Gender studies, gender groups Books

5388 products


  • Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard  Folklore and

    MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard Folklore and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisErna Brodber and Velma Pollard, two sister-writers born and raised in Jamaica, re-create imagined and lived homelands in their literature by commemorating the history, culture, and religion of the Caribbean. Drawing on interviews with the authors, this is the first book to give Brodber and Pollard their due.

    1 in stock

    £81.75

  • The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and

    MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisBuilding on critiques of other sceptical scholars, the feminist, folkloristic approach of this book deepens how our remythologizing of the ancient past reflects a contemporary worldview and rhetoric.

    1 in stock

    £27.96

  • Season to Taste  Rewriting Kitchen Space in

    MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Season to Taste Rewriting Kitchen Space in

    Book SynopsisBetween 2000 and 2010, many US-American women writers were returning to the private space of the kitchen, writing about their experiences and publishing their memoirs. This book explores these memoirs with recipes in order to consider the ways in which these women are rewriting this kitchen space and renegotiating their relationships with food.

    £73.80

  • Season to Taste  Rewriting Kitchen Space in

    MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Season to Taste Rewriting Kitchen Space in

    Book SynopsisBetween 2000 and 2010, many US-American women writers were returning to the private space of the kitchen, writing about their experiences and publishing their memoirs. This book explores these memoirs with recipes in order to consider the ways in which these women are rewriting this kitchen space and renegotiating their relationships with food.

    £23.70

  • Heinrich Kaans Psychopathia Sexualis 1844

    Cornell University Press Heinrich Kaans Psychopathia Sexualis 1844

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisWith Heinrich Kaan''s book we have then what could be called the date of birth, or in any case the date of the emergence, of sexuality and sexual aberrations in the psychiatric field. Michel Foucault, Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 19741975.Heinrich Kaan''s fascinating workpart medical treatise, part sexual taxonomy, part activist statement, and part anti-onanist tracttakes us back to the origins of sexology. He links the sexual instinct to the imagination for the first time, creating what Foucault called a unified field of sexual abnormality. Kaan''s taxonomy consists of six sexual aberrations: masturbation, pederasty, lesbian love, necrophilia, bestiality, and the violation of statues. Kaan not only inaugurated the field of sexology, but played a significant role in the regimes of knowledge production and discipline about psychiatric and sexual subjects. As Benjamin Kahan argues in his Introduction, Kaan''s text crucially enables us to see how hoTrade ReviewThe liminal status of the first Psychopathia Sexualis—its position near the end of a centuries-old mode of scholarly discourse and at the inauguration of a new disciplinary organization of knowledge—render Kaan's project interesting now in ways that it couldn’t be for its contemporary audience. What’s striking here—especially given the text is written in a language with liturgical and theological associations—is that Kaan begins and remains on a strictly naturalistic level of description and explanation. Kaan’s work had some important implications. It treated human sexuality as entirely explicable within nature—with nonprocreative forms being, in effect, the accidental effect of a natural force being redirected via the brain. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *In the preface to his two-part treatise, Kaan states that his intentions are to call physicians' attention to the condition he terms "sexual madness," caused by a "diseased imagination," and to attempt to correct publicly held errors and misunderstandings.... This translated text has much to offer those who are interested in the history of sexology, the scientific method, and the social construction of gender. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; researchers and faculty. -- P. Lefler, Bluegrass Community & Technical College * CHOICE *

    1 in stock

    £97.20

  • Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India

    Cornell University Press Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger analyzes six representative Indian folklore genres from a single regional repertoire to show the influence of their intertextual relations on the composition and interpretation of artistic performance. Placing special emphasis on women's rituals, she looks at the relationship between the framework and organization of indigenous genres and the reception of folklore performance. The regional repertoire under examination presents a strikingly female-centered world. Female performers and characters are active, articulate, and frequently challenge or defy expectations of gender. Men also confound traditional gender roles. Flueckiger includes the translations of two full performance texts of narratives sung by female and male storytellers respectively.Trade ReviewIn this superbly crafted, absorbing book, Flueckiger explores the relationships among folklore genres in the Chattisgarh region of north India, achieving a pioneering model of the study of a ‘folklore system’ in its entirety. This is ethnographic scholarship at its best. The multigenre approach is a major contribution, and this rich book should be read by all students of folklore, literature, performance, and South Asia. * Choice *Based on fifteen months of original research at the boundary between the states of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, as well as on many return visits over the course of fifteen years, this book is one of the most wide-ranging, meticulous, and insightful monographs on Indian folklore ever published. -- Gloria Goodwin Raheja * American Ethnologist *

    1 in stock

    £15.99

  • Gender War and World Order

    Cornell University Press Gender War and World Order

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMotivated by the lack of scholarly understanding of the substantial gender difference in attitudes toward the use of military force, Richard C. Eichenberg has mined a massive data set of public opinion surveys to draw new and important conclusions. By analyzing hundreds of such surveys across more than sixty countries, Gender, War, and World Order offers researchers raw data, multiple hypotheses, and three major findings.Eichenberg poses three questions of the data: Are there significant differences in the opinions of men and women on issues of national security? What differences can be discerned across issues, culture, and time? And what are the theoretical and political implications of these attitudinal differences? Within this framework, Gender, War, and World Order compares gender difference on military power, balance of power, alliances, international institutions, the acceptability of war, defense spending, defense/welfare compromises, and torture. EichenbTrade ReviewThis book provides a valuable analysis of gender and foreign policy attitudes that will interest students of international relations and public opinion. * Choice *Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Gender, War, and World Order 1. Hypotheses, Data, and Method 2. Threats, Power, War, and Institutions 3. The Gendered Politics of Defense Spending 4. American Attitudes toward Torture 5. Gender Difference in American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force 6. Gender Difference in Cross-National Perspective 7. Global Variation in Gender Difference Conclusion: The Shadow of Violence Appendix Notes References Index

    1 in stock

    £40.50

  • Sex Law and Sovereignty in French Algeria

    Cornell University Press Sex Law and Sovereignty in French Algeria

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is a masterful study of the ways in which sex and law were inextricably intertwined in the elaboration of French rule in Algeria. Its great virtue is to demonstrate in careful detail, with an impressive range of material (from court records to novels), exactly how the conquest of Algeria repeatedly challenged the very ideals of the secular universalism in whose name colonization was carried out.? Joan Wallach Scott, author of Sex and SecularismDuring more than a century of colonial rule over Algeria, the French state shaped and reshaped the meaning and practice of Muslim law by regulating it and circumscribing it to the domain of family law, while applying the French Civil Code to appropriate the property of Algerians. In Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830–1930, Judith Surkis traces how colonial authorities constructed Muslim legal difference and used it to deny Algerian Muslims full citizenship. In disconnectingTrade ReviewSurkis combines her careful combing of case files with an equally painstaking review of legal texts, press reports and novels... This approach not only makes the work immensely readable, but also ensures its significant contribution across a number of fields, including histories of gender, law, empire, and emotions. * The Journal of North African Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Bodies of French Algerian Law 2. Polygamy, Public Order, and Property 3. Making the "Muslim Family" 4. Civilization, the Civil Code, and "Child Marriage" 5. Special Mœurs and Military Exceptions 6. Conversion, Mixed Marriage, and the Corporealization of Law 7. The Sexual Politics of Legal Reform 8. Colonial Literature and Customary Law Epilogue: Sex and the Centenary Bibliography

    1 in stock

    £97.20

  • Citizen Bachelors

    Cornell University Press Citizen Bachelors

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn 1755 Benjamin Franklin observed a man without a wife is but half a man and since then historians have taken Franklin at his word. In Citizen Bachelors, John Gilbert McCurdy demonstrates that Franklin''s comment was only one side of a much larger conversation. Early Americans vigorously debated the status of unmarried men and this debate was instrumental in the creation of American citizenship.In a sweeping examination of the bachelor in early America, McCurdy fleshes out a largely unexamined aspect of the history of gender. Single men were instrumental to the settlement of the United States and for most of the seventeenth century their presence was not particularly problematic. However, as the colonies matured, Americans began to worry about those who stood outside the family. Lawmakers began to limit the freedoms of single men with laws requiring bachelors to pay higher taxes and face harsher penalties for crimes than married men, while moralists began to decry theTrade ReviewAlthough this book is about men, like the best new works on masculinity Citizen Bachelors repeatedly brings its subject into conversation with women's history. * William and Mary Quarterly *Many single men in eighteenth-century England and America faced heavy, discriminatory taxation, but rather than obliterating 'the solitary state,' such policies served instead to politicize bachelors and to draw them fully to the brink of citizenship. In Citizen Bachelors, John Gilbert McCurdy writes the history of this remarkable development. His narrative is convincing, elegant, and often astonishing. He explores both the lived experiences of single men and the social construction of bachelorhood as a gendered identity.... McCurdy's narrative... makes a vital contribution to the study of early American manhood and masculinity.... Written in clear, uncluttered prose and offering rich rewards for scholars of gender, sexuality, the family, and the law, Citizen Bachelors should be singled out for careful reading. -- Benjamin Irvin * H-SHEAR *McCurdy succeeds brilliantly in showing how the legal standing of 'bachelors' changed over the course of the colonial and revolutionary eras.... Drawing enlightening comparisons between New England, the Chesapeake, and Pennsylvania, he is able to show how laws across the colonies were moving in a similar direction... [as they] collectively began to carve a space for adult single men in society. McCurdy also unearths some fascinating snapshots of the subjective experience of bachelorhood. -- Rodney Hessinger * Men and Masculinities *MCurdy has produced a valuable volume in this careful and highly readable inventory of early American bachelors and their cultural representations. When combined with the many related works on sexuality in this period, the book helps us understand a world long neglected and misrepresented. It is vital that we appreciate how different colonial society's cultural and sexual norms were from our own; the bachelor we recognize today was not known in early colonial North America. With this useful study, however, we can begin to see how this familiar figure first came into existence. -- David D. Doyle * New England Quarterly *Extensively researched and lucidly written.... An illuminating and substantial work which should be of interest to historians of gender relations in early modern England, colonial British America, and the early American republic. * The English Historical Review *McCurdy has done a marvelous job of highlighting the newborn independence of early American bachelors. * American Historical Review *A very fine book. * The Journal of American History *A thoughtful, intriguing, and valuable contribution to our understanding of early American social, cultural, and political life. * Pennsylvania History *McCurdy's detailed and well-researched book offers an alternate perspective on the late-colonial and Revolutionary eras of American history. Forward-thinking in terms of its subject matter, this book is a must read for historians of American gender, especially those specializing in masculinity studies. * History: Reviews of New Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Bachelors in Early America 1. "Unmarried Men Are Best Friends, Best Masters, Best Servants": Singles in Early Colonial America 2. "If a Single Man and Able He Shall Make Satisfaction": The Bachelor Laws 3. "Every One of Them Shall Be Chained about the Middle to a Post Like a Monkey": Literary Representations of the Bachelor 4. "I Resolve to Live a Batchelor While I Remain in This Wicked Country": Living Single in Early America 5. "The Bachelor Is the Only Free Man": The Single Man and the American Revolution Epilogue: Bachelors since 1800

    1 in stock

    £22.94

  • Violating Peace

    Cornell University Press Violating Peace

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisJasmine-Kim Westendorf''s discomforting book investigates sexual misconduct by military peacekeepers and abuses perpetrated by civilian peacekeepers and non-UN civilian interveners. Based on extensive field research in Bosnia, Timor-Leste, and with the UN and humanitarian communities, Violating Peace uncovers a brutal truth about peacebuilding as Westendorf investigates how such behaviors affect the capacity of the international community to achieve its goals related to stability and peacebuilding, and its legitimacy in the eyes of local and global populations.As Violating Peace shows, when interveners perpetrate sexual exploitation and abuse, they undermine the operational capacity of the international community to effectively build peace after civil wars and to alleviate human suffering in crises. Furthermore, sexual misconduct by interveners poses a significant risk to the perceived legitimacy of the multilateral peacekeeping project, and the UN more generallTrade ReviewA very significant contribution that provides an often-neglected perspective on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers. Often-times, as Westendorf points out, SEA is treated as an issue of isolated individual misconduct, which has long been addressed by the UN through a conduct and discipline approach. The UN's zero-tolerance policy has not been particularly successful despite a number of new rules, new offices and new obligations. This book argues that SEA needs to be seen and tackled in a fundamentally different way if the UN is serious about SEA prevention and accountability. This book is highly recommended for not only scholars researching on gender, accountability, or the UN, but also for policy makers and practitioners, who would benefit from Westendorf's analysis of the reasons for SEA and its negative effects. * International Peacekeeping *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The History and Nature of Sexual Misconduct in Peace Operations 2. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Bosnia and Timor-Leste 3. Making Matters Worse: The Long-Term Impacts of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 4. Legitimacy in Crisis: The Impacts of Sexual Misconduct on Capacity and Credibility Conclusion: One Problem among Many? An Integrated Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

    3 in stock

    £22.79

  • Marriage and Marriageability

    Cornell University Press Marriage and Marriageability

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction: Beginnings 1. From Manchukuo to Marriage 2. The Making and Unmaking of "Unmarriageable Persons" in Japan 3. Creating "Similar" Others at Transnational Matchmaking Agencies in Japan 4. Marrying Up, Down, or Off in Dongyang 5. Gendered Investments in Marriage Migration 6. Crafting Legitimate Marital Relations Conclusion: Yen or En?

    1 in stock

    £32.30

  • Uneasy Military Encounters

    Cornell University Press Uneasy Military Encounters

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisUneasy Military Encounters presents a historically and theoretically grounded political ethnography of the Thai military''s counterinsurgency practices in the southern borderland, home to the greater part of the Malay-Muslim minority. Ruth Streicher argues that counterinsurgency practices mark the southern population as the racialized, religious, and gendered other of the Thai, which contributes to producing Thailand as an imperial formation: a state formation based on essentialized difference between the Thai and their others. Through a genealogical approach, Uneasy Military Encounters addresses broad conceptual questions of imperial politics in a non-Western context: How can we understand imperial policing in a country that was never colonized? How is Islam constructed in a state that is officially secular and promotes Buddhist tolerance? What are the (historical) dynamics of imperial patriarchy in a context internationally known for its gender pluralism? The Trade ReviewStreicher's [Uneasy Military Encounters] provides a significant contribution to our knowledge of the military's counterinsurgency operations in southern Thailand. * Journal of Contemporary Asia *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Policing the Imperial Formation 1. Policing History: A Military Handbook on the Southern Provinces 2. Checkpoints: Racialized Practices of Suspicion 3. The New Path to Peace: Disciplining Religious Subjects 4. Guarding the Daughter: Patriarchal Compromise and Military Sisterhood Conclusion: Happiness and Military Rule

    4 in stock

    £97.20

  • Paradox and Representation

    Cornell University Press Paradox and Representation

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Paradox of Representation 2. The Voice of a Transgressive Young Man 3. The Voice of an Illegitimate Son 4. The Voice of an Incestuous Sister 5. The Voices of Aged Buraku Women Conclusion

    15 in stock

    £37.05

  • Institutionalizing Gender

    Cornell University Press Institutionalizing Gender

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisInstitutionalizing Gender analyzes the relationship between class, gender, and psychiatry in France from 1789 to 1900, an era noteworthy for the creation of the psychiatric profession, the development of a national asylum system, and the spread of bourgeois gender values.Asylum doctors in nineteenth-century France promoted the notion that manliness was synonymous with rationality, using this fact to pathologize non-normative behaviors and confine people who did not embody mainstream gender expectations to asylums. And yet, this gendering of rationality also had the power to upset prevailing dynamics between men and women. Jessie Hewitt argues that the ways that doctors used dominant gender values to find cures for madness inadvertently undermined both medical and masculine powerin large part because the performance of gender, as a pathway to health, had to be taught; it was not inherent. Institutionalizing Gender examines a series of controversies and clinical cTrade ReviewInstitutionalizing Gender invites the reader to rethink ideas about gender within the asylum setting, while revealing as much about the nature of the family in France during this period as it does about French psychiatry. Institutionalizing Gender is highly readable. * H-Net *Hewitt's remarkable new book traces how French asylum doctors deployed changing concepts of gender, family, and class to diagnose and treat mental illness and shore up their own professional authority. Meticulously researched, Institutionalizing Gender is sure to become required reading for historians of France, gender, and psychiatry. * Choice *This interdisciplinarity emerges as one of the primary strengths of Hewitt's work, bringing fresh eyes to stories told and retold in the field. Hewitt is to be commended for producing an eloquent work that also opens new avenues for further study—by historians of France and gender, as well as those of psychiatry. * Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Gender and the Founding "Fathers" of French Psychiatry 2. Medical Controversy and Honor among (Mad)Men 3. Domesticating Madness in the Family Asylum 4. Scandalous Asylum Commitments and Patriarchal Power 5. Rehabilitating a Profession under Siege 6. Reforming the Asylum and Reimagining the Family Conclusion: The "Mad" Woman in a Man's World

