Material culture Books
Columbia University Press Modern Things on Trial Islams Global and
Book SynopsisLeor Halevi tells the story of the Islamic trials of technological and commercial innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shedding light on culture, commerce, and consumption in Cairo and other colonial cities, Modern Things on Trial is a groundbreaking account of Islam’s material transformation in a globalizing era.Trade ReviewLeor Halevi's original study offers important perspectives on turn of the twentieth-century Islamic reformist thought in the context of changing relations between law and material history. He matches up instructive readings in legal opinions delivered in Cairo by Rashid Rida with innovative background research on the new products and technologies that prompted questions to him from around the Muslim world. -- Brinkley Messick, author of Sharīʿa Scripts: A Historical AnthropologyThis nuanced, meticulously researched, yet accessible study illuminates how significant early-twentieth-century debates on Islamic law often revolved around some surprisingly ordinary objects and how local anxieties and input shaped a reformist Islam with transregional appeal. Halevi's focus on the material dimensions of modern Islamic thought adds a very welcome and promising dimension to the scholarship in this field. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A HistoryBy tracing the evolution of 'laissez-faire Salafism' in response to consumer concerns about the religious status of new commodities and technologies, Halevi positions Islam's modern reformation as driven more by materialist than ideational forces. This is a highly original rethinking of the old question of religion and modernity by looking at the material transformations—the 'modern things'—that Muslims acquired from the industrializing West. -- Nile Green, Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, University of California, Los AngelesThis is a remarkable intervention by a pioneering scholar of Islamic law and material culture. Focusing on Rashid Rida, a leading light of modern Islamic reform, it highlights the material entanglements that catalyzed his legal rulings on novel commodities, technologies, and financial instruments. In place of dogmatism and idealism, what emerges is a riveting narrative of pragmatic and materialist accommodations in a period marked by the impact of capitalism, consumerism, and colonialism. This is revisionist history in the best sense. -- Finbarr Barry Flood, director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York UniversityAn outstanding work that sets a new standard for the writing of modern Islamic intellectual history...this book will prove of enduring interest to researchers in Islamic law and modern Islamic thought, historians of the late imperial and early nation-state Muslim worlds, and students of the processes of globalization more generally. * American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences *Halevi sheds light on Islam’s relationship with modernity by offering an account of how Islamic revivalists first responded to modern transformations through religious and legal rulings. * Middle East Journal *This excellent book is paradigm shifting. . . Essential. * Choice *Halevi’s work contributes to the larger understanding of how Islamic reform in this period was often driven through thehistorical narrative of Riḍā as a reformer, illustrating a bottom-up process. * Arab Studies Quarterly *A fresh, lively, and materialist intervention against reductive readings of modern Islam. * Jadaliyya *By rejecting abstractions like “Westernization” and turning instead to how tangible things were weighed on the moral scale of sharia, Leor Halevi presents a bold and lucid new analysis of the making of modern Islam. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Halevi’s book charts the way for other scholars of law and history to write history grounded in an eclectic mix of materials in several languages from various archives around the world. * Law and Social Inquiry *Halevi’s compelling monograph is relevant to a large audience and should interest global historians and historians of empire as much as scholars of modern Islam. * American Historical Review *He not only weaves intellectual and economic history together but comes forth with a contribution that is as ground breaking and original regarding the development of a consumer culture as it is concerning legal reform. * Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *The writing is clear, engaging, and accessible. In addition to classes on Islam, the arguments advanced heremay be pertinent to courses on theory in religious studies. * International Journal of Middle East Studies *It is a new way of looking at the issue of religion and modernity. Among other things, this book would be an excellent focus for graduates reading law and change in the modern Muslim world. * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsList of Maps and FiguresAcknowledgmentsPrologue: The Parable of the Montgolfière and the Translation of Haleby’s CorpseIntroduction: Good Things Made Lawful: Euro-Muslim Objects and Laissez-Faire Fatwas1. The Toilet Paper Fatwa: Hygienic Innovation and the Sacred Law in the Late Imperial Era2. Fatwas for the Partners’ Club: A Global Mufti’s Enterprise3. In a Material World: European Expansion from Tripoli to Cairo4. Paper Money and Consummate Men: Capitalism and the Rise of Laissez-Faire Salafism5. The Qurʾan in the Gramophone: Sounds of Islamic Modernity from Cairo to Kazan6. Telegraphs, Photographs, Railways, Law Codes: Tools of Empire, Tools of Islam7. Arabian Slippers: The Turn to Nationalistic Consumption8. Lottery Tickets, Luxury Hotels, and Christian Experts: Economic Liberalism Versus Islamic Exclusivism in a Territorial FrameworkConclusionsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex
£23.75
Columbia University Press Things with a History
Book SynopsisIn Things with a History, Héctor Hoyos argues that the roles of objects in recent Latin American fiction offer a way to integrate materialisms old and new, transforming our understanding of how things shape social and political relations.Trade ReviewIn this singular book, Hoyos unveils a world of unexplored relations between subjects, objects, materiality, and immateriality. He explores the social pact between words and things. Through the idea of transcultural materialism, Hoyos discusses how contemporary Latin American literature mobilizes cultural meanings to illuminate moments in an exploitative global economy. The book deploys a sophisticated web of literary genealogies, as well as theories of materialism, and engages us in new conversations on literature in the global context. -- Graciela Montaldo, Columbia UniversityThings with a History provides a fresh optic on the new materialisms of our time and on the history of things (rubber, cell phones, corpses) that have shaped the history of our present. Héctor Hoyos engages a wonderful range of contemporary Latin American authors and a powerful tradition attuned to both nonhuman agency and human responsibility, unwilling to unlearn the lessons of historical materialism. Grappling with these regional “literatures of extraction” as a political ecologist, Hoyos contributes to today’s most pressing critical conversations. -- Bill Brown, author of Other ThingsAmbitiously conceptualized and beautifully written, Things with a History takes up the formidable task of connecting the humanities with material science and biology and succeeds in opening up new spaces for critique. Hoyos offers provocative pairings of overconsumption and hunger, abundance and scarcity, overextraction and underutilization. By reading a dazzling array of authors and thinkers from Latin America and beyond, Hoyos demonstrates, with uncommon facility, the urgent need for an engaged world literary politics. -- B. Venkat Mani, author of Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany's Pact with BooksIn a fine-grained textual commentary, Things with a History follows the texts’ meanderings, noting their complexities and avoiding unnecessary reductiveness. Combining critical imagination with theoretical rigor, Hoyos persuasively breathes new life and meaning into “new materialism” and its predecessors. -- Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale UniversityA great example on how to work beyond the false dichotomy of representation and practices and to deeply dissect the benefits and limitations of regional critical takes in the context of a globalized world. -- Valeria Meiller, Georgetown University * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Tale of Two MaterialismsPart I: Objects1. Raw Stuff Disavowed2. Of Rocks and Particles3. Corpse Narratives as Literary HistoryPart II: Assemblages4. Politics and Praxis of Hyperfetishism5. Digitalia from the MarginsConclusions: Extractivism EstrangedNotesBibliographyIndex
£75.00
Columbia University Press Things with a History Transcultural Materialism
Book SynopsisIn Things with a History, Héctor Hoyos argues that the roles of objects in recent Latin American fiction offers a way to integrate materialisms old and new, transforming our understanding of how things shape social and political relations.Trade ReviewIn this singular book, Hoyos unveils a world of unexplored relations between subjects, objects, materiality, and immateriality. He explores the social pact between words and things. Through the idea of transcultural materialism, Hoyos discusses how contemporary Latin American literature mobilizes cultural meanings to illuminate moments in an exploitative global economy. The book deploys a sophisticated web of literary genealogies, as well as theories of materialism, and engages us in new conversations on literature in the global context. -- Graciela Montaldo, Columbia UniversityThings with a History provides a fresh optic on the new materialisms of our time and on the history of things (rubber, cell phones, corpses) that have shaped the history of our present. Héctor Hoyos engages a wonderful range of contemporary Latin American authors and a powerful tradition attuned to both nonhuman agency and human responsibility, unwilling to unlearn the lessons of historical materialism. Grappling with these regional “literatures of extraction” as a political ecologist, Hoyos contributes to today’s most pressing critical conversations. -- Bill Brown, author of Other ThingsAmbitiously conceptualized and beautifully written, Things with a History takes up the formidable task of connecting the humanities with material science and biology and succeeds in opening up new spaces for critique. Hoyos offers provocative pairings of overconsumption and hunger, abundance and scarcity, overextraction and underutilization. By reading a dazzling array of authors and thinkers from Latin America and beyond, Hoyos demonstrates, with uncommon facility, the urgent need for an engaged world literary politics. -- B. Venkat Mani, author of Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany's Pact with BooksIn a fine-grained textual commentary, Things with a History follows the texts’ meanderings, noting their complexities and avoiding unnecessary reductiveness. Combining critical imagination with theoretical rigor, Hoyos persuasively breathes new life and meaning into “new materialism” and its predecessors. -- Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale UniversityA great example on how to work beyond the false dichotomy of representation and practices and to deeply dissect the benefits and limitations of regional critical takes in the context of a globalized world. -- Valeria Meiller, Georgetown University * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Tale of Two MaterialismsPart I: Objects1. Raw Stuff Disavowed2. Of Rocks and Particles3. Corpse Narratives as Literary HistoryPart II: Assemblages4. Politics and Praxis of Hyperfetishism5. Digitalia from the MarginsConclusions: Extractivism EstrangedNotesBibliographyIndex
£23.75
Columbia University Press A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
Book SynopsisDung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is a playful and imaginative glimpse into the consumerist dreamscape of late-nineties Hong Kong. First published in 1999, it comprises ninety-nine sketches of life just after the handover of the former British colony to China.Trade ReviewNamed a New York Times Notable Book. * New York Times Book Review *Playful and quirky, the sketches reveal Dung’s eye for this particular moment in history, and his vast imagination . . . Documenting a particular place and time, this vibrant and distinctive collection offers a kaleidoscopic vision of that era. -- Weike Wang * New York Times Book Review *Highly addictive, the equivalent of literary dim sum. * South China Morning Post Magazine *[These tales] are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in 1999 . . . Feed your inner nostalgia monster some of these surrealist pop-culture bites. * Kirkus Reviews *Fascinating and refreshing. * Publishers Weekly *Surreal, comical, and haunting, this short story collection sees magic in everyday items. * Foreword Reviews *Dung Kai-Cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest novelist. * Three Percent *Reading Dung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is like descending into a beautiful fever dream of Hong Kong in the late ‘90s. The story collection is both a time capsule, capturing Hong Kong through pop culture references like Hello Kitty and Air Jordans, and an incantation, breathing life into a surreal cast of characters who transform themselves, literally and metaphorically, through their pop culture choices. * Necessary Fiction *Longtime urban chronicler Dung has achieved rare distinction as one of very few figures writing about Hong Kong to win recognition in world literature. He has done so by turning mundane, unexamined items in all our lives into haunting, near-Shakespearian spiritual forces. * Nikkei Asia *Dung Kai-cheung’s catalog is a cultural 'thick description' of popular culture filled with dry wit and humor. His sketches are not short stories. He offers flights of fancy. * Asian Review of Books *These half-allegorical sketches by a uniquely gifted Hong Kong writer bring to us a nostalgic mosaic of the sights and sounds of a city whose cosmopolitan splendor is fast fading. It is even more heart-rending to read them in English today than some twenty years ago when these astonishing literary tidbits first appeared in the Chinese original. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, author of City Between Worlds: My Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest living writer, and this translation is a cause for celebration, giving global readers another path into his unique, uncanny Hong Kong. May it help bring him the wider international readership that is long overdue. -- Antony Dapiran, author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is the most prolific and imaginative Hong Kong writer of the past three decades. His A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On is a fascinating and singular literary meditation on how “objects” and “stuff” affect people’s everyday lives, create meaning, and contribute to cultural identity. -- Michael Berry, editor of The Musha Incident: A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial TaiwanI read these ninety-nine sketches with a mixture of dreamy fondness and rueful melancholy. Dung Kai-cheung deftly captures the city at a time of fundamental change in this series of offbeat stories, and one couldn’t ask for better translators than Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson. -- Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, editor in chief of Cha: An Asian Literary JournalModeled on a remembrance of the Song dynasty capital city after it fell to northern invaders in the twelfth century, these vignettes record dreams of a bygone (yet never quite gone) Hong Kong with wistfulness and humor, translated by McDougall and Hansson with accuracy and elegance. -- Lucas Klein, editor and translator of Words as Grain: New and Selected Poems of Duo DuoThis publication represents a milestone in broadening the readership of Dung’s work and in fostering the teaching and research of Hong Kong and Sinophone literature. * Asian Studies Review *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Preface: The MaskTranslators’ Note1. Agnès b.2. Cutie Punk3. Magpaper4. Hello Kitty5. Tank Tops6. Sena’s Piano II7. IXUS8. Girl Specimens9. Che10. Pastéis de Nata11. Photo Stickers12. Football Kits13. Red Wing14. Eat as Much as You Like15. A Bathing Ape16. Hysteric Glamour17. Windows 9818. non-no19. Konjak Jellies20. Mebius21. Combat Trousers22. Puffy23. Sony DV24. Aprons25. Air Jordan26. ICQ27. The Colored Sunglasses28. Seiko Lukia29. My Melody30. Snoopy31. Panatellas32. Secondhand Clothes33. Teletubbies34. Ha Kam Shing35. Nokia 881036. Camouflage37. Le Couple38. Bucket Hats39. iMac40. Rolex Daytona41. Viva Japanese TV Drama42. Polaroids43. Lovegety Station44. Prada45. StarTAC46. Colors47. Beatmania48. Adidas49. Gucci50. Yahoo!51. Fujifilm Digital Camera52. Converse Lo Tec53. Hairpins54. Cut Sleeves55. Scarves56. Animal Prints57. The Pleated Skirt58. Miu Miu Flannel59. Gray60. The Cockroach61. The Cowboy Hat62. Signal Youths63. H2O+64. Depsea Water65. The Patagonia Fleece66. The Duffel Coat67. LV Vernis68. Panasonic DVD69. South Park70. Dreamcast71. Tomb Raider III72. Sharp MiniDisc Player73. Burberrys Blue Label74. MP375. Miffy76. Devon Aoki77. Motorola Dual Band78. Cheesecake79. PalmPilot80. PN Rouge Suplinic81. Final Fantasy VIII82. The Waist Bag83. Twisted Strands84. Sunday85. A Temporary Tattoo86. The Neck Pouch87. Cutie Cute & Horribly Horrid88. 5S89. Drawstrings90. The Three Skewer Brothers91. Khaki92. White Blouses93. Ballet Shoes94. Birkenstock95. Cargo Shorts96. Flip-Flops97. Hiromix98. Chappies99. Made in Hong Kong
