Politics and government Books

Book SynopsisIs Russia Fascist? argues that the charge of "fascism" has become a strategic narrative of the current world order. Through a detailed examination of the Russian domestic scene and the Kremlin's foreign policy rationales, it disentangles the foundation for, meaning, and validity of accusations of fascism in and around Russia.Trade ReviewIs Russia Fascist? is a work that offers a worthy contribution to the ongoing conversation and debate about how to define contemporary Russia and project where it is heading. Regardless of what a reader might think about "illiberalism" as an answer, Laruelle offers many good analytical insights. Her command of the facts of recent Russian political history is solid and is to be taken seriously. * H-Net *If you want to know what's been happening in the Russian far right, this is undoubtedly the book for you. Is Russia Fascist? provides excellent insights into the ideological state of play in modern Russia. It also does a thorough job of demolishing the accusations that Russia is a totalitarian state. -- Paul Robinson, Ottowa University * Irrussianality *In this book Marlene Laruelle not only seeks to answer the question "Is Russia fascist?" but to provide a comprehensive analytical framework for how to study the concept of fascism in the first place. In doing so, she engages with scholarship in multiple fields across the social sciences and in public discourse, which makes this book of interest not only to political scientists but to Russia watchers more generally. * The Russian Review *Is Russia Fascist? provides a clear, balanced assessment of contemporary Russian politics, serving not only as a sensible dissection of the status of fascism in Russia, but also as a guide to that country's problematic political structures. * Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Russia and the Symbolic Landscape of Fascism 1. Russia's "Fascism" or "Illiberalism"? 2. The Soviet Legacy in Thinking about Fascism 3. Antifascism as the Renewed Social Consensus under Putin 4. International Memory Wars: Equating the Soviet Union with Nazism 5. The Putin Regime's Ideological Plurality 6. Russia's Fascist Thinkers and Doers 7. Russia's Honeymoon with the European Far Right 8. Why the Russian Regime Is Not Fascist Conclusion: Russia's Memory and the Future of Europe

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Putin''s Labor Dilemma, Stephen Crowley investigates how the fear of labor protest has inhibited substantial economic transformation in Russia. Putin boasts he has the backing of workers in the country''s industrial heartland, but as economic growth slows in Russia, reviving the economy will require restructuring the country''s industrial landscape. At the same time, doing so threatens to generate protest and instability from a key regime constituency. However, continuing to prop up Russia''s Soviet-era workplaces, writes Crowley, could lead to declining wages and economic stagnation, threatening protest and instability.Crowley explores the dynamics of a Russian labor market that generally avoids mass unemployment, the potentially explosive role of Russia''s monotowns, conflicts generated by massive downsizing in Russia''s Detroit (Tol''yatti), and the rapid politicization of the truck drivers movement. Labor protests currently show littlTrade ReviewPutin's Labor Dilemma offers a historically-informed and spatially-sensitive account of economic and political change in post-communist Russia. It also offers valuable insights into understanding societal change in (post)industrial societies beyond the post-communist world. This is an excellent book, which I would recommend to anyone interested in Russian geography, current politics, or labor movements. * Eurasian Geography and Economics *Putin's Labor Dilemma is an invaluable resource in understanding why and how Russia's labor movements have not successfully influenced the government in many cases, but why the Russian government still rightly worries about them. Many observers have long discounted the political sway of labor in post-communist Russia. Crowley gives us good reason to keep labor politics central in our understanding how Putin navigates stability and stagnation. * The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review *Table of Contents1. The Political Consequences of Russian Deindustrialization 2. Russia's Peculiar Labor Market and the Fear of Social Explosion 3. Russia's Labor Productivity Trap 4. Monotowns and Russia's Post-Soviet Urban Geography 5. Labor Protest in Russia's Hybrid Regime 6. Downsizing in "Russia's Detroit" 7. The Dread of a Color Revolution 8. Russia's Truckers and the Road to Radicalization 9. How Different Is Russia? The Comparative Context Conclusion: Overcoming Russia's Labor Dilemmas

Read more less

Book SynopsisMediterranean Capitalism Revisited brings together leading experts on the political economies of southern Europespecifically Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugalto closely analyze and explain the primary socioeconomic and institutional features that define Mediterranean capitalism within the wider European context. These economies share a number of features, most notably their difficulties to provide viable answers to the challenge of globalization.By examining and comparing such components as welfare, education and innovation policies, cultural dimensions, and labor market regulation, Mediterranean Capitalism Revisited attends to both commonalities and divergences between the four countries, identifying the main reasons behind the poor performance of their economies and slow recovery from the Great Recession of 20072008. This volume also sheds light on the process of diversification among the four countries and addresses whether it did and still doeTrade ReviewThere is much to like about this fascinating book, revisiting the Mediterranean model of capitalism. The editors put together a stellar cast of scholars to provide an extensive and compelling account of political-economic continuity and change in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.Mediterranean Capitalism Revisited is an intellectually sophisticated and skilfully researched book: a must-read for all comparative political economy scholars. * ETUI *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Which Road to Development? The MediterraneanModel Revisited, by Luigi Burroni, Emmanuele Pavolini, and Marino Regini Part I: Economic Features and Institutional Context of Southern European Countries 1. Is There a "Mediterranean" Growth Model?, by Lucio Baccaro 2. States' Performance, Reforms, and Policy Capacity in Southern European Countries, by Giliberto Capano and Andrea Lippi 3. Which Level of Analysis? Internal versus External Explanations of Eurozone Divergence, by Sofia Perez 4. Following Different Paths of Modernization. The Changing Sociocultural Basis of Southern Europe, by Emmanuele Pavolini and Gemma Scalise Part II: Policies and Processes of Change 5. Labor Market (De)Regulation and Wage-Setting Institutions in Mediterranean Capitalism, by Alexandre Afonso, Lisa Dorigatti, Oscar Molina, and Arianna Tassinari 6. Southern European Welfare Systems in Transition, by Ana M. Guillén, Matteo Jessoula, Manos Matsaganis, Rui Branco, and Emmanuele Pavolini 7. How to Adjust? Italy and Spain at the Test of Financial Integration and Crisis, by Fabio Bulfone and Manuela Moschella 8. Human Capital Formation, Research and Development, and Innovation, by Luigi Burroni, Sabrina Colombo, and Marino Regini Conclusion: Mediterranean Capitalism between Change and Continuityity, by Luigi Burroni, Emmanuele Pavolini, and Marino Regini

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeorgian and Soviet investigates the constitutive capacity of Soviet nationhood and empire. The Soviet republic of Georgia, located in the mountainous Caucasus region, received the same nation-building template as other national republics of the USSR. Yet Stalin''s Georgian heritage, intimate knowledge of Caucasian affairs, and personal involvement in local matters as he ascended to prominence left his homeland to confront a distinct set of challenges after his death in 1953.Utilizing Georgian archives and Georgian-language sources, Claire P. Kaiser argues that the postwar and post-Stalin era was decisive in the creation of a Georgian Georgia. This was due not only to the peculiar role played by the Stalin cult in the construction of modern Georgian nationhood but also to the subsequent changes that de-Stalinization wrought among Georgia''s populace and in the unusual imperial relationship between Moscow and Tbilisi. Kaiser describes how the Soviet empireTrade ReviewIn Georgian and Soviet: Entitled Nationhood and the Specter of Stalin in the Caucasus, Claire P. Kaiser expertly analyzes the ways Georgians carved out and promoted their national rights and identities within the USSR. * Europe Now Journal *This is an excellent book. It adds to our understanding of how empires work and reveals the convoluted relationships and legacies of Soviet imperial hierarchies in the South Caucasus. It will help Georgians, when it is translated (in process) to face the complexities of their own Soviet past. * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pantheon as Past and Present 1. History, Nation, and Local Foundations of the Stalin Cult 2. Entitled Foreign Policy and Its Limits 3. Expulsions and Ethnic Consolidations 4. De-Stalinization, kartulad 5. A Georgian Tbilisi 6. Entangled Nationalisms Epilogue: Stalin's Ghosts

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Violent America, Ariane Chebel d''Appollonia counterintuitively analyzes why and how various ethnoracial groups proactively and instrumentally use different forms of violence to achieve their goals. Combining a historical analysis spanning the centuries with an examination of contemporary problems, she considers how and why ethnoracial groups can be both perpetrators and victims of violence, why some minority groups react differently to violence in comparable situations, and what the consequences are today for politics in both America and Europe.Violent America thus explores the effects of physical and discursive violence on the ways in which ethnoracial groups define themselves. Chebel d''Appollonia argues that the use of ethnoracial violence has been and remains an effective identity strategy by which all ethnoracial groups are able to integrate themselves into the mainstream of American society. She provides an alternative way of underTrade ReviewAriane Chebel d'Appollonia (public affairs and administration, Rutgers Univ., Newark), who has published extensively in English and French, explores why ethnoracial violence remains an enduring feature of US society despite fundamental transformations in the country's institutions and the composition of its population. * choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Violent America, Ariane Chebel d''Appollonia counterintuitively analyzes why and how various ethnoracial groups proactively and instrumentally use different forms of violence to achieve their goals. Combining a historical analysis spanning the centuries with an examination of contemporary problems, she considers how and why ethnoracial groups can be both perpetrators and victims of violence, why some minority groups react differently to violence in comparable situations, and what the consequences are today for politics in both America and Europe.Violent America thus explores the effects of physical and discursive violence on the ways in which ethnoracial groups define themselves. Chebel d''Appollonia argues that the use of ethnoracial violence has been and remains an effective identity strategy by which all ethnoracial groups are able to integrate themselves into the mainstream of American society. She provides an alternative way of underTrade ReviewAriane Chebel d'Appollonia (public affairs and administration, Rutgers Univ., Newark), who has published extensively in English and French, explores why ethnoracial violence remains an enduring feature of US society despite fundamental transformations in the country's institutions and the composition of its population. * choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Imperial Gateway, Seiji Shirane explores the political, social, and economic significance of colonial Taiwan in the southern expansion of Japan''s empire from 1895 to the end of World War II. Challenging understandings of empire that focus on bilateral relations between metropole and colonial periphery, Shirane uncovers a half century of dynamic relations between Japan, Taiwan, China, and Western regional powers. Japanese officials in Taiwan did not simply take orders from Tokyo; rather, they often pursued their own expansionist ambitions in South China and Southeast Asia. When outright conquest was not possible, they promoted alternative strategies, including naturalizing resident Chinese as overseas Taiwanese subjects, extending colonial police networks, and deploying tens of thousands of Taiwanese to war. The Taiwanesemerchants, gangsters, policemen, interpreters, nurses, and soldiersseized new opportunities for socioeconomic advancement that did noTable of ContentsIntroduction Part One: Overseas Subjects as Gateway Actors 1. Opening a Gateway into China 2. Taiwanese in South China's Border Zones 3. Taiwanese in Southeast Asia Part 2: The Wartime Gateway 4. Mobilizing for War 5. Colonial Liaisons in Occupied South China 6. Advancing into the Southern Regions Epilogue: Postwar Legacies

Read more less

Book SynopsisMonuments for Posterity challenges the common assumption that Stalinist monuments were constructed with an immediate, propagandistic function, arguing instead that they were designed to memorialize the present for an imagined posterity. In this respect, even while pursuing its monument-building program with a singular ruthlessness and on an unprecedented scale, the Stalinist regime was broadly in step with transnational monument-building trends of the era and their undergirding cultural dynamics. By integrating approaches from cultural history, art criticism, and memory studies, along with previously unexplored archival material, Antony Kalashnikov examines the origin and implementation of the Stalinist monument-building program from the perspective of its goal to immortalize the memory of the era. He analyzes how this objective affected the design and composition of Stalinist monuments, what cultural factors prompted the sudden and powerful yearning to b

Read more less

Book SynopsisBringing together a multidisciplinary conversation about the entanglement of nature and society in the Korean peninsula, Forces of Nature aims to define and develop the field of the Korean environmental humanities. At its core, the volume works to foreground non-human agents that have long been marginalized in Korean studies, placing flora, fauna, mineral deposits, and climatic conditions that have hitherto been confined to footnotes front and center. In the process, the authors blaze new trails through Korea''s social and physical landscapes.What emerges is a deeper appreciation of the environmental conflicts that have animated life in Korea. The authors show how natural processes have continually shaped the course of events on the peninsulahow floods, droughts, famines, fires, and pests have inexorably impinged on human affairsand how different forces have been mobilized by the state to variously, control, extract, modernize, and showcase the KorTable of ContentsGeneral Introduction: Whose Nature? Centering the Environment in Korean Studies Geographical Introduction: Biography of the Korean Peninsula in Maps Imperial Interventions: Introduction To Part I 1. A State of Ranches and Forests: The Environmental Legacy of the Mongol Empire in Korea 2. Dammed Fish: Piscatorial Developmentalism and the Remaking of the Yalu River Crisis and Repsonse: Introduction to Part II 3. The Politics of Frugality: Environmental Crisis and Artistic Production in Eighteenth-Century Korea 4. Between Memory and Amnesia: Seoul's Nanjido Landfill, 1978–1993 5. North Korea Caught between Developmentalism and Humanitarianism Processes of Disposession: Introduction to Part III 6. Rice Fields, Mountains, and the Invisible Meatification of Korean Agriculture 7. The Eco-zombies of South Korean Cinema: Consumerism, Carnivores, and Eco-criticism Reclaiming Life: Introduction to Part IV 8. Communal Environmentalism in the History of the Organic Farming Movement in South Korea 9. Gotjawal: The Promise of Becoming Wild 10. South Korea's Nuclear-Energy Entanglements and the Timescales of Ecological Democracy Epilogue: On Everyday Ecologies and Systems of Mediation