    1 in stock

    £17.99

  • Women in Global Science: Advancing Academic

    Stanford University Press Women in Global Science: Advancing Academic

    Book SynopsisScientific and engineering research is increasingly global, and international collaboration can be essential to academic success. Yet even as administrators and policymakers extol the benefits of global science, few recognize the diversity of international research collaborations and their participants, or take gendered inequalities into account. Women in Global Science is the first book to consider systematically the challenges and opportunities that the globalization of scientific work brings to U.S. academics, especially for women faculty. Kathrin Zippel looks to the STEM fields as a case study, where gendered cultures and structures in academia have contributed to an underrepresentation of women. While some have approached underrepresentation as a national concern with a national solution, Zippel highlights how gender relations are reconfigured in global academia. For U.S. women in particular, international collaboration offers opportunities to step outside of exclusionary networks at home. International collaboration is not the panacea to gendered inequalities in academia, but, as Zippel argues, international considerations can be key to ending the steady attrition of women in STEM fields and developing a more inclusive academic world.Trade Review"Zippel's book reveals the benefits women may get from their national status when they work abroad, but also exposes the barriers to international collaborations for women. Her pathbreaking analysis highlights the paradoxes that university systems create by deeming global connections important but making them unnecessarily difficult. A must-read for those in STEM fields." -- Myra Marx Ferree * University of Wisconsin-Madison *"Kathrin Zippel offers a compelling examination of the benefits and barriers to international collaboration for American women scientists. Her pathbreaking work challenges how we think about gender and academia and provides a blueprint for studying the globalization of science. A fascinating book that scientists should read." -- Frank Dobbin * Harvard University *"Written in clear and insightful prose, [the author] asks how gender shapes the opportunities and obstacles for researchers internationally, and whether the globalization of academia helps or hinders the advancement of women in scientific and technical fields...this thorough and insightful book is a valuable addition to the literature on academia, gender, knowledge, and the globalization of knowledge, beneficial to scholars in social science, STEM fields, and administrators alike." -- Shauna A. Morimoto * Gender & Society *"This is an excellent book on an unexplored question: How does academic globalization affect opportunities for women and other historically underrepresented groups on American STEM faculties? Zippel's empirical analysis is rigorous and makes a significant contribution to the analysis of gender and racial stratification in the STEM academy and workforce." -- Maria Charles * University of California, Santa Barbara *"This is an important book, especially for early career researchers. Given that STEM postdocs in various countries often head to the US to build their academic careers, it provides valuable insights into how US institutions and funding agencies may regard international collaborations. It is particularly valuable for women in STEM in its analysis of the challenges and opportunities that the globalisation of scientific work can bring for them." -- Kate White * Australian Universities' Review *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A World of Opportunity: Science, Gender, and Collaboration chapter abstractChapter 1 engages the reader by explaining the key questions, arguments, and theoretical concepts for the book. What happens when academic work globalizes, what kind of international research collaborations do STEM faculty engage in? It introduces the core argument that globalization of academia is a gendered process as global science is organized in gendered ways, such as the framework of glass fences and .edu bonus. This chapter also contextualizes U.S. leadership in global science and challenges to it by providing cross-nationally statistical information about current developments in the globalization of science and technological knowledge, including international collaborations, co-authorships, and R&D spending. 2Traveling Abroad, Coming Home: Ambivalent Discourses on the U.S. Role in (Global) Science chapter abstractChapter 2 examines the institutional context (U.S. funding institutions and universities) for faculty decisions about engagement in international collaboration and research. By analyzing U.S. faculty constructions of (global) science, it identifies how U.S. institutions position themselves globally. Part of this dynamic is the construction of international collaboration as an activity for elite faculty. And although claims to U.S. scientific supremacy persist, there also the call for "national interest" in maintaining its global position. The chapter further investigates the contrast between faculty perceptions of international research and collaborations as extremely positive—a highlight of their careers—and their experiences of lack of institutional recognition and support. Not surprisingly, given these competing imperatives, faculty members use contradictory rationales to explain why international academic work is meaningful to them in the context of constructions of U.S. superiority, competition, the universality of scientific work, and international research as a "risky" activity. 3The .edu Bonus: Gender, Academic Nationality, and Status chapter abstractThis chapter explains the benefits offered to women in international academic work. Cultural schemas for U.S. scientists reveal an .edu bonus that depicts U.S. scholars as competent and overshadows stereotypes of women as less so. Academics marginalized by gender, minority background, or field can benefit from the .edu bonus, drawing on the positive aspects of being a U.S. scholar in an international environment. Being a woman and a foreigner is thus a positive combination rather than an accumulation of disadvantages. Persistent stereotypes and myths hold that U.S. women scientists are not effective in cultural environments where no native women hold equal positions of power. But women scientists report that they are seen foremost as foreigners and treated as such, making their gender status less salient. This .edu bonus can serve to expand networks internationally and demonstrates the importance of analyzing the intersection of gender and foreigner status of U.S. scientists. 4Glass Fences: Gendered Organization of Global Academia chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on glass fences, the various gendered challenges in international research collaborations. Academia is still organized in gendered ways, and gender is embedded in the international collaboration policies and practices of nation-states, funding agencies, universities, and researchers. The chapter illustrates how these fences emerge in specific international work settings and research practices, examining in particular the implications for women's access to and opportunities to participate in, organize, and operate international conferences, research sites, and fieldwork. Fences emerge when institutions and individuals construct safety abroad as a gendered issue. (Global) academia is gendered through the organization of academic work around norms, values, and expectations that fit the ideal of an elite male global scientist with the personal, social, and academic resources to climb fences. The very structure of international collaboration thus privileges men over women and re-creates gendered inequalities in academia, globally and in the United States. 5Families and International Mobility: Fences or Opportunities? chapter abstractThis chapter challenges the conventional wisdom that family barriers make it impossible for faculty to engage in international collaborations and mobility. Despite discourse that suggests children amplify family burdens for international research for mothers in particular, this chapter debunks the notion that families (meaning young children) construct an insurmountable fence for women and hinder international work only for mothers. Instead, diverse family commitments in various constellations can potentially be constraining, but they can also motivate and even support research abroad. Faculty with international family ties might have extra incentive to spend time in other countries and forge transnational academic careers, while "portable" or "supportive" partners (or lack thereof) can be another important factor in individual mobility and the ability to engage in international collaborations. 6Toward an Inclusive World of (Global) Academia chapter abstractThis chapter considers implications for institutions. Funding agencies and universities need to design internationalization strategies that recognize the diversity of both international research collaborations and their participants and take gender inequalities at the international and national level into account. The chapter suggests concrete ways to support international research collaborations that are inclusive of women, for example, being transparent about support allocation, eliminating obstacles and fences through bureaucratic procedures and policies, and "broadening participation" along demographic lines.

    £79.20

  • Women in Global Science: Advancing Academic

    Stanford University Press Women in Global Science: Advancing Academic

    Book SynopsisScientific and engineering research is increasingly global, and international collaboration can be essential to academic success. Yet even as administrators and policymakers extol the benefits of global science, few recognize the diversity of international research collaborations and their participants, or take gendered inequalities into account. Women in Global Science is the first book to consider systematically the challenges and opportunities that the globalization of scientific work brings to U.S. academics, especially for women faculty. Kathrin Zippel looks to the STEM fields as a case study, where gendered cultures and structures in academia have contributed to an underrepresentation of women. While some have approached underrepresentation as a national concern with a national solution, Zippel highlights how gender relations are reconfigured in global academia. For U.S. women in particular, international collaboration offers opportunities to step outside of exclusionary networks at home. International collaboration is not the panacea to gendered inequalities in academia, but, as Zippel argues, international considerations can be key to ending the steady attrition of women in STEM fields and developing a more inclusive academic world.Trade Review"Zippel's book reveals the benefits women may get from their national status when they work abroad, but also exposes the barriers to international collaborations for women. Her pathbreaking analysis highlights the paradoxes that university systems create by deeming global connections important but making them unnecessarily difficult. A must-read for those in STEM fields." -- Myra Marx Ferree * University of Wisconsin-Madison *"Kathrin Zippel offers a compelling examination of the benefits and barriers to international collaboration for American women scientists. Her pathbreaking work challenges how we think about gender and academia and provides a blueprint for studying the globalization of science. A fascinating book that scientists should read." -- Frank Dobbin * Harvard University *"Written in clear and insightful prose, [the author] asks how gender shapes the opportunities and obstacles for researchers internationally, and whether the globalization of academia helps or hinders the advancement of women in scientific and technical fields...this thorough and insightful book is a valuable addition to the literature on academia, gender, knowledge, and the globalization of knowledge, beneficial to scholars in social science, STEM fields, and administrators alike." -- Shauna A. Morimoto * Gender & Society *"This is an excellent book on an unexplored question: How does academic globalization affect opportunities for women and other historically underrepresented groups on American STEM faculties? Zippel's empirical analysis is rigorous and makes a significant contribution to the analysis of gender and racial stratification in the STEM academy and workforce." -- Maria Charles * University of California, Santa Barbara *"This is an important book, especially for early career researchers. Given that STEM postdocs in various countries often head to the US to build their academic careers, it provides valuable insights into how US institutions and funding agencies may regard international collaborations. It is particularly valuable for women in STEM in its analysis of the challenges and opportunities that the globalisation of scientific work can bring for them." -- Kate White * Australian Universities' Review *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A World of Opportunity: Science, Gender, and Collaboration chapter abstractChapter 1 engages the reader by explaining the key questions, arguments, and theoretical concepts for the book. What happens when academic work globalizes, what kind of international research collaborations do STEM faculty engage in? It introduces the core argument that globalization of academia is a gendered process as global science is organized in gendered ways, such as the framework of glass fences and .edu bonus. This chapter also contextualizes U.S. leadership in global science and challenges to it by providing cross-nationally statistical information about current developments in the globalization of science and technological knowledge, including international collaborations, co-authorships, and R&D spending. 2Traveling Abroad, Coming Home: Ambivalent Discourses on the U.S. Role in (Global) Science chapter abstractChapter 2 examines the institutional context (U.S. funding institutions and universities) for faculty decisions about engagement in international collaboration and research. By analyzing U.S. faculty constructions of (global) science, it identifies how U.S. institutions position themselves globally. Part of this dynamic is the construction of international collaboration as an activity for elite faculty. And although claims to U.S. scientific supremacy persist, there also the call for "national interest" in maintaining its global position. The chapter further investigates the contrast between faculty perceptions of international research and collaborations as extremely positive—a highlight of their careers—and their experiences of lack of institutional recognition and support. Not surprisingly, given these competing imperatives, faculty members use contradictory rationales to explain why international academic work is meaningful to them in the context of constructions of U.S. superiority, competition, the universality of scientific work, and international research as a "risky" activity. 3The .edu Bonus: Gender, Academic Nationality, and Status chapter abstractThis chapter explains the benefits offered to women in international academic work. Cultural schemas for U.S. scientists reveal an .edu bonus that depicts U.S. scholars as competent and overshadows stereotypes of women as less so. Academics marginalized by gender, minority background, or field can benefit from the .edu bonus, drawing on the positive aspects of being a U.S. scholar in an international environment. Being a woman and a foreigner is thus a positive combination rather than an accumulation of disadvantages. Persistent stereotypes and myths hold that U.S. women scientists are not effective in cultural environments where no native women hold equal positions of power. But women scientists report that they are seen foremost as foreigners and treated as such, making their gender status less salient. This .edu bonus can serve to expand networks internationally and demonstrates the importance of analyzing the intersection of gender and foreigner status of U.S. scientists. 4Glass Fences: Gendered Organization of Global Academia chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on glass fences, the various gendered challenges in international research collaborations. Academia is still organized in gendered ways, and gender is embedded in the international collaboration policies and practices of nation-states, funding agencies, universities, and researchers. The chapter illustrates how these fences emerge in specific international work settings and research practices, examining in particular the implications for women's access to and opportunities to participate in, organize, and operate international conferences, research sites, and fieldwork. Fences emerge when institutions and individuals construct safety abroad as a gendered issue. (Global) academia is gendered through the organization of academic work around norms, values, and expectations that fit the ideal of an elite male global scientist with the personal, social, and academic resources to climb fences. The very structure of international collaboration thus privileges men over women and re-creates gendered inequalities in academia, globally and in the United States. 5Families and International Mobility: Fences or Opportunities? chapter abstractThis chapter challenges the conventional wisdom that family barriers make it impossible for faculty to engage in international collaborations and mobility. Despite discourse that suggests children amplify family burdens for international research for mothers in particular, this chapter debunks the notion that families (meaning young children) construct an insurmountable fence for women and hinder international work only for mothers. Instead, diverse family commitments in various constellations can potentially be constraining, but they can also motivate and even support research abroad. Faculty with international family ties might have extra incentive to spend time in other countries and forge transnational academic careers, while "portable" or "supportive" partners (or lack thereof) can be another important factor in individual mobility and the ability to engage in international collaborations. 6Toward an Inclusive World of (Global) Academia chapter abstractThis chapter considers implications for institutions. Funding agencies and universities need to design internationalization strategies that recognize the diversity of both international research collaborations and their participants and take gender inequalities at the international and national level into account. The chapter suggests concrete ways to support international research collaborations that are inclusive of women, for example, being transparent about support allocation, eliminating obstacles and fences through bureaucratic procedures and policies, and "broadening participation" along demographic lines.

    £21.59

  • Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women,

    Stanford University Press Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women,

    Book SynopsisFollowing the 1979 revolution, the Iranian government set out to Islamize society. Muslim piety had to be visible, in personal appearance and in action. Iranians were told to pray, fast, and attend mosques to be true Muslims. The revolution turned questions of what it means to be a true Muslim into a matter of public debate, taken up widely outside the exclusive realm of male clerics and intellectuals. Say What Your Longing Heart Desires offers an elegant ethnography of these debates among a group of educated, middle-class women whose voices are often muted in studies of Islam. Niloofar Haeri follows them in their daily lives as they engage with the classical poetry of Rumi, Hafez, and Saadi, illuminating a long-standing mutual inspiration between prayer and poetry. She recounts how different forms of prayer may transform into dialogues with God, and, in turn, Haeri illuminates the ways in which believers draw on prayer and ritual acts as the emotional and intellectual material through which they think, deliberate, and debate.Trade Review"This is one of the best books on prayer in all of anthropology. Niloofar Haeri shows that prayer is not an empty ritual, but that it becomes a relationship that changes people—and allows the secular reader to understand how poetry enables women to feel spiritual presence. A beautifully written work."—Tanya Luhrmann, Stanford University, author of When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God"Say What Your Longing Heart Desires is a work that deserves to be widely read by all who are interested in understanding the different approaches to 'authentic' religion that exist in the Muslim world. A rich and detailed account, and a valuable contribution to our knowledge of religious practice."—Talal Asad, author of Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam"Say What Your Longing Heart Desires establishes itself immediately as an essential work in the anthropology of prayer and a major contribution to the study of religious practice and experience. A subtle and compelling work."—Robert A. Orsi, Northwestern University, author of Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them"Say What Your Longing Heart Desires will change common perceptions about women's experiences in Iran. Niloofar Haeri examines competing claims of Muslimhood and offers novel readings of theological conversations on spirituality and religious conviction in the Islamic Republic. An empirically rich and theoretically nuanced book."—Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Princeton University, author of Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment"Niloofar Haeri's deeply researched and elegantly written book brings readers into the most intimate and exigent spaces of a religious world. Haeri examines the everyday prayer practices of Iranian women as the basis for reflecting on the relationship between prayer and poetry and on how ideas about religiosity debated in classical Persian poetry inform the world of prayer. Haeri's ethnographic study of Muslim women at prayer, a practice that is at once deeply personal and utterly social, underscores the diversity of Muslim religious practices and challenges conceptions of what constitutes 'authentic' religion, complicating the distinction between ritual and non-ritual forms of worship. This beautiful book is a signal contribution to the study of women and Islam, with implications for the study of religion itself."—Jury for the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Constructive-Reflective Studies"Using beautiful, limpid prose, Haeri weaves together poetry, religion, and ethnography to show how a group of middle-class, educated Iranian women counter the state's version of Islam. They regularly revisit and reconsider Islamic theology by drawing on the vast body of mystic poetry that is so central to Iranian culture. In the process, Haeri blurs lines thrown up between the secular and the religious in recent scholarship and invites us to consider the deeper, political, and public meaning of ritualistic religious practices."—Committee for the Fatema Mernissi Book Award, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association"As one of the best examples of works on 'lived Islam,' [Say What Your Longing Heart Desires] showcases how much analysis, critical thinking, and self-reflection is involved in the construction and performance of 'religious' acts and will be helpful to both students and experts in the fields of religion, ritual, and literature."—Ahoo Najafian, International Journal of Middle East Studies"Students and teachers of comparative religion will appreciate this fresh and unusual way to learn about how Iranians practice Islam... Readers get the rare gift of hearing the women's words and reading about events in their lives. As Haeri points out, we in the West don't often get that intimacy with Muslims in general or Iranians in particular."—Karie Firoozmand, Friends JournalTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Where Do Ideas Come from? An Education in Classical Poetry Chapter 2: Fixed Forms and the Play of Imagination: Everyday Ritual Prayers Chapter 3: What Are We up to When We Pray? Spontaneous Conversations with God Chapter 4: Movable Mosques: Prayer Books, Women, and Youth Conclusion

    £75.20

  • Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working, and

    Stanford University Press Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working, and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA riveting look at the real reasons Americans feel inadequate in the face of their dreams, and a call to celebrate how we support one another in the service of family and work in our daily life. Jay's days are filled with back-to-back meetings, but he always leaves work in time to pick his daughter up from swimming at 7pm, knowing he'll be back on his laptop later that night. Linda thinks wistfully of the treadmill in her garage as she finishes folding the laundry that's been in the dryer for the last week. Rebecca sits with one child in front of a packet of math homework, while three others clamor for her attention. In Dreams of the Overworked, Christine M. Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian offer vivid sketches of daily life for nine families, capturing what it means to live, work, and parent in a world of impossible expectations, now amplified unlike ever before by smart devices. We are invited into homes and offices, where we recognize the crushing pressure of unraveling plans, and the healing warmth of being together. Moreover, we witness the constant planning that goes into a "good" day, often with the aid of phones and apps. Yet, as technologies empower us to do more, they also promise limitless availability and connection. Checking email on the weekend, monitoring screen time, and counting steps are all part of the daily routine. The stories in this book challenge the seductive myth of the phone-clad individual, by showing that beneath the plastic veneer of technology is a complex, hidden system of support—our dreams being scaffolded by retired in-laws, friendly neighbors, spouses, and paid help. This book makes a compelling case for celebrating the structures that allow us to strive for our dreams, by supporting public policies and community organizations, challenging workplace norms, reimagining family, and valuing the joy of human connection.Trade Review"This marvelous book captures the contemporary experience of nine families, allowing them to speak for themselves about their dreams and how they cope with everyday life. Uniquely, it celebrates the fact that it is the dense web of social connections or scaffolding that enables family life to thrive in the digital age."—Judy Wajcman, London School of Economics"What makes this book unique is its tough love message. Left to its own devices, technology makes us more likely to buy into myths of our perfectibility. The way out begins with our deep understanding of our vulnerability. From there, these savvy and humanistic researchers can help you design a customized plan for individuals and organizations. But it's going to be a plan, not a gimmick."—Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other"Christine Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian embarked on an ambitious project to understand how technology shapes our lives and wound up producing an intimate and urgent portrait of American families stretched to the breaking point. An important work, Dreams of the Overworked busts some potent myths and makes a compelling argument for large-scale changes necessary in public policy and our overworked workplace cultures to allow American families time to breathe, and thrive at work and at home."—Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One Has the Time, director, The Better Life Lab at New America"Work-life balance might be a myth, but the evidence that better rhythm is possible is very real. In this thoughtful, readable book, two experts share what they've learned about how to prioritize work, family, health, and relationships without making yourself insane."—Adam Grant, New York Times-bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take"Beckman and Mazmanian show the stakes in everyday life as we pursue perfection. Whether being the best parent and worker or having a perfect body, we try achieving the unattainable by working hard and efficiently to do more and do it better. Dreams of the Overworked explores the internal work that fills our days—and our minds—as we navigate life, simultaneously alone and in a crowd."—Chuck Darrah, San Jose State University"Beckman and Mazmanian capture timeless and essential truths about blending parenting and employment. Their study of nine upper-middle-class families exposes the independent 'choice' narrative as an idealized fiction and reveals the power of interdependencies in well-run organizations and in loving families. This is a book about cooperation and dependence—dependence on both earning an income and being an involved parent; dependence on our children for their cooperation in the shared endeavor; dependence on our partners, extended family, and friends for their engagement and care; dependence on caregivers who, as Beckman and Mazmanian explain, provide the scaffolding that makes each unique work-family blend possible."—Kathleen L. McGinn, Harvard Business School"This wonderfully intriguing book vividly portrays the lives of nine California-based professional families with young children at home as they try to meet the competing demands of work, parenting, and being fit and healthy. By observing and participating in the home life of these families over extended periods of time, Beckman and Mazmanian reveal how invisible and undervalued support from extended family members, friends, neighbors, and communities is the scaffolding that makes survival and success possible; and they show how smartphones and other personal devices, which are supposed to help, may actually increase the stress of overwork. The example-rich writing is delightful and the informative endnotes fully cover a wide range of literature. By making vivid the everyday details of family work necessary to deal with the competing demands created by the myths of the ideal worker, perfect parent, and ultimate body, this book is eye-opening and a must-read for all."—Lotte Bailyn, author of Breaking the Mold: Redesigning Work for Productive and Satisfying Lives"In their excellent new book, Beckman and Mazmanian explore the Herculean task today's families face as they strive to live up to the unrealistic expectation of doing everything perfectly while also being bombarded by 'helpful technologies.' Their in-depth look at different family configurations frames the challenges—but, more importantly, potential solutions—that today's unique families need to understand in order to thrive in these changing times."—Brad Harrington, Executive Director, Boston College Center for Work & Family"We cannot see what we cannot name. Beckman and Mazmanian cover the familiar terrain of work-family pressures by following real families and telling their stories. In the process, they make much that is invisible visible, naming and defining different kinds of work and introducing the important new concept of scaffolding. They allow us to see society not as individuals making choices and decisions, but as webs of vital but under-appreciated and under-nourished relationships. I learned a great deal from this book; it's an easy read with a lot to say."—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America"How might the myths of the ideal worker, perfect parent/caregiver, and ultimate body play out as we live and work longer? Are there new myths that also need to be explored for overwork as we age and care for others over the life course? Beckman and Mazmanian have started us strongly on the path to answer such deep questions that remain in our struggles to thrive in our lives on and off the job."—Ellen Ernst Kossek, Administrative Science Quarterly"Dreams of the Overworked is a text that succeeds in rendering the textures and feelings of the everyday struggles of middle- to upper-class American working parents... a beautiful piece of ethnography."—Anne Antoni, Organization StudiesTable of Contents1. Introducing the Dream(s) 2. Aspiring to Be the Ideal Worker 3. Playing the Perfect Parent 4. Working Toward the Ultimate Body 5. The Promise of Technology 6. Creating a Spiral of Expectations 7. Invisible Work Is Real Work 8. Scaffolding Dreams 9. Building Tomorrow's Scaffolding Epilogue: Steps Forward