£80.75
Columbia University Press A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
Book SynopsisDung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is a playful and imaginative glimpse into the consumerist dreamscape of late-nineties Hong Kong. First published in 1999, it comprises ninety-nine sketches of life just after the handover of the former British colony to China.Trade ReviewNamed a New York Times Notable Book. * New York Times Book Review *Playful and quirky, the sketches reveal Dung’s eye for this particular moment in history, and his vast imagination . . . Documenting a particular place and time, this vibrant and distinctive collection offers a kaleidoscopic vision of that era. -- Weike Wang * New York Times Book Review *Highly addictive, the equivalent of literary dim sum. * South China Morning Post Magazine *[These tales] are as relevant today as they were when they were first published in 1999 . . . Feed your inner nostalgia monster some of these surrealist pop-culture bites. * Kirkus Reviews *Fascinating and refreshing. * Publishers Weekly *Surreal, comical, and haunting, this short story collection sees magic in everyday items. * Foreword Reviews *Dung Kai-Cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest novelist. * Three Percent *Reading Dung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On is like descending into a beautiful fever dream of Hong Kong in the late ‘90s. The story collection is both a time capsule, capturing Hong Kong through pop culture references like Hello Kitty and Air Jordans, and an incantation, breathing life into a surreal cast of characters who transform themselves, literally and metaphorically, through their pop culture choices. * Necessary Fiction *Longtime urban chronicler Dung has achieved rare distinction as one of very few figures writing about Hong Kong to win recognition in world literature. He has done so by turning mundane, unexamined items in all our lives into haunting, near-Shakespearian spiritual forces. * Nikkei Asia *Dung Kai-cheung’s catalog is a cultural 'thick description' of popular culture filled with dry wit and humor. His sketches are not short stories. He offers flights of fancy. * Asian Review of Books *These half-allegorical sketches by a uniquely gifted Hong Kong writer bring to us a nostalgic mosaic of the sights and sounds of a city whose cosmopolitan splendor is fast fading. It is even more heart-rending to read them in English today than some twenty years ago when these astonishing literary tidbits first appeared in the Chinese original. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, author of City Between Worlds: My Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is Hong Kong’s greatest living writer, and this translation is a cause for celebration, giving global readers another path into his unique, uncanny Hong Kong. May it help bring him the wider international readership that is long overdue. -- Antony Dapiran, author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong KongDung Kai-cheung is the most prolific and imaginative Hong Kong writer of the past three decades. His A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On is a fascinating and singular literary meditation on how “objects” and “stuff” affect people’s everyday lives, create meaning, and contribute to cultural identity. -- Michael Berry, editor of The Musha Incident: A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial TaiwanI read these ninety-nine sketches with a mixture of dreamy fondness and rueful melancholy. Dung Kai-cheung deftly captures the city at a time of fundamental change in this series of offbeat stories, and one couldn’t ask for better translators than Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson. -- Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, editor in chief of Cha: An Asian Literary JournalModeled on a remembrance of the Song dynasty capital city after it fell to northern invaders in the twelfth century, these vignettes record dreams of a bygone (yet never quite gone) Hong Kong with wistfulness and humor, translated by McDougall and Hansson with accuracy and elegance. -- Lucas Klein, editor and translator of Words as Grain: New and Selected Poems of Duo DuoThis publication represents a milestone in broadening the readership of Dung’s work and in fostering the teaching and research of Hong Kong and Sinophone literature. * Asian Studies Review *Table of ContentsAuthor’s Preface: The MaskTranslators’ Note1. Agnès b.2. Cutie Punk3. Magpaper4. Hello Kitty5. Tank Tops6. Sena’s Piano II7. IXUS8. Girl Specimens9. Che10. Pastéis de Nata11. Photo Stickers12. Football Kits13. Red Wing14. Eat as Much as You Like15. A Bathing Ape16. Hysteric Glamour17. Windows 9818. non-no19. Konjak Jellies20. Mebius21. Combat Trousers22. Puffy23. Sony DV24. Aprons25. Air Jordan26. ICQ27. The Colored Sunglasses28. Seiko Lukia29. My Melody30. Snoopy31. Panatellas32. Secondhand Clothes33. Teletubbies34. Ha Kam Shing35. Nokia 881036. Camouflage37. Le Couple38. Bucket Hats39. iMac40. Rolex Daytona41. Viva Japanese TV Drama42. Polaroids43. Lovegety Station44. Prada45. StarTAC46. Colors47. Beatmania48. Adidas49. Gucci50. Yahoo!51. Fujifilm Digital Camera52. Converse Lo Tec53. Hairpins54. Cut Sleeves55. Scarves56. Animal Prints57. The Pleated Skirt58. Miu Miu Flannel59. Gray60. The Cockroach61. The Cowboy Hat62. Signal Youths63. H2O+64. Depsea Water65. The Patagonia Fleece66. The Duffel Coat67. LV Vernis68. Panasonic DVD69. South Park70. Dreamcast71. Tomb Raider III72. Sharp MiniDisc Player73. Burberrys Blue Label74. MP375. Miffy76. Devon Aoki77. Motorola Dual Band78. Cheesecake79. PalmPilot80. PN Rouge Suplinic81. Final Fantasy VIII82. The Waist Bag83. Twisted Strands84. Sunday85. A Temporary Tattoo86. The Neck Pouch87. Cutie Cute & Horribly Horrid88. 5S89. Drawstrings90. The Three Skewer Brothers91. Khaki92. White Blouses93. Ballet Shoes94. Birkenstock95. Cargo Shorts96. Flip-Flops97. Hiromix98. Chappies99. Made in Hong Kong
£20.90
University of California Press Silk Slaves and Stupas
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the virtues of Whitfield’s approach is that she is able to range far and wide among the various peoples, cultures, and polities of Eurasia and Africa. Though half of her ten chapters deal with objects that were excavated within the present-day boundaries of China—a reflection of the longstanding Sinocentric bias in the field of Silk Road studies—Whitfield goes to great lengths to contextualize these finds within broader Eurasian networks of exchange far outside of China." * Silk Road Journal *"Whitfield certainly seems to have identified a theme worth pursuing: the objects of the Silk Road are fascinating and a single object can encompass within it huge swathes, geographical and chronological, of human history." * Asian Review of Books *"In Silk, Slaves, and Stupas, Susan Whitfield reminds her readers once again why she so thoroughly deserves her reputation as one of the most accomplished of all Silk Road scholars. [The book] demonstrates the author's command of all facets of Silk Road studies, and also her ability to unfold the story of this important period and process in word history by moving seamlessly from the particular to the general, from a single object to an entire field of research." * Central Asian Survey *‘Whitfield’s new book provides us with a brilliant example of how material history should be written.’ * Journal of Asian Studies *"...this is an impressive and comprehensive work, one that can easily be envisaged as a primer for a university course that introduces the principal themes of the Silk Roads. There is much here too, though, for more established scholars working in part or all of this field thanks to Whitfield's research, which is up to date with the latest thinking on manumission of slaves, on the construction of Buddhist stupas, or the techniques of glass making. Susan Whitfield has written a rather wonderful book; it will serve as a gateway that will inspire future generations of scholars to follow in her footsteps." * Journal of Medieval Worlds *"The level of detailed evidence that [Whitfield] unearths . . . is both impressive and enticing." * Journal of World History *"A page-turner comparable to a good detective story." * International Institute for Asian Studies *"All these [Silk Road] objects have intriguing stories to tell, and Susan Whitfield succeeds impressively in giving them a voice." * New Global Studies *"Kaleidoscopic. . . . A pleasure to explore and will delight readers from a wide sphere." * Asian Perspectives: The Journal of Archaeology and the Pacific *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Names Introduction 1 • A Pair of Steppe Earrings 2 • A Hellenistic Glass Bowl 3 • A Hoard of Kushan Coins 4 • Amluk Dara Stupa 1 5 • A Bactrian Ewer 6 • A Khotanese Plaque 7 • The Blue Qur?an 8 • A Byzantine Hunter Silk 9 • A Chinese Almanac 10 • The Unknown Slave Bibliography Index
£22.50
Princeton University Press Athens at the Margins
Book SynopsisTrade Review"With its copious fine illustrations and lucid exposition, this is an extraordinary resource for the teacher of Greek archaeology."---Robin Osborne, World Archaeology"In this significant reinterpretation, Arrington convincingly maintains that material culture and knowledge did not flow from East to West just through multiethnic elites; it also flowed through the interactions of non-elites."---C. C. Kolb, Choice Reviews"In his wonderfully stimulating book, Nathan Arrington has the people on the margins of 7th-century Attica have their voices roaring back into the debate. . . . [It] should be read by anyone interested in the subaltern perspective, artistry and pottery, as well as the historiography behind many of the discipline’s accepted assumptions."---Roy van Wijk, The Classical Journal"This is an inspiring book. It is not only well researched, nicely illustrated and elegantly written, but it offers a whole range of new perspectives on the Protoattic style and its wider context, with the objects themselves (and their agency) taking center stage."---Maximilian Rönnberg, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Thought-provoking and ambitious…[t]his unconventional volume – beautifully phrased and engagingly written – is very clear and well structured, with numerous high-quality images helping readers to follow [Arrington’s] descriptions and readings of the vases."---Adriano Orsingher, The Classical Review"[A] beautifully written book, based on substantial and thorough research. . . . Moving away from the “Orientalizing” paradigm, Arrington succeeds in bringing to the forefront artists, immigrants, and multicultural communities, while challenging the elite connotations of the Proto-Attic pottery. This book, well produced and richly illustrated, is a positive contribution to the literature on seventh-century BCE Attica for students and scholars alike."---Vicky Vlachou, American Journal of Archaeology"[F]ascinating and ground-breaking. . . . [Athens at the Margins] is an intelligent, very well written, and well-presented book."---Conor Trainor, Sehepunkte
£40.50
Princeton University Press Porcelain
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History Conference""Finalist for the PROSE Award in European History, Association of American Publishers""[A] sweeping economic, social and cultural history of central Europe. . . . unorthodox and engaging."---Marc Levinson, Wall Street Journal"A wide-ranging and thorough study. . . . this is a riveting story, well told . . . by Marchand, who illuminates so much in an original and entertaining way."---Tim Blanning, Literary Review"As Suzanne Marchand shows in her meticulous new book, porcelain has been integral to German life since its reinvention in Saxony in 1708." * The Economist *"As an economic-business history, Marchand's work is a landmark achievement. . . . Porcelain is a monumental achievement in scope and breadth in illuminating porcelain's European beginnings and its increasingly fragile position in the markets of the present."---Megan Brandow-Faller, Central European History"Marchand paints a colourful picture of the day-to-day life of porcelain factories."---Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth, Apollo"To weave together cultural, economic, and social history so masterfully takes great historiographical experience and skill. All those who are interested in nineteenth-century German intellectual history admire Suzanne Marchand’s books on the reception of classical antiquity and orientalism. Now she has surprised us with something completely new"---Jürgen Osterhammel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"Marchand, a specialist in German history, writes with clarity."---Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement"The remarkable achievement of Suzanne Marchand’s new book, Porcelain, which focuses especially on Germany, is that she moves beyond the celebrated age of discovery in the eighteenth century...to explore modern manufacture and diffusion across a broader consumer society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .... While Meissen lies at the center of Marchand’s book, one of its great strengths is the broader survey of German porcelain manufacturing."---Larry Wolff, Journal of Modern History
£27.00
Princeton University Press Ceramic Art
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Pluto Press FlipFlop
Book SynopsisBy tracing the footprint of a unremarkable object across the globe, this book provides new ways of thinking about globalisation.Trade Review'A journey through globalisation's backroads ... Innovative, insightful, and by turns disturbing and inspiring' -- Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science'If you are invited to Davos, shiny shoes, high heels or ski boots may be in order. For understanding much of the rest of the world, Caroline Knowles shows, you think better with flip-flops' -- Ulf Hannerz, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm UniversityTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Prologue 1. Navigating the Territories of the Trail 2. Oil – Maps beneath the Sand 3. Choreographies of Petrochemistry 4. Plastic City 5. Plastic Village 6. Making Flip-Flops 7. Logistics, Borderlands and Uncertain Landings 8. Markets 9. Urban Navigation in Flip-Flops 10. Rubbish 11. Globalisation Revisited Notes Maps Index
£24.29
Pluto Press FlipFlop
Book SynopsisBy tracing the footprint of a unremarkable object across the globe, this book provides new ways of thinking about globalisation.Trade Review'A journey through globalisation's backroads ... Innovative, insightful, and by turns disturbing and inspiring' -- Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science'If you are invited to Davos, shiny shoes, high heels or ski boots may be in order. For understanding much of the rest of the world, Caroline Knowles shows, you think better with flip-flops' -- Ulf Hannerz, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm UniversityTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Prologue 1. Navigating the Territories of the Trail 2. Oil – Maps beneath the Sand 3. Choreographies of Petrochemistry 4. Plastic City 5. Plastic Village 6. Making Flip-Flops 7. Logistics, Borderlands and Uncertain Landings 8. Markets 9. Urban Navigation in Flip-Flops 10. Rubbish 11. Globalisation Revisited Notes Maps Index
£72.25
Pluto Press Gadget Consciousness Collective Thought Will and
Book SynopsisInvestigates how electronic devices we use affect our consciousness, both as individuals and classes.Trade Review'Our obsession with gadgets is a key token of how deeply computer-based connection is now embedded in everyday life and consciousness. Joss Hands offers a highly thoughtful and theoretically astute reading of the possibilities for human reflexivity and agency that still remain' -- Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory, London School of Economics'A Swiss army knife of a book, unfolding tools to convert digital devices from exploitation and isolation to meaning and connection. Joss Hands gives us a handheld manifesto for gadget communism' -- Sean Cubitt, Goldsmiths University of London'Takes the seemingly apolitical and trivial concept of 'the gadget' and transforms it into a fascinating path to explore not only the most recent phase of capitalist techno-fetishism, but also, with exemplary radical experimentalism, the blasphemous idea of 'gadget communism'' -- Nick Dyer-Witheford, University of Western OntarioTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Question Concerning Gadgets 2. Gadget Materialism 3. Gadget Brain 4. Gadget Consciousness 5. Gadget Action 6. Gadget Futures Bibliography Index