Read more less

Book SynopsisGovernor of the Cordillera tells the story of an American colonial official in the Philippines who took the unpopular position of defending the rights of the Igorots, was fired in disgrace, and made a triumphal return. During the first fifteen years of colonial rule (18981913), a small group of Americans controlled the headhunting tribes who were wards of the nascent colonial government. These officials ignored laws, carved out fiefdoms, and brutalized (or killed) those who challenged their rule. John Early was cut from a different cloth. Battling colleagues and supervisors over their treatment of the mountain people, Early also had run-ins with lowland Filipino leaders like Manuel Quezon. Early''s return as governor of the entire Cordillera was celebrated by all the tribes.In Governor of the Cordillera Shelton Woods combines biography with colonial history. He includes a discussion on the exhibition of the Igorots at the various fairs in the US anTable of ContentsIntroduction Part One: John Early's Path to the Igorots(1521–1906) 1. The Making of a Governor 2. Eight Million Souls for Twenty Million Dollars 3. War and Colonial Policies 4. The Discovery of the Igorots 5. The Philippine Constabulary Part Two: The Creation of Mountain Province (1906–1908) 6. John Early in the Cordillera 7. Dean Worcester and the Making of Mountain Province 8. Early's Move to Bontoc: Teaching, Bricks, and Olympics 9. Lieutenant Governor of Amburayan 10. Lieutenant Governor of Bontoc Part Three: Conflict (1910–1911) 11. Alcohol, Labor, and Land 12. The Problem of Kalinga and the Hale Solution 13. The Bacarri Problem 14. The Bacarri Massacre 15. The Report 16. Igorots on Display 17. Schneidewind Meets His Match 18. New Players, New Problems 19. Early's Last Stand 20. Tragedy in Europe Part Four: Banishment, Politics, War, and Scandals (1911–1921) 21. Early's Exile South 22. Changes in Mountain Province 23. Colonial Policies: Harrison, Osmeña, and Quezon 24. World War I and a Troubled Yet Vibrant Economy 25. Marriages and Scandals 26. Wilson's Parting Shot and the Republicans Return Part Five: Sweet Dreams and Nightmares Come True (1922–1932) 27. The Wood-Forbes Mission 28. Governor-General Wood 29. Vindication 30. Political Deadlock 31. "We Felt It Was Our Duty to Confirm Him" 32. Henry Stimson 33. Dark Days 34. Advisor to the Governor-General 35. Vice-Governor 36. "Please Write Your Story" Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisGovernor of the Cordillera tells the story of an American colonial official in the Philippines who took the unpopular position of defending the rights of the Igorots, was fired in disgrace, and made a triumphal return. During the first fifteen years of colonial rule (18981913), a small group of Americans controlled the headhunting tribes who were wards of the nascent colonial government. These officials ignored laws, carved out fiefdoms, and brutalized (or killed) those who challenged their rule. John Early was cut from a different cloth. Battling colleagues and supervisors over their treatment of the mountain people, Early also had run-ins with lowland Filipino leaders like Manuel Quezon. Early''s return as governor of the entire Cordillera was celebrated by all the tribes.In Governor of the Cordillera Shelton Woods combines biography with colonial history. He includes a discussion on the exhibition of the Igorots at the various fairs in the US anTable of ContentsIntroduction Part One: John Early's Path to the Igorots(1521–1906) 1. The Making of a Governor 2. Eight Million Souls for Twenty Million Dollars 3. War and Colonial Policies 4. The Discovery of the Igorots 5. The Philippine Constabulary Part Two: The Creation of Mountain Province (1906–1908) 6. John Early in the Cordillera 7. Dean Worcester and the Making of Mountain Province 8. Early's Move to Bontoc: Teaching, Bricks, and Olympics 9. Lieutenant Governor of Amburayan 10. Lieutenant Governor of Bontoc Part Three: Conflict (1910–1911) 11. Alcohol, Labor, and Land 12. The Problem of Kalinga and the Hale Solution 13. The Bacarri Problem 14. The Bacarri Massacre 15. The Report 16. Igorots on Display 17. Schneidewind Meets His Match 18. New Players, New Problems 19. Early's Last Stand 20. Tragedy in Europe Part Four: Banishment, Politics, War, and Scandals (1911–1921) 21. Early's Exile South 22. Changes in Mountain Province 23. Colonial Policies: Harrison, Osmeña, and Quezon 24. World War I and a Troubled Yet Vibrant Economy 25. Marriages and Scandals 26. Wilson's Parting Shot and the Republicans Return Part Five: Sweet Dreams and Nightmares Come True (1922–1932) 27. The Wood-Forbes Mission 28. Governor-General Wood 29. Vindication 30. Political Deadlock 31. "We Felt It Was Our Duty to Confirm Him" 32. Henry Stimson 33. Dark Days 34. Advisor to the Governor-General 35. Vice-Governor 36. "Please Write Your Story" Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The United States Democracy Center 2. The Movement against Democracy 3. The Antidemocracy Movement Today 4. States United's Strategy 5. Our System Can Prevail Conclusion

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisSalvaging Empire probes the historical roots and current predicaments of a twenty-first century settler colony seeking to control an uncertain future through resource management and environmental science. Four decades after a violent 1982 war between the United Kingdom and Argentina reestablished British authority over the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas in Spanish), a commercial fishing boom and offshore oil discoveries have intensified the sovereignty dispute over the South Atlantic archipelago. Scholarly literature on the South Atlantic focuses primarily on military history of the 1982 conflict. However, contested claims over natural resources have now made this disputed territory a critical site for examining the wider relationship between imperial sovereignty and environmental governance. James J. A. Blair argues that by claiming self-determination and consenting to British sovereignty, the Falkland Islanders have crafted a settler colonial protectorate to eTable of ContentsIntroduction Dispossession 1. Settler Safe Zone or Colonial Staging Ground? 2. Company Islands 3. Imperial Diaspora Wreckage 4. Does the Sea Lion Roar? 5. Grounding Offshore Oil Survival 6. The Geopolitics of Marine Ecology 7. Colonizing with Natives Conclusion: Unsettled Claims

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Picky Eagle explains why the United States stopped annexing territory by focusing on annexation''s domestic consequences, both political and normative. It describes how the US rejection of further annexations, despite its rising power, set the stage for twentieth-century efforts to outlaw conquest. In contrast to conventional accounts of a nineteenth-century shift from territorial expansion to commercial expansion, Richard W. Maass argues that US ambitions were selective from the start.By presenting twenty-three case studies, Maass examines the decision-making of US leaders facing opportunities to pursue annexation between 1775 and 1898. US presidents, secretaries, and congressmen consistently worried about how absorbing new territories would affect their domestic political influence and their goals for their country. These leaders were particularly sensitive to annexation''s domestic costs where xenophobia interacted with their commitment to democracy: rather thanTrade ReviewIn this timely, relevant and historically rich book, political scientist Richard Maass asks: Why did the United States stop annexing territory? His question implicitly recognizes what historians of US foreign relations have said for a very long time: rather than being 'isolationist', the United States expanded vigorously throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. * International Affairs *Maass has written a book that is theoretically ambitious and empirically expansive, and the historical and archival evidence he marshals is rich, impressive, and ultimately convincing. * Perspectives on Politics *Scholars have charted in meticulous detail the upstart nation's transformation from a motley conglomeration of former British colonies into a transcontinental empire with, after the colonialist outburst of 1898, global reach. Richard W. Maass's The Picky Eagle swims against this tide, focusing not on the conventional story of incremental expansion but instead on the many instances in which the United States left on the table opportunities to annex more territory. * Political Science Quarterly *Table of Contents1. The Limits of U.S. Territorial Expansion 2. Explaining Annexation 3. To the Continent: European Empires and U.S. Annexation 4. To the West: Native American Lands and U.S. Annexation 5. To the North: Canada and U.S. Annexation 6. To the South: Mexico and U.S. Annexation 7. To the Seas: Islands and U.S. Annexation 8. The International Implications of U.S. Annexation

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisJewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World represents the first collective attempt to reframe the study of colonial and early American Jewry within the context of Atlantic History. From roughly 1500 to 1830, the Atlantic World was a tightly intertwined swathe of global powers that included Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean. How, when, and where do Jews figure in this important chapter of history? This book explores these questions and many others. The essays of this volume foreground the connectivity between Jews and other population groups in the realms of empire, trade, and slavery, taking readers from the shores of Caribbean islands to various outposts of the Dutch, English, Spanish, and Portuguese empires.Jewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World revolutionizes the study of Jews in early American history, forging connections and breaking down artificial academic divisions so as to start writing the history of an

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Promise of Piety, Arsalan Khan examines the zealous commitment to a distinct form of face-to-face preaching (dawat) among Pakistani Tablighis, practitioners of the transnational Islamic piety movement the Tablighi Jamaat. This group says that Muslims have abandoned their religious duties for worldly pursuits, creating a state of moral chaos apparent in the breakdown of relationships in the family, nation, and global Islamic community. Tablighis insist that this dire situation can only be remedied by drawing Muslims back to Islam through dawat, which they regard as the sacred means for spreading Islamic virtue. In a country founded in the name of Muslim identity and where Islam is ubiquitous in public life, the Tablighi claim that Pakistani Muslims have abandoned Islam is particularly striking. The Promise of Piety shows how Tablighis constitute a distinct form of pious relationality in the ritual processes and everyday practices of da

Read more less

Book SynopsisIndirect Rule examines how states indirectly exercise authority over others and how this mode of rule affects domestic and international politics. Indirect rule has long characterized interstate relationships and US foreign relations. A key mechanism of international hierarchy, indirect rule involves an allied group within a client state adopting policies preferred by a dominant state in exchange for the dominant state''s support. Drawing on the history of US involvement in the Caribbean and Central America, Western Europe, and the Arab Middle East, David A. Lake shows that indirect rule is more likely to occur when the specific assets at risk are large and governance costs are low. Lake''s conceptualization of indirect rule sharpens our understanding of how the United States came to occupy the pinnacle of world power. Yet the consequences of indirect rule he documentsincluding anti-Americanismreveal its shortcomings. As US efforts at democr

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver the last three decades, a new generation of conceptual artists has come to the fore in the Arab Middle East. As wars, peace treaties, sanctions, and large-scale economic developments have reshaped the region, this cohort of cultural producers has also found themselves at the center of intergenerational debates on the role of art in society. Central to these cultural debates is a steady stream of support from North American and European funding organizations—resources that only increased with the start of the Arab uprisings in the early 2010s. The Politics of Art offers an unprecedented look into the entanglement of art and international politics in Beirut, Ramallah, and Amman to understand the aesthetics of material production within liberal economies. Hanan Toukan outlines the political and social functions of transnationally connected and internationally funded arts organizations and initiatives, and reveals how the production of art within global frameworks can contribute to hegemonic structures even as it is critiquing them—or how it can be counterhegemonic even when it first appears not to be. In so doing, Toukan proposes not only a new way of reading contemporary art practices as they situate themselves globally, but also a new way of reading the domestic politics of the region from the vantage point of art.Trade Review"There are few books out there that bring together a deep, critical knowledge of the arts in the Middle East with theoretical sophistication and shimmering ethnographic observations. Hanan Toukan's The Politics of Art does this abundantly, and it does so in beautiful, absorbing prose, with great care and tenderness."—Laleh Khalili, Queen Mary University of London"The Politics of Art is a game changer. Hanan Toukan brilliantly reveals a critical, often hidden component of art-making in the Middle East: how powerful political and economic interests have shaped what kinds of art are even possible. A brave intervention and required reading for anyone working in the fields of cultural politics and diplomacy."—Jessica Winegar, Northwestern University"In a detailed, revealing, and thought-provoking sociological account, Hanan Toukan explores how a contemporary art scene in Amman, Beirut, and Ramallah grew under the patronage of Western-funded NGOs alongside rising inequality. In these circumstances, might an idealistic commitment to diversity and decolonization produce a new form of homogeneity and domination?"—Julian Stallabrass, Courtauld Institute of Art"The Politics of Art is a dissonant account of how art, without recognition of its ties with power, upholds the very structures it claims to critique."—Ophelia Lai, ArtAsiaPacific"The Politics of Art is beautifully written and engages the relevant literatures from mainstream debates to more critical thinkers from the Frankfurt School to Rancière and Foucault. Written without jargon, the book is both theoretically sophisticated and accessible.... The book will be of interest not only to larger debates not only on cultural production but also on the diverse effects of neoliberalism, political dissent, the politics of urban space, and foreign development aid."—Jillian Schwedler, Perspectives on Politics"Overall, the book moves with a mocking spirit that tickles the funny bone at the same time that it hurts. As a Palestinian reader, one identifies with many things the author addresses, and one even smiles sometimes when reading specific sentences that make perfect sense, however painful."—Maysoon Shibi, Critical Inquiry"By rendering the implicit explicit, Toukan's text speaks to the quiet anxieties of both artists and academics who navigate international funding regimes, offering an important and highly interdisciplinary contribution to understandings of soft power and the politics of cultural production."—Melissa Scott, H-AMCA"The Politics of Art is, in short, a path-clearing work that should point the way for a new generation of art, performance, and music researchers to propose other formulations of the political by which to read, appreciate, and be in conversation with their performing and multidisciplinary artist contemporaries in the Mashriq."—Rayya El Zein, International Journal of Middle East StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: n/a 1. Cultural Wars and the Politics of Diplomacy 2. "An Artist Who Cannot Speak English Is No Artist" 3. The Dissonance of Dissent: Art and Artists after 1990 4. Beirut: The Rise and Rise of Postwar Art 5. Amman: Uneasy Lie the Arts 6. Ramallah: The Paintbrush Is Mightier than the M16 Conclusion: n/a