    1 in stock

    £23.39

  • Birthing a Movement: Midwives, Law, and the

    Stanford University Press Birthing a Movement: Midwives, Law, and the

    Book SynopsisRich, personal stories shed light on midwives at the frontier of women's reproductive rights. Midwives in the United States live and work in a complex regulatory environment that is a direct result of state and medical intervention into women's reproductive capacity. In Birthing a Movement, Renée Ann Cramer draws on over a decade of ethnographic and archival research to examine the interactions of law, politics, and activism surrounding midwifery care. Framed by gripping narratives from midwives across the country, she parses out the often-paradoxical priorities with which they must engage—seeking formal professionalization, advocating for reproductive justice, and resisting state-centered approaches. Currently, professional midwives are legal and regulated in their practice in 32 states and illegal in eight, where their practice could bring felony convictions and penalties that include imprisonment. In the remaining ten states, Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are unregulated, but nominally legal. By studying states where CPMs have differing legal statuses, Cramer makes the case that midwives and their clients engage in various forms of mobilization—at times simultaneous, and at times inconsistent—to facilitate access to care, autonomy in childbirth, and the articulation of women's authority in reproduction. This book brings together literatures not frequently in conversation with one another, on regulation, mobilization, health policy, and gender, offering a multifaceted view of the experiences and politics of American midwifery, and promising rich insights to a wide array of scholars, activists, healthcare professionals alike. Trade Review"A beautifully written narrative weaving together passionate, sometimes harrowing stories from midwives, activists, and mothers. This book is a significant legal intervention and a brave, innovative, and sophisticated exploration." -- Eve Darian-Smith * University of California, Irvine *"Integrating an impressive array of qualitative data, rich personal stories, sophisticated theoretical analysis, exquisite writing, and a compassionate authorial voice, this splendid book is a great read and a major addition to the sociolegal scholarship on law and social movements." -- Michael McCann * University of Washington *"Engaging and compassionate. A must-read for every social movements scholar, it is written so as to be accessible and relevant to the undergraduate reader as well. Birthing a Movement is a book that I plan to cite and assign for years to come." -- Sarah Hampson * University of Washington *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Knowing About Legality and Illegality in Midwifery Care in the United States chapter abstractThe introduction tells the story of Gina, a midwife working illegally at the time of our interview. Using Gina's story as a frame of reference, the introduction explains the varying legal status for midwives in the United States and distinguishes certified professional midwives from other professionals who attend labor and delivery. The introduction also provides the theoretical and scholarly context for the rest of the book, focusing on legal pluralism, legal consciousness, legal mobilization, and the limits of law as it is implemented. Finally, the introduction explains my methodology in both researching and presenting the data and argues that we need to tell stories about law and society that are embodied, integrative, and holistic—much like the care provided by midwives to their clients. 1History and Status of Midwives in the United States chapter abstractChapter 1 begins with a story from Missouri after Ophelia, a certified professional midwife, attends a birth that brings her to the attention of the police. The chapter asks how we got to a place where a safe, qualified, trained birth attendant can fear prosecution for a good-outcome birth. The history of midwifery in the United States is one that combines medicalization and professionalization of birth, imperatives of nation-building through reproduction, and a renaissance in care that brought the profession of non-nurse midwifery back from the brink of extinction. Chapter 1 provides a version of that history, stressing that this version is the one told by advocates and midwives as they seek to expand access to care. 2Modern and Professional: Legitimating, Marketing, and Reimagining Midwives chapter abstractChapter 2 demonstrates that, in the name of professionalization, midwives have engaged in seeking legitimization of non-nurse midwifery via national organizations, 3Mostly Happy Accidents: Successfully Mobilizing for Legal Status chapter abstractChapter 3 explores the multiple ways that midwives and advocates use politics to mobilize for legal status. Focusing on the success stories in South Dakota and Missouri, it highlights how the long-term activism in both states, combined with "happy accidents" or contingencies, facilitated the passage of legalization bills. Midwives and advocates use traditional and social media, letter-writing to legislators, and consistent presence in the statehouse to get their bills passed. They also engage in novel attention-seeking activities like making quilts and calendars, designing T-shirts, and handing out M&M cookies (for "moms and midwives"). 4Rights, Rules, and Regulation chapter abstractThis chapter begins with the unusual story of how lawyers needed to defend the constitutionality of the Missouri bill against claims by the Missouri Medical Association, as a way to frame the examination the legal mobilization undertaken on behalf of midwives nationwide. This mobilization includes criminal defense of their practice and lawsuits brought on behalf of victims of obstetric violence. It also includes seeking regulatory governance in rulemaking, defining the scope of practice for midwives, and articulating access to the state as a goal for the movement. 5Catching Babies and Catching Hell: Constitutive Interactions in the Limits and Shadow of the Law chapter abstractChapter 5 examines the various ways that midwives experience their daily practices and finds that, even in states where they are legal and regulated, the law limits and shadows how CPMs work. This limiting of the law is related to cultural disapprobation of out-of-hospital birth and the ways that that disapprobation is reinforced by friends, family, and hospital staff. Chapter 5 shares the stories of midwives who find constraints on their practice from the expressions of these norms and details the difficulties they have finding insurance, finding back-up physicians, and even knowing what the law is. It also shares stories of midwives and mothers who "catch hell" when they discuss their out-of-hospital birth plans or must transfer a client to the hospital for emergency care. 6Deep Transformations, Deep Contradictions: Changing Birth Culture One Movie, One Picnic, One<3.>Tiny Little Epistemological Shift at a Time chapter abstractThis chapter examines the multiple ways that midwives and advocates seek to change birth culture in any given locale, from hosting movies and picnics to thinking through the proper role of hospital and state in labor and delivery. It moves from eco-feminist midwifery advocacy in Berkeley, California, to emergency childbirth classes in rural South Dakota, highlighting the ways that locale shapes approaches to thinking about midwifery care. Chapter 6 also focuses on the contradictions and tensions within the pro-midwifery movement—around issues like abortion, vaccination and homeschooling, rights-seeking, partisan politics, and the decision to seek government intervention and approval at all. The goal in all of these conversations is to facilitate expanded access to midwifery care and the extension of reproductive justice to all who labor and deliver. Conclusion: Attending to Birth in Sociolegal Scholarship: Embodied, Interdisciplinary, and Authoritative Knowledge chapter abstractThe conclusion offers closing thoughts on the relationship between disciplinarity and regulation—seeing both as simultaneously emancipatory and constraining. The conclusion examines the tensions within midwifery communities, and within sociolegal scholarship, and argues that sitting with those tensions in an embodied, interdisciplinary, authoritative epistemology is the way to do good work in both settings.

    £92.80

  • Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique

    Stanford University Press Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique

    Book SynopsisFrom Ramallah to New York, Tel Aviv to Porto Alegre, people around the world celebrate a formidable, transnational Palestinian LGBTQ social movement. Solidarity with Palestinians has become a salient domain of global queer politics. Yet LGBTQ Palestinians, even as they fight patriarchy and imperialism, are themselves subjected to an "empire of critique" from Israeli and Palestinian institutions, Western academics, journalists and filmmakers, and even fellow activists. Such global criticism has limited growth and led to an emphasis within the movement on anti-imperialism over the struggle against homophobia. With this book, Sa'ed Atshan asks how transnational progressive social movements can balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis. He explores critical junctures in the history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism, revealing the queer Palestinian spirit of agency, defiance, and creativity, in the face of daunting pressures and forces working to constrict it. Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique explores the necessity of connecting the struggles for Palestinian freedom with the struggle against homophobia.Trade Review"This utterly brilliant book will be a classic. Sa'ed Atshan's comprehensive study of queer Palestinian activism provides a rich understanding of the complex intersections of selfhood, activism, and belonging. By demonstrating the limits of binarisms of East/West and self/other through detailed empirical analysis and powerful theoretical interventions, Atshan has given us a landmark work valuable to Middle East studies, queer studies, and anthropology in the broadest sense."—Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, author of The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia "Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique is a breath of fresh air! In the academic climate in which 'radical' has become synonymous with crude schisms between West and East, authentic and inauthentic, pure and sellout, this book provides a much-needed nuanced account of Queer Palestine. Sa'ed Atshan carefully historicizes the local terrain and rightly problematizes how US-based scholarship has turned the critique of empire into an empire of critique. This is a brilliant call for academic self-reflection and a brave rejection of so-called radical myths of cultural authenticity."—Gil Z. Hochberg, Columbia University "Sa'ed Atshan brilliantly weaves together ethnography and personal experience in the most thoughtful, engaging, and emotionally captivating ways. His sophisticated work captures the nexus of a scholar-activist, offering an authoritative account of the challenges and trajectory of the Palestinian LGBTQ movement. A tour de force and a remarkable book for both its theoretical and empirical contributions."—Amaney A. Jamal, Princeton University "This powerful and prophetic book shows that the struggle for justice and freedom against empire and homophobia are indivisible. Sa'ed Atshan's text is a major intellectual force for good."—Cornel West, Harvard University "In Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique, Sa'ed Atshan provides a brilliant theorization of an excessive mode of political critique that strives for the high ground yet contributes to the calcification of social justice movements. Through a nuanced ethnography that foregrounds the plurality of queer experience in Israel and Palestine and the enormous complexity of the global Palestinian solidarity movement, Atshan demonstrates how an intellectual stance that combines a conviction of the moral superiority of one's political judgments with deep suspicion concerning others' complicity in relations of domination and the likely oppressive consequences of prescriptions for social transformation engenders discursive disenfranchisement, loss of key intellectual distinctions, neglect of pragmatic constraints, demoralization of activists, and the truncation of transnational queer solidarity. This deeply insightful book makes vital contributions to Queer Studies, Middle East Studies, Social Movement Studies, and an understanding of the dynamics of social justice praxis."—Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers University "Atshan's book, an autoethnography of queer Palestine, is methodologically impeccable, incorporating academic work and personal positioning. He advances a philosophy of critique centered on the everyday material lives of people, that is both complex and masterfully written. He makes a bold and thought-provoking argument—one that speaks to social justice activists as well as academics."—2020 Lee Ann Fujii Book Award Committee, International Studies Association "[A] timely and urgent account....Along with a succinct presentation of the immense challenges faced by the LGBTQ-identifying Palestinians, Atshan highlights Palestinian agency, ingenuity, and resilience."—Joshua Donova, New Books Network "[Atshan] immaculately illustrates the development of movements along with the challenges they face by both conservative Palestinians and Arabs at large and by the repressive occupation. This work is pioneering and fills a significant gap within Middle East Studies."—Lana Shehadeh, Arab Studies Quarterly "The goal of Atshan's sensitive 'critique of critique' is fostering a 'transforming activism with loving energy' that helps the Palestinian LGBTQ movement start to grow again and reach its full potential. His long-term hope is 'that Israelis and Palestinians, straight and queer, can all live together as equals.' My hope is that all Friends will seek to find ways to help achieve this healing vision."—Steve Chase, Friends Journal "Atshan's work, in describing the empire of critique surrounding the queer Palestinian experience, demonstrates the highly politicised nature of certain rights and their potential to be weaponised in order to subvert the gaze from other issues. Furthermore, through his analysis of the heterogeneity of narratives surrounding this liberation movement, he reminds us that the voices of those that exist at these intersections of oppressions should and must be the loudest."—Iona Cable, Human Rights Pulse "Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique is a much-needed contribution to queer studies, Middle East studies, and scholarship on social movements and a must-read for those who are committed to the difficult politics of solidarity."—Evren Savci, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies "This is a most timely and admirably courageous book that challenges the seeming gap between queer activism and anthropology...Atshan shows that anthropology has the potential to support local activist struggles against homophobia and imperialism by rigorously engaging with, rather than dismissing, the experiences and views of these activists—their simultaneous engagement with multiple axes of oppression."—2021 Ruth Benedict Book Prize Committee, Association for Queer Anthropology "Atshan makes a major contribution to the study of social movements generally and the queer Palestinian movement specifically. Atshan conceptually explores resistance and identity in the context of Israeli and Palestinian conflict. He offers an empirically rich and compelling account, where readers are let into the everyday life of the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement."—Sara Salman, Contemporary Sociology "The nature of life under colonisation and occupation, in Atshan's view, means that no one, not even 'the most radical activists and academics', can lay claim to the moral high ground. Everyone is implicated in some way. It's better to edge forward in modest ways."—Tareq Baconi, London Review of Books "[Atshan's] work fills gaps and addresses the silences and deliberate erasures in Palestine studies, Middle East studies, Middle East anthropology, queer theories, and peace and conflict studies, showing how 'queer liberation cannot be realized while colonial subjugation persists,' because these struggles are 'inextricably linked' (p. 222). Scholars and students engaged in Israel/Palestine and settler colonial struggles will benefit from this auto/ethnographic text of subjectivities on the ground."—Bernardita M. Yunis (Varas), International Journal of Communication "Atshan's work is candid, self-critical, and unexpectedly inspiring."—Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs "[Atshan's] book is the culmination, at least for now, of his years-long effort to persuade his activist community to simultaneously oppose Israeli rule and Palestinian homophobia, and not privilege the one over the other... Atshan's book is a trenchant clarion call, harnessed to the words of the iconic African American poet Audre Lorde: 'there is no hierarchy of oppressions.'"—Abe Silberstein, The Tel Aviv Review of Books Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: "there is no hierarchy of oppressions" chapter abstractThis introductory chapter foregrounds Audre Lorde's words that "there is no hierarchy of oppressions." It extends this thesis to the central question at the heart of this book, which is how transnational progressive social movements are able (or not) to balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis at once. The focus here is on the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement, revealing its original aim to empower queer Palestinians to achieve national and sexual freedom. The chapter defines the critical concepts that help account for the rise of this movement in Palestine and globally. These concepts include the empire of critique, radical purists, discursive disenfranchisement, movement plateau, pinkwashing, pinkwatching, ethnocracy, homophobia, Zionism, ethnoheteronormativity, and the white gaze. This chapter also contextualizes this project within the intellectual genealogy of which it is a part. Chapter 1: LGBTQ Palestinians and the Politics of the Ordinary chapter abstractChapter 1 traces the rise of the LGBTQ Palestinian movement in Israel/Palestine, also known as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories or as historic Palestine. The first section delineates an ethnographic approach to social movement theory as the conceptual framework through which to understand this movement. The next section outlines the heterogeneity of queer Palestinian subjects, and the following section provides an overview of Palestinian homophobia. I then account for the emergence of the LGBTQ movement in Palestine and follow that with a discussion of queer Palestinian epistemologies and a section on the rise of radical purists in the movement. I conclude with examples of queer Palestinian subjectivities. I argue that queer Palestinian life and resistance derives its power from ordinary acts in extraordinary contexts under ethnoheteronormativity. This chapter furthers the case for attention to affect and more pluralism and inclusivity within the movement. Chapter 2: Global Solidarity and the Politics of Pinkwashing chapter abstractChapter 2 applies conceptions of victims and saviors to the debates on pinkwashing and pinkwatching. It explicates four examples of pinkwashing. I then provide an overview of homophobia and LGBTQ rights in contemporary Israel, recognizing the elision of Israeli homophobia and elevation of Israeli queer empowerment in pinkwashing discourse. The final section of this chapter offers an analysis of hegemonic critiques of the use of the terms pinkwashing and pinkwatching in the contexts of (a) the charge of singling out Israel for criticism, (b) the invocation of the presence of queer Palestinians in Israel, and (c) debates surrounding the salience of the Israeli occupation. It is in the interplay between pinkwashing and pinkwatching that the queer Palestinian movement has catalyzed global solidarity. Chapter 3: Transnational Activism and the Politics of Boycotts chapter abstractThe first section of chapter 3 traces how the conflict over boycotts maps onto successive Tel Aviv Pride parades. It examines queer Palestinian calls to boycott Tel Aviv Pride, decisions to participate in the parade by queer antioccupation activists, and the emergence of resistance to the Israeli state by mainstream LGBTQ organizations in Israel. The chapter then focuses on two cities that emerged as early epicenters of the pinkwatching and boycott debates. The next section examines the politics of boundary policing as they played out on multiple fronts. The chapter then turns to a critical moment in the summer of 2017 when conflict between pinkwashers and pinkwatchers came to a head and surged into the national media spotlight. This chapter demonstrates that we are equipped, from social theory and peace and conflict studies, with conceptual tools to transcend the present impasse animating boycotts in the context of queer Palestinian transnational activism. Chapter 4: Media, Film, and the Politics of Representation chapter abstractChapter 4 examines the relationship between the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement, representations of queer Palestinians in film and journalism, and the significant mistrust of the global mainstream media that has arisen among movement leaders. The chapter opens with a description of how the mainstream Western press tends to prioritize the most sensational stories about queer Palestinians. The second half of the chapter outlines the movement's critique of pinkwashing films produced by Israelis and internationals and the movement's attendant calls to boycott those films. This chapter delineates examples of cinematic tropes that clearly reinforce pinkwashing as well as others that are more nuanced. It also analyzes films that feature queer love between Israelis and Palestinians. In addition, I discuss a number of queer Palestinian films, highlighting their importance and controversy. The chapter concludes with the story of an as-yet-unreleased documentary on the first US LGBTQ delegation to Palestine. Chapter 5: Critique of Empire and the Politics of Academia chapter abstractChapter 5 examines two theoretical frameworks elaborated by Western-based scholars—the Gay International by Joseph Massad and homonationalism by Jasbir Puar—as they have been applied to the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement. I reveal the debilitating effects that these academic critiques have had on the Queer Palestine movement and the possibility for academics and activists to formulate a new mode of scholarly engagement aimed at supporting queer social movements in Palestine and across the Middle East. As in previous chapters, I compare contributions that are corrosive, placing activists in the cross-fire between left- and right-wing criticisms of their efforts, to those that raise difficult intellectual, ethical, and practical questions while protecting from paralysis those who struggle for justice. Conclusion: "we were never meant to survive" chapter abstractJust as the introduction foregrounded words of Audre Lorde, this concluding chapter does so as well, with attention to Lorde's call for racialized queer subjects to speak in the face of attempts to undermine their survival. The conclusion conceptualizes how scholars and activists can distinguish between critique and criticism. Drawing on Jose Muñoz's notions of queer futurity and utopia, I outline my vision and road map for the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement. This is done with an eye to transcending the empire of critique and the movement's current plateau so it can become a more democratic and pluralistic movement that can resume growing.