£72.25
Pluto Press Unreal Objects
Book SynopsisUnpacks the political economy of new science and technology projects, and the implications for a utopian futureTrade Review'Disorientates us, showing us how the reality of things is contingent and contestable, never losing sight of what is at stake' -- Sarah Kember, Professor of New Technologies of Communication, Goldsmiths University, Director of Goldsmiths PressTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Series Preface 1. Introduction: Problems With Objects 2. The Shadow of Genomics 3. Biosensory Experiences, Data and the Interfaced Self 4. Smart Grids: Energy Futures, Carbon Capture and Geoengineering 5. Real Fantasies: De-Extinction and In Vitro Meat 6. Unreal Objects and Political Realities Bibliography Index
£16.14
Pluto Press Money and Society A Critical Companion IIPPE
Book SynopsisAn introduction to the sociology of money, foregrounding how money embodies social relationsTrade Review'An extremely knowledgeable account of existing theories of money' -- Jens Beckert, author of Imagined 'Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics' (Harvard University Press, 2016)'A well-argued exploration of the history and nature of money ... Thorough and comprehensive' -- Mary Mellor, author of Money: Myths, Truths and Alternatives (Policy Press, 2019)Table of ContentsPreface 1. Economic Theories of Money – and Their Critiques 1.1. Barter, Exchange and Money 1.2. Objective versus Subjective Theories of Value 1.3. The Improbability of Exchange 2. Money’s Unlikely Origins 2.1. Gift-exchange and ceremonial monies 2.2. Money and (the End of) Violence 2.3. Economies of Sacrifice 2.4. Secrets of the Coin 3. Money and Finance 3.1. Time and Money 3.2. The Logic of Financial Markets 4. The Politics of Money 4.1. The Foundations and Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Money 4.2. Private Monies (or Bitcoin) 4.3. Sovereign Money 4.4. Central Bank Independence and the Inescapable Politicality of Money 5. Money and Society 5.1. Alienation and Freedom 5.2. Money and Functional Differentiation References Index
£72.25
University of British Columbia Press British Columbia by the Road
Book SynopsisBy offering behind-the-scenery glimpses of how boosters and builders modified the BC landscape and shaped what drivers and tourists could view from the comfort of their vehicles, this book confounds the idea of “freedom of the road.”Trade ReviewRead British Columbia by the Road backwards. Or forwards. It doesn’t matter. Like the highways themselves, you can drive Ben Bradley’s bright, engaging work on automobility, identity, and landscape in British Columbia’s Interior in different directions. Stop to visit an open-air museum or take a picture of a striking vista. You’ll get to where you’re going. -- Blair Stein, University of Oklahoma * BC Studies, Issue 199, Fall 2018 *Through refreshing and in-depth research, author Ben Bradley … offers up an engaging road trip through time and space, guiding the reader along the twisting, turning, climbing, curated, landscape of the circa 1925 to 1970 British Columbia Interior highway system, where myriad man-made, natural, and historic vistas unfold…. British Columbia by the Road is delightfully interactive, in that the author encourages the reader to slip behind the wheel … [and] an excellent read, [that] serves to shed light on the numerous forces and underpinnings which were at play in the development of the BC Interior highway system. -- David P. Stephens * Material Culture Review *Bradley’s study offers fresh perspectives on tourism promotion, park development, political culture, and public history. Befitting a study focusing on driving’s visual culture, the book has superb maps and photographs … British Columbia by the Road provides a much-needed and sustained analysis of key developments in the province’s interior and is clearly a “must read” for BC historians. For those less engaged and less familiar with the province’s history, it offers valuable and nuanced insights into the political, environmental, and economic history of North America—particularly the regional impact of automobility. -- Michael Dawson, St Thomas University * Histoire Sociale/Social History *[British Columbia by the Road] succeeds admirably in achieving its goals and it will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars far beyond the bounds of British Columbia … the book is a terrific example of detailed, very placeful historical geographical research which succeeds in connecting western Canada’s particular story with a broader argument about how political imperatives, infrastructure investment, and the new technology of the automobile conspired to shape the economic geographies and place identities of many localities across North America and beyond. -- William Wyckoff, Montana State University, USA * Journal of Historical Geography *One of the ways that we experience our past is by driving through it. We hop into our automobiles and motor through the backcountry, stopping along the way at a wide variety of historical markers, parks, and viewpoints to refresh our memories or learn something new. This “public pedagogy” goes a long way to informing the ideas we have about our province’s history and it is the subject of Ben Bradley’s new book … British Columbia by the Road is refreshingly free of jargon and smoothly written; it also presents a thought-provoking new perspective on the history of B.C.’s interior. -- Daniel Francis * BC Booklook *Ben Bradley’s book British Columbia by the Road is a significant contribution to the history of North American automobility … [This] is a highly readable book that can be read not only for its academic merits, but also as a travel book! -- Maude Flamand-Hubert * NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) *Bradley shows that a regional focus can be an effective way to connect landscape, environmental, tourism, and mobility history. -- Review by Kyle Shelton, Rice University * Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Volume 109, Number 2 *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Automobility and the Making of New Kinds of ExperienceRoute A: A Drive through Nature1 Toward a Park in the Cascade Mountains2 Behind the Scenery in Manning Park3 The Politics of Roads and Parks in the Big Bend Country4 The Failure of Hamber Park and the Big Bend HighwayRoute B: Paths to the Past5 Tracing the Route of the Cariboo Wagon Road6 Changing Times and Crisis amidst Prosperity7 On the Road for the 1958 Centennial8 Mixed Fortunes in the BC Old RushConclusion: Looking Back on British Columbia by the RoadNotesBibliographyIndex
£26.99
Louisiana State University Press Mardi Gras Beads
Book SynopsisBeads are one of the great New Orleans symbols, as much a signifier of the city as a pot of scarlet crawfish or a jazzman’s trumpet. The first in a new LSU Press series exploring facets of Louisiana’s iconic culture, Mardi Gras Beads delves into the history of this celebrated New Orleans artefact.
£17.06
University of Pennsylvania Press Top Down
Book SynopsisAt first glance, the Ford Foundation and the black power movement would make an unlikely partnership. After the Second World War, the renowned Foundation was the largest philanthropic organization in the United States and was dedicated to projects of liberal reform. Black power ideology, which promoted self-determination over color-blind assimilation, was often characterized as radical and divisive. But Foundation president McGeorge Bundy chose to engage rather than confront black power''s challenge to racial liberalism through an ambitious, long-term strategy to foster the social development of racial minorities. The Ford Foundation not only bankrolled but originated many of the black power era''s hallmark legacies: community control of public schools, ghetto-based economic development initiatives, and race-specific arts and cultural organizations.In Top Down, Karen Ferguson explores the consequences of this counterintuitive and unequal relationship between the liberalTrade Review"Vigorously argued and thoroughly grounded in research from the extensive Ford Foundation archives, this important book carefully traces the roots of the Foundation's 'developmental separatism' as well as the evolving contours of social and political thought within the black public sphere, effectively putting the two forms of separatism in dialogue with one another." * Alice O'Connor, University of California, Santa Barbara *"Karen Ferguson's Top Down is a provocative and often brilliant history of the single most important philanthropic institution in the long civil rights era. The Ford Foundation and similar philanthropies, she argues compellingly, shaped Black Power and other radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s." * Felicia Kornbluh, University of Vermont *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. SIZING UP THE URBAN CRISIS Chapter 1. Modernizing Migrants Chapter 2. The Social Development Solution PART II. TRANSFORMING THE GHETTO Chapter 3. Developmental Separatism and Community Control Chapter 4. Black Power and the End of Community Action PART III. CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP Chapter 5. Multiculturalism from Above Chapter 6. The Best and the Brightest Epilogue. The Diminishing Expectations of Racial Liberalism Notes Index Acknowledgments
£48.60
The University of Alabama Press Rhetoric Through Everyday Things Rhetoric Culture
Book SynopsisArgues that the field of rhetoric's recent attention to material objects should go further than simply open a new line of inquiry. To maximize the interdisciplinary turn to things, rhetoricians must seize the opportunity to reimagine and perhaps resolve rhetoric's historically problematic relationship to physical reality and ontology.Trade Review“With this volume, Barnett and Boyle go beyond the reach of the speaker-audience-purpose model of human communication to include material objects. The book comprises four parts: 'The New Ontology of Persuasion,' 'Writing Things,' 'Seeing Things,' and 'Assembling Things.' The contributors—an impressive group of scholars ranging from experts to doctoral candidates—offer essays that explore objects as vibrant agents of persuasion and not just passive nonverbal tools. In a particularly intriguing chapter titled 'The Things They Left Behind: Toward an Object-Oriented History of Composition,' Kevin Rutherford and Jason Palmeri encourage the reader to engage in an empathetic dialogue with nonhuman historical objects: for example, history might be read differently if one examined the writing desks of important figures. This book has deep implications for the present materialist turn in the humanities. Unique for its ontological synthesis of rhetorical theory and nonverbal communication, this volume would be useful as a companion reader to a range of courses in rhetoric—from the basic course to advanced seminars—and it would be excellent complementary reading for courses in nonverbal communication. Summing Up: Highly recommended.” - CHOICE“Many scholars are writing and thinking about rhetoric’s materiality, and this collection’s emphasis on ontology is one of the most popular ways of engaging the subject. The essays in Rhetoric, Through Everyday Things address a notoriously difficult set of theoretical problems in a way that will be approachable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as more advanced scholars in rhetoric. I can imagine it being of great interest to scholars in both communication and English departments.” - Greg Dickinson, coeditor of Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials and author of Suburban Dreams: Imagining and Building the Good Life""This volume is an important and capacious contribution to the arrival of 'thing theory' in rhetorical studies. The tensions across chapters will make this a lively text for discussion. It will be taught and cited for the coming years, and I commend the editors for assembling such a thorough collection of essays."" - Debra Hawhee, author of Moving Bodies: Kenneth Burke at the Edges of Language and Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation
£23.36
University of New Mexico Press MINE Essays
Book SynopsisA book about ownership. It begins with an essay about being given a man's furniture while he's on trial for murder and follows with essays that question corporeal, familial, and intellectual forms of ownership. Mining her own life and those of others, Sarah Viren considers the contingencies of ownership alongside the realities of loss in this debut essay collection.Trade ReviewWith wonderfully precise and evocative prose, Sarah Viren takes us deeply into her search for her very self. . . . MINE is not only moving, it is instructive and nourishing in a way that only art can deliver. This book is a gem."" - Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog""Sarah Viren is a writer of extraordinary wisdom and grace. . . . I am always taken aback, in the end, when her essays—cunningly, imperceptibly—gather within themselves such stunning emotional power."" - Kerry Howley, author of Thrown""Ultimately a book about belonging, this nimble, beautiful collection helps us better understand ‘what we call ours but is never really ours to begin with."" - Ryan Van Meter, author of If You Knew Then What I Know Now
£15.26
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection Visualizing Community
Book Synopsis
£64.56
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Origination
Book SynopsisOrigination: The Geographies of Brands and Branding offers innovative theoretical and conceptual frameworks relating to the ways that actors create meaning and value in commodity brands and branding through processes of geographical association. Provides innovative conceptualization and theorization to facilitate an understanding of the geographical dimensions of brands and branding Challenges current interpretations of brands as vehicles of homogenization in globalization Establishes the theoretical and conceptual foundations of a more geographically sensitive approach through rigorous empirical examination of the under-researched geographical differentiation of commodity brands and branding Presents innovative new research and analysis of the socio-spatial biographies of the Newcastle Brown Ale, Burberry and Apple brands Forges strong new connections between political and cultural economy approaches within geography Trade Review“Overall, Origination presents a promising conceptual and research framework capable of revealing the multiple facets of brand geographies.” (Consumption Markets & Culture, 1 December 2015) Table of ContentsSeries Editor Preface viii Acknowledgements ix Permissions x List of Tables xi List of Figures xii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Geographies of Brands and Branding 23 3 Origination 59 4 ‘Local’ Origination … Newcastle Brown Ale 88 5 ‘National’ Origination … Burberry 112 6 ‘Global’ Origination … Apple 139 7 Territorial Development 171 8 Conclusions 194 References 207 Index 224
£54.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Origination
Book SynopsisOrigination: The Geographies of Brands and Branding offers innovative theoretical and conceptual frameworks relating to the ways that actors create meaning and value in commodity brands and branding through processes of geographical association. Provides innovative conceptualization and theorization to facilitate an understanding of the geographical dimensions of brands and branding Challenges current interpretations of brands as vehicles of homogenization in globalization Establishes the theoretical and conceptual foundations of a more geographically sensitive approach through rigorous empirical examination of the under-researched geographical differentiation of commodity brands and branding Presents innovative new research and analysis of the socio-spatial biographies of the Newcastle Brown Ale, Burberry and Apple brands Forges strong new connections between political and cultural economy approaches within geography Trade Review“Overall, Origination presents a promising conceptual and research framework capable of revealing the multiple facets of brand geographies.” (Consumption Markets & Culture, 1 December 2015) Table of ContentsSeries Editor Preface viii Acknowledgements ix Permissions x List of Tables xi List of Figures xii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Geographies of Brands and Branding 23 3 Origination 59 4 ‘Local’ Origination … Newcastle Brown Ale 88 5 ‘National’ Origination … Burberry 112 6 ‘Global’ Origination … Apple 139 7 Territorial Development 171 8 Conclusions 194 References 207 Index 224
£23.74
MP-NCA Uni of North Carolina Building the British Atlantic World Spaces
Book Synopsis
£32.21
University of Texas Press Collecting Black Studies
Book SynopsisToday Black Studies at the University of Texas boasts approximately 900 objects from sub-Saharan Africa, over 200 contemporary works from African American and Afro-Caribbean artists, and more than 100 pieces jointly held with other collecting entities. This book gathers and presents these holdings.