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe production of history is premised on the selective erasure of certain pasts and the artifacts that stand witness to them. From the elision of archival documents to the demolition of sacred and secular spaces, each act of destruction is also an act of state building. Following the 1991 Gulf War, political elites in Saudi Arabia pursued these dual projects of historical commemoration and state formation with greater fervor to enforce their postwar vision for state, nation, and economy. Seeing Islamist movements as the leading threat to state power, they sought to de-center religion from educational, cultural, and spatial policies. With this book, Rosie Bsheer explores the increasing secularization of the postwar Saudi state and how it manifested in assembling a national archive and reordering urban space in Riyadh and Mecca. The elites' project was rife with ironies: in Riyadh, they employed world-renowned experts to fashion an imagined history, while at the same time in Mecca they were overseeing the obliteration of a thousand-year-old topography and its replacement with commercial megaprojects. Archive Wars shows how the Saudi state's response to the challenges of the Gulf War served to historicize a national space, territorialize a national history, and ultimately refract both through new modes of capital accumulation.Trade Review"There are now two distinct eras in the writing of Saudi Arabian history: before Rosie Bsheer's Archive Wars and after." -- Robert Vitalis * University of Pennsylvania, author of Oilcraft *"Archive Wars explores with conceptual brilliance and historical aplomb the various forms of historical erasure central not just to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but to all modern states. In a finely-grained analysis, Rosie Bsheer rethinks the significance of archives, historicism, capital accumulation, and the remaking of the built environment. A must-read for all historians concerned with the materiality of modern state formation." -- Omnia El Shakry * University of California, Davis, author of The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt *"Archive Wars is an instant classic. With incredible insight, creativity, and courage, Rosie Bsheer peels away the political and institutional barriers that have so long mystified others seeking to understand Saudi Arabia. Bsheer tells us remarkable new things about the exercise and meaning of power in today's Saudi Arabia." -- Toby Jones * Rutgers University, author of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia *"Rosie Bsheer's Archive Wars is one of those extraordinary projects that explodes fictions of so many kinds about archives and state power. This masterful and meticulous book is testimony to the visceral violences that underwrite legal and archival mandates, the bedrock of the massive inequalities that plague our collective worlds now more than ever. Bsheer offers us a reading of the wars that rage in—and over—modern archives, showing that they are not modern because they are unmarred by the destruction of records, but because they are constituted by ever bolder techniques of erasure." -- Ann Stoler * The New School for Social Research, author of Duress: Imperial Durabilities in Our Times *"Archive Wars is a much-needed and in many ways revelatory addition to our understanding of Saudi history and politics. On a personal level, I found the work to be an absolute delight to read and one that has challenged the way I look at Saudi politics. Despite being a vital country in the Middle East, there are few good texts on the kingdom. Archive Wars will stimulate better and more critical scholarship. It changes the way we think about the relationship between archives, heritage, and political power in the region, and beyond." -- Middle East Monitor"[A] must-read for anybody interested in modern Saudi Arabia. Whether you are looking for insights into the ambitions of kings or into the lives of ordinary people, it is essential to know how historical information is kept and erased. Beyond that, I recommend Bsheer's work to anybody studying the creation of archives and heritage elsewhere in the Middle East and globally." -- Jörg Matthias Determann * Journal of Social History *"By dissecting competing and complicated relationships between and among the Saudi state and elites, Bsheer presents a compelling portrait of the state's forceful consolidation of an acceptable historical narrative, showcasing the Saudi state's attempts to elide any historical documents or physical traces that do not corroborate the sanctioned story of the rise of Al Saud... [T]he book's depictions of urban transformations are essential for understanding the nature of power in Saudi Arabia today." -- Kathryn King * Journal of Arabian Studies *"This book is an intelligent, subtle, and learned treatment of the efforts by the Saudi Arabian monarchy to construct and disseminate a historical narrative that will legitimize its rule. Bsheer precisely and elegantly describes the regime's attempts, across the reigns of several kings, to both collect and suppress documentation about the country's past." -- Lisa Anderson * Foreign Affairs *"We find in Rosie Bsheer's book a skillful combination of topics and a stimulating engagement with the politics of history. Archive Wars deserves close reading, especially as it engages with a notoriously challenging country to frame, thanks to the author's unique access to the kingdom, her use of Saudi academic scholarship, and the books theoretical intervention in the political science of the Middle East and North Africa." -- Idriss Jebari * Canadian Journal of History *"This book substantially reworks existing knowledge of Saudi Arabia—the making of the state, the legitimization of its power, and the centrality of diverse history-making projects in these projects. Drawing on rich ethnographic and archival work, the author convincingly argues that the ruling regime has been engaged in a project of re-writing Saudi history since the 1990s. Central to these history-making projects has been the 'archive wars' and efforts to centralize archival sources, as well as re-making the built environment through urban planning and development.Sophisticated and engaging and politically bold." -- Committee for the Nikki Keddie Book Award * sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association *"Rosie Bsheer'sArchive Warsis a forceful and inspiring reminder of what superb and unflinching scholarship and writing can do. Based on exciting fieldwork,Archive Wars examines the erasing and building of history in Saudi Arabia. It is one of those rare books that focuses our attention – without hesitation – on the broader stakes and processes of modern state formation while detailing the contingencies and tensions of power. It exposes with clarity and precision links between political-economy, state power, and the materiality of documents and the built environment. Attempts to erase and rewrite the past in Saudi Arabia will have to contend with Rosie Bsheer's archive.—Committee for the AGAPS Biennial Book AwardTable of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: The Archive Question chapter abstractIn the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, ruling elites in Saudi Arabia adopted measures that aimed to reconfigure state power by pacifying wartime popular opposition, reshaping the politics of subject formation, and diversifying the petroleum economy. The ensuing struggle over state form—what I call archive wars—revolved around the production of history, the reordering of space, and the repurposing of valuable real estate. Historicizing these practices helps us rethink the nature of modern archival formation as well as statecraft while calling into question scholarly assumptions about the cohesiveness of authoritarian states, and of states in general. Approaching the domains of history making and urban planning as mutually constitutive, contested, and ongoing material practices of state formation complicates conventional understandings of the nature of state power and its imbrication with archive formation. 1Occluded Pasts chapter abstractThis chapter takes up one strand of sociopolitical and cultural life in late Ottoman Mecca: the school of Indian religious scholar Muhammad Rahmatullah al-Kairanawi and its relation to the emergence of an intellectually engaged Hijazi middle class during the nahda. The chapter then attends to how the Saudi state occluded and repackaged this history since 1932. Beyond the symbolic power it bestowed upon its rulers, Mecca was a space where intellectual debate flourished, honing the minds of thinkers who became central figures in twentieth-century politics and religion. Yet Mecca's past is absent from histories of the Hijaz and of Saudi Arabia and from histories of intellectual thought, cultural production, and political activism in the late Ottoman period. Unearthing these transregional histories is urgent because the Saudi state has been destroying the city's built environment in lockstep with the logic of historical erasure and state formation. 2A State With No Archive chapter abstractIn 1966, at the height of the struggle between reactionary and progressive forces that pitted Al Saud against Gamal Abdel Nasser and progressive forces inside Saudi Arabia, King Faisal passed the country's first archiving law. The aim was to choreograph a sanitized version of history and to reify elites' political, territorial, economic, and cultural claims. This chapter connects the beginning of archival praxis in Cold War Arabia to the necessity of managing elite power rivalries and fending off threats from regional rivals and domestic political movements. These anxieties shaped archival praxis and subsequently institutionalized a culture of secrecy and rivalry across the bureaucracy, with the push and pull of the archival operation mirroring the rivalries endemic to the Saudi state. Tracing the battles to produce an archive from the mid-1960s until the late 1980s shows how Saudi Arabia complicates conventional thinking about archives and about the authoritarian state itself. 3Assembling History chapter abstractIn the 1990s, Saudi Arabia's top rulers sought to shift the grounds for political legitimation, subject formation, and economic diversification to maintain power following the Gulf War. This required the production of primary source materials for a revised, secular official history, the repositories that would house them, and the spaces that would monumentalize such a discourse. The Darah, along with the Ariyyadh Development Authority, assembled the past and its spaces in Riyadh. With the backing of Salman, who was Riyadh's governor at the time, the low-grade archive fever of the 1970s got a second lease on life. Like Faisal before him, Salman faced challenges to centralizing the archive: from members of the ruling family, politicians and bureaucrats, activists and archivists. Institutional acts of history making and placing put into question the coherence of historical narration and memorialization, and expose archival anxieties and rivalries among the architects of state building. 4Heritage as War chapter abstractIn the aftermath of the Gulf War, an army of urban planners, economists, historians, archeologists, and tourism consultants descended upon Riyadh. Under the aegis of the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh, they brainstormed ideas for the redevelopment of the capital city, with an eye to the economic, political, and social challenges that the country was facing in the late twentieth century. The Arriyadh Development Authority oversaw the production of a regulatory planning document that would transform Riyadh into the administrative, cultural, economic, touristic, and historical center of Saudi Arabia. This chapter examines the production and destruction of historical sites since the 1950s. It shows how the 1990s saw the acceleration of the remaking of historical areas in Riyadh and the creation of a productive heritage industry therein. Memorialization came to constitute a key node in the postwar architectural reformulation of the state. 5Bulldozing the Past chapter abstractSince the early 2000s, the Saudi state summarily dynamited whole mountains around the Grand Mosque, destroying much of Islam's material history and replacing it with commercial megaprojects. The deliberate demolition of historical and religious sites in Mecca starkly contrasts with the preservation of more recent and dilapidated sites associated with Al Saud's heritage in Riyadh. In post–Gulf War Saudi Arabia, Mecca came to serve a different legitimating purpose, one rooted in grandiose infrastructural projects and aesthetics, wherein secular time overwhelmed religious temporality and subjectivity. The regime used Wahhabi iconoclasm and the need to modernize the hajj to justify such destruction. This chapter shows how the city's urban "renewal" was inextricable from archival formation and urban planning in Riyadh. The neoliberal city was at the heart of the twinned postwar process of real estate and heritage development, with Al Saud and the Binladin family reaping billions off its redevelopment. Conclusion: The Violence of History chapter abstractThis chapter centers on how Saudi rulers instrumentalized religion to pacify post–Gulf War popular contestation and shifted the basis of state legitimation to secular historical memorialization, political commemoration, and urban redevelopment. Using these material practices, it shows how statecraft, even in authoritarian regimes, evolves diachronically in response to a multiplicity of challenges, not least of which is popular opposition. The postwar project, however, was transformed at different critical junctures: the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in the 2000s, the Arab Uprisings, and the ascension of the postwar project's architect, Salman ibn Abdulaziz, to the throne in 2015. With Salman in power, the archival landscape, both institutional and spatial, has for the most part succumbed to his decades-long national vision. Cultural and urban redevelopment reflects the material culture and built environment of Salman's Saudi Arabia, which enshrined his view of the past, present, and future.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpeculation is often associated with financial practices, but The Time of Money makes the case that it not be restricted to the financial sphere. It argues that the expansion of finance has created a distinctive social world, one that demands a speculative stance toward life in general. Replacing a logic of extraction, speculation changes our relationship to time and organizes our social worlds to maximize the productive capacities of populations around flows of money for finance capital. Speculative practices have become a matter of survival, and defining features of our age are hardwired to their operations—stagnant wages, indebtedness, the centrality of women's earnings to the household, workfarism, and more. Examining five features of our contemporary economy, Lisa Adkins reveals the operations of this speculative rationality. Moving beyond claims that indebtedness is intrinsic to contemporary life and vague declarations that the social world has become financialized, Adkins delivers a precise examination of the relation between finance and society, one that is rich in empirical and analytical detail.Trade Review"As more women worldwide fall under the sway of monetary relations, the impact of 'financialization' on their lives has become an increasingly urgent question. A major contribution to this discussion, The Time of Money advances the development of a feminist perspective on finance as a force that is shaping women's social condition even as it shapes the economy." -- Silvia Federici * Professor Emerita, Hofstra University, and author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation *"As you open this book, you will find that its pages unfold on many levels. On one level, The Time of Money tells a gripping story about money and its place in today's Anglo-American capitalism. On another level, it is also a book about time itself and the multiple temporalities of our financialized lives. But perhaps most significantly, it is a sustained and compelling analysis of the logic of speculation that subtends so much of contemporary capitalism, one that is bound to compel the interest of readers across disciplines. Adkins's book also has the merit of attending to the distinctly political and gendered dimensions of financialization, which is but one of its many virtues." -- Ivan Ascher * University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and author of The Portfolio Society *"The Time of Money offers a powerful account of the damage created by the time of money, not least by making visible the emerging temporal experiences we miss when we limit our attention to the passing of the old." -- Jane Elliot * Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter sets out how, rather than being simply associated with finance and financial trading, a logic of speculation is at the heart of contemporary capitalist accumulation strategies and guides and directs the dynamics of social formation. It suggests that a logic of speculation has replaced a logic of extraction and operates as a rationality that defines the telos of action. It is argued that what unites speculation as a mode of accumulation and a mode of social organization, that is, what precisely constitutes the logic of speculation as a rationality, is time. 1Money on the Move chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the logic of speculation operative in post<->Bretton Woods agreement finance markets. It addresses the claim that at the heart of the 2007-8 financial crisis lay unregulated and excessive speculation on the part of finance traders, especially to the claim that at the heart of this activity was a trading of the future at the expense of the present. Through a focus not on the actions of traders but on movements and flows of money in financial markets, this chapter lays out how in regard to finance markets the issue is not a trade on the future but a shifting relationship between time and money. It argues that speculation concerns a particular form of time. 2Austere Times chapter abstractThis chapter engages with the contemporary politics of austerity. It outlines how austerity must be understood not as a fiscal response to the global financial crisis but as a political strategy through which the economy of debt is being extended. It shows how this extension enrolls the productivity of populations into the generation of surplus via the movements and flows of everyday money. This chapter also discusses how transformations to everyday money, especially transformations to what money can do, must be center stage if we are to understand this enrollment. These transformations turn on the emergence of money as a value. 3The Speculative Time of Debt chapter abstractThis chapter is concerned with mass debt and indebtedness. Against the view that debt is destructive of time, it outlines how securitized household and personal debt involves a specific time universe and the binding of populations to this time, a binding to a nonchronological time, or speculative time. It lays out how central to this time and to this binding is the operation of the calculus of securitized debt, a calculus concerned not with working lives of repayment but with lifetimes of payment. This chapter elaborates how this calculus opens up specific modes of practice that expand the productive potential of populations in regard to the generation of surplus from everyday payments from households. 