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
Spanning Malaysia’s post-independence period and using the repression-mobilization nexus as a key theoretical framework, this study outlines how its Christian community delicately and... Show moreSpanning Malaysia’s post-independence period and using the repression-mobilization nexus as a key theoretical framework, this study outlines how its Christian community delicately and simultaneously defends its religious rights without being construed as anti-Islam in the face of state-led “Islamization”. This study charts the changes in the community's resistance tactics by primarily focusing on the 1980s to the contemporary period while considering subnational differences between East and West Malaysia. It explains why it adopted a non-partisan and non-violent approach despite targeted repression. In outlining the interplay between a minority community’s mobilization and national-level contestation, it focuses especially on the role played by the Christian elites. Additionally, it raises key questions that remain relevant in the study of contentious politics: How do minority communities in semi-democratic contexts protect their rights? What are their options and constraints for resistance? And how do changes in the political environment mould their strategy and resistance tactics? Show less
Since before the American Civil War, African American and Japanese encounters produced relationships and discourses of knowledge that transcended Eurocentric conceptions of civilization and... Show moreSince before the American Civil War, African American and Japanese encounters produced relationships and discourses of knowledge that transcended Eurocentric conceptions of civilization and hierarchies of personhood. 'Black Transnationalism and Japan' introduces the diverse activity and intellectual movements created, shaped, and led by Japanese and African American people. While some Pan-Asianisms and Pan-Africanisms urged a uniting of colonized spaces against the colonizer, and were often expressed in the form of decolonization movements, this volume introduces various transnational phenomena that transcended such dichotomies. Black American-Japanese transnational encounters often occurred on the non-state level from within the two new competing empires of America and Japan. Such transnational encounters reveal not only heretofore hidden historical actors, friendships, and solidarities, but also innovative cultural productions that challenged hierarchies of race, culture, and imperialism. Show less
‘The Civil Code Controversy in Meiji Japan’ outlines a dramatic history of the failed liberalization of Japanese private law during the Meiji era. Once Japan overthrew the shogunate and fully... Show more‘The Civil Code Controversy in Meiji Japan’ outlines a dramatic history of the failed liberalization of Japanese private law during the Meiji era. Once Japan overthrew the shogunate and fully opened up to contact with the world, modernization of the backward country and its fragmented customary legal system became a crucial objective of the new ruling elites. The initiated codification of law included the drafting of the first Civil Code, designed to revolutionize the traditional societal ties in Japan. The legal project, seemingly straightforward, turned out to be notoriously difficult and dragged on for three decades. More importantly, it led to a national controversy, dividing the Japanese jurisprudence into two opposing factions, which supported drastically different visions of the Civil Code and, thus, the country's future. The presented book is not only an account of Japanese legal history. It depicts the fierce fight between liberal and conservative jurists who believed in protecting society from the law’s harmful effects. The discussion on the Civil Code transcended the classical legal dispute, touching on the Japanese people's historical, political, societal and cultural identity. Show less
This new English translation of Huizinga’s 'Autumntide of the Middle Ages' ('Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen') celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and... Show moreThis new English translation of Huizinga’s 'Autumntide of the Middle Ages' ('Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen') celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and influential analyses of the late medieval period. Its wide-ranging discussion of fourteenth and fifteenth century France and the Low Countries makes it a classic study of life, culture, and thought in medieval society. The new and now unabridged translation of the original text captures the impact of Huizinga’s deep scholarship and powerful language. The translation is based on the Dutch edition of 1941 – the last edition Huizinga worked on. It features English renderings of the Middle French poems and other contemporary sources, and its colour illustrations include over three hundred paintings and prints, illuminated manuscripts, and miniatures pertinent to Huizinga’s discourse. A complete bibliography of Huizinga’s sources will facilitate further research, while an epilogue addresses the meaning and enduring importance of this classic work. 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
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