£35.10
New York University Press Clarity Cut and Culture
Book SynopsisDraws on 12 months of fieldwork with diamond consumers in New York City as well as an analysis of the iconic De Beers campaign that promised romance, status, and glamour to anyone who bought a diamond to show that this thematic pool is just one resource among many that diamond owners draw upon to engage with their own stones.Trade ReviewWere this book simply a portrayal of the diamond business, it would have been outstanding. It is far more. It is an innovative study of a commodity that must be as unique as the relationship it celebrates and memorializes. It challenges many of the basic assumptions of marketing by describing the consumers paradoxical responses to its strategies. A truly remarkable book. -- Vincent Crapanzano,Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Anthropology, CUNY Graduate CenterA fascinating study of the absolutely powerful but ambiguous symbolism attached to diamonds: value, romanticism, permanence, devotion, and shining are part of the instantly recognized language for diamonds, but it is an ambiguous and evocative vocabulary. The ethnographic stories in Falls account emphasize that we have become comfortable with consuming these ambiguous signs. Even people disinterested in diamonds seem persistently curious about and perhaps even silently obedient to a rock cast as a symbol of love, heritage, and permanence. -- Paul R. Mullins,Indiana University-Purdue University, IndianapolisFalls delivers an intriguing and insightful foray into multiple ways in which diamonds acquire and deploy deep, cultural meaning and thus maintain their economic heft. Through social and semiotic analyses of this most sought after gem, Clarity, Cut, and Culture illustrates the interlacing practices and multifaceted interpretations that play out in the arenas of commerce, romance, politics and status. -- Daniel Thomas Cook,author of The Commodification of ChildhoodFall's research indicates the breadth and depth of the penetration of diamonds among American consumers. * Public Books *[The] book tells the story of the remarkable rise of the modern diamond industry, which proceeded via a series of gold-rush-like crazes that began in India, peaking there in the late 1600s before shifting to Brazil. . . . As the titleClarity, Cut, and Culturesuggests, Ms. Falls book spends considerable time on the production and marketing of finished stones, taking readers inside Manhattans famous Diamond Row, on 47thStreet, for example. There, in tightly policed cutting schools, students work in blue-carpeted rooms under special fluorescent lights practicing their craft that is, after providing a credit card to guarantee payment for the loss of any stone they handle. * Wall Street Journal *In Clarity, Cut, and Culture, Susan Falls tackles a critical question about modernity andmeaning: Why, when marketers spend billions of dollars cloaking their products withpositive meanings, do people buy them even when they say they are not influenced bywhat the marketer is trying to do? * American Anthropologist *In this excellent, new contribution to research on the diamond industry, consumer behavior, and the social lives of things, Susan Falls addresses the & many meanings of diamonds While Clarity, Cut, and Culture certainly addresses what diamonds mean to various consumers, its most important contributions lie in its detailed accounting of how people make things like diamonds meaningful. * Anthropological Quarterly *SCAD anthropology professor Dr. Susan Falls has spent the past decade researching these most precious stones and parsing their value. But along with exploring their economic and anecdotal worth in her book,Clarity, Cut and Culture,Falls also examines diamonds through the lens of semiotics, the study of meaning. * Connect Savannah *A prime and important message is how this highly symbolic rock can stand for, contain, and reference diverse, sometimes conflicting, messages. Falls devotes chapters to the history and manufacture of diamonds and the levels of meanings diamonds signify about emotions, love, continuity, relationship, status, and prestige. An absorbing chapter concerns how traditional meanings of diamonds have been riffed on and subverted in bling. Chapters & From Rock to Gem and & Valuing Diamonds stand out as accessible and strong. Summing Up: Recommended. * Choice *[]Clarity, Cut, and Cultureis a helpful and detailed study of & the many meanings of diamonds in the society. It could be useful to scholars of culture studies, American studies, popular culture studies, sociology, and related disciplines, and those interested in the symbolic influence of diamonds and their historical use and meanings. * Journal of Popular Culture *[Falls] interviews experts and ordinary people about their relationships to diamonds, and finds a perfect case of the contradictory and random nature of our preferences. Women who consider expensive rings signs of being 'owned'nevertheless covet them. Men who think mining diamonds in Africa causes unconscionable misery nevertheless want to give them to women. Pretty much everyone seems to understand that the industry is corrupt and that diamonds prices are unrelated to their supposed scarcity, yet they still cherish the stones as heirlooms and tokens of love. * Pacific Standard *Falls discusses how the industry should be talking about its product, why the hip-hop community embraced bling, and why even people who have mixed feelings about diamonds will buy them anyway. * JCK Magazine *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface: The Emptiness of Diamond Acknowledgments Introduction: Little Rocks 1. From Rock to Gem 2. Valuing Diamonds 3. A Diamond Is Forever 4. Diamonds and Emotions 5. Diamonds and Bling 6. Diamonds and Performance Conclusion: The Fullness of Diamonds Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
£52.70
New York University Press Clarity Cut and Culture
Book SynopsisThings become meaningful through our interactions with them, but how do people go about making meaning? What can we learn from an ethnography about the production of identity, creation of kinship, and use of diamonds in understanding selves and social relationships? This book deals with these questions.Trade Review"Were this book simply a portrayal of the diamond business, it would have been outstanding. It is far more. It is an innovative study of a commodity that must be as unique as the relationship it celebrates and memorializes. It challenges many of the basic assumptions of marketing by describing the consumers paradoxical responses to its strategies. A truly remarkable book." -- Vincent Crapanzano,Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center"A fascinating study of the absolutely powerful but ambiguous symbolism attached to diamonds: value, romanticism, permanence, devotion, and shining are part of the instantly recognized language for diamonds, but it is an ambiguous and evocative vocabulary. The ethnographic stories in Falls account emphasize that we have become comfortable with consuming these ambiguous signs. Even people disinterested in diamonds seem persistently curious about and perhaps even silently obedient to a rock cast as a symbol of love, heritage, and permanence." -- Paul R. Mullins,Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis"Falls delivers an intriguing and insightful foray into multiple ways in which diamonds acquire and deploy deep, cultural meaning and thus maintain their economic heft. Through social and semiotic analyses of this most sought after gem, Clarity, Cut, and Culture illustrates the interlacing practices and multifaceted interpretations that play out in the arenas of commerce, romance, politics and status." -- Daniel Thomas Cook,author of The Commodification of Childhood"Fall's research indicates the breadth and depth of the penetration of diamonds among American consumers." * Public Books *"[The] book tells the story of the remarkable rise of the modern diamond industry, which proceeded via a series of gold-rush-like crazes that began in India, peaking there in the late 1600s before shifting to Brazil. . . . As the titleClarity, Cut, and Culturesuggests, Ms. Falls book spends considerable time on the production and marketing of finished stones, taking readers inside Manhattans famous Diamond Row, on 47thStreet, for example. There, in tightly policed cutting schools, students work in blue-carpeted rooms under special fluorescent lights practicing their craft that is, after providing a credit card to guarantee payment for the loss of any stone they handle." * Wall Street Journal *"In Clarity, Cut, and Culture, Susan Falls tackles a critical question about modernity andmeaning: Why, when marketers spend billions of dollars cloaking their products withpositive meanings, do people buy them even when they say they are not influenced bywhat the marketer is trying to do?" * American Anthropologist *"In this excellent, new contribution to research on the diamond industry, consumer behavior, and the social lives of things, Susan Falls addresses the & many meanings of diamonds While Clarity, Cut, and Culture certainly addresses what diamonds mean to various consumers, its most important contributions lie in its detailed accounting of how people make things like diamonds meaningful." * Anthropological Quarterly *"SCAD anthropology professor Dr. Susan Falls has spent the past decade researching these most precious stones and parsing their value. But along with exploring their economic and anecdotal worth in her book,Clarity, Cut and Culture,Falls also examines diamonds through the lens of semiotics, the study of meaning." * Connect Savannah *"A prime and important message is how this highly symbolic rock can stand for, contain, and reference diverse, sometimes conflicting, messages. Falls devotes chapters to the history and manufacture of diamonds and the levels of meanings diamonds signify about emotions, love, continuity, relationship, status, and prestige. An absorbing chapter concerns how traditional meanings of diamonds have been riffed on and subverted in bling. Chapters & From Rock to Gem and & Valuing Diamonds stand out as accessible and strong. Summing Up: Recommended." * Choice *"[]Clarity, Cut, and Cultureis a helpful and detailed study of & the many meanings of diamonds in the society. It could be useful to scholars of culture studies, American studies, popular culture studies, sociology, and related disciplines, and those interested in the symbolic influence of diamonds and their historical use and meanings." * Journal of Popular Culture *"[Falls] interviews experts and ordinary people about their relationships to diamonds, and finds a perfect case of the contradictory and random nature of our preferences. Women who consider expensive rings signs of being 'owned'nevertheless covet them. Men who think mining diamonds in Africa causes unconscionable misery nevertheless want to give them to women. Pretty much everyone seems to understand that the industry is corrupt and that diamonds prices are unrelated to their supposed scarcity, yet they still cherish the stones as heirlooms and tokens of love." * Pacific Standard *"Falls discusses how the industry should be talking about its product, why the hip-hop community embraced bling, and why even people who have mixed feelings about diamonds will buy them anyway." * JCK Magazine *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface: The Emptiness of Diamond Acknowledgments Introduction: Little Rocks 1. From Rock to Gem 2. Valuing Diamonds 3. A Diamond Is Forever 4. Diamonds and Emotions 5. Diamonds and Bling 6. Diamonds and Performance Conclusion: The Fullness of Diamonds Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
£20.89
University of Toronto Press Poetry and Crisis
Book SynopsisOn March 11, 2004, Islamist terrorists carried out a massive bombing on Madrid’s largely working-class commuter trains, leaving 191 people dead and more than 1,500 others wounded. This event, known in Spain as 11-M, was the second of three highly visible jihadist attacks on the West between 2001 and 2005, and the first in Europe, occurring just days before the national elections in Spain. Arguing that 11-M marked a critical turning point in Spanish society, this book reveals how poetry played a unique role and reflected a new political and cultural sensibility defined by informal and non-hierarchical networks of communication and memorialization. After the attacks, poems circulated in public spaces in unexpected ways, creating links and relationships that were binding: they were inscribed on banners and monuments; musicalized in anthems, protest songs, and hip-hop music; reproduced on manifestos and blogs; sent by email and text; scribbled on scraps of paper and postedTable of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Poetry, Politics, Performance 1. Rhetoric and Ideology in Grassroots Memorials and Official Monuments 2. Circulation and Performance in Memorial and Media Sites 3. Archives and Grassroots Anthologies: Preservation, Social Action, and Affect Part 2: Poets, Cultural Politics, and Crisis 4. Body, Affect, Flesh 5. Pixel, Bar Code, Algorithm Conclusions Notes Works Cited Index
£33.30
Cornell University Press Waste