4Wages and the Problem of Value chapter abstractThis chapter is concerned with wages in the era of financial expansion. Existing accounts of wages in this era point to endemic wage stagnation and outline strategies to reconnect labor with value as a remedy to this problem. This chapter outlines how such accounts bracket a broad-scale restructuring of wages. It points to and maps a reworking of the relationship between labor and money. This reworking concerns the emergence of wages that are not a measure of external things but an in-motion surface. It also concerns the replacement of the free laborer, who must exchange her or his labor for a wage, by the speculative subject, who must speculate on their (stagnant) wages and their whole lives and lifetimes to ensure survival. 5Out of Work chapter abstractThis chapter explores how a restructuring of labor in the era of financial expansion has taken place on the ground of unemployment through a set of coordinated policies and programs. It shows how this restructuring has eroded the distinction between unemployment and employment by positioning both the in-work and out-of-work as in need of adapting to events that have not yet and might never happen. It outlines how the in-work and out-of-work must constantly adapt to the indeterminate movements of time. It argues that the policy regimes governing unemployed populations should be designed as analogues to the creation of surplus via the indeterminate movements and flows of money. Conclusion chapter abstractThis chapter outlines how understanding the finance-society relationship requires a focus on the productivity of money, finance, and debt in regard to the social. It sets out how such a focus challenges prevailing understandings of the finance-society relation, including those that locate money, debt, and finance as immaterial and/or superstructural phenomena. It also reflects on the relationship between the expansion of finance and the political project of neoliberalism. It suggests that the policies of the postnational neoliberal state work to maximize the productive capacities of populations in regard to the generation of surplus from money.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpeculation is often associated with financial practices, but The Time of Money makes the case that it not be restricted to the financial sphere. It argues that the expansion of finance has created a distinctive social world, one that demands a speculative stance toward life in general. Replacing a logic of extraction, speculation changes our relationship to time and organizes our social worlds to maximize the productive capacities of populations around flows of money for finance capital. Speculative practices have become a matter of survival, and defining features of our age are hardwired to their operations—stagnant wages, indebtedness, the centrality of women's earnings to the household, workfarism, and more. Examining five features of our contemporary economy, Lisa Adkins reveals the operations of this speculative rationality. Moving beyond claims that indebtedness is intrinsic to contemporary life and vague declarations that the social world has become financialized, Adkins delivers a precise examination of the relation between finance and society, one that is rich in empirical and analytical detail.Trade Review"As more women worldwide fall under the sway of monetary relations, the impact of 'financialization' on their lives has become an increasingly urgent question. A major contribution to this discussion, The Time of Money advances the development of a feminist perspective on finance as a force that is shaping women's social condition even as it shapes the economy." -- Silvia Federici * Professor Emerita, Hofstra University, and author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation *"As you open this book, you will find that its pages unfold on many levels. On one level, The Time of Money tells a gripping story about money and its place in today's Anglo-American capitalism. On another level, it is also a book about time itself and the multiple temporalities of our financialized lives. But perhaps most significantly, it is a sustained and compelling analysis of the logic of speculation that subtends so much of contemporary capitalism, one that is bound to compel the interest of readers across disciplines. Adkins's book also has the merit of attending to the distinctly political and gendered dimensions of financialization, which is but one of its many virtues." -- Ivan Ascher * University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and author of The Portfolio Society *"The Time of Money offers a powerful account of the damage created by the time of money, not least by making visible the emerging temporal experiences we miss when we limit our attention to the passing of the old." -- Jane Elliot * Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter sets out how, rather than being simply associated with finance and financial trading, a logic of speculation is at the heart of contemporary capitalist accumulation strategies and guides and directs the dynamics of social formation. It suggests that a logic of speculation has replaced a logic of extraction and operates as a rationality that defines the telos of action. It is argued that what unites speculation as a mode of accumulation and a mode of social organization, that is, what precisely constitutes the logic of speculation as a rationality, is time. 1Money on the Move chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the logic of speculation operative in post<->Bretton Woods agreement finance markets. It addresses the claim that at the heart of the 2007-8 financial crisis lay unregulated and excessive speculation on the part of finance traders, especially to the claim that at the heart of this activity was a trading of the future at the expense of the present. Through a focus not on the actions of traders but on movements and flows of money in financial markets, this chapter lays out how in regard to finance markets the issue is not a trade on the future but a shifting relationship between time and money. It argues that speculation concerns a particular form of time. 2Austere Times chapter abstractThis chapter engages with the contemporary politics of austerity. It outlines how austerity must be understood not as a fiscal response to the global financial crisis but as a political strategy through which the economy of debt is being extended. It shows how this extension enrolls the productivity of populations into the generation of surplus via the movements and flows of everyday money. This chapter also discusses how transformations to everyday money, especially transformations to what money can do, must be center stage if we are to understand this enrollment. These transformations turn on the emergence of money as a value. 3The Speculative Time of Debt chapter abstractThis chapter is concerned with mass debt and indebtedness. Against the view that debt is destructive of time, it outlines how securitized household and personal debt involves a specific time universe and the binding of populations to this time, a binding to a nonchronological time, or speculative time. It lays out how central to this time and to this binding is the operation of the calculus of securitized debt, a calculus concerned not with working lives of repayment but with lifetimes of payment. This chapter elaborates how this calculus opens up specific modes of practice that expand the productive potential of populations in regard to the generation of surplus from everyday payments from households. 4Wages and the Problem of Value chapter abstractThis chapter is concerned with wages in the era of financial expansion. Existing accounts of wages in this era point to endemic wage stagnation and outline strategies to reconnect labor with value as a remedy to this problem. This chapter outlines how such accounts bracket a broad-scale restructuring of wages. It points to and maps a reworking of the relationship between labor and money. This reworking concerns the emergence of wages that are not a measure of external things but an in-motion surface. It also concerns the replacement of the free laborer, who must exchange her or his labor for a wage, by the speculative subject, who must speculate on their (stagnant) wages and their whole lives and lifetimes to ensure survival. 5Out of Work chapter abstractThis chapter explores how a restructuring of labor in the era of financial expansion has taken place on the ground of unemployment through a set of coordinated policies and programs. It shows how this restructuring has eroded the distinction between unemployment and employment by positioning both the in-work and out-of-work as in need of adapting to events that have not yet and might never happen. It outlines how the in-work and out-of-work must constantly adapt to the indeterminate movements of time. It argues that the policy regimes governing unemployed populations should be designed as analogues to the creation of surplus via the indeterminate movements and flows of money. Conclusion chapter abstractThis chapter outlines how understanding the finance-society relationship requires a focus on the productivity of money, finance, and debt in regard to the social. It sets out how such a focus challenges prevailing understandings of the finance-society relation, including those that locate money, debt, and finance as immaterial and/or superstructural phenomena. It also reflects on the relationship between the expansion of finance and the political project of neoliberalism. It suggests that the policies of the postnational neoliberal state work to maximize the productive capacities of populations in regard to the generation of surplus from money.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow did the economy become bound up with faith in infinite wealth creation and obsessive consumption? Drawing on the economic writings of eighteenth-century French theologians, historian Charly Coleman uncovers the surprising influence of the Catholic Church on the development of capitalism. Even during the Enlightenment, a sense of the miraculous did not wither under the cold light of calculation. Scarcity, long regarded as the inescapable fate of a fallen world, gradually gave way to a new belief in heavenly as well as worldly affluence. Animating this spiritual imperative of the French economy was a distinctly Catholic ethic that—in contrast to Weber's famous "Protestant ethic"—privileged the marvelous over the mundane, consumption over production, and the pleasures of enjoyment over the rigors of delayed gratification. By viewing money, luxury, and debt through the lens of sacramental theory, Coleman demonstrates that the modern economy casts far beyond rational action and disenchanted designs, and in ways that we have yet to apprehend fully.Trade Review"With deft analysis and compelling exposition, Charly Coleman unearths the neglected yet highly significant contributions of French Catholic theology to the growth and development of capitalism. He helps us grasp why, amid supposed disenchantment and the brute materiality of modernity, commodities continue to hold such sway and consumption still promises us salvation." -- Devin Singh * Dartmouth College *"The Spirit of French Capitalism is a brilliant, provocative book that deserves a wide readership. Charly Coleman compellingly argues that to understand the genesis of modern capitalism, we need to understand how economic visions of unlimited consumption and plenitude arose out of the 'economic theology' of the Catholic Reformation. Delving deep into theological debates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Coleman traces surprising connections to the period's economic thought—and economic practice as well." -- David A. Bell * Princeton University *"Coleman's book offers a valuable example of research on the connection of theological notions and religious practices, on the one hand, and the field of French political economy during the 17th and 18th centuries, on the other. The main contribution is definitely to clarify the long history of the semantic crossing between theological and economic representation, opening the way to future interdisciplinary research carried out between theologians and historians of economic thought. " -- Maxime Menuet * Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractAgainst assertions of Anglo-American exceptionalism, this book shifts attention to the economic writings of theologians in France, the most powerful Catholic kingdom in eighteenth-century Europe. In so doing, it argues that Catholic economic theology prepared the ground in which the master-ideas of Enlightenment political economy took root. Beyond wielding enormous financial power, the church administered an infinitely reproducible treasure of grace through the sacraments. In contrast to Max Weber's thesis in The Protestant Ethic, I make the case for a distinctly Catholic ethic that animated the spirit of capitalism by valorizing the enjoyment of consumption over delayed gratification. Only by engaging with Catholic economic theology can we begin to understand how the quintessential capitalist fantasy of unbridled consumption first coalesced—in ruminations on the mystery of the Eucharist, the generative faculties of money, the legality of usury, the allure of commodities, and the limits of luxury. 1The Economy of the Mysteries chapter abstractIn response to Protestant challenges, the Catholic Church avowed that the Eucharist operated as a sign that brought the body and blood it signified into being. Yet the prelates at the Council of Trent did not merely reiterate ancient teachings; rather, their deliberations marked a shift in emphasis from the visceral or fleshly aspect of the rite to its economic valence. Reverence for the host surged among the thousands who enlisted in religious and lay confraternities. Members incurred devotional as well as financial obligations, the fulfillment of which made one eligible to receive indulgences granted by the pope. Their liturgies articulated a new Christian variant of materialism, with the Eucharist as its venerable base. Professional theologians defended transubstantiation by justifying the doctrine as a means of spiritual enrichment that assured consolation in this life and eternal beatitude in the next. 2Perpetual Penance and Frequent Communion chapter abstractThe value of frequent communion remained a source of deep controversy throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the 1640s, Antoine Arnauld challenged abuses in the administration of the Eucharist and penance, drawing the lines of a protracted theological battle between the Jansenist militants of Port-Royal and the Society of Jesus. A century later, the Jesuit Jean Pichon's defense of frequent communion elicited a response no less violent than had Arnauld's criticism of the practice. During the same decade, it fell to the French crown to adjudicate between the parlement of Paris and the Gallican episcopate in cases involving the refusal of the sacraments to Jansenists. This dispute carried sweeping implications for the limits of royal as well as clerical authority, and even compelled ruminations over whether subjects had a right to communion akin to that of property. 3The Spirit of Speculation chapter abstractSacramental theology exerted a surprising influence on the reception of John Law's System, proponents of which depicted banknotes and company shares as yielding previously unfathomable riches. A Eucharistic-alchemical complex lent itself to describing these instruments and their myriad effects. Priests-cum-alchemists explicitly likened the philosopher's stone to the consecrated host. Cartesians such as Jean Terrasson justified the infinite extension of matter with direct references to the sacrament. In defending Law's reforms, he went so far as to transpose his metaphysical doctrines into an economic theology of money. He held that, like the Eucharist, paper's efficacy followed from its dual nature as both visible and transparent—that is, as a means of exchange that not only passively reflected but also brought into being the very existence of wealth. The spiritual ideal of boundlessness drove participation in Law's System, emboldening investors to place their faith in accumulation without limit. 4Usury Redeemed chapter abstractThe eighteenth century offered novel answers to the perennial question of usury, which the church formally banned but in practice permitted. Pope Benedict XIV's 1745 encyclical on the legitimacy of interest-bearing contracts prompted soul-searching among clergy and laity alike. The archbishop of Paris commissioned lengthy compendia on how priests and parishioners should conduct themselves in commercial transactions. Theologians who favored interest—including Turgot, an ex-seminarian—highlighted the peculiar character of money as a substance that could maintain and even augment itself. Defenders of tradition denied that financial instruments could share in the representational productivity of the sacraments, thereby implicitly confirming the association. Even as credit relations grew more impersonal, the French economy could not subsist without faith in money's capacity to breathe life and value into matter. 5The Cult of Consumption chapter abstractDevotional objects such as crucifixes, rosaries, and religious images, the market for which escaladed after Trent, served as an incitement to spending for pleasure. Instruments of piety possessed value not only as productions of artisanal labor authorized by church and state but also as keys unlocking spiritual treasures. Like the Eucharist, the rosary in particular attracted mass devotion on the part of the laity. Once established as a remunerative observance, the demand for prayer beads set an entire economy in motion. Confraternities were founded with the ideal of saying the rosary in perpetuity. Trade corporations and religious orders sold the necklaces in shops and along pilgrimage routes. Successive popes actively encouraged the market by issuing indulgences for little more than the donning of an accessory. Huguenot skeptics like Jean-Frédéric Bernard and Bernard Picart took note of the church's permissiveness as proof of its spiritual venality. 6Luxury and the Origins of the Fetish chapter abstractEighteenth-century luxury debates remained fertile ground for economic theologians. Priests led the charge in condemning luxury as the symptom of a deep-seated spiritual illness, with women as its most dangerous vector. Those afflicted fell prey to a delusion that worldly idols could bring the fulfillment that only celestial riches promised. Theological appraisals of feminized luxury acquired new force in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, as French subjects immersed themselves in a glittering market for goods. Like their clerical contemporaries, philosophes sought to distinguish legitimate sources of wealth from wasteful profligacy. Rousseau joined the Physiocrats not only in elevating agriculture as nation's material base but also in avowing jouissance as the guiding virtue of economic activity. Turgot supplemented the landed theory of value with his observation that proprietors were motivated less by pastoral virtue than the pleasures that money could buy. Epilogue: Encounters with Economic Theology chapter abstractAlthough the idea of the commodity fetish is often attributed to Karl Marx, ecclesiastics had long denounced luxury as idolatrous while, at the same time, inscribing profusion in the very materials of the sacrament. Marx drew on this tradition in Capital, a text that employs Catholic terms, even transubstantiation, to account for the allure of manufactured goods and belief in the power of money to reproduce itself through mere circulation. Walter Benjamin would further develop these insights in his work on nineteenth-century sites of consumption, especially the Parisian arcades. Émile Zola would do the same for department stores. Even today, French fashions remain deeply indebted not only to religion, but especially to the rich history of Catholic devotion. Designers such as Coco Chanel, herself raised by nuns, further exemplify the associations between France and luxury in the popular imagination.