    £79.20

  • Dying to Serve: Militarism, Affect, and the

    Stanford University Press Dying to Serve: Militarism, Affect, and the

    Book SynopsisThe Pakistan Army is a uniquely powerful and influential institution, with vast landholdings and resources. It has deep roots in the colonial armed forces and relies heavily on certain regions to supply its soldiers, especially parts of rural Punjab, where men have served in the army for generations. These men, their wives and mothers, and the military culture surrounding them are the focus of Maria Rashid's Dying to Serve, which innovatively and sensitively addresses the question: how does the military thrive when so much of its work results in injury, debility, and death? Taking ritual commemorations of fallen soldiers as one critical site of study, Rashid argues that these "spectacles of mourning" are careful manipulations of affect, gendered and structured by the military to reinforce its omnipotence in the lives of its subjects. Grounding her study in the famed martial district of Chakwal, Rashid finds affect similarly deployed in recruitment and training practices, as well as management of death and compensation to families. She contends that understanding these affective technologies is crucial to challenging the appeal of the military institution globally.Trade Review"This absorbing and troubling book grapples with the puzzle of how the Pakistani military can hold the devotion and loyalty of so many citizens while promising them endless wars, death, and impairment. Rashid's thoughtful and at times harrowing account draws on sensitive ethnography with families of martyrs and unprecedented access to military ceremonies to weave a persuasive argument about the power of martyrdom and ritualistic mourning as technologies of rule."—Laleh Khalili, Queen Mary University of London"This is a unique contribution to critical studies of contemporary militarism as a global phenomenon, while simultaneously casting light on an institution that is not well understood outside its own national context. Ethnographic studies of military organizations are extremely rare due to the excessive secrecy of the defense sector, but Maria Rashid is able to demonstrate why and how gender is so central to this web of institutional and ideological power. This highly original study shows that we can learn about the appeal of military service by engaging with those who stand to lose the most from its allure: the women whose sons and husbands die in uniform."—Vron Ware, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Kingston University"This book is the only text on the Pakistan army that ethnographically focuses on the lives (and deaths) of non-commissioned soldiers and not of senior commissioned officers. By sharing with us the voices of next-of-kin of martyred soldiers, especially women, it weaves a nuanced argument that shows the affective dissonance between women's feelings of regret and anger about their lost sons and husbands and the public affirmation of their sacrifice. It hence explores the gap between the everyday experiences of families that mourn their dead sons in rural Pakistan and the idealized image of the martyr that saturates nationalist representations. Maria Rashid, by brilliantly using tropes of paradox and ambivalence in this excellent book, tells us a story that interplays between nationalism, sacrifice, and masculinity in contemporary Pakistan. Further, unlike many renditions on the Pakistani military, this exceptional text does not focus on the coercive aspect of the army; rather, it enables us to understand the persuasive powers through which this potentially hegemonic entity seeks to create consensus in an effort to produce ideological conformity."—Kamran Asdar Ali, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin"A good read for those who want to understand militarism in Pakistan as well as why the military has become the centerpiece of Pakistani society for decades."—Shuja Nawaz, The Friday Times"[A] must-read for all, especially those who once believed in the narrative of militarism and the sanctity of military deaths but were confused when the layers of this social construct began to peel off."—Kamaldeep Singh Sandhu, Strife"Rashid's book is a sobering reminder that military dominance over civilians is unlikely to change in Pakistan in the foreseeable future."—Rana Banerji, The Indian Express"Psychologist Maria Rashid has produced an extraordinary survey in which she seeks to demonstrate the Pakistan military has used death in combat, particularly the concept of martyrdom, as a tool to extend its domination over the country's political and civil society."—Arnold Zeitlin, South Asia Journal"Every story [I've encountered] demonstrated a dangerous doubt at the very heart of the military; a sign that this powerful institution—which likes to present itself as homogenous, disciplined, heroic and united—is more broken than the generals would have us believe. Maria Rashid's new book,Dying To Serve: Militarism, Affect and the Politics of Sacrifice in the Pakistan Army, is a powerful intervention in studies of Pakistani militarism for precisely this reason."—Mahvish Amad, Jamhoor"A compelling account of how micro-level developments fit with the broader pursuit of the Pakistan Army's agenda and narrative, Dying to Serve should be compulsory reading for students and scholars of the army, politics and nationalism at the grassroots level."—Dr. Azma Faiz, Dawn"Dying to Serveboth broadens the anthropology of militarism's geographic focus, which has largely been the United States, and deepens anthropological understandings of militarism as a cultural system through Rashid's rigorous analysis of its gendered and affective dimensions."—Kristin V. Monroe, American Ethnologist"Rashid's book is a remarkable study, providing a social lens through which to see and understand the layered complexities of the relationship between the army, its 'immediate' subjects (families of deceased soldiers) and the nation at large. The book has also opened up space for further research on pacifist, cultural, feminist and post-colonial themes in the context of the Pakistani military."—Faiza Farid, International Affairs"[Dying to Serve] provides a fresh contribution to the study of militarization in Pakistan by drawing upon a psychosocial approach and by focusing on aspects of subjectivity and intimacy in investigating the role played by gender and families in the constitution of the Pakistan Army. The book will certainly prompt fresh discussions and debates in thinking about the Pakistan Army in relationship to kinship, particularly given that so much of the existing scholarship is either focused on [the War on Terror] through the perspective of foreign policy, global geopolitics and military strategy, or where the Pakistan Army is discussed as an important actor in domestic politics and in the country's economy."—Sanaullah Khan, Journal of South Asian Development"The Pakistan Army...has deep roots in the colonial armed forces and relies heavily on certain regions to supply its soldiers, especially parts of rural Punjab, where men have served in the army for generations. These men, their wives and mothers, and the military culture surrounding them are the focus of Maria Rashid's Dying to Serve, which innovatively and sensitively addresses the question: how does the military thrive when so much of its work results in injury, debility, and death?"—Nadia H. Barsoum, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies"One of the most important contributions ofDying to Serveis elucidating the materialist grounds on which militarism stands, undergirded by a historical colonial political economy that is reworked for contemporary Pakistani militarism."—Zahra Khalid, Security Dialogue"Over the course of the last decade, scholarship on the Pakistan Army has proliferated; however, Rashid's Dying to Serve stands out because she has done what others have been unable to do: conduct research among and on the enlisted ranks of the Pakistan Army and their families, with a particular focus on the district of Chakwal. That Rashid identified these men as a site of important empirical work is to her commendation; that she devised a suitable research methodology to conduct the work is remarkable."—C. Christine Farr, Pacific Affairs

    £86.40

  • Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered

    Stanford University Press Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered

    Book SynopsisContemporary Japan is home to one of the world's largest and most diversified markets for sex. Widely understood to be socially necessary, the sex industry operates and recruits openly, staffed by a diverse group of women who are attracted by its high pay and the promise of autonomy—but whose work remains stigmatized and unmentionable. Based on fieldwork with adult Japanese women in Tokyo's sex industry, Healing Labor explores the relationship between how sex workers think about what sex is and what it does and the political-economic roles and possibilities that they imagine for themselves. Gabriele Koch reveals how Japanese sex workers regard sex as a deeply feminized care—a healing labor—that is both necessary and significant for the well-being and productivity of men. In this nuanced ethnography that approaches sex as a social practice with political and economic effects, Koch compellingly illustrates the linkages between women's work, sex, and the gendered economy.Trade Review"This is an intelligent and insightful study of Japanese female sex workers who provide iyashi or 'healing care' to Japan's depleted male workers. Koch makes a compelling and provocative case for the productive role of sex work in the Japanese gendered economy. It is both marginalized and necessary, caught in a gray area between legality and illegality, and dependent on the perception that it is done by amateurs. Yet, these characteristics shape the risks sex workers face and undermine their claims to labor rights. In contrast to anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution activists, they do not consider themselves as exploited and coerced."—Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh"Exceptional sensibility and true originality characterize Gabriele Koch's Healing Labor, which has sex workers tell their stories on their own terms while bringing to life the globally most pertinent debates about labor, care, and sexual commerce. An elegantly written, pathbreaking book that carries its theoretical sophistication and great erudition lightly."—Sabine Frühstück, University of California, Santa Barbara"One of the pleasures of Gabriele Koch's new book...is how its erudition is mixed with an anthropologist's ear on the ground."—Nicolas Gattig, The Japan Times"[Rather] than simply use her interviews as interesting details to supplement an analysis that lies elsewhere, a problem present in many ethnographies, [Koch] grounds her argument about the Japanese economy firmly in the methodology of anthropology....Koch strikes the perfect balance between detail and analysis. Highly recommended."—M. J. Wert, CHOICE"Koch's well-organized and fluently written book will not only enlighten anthropologists with an interest in gender issues, the sex industry, labor relations, and women's rights, but will also provide valuable insights for anyone interested in the Japanese economic system and workplace. It should certainly be recommended reading for anyone planning to work in Japan."—Brigitte Steger, The Journal of Japanese Studies"[Healing Labor] is an incisive exploration of sex work as both a form of gendered work and care that is helpful to scholars of Japan in particular, and East Asia more generally; scholars interested in health, caregiving, and labor or economics regardless of geographic focus; and scholars interested in sex and sexuality, gender, and social justice."—Pamela Runestad, H-Japan"Koch's well-informed and eloquent work provides an outstanding example of an ethnography that remains close to the voices of her interlocutors, but never loses sight of the larger structural issues of the environment within which they eke out a living. It opens up a whole range of important questions concerning the sex industry in Japan and beyond... Future researchers will be well counseled to take Koch's book as a starting point in their own inquiries. With its stringent analysis and clarity of voice, it is well suited for a range of courses and, in my experience, a great hit with undergraduate and post-graduate students alike."—Fabio Gygi, Monumenta Nipponica"[T]his book demonstrates a conceptual advance for this area of study via its introduction of the key term 'healing labor,' to explain the above-noted fundamental contradictions of sex work and the social values they are embedded within in Japan."—Kaoru Aoyama, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sex in Gray Spaces 2. First-Timers Welcome! 3. Stigma and the Moral Economy 4. Healing Customers 5. Victims All 6. Risk and Rights Epilogue

    £79.20

  • Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered

    Stanford University Press Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered

    Book SynopsisContemporary Japan is home to one of the world's largest and most diversified markets for sex. Widely understood to be socially necessary, the sex industry operates and recruits openly, staffed by a diverse group of women who are attracted by its high pay and the promise of autonomy—but whose work remains stigmatized and unmentionable. Based on fieldwork with adult Japanese women in Tokyo's sex industry, Healing Labor explores the relationship between how sex workers think about what sex is and what it does and the political-economic roles and possibilities that they imagine for themselves. Gabriele Koch reveals how Japanese sex workers regard sex as a deeply feminized care—a healing labor—that is both necessary and significant for the well-being and productivity of men. In this nuanced ethnography that approaches sex as a social practice with political and economic effects, Koch compellingly illustrates the linkages between women's work, sex, and the gendered economy.Trade Review"This is an intelligent and insightful study of Japanese female sex workers who provide iyashi or 'healing care' to Japan's depleted male workers. Koch makes a compelling and provocative case for the productive role of sex work in the Japanese gendered economy. It is both marginalized and necessary, caught in a gray area between legality and illegality, and dependent on the perception that it is done by amateurs. Yet, these characteristics shape the risks sex workers face and undermine their claims to labor rights. In contrast to anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution activists, they do not consider themselves as exploited and coerced."—Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh"Exceptional sensibility and true originality characterize Gabriele Koch's Healing Labor, which has sex workers tell their stories on their own terms while bringing to life the globally most pertinent debates about labor, care, and sexual commerce. An elegantly written, pathbreaking book that carries its theoretical sophistication and great erudition lightly."—Sabine Frühstück, University of California, Santa Barbara"One of the pleasures of Gabriele Koch's new book...is how its erudition is mixed with an anthropologist's ear on the ground."—Nicolas Gattig, The Japan Times"[Rather] than simply use her interviews as interesting details to supplement an analysis that lies elsewhere, a problem present in many ethnographies, [Koch] grounds her argument about the Japanese economy firmly in the methodology of anthropology....Koch strikes the perfect balance between detail and analysis. Highly recommended."—M. J. Wert, CHOICE"Koch's well-organized and fluently written book will not only enlighten anthropologists with an interest in gender issues, the sex industry, labor relations, and women's rights, but will also provide valuable insights for anyone interested in the Japanese economic system and workplace. It should certainly be recommended reading for anyone planning to work in Japan."—Brigitte Steger, The Journal of Japanese Studies"[Healing Labor] is an incisive exploration of sex work as both a form of gendered work and care that is helpful to scholars of Japan in particular, and East Asia more generally; scholars interested in health, caregiving, and labor or economics regardless of geographic focus; and scholars interested in sex and sexuality, gender, and social justice."—Pamela Runestad, H-Japan"Koch's well-informed and eloquent work provides an outstanding example of an ethnography that remains close to the voices of her interlocutors, but never loses sight of the larger structural issues of the environment within which they eke out a living. It opens up a whole range of important questions concerning the sex industry in Japan and beyond... Future researchers will be well counseled to take Koch's book as a starting point in their own inquiries. With its stringent analysis and clarity of voice, it is well suited for a range of courses and, in my experience, a great hit with undergraduate and post-graduate students alike."—Fabio Gygi, Monumenta Nipponica"[T]his book demonstrates a conceptual advance for this area of study via its introduction of the key term 'healing labor,' to explain the above-noted fundamental contradictions of sex work and the social values they are embedded within in Japan."—Kaoru Aoyama, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sex in Gray Spaces 2. First-Timers Welcome! 3. Stigma and the Moral Economy 4. Healing Customers 5. Victims All 6. Risk and Rights Epilogue