Book SynopsisIn Waste, Eiko Maruko Siniawer innovatively explores the many ways in which the Japanese have thought about waste—in terms of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—from the immediate aftermath of World War II to the present. She shows how questions about waste were deeply embedded in the decisions of everyday life, reflecting the...Trade ReviewWaste makes an outsized contribution to the study of postwar Japanese history will be essential reading for students of modern Japan as well as our current era more broadly. * The Journal of Asian Studies *Siniawer's book is a moving and meaningful cultural history relevant to Critical Discard Studies, rooted in the specific time and place of postwar Japan, and extends to the twenty-first century. * Situations *Eiko Maruko Siniawer's study of waste in postwar Japan is history writing at its very best: expansive in scope, richly textured, compellingly narrated, and convincingly argued. This summary hardly does justice to the richness of the material discussed in the book, nor does it fully convey Siniawer's thought-provoking analysis throughout. Thanks to its breadth, the richness of its content, and the sophistication of its analysis, the book will be essential and compelling reading for anyone interested in the postwar history of Japan as well as notions of waste in the contemporary world. * Social Science Japan Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Meaning and Value in the Everyday Part One: Re-Civilization and Re-Enlightenment: Transitions of the Early Postwar Period, 1945-1971 1. The Imperatives of Waste 2. Better Living through Consumption Part Two: Shocks, Shifts, and Safeguards: Defending the Middle-Class Lifestyles, 1971-1981 3. Wars against Waste 4. A Bright Stinginess Part Three: Abundant Dualities: Wealth and its Discontents in the 1980s and Beyond 5. Consuming Desires 6. Living the Good Life? 7. Battling the Time Thieves Part Four: Affluence of the Heart: Identities and Values in the Slow-Growth Era, 1991-Present 8. Greening Consciousness 9. We Are All Waste Conscious Now 10. Sorting Things Out Afterword: Waste and Well-Being Notes Bibliography Index
£88.33
Cornell University Press The Stuff of Soldiers
Book SynopsisThe Stuff of Soldiers uses everyday objects to tell the story of the Great Patriotic War as never before. Brandon Schechter attends to a diverse array of thingsfrom spoons to tanksto show how a wide array of citizens became soldiers, and how the provisioning of material goods separated soldiers from civilians.Through a fascinating examination...Trade ReviewWith this original approach—in itself an amazing achievement given the immense literature in this historical field—Brandon Schechteruses the material culture of the Red Army to trace the makeover of Soviet life and politics brought about by the war. * Foreign Affairs *The Stuff of Soldiers is a well-written, wide-ranging, novel approach for understanding the social and military history of the Soviet Army. [It] is an excellent addition to the historiography of the Great Patriotic War and to the general study of how material culture can reflect how soldiers and their societies have experienced war throughout time. * Journal of Military History *The Stuff of Soldiers has much to offer those with an affinity for cultural history studied through objects and for others who want a basic introduction to the quotidian of the Red Army during the Second World War... it takes the reader into the daily life of the Soviet soldier during the war in a way that no other work in the field does. * The Russian Review *Few, if any, thinkers have sought to view [the materiality of the human being] through the prism of an army, its weaponry, the environment it shaped and the objects its soldiers used, cherished or robbed. Brandon M. Schechter is the first to embark upon this intellectual adventure. * The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies *This book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of Soviet history and World War II but also to everyone interested in the experience of life during wartime. * Canadian Slavonic Papers *Schechter's ability to analyze the everyday minutiae of soldiers' lives to tell both personal stories of what it meant to be a member of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War with careful attention placed on differing perspectives based on class, gender, and nationality, and a broader narrative of state-directed (if not always followed) social transformation is inspiring. * Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia *Given the author's lively and accessible style this is surely a work that will reach an audience outside of academia, while the deeply-researched and insightful content equally makes it an invaluable addition to scholars of both the Soviet Union and those interested more broadly in the history and legacies of the Second World War. * British Journal for Military History *A beautifully written, sweeping and nuanced history of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War through the lens of objects and material culture. The Stuff of Soldiers is not only a major contribution to the history of the war; it is also a stimulating attempt to overcome disciplinary boundaries and long-lasting debates about the Soviet project through an ethnographic focus on objects and practices of everyday life. * Cahiers du monde russe *Schechter elegantly intertwines individual stories, context, and analysis taking the reader to the most intimate parts of soldiers' everyday lives. The interested audience of this work will be very large, spanning individuals interested in military history broadly defined, in the history of the Soviet Union, and in material culture. * Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (JSPPS) *Brandon Schechter has written a tour-de-force volume that presents an innovative approach to the history of the Second World War in the Soviet Union. [O]ne of the main contributions of this work is Schechter's success in offering a new and fresh analysis of these sources from the perspective of material culture. * English Historical Review *Table of ContentsPrelude: Outgunned and Outmanned Acknowledgments List of Archival Sources and Their Abbreviations Terms and Abbreviations Explanatory Notes Introduction: Government Issue 1. The Soldier's Body: A Little Cog in a Giant War Machine 2. A Personal Banner: Life in Red Army Uniform 3. The State's Pot and the Soldier's Spoon: Rations in the Red Army 4. Cities of Earth, Cities of Rubble: The Spade and Red Army Landscaping 5. "A Weapon Is Your Honor and Conscience": Killing in the Red Army 6. The Thing-Bag: A Public-Private Place 7. Trophies of War: Red Army Soldiers Confront an Alien World of Goods Conclusion: Subjects and Objects Notes Index
£26.09
Stanford University Press The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight: How Place
Book SynopsisIn this age of globalization, many countries and U.S. states are worried about the tax flight of the rich. As income inequality grows and U.S. states consider raising taxes on their wealthiest residents, there is a palpable concern that these high rollers will board their private jets and fly away, taking their wealth with them. Many assume that the importance of location to a person's success is at an all-time low. Cristobal Young, however, makes the surprising argument that location is very important to the world's richest people. Frequently, he says, place has a great deal to do with how they make their millions. In The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight, Young examines a trove of data on millionaires and billionaires—confidential tax returns, Forbes lists, and census records—and distills down surprising insights. While economic elites have the resources and capacity to flee high-tax places, their actual migration is surprisingly limited. For the rich, ongoing economic potential is tied to the place where they become successful—often where they are powerful insiders—and that success ultimately diminishes both the incentive and desire to migrate. This important book debunks a powerful idea that has driven fiscal policy for years, and in doing so it clears the way for a new era. Millionaire taxes, Young argues, could give states the funds to pay for infrastructure, education, and other social programs to attract a group of people who are much more mobile—the younger generation.Trade Review"Young debunks the widely-held myth that raising taxes on the wealthy inevitably prompts their out-migration and ultimately reduces tax revenue. His sophisticated analysis convincingly demonstrates the opposite. This is a tour-de-force that should be read by policymakers and taxpayers everywhere." -- Douglas S. Massey * Princeton University *"While the rich become richer, state governments strain to fund critical services. Young shows states can tap rich citizens' resources to bolster state government and enhance the common good. With grace, sophistication, and unprecedented data, this important book feeds public debates on inequality, public policy, and the health of American democracy." -- Martin Gilens * author of Affluence and Influence *"Whether taxing millionaires will cause them to flee is an important policy issue dominated by unsupported rhetoric. This clearly written and carefully researched book sheds new light on the question by looking soberly at the facts while exposing popular views as myths." -- Joel Slemrod * University of Michigan *"Young reveals the extent to which much political rhetoric around taxes and the rich rests on unfounded anecdotal assumptions. [The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight] is an important book which contributes much to political and economic sociology, as well as the growing field of fiscal sociology. It is written in a non-technical prose, making it also accessible for policymakers and non-scholarly audiences alike. In a moment of increasing inequality and near permanent austerity, Young's analysis will hopefully inspire more research on the wealthy and taxes." -- Daniel R. Alvord, Social ForcesTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Millionaire Taxes in a World with Few Borders chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the central questions of the book. In the age of globalization, what is the connection between the rich and the places where they live? Is place a temporary convenience for the rich and powerful—readily switched out when the tides change? Or is place a deep foundation for their success? Are top income earners mobile millionaires searching for low-tax places to live, or are they embedded elites reluctant to move away from the places where they have become highly successful? This chapter also introduces the main empirical data for the book—big administrative data from the tax returns of U.S. millionaire income earners over more than a decade. Finally, the structure and organization of the book is summarized. 2Do the Rich Flee High Taxes? chapter abstractThis chapter explores the empirical evidence for the mobile millionaires versus embedded elites debate. Drawing on the tax returns of U.S. millionaires, this chapter focuses on these questions: To what extent do top income earners migrate away from places with high income taxes? Are millionaires especially concentrated in low-tax states? Do they tend to move from high-tax to low-tax states? What about along the narrow geographic borders of states? In border county regions, do the rich tend to cluster on the low-tax side of the border? This chapter also moves higher up the food chain to look at the location and migration of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Finally, the chapter examines the social demography of the rich: considering how their family and business responsibilities, as well as their age and education levels, can help explain their overall migration patterns. 3Global Billionaires and International Tax Havens chapter abstractThis chapter looks at the global migration of the world's elites, as well as the use of tax havens that allow the rich to move their money abroad. First, the world's billionaires offer an international look at the mobile millionaire thesis. How often do billionaires move to low-tax countries? Are billionaires a transnational capitalist class? Or do they just live in the country where they were born? The analyses here give a clear view into the geographic mobility of the richest people in the world. The second half of the chapter continues the global focus by examining international tax havens. Rather than moving themselves, can the rich achieve tax savings by moving their money into offshore shell companies? The chapter examines how the offshore economy works and what shell companies and tax havens can and cannot do. It also explores which countries are more likely to use offshore accounts. 4Place as a Form of Capital chapter abstractThis chapter explores why place is still important for the rich. The income of the rich depends in part on where they live. Peak performance does not necessarily travel with the individual when the person moves away. Top incomes are sustained not simply through individual brilliance and hard work, but also through collaborative relationships and social networks that depend on being in a shared place. People at the top are deeply embedded insiders who earn economic rewards because their social networks place them close to the action. Top income earners have accumulated much home-field advantage that would be diluted by moving away. It is important to disentangle the idea of travel, which often signifies wealth and status, from the idea of migration, which is often less glamorous—reflecting hardship or entry-level status. The chapter concludes with case studies of open borders in Europe and the United States. 5Millionaires and the Future of Taxation chapter abstractThis chapter revisits the central findings of the book and develops the conceptual and policy implications. How should states set their tax policies? What are the benefits and costs for states that have high income taxes on the rich? The chapter emphasizes that states have little ability to attract the highest income earners, but they can attract a pipeline of future high income earners. These are young professionals—those not yet established in their careers; they are the most mobile individuals, they still have relatively low incomes, and they will not be paying top-bracket tax rates for many years. Progressive taxes are paid by people with late-career success. The revenues pay for education, infrastructure, and services that are most attractive to young, early-career individuals. In this sense, millionaire taxes are an intergenerational transfer.