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisMigranthood chronicles deportation from the perspectives of Indigenous youth who migrate unaccompanied from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States. In communities of origin in Guatemala, zones of transit in Mexico, detention centers for children in the U.S., government facilities receiving returned children in Guatemala, and communities of return, young people share how they negotiate everyday violence and discrimination, how they and their families prioritize limited resources and make difficult decisions, and how they develop and sustain relationships over time and space. Anthropologist Lauren Heidbrink shows that Indigenous youth cast as objects of policy, not participants, are not passive recipients of securitization policies and development interventions. Instead, Indigenous youth draw from a rich social, cultural, and political repertoire of assets and tactics to navigate precarity and marginality in Guatemala, including transnational kin, social networks, and financial institutions. By attending to young people's perspectives, we learn the critical roles they play as contributors to household economies, local social practices, and global processes. The insights and experiences of young people uncover the transnational effects of securitized responses to migration management and development on individuals and families, across space, citizenship status, and generation. They likewise provide evidence to inform child protection and human rights locally and internationally.Trade Review"Heidbrink brings nuance, clarity, and depth to the lived experiences of Indigenous youth fleeing violence, hunger, and lack of opportunity in Guatemala. Migranthood unpacks contemporary post-conflict political, economic, and criminal violence as markers of youth migration. A must-read for anyone who cares about migrant youth, and a wake-up call for policymakers recycling failed immigration and development policies." -- Victoria Sanford * City University of New York *"This gripping account of contemporary migration sheds much needed light on the experiences of unaccompanied Indigenous minors as they navigate border controls and violence. With keen insights and eloquent prose, Migranthood reveals the real-life consequences of securitization policies on the most vulnerable. An essential read." -- Roberto G. Gonzales * author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America *"[Heidbrink] offers rich portraits of young people eager to help their families through 'irregular migration' and ashamed of their failed attempts. Their stories are made more meaningful by Heidbrink's deft analysis of the historical abuse of indigenous groups by Guatemalan political and economic elites....This nuanced assessment suggests the narrowness of increasingly securitizing policy making and denying families' cultural and economic realities. Recommended." -- M. Morrissey * CHOICE *"[A] poignant juxtaposition of the contrasting perspectives of migrant youth and the multiple governmental and non-governmental authorities, both in Guatemala and the United States, responsible for migration management. By weaving the detailed chronicles of migration and deportation provided by youth with the discourses circulating in legal, medical, and humanitarian interventions, Heidbrink effectively debunks reductionist images of monolithic depictions of migranthood.'" -- Virginia Diez and Jayanthi Mistry * Teachers College Record *"[This book] makes key contributions to methodology and scholarly debates and is a must-read for scholars and students of international migration, development, and childhood studies....Migranthood is an ambitious book that lays the groundwork for future research to continue investigating the contradictory effects of the link between development and migration, and the perspectives and roles of youths as independent migratory actors embedded in larger communities." -- Chiara Galli * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Migranthood validates youth agency, clearly making connections between systemic failures in immigration policy, securitization, and development. It is a much-needed contribution that gives depth not only to the consequences of migration and deportation beyond youth and their families but also to how the effects reverberate across communities, temporally and spatially." -- Diane Sabenacio Nititham * Jeunesse *"[A] robust understanding of youth migration....[Anchored] in an honest and systematic effort to listen to, understand, and learn from the migration experiences of Indigenous youth, Heidbrink's skillfully crafted arguments challenge many dominant frameworks." -- María V. Barbero * Children's Geographies *"[Heidbrink] contributes important insights regarding how policy affects migrant youths' experiences pre- and post deportation. This text has the potential to engage interdisciplinary audiences in education, sociology, and anthropology as well as scholars wanting to challenge misconceptions of migration and its impact on youth, families, and communities." -- Sophia Rodriguez * Anthropology and Education Quarterly *"[A] methodologically sophisticated study.It captures the tragic social cost of displacement and deportation from the view of Indigenous youth, as well as their efforts to understand and resist the old and new forms of dispossession and exploitation they experience." -- Alison Elizabeth Lee * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *"As I was reading Migranthood, record numbers of child migrants were arriving at the southern border of the United States, the vast majority from Central America. I was immediately struck by how clearly Heidbrink's analysis of migranthood – the complex political and social construction of migration – critically responded to the simplistic narratives presented in the media. Heidbrink's theoretical framework has given me a much more nuanced lens to bring to the so-called "border crisis" and the media and political representations of it.... Beautifully and clearly written, this is a book of urgent theoretical and political importance." -- Leah Schmalzbauer * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the book's three main arguments. First, the narratives of migrant and deported youth challenge the ways that the law and public policy homogenize the complex, multifaceted, and varied experiences of young migrants. Second, securitized approaches to migration management, often under the guise of "development," is a mode of governance that moves across and beyond geopolitical space, increasingly ensnaring children and youth in this global immigration dragnet. Third, in Central America, Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by the adverse consequences of the securitization of migration management revealing the enduring and transnational reach of public policy across geopolitical space and generation. By interrogating how violence is produced and practiced across borders and how Indigenous youth navigate this violence following deportation, Heidbrink rethinks how and why youth are on the move. The chapter describes the mixed-methods enlisted in this 5-year, multi-sited study and outlines the forthcoming chapters. 1Youth as Agents, Caregivers, and Migrants chapter abstractSeemingly new patterns of migration among Central American children suggest that young people are engaged in intergenerational survival strategies that are increasingly transnational and youth-led. Enlisting multi-sited ethnography with young people and their families across the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala, this chapter examines how young people enlist social agency through their care work, paid labor, and mobility. As seasonal, regional and transnational migrants, young people enlist migration as a collective and historically-rooted survival strategy that responds to their past experiences of violence and marginalization and to their present and future needs. In tracing the ways young people enact care and belonging through social and physical mobility, this chapter argues that the contemporary transnational migration of Indigenous youth is a cultural elaboration of care, one rooted in historical displacements of Indigenous communities. 2Widening the Frame chapter abstractChapter two utilizes the method of multi-media elicitation with young people to dissect discourses that emerged from official media campaigns intended to deter child migration. Youth identifies the ways these official messages infantilize young people, criminalize their parents, and pathologize migration. Analyzing discourses about youth alongside narratives by youth reveals the consequential disconnect between the imagined and lived experiences of young people and their families. In critiquing the campaign and its many pitfalls, young people widen the frame of reference by alternatively interpreting the reasons for and consequences of migration and deportation. In so doing, they evaluate the efficacy of policy responses to child migration in Central America. 3The Making of a Crisis chapter abstractIn spite of media headlines which claim that child migration is the crisis du jour, chapter three argues that the influx of young migrants in 2014 and 2018 are policy-made crises. Chapter three situates the testimonio of Liseth, a Mam woman who was a refugee in Mexico as a child, alongside key historical and contemporary policy initiatives to illustrate how colonialism, armed conflict, the proliferation of plantations, and extractive industries have displaced Indigenous communities across generations. The chapter argues that these displacements are emblematic of the growing securitization of migration management and of development aid in "post-conflict" Guatemala. Key policies analyzed include the Southern Border Program, the Central American Minors program, and the Plan for the Alliance for Prosperity. Ultimately, the chapter contends that the securitization of aid spurs rather than deters migration. 4¿Quédate y qué? chapter abstractChapter four analyzes how discourses about child migration seep into government interventions and institutional practice and how young people experience them. The chapter begins by recounting the narrative of 16-year-old Delia as she is deported from a U.S. facility for unaccompanied children to a government processing center in Guatemala City. The chapter continues with the examination of development initiatives that explicitly claim to support returned youth like Delia, to reintegrate them into communities, and to create alternatives to (re)migration. These development initiatives not only fail to effectively support young people but also reinforce long-standing social hierarchies between the ladino (mixed-race) elite and Indigenous communities in Guatemala. 5Negotiating Returns chapter abstractChapter five examines how young people variously experience removal following deportation—as children of deported parents or madres y padres deportados; as U.S. citizen children who arrive in Guatemala as they accompany their parents following removal or as llegadas; and as unaccompanied children who are deported as retornados. The in-depth narratives of young people focus on the social, emotional, and financial impacts of removal on intimate, familial relationships over time. Conceptually, these diverse and multiple experiences of removal allow us to recognize the depth and breadth of deportation's impacts on young people and their families. The chapter argues that deportation is a process, one with rippling effects on individuals and families over time and geopolitical space. 6Debt and Indebtedness chapter abstractMoving beyond the individual and familial impacts of migration and deportation, Chapter six details the community-level impacts of securitization and development in the highland town of Almolonga. Known as the "breadbasket" of Central America, Almolonga enjoys a thriving agricultural economy including abundant employment opportunities given the multiple seasons of crops, selling in local markets, and commerce to and from Mexico and El Salvador. Yet, the migration of young people continues unabated. Enlisting a household survey, this chapter examines local critiques of development and explores how community members alternatively navigate precarity through the growing use of credit and debt, often with detrimental effects across generations. 7El derecho a no migrar chapter abstractChapter seven reflects on the policy lessons learned from Indigenous youth, arguing that there is an urgent need for rigorous, publicly-accessible, and engaged research. The book concludes with the ways young people envision "the right to not migrate" as a transformative process that aspires to 'el buen vivir (the good life)', an Indigenous political project rooted in the valorization of Indigenous ways of knowing and the advancement of a collective well-being, broadly conceived. Young people link internal and community-based decolonizing projects as critical to broader social and, indeed, global transformation.