    £21.59

  • Dying to Serve: Militarism, Affect, and the

    Stanford University Press Dying to Serve: Militarism, Affect, and the

    Book SynopsisThe Pakistan Army is a uniquely powerful and influential institution, with vast landholdings and resources. It has deep roots in the colonial armed forces and relies heavily on certain regions to supply its soldiers, especially parts of rural Punjab, where men have served in the army for generations. These men, their wives and mothers, and the military culture surrounding them are the focus of Maria Rashid's Dying to Serve, which innovatively and sensitively addresses the question: how does the military thrive when so much of its work results in injury, debility, and death? Taking ritual commemorations of fallen soldiers as one critical site of study, Rashid argues that these "spectacles of mourning" are careful manipulations of affect, gendered and structured by the military to reinforce its omnipotence in the lives of its subjects. Grounding her study in the famed martial district of Chakwal, Rashid finds affect similarly deployed in recruitment and training practices, as well as management of death and compensation to families. She contends that understanding these affective technologies is crucial to challenging the appeal of the military institution globally.Trade Review"This absorbing and troubling book grapples with the puzzle of how the Pakistani military can hold the devotion and loyalty of so many citizens while promising them endless wars, death, and impairment. Rashid's thoughtful and at times harrowing account draws on sensitive ethnography with families of martyrs and unprecedented access to military ceremonies to weave a persuasive argument about the power of martyrdom and ritualistic mourning as technologies of rule."—Laleh Khalili, Queen Mary University of London"This is a unique contribution to critical studies of contemporary militarism as a global phenomenon, while simultaneously casting light on an institution that is not well understood outside its own national context. Ethnographic studies of military organizations are extremely rare due to the excessive secrecy of the defense sector, but Maria Rashid is able to demonstrate why and how gender is so central to this web of institutional and ideological power. This highly original study shows that we can learn about the appeal of military service by engaging with those who stand to lose the most from its allure: the women whose sons and husbands die in uniform."—Vron Ware, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Kingston University"This book is the only text on the Pakistan army that ethnographically focuses on the lives (and deaths) of non-commissioned soldiers and not of senior commissioned officers. By sharing with us the voices of next-of-kin of martyred soldiers, especially women, it weaves a nuanced argument that shows the affective dissonance between women's feelings of regret and anger about their lost sons and husbands and the public affirmation of their sacrifice. It hence explores the gap between the everyday experiences of families that mourn their dead sons in rural Pakistan and the idealized image of the martyr that saturates nationalist representations. Maria Rashid, by brilliantly using tropes of paradox and ambivalence in this excellent book, tells us a story that interplays between nationalism, sacrifice, and masculinity in contemporary Pakistan. Further, unlike many renditions on the Pakistani military, this exceptional text does not focus on the coercive aspect of the army; rather, it enables us to understand the persuasive powers through which this potentially hegemonic entity seeks to create consensus in an effort to produce ideological conformity."—Kamran Asdar Ali, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin"A good read for those who want to understand militarism in Pakistan as well as why the military has become the centerpiece of Pakistani society for decades."—Shuja Nawaz, The Friday Times"[A] must-read for all, especially those who once believed in the narrative of militarism and the sanctity of military deaths but were confused when the layers of this social construct began to peel off."—Kamaldeep Singh Sandhu, Strife"Rashid's book is a sobering reminder that military dominance over civilians is unlikely to change in Pakistan in the foreseeable future."—Rana Banerji, The Indian Express"Psychologist Maria Rashid has produced an extraordinary survey in which she seeks to demonstrate the Pakistan military has used death in combat, particularly the concept of martyrdom, as a tool to extend its domination over the country's political and civil society."—Arnold Zeitlin, South Asia Journal"Every story [I've encountered] demonstrated a dangerous doubt at the very heart of the military; a sign that this powerful institution—which likes to present itself as homogenous, disciplined, heroic and united—is more broken than the generals would have us believe. Maria Rashid's new book,Dying To Serve: Militarism, Affect and the Politics of Sacrifice in the Pakistan Army, is a powerful intervention in studies of Pakistani militarism for precisely this reason."—Mahvish Amad, Jamhoor"A compelling account of how micro-level developments fit with the broader pursuit of the Pakistan Army's agenda and narrative, Dying to Serve should be compulsory reading for students and scholars of the army, politics and nationalism at the grassroots level."—Dr. Azma Faiz, Dawn"Dying to Serveboth broadens the anthropology of militarism's geographic focus, which has largely been the United States, and deepens anthropological understandings of militarism as a cultural system through Rashid's rigorous analysis of its gendered and affective dimensions."—Kristin V. Monroe, American Ethnologist"Rashid's book is a remarkable study, providing a social lens through which to see and understand the layered complexities of the relationship between the army, its 'immediate' subjects (families of deceased soldiers) and the nation at large. The book has also opened up space for further research on pacifist, cultural, feminist and post-colonial themes in the context of the Pakistani military."—Faiza Farid, International Affairs"[Dying to Serve] provides a fresh contribution to the study of militarization in Pakistan by drawing upon a psychosocial approach and by focusing on aspects of subjectivity and intimacy in investigating the role played by gender and families in the constitution of the Pakistan Army. The book will certainly prompt fresh discussions and debates in thinking about the Pakistan Army in relationship to kinship, particularly given that so much of the existing scholarship is either focused on [the War on Terror] through the perspective of foreign policy, global geopolitics and military strategy, or where the Pakistan Army is discussed as an important actor in domestic politics and in the country's economy."—Sanaullah Khan, Journal of South Asian Development"The Pakistan Army...has deep roots in the colonial armed forces and relies heavily on certain regions to supply its soldiers, especially parts of rural Punjab, where men have served in the army for generations. These men, their wives and mothers, and the military culture surrounding them are the focus of Maria Rashid's Dying to Serve, which innovatively and sensitively addresses the question: how does the military thrive when so much of its work results in injury, debility, and death?"—Nadia H. Barsoum, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies"One of the most important contributions ofDying to Serveis elucidating the materialist grounds on which militarism stands, undergirded by a historical colonial political economy that is reworked for contemporary Pakistani militarism."—Zahra Khalid, Security Dialogue"Over the course of the last decade, scholarship on the Pakistan Army has proliferated; however, Rashid's Dying to Serve stands out because she has done what others have been unable to do: conduct research among and on the enlisted ranks of the Pakistan Army and their families, with a particular focus on the district of Chakwal. That Rashid identified these men as a site of important empirical work is to her commendation; that she devised a suitable research methodology to conduct the work is remarkable."—C. Christine Farr, Pacific Affairs

    £23.39

  • Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States

    Stanford University Press Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States

    Book SynopsisA stirring account of the experiences of migrant domestic workers, and what freedom, abuse, and power mean within a vast contract labor system. In the United Arab Emirates, there is an employment sponsorship system known as the kafala. Migrant domestic workers within it must solely work for their employer, secure their approval to leave the country, and obtain their consent to terminate a job. In Unfree, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas examines the labor of women from the Philippines, who represent the largest domestic workforce in the country. She challenges presiding ideas about the kafala, arguing that its reduction to human trafficking is, at best, unproductive, and at worst damaging to genuine efforts to regulate this system that impacts tens of millions of domestic workers across the globe. The kafala system technically renders migrant workers unfree as they are made subject to the arbitrary authority of their employer. Not surprisingly, it has been the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism from human rights advocates and scholars. Yet, contrary to their claims, Parreñas argues that most employers do not abuse domestic workers or maximize the extraction of their labor. Still, the outrage elicited by this possibility dominates much of public discourse and overshadows the more mundane reality of domestic work in the region. Drawing on unparalleled data collected over 4 years,this book diverges from previous studies as it establishes that the kafala system does not necessarily result in abuse, but instead leads to the absence of labor standards. This absence is reflected in the diversity of work conditions across households, ranging from dehumanizing treatment, infantilization, to respect and recognition of domestic workers. Unfree shows how various stakeholders, including sending and receiving states, NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, employers and domestic workers, project moral standards to guide the unregulated labor of domestic work. They can mitigate or aggravate the arbitrary authority of employers. Parreñas offers a deft and rich portrait of how morals mediate work on the ground, warning against the dangers of reducing unfreedom to structural violence.Trade Review"Challenging standard interpretations of migrant women's powerlessness and oppression, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas offers a pathbreaking account of Filipino domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates. A compelling contribution not only to studies of migration and labor but also to economic sociology."—Viviana A. Zelizer, Princeton University"I have long been impressed by the distinctive ways in which Parreñas generates her analysis of diverse social conditions. These analytic modes emerge once again in her latest book Unfree, one phrase that contains a vastness of meanings. This is a must-read."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University"In this impressive ethnography, Parreñas illuminates moral harms associated with 'unfree labor' and offers new insights into the quandary that arises when redress for those harms lays well beyond the laws of sending states, receiving states, and international organizations."—Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers UniversityBased on the republican conceptualization of unfreedom, [Unfree] paves the way for understanding a wide range of experiences and conditions of migrant domestic workers in the UAE. This study... both acknowledges the positive experiences of domestic workers in thekafalasystem and includes them in the analysis by complicating the story of exploitation unlike the previous studies on domestic work in the region."—Canan Uçar, International Migration"Locating unfreedom in the sponsorship system that gives free reign to sponsors over their employees,Unfree lays a critical foundation for future scholarly, legal, and policy interventions in migrant domestic work, both in the Arab world and beyond. Excellent for anyone working on labor and migration. Highly Recommended."—J. Alkorani, CHOICE"Unfree guides us through the transnational mobility of these domestic workers and their subsequent economic immobility. Using relatively plain language, the book is accessible to academic and non-academic audiences from disparate disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in understanding Filipino domestic work in the UAE beyond victimhood."—Estella Carpi, Mashriq & Mahar"A powerful, pathbreaking book that upends many (Orientalist) assumptions about migrant domestic work in Arab states, Unfree is set to become a classic."—Victoria Reyes, American Journal of Sociology"Without doubt, [Unfree] sets a new direction for us to understand the work environment of migrant domestic workers and should be read by all who are interested in the topic."—Eric Fong, Social Forces

    £68.00

  • At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global

    Stanford University Press At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global

    Book SynopsisIn the mid-1990s, experts predicted that India would face the world's biggest AIDS epidemic by 2000. Though a crisis at this scale never fully materialized, global public health institutions, donors, and the Indian state initiated a massive effort to prevent it. HIV prevention programs channeled billions of dollars toward those groups designated as at-risk—sex workers and men who have sex with men. At Risk captures this unique moment in which these criminalized and marginalized groups reinvented their "at-risk" categorization and became central players in the crisis response. The AIDS crisis created a contradictory, conditional, and temporary opening for sex-worker and LGBTIQ activists to renegotiate citizenship and to make demands on the state. Working across India and Kenya, Gowri Vijayakumar provides a fine-grained account of the political struggles at the heart of the Indian AIDS response. These range from everyday articulations of sexual identity in activist organizations in Bangalore to new approaches to HIV prevention in Nairobi, where prevention strategies first introduced in India are adapted and circulate, as in the global AIDS field more broadly. Vijayakumar illuminates how the politics of gender, sexuality, and nationalism shape global crisis response. In so doing, she considers the precarious potential for social change in and after a crisis.Trade Review"At Risk is feminist transnational sociology at its best! Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this book tells a richly textured, and often surprising, story about how Indian sex workers and LGBTQ people impacted the terrains of sexual politics amidst the AIDS crisis. Vijayakumar deftly illuminates what the global South has to teach us about sexual epidemics, activism, and the transformation of sexual cultures."—Jyoti Puri, Simmons University"At Risk offers the near-historical, ethnographic critique of sexuality politics and the HIV/AIDS crisis in India that we need. Vijayakumar shows in rich detail how 'ideas of sexuality are the "fulcrum" for constructing difference around race, caste, gender, and class,' in part by seriously examining the transnational linkages between Indian and African sex workers' rights movements during the 1990s and 2000s. This book is a critique of a moment that is critical for understanding a uniquely global health crisis, and what it revealed about the idea of 'India' in a uniquely changing world."—Svati P. Shah, University of Massachusetts, Amherst"[At Risk] provides an excellent overview of not only the AIDS epidemic in India but also its intersections with sexual politics at home as well as its linkages to the global AIDS field. The work will prove to be useful for anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and any scholar interested in the sexual politics of AIDS in India."—Arnav Bhattacharya, H-Sci-Med-Tech"Reading [At Risk] at a time when global discourses of COVID-19 continue to dominate public health and media narratives has provided an important frame for critically thinking about global inequalities and their long- and short-term impacts on the lives of people. The book will make for interesting reading for gender and sexuality scholars and scholars interested in critically understanding the everyday state as well as contemporary India and its global dynamics."—Shannon Philip, Contributions to Indian Sociology"At Risk expands the possibilities of decolonizing American sociological scholarship... to build theory from global sites that have implications beyond their immediate coordinates. Particularly now, as we emerge from the reluctant aftermath of another global pandemic, and—perhaps unrelated—deal with new sexual crises produced by the state that implicate gendered bodies, these findings feel atemporal, omnipresent, and urgent."—Swethaa Ballakrishnen, American Journal of Sociology"In At Risk,Vijayakumar offers an insightful, ethnographically rich account of how AIDS funding changed the landscape of sex worker activism and related state bureaucracy in India."—Tara Gonsalves, British Journal of SociologyTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. India and the Specter of African AIDS 3. From Containment to Incorporation 4. At-Risk Citizens 5. Risky Selves 6. Making It Count 7. India in Africa 8. After AIDS

    £79.20

  • Forbidden Intimacies: Polygamies at the Limits of

    Stanford University Press Forbidden Intimacies: Polygamies at the Limits of

    Book SynopsisA poignant account of everyday polygamy and what its regulation reveals about who is viewed as an "Other" In the past thirty years, polygamy has become a flashpoint of conflict as Western governments attempt to regulate certain cultural and religious practices that challenge seemingly central principles of family and justice. In Forbidden Intimacies, Melanie Heath comparatively investigates the regulation of polygamy in the United States, Canada, France, and Mayotte. Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic and archival sources, Heath uncovers the ways in which intimacies framed as "other" and "offensive" serve to define the very limits of Western tolerance. These regulation efforts, counterintuitively, allow the flourishing of polygamies on the ground. The case studies illustrate a continuum of justice, in which some groups, like white fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., organize to fight against the prohibition of their families' existence, whereas African migrants in France face racialized discrimination in addition to rigid migration policies. The matrix of legal and social contexts, informed by gender, race, sexuality, and class, shapes the everyday experiences of these relationships. Heath uses the term "labyrinthine love" to conceptualize the complex ways individuals negotiate different kinds of relationships, ranging from romantic to coercive. What unites these families is the secrecy in which they must operate. As government intervention erodes their abilities to secure housing, welfare, work, and even protection from abuse, Heath exposes the huge variety of intimacies, and the power they hold to challenge heteronormative, Western ideals of love. Trade Review"An important intervention into racialized gendered states and their making of marriage and intimacy norms. It beautifully exposes the social consequences of government regulation, reminding us that the family and home are not private spheres, especially among those stigmatized as different."—Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara"This is a valuable contribution to the literature. It provides a fresh look at globalized pressures to rid western culture of controversial or unsavory practices, such as polygyny. Highly recommended."—Janet Bennion, Northern Vermont University"Forbidden Intimacies provides an outstanding and much-needed map of the many forms that polygamy takes across borders of nation, race, language, culture, law, policy, and time period. Melanie Heath's innovative methodologies, extensive data set, and analysis make the book an essential tool for historical, sociological, and legal investigations of family, and also for work on gaps between law-on-the-books and law-in-action."—Martha Ertman, University of Maryland Law School"This beautifully honed study definitively overturns misconceptions of polygamy. Indeed, it transforms our understandings of these non-monogamous racialized marital forms through multi-sited ethnography and comparative, intersectional, and transnational analysis. Its gift is to show that plural marriages endure in complex ways due to and despite impositions of state governance and white Christian nationalisms in the west."—Jyoti Puri, Simmons University"With empathy and intelligence, Forbidden Intimacies examines the troubled debates around polygyny, marriages involving one husband with two or more wives. Tradition? Oppression? Choice? Crime? With illuminating case studies from three countries, Melanie Heath throws new light on women's agency, patriarchal power, criminalization, and the racial projects of modern states."—Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney"[Heath] explores how the state shapes (and is shaped by) intimate expression and concludes that governments oftenprohibitthese forms of intimacy in an effort to 'uphold the white, monogamous, heterosexual family ideal' and demarcate boundaries of sexual acceptance, boundaries that ultimately contribute to notions of national identity. An important contribution to the field of sexuality, marriage, and family studies. Recommended."—J. R. Mitrano, CHOICE"[Forbidden Intimacies] is methodologically innovative, and the data and analysis provided by Heath make important contributions to our understanding of national identities, colonialism, culture, gender, race, and family.... Heath's methods provide an excellent example of how to do Sociology and should be required reading for anyone who does or is learning to do sociological research."—Mimi Schippers, Social ForcesTable of ContentsIntroduction: Forbidden Intimacies in Global Perspective 1. Racial Projects and Unexpected Divergences in Regulating Polygyny 2. Labyrinthine Love and Homegrown Polygamies 3. Migratory Polygamies: Racialization and Colonial Reckonings 4. Patriarchal Musings: Gender, Power, and Agency in Living Forbidden Intimacies 5. Race, Religion, and Stigmatized Intimacies: Pushing Polygynous Families Underground 6. Recognizing Polygamies: Fighting Over Intimacy Conclusion: Forbidden Intimacies, Racial Projects, and Legal Jeopardy

    £64.80

  • At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global

    Stanford University Press At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global

    Book SynopsisIn the mid-1990s, experts predicted that India would face the world's biggest AIDS epidemic by 2000. Though a crisis at this scale never fully materialized, global public health institutions, donors, and the Indian state initiated a massive effort to prevent it. HIV prevention programs channeled billions of dollars toward those groups designated as at-risk—sex workers and men who have sex with men. At Risk captures this unique moment in which these criminalized and marginalized groups reinvented their "at-risk" categorization and became central players in the crisis response. The AIDS crisis created a contradictory, conditional, and temporary opening for sex-worker and LGBTIQ activists to renegotiate citizenship and to make demands on the state. Working across India and Kenya, Gowri Vijayakumar provides a fine-grained account of the political struggles at the heart of the Indian AIDS response. These range from everyday articulations of sexual identity in activist organizations in Bangalore to new approaches to HIV prevention in Nairobi, where prevention strategies first introduced in India are adapted and circulate, as in the global AIDS field more broadly. Vijayakumar illuminates how the politics of gender, sexuality, and nationalism shape global crisis response. In so doing, she considers the precarious potential for social change in and after a crisis.Trade Review"At Risk is feminist transnational sociology at its best! Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this book tells a richly textured, and often surprising, story about how Indian sex workers and LGBTQ people impacted the terrains of sexual politics amidst the AIDS crisis. Vijayakumar deftly illuminates what the global South has to teach us about sexual epidemics, activism, and the transformation of sexual cultures."—Jyoti Puri, Simmons University"At Risk offers the near-historical, ethnographic critique of sexuality politics and the HIV/AIDS crisis in India that we need. Vijayakumar shows in rich detail how 'ideas of sexuality are the "fulcrum" for constructing difference around race, caste, gender, and class,' in part by seriously examining the transnational linkages between Indian and African sex workers' rights movements during the 1990s and 2000s. This book is a critique of a moment that is critical for understanding a uniquely global health crisis, and what it revealed about the idea of 'India' in a uniquely changing world."—Svati P. Shah, University of Massachusetts, Amherst"[At Risk] provides an excellent overview of not only the AIDS epidemic in India but also its intersections with sexual politics at home as well as its linkages to the global AIDS field. The work will prove to be useful for anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and any scholar interested in the sexual politics of AIDS in India."—Arnav Bhattacharya, H-Sci-Med-Tech"Reading [At Risk] at a time when global discourses of COVID-19 continue to dominate public health and media narratives has provided an important frame for critically thinking about global inequalities and their long- and short-term impacts on the lives of people. The book will make for interesting reading for gender and sexuality scholars and scholars interested in critically understanding the everyday state as well as contemporary India and its global dynamics."—Shannon Philip, Contributions to Indian Sociology"At Risk expands the possibilities of decolonizing American sociological scholarship... to build theory from global sites that have implications beyond their immediate coordinates. Particularly now, as we emerge from the reluctant aftermath of another global pandemic, and—perhaps unrelated—deal with new sexual crises produced by the state that implicate gendered bodies, these findings feel atemporal, omnipresent, and urgent."—Swethaa Ballakrishnen, American Journal of Sociology"In At Risk,Vijayakumar offers an insightful, ethnographically rich account of how AIDS funding changed the landscape of sex worker activism and related state bureaucracy in India."—Tara Gonsalves, British Journal of SociologyTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. India and the Specter of African AIDS 3. From Containment to Incorporation 4. At-Risk Citizens 5. Risky Selves 6. Making It Count 7. India in Africa 8. After AIDS