£68.00
Stanford University Press The Moral Power of Money: Morality and Economy in
Book SynopsisLooking beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary social interactions, The Moral Power of Money investigates the forces of power and morality at play, particularly among the poor. Drawing on fieldwork in a slum of Buenos Aires, Ariel Wilkis argues that money is a critical symbol used to negotiate not only material possessions, but also the political, economic, class, gender, and generational bonds between people. Through vivid accounts of the stark realities of life in Villa Olimpia, Wilkis highlights the interplay of money, morality, and power. Drawing out the theoretical implications of these stories, he proposes a new concept of moral capital based on different kinds, or "pieces," of money. Each chapter covers a different "piece"—money earned from the informal and illegal economies, money lent through family and market relations, money donated with conditional cash transfers, political money that binds politicians and their supporters, sacrificed money offered to the church, and safeguarded money used to support people facing hardships. This book builds an original theory of the moral sociology of money, providing the tools for understanding the role money plays in social life today.Trade Review"Wilkis set out to study the power and politics in greater Buenos Aires, but what he discovered was money: money's morality, variegation, and fragmentation. This remarkable ethnography opens a window into everyday popular politics and solidarities, offering lessons beyond the case of Argentina and into people's moneyworlds and moral orders more broadly." -- Bill Maurer * author of How Would You Like To Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money *"Thanks to Ariel Wilkis for bringing compelling insight into our understanding of how money really works. Gracefully blending theoretical analysis with fascinating ethnographic observation, The Moral Power of Money makes a stellar contribution to economic and cultural sociology. A book that will inspire researchers and fascinate general readers." -- Viviana A. Zelizer * Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, author of The Social Meaning of Money and Economic Lives *"Ariel Wilkis offers a richly detailed ethnographic exploration of all the different and co-existing ethical frames within which money is judged by the poor, and on 'how money connects them.' We hear many people's own moral language, in their own life situations. These accounts will provoke yet further research in many other places, and Wilkis's approach will become exemplary." -- Jane I. Guyer * Johns Hopkins University *"The primary material makes the book an engaging read. One of the effects of looking at the various pieces of money important to villeros is that it gives us a better understanding of how interdependent they are in real life, and how individuals and families strategize. The attention to family is welcome and helps highlight relations of cooperation, power, and hierarchy on the ground; not just between poor communities and the larger society, but also within these homes and communities....The book will be of interest in the fields of international development, sociology, and anthropology....The book will be of interest to scholars of Argentina, money, the urban poor, and grass roots politics. It is suitable both for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses." * Lindsay DuBois *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Money and Moral Capital chapter abstractMoney is an insightful way of understanding the relations between macro-social processes and the experiences of the poor. Understanding these dynamics helps to identify the current conditions for social integration among those who have the least to benefit from processes like globalization, financialization and neoliberalism. This book reveals that sociology is interested in the social realities money helps to shape. Money is morally ubiquitous because it has a hand in social orders, moral hierarchies and power relations. No piece of money is more moral than the next: all revolve around the efforts to establish, appropriate and accumulate moral capital. Money appears as a conceptual and methodological tool. This book offers a new focus for interpreting the multiple power relations that configure the world of the poor. The moral dimension of money plays a critical role in forging economic, class, political, gender and generational bonds. 1Lent Money chapter abstractBy examining how consumer credit began expanding to low-income sectors in 2003, this chapter unveils the moral hierarchies rooted in the circulation of lent money. This chapter shows the moral ubiquity of money lent in heterogeneous situations, both formal and informal where money circulates. It also reveals how moral capital becomes a guarantee that sustains the power relations at the core of these situations. For those with scarce economic and cultural assets, the daily management of finances involves fighting to have their values acknowledged. Moral capital is their passport. However, like all forms of acknowledgment, it is rare and thus can become a form of domination that some are forced to accept in order to access the material benefits capitalism has to offer. 2Earned Money chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how the underground economy operates as a moral space of income. This exploration will reveal the dynamics of questioning and legitimizing what has to be done to earn money. The concept of moral capital is a useful instrument for understanding how this piece circulates or is taken out of circulation in response to a moral assessment of people's actions. Having moral capital is the way in to these economic transactions that are not regulated by law. Informal and illegal markets are moral spaces where the legitimacy of money earned comes into play. To get involved in these transactions, moral hierarchies are established among participants and they are the also the prerequisites for successful participation. 3Donated Money chapter abstractConditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become the paradigm of the struggle against poverty. These programs have progressively expanded to around thirty countries in the region that has come to be known as the Global South. This expansion changed the household budgets of the poor and became a focus of public debate. The use of money donated by the State became a way to morally discredit the poor. This chapter reconstructed the place of money donated by the state in different hierarchies of money. It identifies the different strategies individuals use to elude the biases associated with this type of money such as stigma cleansing rituals, exclusion strategies and silence in response to such judgments. The reconstructed scenes show how monetary hierarchies uphold power relations among those who have the authority to judge and those who must acquiesce to such biases. 4Political Money chapter abstractThrough the processes of democratization in Argentina (and most of Latin America) that began at the beginning of the 1980s, political scientists and sociologists began examining money in political life through the financial of political parties and the political clientelism. This chapter goes beyond a narrative of money's instrumental use in politics. Has the monetization of political activities dissolved values, commitments, and loyalties among the poor? Is this corruption or an ethical exchange among people who lack cash but possess moral capital? This chapter explores how politics involves power relations that can be understood through the moral dimension of money. This chapter shows how residents of a slum made political money the accounting unit to acknowledge the fulfillment of political obligations that bind leaders and their followers together in relationships of power. To put it more succinctly, this community places political money at the core of its collective life. 5Sacrifice Money chapter abstractThis chapter narrates the competition between political and religious leaders of Villa Olimpia. It shows how these power struggles are rooted in the accumulation of moral capital associated with the pieces of money. Both religious and political networks create social distinctions among their members. While circulating, political and sacrificed money carry a series of social orders and hierarchies of money that often overlap. Each piece is indecipherable outside of the hierarchy of money and at the same time projects a social hierarchy. Between the two pieces, there is fiery competition for the range of objects and people involved. These two puzzle pieces, regulated by specific systems of feelings and perspectives, compete with one another. 6Safeguard Money chapter abstractThe pieces of money produce a hierarchy among family members to determine each family's ranking in the social order. The different pieces of money form a unit that allows us to observe and understand the family universe. On the one hand, they help us understand intergenerational relations. This piece of money shows how people create and recreate the family social order in the sphere of money, which involves both mutual assistance and conflicts, helping complete family projects or tearing them apart. On the other hand, they help us understand gender relations as well. Safeguarded money's circulation carries gendered obligations. Poor women are viewed positively when they safeguard their households both emotionally and economically. In the hands of women money had to be used to guarantee family continuity. Any other use of the money would be questionable, transforming the safeguarded money into suspicious money. Conclusion: Conclusion chapter abstractThis book analyzes the way in which social orders founded on money come into being. Each chapter of this book contributes to a better understanding of the moral sociology of money, which in turn contributes to other areas of knowledge within sociology. These contributions from the moral sociology of money stem from an ethnographic reconstruction of the everyday life of poor people who live in Villa Olimpia. This work identified and assembled the pieces of money that best captured the dynamics of solidarity and conflict that characterized social bonds. However, this book takes the arguments, concepts and empirical evidence presented in the hope of reimagining economic sociology outside Villa Olimpia and the world of the poor. The moral sociology of money that is a theoretical and methodological toolbox that can be applied to other social worlds, establishing bridges with other areas of knowledge in sociology.
£86.40
Stanford University Press The Moral Power of Money: Morality and Economy in
Book SynopsisLooking beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary social interactions, The Moral Power of Money investigates the forces of power and morality at play, particularly among the poor. Drawing on fieldwork in a slum of Buenos Aires, Ariel Wilkis argues that money is a critical symbol used to negotiate not only material possessions, but also the political, economic, class, gender, and generational bonds between people. Through vivid accounts of the stark realities of life in Villa Olimpia, Wilkis highlights the interplay of money, morality, and power. Drawing out the theoretical implications of these stories, he proposes a new concept of moral capital based on different kinds, or "pieces," of money. Each chapter covers a different "piece"—money earned from the informal and illegal economies, money lent through family and market relations, money donated with conditional cash transfers, political money that binds politicians and their supporters, sacrificed money offered to the church, and safeguarded money used to support people facing hardships. This book builds an original theory of the moral sociology of money, providing the tools for understanding the role money plays in social life today.Trade Review"Wilkis set out to study the power and politics in greater Buenos Aires, but what he discovered was money: money's morality, variegation, and fragmentation. This remarkable ethnography opens a window into everyday popular politics and solidarities, offering lessons beyond the case of Argentina and into people's moneyworlds and moral orders more broadly." -- Bill Maurer * author of How Would You Like To Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money *"Thanks to Ariel Wilkis for bringing compelling insight into our understanding of how money really works. Gracefully blending theoretical analysis with fascinating ethnographic observation, The Moral Power of Money makes a stellar contribution to economic and cultural sociology. A book that will inspire researchers and fascinate general readers." -- Viviana A. Zelizer * Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, author of The Social Meaning of Money and Economic Lives *"Ariel Wilkis offers a richly detailed ethnographic exploration of all the different and co-existing ethical frames within which money is judged by the poor, and on 'how money connects them.' We hear many people's own moral language, in their own life situations. These accounts will provoke yet further research in many other places, and Wilkis's approach will become exemplary." -- Jane I. Guyer * Johns Hopkins University *"The primary material makes the book an engaging read. One of the effects of looking at the various pieces of money important to villeros is that it gives us a better understanding of how interdependent they are in real life, and how individuals and families strategize. The attention to family is welcome and helps highlight relations of cooperation, power, and hierarchy on the ground; not just between poor communities and the larger society, but also within these homes and communities....The book will be of interest in the fields of international development, sociology, and anthropology....The book will be of interest to scholars of Argentina, money, the urban poor, and grass roots politics. It is suitable both for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses." * Lindsay DuBois *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Money and Moral Capital chapter abstractMoney is an insightful way of understanding the relations between macro-social processes and the experiences of the poor. Understanding these dynamics helps to identify the current conditions for social integration among those who have the least to benefit from processes like globalization, financialization and neoliberalism. This book reveals that sociology is interested in the social realities money helps to shape. Money is morally ubiquitous because it has a hand in social orders, moral hierarchies and power relations. No piece of money is more moral than the next: all revolve around the efforts to establish, appropriate and accumulate moral capital. Money appears as a conceptual and methodological tool. This book offers a new focus for interpreting the multiple power relations that configure the world of the poor. The moral dimension of money plays a critical role in forging economic, class, political, gender and generational bonds. 1Lent Money chapter abstractBy examining how consumer credit began expanding to low-income sectors in 2003, this chapter unveils the moral hierarchies rooted in the circulation of lent money. This chapter shows the moral ubiquity of money lent in heterogeneous situations, both formal and informal where money circulates. It also reveals how moral capital becomes a guarantee that sustains the power relations at the core of these situations. For those with scarce economic and cultural assets, the daily management of finances involves fighting to have their values acknowledged. Moral capital is their passport. However, like all forms of acknowledgment, it is rare and thus can become a form of domination that some are forced to accept in order to access the material benefits capitalism has to offer. 2Earned Money chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how the underground economy operates as a moral space of income. This exploration will reveal the dynamics of questioning and legitimizing what has to be done to earn money. The concept of moral capital is a useful instrument for understanding how this piece circulates or is taken out of circulation in response to a moral assessment of people's actions. Having moral capital is the way in to these economic transactions that are not regulated by law. Informal and illegal markets are moral spaces where the legitimacy of money earned comes into play. To get involved in these transactions, moral hierarchies are established among participants and they are the also the prerequisites for successful participation. 3Donated Money chapter abstractConditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become the paradigm of the struggle against poverty. These programs have progressively expanded to around thirty countries in the region that has come to be known as the Global South. This expansion changed the household budgets of the poor and became a focus of public debate. The use of money donated by the State became a way to morally discredit the poor. This chapter reconstructed the place of money donated by the state in different hierarchies of money. It identifies the different strategies individuals use to elude the biases associated with this type of money such as stigma cleansing rituals, exclusion strategies and silence in response to such judgments. The reconstructed scenes show how monetary hierarchies uphold power relations among those who have the authority to judge and those who must acquiesce to such biases. 4Political Money chapter abstractThrough the processes of democratization in Argentina (and most of Latin America) that began at the beginning of the 1980s, political scientists and sociologists began examining money in political life through the financial of political parties and the political clientelism. This chapter goes beyond a narrative of money's instrumental use in politics. Has the monetization of political activities dissolved values, commitments, and loyalties among the poor? Is this corruption or an ethical exchange among people who lack cash but possess moral capital? This chapter explores how politics involves power relations that can be understood through the moral dimension of money. This chapter shows how residents of a slum made political money the accounting unit to acknowledge the fulfillment of political obligations that bind leaders and their followers together in relationships of power. To put it more succinctly, this community places political money at the core of its collective life. 5Sacrifice Money chapter abstractThis chapter narrates the competition between political and religious leaders of Villa Olimpia. It shows how these power struggles are rooted in the accumulation of moral capital associated with the pieces of money. Both religious and political networks create social distinctions among their members. While circulating, political and sacrificed money carry a series of social orders and hierarchies of money that often overlap. Each piece is indecipherable outside of the hierarchy of money and at the same time projects a social hierarchy. Between the two pieces, there is fiery competition for the range of objects and people involved. These two puzzle pieces, regulated by specific systems of feelings and perspectives, compete with one another. 6Safeguard Money chapter abstractThe pieces of money produce a hierarchy among family members to determine each family's ranking in the social order. The different pieces of money form a unit that allows us to observe and understand the family universe. On the one hand, they help us understand intergenerational relations. This piece of money shows how people create and recreate the family social order in the sphere of money, which involves both mutual assistance and conflicts, helping complete family projects or tearing them apart. On the other hand, they help us understand gender relations as well. Safeguarded money's circulation carries gendered obligations. Poor women are viewed positively when they safeguard their households both emotionally and economically. In the hands of women money had to be used to guarantee family continuity. Any other use of the money would be questionable, transforming the safeguarded money into suspicious money. Conclusion: Conclusion chapter abstractThis book analyzes the way in which social orders founded on money come into being. Each chapter of this book contributes to a better understanding of the moral sociology of money, which in turn contributes to other areas of knowledge within sociology. These contributions from the moral sociology of money stem from an ethnographic reconstruction of the everyday life of poor people who live in Villa Olimpia. This work identified and assembled the pieces of money that best captured the dynamics of solidarity and conflict that characterized social bonds. However, this book takes the arguments, concepts and empirical evidence presented in the hope of reimagining economic sociology outside Villa Olimpia and the world of the poor. The moral sociology of money that is a theoretical and methodological toolbox that can be applied to other social worlds, establishing bridges with other areas of knowledge in sociology.