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisMigranthood chronicles deportation from the perspectives of Indigenous youth who migrate unaccompanied from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States. In communities of origin in Guatemala, zones of transit in Mexico, detention centers for children in the U.S., government facilities receiving returned children in Guatemala, and communities of return, young people share how they negotiate everyday violence and discrimination, how they and their families prioritize limited resources and make difficult decisions, and how they develop and sustain relationships over time and space. Anthropologist Lauren Heidbrink shows that Indigenous youth cast as objects of policy, not participants, are not passive recipients of securitization policies and development interventions. Instead, Indigenous youth draw from a rich social, cultural, and political repertoire of assets and tactics to navigate precarity and marginality in Guatemala, including transnational kin, social networks, and financial institutions. By attending to young people's perspectives, we learn the critical roles they play as contributors to household economies, local social practices, and global processes. The insights and experiences of young people uncover the transnational effects of securitized responses to migration management and development on individuals and families, across space, citizenship status, and generation. They likewise provide evidence to inform child protection and human rights locally and internationally.Trade Review"Heidbrink brings nuance, clarity, and depth to the lived experiences of Indigenous youth fleeing violence, hunger, and lack of opportunity in Guatemala. Migranthood unpacks contemporary post-conflict political, economic, and criminal violence as markers of youth migration. A must-read for anyone who cares about migrant youth, and a wake-up call for policymakers recycling failed immigration and development policies." -- Victoria Sanford * City University of New York *"This gripping account of contemporary migration sheds much needed light on the experiences of unaccompanied Indigenous minors as they navigate border controls and violence. With keen insights and eloquent prose, Migranthood reveals the real-life consequences of securitization policies on the most vulnerable. An essential read." -- Roberto G. Gonzales * author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America *"[Heidbrink] offers rich portraits of young people eager to help their families through 'irregular migration' and ashamed of their failed attempts. Their stories are made more meaningful by Heidbrink's deft analysis of the historical abuse of indigenous groups by Guatemalan political and economic elites....This nuanced assessment suggests the narrowness of increasingly securitizing policy making and denying families' cultural and economic realities. Recommended." -- M. Morrissey * CHOICE *"[A] poignant juxtaposition of the contrasting perspectives of migrant youth and the multiple governmental and non-governmental authorities, both in Guatemala and the United States, responsible for migration management. By weaving the detailed chronicles of migration and deportation provided by youth with the discourses circulating in legal, medical, and humanitarian interventions, Heidbrink effectively debunks reductionist images of monolithic depictions of migranthood.'" -- Virginia Diez and Jayanthi Mistry * Teachers College Record *"[This book] makes key contributions to methodology and scholarly debates and is a must-read for scholars and students of international migration, development, and childhood studies....Migranthood is an ambitious book that lays the groundwork for future research to continue investigating the contradictory effects of the link between development and migration, and the perspectives and roles of youths as independent migratory actors embedded in larger communities." -- Chiara Galli * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Migranthood validates youth agency, clearly making connections between systemic failures in immigration policy, securitization, and development. It is a much-needed contribution that gives depth not only to the consequences of migration and deportation beyond youth and their families but also to how the effects reverberate across communities, temporally and spatially." -- Diane Sabenacio Nititham * Jeunesse *"[A] robust understanding of youth migration....[Anchored] in an honest and systematic effort to listen to, understand, and learn from the migration experiences of Indigenous youth, Heidbrink's skillfully crafted arguments challenge many dominant frameworks." -- María V. Barbero * Children's Geographies *"[Heidbrink] contributes important insights regarding how policy affects migrant youths' experiences pre- and post deportation. This text has the potential to engage interdisciplinary audiences in education, sociology, and anthropology as well as scholars wanting to challenge misconceptions of migration and its impact on youth, families, and communities." -- Sophia Rodriguez * Anthropology and Education Quarterly *"[A] methodologically sophisticated study.It captures the tragic social cost of displacement and deportation from the view of Indigenous youth, as well as their efforts to understand and resist the old and new forms of dispossession and exploitation they experience." -- Alison Elizabeth Lee * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *"As I was reading Migranthood, record numbers of child migrants were arriving at the southern border of the United States, the vast majority from Central America. I was immediately struck by how clearly Heidbrink's analysis of migranthood – the complex political and social construction of migration – critically responded to the simplistic narratives presented in the media. Heidbrink's theoretical framework has given me a much more nuanced lens to bring to the so-called "border crisis" and the media and political representations of it.... Beautifully and clearly written, this is a book of urgent theoretical and political importance." -- Leah Schmalzbauer * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the book's three main arguments. First, the narratives of migrant and deported youth challenge the ways that the law and public policy homogenize the complex, multifaceted, and varied experiences of young migrants. Second, securitized approaches to migration management, often under the guise of "development," is a mode of governance that moves across and beyond geopolitical space, increasingly ensnaring children and youth in this global immigration dragnet. Third, in Central America, Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by the adverse consequences of the securitization of migration management revealing the enduring and transnational reach of public policy across geopolitical space and generation. By interrogating how violence is produced and practiced across borders and how Indigenous youth navigate this violence following deportation, Heidbrink rethinks how and why youth are on the move. The chapter describes the mixed-methods enlisted in this 5-year, multi-sited study and outlines the forthcoming chapters. 1Youth as Agents, Caregivers, and Migrants chapter abstractSeemingly new patterns of migration among Central American children suggest that young people are engaged in intergenerational survival strategies that are increasingly transnational and youth-led. Enlisting multi-sited ethnography with young people and their families across the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala, this chapter examines how young people enlist social agency through their care work, paid labor, and mobility. As seasonal, regional and transnational migrants, young people enlist migration as a collective and historically-rooted survival strategy that responds to their past experiences of violence and marginalization and to their present and future needs. In tracing the ways young people enact care and belonging through social and physical mobility, this chapter argues that the contemporary transnational migration of Indigenous youth is a cultural elaboration of care, one rooted in historical displacements of Indigenous communities. 2Widening the Frame chapter abstractChapter two utilizes the method of multi-media elicitation with young people to dissect discourses that emerged from official media campaigns intended to deter child migration. Youth identifies the ways these official messages infantilize young people, criminalize their parents, and pathologize migration. Analyzing discourses about youth alongside narratives by youth reveals the consequential disconnect between the imagined and lived experiences of young people and their families. In critiquing the campaign and its many pitfalls, young people widen the frame of reference by alternatively interpreting the reasons for and consequences of migration and deportation. In so doing, they evaluate the efficacy of policy responses to child migration in Central America. 3The Making of a Crisis chapter abstractIn spite of media headlines which claim that child migration is the crisis du jour, chapter three argues that the influx of young migrants in 2014 and 2018 are policy-made crises. Chapter three situates the testimonio of Liseth, a Mam woman who was a refugee in Mexico as a child, alongside key historical and contemporary policy initiatives to illustrate how colonialism, armed conflict, the proliferation of plantations, and extractive industries have displaced Indigenous communities across generations. The chapter argues that these displacements are emblematic of the growing securitization of migration management and of development aid in "post-conflict" Guatemala. Key policies analyzed include the Southern Border Program, the Central American Minors program, and the Plan for the Alliance for Prosperity. Ultimately, the chapter contends that the securitization of aid spurs rather than deters migration. 4¿Quédate y qué? chapter abstractChapter four analyzes how discourses about child migration seep into government interventions and institutional practice and how young people experience them. The chapter begins by recounting the narrative of 16-year-old Delia as she is deported from a U.S. facility for unaccompanied children to a government processing center in Guatemala City. The chapter continues with the examination of development initiatives that explicitly claim to support returned youth like Delia, to reintegrate them into communities, and to create alternatives to (re)migration. These development initiatives not only fail to effectively support young people but also reinforce long-standing social hierarchies between the ladino (mixed-race) elite and Indigenous communities in Guatemala. 5Negotiating Returns chapter abstractChapter five examines how young people variously experience removal following deportation—as children of deported parents or madres y padres deportados; as U.S. citizen children who arrive in Guatemala as they accompany their parents following removal or as llegadas; and as unaccompanied children who are deported as retornados. The in-depth narratives of young people focus on the social, emotional, and financial impacts of removal on intimate, familial relationships over time. Conceptually, these diverse and multiple experiences of removal allow us to recognize the depth and breadth of deportation's impacts on young people and their families. The chapter argues that deportation is a process, one with rippling effects on individuals and families over time and geopolitical space. 6Debt and Indebtedness chapter abstractMoving beyond the individual and familial impacts of migration and deportation, Chapter six details the community-level impacts of securitization and development in the highland town of Almolonga. Known as the "breadbasket" of Central America, Almolonga enjoys a thriving agricultural economy including abundant employment opportunities given the multiple seasons of crops, selling in local markets, and commerce to and from Mexico and El Salvador. Yet, the migration of young people continues unabated. Enlisting a household survey, this chapter examines local critiques of development and explores how community members alternatively navigate precarity through the growing use of credit and debt, often with detrimental effects across generations. 7El derecho a no migrar chapter abstractChapter seven reflects on the policy lessons learned from Indigenous youth, arguing that there is an urgent need for rigorous, publicly-accessible, and engaged research. The book concludes with the ways young people envision "the right to not migrate" as a transformative process that aspires to 'el buen vivir (the good life)', an Indigenous political project rooted in the valorization of Indigenous ways of knowing and the advancement of a collective well-being, broadly conceived. Young people link internal and community-based decolonizing projects as critical to broader social and, indeed, global transformation.