    £21.59

  • Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in

    Stanford University Press Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in

    Book SynopsisThe popularity of pornography is predicated on the idea that those participating have given their consent. That is what allows the porn industry to dominate the media economy today, generating staggering sums of money. Looking at behind-the-scenes negotiations and abuses in Japan's adult video industry, author Akiko Takeyama challenges this pervasive notion with the idea of "involuntary consent." This phenomenon, she argues, is ubiquitous, not only in the porn industry, but in our everyday lives. And yet modern society, built on beliefs of autonomy, free choice, and equality, renders it all but invisible. Japan's AV industry alone generates a conservatively estimated $5 billion a year. In recent years, it has drawn public attention, and criticism, because of a series of arrests and trials of former talent agency owners and executives. This led to a report calling for a systematic investigation of the industry over the issue of "forced performance." This report has had ripple effects beyond Japan, as the US Department of State subsequently also cited forced performance as a human rights violation. Using this moment as an entry point, Takeyama argues that contract-making writ large is based on fundamentally dualistic terms, implying consent and pleasure on the one hand, and coercion and pain on the other. Because sex workers are employed on a contract basis, they fall outside of the purview of standard labor and employment laws. As a result, they are frequently pressured to comply with what production companies (mostly run by men) expect and often demand. In this ethnography of Japan's porn industry, Akiko Takeyama investigates the paradox of involuntary consent in modern liberal democratic societies. Taking consent as her starting point, Takeyama illustrates the nuances of contract making and the legal structures, or lack thereof, that govern Japan's adult video and sex entertainment industries.Trade Review"Takeyama elegantly sifts through and complicates the seemingly straightforward, transparent, and transactional nature of relations in this industry by arguing for what she calls 'involuntary consent.' In doing so, she is able to sketch the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in Japanese porn's various interactions. Amidst the emergence of porn studies, this book exemplifies the value of an incisive anthropological inquiry, a sensitive eye, and a compassionate yet trenchant analysis. The book provides a valuable case study that can pave the way to comparative, transnational and global scholarly inquiries into porn industries."—Martin F. Manalansan, University of Minnesota"Involuntary Consent is not only a fine-grained ethnography of porn work in Japan, but also a brilliant analysis of the increasingly ambiguous nature of the work contract that Takeyama astutely theorizes as symptomatic of late liberalism in crisis. Scholars who do not work narrowly on labor, pornography, or Japan will also find this book relevant."—Gabriella Lukacs, University of Pittsburgh"Offering the concept of 'involuntary consent,' Takeyama masterfully taps into the space once illegible, that which falls in between consent and coercion. She uses the Japanese adult video industry, a compelling work environment to examine in its own right, as a case study. In a world where we are fixated with "consent" and are taught to make sure to express it or obtain it from others, we have yet to critically unpack it. This is why Takeyama's work is necessary and important. It is theoretically influential, engagingly written, and will easily become a classic. A must read."—L. Ayu Saraswati, author of Scarred: A Feminist Journey Through Pain"A provocative and insightful addition to anti-porn vs. sex-positive feminist debates."—Publishers Weekly"In this extraordinary book, Takeyama pulls the reader into a billion-dollar industry that is often hidden in plain sight, using Japanese pornography to theorize the intersection of gender, labor, power, and consent. With vivid and empathetic writing, she sidesteps any simplistic notion of exploitation or empowerment, and instead describes complex social structures that simultaneously promise and foreclose opportunities. Involuntary Consent provides a brilliant and recognizable portrait of laborers seeking opportunities from compromised positions. Takeyama's balance of insightful analysis and evocative ethnographic writing are a stunning achievement."—Allison Alexy, University of Michigan"Involuntary Consent offers a sharp analysis of the labor politics of Japan's adult video industry that pushes far beyond stale pornography debates centered on questions of representation. Rigorously researched and a highly compelling read, the book challenges dualistic understandings of coercion and consent in liberal democratic societies and introduces fresh questions of gender and sexuality into discussions of precarious labor."—Lieba Faier, University of California, Los Angeles"Choice and consent are often pitted against force and violence in debates and studies about sex work. In this study, Akiko Takeyama reminds us that this binarism misses the point. Through ethnographic research amongst adult video performers in Japan, Involuntary Consent skillfully demonstrates that individual decisions and choices are inseparable from contexts of structural inequality and liberal contractual relations. This is an invaluable study, not only for nuancing and complicating the intersections of coercion and consent/ structure and agency but also for delivering profound insights into the muddle of gendered sexual labour in the pornography industry. An important new contribution to the field of global sex work studies."—Kamala Kempadoo, York University"Involuntary Consent is an ethnographic tour de force. Takeyama offers a masterful and nuanced analysis of consent within Japan's adult video industry, drawing from voices of AV performers, agents, directors, videographers and fans. Anyone interested in voluntary versus forced labor debates, or with legal illusions of rational choice, must read this book. It provides critical insights about liberalism, precarity, and gendered compromises."—Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh"This monograph's worth of thick anthropological description is both enlightening and appalling. In the end,Involuntary Consent is at its best when it shows howunremarkable the sex work of the AV industry is—just another lousy gig in a society intractably structured by sexism, widening economic inequality, and neoliberal democracy where no truly good options for individuals exist in the first place. Highly recommended."—C. Brienza, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Involuntary Consent 2. The Actress 3. The Management of Girls 4. The Industry 5. The Male Fan Epilogue

    £60.80

  • Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the

    Stanford University Press Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the

    Book SynopsisThe Lebanese state is structured through religious freedom and secular power sharing across sectarian groups. Every sect has specific laws that govern kinship matters like marriage or inheritance. Together with criminal and civil laws, these laws regulate and produce political difference. But whether women or men, Muslims or Christians, queer or straight, all people in Lebanon have one thing in common—they are biopolitical subjects forged through bureaucratic, ideological, and legal techniques of the state. With this book, Maya Mikdashi offers a new way to understand state power, theorizing how sex, sexuality, and sect shape and are shaped by law, secularism, and sovereignty. Drawing on court archives, public records, and ethnography of the Court of Cassation, the highest civil court in Lebanon, Mikdashi shows how political difference is entangled with religious, secular, and sexual difference. She presents state power as inevitably contingent, like the practices of everyday life it engenders, focusing on the regulation of religious conversion, the curation of legal archives, state and parastatal violence, and secular activism. Sextarianism locates state power in the experiences, transitions, uprisings, and violence that people in the Middle East continue to live.Trade Review"Maya Mikdashi's gloriously written Sextarianism is the book we have been waiting for. Deeply personal in its tone, expansively political in its intent, this book draws on unusual archives and intimate knowledge of Lebanon to show the relation between gender, sexuality, and the state in all its ambivalent, messy complexity."—Laleh Khalili, University of London"Sextarianism is luminous. Maya Mikdashi brings panache and an exquisite eye for the quotidian to diverse objects of analysis, all while prying open new conversations about archival research as collective labor. A must-read for anyone studying state formation, the geopolitics of queer theory, and secularism, with implications far beyond Lebanon."—Jasbir Puar, Rutgers University"A tour de force by one of the most dynamic, iconoclastic, and original socio-political analysts of the Arab world of this generation. Maya Mikdashi's Sextarianism will transform the way Lebanon has been understood; more radically, it will force everyone to rethink how religious and sexual differences work at/as the nexus of states and citizenship."—Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University"Both theoretically sophisticated and deeply poignant, Sextarianism disrupts assumptions that secularism liberates people from religion, challenging idealized solutions to political-sectarianism. Readers are gifted with marvelously vivid and careful ethnography, through which Maya Mikdashi brings to life the often-painful effects of state sectarian practices on people's lives in Lebanon."—Lara Deeb, Scripps College"Using court records, Mikdashi... disentangles the ways in which the sectarian Lebanese state handles sexual difference through the application of personal status laws....Recommended."—M. L. Russell, CHOICE

    £79.20

  • Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star

    Stanford University Press Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star

    Book SynopsisA biography of the "Cinderella" of Egyptian cinema—the veneration and rumors that surrounded an unparalleled career, and the gendered questions that unsettled Egyptian society. Layla Murad (1918-1995) was once the highest-paid star in Egypt, and her movies were among the top-grossing in the box office. She starred in 28 films, nearly all now classics in Arab musical cinema. In 1955 she was forced to stop acting—and struggled for decades for a comeback. Today, even decades after her death, public interest in her life continues, and new generations of Egyptians still love her work. Unknown Past recounts Murad's extraordinary life—and the rapid political and sociocultural changes she witnessed. Hanan Hammad writes a story centered on Layla Murad's persona and legacy, and broadly framed around a gendered history of twentieth-century Egypt. Murad was a Jew who converted to Islam in the shadow of the first Arab-Israeli war. Her career blossomed under the Egyptian monarchy and later gave a singing voice to the Free Officers and the 1952 Revolution. The definitive end of her cinematic career came under Nasser on the eve of the 1956 Suez War. Egyptians have long told their national story through interpretations of Murad's life, intertwining the individual and Egyptian state and society to better understand Egyptian identity. As Unknown Past recounts, there's no life better than Murad's to reflect the tumultuous changes experienced over the dramatic decades of the mid-twentieth century.Trade Review"A fascinating and fun read, Unknown Past carefully documents Layla's story, fills voids, and makes important interventions into debates on her life and legacy. Just as Layla's life was bigger than the screen, this book goes beyond the history of cinema to illuminate questions about religion, society, gender, and politics."—Beth Baron, The Graduate Center and City College, City University of New York, author of The Orphan Scandal"Bringing together biography and history, Unknown Past examines transformations in midcentury Egypt through the life of the hugely popular Layla Murad. Unraveling rumors and debunking myths, Hanan Hammad draws attention to the social pressures Murad faced as a working woman, as a Jew, as a wife, and as a mother."—Deborah Starr, Cornell University, author of Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema"Unknown Past is meticulously researched and vividly written. Hanan Hammad unpacks, in a careful, clear-headed, and brave manner, all the myths surrounding Egypt's beloved star Layla Murad, from her career's entanglement in the Arab-Israel conflict to her premature retirement. An essential read."—Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas, editor of Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of Popular Culture"Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt is a descriptively compelling and detailed account of the life and work of a culturally, artistically, and politically influential Egyptian woman through modern Egypt's complicated and perilous times. A consummate work of impeccable scholarship, no Egyptian Cinema or 20th Century Egyptian Biography collection would be complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of a copy of Unknown Past." -Julie Summers, Reviewer's Bookwatch"This is the kind of book any aspiring scholar should want to write at least once during their career: Hammad both lucidly engages relevant academic literature and tells a fascinating story for nonspecialist readers new to one of the dizzying number of disciplines into which she intervenes."—Abe Silberstein, Cineaste"[Unknown Past is] a story not only about religion and ethnicity in the Arab world, but also one about how being female can amplify the effects of being a minority in a society that is not as 'modern' as it prides itself on being."—Lauren Hakimi, The Forward"This engaging text sheds new light on old questions and provides greater depth to this Golden Age star.... Ultimately, readers see Murad as a complex, multidimensional individual—acelebrity, wife, lover, mother, and businesswoman. Recommended."—M. L. Russell, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Why Layla Murad? 1. The Schoolgirl: Making Layla Murad 2. The Country Girl: Branding Layla Murad 3. Adam and Eve: Interfaith Family, Fame, and Gossip 4. The Blow of Fate: The Politics of Boycotting Israel 5. The Unknown Lover: Layla Murad and the Free Officer 6. The Starling of the Valley: Remembering Layla Murad Conclusion: Can an Egyptian Be a Single Mother and a Jew?

    £79.20

  • Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States

    Stanford University Press Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States

    Book SynopsisA stirring account of the experiences of migrant domestic workers, and what freedom, abuse, and power mean within a vast contract labor system. In the United Arab Emirates, there is an employment sponsorship system known as the kafala. Migrant domestic workers within it must solely work for their employer, secure their approval to leave the country, and obtain their consent to terminate a job. In Unfree, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas examines the labor of women from the Philippines, who represent the largest domestic workforce in the country. She challenges presiding ideas about the kafala, arguing that its reduction to human trafficking is, at best, unproductive, and at worst damaging to genuine efforts to regulate this system that impacts tens of millions of domestic workers across the globe. The kafala system technically renders migrant workers unfree as they are made subject to the arbitrary authority of their employer. Not surprisingly, it has been the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism from human rights advocates and scholars. Yet, contrary to their claims, Parreñas argues that most employers do not abuse domestic workers or maximize the extraction of their labor. Still, the outrage elicited by this possibility dominates much of public discourse and overshadows the more mundane reality of domestic work in the region. Drawing on unparalleled data collected over 4 years,this book diverges from previous studies as it establishes that the kafala system does not necessarily result in abuse, but instead leads to the absence of labor standards. This absence is reflected in the diversity of work conditions across households, ranging from dehumanizing treatment, infantilization, to respect and recognition of domestic workers. Unfree shows how various stakeholders, including sending and receiving states, NGOs, inter-governmental organizations, employers and domestic workers, project moral standards to guide the unregulated labor of domestic work. They can mitigate or aggravate the arbitrary authority of employers. Parreñas offers a deft and rich portrait of how morals mediate work on the ground, warning against the dangers of reducing unfreedom to structural violence.Trade Review"Challenging standard interpretations of migrant women's powerlessness and oppression, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas offers a pathbreaking account of Filipino domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates. A compelling contribution not only to studies of migration and labor but also to economic sociology."—Viviana A. Zelizer, Princeton University"I have long been impressed by the distinctive ways in which Parreñas generates her analysis of diverse social conditions. These analytic modes emerge once again in her latest book Unfree, one phrase that contains a vastness of meanings. This is a must-read."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University"In this impressive ethnography, Parreñas illuminates moral harms associated with 'unfree labor' and offers new insights into the quandary that arises when redress for those harms lays well beyond the laws of sending states, receiving states, and international organizations."—Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers UniversityBased on the republican conceptualization of unfreedom, [Unfree] paves the way for understanding a wide range of experiences and conditions of migrant domestic workers in the UAE. This study... both acknowledges the positive experiences of domestic workers in thekafalasystem and includes them in the analysis by complicating the story of exploitation unlike the previous studies on domestic work in the region."—Canan Uçar, International Migration"Locating unfreedom in the sponsorship system that gives free reign to sponsors over their employees,Unfree lays a critical foundation for future scholarly, legal, and policy interventions in migrant domestic work, both in the Arab world and beyond. Excellent for anyone working on labor and migration. Highly Recommended."—J. Alkorani, CHOICE"Unfree guides us through the transnational mobility of these domestic workers and their subsequent economic immobility. Using relatively plain language, the book is accessible to academic and non-academic audiences from disparate disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in understanding Filipino domestic work in the UAE beyond victimhood."—Estella Carpi, Mashriq & Mahar"A powerful, pathbreaking book that upends many (Orientalist) assumptions about migrant domestic work in Arab states, Unfree is set to become a classic."—Victoria Reyes, American Journal of Sociology"Without doubt, [Unfree] sets a new direction for us to understand the work environment of migrant domestic workers and should be read by all who are interested in the topic."—Eric Fong, Social Forces

    £18.89

  • Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the

    Stanford University Press Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the

    Book SynopsisThe Lebanese state is structured through religious freedom and secular power sharing across sectarian groups. Every sect has specific laws that govern kinship matters like marriage or inheritance. Together with criminal and civil laws, these laws regulate and produce political difference. But whether women or men, Muslims or Christians, queer or straight, all people in Lebanon have one thing in common—they are biopolitical subjects forged through bureaucratic, ideological, and legal techniques of the state. With this book, Maya Mikdashi offers a new way to understand state power, theorizing how sex, sexuality, and sect shape and are shaped by law, secularism, and sovereignty. Drawing on court archives, public records, and ethnography of the Court of Cassation, the highest civil court in Lebanon, Mikdashi shows how political difference is entangled with religious, secular, and sexual difference. She presents state power as inevitably contingent, like the practices of everyday life it engenders, focusing on the regulation of religious conversion, the curation of legal archives, state and parastatal violence, and secular activism. Sextarianism locates state power in the experiences, transitions, uprisings, and violence that people in the Middle East continue to live.Trade Review"Maya Mikdashi's gloriously written Sextarianism is the book we have been waiting for. Deeply personal in its tone, expansively political in its intent, this book draws on unusual archives and intimate knowledge of Lebanon to show the relation between gender, sexuality, and the state in all its ambivalent, messy complexity."—Laleh Khalili, University of London"Sextarianism is luminous. Maya Mikdashi brings panache and an exquisite eye for the quotidian to diverse objects of analysis, all while prying open new conversations about archival research as collective labor. A must-read for anyone studying state formation, the geopolitics of queer theory, and secularism, with implications far beyond Lebanon."—Jasbir Puar, Rutgers University"A tour de force by one of the most dynamic, iconoclastic, and original socio-political analysts of the Arab world of this generation. Maya Mikdashi's Sextarianism will transform the way Lebanon has been understood; more radically, it will force everyone to rethink how religious and sexual differences work at/as the nexus of states and citizenship."—Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University"Both theoretically sophisticated and deeply poignant, Sextarianism disrupts assumptions that secularism liberates people from religion, challenging idealized solutions to political-sectarianism. Readers are gifted with marvelously vivid and careful ethnography, through which Maya Mikdashi brings to life the often-painful effects of state sectarian practices on people's lives in Lebanon."—Lara Deeb, Scripps College"Using court records, Mikdashi... disentangles the ways in which the sectarian Lebanese state handles sexual difference through the application of personal status laws....Recommended."—M. L. Russell, CHOICE

    £21.59

  • The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the

    Stanford University Press The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the

    Book SynopsisAs developing states adopt neoliberal policies, more and more working-class women find themselves pulled into the public sphere. They are pressed into wage work by a privatizing and unstable job market. Likewise, they are pulled into public roles by gender mainstreaming policies that developing states must sign on to in order to receive transnational aid. Their inclusion into the political economy is very beneficial for society, but is it also beneficial for women? In The Stigma Matrix Fauzia Husain draws on the experiences of policewomen, lady health workers, and airline attendants, all frontline workers who help the Pakistani state, and its global allies, address, surveil, and discipline veiled women citizens. These women, she finds, confront a stigma matrix: a complex of local and global, historic, and contemporary factors that work together to complicate women's integration into public life. The experiences of the three groups Husain examines reveal that inclusion requires more than quotas or special seats. This book advances critical feminist and sociological frameworks on stigma and agency showing that both concepts are made up of multiple layers of meaning, and are entangled with elite projects of hegemony.Trade Review"This is an impressive, gorgeously written book that tackles a question of vital importance. Fauzia Husain situates stigma as a force that reaches from the historical colonial past, across decades of neoliberal global forces, and renders its micro-contextual consequences starkly in the intimate daily lives of women tasked with enacting the will of the state under incredibly difficult conditions."—Erin McDonnell, Author of Patchwork Leviathan"This remarkable and richly detailed ethnography explores how frontline women workers in Pakistan navigate the colliding norms of purdah and neoliberal economic policies. With a keen analytical eye, Fauzia Husain shows how cultural stigma is shaped, while also providing a novel and multifaceted account of women's agency. The Stigma Matrix is mandatory reading for anyone interested in gender and work in global contexts."—Rachel Rinaldo, Author of Mobilizing PietyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments INTRODUCTION 1. THE GLOBAL CONSTITUENTS OF SEXUALIZED STIGMAS IN PAKISTAN 2. THE MESO LEVEL OF THE STIGMA MATRIX: THE CONTEXTS OF STIGMA IN FRONTLINE WORK 3. VEILED DELICACY: AGENTIC RESPONSES TO STIGMA IN THE PAKISTANI POLICE FORCE 4. SACRED CONDUITS: STIGMA AND THE AGENCY OF HEALTH WORKERS 5. MAVENS OF MOBILITY: HOW AIRLINE WOMEN NAVIGATE STIGMA 6. SPECTACULAR AGENCY: STUNNING DRAMAS OF RECRUITMENT CONCLUSION: MOVING FORWARD WITH THE STIGMA MATRIX Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