£23.39
Stanford University Press The Sympathetic Consumer: Moral Critique in
Book SynopsisWhen people encounter consumer goods—sugar, clothes, phones—they find little to no information about their origins. The goods will thus remain anonymous, and the labor that went into making them, the supply chain through which they traveled, will remain obscured. In this book, Tad Skotnicki argues that this encounter is an endemic feature of capitalist societies, and one with which consumers have struggled for centuries in the form of activist movements constructed around what he calls The Sympathetic Consumer. This book documents the uncanny similarities shared by such movements over the course of three centuries: the transatlantic abolitionist movement, US and English consumer movements around the turn of the twentieth century, and contemporary Fair Trade activism. Offering a comparative historical study of consumer activism the book shows, in vivid detail, how activists wrestled with the broader implications of commodity exchange. These activists arrived at a common understanding of the relationship between consumers, producers, and commodities, and concluded that consumers were responsible for sympathizing with invisible laborers. Ultimately, Skotnicki provides a framework to identify a capitalist culture by examining how people interpret everyday phenomena essential to it.Trade Review"A path-breaking work. This book contributes significantly to scholarship on consumer society and to broader debates about how to understand the economic culture of capitalism."—Lyn Spillman, University of Notre Dame"This fascinating comparative account reveals striking similarities and interesting differences between three social movements across two centuries. Skotnicki relates these to the form of capitalism itself, thus making the book an excellent companion for teaching Marx's Capital."—Andreas Glaeser, The University of Chicago"This book is a joy to read for many reasons, but mostly for its careful work in identifying the moral appeals of consumer activism and what the sympathetic consumer tells us about capitalism."—Caroline Heldman, American Journal of SociologyTable of Contents1. The Rise of the Sympathetic Consumer 2. Abolitionist Visions 3. Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Visions 4. Practicing Sympathetic Consumption 5. Moral Arguments 6. The Sympathetic Consumer, Challenged 7. Whither the Sympathetic Consumer?
£86.40
John Wiley and Sons Ltd How Green is Your Smartphone?
Book SynopsisEvery day we are inundated by propaganda that claims life will be better once we are connected to digital technology. Poverty, famine, and injustice will end, and the economy will be “green.” All anyone needs is the latest smartphone. In this succinct and lively book, Maxwell and Miller take a critical look at contemporary gadgets and the systems that connect them, shedding light on environmental risks. Contrary to widespread claims, consumer electronics and other digital technologies are made in ways that cause some of the worst environmental disasters of our time – conflict-minerals extraction, fatal and life-threatening occupational hazards, toxic pollution of ecosystems, rising energy consumption linked to increased carbon emissions, and e-waste. Nonetheless, a greener future is possible, in which technology meets its emancipatory and progressive potential. How Green is Your Smartphone? encourages us to look at our phones in a wholly new way, and is important reading for anyone concerned by the impact of everyday technologies on our environment.Trade Review“In this broad, informative, and surprisingly searing look into ‘smart’ systems, Maxwell and Miller make a compelling case for rethinking and redesigning digital technologies.”Devra Davis, author of Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation “Rigorously researched and acutely argued, this provocative book promises to take readers beyond their comfort zones, into the domain of environmental justice and sustainable development.”Jack Qiu, Chinese University of Hong Kong “How green is your phone? Encourage us to look at mobile phones from a new perspective, and also have important reference significance for thinking about the impact of daily life technology on the environment.”China Media Research “The strength of How Green Is Your Smartphone? is its critical examination of a wide range of issues generated through smartphone production and consumption. ... certainly left me thinking about the global impact generated by my own smartphone use.”Media International Australia “In How Green is your Smartphone?, the various issues around labour, environment and political economy are distilled clearly and concisely with a sharp focus. For teaching purposes, this is the book I have been waiting for. … In the spirit of a manifesto, Maxwell and Miller deploy snappy, no-nonsense language to alert us to the urgency of their call to action, namely the creation of a greener communication system.”PrometheusTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Outsmart Your Smartphone 2 The Greatest Smartphone is the One You Already Own 3 Calling Bullshit on Anti-Science Propaganda Conclusion: What Next? References Index
£33.25
Bristol University Press The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Tracking and
Book SynopsisThis is a detailed analysis of how understanding of health management past, present and future has transformed in the digital age. Since the mid-20th century, we have witnessed ‘healthy’ lifestyles being pushed as part of health promotion strategies, both via the state, and through health tracking tools, and narratives of wellness online. This marks a seismic shift from a public welfare state responsibility for health towards individualised practices of digital self-care. Today health has become representative of ‘lifestyle correction' which is performed on social media. Putting the spotlight on neoliberalism and digital technology as pervasive tools that dictate wellness as a moral obligation, Rachael Kent critically analyses how users navigate relationships between self-tracking technologies, social media, and everyday health management.Table of Contents1. Transformations of Health in the Digital Society 2. Understanding Our Bodies through Datafication 3. Surveillance Cultures of the Digital Health Self 4. Discipline and Moralism of Our Health 5. Health ‘Disciples’: Technology ‘Addiction’ and Embodiment 6. Sharing ‘Healthiness’ 7. Future Directions for the Digital Health Self
£71.99
Information Age Publishing Machines
Book SynopsisThis book is about machines: those that have been actualized, fantastical imaginal machines, to those deployed as metaphorical devices to describe complex social processes. Machines argues that they transcend time and space to emerge through a variety of spaces and places, times and histories and representations. They are such an integral fabric of daily reality that their disappearance would have immediate and dire consequences for the survival of humanity. They are part and parcel to our contemporary social order. From labor to social theory, art or consciousness, literature or television, to the asylums of the 19th century, machines are a central figure; an outgrowth of affective desire that seeks to transcend organic limitations of bodies that whither, age and die.Machines takes the reader on an intellectual, artistic, and theoretical journey, weaving an interdisciplinary tale of their emergence across social, cultural and artistic boundaries. With the deep engagement of various texts, Machines offers the reader moments of escape, alternative ways to envision technology for a future yet to materialize. Machines rejects the notion that technological innovations are indeed neutral, propelling us to think differently about those “things” created under specific economic or historical paradigms. Rethinking machines provides a rupture to our current technocratic impetus, shining a critical light on possible alternatives to our current reality. Let us sit back and take a journey through Machines, holding mechanical parts as guides to possible alternative futures.
£44.96
Information Age Publishing Machines
Book SynopsisThis book is about machines: those that have been actualized, fantastical imaginal machines, to those deployed as metaphorical devices to describe complex social processes. Machines argues that they transcend time and space to emerge through a variety of spaces and places, times and histories and representations. They are such an integral fabric of daily reality that their disappearance would have immediate and dire consequences for the survival of humanity. They are part and parcel to our contemporary social order. From labor to social theory, art or consciousness, literature or television, to the asylums of the 19th century, machines are a central figure; an outgrowth of affective desire that seeks to transcend organic limitations of bodies that whither, age and die.Machines takes the reader on an intellectual, artistic, and theoretical journey, weaving an interdisciplinary tale of their emergence across social, cultural and artistic boundaries. With the deep engagement of various texts, Machines offers the reader moments of escape, alternative ways to envision technology for a future yet to materialize. Machines rejects the notion that technological innovations are indeed neutral, propelling us to think differently about those “things” created under specific economic or historical paradigms. Rethinking machines provides a rupture to our current technocratic impetus, shining a critical light on possible alternatives to our current reality. Let us sit back and take a journey through Machines, holding mechanical parts as guides to possible alternative futures.
£82.80
University Press of Florida Honoring Ancestors in Sacred Space: The
Book SynopsisThroughout life black Africans in the Bahamas worked, voluntarily or not, and possessed material items of various degrees of importance to them and within their culture. St. Matthews was a cemetery in Nassau at the water's edge--or sometimes slightly below. This project emerged from archaeological excavations at this site to identify and recover materials associated with the interred before the area was completely developed. The area has been -collected- for decades--both professionally and by interested citizens, and Dr. Turner, a native Bahamian, coupled the results of her research excavations with the collections and archival material, to provide insight into the lives and deaths of the interred.
£63.75
Wits University Press Conspicuous Consumption in Africa
Book SynopsisFrom early department stores in Cape Town to gendered histories of sartorial success in urban Togo, contestations over expense accounts at an apartheid state enterprise, elite wealth and political corruption in Angola and Zambia, the role of popular religion in the political intransigence of Jacob Zuma, funerals of big men in Cameroon, youth cultures of consumption in Niger and South Africa, queer consumption in Cape Town, middle-class food consumption in Durban and the consumption of luxury handcrafted beads, this collection of essays explores the ways in which conspicuous consumption is foregrounded in various African contexts and historical moments.In 1899, Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase ‘conspicuous consumption’ to describe status-seeking in the obscenely unequal world of late-nineteenth century America. Many of the aspects he described in The Theory of the Leisure Class are still evident in our world today. While Veblen’s crude denunciation of material extravagance finds echoes in media exposés about the lifestyles of the rich worldwide, it is particularly recognisable in reporting on Africa. Here, images of conspicuous consumption have long circulated in local and global media as indictments of political corruption and signs of moral depravity.The essays in Conspicuous Consumption in Africa put Veblen’s concept under robust critical scrutiny, drawing on theorists like Mbembe, Guyer and Bayart by way of critique or addition. They delve into the pleasures, stresses and challenges of consuming in its religious, generational, gendered and racialised aspects, revealing conspicuous consumption as a layered set of practices, textures and relations. The authors resist the trap of easy moralisation, pointing to more complex ethical and political registers of analysis and judgement. This volume shows how central and revealing conspicuous consumption can be to fathoming the history of Africa’s projects of modernity, and their global lineages and legacies. In its grounded, up-close case studies, it is likely to feed into current public debates on the nature and future of African societies – South African society in particular.Trade ReviewThis fascinating, nuanced and persuasive volume combines sophisticated theoretical expositions with a high level of empirical inquiry. Taken together, the essays provide an important entry into the study of consumption in Africa, and indeed make a serious intervention into current socio-political concerns. — Robert Ross, Professor of African History Emeritus, Leiden University, the Netherlands. This volume offers a summary of the relevance of consumption as a terrain of meaningmaking to South African public debates. It will convince readers that much more is going on with consuming practices than the media sometimes solicits. In particular, it brings attention to an abiding tension in discussions around `consumption’: normative expectations of societal values entailed in such phenomenon as `conspicuous consumption’ are set against the symbolic practices illustrated through the performative, visual presentation of status (and claims and counterclaims to it). — Bridget Kenny, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, JohannesburgTable of Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Chapter 1 Thinking with Veblen: Case Studies from Africa’s Past and Present - Deborah Posel and Ilana van Wyk Chapter 2 Changes in the Order of Things: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Cape Town – Deborah Posel Chapter 3 Conspicuously Public: Gendered Histories of Sartorial and Social Success in Urban Togo – Nina Sylvanus Chapter 4 Etienne Rousseau, Broedertwis and the Politics of Consumption within Afrikanerdom – Stephen Sparks Chapter 5 Recycling Consumption: Political Power and Elite Wealth in Angola – Claudia Gastrow Chapter 6 Chiluba’s Trunks: Consumption, Excess and the Body Politic in Zambia – Karen Tranberg Hansen Chapter 7 Jacob Zuma’s Shamelessness: Conspicuous Consumption, Politics and Religion – Ilana van Wyk Chapter 8 Precarious ‘Bigness’: A ‘Big Man’, his Women and his Funeral in Cameroon – Rogers Orock Chapter 9 Young Men of Leisure? Youth, Conspicuous Consumption and the Performativity of Dress in Niger – Adeline Masquelier Chapter 10 Booty on Fire: Looking at Izikhothane with Thorstein Veblen – Jabulani G Mnisi Chapter 11 Conspicuous Queer Consumption: Emulation and Honour in the Pink Map – Bradley Rink Chapter 12 The Politics and Moral Economy of Middle-Class Consumption in South Africa – Sophie Chevalier Chapter 13 Marigold Beads: Who Needs Diamonds?! – Joni Brenner and Pamila Gupta Contributors Index
£27.00
Liverpool University Press Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe
Book SynopsisThis collaborative collection considers the packaging, presentation and consumption of medieval manuscripts and early printed books in Europe 1350–1550. It showcases innovative research on the history of the book from a range of established and younger scholars from the US and Europe in the fields of English and French Studies, History, Music, and Art History. The collection falls naturally into three sections: • Packaging and Presentation: The physical context of the manuscript and printed book including its binding, visual presentation and internal organization • Consumers: Producers, Owners, and Readers • Consuming the Text: The experience of the audience(s) for books These three strands are interdependent, and highlight the materiality of the manuscript or printed book as a consumable, focusing on its ‘consumability’ in the sense of its packaging and presentation, its consumers, and on the act of consumption in the sense of reading and reception or literal decay.Trade ReviewReviews 'The individual essays are all very well contextualised within their own specific fields, and, significantly, they are aided very substantially by the construction of this volume... This book forms a very valuable contribution to current scholarship in the field of medieval and early modern book production, consumption and reception.'Elisabeth Salter, English Historical Review'This volume highlights the wealth of research output from a number of different fields, as well as the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in producing synergistic outcomes.'Erin Connelly, Nottingham Medieval StudiesTable of Contents Acknowledgements - Emma Cayley and Susan Powell Preface - Derek Pearsall List of Figures Section I: Packaging and Presentation: The Materiality of the Manuscript and Printed Book • Anne Marie Lane: ‘How can we Recognise “Contemporary” Bookbindings of the Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries?’ • Matti Peikola: ‘Guidelines for Consumption: Scribal Ruling Patterns and Designing the mise-en-page in later Medieval England’ • Kate Maxwell: ‘The Order of the Lays in the “Odd” Machaut MS BnF fr. 9221(E)’ • Sonja Drimmer: ‘Picturing the King or Picturing the Saint: Two Miniature Programmes for John Lydgate’s Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund’ • Yvonne Rode: ‘Sixty-three Gallons of Books: Shipping Books to London in the Late Middle Ages’ Section II: Consumers: Producers, Owners, and Readers • Anna Lewis: ‘“But solid food is for the mature, who …have their senses trained to discern good and evil”: John Colop’s Book and the Spiritual Diet of the Discerning Lay Londoner’ • Anne Sutton: ‘The Acquisition and Disposal of Books for Worship and Pleasure by Mercers of London in the Later Middle Ages’ • Martha Driver: ‘“By Me Elysabeth Pykeryng”: Women and Printing in the Early Tudor Period’ • Shayne Husbands: ‘The Roxburghe Club: Consumption, Obsession and the Passion for Print’ Section III - Consuming the Text: Writing Consumption • Carrie Griffin: ‘Reconsidering the Recipe: Materiality, Narrative and Text in Later Medieval Instructional MSS and Collections’ • Anamaria Gellert: ‘Fools, “Folye” and Caxton’s Woodcut of the Pilgrims at Table’ • John B. Friedman: ‘Anxieties at Table: Food and Drink in Chaucer’s Fabliaux Tales and Heinrich Wittenwiler’s Der Ring’ • Mary Morse: ‘Alongside St. Margaret: The Childbirth Cult of SS Quiricus and Julitta in Late Medieval English Manuscripts’ • Emma Cayley: ‘Consuming the Text: Pulephilia in Fifteenth-Century French Debate Poetry’ Notes Bibliography Index
£29.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Ephemeral Print Culture in Early Modern England:
Book SynopsisUses the collections of ephemera popular in the late seventeenth century as a way to understand the reading habits, publishing strategies and thought processes of late Stuart print culture. Cheap' genres of print such as ballads, almanacs and playing cards were part of everyday life in seventeenth-century society - ubiquitous and disposable. Toward the end of the century, however, individuals began to preserve, arrange and display articles of cheap print within carefully curated collections. What motivated this sudden urge to preserve the ephemeral? This book answers that question by analysing the social, political and intellectual factors behind the formation of cheap print collections, how these collections were used by their owners, and what this activity can tell us about 'print culture' in the early modern period. The book's central collector is John Bagford (1650-1715), a shoemaker who became a dealer of prints and other 'curiosities' to important collectors of the time such as Samuel Pepys, Hans Sloane and Robert Harley. Bagford's own rich and largely unstudied collection is afascinating study in its own right and his position at the centre of commercial and intellectual networks opens up a whole world of collecting. This world encompasses later Stuart partisan political culture, when modern parties and the 'public sphere' first emerged; the 'New Science' and 'virtuoso culture' with its milieu of natural philosophers, antiquaries and artisans; the aural and visual landscape of marketplaces, streets and alehouses; and developing practices of record-keeping, life-writing and historical writing during the long eighteenth century.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on Conventions List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Tradesmen, Collecting Networks and Curious Ephemera 2. Visual Culture, Medleys and Partisanship 3. Popular Politics, Ballads and the Tragic Revolution 4. Historical Collections, Impartiality and Antiquarian Nostalgia 5. Advertisements, Life-Writing and Scrapbooks Conclusion Bibliography Index
£80.75
James Currey The Politics of the Dead in Zimbabwe 2000-2020:
Book SynopsisInnovative and challenging study that provides fresh insights on the anthropology of death and postcolonial politics. In 1898, just before she was hanged for rebelling against colonial rule, Charwe Nyakasikana, spirit medium of the legendary ancestor Ambuya Nehanda, famously prophesised that "my bones will rise again". A century later bones, bodies and human remains have come to occupy an increasingly complex place in Zimbabwe's postcolonial milieu. From ancestral "bones" rising again in the struggle for independence, and later land, to resurfacing bones of unsettled wardead; and from the troubling decaying remains of post-independence gukurahundi massacres to the leaky, tortured bodies of recent election violence, human materials are intertwined in postcolonial politics in ways that go far beyond, yet necessarily implicate, contests over memory, commemoration and the representation of the past. In this book Joost Fontein examines the complexities of human remains in Zimbabwe's 'politics of the dead'. Challenging and innovative, he takes us beyond current scholarship on memory, commemoration and the changing significance of 'traditional' death practices, to examine the political implications of human remains as material substances, as duplicitous rumours, and as returning spirits. Linking the indeterminacy of human substances to the productive but precarious uncertainties of rumours and spirits, the book points to how the incompleteness of death is politically productive and ultimately derives from the problematic, entangled excessivities of human material and immaterial existence, and is deeply intertwined with the stylistics of postcolonial power and politics. Joost Fontein is Professor of Anthropology, University of Johannesburg. He was previously Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa and Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Remaking Mutirikwi: Landscape, Water and Belonging (James Currey, 2015), shortlisted for the African Studies Association 2016 Herskovits Prize. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana): University of Johannesburg PressTrade ReviewAn innovative and challenging study that provides fresh insights on the anthropology of death and post-colonial politics. * Zimbabwe Review *This very important book offers valuable contributions to our understanding of the everyday politics of the dead in Zimbabwe. The author's theorization and discussion of the typologies of death, bones, and human remains are useful to a wider audience, within and beyond Zimbabwe, including academics and graduate students within the field of anthropology and sociology of death, political and contemporary history of Zimbabwe, and spirituality and religious studies. -- Death StudiesBeyond doubt, this is a 'must-have' work for all interested in the relationship between death and the broader, intriguing Zimbabwean past. -- Journal of Southern African StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction Changing death and human corporeality across Africa and beyond The politics of the dead in Zimbabwe The power of uncertainty Sources and structure of the book 1 Liberation Heritage: Bones and the politics of commemoration The burial of Gift Tandare Heritage and commemoration Heritage and commemoration in Zimbabwe Liberation heritage Unsettling Bones 2 Bones & Tortured Bodies: Corporealities of violence and post-violence Resurfacing bones Emotive materiality, affective presence and transforming materials Tortured bodies Towards 'healing' and 'reconciliation' during the GNU 2009-2013 Conclusions 3 Chibondo: Exhumations, uncertainty and the excessivity of human materials The Chibondo exhumations Too 'fresh', 'intact', fleshy, leaky and stinky? The torque of materiality and the excessive potentiality of human remains The politics of uncertainty Conclusions 4 Political Accidents: Rumours, death and the politics of uncertainty The death of Solomon Mujuru Factionalism, rivalries and murky business dealings The inquest A particular kind of death Conclusions 5 Precarious Possession: Rotina Mavhunga, politics and the uncertainties of mediumship Rotina Mavhunga - the diesel n'anga Precarious occupation 6 Mai Melissa: Towards the alterity of spirit and the incompleteness of death Towards the alterity of spirit Conclusions 7 After Mugabe Burying Bob Conclusions Bodies and spirits, change and continuity AIDS, cholera, Congo, prisons, Chiadzwa, diaspora, FTLR, and charismatic Pentecostalisms New directions for liberation heritage Ambuya Nehanda returns? Exhuming Bob?
£90.00
James Currey The Politics of the Dead in Zimbabwe 2000-2020:
Book SynopsisInnovative and challenging study that provides fresh insights on the anthropology of death and postcolonial politics. In 1898, just before she was hanged for rebelling against colonial rule, Charwe Nyakasikana, spirit medium of the legendary ancestor Ambuya Nehanda, famously prophesised that "my bones will rise again". A century later bones, bodies and human remains have come to occupy an increasingly complex place in Zimbabwe's postcolonial milieu. From ancestral "bones" rising again in the struggle for independence, and later land, to resurfacing bones of unsettled wardead; and from the troubling decaying remains of post-independence gukurahundi massacres to the leaky, tortured bodies of recent election violence, human materials are intertwined in postcolonial politics in ways that go far beyond, yet necessarily implicate, contests over memory, commemoration and the representation of the past. In this book Joost Fontein examines the complexities of human remains in Zimbabwe's 'politics of the dead'. Challenging and innovative, he takes us beyond current scholarship on memory, commemoration and the changing significance of 'traditional' death practices, to examine the political implications of human remains as material substances, as duplicitous rumours, and as returning spirits. Linking the indeterminacy of human substances to the productive but precarious uncertainties of rumours and spirits, the book points to how the incompleteness of death is politically productive and ultimately derives from the problematic, entangled excessivities of human material and immaterial existence, and is deeply intertwined with the stylistics of postcolonial power and politics. Joost Fontein is Professor of Anthropology, University of Johannesburg. He was previously Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa and Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Remaking Mutirikwi: Landscape, Water and Belonging (James Currey, 2015), shortlisted for the African Studies Association 2016 Herskovits Prize. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana): University of Johannesburg PressTrade ReviewAn innovative and challenging study that provides fresh insights on the anthropology of death and post-colonial politics. * Zimbabwe Review *This very important book offers valuable contributions to our understanding of the everyday politics of the dead in Zimbabwe. The author's theorization and discussion of the typologies of death, bones, and human remains are useful to a wider audience, within and beyond Zimbabwe, including academics and graduate students within the field of anthropology and sociology of death, political and contemporary history of Zimbabwe, and spirituality and religious studies. -- Death StudiesBeyond doubt, this is a 'must-have' work for all interested in the relationship between death and the broader, intriguing Zimbabwean past. -- Journal of Southern African StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction Changing death and human corporeality across Africa and beyond The politics of the dead in Zimbabwe The power of uncertainty Sources and structure of the book 1 Liberation Heritage: Bones and the politics of commemoration The burial of Gift Tandare Heritage and commemoration Heritage and commemoration in Zimbabwe Liberation heritage Unsettling Bones 2 Bones & Tortured Bodies: Corporealities of violence and post-violence Resurfacing bones Emotive materiality, affective presence and transforming materials Tortured bodies Towards 'healing' and 'reconciliation' during the GNU 2009-2013 Conclusions 3 Chibondo: Exhumations, uncertainty and the excessivity of human materials The Chibondo exhumations Too 'fresh', 'intact', fleshy, leaky and stinky? The torque of materiality and the excessive potentiality of human remains The politics of uncertainty Conclusions 4 Political Accidents: Rumours, death and the politics of uncertainty The death of Solomon Mujuru Factionalism, rivalries and murky business dealings The inquest A particular kind of death Conclusions 5 Precarious Possession: Rotina Mavhunga, politics and the uncertainties of mediumship Rotina Mavhunga - the diesel n'anga Precarious occupation 6 Mai Melissa: Towards the alterity of spirit and the incompleteness of death Towards the alterity of spirit Conclusions 7 After Mugabe Burying Bob Conclusions Bodies and spirits, change and continuity AIDS, cholera, Congo, prisons, Chiadzwa, diaspora, FTLR, and charismatic Pentecostalisms New directions for liberation heritage Ambuya Nehanda returns? Exhuming Bob?
£30.24
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press isiShweshwe: A history of the indigenisation of
Book SynopsisThe cross-cultural usage of a particular cloth type – blueprint – is central to South African cultural history. Known locally as seshoeshoe or isishweshwe, among many other localised names, South African blueprint originated in the Far East and East Asia. Adapted and absorbed by the West, blueprint in Africa was originally associated with trade, coercion, colonisation, Westernisation, religious conversion and even slavery, but residing within its hues and patterns was a resonance that endured. The cloth came to reflect histories of hardship, courage and survival, but it also conveyed the taste and aesthetic predilections of its users, preferences often shared across racial and cultural divides. In its indigenisation, isishweshwe has subverted its former history and alien origins and has come to reflect the authority of its users and their culture, conveying resilience, innovation and adaptation and above all a distinctive South Africanness.In this beautifully illustrated book Juliette Leeb-du Toit traces the origins of the cloth, its early usage and cultural adaptations, and its emerging regional, cultural and aesthetic significance. In examining its usage and current national significance, she highlights some of the salient features associated with histories of indigenisation.
£48.75
Aarhus University Press Posthuman Condition: Ethics, Aesthetics &
Book Synopsis
£26.96
Taylor & Francis Orthodox Christian Material Culture
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£39.99
Taylor & Francis Arab American Aesthetics
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£41.99
Taylor & Francis Lineages and Advancements in Material Culture Studies
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£39.99