Read more less

Book SynopsisChina after Mao has undergone vast transformations, including massive rural-to-urban migration, rising divorce rates, and the steady expansion of the country's legal system. Today, divorce may appear a private concern, when in fact it is a profoundly political matter—especially in a national context where marriage was and has continued to be a key vehicle for nation-state building. Marriage Unbound focuses on the politics of divorce cases in contemporary China, following a group of women seeking judicial remedies for conjugal grievances and disputes. Drawing on extensive archival and ethnographic data, paired with unprecedented access to rural Chinese courtrooms, Ke Li presents not only a stirring portrayal of how these women navigate divorce litigation, but also a uniquely in-depth account of the modern Chinese legal system. With sensitive and fluid prose, Li reveals the struggles between the powerful and the powerless at the front lines of dispute management; the complex interplay between culture and the state; and insidious statecraft that far too often sacrifices women's rights and interests. Ultimately, this book shows how women's legal mobilization and rights contention can forge new ground for our understanding of law, politics, and inequality in an authoritarian regime.Trade Review"Ke Li's sophisticated multi-disciplinary analytic framing and explicit critique of received wisdom engage debates over the role of courts, legal professionals, and black-letter law beyond those of China or of authoritarian states. One of the most analytically original and theoretically informed investigations of divorce I have ever read."—Deborah Davis, Yale University"An instant landmark work. Li seamlessly fuses extensive firsthand interviews with a masterful analysis of Chinese legal developments to illustrate the harsh realities confronting migrant women seeking divorce. A must-read for anyone interested in law, society, and gender in China today."—Carl Minzner, Fordham Law School"Li's book presents an illuminating look at the changing social institution of marriage in contemporary China. Highly recommended."—S. K. Ma, CHOICE March"Ke Li's analysis is more than a superb ethnographic and historical account of changes in the Chinese court system and its effect on women. It is also a sustained effort to place the historical changes within an analytical framework that explores how cultural beliefs shape governmental policy and, thus, the resolution of a divorce case."—William Jankowiak, NAN Nü"Based on more than 10 years' in-depth field research in two rural townships in Sichuan Province, Li provides a vivid picture of how rural women struggle in strained marriage, and how they mobilize state law to fight for their freedom and rights in intimate relationships, and how the judicial institutions respond to these women's claims.... Li sees through the gendered outcomes in different individual divorce cases to make a big story that links state law, power, and inequality together."—Mengni Chen, Social ForcesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Audiences, Theoretical Objectives, and Arguments 2. Marriage on the Move 3. Disputation as a State Enterprise 4. The Rise and Fall of Legal Workers 5. Judging Divorce in the People's Courts 6. Onstage and Offstage 7. Issues and Nonissues Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made.Trade Review"Offering a major contribution to the interdisciplinary 'New Drug History,' Haggai Ram masterfully illuminates the social and cultural fissures left by colonialism in the Levant as hashish trade transgressed new national borders. Like the drug it explores, Intoxicating Zion is both a pleasure and act of subversion." -- Paul Gootenberg * Stony Brook University, author of Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug (2008) *"Vividly written and drawing on a wide array of sources, Intoxicating Zion is packed with colorful characters, from Palestinian coffeehouse and Israeli bohemian tokers, to traffickers, to corrupt politicians profiting from the trade, to the Palestinian and Israeli police who fought to contain it. A fascinating and revelatory tale." -- Ted R. Swedenburg * University of Arkansas *"[A] singular, original work of research." -- Yossi Melman * Haaretz *"Informative, though (pun intended) sobering, this book is suited for academic libraries." -- Hallie Cantor * Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Drug Trade in the Levant chapter abstractThis chapter explores the evolution of the Levant hashish trade between Lebanon in the north and Egypt in the south. This trade was a classic case of unintended consequences. It was brought about by local and international drug regulatory regimes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in the 1925 League of Nations Opium Convention, which extended global controls over cannabis products. These controls denied Egypt access to its main hashish supply source in the Greek archipelago. As supplies from Greece declined, Egyptians turned to Lebanese-grown cannabis to compensate for the loss of Greek supply. This shift in supply source inevitably led to a shift in supply routes to Egypt, which from this point on had to pass through Palestine, whether by land, sea, or air. 2Smuggling in Mandatory Palestine chapter abstractThis chapter examines Mandatory Palestine's enmeshment in the Levant hashish trade. It reconstructs the "biographies" or "life histories" of the henceforth illicit commodities crossing the Levant through the Lebanon-Palestine-Egypt axis, demonstrating that political boundaries were of no concern for smugglers and traffickers. At the same time, it focuses on the subterfuges and ruses employed by hashish traffickers trespassing in Palestine to get their contraband across Egypt's borders, and on the failure of the Palestine Police Force to deal with these circumstances effectively. Combined, these perspectives underscore the perforated nature of the borders between the Mandate states, which eroded the legitimacy of the colonial state. 3The Underworld of Users chapter abstractContrary to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Orientalist representations, hashish consumption in late-Ottoman Palestine was negligible. This state of affairs changed dramatically in the course of the mandatory period due to the territory's emergence as a critical link in the Levant hashish trade between Lebanon in the north and Egypt in the south. With some of the Egypt-bound supply left behind for the local market, the availability of hashish caused a significant rise in consumption, mainly by the country's urban working-class Arab population. By the 1930s, hashish smoking had spread throughout Palestine's towns and cities. Venues for consumption–makeshift hashish dens, coffeehouses, brothels–proliferated in these towns, and many a person could be seen wandering the streets intoxicated. The Palestine Police Force was unequipped to deal with this circumstance effectively. 4Jews, and Interwar Oriental Fantasies chapter abstractMandatory Palestine's Jews tended to steer well clear of hashish. By exploring the public discourse of Palestine's burgeoning Jewish community and drawing on interwar colonial knowledge produced by the League of Nations, I demonstrate that the underlying reason for this abstention was fear of accommodating an "alien" Oriental artifact. Not unlike sodomy and homosexuality in pre-1948 Zionist discourse, hashish came to symbolize for Jews a stereotypical marker of Oriental barbarism. Jews considered hashish taking a form of "backwardness" linked to the realities of living among Arabs in the Middle East. It appeared to expose Jewish bodies to the dangerous temptations of an alien space, culminating in Jewish overassimilation into the Levantine environment. 5Hashish Trafficking in Israel chapter abstractThis chapter follows the changing patterns of hashish smuggling and antihashish enforcement in the transition to the State of Israel up to 1967. The enduring Egyptian demand for hashish and the Lebanese capacity to satisfy it ensured the survival of the Levant hashish trade after 1948. With Israel's new borders superimposed on existing smuggling routes, and with the Israel Police suffering from several constraints, the trade was not radically disrupted, hashish traffickers (Jews and Arabs alike) coming up with new deceptions to get their contraband safely to Egypt. Also discussed is the alleged intensive involvement of the Israeli military in hashish trafficking operations from Lebanon to Egypt, from the late 1950s to as recently as the mid-1980s. The attributed objective of this long-standing and highly confidential enterprise was to immerse and immobilize the Egyptian population, and specifically the Egyptian military, with hashish. 6Conclusion chapter abstractThe conclusion ties together the various perspectives discussed in the book: the movement of hashish supplies across and beyond Palestine-Israel, the culture of hashish use by Jews and Arabs, drug-control efforts, and the discourses in which they were all embedded. It argues that, despite evolving circumstances and changing regulatory regimes, the hashish trade continued unabated, new outlets emerging continuously as the number of hashish users also continued to rise. At the same time, the conclusion explains why the 1967 Arab-Israeli War should be considered a watershed in the history of hashish in the region, and it offers a brief, albeit first-of-its-kind-review of hashish use in Israel from 1967 to the present, tracing the slow process of cannabis's normalization in Jewish Israeli society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNegative views of the United States abound, but we know too little about how such views affect politics. Drawing on careful research on post-Soviet Central Asia, Edward Schatz argues that anti-Americanism is best seen not as a rising tide that swamps or as a conflagration that overwhelms. Rather, "America" is a symbolic resource that resides quietly in the mundane but always has potential value for social and political mobilizers. Using a wide range of evidence and a novel analytic framework, Schatz considers how Islamist movements, human rights activists, and labor mobilizers across Central Asia avail themselves of this fact, thus changing their ability to pursue their respective agendas. By refocusing our analytic gaze away from high politics, he affords us a clearer view of the slower-moving, partially occluded, and socially embedded processes that ground how "America" becomes political. In turn, we gain a nuanced appreciation of the downstream effects of US foreign policy choices and a sober sense of the challenges posed by the politics of traveling images. Most treatments of anti-Americanism focus on politics in the realm of presidential elections and foreign policies. By focusing instead on symbols, Schatz lays bare how changing public attitudes shift social relations in politically significant ways, and considers how changing symbolic depictions of the United States recombine the raw material available for social mobilizers. Just like sediment traveling along waterways before reaching its final destination, the raw material that constitutes symbolic America can travel among various social groups, and can settle into place to form the basis of new social meanings. Symbolic America, Schatz shows us, matters for politics in Central Asia and beyond.Trade Review"Fresh, strikingly original, and with the wisdom of the long view, Slow Anti-Americanism compellingly shows the slow-burning complexities of anti-Americanism. Edward Schatz's careful observations offer critical guidance to scholars and policymakers about what America stands for in Central Asia and beyond." -- Alexander Cooley * Columbia University *"Relying on geological metaphors and the analysis of symbolic politics, Edward Schatz offers a theoretically nuanced and empirically innovative study of anti-Americanism in Central Asia. Slow Anti-Americanism is a valuable addition to a literature that is, once again, of growing importance in the analysis of U.S. foreign policy and world politics." -- Peter J. Katzenstein * Cornell University *"Edward Schatz looks at how negative perceptions of America conditioned the long-term success or failure of domestic political movements abroad. Turning the topic inside out on the strategic terrain of central Asia, this brilliant book heralds a paradigm shift in the study of public diplomacy. It deserves a large audience." -- Alex Langstaff * International Affairs *"Those interested in reflecting on the recent history of America's reputation abroad and what should be done differently in the future will want to readSlow Anti-Americanism... It takes readers far from the headspace of the foreign policy community and into the lives of activists and ordinary people in a part of the world where the reputation of the United States has changed greatly over the last 30 years." –Laura Adams, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs"Whereas scholars have tended to view anti-Americanism as either a psychological or a cultural 'clash of civilizations' phenomenon, Edward Schatz looks at how negative perceptions of America conditioned the long-term success or failure of domestic political movements abroad. Turning the topic inside out on the strategic terrain of central Asia, this brilliant book heralds a paradigm shift in the study of public diplomacy. It deserves a large audience." -- Alex Langstaff * International Affairs *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Slow Anti-Americanism chapter abstractWhile anti-Americanism is typically studied through the lens of "high politics," this introductory chapter contends that such approaches blind us to the political dynamics of this important phenomenon. Instead, the chapter introduces slow anti-Americanism, which takes better stock of the phenomenon. The chapter shows that attention to the symbolic power of "America" allows us to view how social and political mobilizers use changing symbolic raw material to further their goals. It emphasizes that changes to symbolic America may occur slowly, leaving resonant social meanings in their wake. Such meanings can be quarried by future generations for political benefit. The chapter previews how the Central Asian cases provide new analytic traction on a complex problem. 1America's Changing Image chapter abstractThis chapter traces how images of the United States changed in the Central Asian region from the Soviet period into the post-Soviet period. Setting the stage for the discussion of social movements that follows, this chapter makes three points. First, Central Asia's initial imaginings of the United States were the product of the Soviet period, and symbolic America for Central Asians was similar to what it was for other Soviet citizens—an ambiguous cluster of polyvalent but resonant images. Second, after an initial post-Soviet period of being overwhelmed by positive images of the United States, Central Asian opinions of the US declined. This downward trend occurred less because of concrete changes to US policy than because of the slow-moving processes of sedimentation. Third, because images of the United States had multiplied and diversified, a wider range of images became available for social mobilizers. They would be the symbolic raw material for Central Asia's social movements to use in the 2000's and beyond. 2Islamist Trajectories chapter abstractThis chapter traces the arcs of Islamist mobilizers. First, it introduces a plural understanding of Islamism, recognizing that whatever theological consensus the pious might seek, real-world contexts witness a striking variety of ways that religion and politics intersect. Second, the chapter highlights the rise of Islamic piety since the Soviet collapse, arguing against a simplistic notion that greater piety necessarily produces a politics inflected by religion. Finally, the chapter details how three Islamist movements—Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan—use the changing American image. The examples underscore that, while America's image matters in Central Asia, how precisely its significance becomes political depends on image-making efforts at play in each movement. 3Human Rights Trajectories chapter abstractThis chapter traces the arcs of human rights activism in Central Asia. It argues that the post-9/11 securitization of US foreign policy indeed did complicate the pursuit of a human-rights agenda but in complex way. This chapter uses the extended example of Kyrgyzstan and its two "revolutions" in 2005 and 2010 to highlight how the shift to symbolic America had a different impact, depending on whether activism was classic street protests or via professional rule-of-law advocacy. 4Labor, Disorganized chapter abstractThis chapter takes stock of a third and final type of activism: labor. By all appearances, labor was in a position to take full advantage of shifts to symbolic America. In Central Asia, as across post-socialist space more generally, societies had experienced dramatic macro-economic contraction and massive dislocation in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. Once-robust and explicit labor protections were quickly dismantled or hollowed out. Ordinary people suffered greatly, and labor—the notional cornerstone of state socialism—had ample grievances. Yet, while labor activists in Central Asia were well aware of the United States and its symbolic power, they did not avail themselves of the opportunity to use symbolic America in their framing efforts. This chapter explores the impact of this missed opportunity. Conclusion: Shaping the Slow Politics of Anti-Americanism chapter abstractThis conclusion first recaps the arcs of Central Asian social mobilization and highlights how slow anti-Americanism helped to shake the political terrain across the region. It then turns to policy-relevant questions. What changes might shape how symbolic America affects global publics and global politics? While policymakers pay attention to the substance of their policies and sometimes pay attention to communicating their policies, they rarely concern themselves with matters of credibility. As research on framing effects suggests, however, the credibility of the messenger is crucial to effective public diplomacy and therefore essential to affecting how symbolic America shapes politics across the globe.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDespite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.Trade Review"Guo brings much-needed historical and literary sensitivities to the study of complex technological forms. Her innovative approach sheds critical new light on the history, culture, and politics of the Chinese internet. Highly recommended!" -- Guobin Yang * University of Pennsylvania *"Built on over a decade of scrupulous field research and perspicacious on-site observations, this book puts itself on the must-read list of intellectual endeavors inquiring into the way of being on China's ever-evolving internet. Subtly contextualized and dexterously historicized, the narratives embed rich concepts in the flesh and blood of everyday life, virtual and real." -- Zixue Tai * University of Kentucky *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A Cultural Revolution in China's Digital Age chapter abstractBeginning with a discussion of major paradoxes on entertainment, control, and innovation surrounding the Chinese Internet, chapter 1 introduces the puzzle that the rest of the book addresses: how and why has a seemingly repressive authoritarian regime been able to catalyze an ingenious Internet culture in China. It proposes "the network of visibility" as an analytical lens to delve into the mechanisms behind the vibrancy of online culture in China. The network of visibility is analyzed through the process of competition for (1) user attention, and (2) content authority among Internet corporations, media outlets, and individual players in the cultural realm. Consequently, the vitality of the Chinese digital culture is rooted in this dynamic process of negotiation, collaboration, and contestation enacted by the interplay of diverse agents, including the state, cultural institutions, commercial corporations, and Internet users. 2A Historical Overview through Technological Platforms chapter abstractChapter 2 delineates the developmental history of the Internet in China through the four predominant platforms: bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Proceeding chronologically, this chapter addresses how the defining features of these platforms and competition among major players in the field have contributed to shaping public culture and publicity strategies emerging in the technology-mediated sphere. Special attention is paid to the role that the Chinese government and commercial portals play in building research and education networks, creating business models, and continuously expanding into new markets. 3Tracking Playfulness chapter abstractChapter 3 investigates the playfulness of the Chinese Internet and its symbiotic relationship with a culture of contention. Much has been written about the ingenuity of Chinese netizens in appropriating humor, parody, and satire to mock authorities, seek entertainment, and organize networked resistance. However, little scholarly work has addressed how playfulness came to dominate the Chinese Internet in the first place. Taking Internet celebrities as case studies, this chapter attributes the predominant fun-seeking mode to the rudimentary formation of elitist netizen communities in the late 1990s. It addresses the ways in which BBS, as an affective content platform, cultivated the symbiotic relationship between frivolity and serious political engagement among early Internet adopters. This collective spirit of fun-seeking also paved the way for the Internet industry's continuous experiments with comedic mechanisms in the years to come. 4National Blogging and Cultural Entrepreneurship chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on the intersection of the entertainment industry, entrepreneurial culture, and the golden age of blogging in China. It probes the rise of cultural entrepreneurs, who quickly aligned themselves with enterprises seeking to develop culture-related business and transformed the ways that cultural works are produced and publicized. The chapter examines four phenomenally successful, yet understudied cases: television host and producer Yang Lan; star-cum-director Xu Jinglei; publisher Hong Huang; and writer, publisher, and director Guo Jingming. These celebrities, as "attention-haves," due in large part to their fame already established through other channels, innovatively capitalized on digital media to explore new modes of cultural production and to build personal brands. Their trailblazing activities illuminate the ways in which China's nascent entertainment industry, with the backing of Internet corporations, has reinvigorated writing practices, cultivated middle-class aspirations, and aligned with entrepreneurial initiatives in the age of neoliberalism. 5Taboo Breakers and Microcultural Contention chapter abstractTaking the blogs of Mu Zimei and Han Han as case studies, this chapter investigates how an entertainment-oriented blogosphere has catalyzed the rise of opinion leaders who tactically disrupt preset parameters of social, moral, and political norms. It argues that style—defined as a conglomeration of diverse elements, including language, subject matter, online sociality, and the structure and layout of webpages—is essential to these taboo breakers' strategies of contention. In turn, the divergent responses these bloggers evoke fulfill the dual function of enlightenment and entertainment, and catalyze the forging of politically minded citizens at a micro level. 6Digital Witnessing on Weibo chapter abstractThis chapter spells out the multifarious function of the microblogging platform in China. Delving into representative Weibo-based incidents from 2009 to 2018, it examines the role that digital witnessing plays in promoting citizen activism and shaping public culture on Chinese microblogosphere. These cases exemplify the evolving transition of digital witnessing on Weibo, from an emphasis on responsibilities of spectators to multifarious forms of collective spectating mobilized by a diverse range of social actors. Taken together, digital witnessing on Weibo demonstrates how the technological features, business operations, the state, and Internet users have jointly shaped the sociocultural meanings of this platform. 7WeChat: An Inflorescence of Content Production chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how WeChat public accounts have revolutionized the ways in which original content is distributed and commodified. It examines the rise and fall of Mi Meng, owner of one of the most popular public accounts up until February 2019, when she closed her account due to public pressure. Mi Meng's writings not only struck a chord with economically disadvantaged groups but also resonated with the anxiety of a middle-class audience who felt their status becoming increasingly precarious. More important, the management of Mi Meng's account exemplified a changing mode of writing from an author-centered model to a model of team production that involved fan labor, personal branding, and a focus on networking capacity. At the same time, the sudden downfall of Mi Meng illustrates the same kind of unpredictability and precariousness that contributed to her sensational rise in the first place. 8Ambivalent Revolution chapter abstractChapter 8 discusses the implications of this book's findings and pinpoints areas for future research. Essentially, this book investigates digital cultural formation through the four most dynamic discursive spaces to emerge over the past two decades in China (1994–2019): the bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog (Weibo), and WeChat (Weixin). The creation of these digital platforms not only showcases the local appropriation of global technologies in China but also exemplifies how Internet users' mundane activities online hold significant potential for forging politically minded citizens at a micro level. By delineating the process by which user-generated content has been produced, promoted, and received, this book historicizes the study of digital media and sheds light on understanding emerging platforms.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers the first critical engagement with the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Challenging conventional wisdom on the origins and contemporary dynamics of capitalism in the region, these cutting-edge essays demonstrate how critical political economy can illuminate both historical and contemporary dynamics of the region and contribute to wider political economy debates from the vantage point of the Middle East. Leading scholars, representing several disciplines, contribute both thematic and country-specific analyses. Their writings critically examine major issues in political economy—notably, the mutual constitution of states, markets, and classes; the co-constitution of class, race, gender, and other forms of identity; varying modes of capital accumulation and the legal, political, and cultural forms of their regulation; relations among local, national, and global forms of capital, class, and culture; technopolitics; the role of war in the constitution of states and classes; and practices and cultures of domination and resistance. Visit politicaleconomyproject.org for additional media and learning resources.Trade Review"A thorough and timely collection of essays by some of the top practitioners of Middle East political economy, this book lays bare the human insecurity that is at the root of much of the discontent in the region."—James Gelvin, University of California, Los Angeles"This new canonical text will open pathways for research and make the job of educators infinitely easier by reasserting the enduring value of political economy. For too long scholarship has been enchanted by the shibboleths of orientalism and modernization theory—now there is a better way. A tour de force synthesis."—Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, California State University, StanislausTable of ContentsIntroduction —Joel Beinin 1. Landed Property, Capital Accumulation, and Polymorphous Capitalism: Egypt —Kristen Alff 2. State, Market, and Class: Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia —Max Ajl, Bassam Haddad, and Zeinab Abul-Magd 3. Ten Propositions on Oil —Timothy Mitchell 4. Regional Militaries and the Global Military-Industrial Complex —Shana Marshall 5. Rethinking Class and State in the Gulf Cooperation Council —Adam Hanieh 6. Capitalism in Egypt, Not Egyptian Capitalism —Aaron Jakes and Ahmad Shokr 7. State, Oil, and War in the Formation of Iraq —Nida Alahmad 8. Colonial Capitalism and Imperial Myth in French North Africa —Muriam Haleh Davis 9. Lebanon Beyond Exceptionalism —Ziad M. Abu-Rish 10. The US-Israeli Alliance —Joel Beinin 11. Repercussions of Colonialism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories —Samia Al-Botmeh