    £86.40

  • The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and

    Stanford University Press The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and

    Book SynopsisThis book offers the first social and intellectual history of Dalit performance of Tamasha—a popular form of public, secular, traveling theater in Maharashtra—and places Dalit Tamasha women who represented the desire and disgust of the patriarchal society at the heart of modernization in twentieth century India. Drawing on ethnographies, films, and untapped archival materials, Shailaja Paik illuminates how Tamasha was produced and shaped through conflicts over caste, gender, sexuality, and culture. Dalit performers, activists, and leaders negotiated the violence and stigma in Tamasha as they struggled to claim manuski (human dignity) and transform themselves from ashlil (vulgar) to assli (authentic) and manus (human beings). Building on and departing from the Ambedkar-centered historiography and movement-focused approach of Dalit studies, Paik examines the ordinary and everydayness in Dalit lives. Ultimately, she demonstrates how the choices that communities make about culture speak to much larger questions about inclusion, inequality, and structures of violence of caste within Indian society, and opens up new approaches for the transformative potential of Dalit politics and the global history of gender, sexuality, and the human.Trade Review"In this brilliant original account of women in Tamasha, Shailaja Paik argues that the extractive sexual economy of caste rests on their desired as well as derided labor. Drawing on rare archival sources and careful ethnography, she calls attention to how the women negotiate stigma, especially in relation to a Dalit emancipatory politics, embarrassed by their 'sexual excess.'"—V. Geetha, author of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India"Paik not only breaks new ground but also builds a foundation. Combining ethnography, archival work, and critical readings of key thinkers, she offers a dazzling interdisciplinary exploration of how Tamasha serves as a metonym for the ways gender, caste, and power construct identity in caste-patriarchal society. This work is one of the many reasons Paik is at the forefront of Dalit feminist studies and why she is one of the most innovative historians of South Asia writing today."—Christian Lee Novetzke, University of Washington"Paik repeatedly identifies herself as a feminist Dalit and attributes this to her unprecedented anthropological access to, and understanding of, contemporary Tamasha artists. She also draws on Marathi-language lyrics, articles, advertisements, and other sources never before available in English. Recommended."—M. H. Fisher, CHOICE"While demonstrating the 'agency' of Tamashe women as a product of complex, contingent historical processes, Paik makes a significant argument about the mutually constitutive binaries of touchability/untouchability, brahmin/untouchable, ashlil/aslee, housewife/prostitute, among others. In doing so, she offers conceptual resources for Indian feminist and Dalit thought to deal with the impasse of the 'prostitute' question. Equally important, Paik develops her earlier emphasis on contingency, context and rupture of Dalit women's agency to illuminate the contingency and temporality of Ambedkar's thinking around manuski, family and caste labour and the material limits that history imposes on its actualisation."—A. Suneetha, Contributions to Indian SociologyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Performing Precarity: Sex-Gender-Caste/Ashlil-Manuski-Assli 1. Policing Dalits and Producing Tamasha in Maharashtra 2. Constructing Caste, Desire, and Danger 3. Ambedkar, Manuski, and Reconstructing Dalit Life-Worlds, 1920-1956 4. Singing Resistance and Rehumanizing Poetics-Politics, Post-1930 5. Claiming Authenticity and Becoming Marathi, Post-1960 6. Forging New Futures and Measures of Humanity Conclusion.: Queering the "Vulgar": Tamasha without Women

    £68.00

  • Seeking Western Men: Email-Order Brides under

    Stanford University Press Seeking Western Men: Email-Order Brides under

    Book SynopsisCommercial dating agencies that facilitate marriages across national borders comprise a $2.5 billion global industry. Ideas about the industry are rife with stereotypes—younger, more physically attractive brides from non-Western countries being paired with older Western men. These ideas are more myth than fact, Monica Liu finds in Seeking Western Men. Her study of China's email-order bride industry offers stories of Chinese women who are primarily middle-aged, divorced, and proactively seeking spouses to fulfill their material and sexual needs. What they seek in their Western partners is tied to what they believe they've lost in the shifting global economy around them. Ranging from multimillionaire entrepreneurs or ex-wives and mistresses of wealthy Chinese businessmen, to contingent sector workers and struggling single mothers, these women, along with their translators and potential husbands from the US, Canada, and Australia, make up the actors in this multifaceted story. Set against the backdrop of China's global economic ascendance and a relative decline of the West, this book asks: How does this reshape Chinese women's perception of Western masculinity? Through the unique window of global internet dating, this book reveals the shifting relationships of race, class, gender, sex, and intimacy across borders.Trade Review"Seeking Western Men shows how vicissitudes of global economy can be registered in the relative value of men and women seeking relationships. Liu's masterful analysis shows readers how to rethink gender, race, and class within a rapidly changing world order."—Eileen Otis, author of Markets and Bodies"This engaging ethnography dismantles common assumptions about the motives of female marriage migrants and the transnational appeal of both Western masculinity and Western feminism. Rather, we learn about evolving Chinese feminisms that deviate from Western models, as Chinese women pursue transnational marriages exercising their own sexual agency."—James Farrar, author of Opening Up"[Seeking Western Men] is an interdisciplinary study that spans sociology, anthropology, and gender studies. I highly recommend it to students, researchers, and general readers interested in the areas of transnational migration, marriage and family, masculinity, and Chinese and Western cultures. Through a geopolitical and feminist lens, this book provides valuable insights into the power dynamics between Asian women and Western men. It enriches the existing body of research on marriage migration in Asia by offering a wealth of rich ethnographic data."—Hsunhui Tseng, H-Asia"Liu's investigation is more than a case study of Chinese international dating. It is an earnest effort to understand the sociological processes and psychological realities that have provoked a reawakening in Chinese women as sexual and romantic beings who want and expect a more fulfilling life, which includes having a satisfying marriage with either a Chinese man of sufficient social standing or, if not, with a Western provider. Monica Liu's study offers an insightful peek into the sociological processes responsible for this psychological awakening. It is ethnography as it should be."—William Jakowiak, Nan Nü"This book provides the most detailed empirical examination of the international dating industry in China and how ideas of race, class, and gender are shifting within the globalizing economy, providing an important contribution to sociological literature about the international dating industry and ideas of intimacy within post-reform China."—Julia Meszaros, Social Forces"Seeking Western Men: Email-Order Brides under China's Global Rise offers important insights into the complex world of email-order brides. Using feminist lenses from both the West and China, Liu's engaging and accessible writing provides a glimpse of international marriages and the challenges facing women in contemporary China. The book makes significant contributions to the field of gender and migration studies. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in learning more about this phenomenon."—Shan-Jan Sarah Liu, Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Why Do Chinese Women Seek Western Men? 2. Provider Love 3. Transnational Business Masculinity 4. Embracing Domesticity 5. Body of a Woman, Fate of a Man 6. Surrogate Dating: Translators behind the Screens Epilogue

    £64.80

  • Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in

    Stanford University Press Involuntary Consent: The Illusion of Choice in

    Book SynopsisThe popularity of pornography is predicated on the idea that those participating have given their consent. That is what allows the porn industry to dominate the media economy today, generating staggering sums of money. Looking at behind-the-scenes negotiations and abuses in Japan's adult video industry, author Akiko Takeyama challenges this pervasive notion with the idea of "involuntary consent." This phenomenon, she argues, is ubiquitous, not only in the porn industry, but in our everyday lives. And yet modern society, built on beliefs of autonomy, free choice, and equality, renders it all but invisible. Japan's AV industry alone generates a conservatively estimated $5 billion a year. In recent years, it has drawn public attention, and criticism, because of a series of arrests and trials of former talent agency owners and executives. This led to a report calling for a systematic investigation of the industry over the issue of "forced performance." This report has had ripple effects beyond Japan, as the US Department of State subsequently also cited forced performance as a human rights violation. Using this moment as an entry point, Takeyama argues that contract-making writ large is based on fundamentally dualistic terms, implying consent and pleasure on the one hand, and coercion and pain on the other. Because sex workers are employed on a contract basis, they fall outside of the purview of standard labor and employment laws. As a result, they are frequently pressured to comply with what production companies (mostly run by men) expect and often demand. In this ethnography of Japan's porn industry, Akiko Takeyama investigates the paradox of involuntary consent in modern liberal democratic societies. Taking consent as her starting point, Takeyama illustrates the nuances of contract making and the legal structures, or lack thereof, that govern Japan's adult video and sex entertainment industries.Trade Review"Takeyama elegantly sifts through and complicates the seemingly straightforward, transparent, and transactional nature of relations in this industry by arguing for what she calls 'involuntary consent.' In doing so, she is able to sketch the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in Japanese porn's various interactions. Amidst the emergence of porn studies, this book exemplifies the value of an incisive anthropological inquiry, a sensitive eye, and a compassionate yet trenchant analysis. The book provides a valuable case study that can pave the way to comparative, transnational and global scholarly inquiries into porn industries."—Martin F. Manalansan, University of Minnesota"Involuntary Consent is not only a fine-grained ethnography of porn work in Japan, but also a brilliant analysis of the increasingly ambiguous nature of the work contract that Takeyama astutely theorizes as symptomatic of late liberalism in crisis. Scholars who do not work narrowly on labor, pornography, or Japan will also find this book relevant."—Gabriella Lukacs, University of Pittsburgh"Offering the concept of 'involuntary consent,' Takeyama masterfully taps into the space once illegible, that which falls in between consent and coercion. She uses the Japanese adult video industry, a compelling work environment to examine in its own right, as a case study. In a world where we are fixated with "consent" and are taught to make sure to express it or obtain it from others, we have yet to critically unpack it. This is why Takeyama's work is necessary and important. It is theoretically influential, engagingly written, and will easily become a classic. A must read."—L. Ayu Saraswati, author of Scarred: A Feminist Journey Through Pain"A provocative and insightful addition to anti-porn vs. sex-positive feminist debates."—Publishers Weekly"In this extraordinary book, Takeyama pulls the reader into a billion-dollar industry that is often hidden in plain sight, using Japanese pornography to theorize the intersection of gender, labor, power, and consent. With vivid and empathetic writing, she sidesteps any simplistic notion of exploitation or empowerment, and instead describes complex social structures that simultaneously promise and foreclose opportunities. Involuntary Consent provides a brilliant and recognizable portrait of laborers seeking opportunities from compromised positions. Takeyama's balance of insightful analysis and evocative ethnographic writing are a stunning achievement."—Allison Alexy, University of Michigan"Involuntary Consent offers a sharp analysis of the labor politics of Japan's adult video industry that pushes far beyond stale pornography debates centered on questions of representation. Rigorously researched and a highly compelling read, the book challenges dualistic understandings of coercion and consent in liberal democratic societies and introduces fresh questions of gender and sexuality into discussions of precarious labor."—Lieba Faier, University of California, Los Angeles"Choice and consent are often pitted against force and violence in debates and studies about sex work. In this study, Akiko Takeyama reminds us that this binarism misses the point. Through ethnographic research amongst adult video performers in Japan, Involuntary Consent skillfully demonstrates that individual decisions and choices are inseparable from contexts of structural inequality and liberal contractual relations. This is an invaluable study, not only for nuancing and complicating the intersections of coercion and consent/ structure and agency but also for delivering profound insights into the muddle of gendered sexual labour in the pornography industry. An important new contribution to the field of global sex work studies."—Kamala Kempadoo, York University"Involuntary Consent is an ethnographic tour de force. Takeyama offers a masterful and nuanced analysis of consent within Japan's adult video industry, drawing from voices of AV performers, agents, directors, videographers and fans. Anyone interested in voluntary versus forced labor debates, or with legal illusions of rational choice, must read this book. It provides critical insights about liberalism, precarity, and gendered compromises."—Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh"This monograph's worth of thick anthropological description is both enlightening and appalling. In the end,Involuntary Consent is at its best when it shows howunremarkable the sex work of the AV industry is—just another lousy gig in a society intractably structured by sexism, widening economic inequality, and neoliberal democracy where no truly good options for individuals exist in the first place. Highly recommended."—C. Brienza, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Involuntary Consent 2. The Actress 3. The Management of Girls 4. The Industry 5. The Male Fan Epilogue

    £19.79

  • The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the

    Stanford University Press The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the

    Book SynopsisAs developing states adopt neoliberal policies, more and more working-class women find themselves pulled into the public sphere. They are pressed into wage work by a privatizing and unstable job market. Likewise, they are pulled into public roles by gender mainstreaming policies that developing states must sign on to in order to receive transnational aid. Their inclusion into the political economy is very beneficial for society, but is it also beneficial for women? In The Stigma Matrix Fauzia Husain draws on the experiences of policewomen, lady health workers, and airline attendants, all frontline workers who help the Pakistani state, and its global allies, address, surveil, and discipline veiled women citizens. These women, she finds, confront a stigma matrix: a complex of local and global, historic, and contemporary factors that work together to complicate women's integration into public life. The experiences of the three groups Husain examines reveal that inclusion requires more than quotas or special seats. This book advances critical feminist and sociological frameworks on stigma and agency showing that both concepts are made up of multiple layers of meaning, and are entangled with elite projects of hegemony.Trade Review"This is an impressive, gorgeously written book that tackles a question of vital importance. Fauzia Husain situates stigma as a force that reaches from the historical colonial past, across decades of neoliberal global forces, and renders its micro-contextual consequences starkly in the intimate daily lives of women tasked with enacting the will of the state under incredibly difficult conditions."—Erin McDonnell, Author of Patchwork Leviathan"This remarkable and richly detailed ethnography explores how frontline women workers in Pakistan navigate the colliding norms of purdah and neoliberal economic policies. With a keen analytical eye, Fauzia Husain shows how cultural stigma is shaped, while also providing a novel and multifaceted account of women's agency. The Stigma Matrix is mandatory reading for anyone interested in gender and work in global contexts."—Rachel Rinaldo, Author of Mobilizing PietyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments INTRODUCTION 1. THE GLOBAL CONSTITUENTS OF SEXUALIZED STIGMAS IN PAKISTAN 2. THE MESO LEVEL OF THE STIGMA MATRIX: THE CONTEXTS OF STIGMA IN FRONTLINE WORK 3. VEILED DELICACY: AGENTIC RESPONSES TO STIGMA IN THE PAKISTANI POLICE FORCE 4. SACRED CONDUITS: STIGMA AND THE AGENCY OF HEALTH WORKERS 5. MAVENS OF MOBILITY: HOW AIRLINE WOMEN NAVIGATE STIGMA 6. SPECTACULAR AGENCY: STUNNING DRAMAS OF RECRUITMENT CONCLUSION: MOVING FORWARD WITH THE STIGMA MATRIX Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

    £23.39

  • The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality, and

    Stanford University Press The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality, and

    Book SynopsisWomen, and particularly poor women, have become essential cogs in the wheel of financialized capitalism. Globally, women are responsible for managing household debt, and that debt has exploded over the last decade, reaching an all-time high after the COVID-19 pandemic. Across various categories of loans, including subprime lending, microcredit policies, and consumer loans, as well as rent and utilities, women are overrepresented as clients and managers, and are being enfolded into the system. The Indebted Woman discusses the crucial yet invisible roles poor women play in making and consolidating debt and credit markets. Isabelle Guérin, Santosh Kumar, and G. Venkatasubramanian spent over two decades observing a credit market that specifically targets women in the Indian countryside of east-central Tamil Nadu. They found that paying off debts required labor, frequently involved sexual transactions, and shaped women's bodies and subjectivities. Bringing together ethnography, statistical surveys, and financial diaries, they offer for the first time a comprehensive theory for this sexual division of debt that goes far beyond the Indian case, exposing the ways capitalism transforms womanhood and how this transformation in turn fuels capitalism.Trade Review"This book is pathbreaking in the most literal sense: it opens the way for more studies of women and debt as central features of capitalist economies. It gives insight into the ways in which the reproduction of capital depends on women's reproductive labor as household debt managers, but also into the ways in which they strategically navigate the system."—Joan W. Scott, Princeton University"With gripping evidence and theoretical acumen, Guerin, Kumar, and Venkatubramanian reframe our understandings of the debt economy. By foregrounding the deeply gendered labor of debt, The Indebted Woman launches a new research agenda. A book that transcends disciplinary boundaries and moves forward the analysis of intimate economies."—Viviana A. Zelizer, author of The Purchase of Intimacy and Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy"The Indebted Woman is a compact account of the credit markets in South Arcot, and in particular their disproportionate effect on Dalit women.... Where the book shines is in its conscientious economic research, awakening readers to the lived experiences of Dalit women and their invisible and indispensable role in the South Indian economy."—Annelie Hyatt, Columbia Journal of Literary CriticismTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Intimacies and Measurement 2. Kinship Debt 3. The Sexual Division of Debt 4. Debt Work 5. Bodily Collateral 6. Debt and Love 7. Human Debts 8. What Does the Future Hold?

