of nobles in the Kuba kingdom (Democratic Republic of Congo), visitors used to theatrically offer so-called bongotols to the deceased and the mourning family. These highly appreciated valuables were either positioned under the corpse to support it or displayed on top of it.In addition to their religious meanings they also displayed the status and wealth of both givers and takers. Visitors would receive similar items in return. Afterwards the bongotols were stashed until, on occasion of a next burial, they would continue their cycles of gift and counter gift among the titled Kuba aristocracy. Death and display brings ethnographic research and archival sources to bear on these intriguing heirlooms. Their rich iconography offers a kaleidoscope of traditional Kuba sociality, cosmology and ritual. Show less
The U.S. government, military, and industry once saw ocean incineration as the safest and most efficient way to dispose of hazardous chemical waste. Beginning in the late 1960s, toxic chemicals... Show moreThe U.S. government, military, and industry once saw ocean incineration as the safest and most efficient way to dispose of hazardous chemical waste. Beginning in the late 1960s, toxic chemicals such as PCBs and other harmful industrial byproducts were taken out to sea to be destroyed in specially designed ships equipped with high-temperature combustion chambers and smokestacks. But public outcry arose after the environmental and health risks of ocean incineration were exposed, and the practice was banned in the early 1990s.Smoke on the Water traces the rise and fall of ocean incineration, showing how a transnational environmental movement tested the limits of U.S. political and economic power. Dario Fazzi examines the anti-ocean-incineration movement that emerged on both sides of the Atlantic, arguing that it succeeded by merging local advocacy with international mobilization. He emphasizes the role played at the grassroots level by women, migrant workers, and other underrepresented groups who were at greatest risk. Environmental groups, for their part, gathered and shared evidence about the harms of at-sea incineration, building scientific consensus and influencing international debates.Smoke on the Water tells the compelling story of a campaign against environmental degradation in which people from marginalized communities took on the might of the U.S. military-industrial complex. It offers new insights into the transnational dimensions of environmental regulation, the significance of nonstate actors in international history, and the making of environmental justice movements. Show less
Al meer dan twintig jaar wordt het debat over moslims en islam beheerst door onderwerpen als integratie, normen en waarden, inburgering en de rechtsstaat. Inmiddels zijn we bijna twee generaties... Show moreAl meer dan twintig jaar wordt het debat over moslims en islam beheerst door onderwerpen als integratie, normen en waarden, inburgering en de rechtsstaat. Inmiddels zijn we bijna twee generaties verder, onderging de samenleving drastische ontwikkelingen, maar hoe Nederland met moslims en de islam omgaat lijkt onveranderd. In '2004. Islam in Nederland' legt Maurits Berger uit hoe dat zo is gekomen. Hij laat zien dat het jaar 2004 hierin een cruciale rol speelt. De opvattingen die toen zijn ontstaan, zijn nog steeds bepalend voor vandaag. Twee daarvan zijn dominant: de fixatie op veiligheid en de beschouwing van de islam als een uitzonderlijke godsdienst. Berger wijst op de risico’s van deze ideeën en doet suggesties hoe daaruit te komen. Show less
This book is the first to explore the rich festival culture of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France as a tool for diplomacy. Bram van Leuveren examines how the late Valois and early... Show moreThis book is the first to explore the rich festival culture of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France as a tool for diplomacy. Bram van Leuveren examines how the late Valois and early Bourbon rulers of the kingdom made conscious use of festivals to advance their diplomatic interests in a war-torn Europe and how diplomatic stakeholders from across the continent participated in and responded to the theatrical and ceremonial events that featured at these festivals. Analysing a large body of multilingual eyewitness and commemorative accounts, as well as visual and material objects, Van Leuveren argues that French festival culture operated as a contested site where the diplomatic concerns of stakeholders from various national, religious, and social backgrounds fought for recognition. Show less
The Spirit of Matter discusses excessive objects: those things that move people but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking about ‘mind over matter’, and that things are... Show moreThe Spirit of Matter discusses excessive objects: those things that move people but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking about ‘mind over matter’, and that things are supposedly ‘dead’. Such wishful thinking can be traced back to Protestant Christian influences, that were secularized in the course of modern and colonial history. A range of excessive objects – exhibits of human remains or live people, fetishes, objects in a Catholic museum, exotic photographs, commodities, and computers – demonstrate a subordinate modern consciousness about powerful objects and their ‘life’. If humanity wants to survive current planetary socio-ecological crises, it should learn from its humility towards both artefacts and non-human things. Show less
From time immemorial, thunder and lightning were seen as a wrathful Deity’s instruments of punishment. But then, in 1752, came Benjamin Franklin’s paradigm-shifting invention of the lightning rod,... Show moreFrom time immemorial, thunder and lightning were seen as a wrathful Deity’s instruments of punishment. But then, in 1752, came Benjamin Franklin’s paradigm-shifting invention of the lightning rod, and the way we view God and nature was changed forever.In Lightning in the Age of Benjamin Franklin. Facts and Fictions in Science, Religion, and Art Jan Wim Buisman shows how, in the second half of the eighteenth century, our scientific, religious, and artistic conceptions of one of nature’s most violent phenomena were transformed. With the storm no longer a spectacle to be feared, poets, painters, and composers started to treat it as a subject in its own right. Never before was the beauty of thunder and lightning so frequently and fulsomely represented in Western culture as during the transition from the Enlightenment to the Romantic era. Show less
This book explores the potential of specific photographic images for reflecting on experiences of mental disorders. Instead of looking at photographs of (people suffering from) mental disorders,... Show moreThis book explores the potential of specific photographic images for reflecting on experiences of mental disorders. Instead of looking at photographs of (people suffering from) mental disorders, this volume aspires to comprehend the complexities of such conditions through photographic lexicons, metaphors, and practices. For this book, a mental disorder is not to be seen as a dysfunction or impairment, but a state in which the sustaining balance of stable and unstable mind is unsettled, which may induce mental/bodily disturbances. The term “psychosomatic” refers to the interaction of the mind (psyche) with the body (soma); it refers to their co-dependence. By the term “Psychosomatic Imagery” this volume refers to a distinctive trope of photographic images that deal with the body-mind interaction during the states of mental disorders. This novel theoretical framework in photography theory instigates critical discussions about the experiences of mental disorders visualized as disturbed corporeal and mental perceptions of the world. While the introduction of the volume unpacks and assesses the applications of photography in mental disorder studies from theoretical and historical perspectives, the chapters focus on specific cases of Psychosomatic Imagery in contemporary photography. Those cases include, but are not limited to: PTSD, hysteria, paranoia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and Hikikomori. Show less
Enriched structures on stable curves over fields were defined by Mainò in the late 1990s, and have played an important role in the study of limit linear series and degenerating jacobians. In this... Show moreEnriched structures on stable curves over fields were defined by Mainò in the late 1990s, and have played an important role in the study of limit linear series and degenerating jacobians. In this paper we solve three main problems: we give a definition of enriched structures on stable curves over arbitrary base schemes, and show that the resulting fine moduli problem is representable; we show that the resulting object has a universal property in terms of Néron models; and we construct a compactification of our stack of enriched structures. Show less
This volume contains the first edition of 66 papyri and ostraca in the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute. The texts are dated between the third century BCE and the eighth century CE... Show moreThis volume contains the first edition of 66 papyri and ostraca in the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute. The texts are dated between the third century BCE and the eighth century CE and originate from Egypt. They include two Demotic literary papyri (one of which is written in Hieratic script), 19 Demotic ostraca, 44 Greek documentary papyri and one Coptic ostracon. All texts are published with transcription, translation, commentary and colour photographs. Show less