    £72.00

  • Sexuality and Citizenship

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Sexuality and Citizenship

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisSexual citizenship has become a key concept in the social sciences. It describes the rights and responsibilities of citizens in sexual and intimate life, including debates over equal marriage and women's human rights, as well as shaping thinking about citizenship more generally. But what does it mean in a continually changing political landscape of gender and sexuality? In this timely intervention, Diane Richardson examines the normative underpinnings and varied critiques of sexual citizenship, asking what they mean for its future conceptual and empirical development, as well as for political activism. Clearly written, the book shows how the field of sexuality and citizenship connects to a range of important areas of debate including understandings of nationalism, identity, neoliberalism, equality, governmentality, individualization, colonialism, human rights, globalization and economic justice. Ultimately this book calls for a critical rethink of sexual citizenship. Illustrating her argument with examples drawn from across the globe, Richardson contends that this is essential if scholars want to understand the sexual politics that made the field of sexuality and citizenship studies what it is today, and to enable future analyses of the sexual inequalities that continue to mark the global order.Trade Review"Diane Richardson has long had a reputation for acute sensitivity to the emergent issues in our complex sexual world. In this comprehensive but compelling book she tackles the central but contested concept of sexual citizenship. In Richardson's steady hands this becomes a lens to explore a range of critical ideas, analyses and experiences. The result is never less than illuminating and challenging, an invaluable guide to our perplexities."Jeffrey Weeks, author of What is Sexual History? "Drawing on literature from geography, gender studies, sociology and political science, Richardson challenges us to think in an interdisciplinary way about the impact of structural differences and marginalizations. As the leading scholar in this field, Diane Richardson offers an insightful engagement with the concept, and political outcomes, of sexual citizenship which is undoubtedly a must read for any contemporary student of the social sciences."Angelia Wilson, University of Manchester "Diane Richardson has given us a powerful resource for understanding the diverse debates and interdisciplinary approaches to sexual citizenship that will enhance our ability to produce rich, in-depth critical analyses of the shifting local, international, and transnational contexts for the co-constitution of sexuality and citizenship." Nancy A. Naples, Gender & Development “The book provides a persuasive and easy to read analysis of the sexual citizenship literature and how it has evolved over time, but also the limitations of sexual citizenship within the Euro-North American historical configuration. The conceptual analysis offers a social, cultural, economic and political exposition on the concept of sexual citizenship and brings forward the complex linkages of undeviating issues relating to sexuality, gender and citizenship.”SociologyTable of Contents1. Making Sexual Citizenship PART ONE: RE-THINKING SEXUAL CITIZENSHIP 2. What is Sexual Citizenship? 3. Limits to Sexual Citizenship 4. Sexualizing Citizenship: Now You See it, Now You Don�t PART TWO: TRANSFORMING CITIZENSHIP? SEXUALITY, GENDER AND CITIZENSHIP STRUGGLES 5. Global Influences on Sexuality and Citizenship 6. Sexuality, the State and Governance 7. Materializing Sexuality

    3 in stock

    £49.50

  • One-Dimensional Queer

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd One-Dimensional Queer

    20 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe story of gay rights has long been told as one of single-minded focus on the fight for sexual freedom. Yet its origins are much more complicated than this single-issue interpretation would have us believe, and to ignore gay liberation's multidimensional beginnings is to drastically underestimate its radical potential for social change. Ferguson shows how queer liberation emerged out of various insurgent struggles crossing the politics of race, gender, class, and sexuality, and deeply connected to issues of colonization, incarceration, and capitalism. Tracing the rise and fall of this intersectional politics, he argues that the one-dimensional mainstreaming of queerness falsely placed critiques of racism, capitalism, and the state outside the remit of gay liberation. As recent activism is increasingly making clear, this one-dimensional legacy has promoted forms of exclusion that marginalize queers of color, the poor, and transgender individuals. This forceful book joins the call to reimagine and reconnect the fight for social justice in all its varied forms.Trade Review"One-Dimensional Queer is as clear an account as you could hope to encounter of how race and sexuality came to be understood as separate formations in US history. The resultant mainstreaming of LGBT cultures has been disastrous in terms of seeing our way out of the current crisis we inhabit. Offering solutions as well as critique, Ferguson's book is destined to be a crucial part of any library of liberation."—Jack Halberstam, Columbia University "In this searing critique of pink capitalism and rainbow-approved state violence, Ferguson slays the flat misnomer that the 1969 Stonewall Riots were only about gay sex. Instead, he brilliantly contextualizes Stonewall multi-dimensionally in histories of anti-racist and anti-imperialist rebellion."—Steven W. Thrasher, The Guardian and Northwestern University "One-Dimensional Queer is as clear an account as you could hope to encounter of how race and sexuality came to be understood as separate formations in US history. The resultant mainstreaming of LGBT cultures has been disastrous in terms of seeing our way out of the current crisis we inhabit. Offering solutions as well as critique, Ferguson's book is destined to be a crucial part of any library of liberation."—Jack Halberstam, Columbia University "In this searing critique of pink capitalism and rainbow-approved state violence, Ferguson slays the flat misnomer that the 1969 Stonewall Riots were only about gay sex. Instead, he brilliantly contextualizes Stonewall multi-dimensionally in histories of anti-racist and anti-imperialist rebellion."—Steven W. Thrasher, The Guardian and Northwestern University "One-Dimensional Queer raises provocative and important questions about the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality, and about the extent to which capitalism has determined the course of LGBT+ lives." (New York Journal of Books) "Gay liberation didn't originate as a single-issue movement, and must confront neoliberalism and gentrification as well as anti-queer violence." (Black Agenda Report) "A fascinating unearthing of seldom discussed LGBT history, including groups like STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) and the Philadelphia-area collective DykeTactics." (KPFA Women's Magazine) "One-Dimensional Queer demands that we reexamine the intersectional history of the LGBTQ movement, which was rooted in many other movements of the '60s and '70s, to find instruments of true radical change." (TruthOut.org) "Ferguson's book convincingly shows that the 'multidimensional' (or intersectional) queer story offers a more viable starting point for political-theoretical questions." (Die Tageszeitung – Kultur) "In One Dimensional Queer, Ferguson asks his reader not to parse individual elements of society but to consider how various gears work as a cohesive whole. Those who elide bits and pieces, whole chunks and swaths, of the history of oppression are complicit in that oppression. . . . Ferguson, alongside the many activists, historians, and critics he documents, offers a way forward towards liberation. And in doing so, Ferguson provides a way for us to think about creating a more just world; he offers his reader a way to consider one's queerness broadly, to open their methods of inquiry, and to consider history in a more spacious, more equitable way." (QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking) "[A]n extraordinary contribution to the fields of LGBTQ Studies, American Studies, and queer of color critique. One Dimensional Queer is necessary reading for scholars interested in the history of sexuality in the 20th-century US, queer theory, and gender and sexuality studies." (Women's Studies)Table of Contents Contents Introduction Chapter 1. The Multidimensional Beginnings of Gay Liberation Chapter 2. Gay Emancipation Goes to Market Chapter 3. Queerness and the One-Dimensional City Chapter 4. The Multidimensional Character of Violence Conclusion: The Historical Assumptions of Multidimensional Queer Politics Bibliography

    20 in stock

    £42.75

  • Language and Gender

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Language and Gender

    Book SynopsisSince its first publication in 1998, Mary Talbot’s Language and Gender has been a leading textbook, popular with students for its accessibility and with teachers for the range and depth it achieves in a single volume. This anticipated third edition has been thoroughly revised and updated for the era of #MeToo, genderqueer, Trump, and cyberhate. The book is organized into three parts. An introductory section provides grounding in early ‘classic' studies in the field. In the second section, Talbot examines language used by women and men in a variety of speech situations and genres. The last section considers the construction and performance of gender in discourse, reflecting the interest in mass media and popular culture found in recent research, as well as the preoccupation with social change that is central to Critical Discourse Analysis. Maintaining an emphasis on recent research, Talbot covers a range of approaches at an introductory level, lucidly presenting sometimes difficult and complex issues. Each chapter concludes with a list of recommended readings, enabling students to further their interests in various topics. Language and Gender will continue to be an essential textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates in linguistics, sociolinguistics, cultural and media studies, gender studies and communication studies.Trade Review"The author moves smoothly and coherently from more traditional approaches to language and gender through to very recent research in areas such as discourse and consumerism, and language, gender and sexuality. Different approaches, including Critical Discourse Analysis and social constructionism, are demonstrated, and difficult concepts are clearly and comprehensibly presented. Mary Talbot's own research enriches and enlivens the discussion throughout. The text is extensively illustrated with interesting examples, many of which are taken from recent published research, thus introducing students to relevant and authentic material." Janet Holmes, Victoria University of WellingtonTable of Contents20 years on... Preface to the third edition Acknowledgements Transcription conventions PART I: Preliminaries: Airing Stereotypes and Early Models 1 Language and gender 2 Talking proper 3 ‘Women’s language’ and ‘man made language’ PART II: Interaction among Women and Men 4 Telling stories 5 Conversation 6 Difference-and-dominance and beyond PART III: Discourse and Gender: Construction and Performance 7 Critical perspectives on gender identity 8 Consumerism 9 New men and old boys 10 Professionally speaking 11 Language, gender and sexuality 12 Reclaiming the language References Index

    £54.00

  • Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender, and Violence

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender, and Violence

    Book SynopsisSchool shootings, police misconduct, and sexual assault where people are injured and die dominate the news. What are the connections between such incidents of violence and extreme harm? In this new book, world-renowned sociologist Patricia Hill Collins explores how violence differentially affects people according to their class, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity. These invisible workings of overlapping power relations give rise to what she terms “lethal intersections,” where multiple forms of oppression converge to catalyze a set of violent practices that fall more heavily on particular groups. Drawing on a rich tapestry of cases, Collins challenges readers to reflect on what counts as violence today and what can be done about it. Resisting violence offers a common thread that weaves together disparate antiviolence projects across the world. When parents of murdered children organize against gun violence, when Black citizens march against the excessive use of police force in their neighborhoods, and when women and girls report sexual abuse by employers, coaches, and community leaders, the ideas and actions of ordinary people lay a foundation for new ways of thinking about and combating violence. Through its ground-breaking analysis, Lethal Intersections aims to stimulate debate about violence as one of the most pressing social problems of our times.Trade Review"The brilliant Patricia Hill Collins has written another must-read book, theorizing the relationship between power, intersectional violence, and inequality in expansive ways. It's a tour de force!"—Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "Black feminists always benefit from anything Patricia Hill Collins writes. In her latest book, she brilliantly connects disparate practices of violence through an intersectional Black feminist lens. This is a valuable addition to the discourse on antiviolence movement-building."—Loretta J. Ross, academic, feminist, and activist "Once again Patricia Hill Collins demonstrates the power and potential of feminist analysis that is always attentive to the structural ubiquity of racial capitalism and to interrelationalities that defy geographical borders, political boundaries, and epistemological limits.—Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz "Lethal Intersections shows how virtually every instance of premature death can reveal the inner workings of power. Early death is the ultimate expression of social injustice. Instead of accepting this inequality as natural or inevitable, Collins urges readers to reject complacency and demand more of democratic governments to protect us from untimely death and to promote our collective wellbeing."—Christine Williams, The University of Texas at Austin "A profoundly inviting and compelling account of intersectional violence. Collins leaves no one behind in this analysis, which makes the book an act of resistance in and of itself."—Patrick R. Grzanka, The University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter One. Lethal Intersections and Violence Chapter Two. Violence and the Power of Ideas Chapter Three. Violence and National Identity Chapter Four. Invisible Violence Chapter Five. Resisting Intersectional Violence References Notes

    £52.25

  • Darkening Blackness: Race, Gender, Class, and

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Darkening Blackness: Race, Gender, Class, and

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe concept of Afropessimism does not refer to Black people, but rather to the likelihood of white society overcoming its own negrophobia, and to a radical distrust in white narratives of inclusivity. What if the ideas and reforms we regard as progressive were just the new and shiny face of racism? In the time of Black Lives Matter, the unswerving dehumanization and killing of Black people form the bedrock of our civilization. But a vast anti-Black collective feeling also manifests itself as a more insidious shared unconscious, hidden from view by the doctrines we deem as emancipatory. This book challenges the simplistic and pacifying aspects of current African American thought. It puts forward alternatives to intersectionality, poststructuralism, and radical democracy, which are often prioritized in the Black analysis of race, gender, and class. Accessible, historically informed, and politically alert, this book offers a critical analysis of the groundbreaking theories and strategies that radically reimagine the future of Black lives throughout the world.Trade Review“Norman Ajari’s Darkening Blackness is a masterful defense of Afro-American pessimism and Black Male Studies against the misguided view that ‘pessimism’ means hopelessness and eternal defeat. Instead, pessimism is treated as meaning the rejection of fantasies, especially the fantasy that says one more revision will alter insidious white racialized civil society and intrinsically unjust Euro/American institutions. Step into Ajari’s theoretical world and step out unburdened by fantasy.”Leonard Harris, Purdue University“For those who still do not understand that the pessimism in Afropessimism is not an emotional dispensation but a meta-critique of the first principles of Western thought, Norman Ajari’s Darkening Blackness is required reading. His analysis of Black Male Studies will have as many people nodding their heads as shaking their heads, which is the first step toward rigorous and honest debate.”Frank B. Wilderson III, Chancellor’s Professor of African American Studies, University of California, IrvineTable of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1 The Sources of the Afropessimist ParadigmChapter 2 Theoretical Origins of AfropessimismChapter 3 From the Black Man as Problem to the Study of Black MenChapter 4 A Politics of AntagonismsPostface By Tommy CurryNotesIndex

    7 in stock

    £45.00

  • Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes

    Brandeis University Press Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisHow mediation and religious dispute-resolution mechanisms operate within diverse communities

    1 in stock

    £39.90

  • And the Sages Did Not Know: Early Rabbinic

    University of Pennsylvania Press And the Sages Did Not Know: Early Rabbinic

    Book SynopsisThis book explores the question: How did the rabbis of the first two centuries CE approach bodies that are born with variant genitals—bodies that they could not identify as definitely male or female? The rabbis had constructed a system in which every behavior was governed by one’s sex/gender, posing a conundrum both for people who did not fit into that model and for the rabbinic enterprise itself. Despite this, their texts contain dozens of references to intersex. And the Sages Did Not Know examines the rabbis’ legal texts and concludes that they had multiple approaches to intersex people. Sarra Lev analyzes seven different rabbinic responses to this conflict of their own making. Through their rulings on how intersex people should conduct themselves in multiple circumstances, the early rabbis treat intersex people as unidentifiable males or females, as indeterminate, as male, as non-gendered, as sui generis, as part-male/part-female, as a sustainable paradox, and, finally, as a way for them to think about gender, having nothing to do with intersex people themselves. This is the first such work that concentrates primarily on the potential effects of these rabbinic texts on intersex persons themselves rather than focusing on what the texts offer readers whose interest is rabbinic approaches to sex and gender or gender diversity. Although the rabbinic texts do not include the voices of known intersex people, these materials do offer us a window into how one small group of people approached intersex bodies, and how those approaches were both similar to and different from those we recognize today.Trade Review"With this meticulous and erudite study of the early rabbinic texts about the figure of the nonbinary body, the androginos, Sarra Lev offers a compelling case for using the late ancient material in the contemporary conversation about intersex embodiment. Lev beautifully weaves together the rabbinic legal discourse with contemporary intersex voices, thereby crafting a space of possibility for a different future for these late ancient Jewish texts. A critical contribution toward contending with the Jewish and—by implication—with the U.S. binary sex/gender system of law." * Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Stanford University *

    £50.40

  • Gay, Inc.: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics

    University of Minnesota Press Gay, Inc.: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA bold and provocative look at how the nonprofit sphere’s expansion has helped—and hindered—the LGBT cause What if the very structure on which social movements rely, the nonprofit system, is reinforcing the inequalities activists seek to eliminate? That is the question at the heart of this bold reassessment of the system’s massive expansion since the mid-1960s. Focusing on the LGBT movement, Myrl Beam argues that the conservative turn in queer movement politics, as exemplified by the shift toward marriage and legal equality, is due mostly to the movement’s embrace of the nonprofit structure. Based on oral histories as well as archival research, and drawing on the author’s own extensive activist work, Gay, Inc. presents four compelling case studies. Beam looks at how people at LGBT nonprofits in Minneapolis and Chicago grapple with the contradictions between radical queer social movements and their institutionalized iterations. Through interview subjects’ incisive, funny, and heartbreaking commentaries, Beam exposes a complex world of committed people doing the best they can to effect change, and the flawed structures in which they participate, rail against, ignore, and make do. Providing a critical look at a social formation whose sanctified place in the national imagination has for too long gone unquestioned, Gay, Inc. marks a significant contribution to scholarship on sexuality, neoliberalism, and social movements.Trade Review"Gay, Inc. is a beacon of persuasive clarity, outlining the emotionally compelling but politically compromising role of nonprofit organizations in LGBTQ life. With nuanced ethnographic research, Myrl Beam provokes us to see the conflicts between mission and fundraising, between participants and donors, that shape our deepest commitments to social justice. Gay, Inc. is a must read for scholars and activists alike."—Lisa Duggan, New York University"An essential read for anyone who is trying to figure out how social change works, Gay, Inc. helps us understand queer and trans resistance in depth, bringing new insight into social movement debates about the role of nonprofits using grounded histories of resistance and conflict within queer politics."—Dean Spade, Seattle University School of LawTable of ContentsIntroduction1. Neoliberalism, Nonprofitization, and Social Change2. The Work of Compassion: Institutionalizing Affective Economies of AIDS and Homelessness3. Community and Its Others: Safety, Space, and Nonprofitization4. Capital and Nonprofitization: At the Limits of “By and For”5. Navigating the Crisis of Neoliberalism: A Stance of Undefeated DespairConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

    1 in stock

    £72.00

  • When Time Warps: The Lived Experience of Gender,

    University of Minnesota Press When Time Warps: The Lived Experience of Gender,

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn inquiry into the phenomenology of “woman” based in the relationship between lived time and sexual violence Feminist phenomenologists have long understood a woman’s life as inhibited, confined, and constrained by sexual violence. In this important inquiry, author Megan Burke both builds and expands on this legacy by examining the production of normative womanhood through racist tropes and colonial domination. Ultimately, Burke charts a new feminist phenomenology based in the relationship between lived time and sexual violence. By focusing on time instead of space, When Time Warps places sexualized racism at the center of the way “woman” is lived. Burke transports questions of time and gender outside the realm of the historical, making provocative new insights into how gendered individuals live time, and how their temporal existence is changed through particular experiences.Providing a potent reexamination of the theory of Simone de Beauvoir—while also bringing to the fore important women of color theorists and engaging in the temporal aspects of #MeToo—When Time Warps makes a necessary, lasting contribution to our understanding of gender, race, and sexual violence.Trade Review"Megan Burke’s strikingly original and compelling analysis lays bare the complex ways that temporality, the threat of sexual violence, and white supremacy work in concert to shape feminine subjectivity. This is critical phenomenology at its best: intersectional, unflinching, revelatory."—Ann Cahill, Elon University"Megan Burke diagnoses the ‘sexualized racism’ through which white womanhood is consolidated and reads normative femininity as the product of violence that is experienced physically, spectrally, and existentially. Carefully training our attention on temporality, ‘chrononormativity,’ and the lived experience of gendered and racialized embodiment, When Time Warps is a valuable addition to the growing body of literature in critical phenomenology."—Gayle Salamon, author of The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia "Burke... sets forth a new direction for feminist phenomenology by focusing on the sexualized racism, temporality, and chrononormativity of sexual violence."—CHOICE "When Time Warps reveals how past rape myths haunt and animate our private and public safety protocols, offering a sobering account of how our mundane habits of gender contribute to American gun culture and undermine our freedom." —Radical Philosophy ReviewTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction. “You Rape Our Women”: Rethinking Gender, Race, and RapePrologue1. Toward a Feminist Phenomenology of Temporality and Feminine ExistenceI. The Past2. Sexualized Racism and the Politics of Time3. Beware of Strangers! White Rape Myths and Lived GenderII. The Present4. Anonymity and the Temporality of Normative Gender5. Specters of ViolenceIII. The Future6. Feminist Politics and the Difference of TimeAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

    1 in stock

    £72.00

© 2026 Book Curl

    • American Express
    • Apple Pay
    • Diners Club
    • Discover
    • Google Pay
    • Maestro
    • Mastercard
    • PayPal
    • Shop Pay
    • Union Pay
    • Visa

    Login

    Forgot your password?

    Don't have an account yet?
    Create account