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made.Trade Review"Offering a major contribution to the interdisciplinary 'New Drug History,' Haggai Ram masterfully illuminates the social and cultural fissures left by colonialism in the Levant as hashish trade transgressed new national borders. Like the drug it explores, Intoxicating Zion is both a pleasure and act of subversion." -- Paul Gootenberg * Stony Brook University, author of Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug (2008) *"Vividly written and drawing on a wide array of sources, Intoxicating Zion is packed with colorful characters, from Palestinian coffeehouse and Israeli bohemian tokers, to traffickers, to corrupt politicians profiting from the trade, to the Palestinian and Israeli police who fought to contain it. A fascinating and revelatory tale." -- Ted R. Swedenburg * University of Arkansas *"[A] singular, original work of research." -- Yossi Melman * Haaretz *"Informative, though (pun intended) sobering, this book is suited for academic libraries." -- Hallie Cantor * Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Drug Trade in the Levant chapter abstractThis chapter explores the evolution of the Levant hashish trade between Lebanon in the north and Egypt in the south. This trade was a classic case of unintended consequences. It was brought about by local and international drug regulatory regimes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in the 1925 League of Nations Opium Convention, which extended global controls over cannabis products. These controls denied Egypt access to its main hashish supply source in the Greek archipelago. As supplies from Greece declined, Egyptians turned to Lebanese-grown cannabis to compensate for the loss of Greek supply. This shift in supply source inevitably led to a shift in supply routes to Egypt, which from this point on had to pass through Palestine, whether by land, sea, or air. 2Smuggling in Mandatory Palestine chapter abstractThis chapter examines Mandatory Palestine's enmeshment in the Levant hashish trade. It reconstructs the "biographies" or "life histories" of the henceforth illicit commodities crossing the Levant through the Lebanon-Palestine-Egypt axis, demonstrating that political boundaries were of no concern for smugglers and traffickers. At the same time, it focuses on the subterfuges and ruses employed by hashish traffickers trespassing in Palestine to get their contraband across Egypt's borders, and on the failure of the Palestine Police Force to deal with these circumstances effectively. Combined, these perspectives underscore the perforated nature of the borders between the Mandate states, which eroded the legitimacy of the colonial state. 3The Underworld of Users chapter abstractContrary to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Orientalist representations, hashish consumption in late-Ottoman Palestine was negligible. This state of affairs changed dramatically in the course of the mandatory period due to the territory's emergence as a critical link in the Levant hashish trade between Lebanon in the north and Egypt in the south. With some of the Egypt-bound supply left behind for the local market, the availability of hashish caused a significant rise in consumption, mainly by the country's urban working-class Arab population. By the 1930s, hashish smoking had spread throughout Palestine's towns and cities. Venues for consumption–makeshift hashish dens, coffeehouses, brothels–proliferated in these towns, and many a person could be seen wandering the streets intoxicated. The Palestine Police Force was unequipped to deal with this circumstance effectively. 4Jews, and Interwar Oriental Fantasies chapter abstractMandatory Palestine's Jews tended to steer well clear of hashish. By exploring the public discourse of Palestine's burgeoning Jewish community and drawing on interwar colonial knowledge produced by the League of Nations, I demonstrate that the underlying reason for this abstention was fear of accommodating an "alien" Oriental artifact. Not unlike sodomy and homosexuality in pre-1948 Zionist discourse, hashish came to symbolize for Jews a stereotypical marker of Oriental barbarism. Jews considered hashish taking a form of "backwardness" linked to the realities of living among Arabs in the Middle East. It appeared to expose Jewish bodies to the dangerous temptations of an alien space, culminating in Jewish overassimilation into the Levantine environment. 5Hashish Trafficking in Israel chapter abstractThis chapter follows the changing patterns of hashish smuggling and antihashish enforcement in the transition to the State of Israel up to 1967. The enduring Egyptian demand for hashish and the Lebanese capacity to satisfy it ensured the survival of the Levant hashish trade after 1948. With Israel's new borders superimposed on existing smuggling routes, and with the Israel Police suffering from several constraints, the trade was not radically disrupted, hashish traffickers (Jews and Arabs alike) coming up with new deceptions to get their contraband safely to Egypt. Also discussed is the alleged intensive involvement of the Israeli military in hashish trafficking operations from Lebanon to Egypt, from the late 1950s to as recently as the mid-1980s. The attributed objective of this long-standing and highly confidential enterprise was to immerse and immobilize the Egyptian population, and specifically the Egyptian military, with hashish. 6Conclusion chapter abstractThe conclusion ties together the various perspectives discussed in the book: the movement of hashish supplies across and beyond Palestine-Israel, the culture of hashish use by Jews and Arabs, drug-control efforts, and the discourses in which they were all embedded. It argues that, despite evolving circumstances and changing regulatory regimes, the hashish trade continued unabated, new outlets emerging continuously as the number of hashish users also continued to rise. At the same time, the conclusion explains why the 1967 Arab-Israeli War should be considered a watershed in the history of hashish in the region, and it offers a brief, albeit first-of-its-kind-review of hashish use in Israel from 1967 to the present, tracing the slow process of cannabis's normalization in Jewish Israeli society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDespite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.Trade Review"Guo brings much-needed historical and literary sensitivities to the study of complex technological forms. Her innovative approach sheds critical new light on the history, culture, and politics of the Chinese internet. Highly recommended!" -- Guobin Yang * University of Pennsylvania *"Built on over a decade of scrupulous field research and perspicacious on-site observations, this book puts itself on the must-read list of intellectual endeavors inquiring into the way of being on China's ever-evolving internet. Subtly contextualized and dexterously historicized, the narratives embed rich concepts in the flesh and blood of everyday life, virtual and real." -- Zixue Tai * University of Kentucky *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A Cultural Revolution in China's Digital Age chapter abstractBeginning with a discussion of major paradoxes on entertainment, control, and innovation surrounding the Chinese Internet, chapter 1 introduces the puzzle that the rest of the book addresses: how and why has a seemingly repressive authoritarian regime been able to catalyze an ingenious Internet culture in China. It proposes "the network of visibility" as an analytical lens to delve into the mechanisms behind the vibrancy of online culture in China. The network of visibility is analyzed through the process of competition for (1) user attention, and (2) content authority among Internet corporations, media outlets, and individual players in the cultural realm. Consequently, the vitality of the Chinese digital culture is rooted in this dynamic process of negotiation, collaboration, and contestation enacted by the interplay of diverse agents, including the state, cultural institutions, commercial corporations, and Internet users. 2A Historical Overview through Technological Platforms chapter abstractChapter 2 delineates the developmental history of the Internet in China through the four predominant platforms: bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Proceeding chronologically, this chapter addresses how the defining features of these platforms and competition among major players in the field have contributed to shaping public culture and publicity strategies emerging in the technology-mediated sphere. Special attention is paid to the role that the Chinese government and commercial portals play in building research and education networks, creating business models, and continuously expanding into new markets. 3Tracking Playfulness chapter abstractChapter 3 investigates the playfulness of the Chinese Internet and its symbiotic relationship with a culture of contention. Much has been written about the ingenuity of Chinese netizens in appropriating humor, parody, and satire to mock authorities, seek entertainment, and organize networked resistance. However, little scholarly work has addressed how playfulness came to dominate the Chinese Internet in the first place. Taking Internet celebrities as case studies, this chapter attributes the predominant fun-seeking mode to the rudimentary formation of elitist netizen communities in the late 1990s. It addresses the ways in which BBS, as an affective content platform, cultivated the symbiotic relationship between frivolity and serious political engagement among early Internet adopters. This collective spirit of fun-seeking also paved the way for the Internet industry's continuous experiments with comedic mechanisms in the years to come. 4National Blogging and Cultural Entrepreneurship chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on the intersection of the entertainment industry, entrepreneurial culture, and the golden age of blogging in China. It probes the rise of cultural entrepreneurs, who quickly aligned themselves with enterprises seeking to develop culture-related business and transformed the ways that cultural works are produced and publicized. The chapter examines four phenomenally successful, yet understudied cases: television host and producer Yang Lan; star-cum-director Xu Jinglei; publisher Hong Huang; and writer, publisher, and director Guo Jingming. These celebrities, as "attention-haves," due in large part to their fame already established through other channels, innovatively capitalized on digital media to explore new modes of cultural production and to build personal brands. Their trailblazing activities illuminate the ways in which China's nascent entertainment industry, with the backing of Internet corporations, has reinvigorated writing practices, cultivated middle-class aspirations, and aligned with entrepreneurial initiatives in the age of neoliberalism. 5Taboo Breakers and Microcultural Contention chapter abstractTaking the blogs of Mu Zimei and Han Han as case studies, this chapter investigates how an entertainment-oriented blogosphere has catalyzed the rise of opinion leaders who tactically disrupt preset parameters of social, moral, and political norms. It argues that style—defined as a conglomeration of diverse elements, including language, subject matter, online sociality, and the structure and layout of webpages—is essential to these taboo breakers' strategies of contention. In turn, the divergent responses these bloggers evoke fulfill the dual function of enlightenment and entertainment, and catalyze the forging of politically minded citizens at a micro level. 6Digital Witnessing on Weibo chapter abstractThis chapter spells out the multifarious function of the microblogging platform in China. Delving into representative Weibo-based incidents from 2009 to 2018, it examines the role that digital witnessing plays in promoting citizen activism and shaping public culture on Chinese microblogosphere. These cases exemplify the evolving transition of digital witnessing on Weibo, from an emphasis on responsibilities of spectators to multifarious forms of collective spectating mobilized by a diverse range of social actors. Taken together, digital witnessing on Weibo demonstrates how the technological features, business operations, the state, and Internet users have jointly shaped the sociocultural meanings of this platform. 7WeChat: An Inflorescence of Content Production chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how WeChat public accounts have revolutionized the ways in which original content is distributed and commodified. It examines the rise and fall of Mi Meng, owner of one of the most popular public accounts up until February 2019, when she closed her account due to public pressure. Mi Meng's writings not only struck a chord with economically disadvantaged groups but also resonated with the anxiety of a middle-class audience who felt their status becoming increasingly precarious. More important, the management of Mi Meng's account exemplified a changing mode of writing from an author-centered model to a model of team production that involved fan labor, personal branding, and a focus on networking capacity. At the same time, the sudden downfall of Mi Meng illustrates the same kind of unpredictability and precariousness that contributed to her sensational rise in the first place. 8Ambivalent Revolution chapter abstractChapter 8 discusses the implications of this book's findings and pinpoints areas for future research. Essentially, this book investigates digital cultural formation through the four most dynamic discursive spaces to emerge over the past two decades in China (1994–2019): the bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog (Weibo), and WeChat (Weixin). The creation of these digital platforms not only showcases the local appropriation of global technologies in China but also exemplifies how Internet users' mundane activities online hold significant potential for forging politically minded citizens at a micro level. By delineating the process by which user-generated content has been produced, promoted, and received, this book historicizes the study of digital media and sheds light on understanding emerging platforms.

Read more less

Book SynopsisConventional wisdom emerging from China and other autocracies claims that single-party legislatures and elections are mutually beneficial for citizens and autocrats. This line of thought reasons that these institutions can serve multiple functions, like constraining political leaders or providing information about citizens. In United Front, Paul Schuler challenges these views through his examination of the past and present functioning of the Vietnam National Assembly (VNA), arguing that the legislature's primary role is to signal strength to the public. When active, the critical behavior from delegates in the legislature represents cross fire within the regime rather than genuine citizen feedback. In making these arguments, Schuler counters a growing scholarly trend to see democratic institutions within single-party settings like China and Vietnam as useful for citizens or regime performance. His argument also suggests that there are limits to generating genuinely "consultative authoritarianism" through quasi-democratic institutions. Applying a diverse range of cutting-edge social science methods on a wealth of original data such as legislative speeches, election returns, and surveys, Schuler shows that even in a seemingly vociferous legislature like the VNA, the ultimate purpose of the institution is not to reflect the views of citizens, but rather to signal the regime's preferences while taking down rivals.Trade Review"Why does a single-party state have well-developed electoral and legislative institutions? Schuler provides a compelling answer to this question in this persuasive, far-reaching account. His work pushes forward our understanding of institutions not only in one of the few remaining Communist states, but also in authoritarian regimes more broadly." -- Jennifer Gandhi * Emory University *"A firecracker of a book and a critical contribution to scholarship on authoritarian institutions and Vietnamese politics. In punchy and thrilling prose, using deep knowledge and cutting-edge empirical tools, Schuler challenges existing theories that parliaments resolve informational problems for autocrats, arguing instead that they are better suited to signal dominance and promote popular legitimacy." -- Edmund Malesky * Duke University *"As a study of political science, Schuler makes a major contribution by challenging the dominant view in scholarship that often conflates legislatures in single-party regimes with other authoritarian or hybrid regimes... Schuler has written an outstanding book that deserves to be read widely by both political scientists and Vietnam experts." -- Tuong Vu * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Introduction chapter abstractThe introduction presents the book's central research question and the theory and evidence used to explore it: Why might the Vietnam National Assembly and some single-party legislatures be empowered with greater responsibilities and greater electoral competitiveness? Recent work suggests that legislative institutionalization demonstrates "resilient" or "consultative" authoritarianism, whereby autocrats can inform or constrain themselves through limited debate in a legislature and limited electoral competitiveness. This book challenges this view, arguing that single-party legislatures and elections do not inform or constrain autocrats but instead are meant to signal strength. When such legislatures are active, they are supposed to direct their activity against the autocrat's agents in the government. Elections serve to mobilize compliance with the regime. The theory of this book suggests that autocrats cannot simultaneously encourage input and signal strength through the same institutions. The introduction concludes with a preview of the chapters. 1The Signaling Trap: Why Single-Party Legislatures Must Be Controlled chapter abstractThis chapter examines existing explanations for the role of authoritarian legislatures and elections, raising questions about the applicability of these theories to Vietnam. It also lays out the book's core theoretical argument that while autocrats may use institutions such as legislatures and elections to achieve multiple goals, some goals are incompatible. In particular, if autocrats hope to use legislatures and elections to signal strength, this compromises their ability to use those same institutions to constrain or inform themselves. The chapter then argues that autocrats in single-party regimes are more likely to use legislatures and elections to signal strength at the expense of constraint or information provision because these institutions are publicly visible and state sanctioned. The chapter concludes with the observable implications of the argument for legislative organization, electoral behavior, delegate behavior, and public opinion. 2How Elections Work in Vietnam chapter abstractThis chapter lays out the structure of Vietnam's electoral system, highlighting some of the key institutions that block linkages between citizens and delegates. It focuses in particular on party management of campaigns and vetting institutions to show how the "five gates" system effectively keeps genuinely independent candidates from winning seats. The chapter shows how the regime further undermines the competitiveness of elections by manipulating the districts such that even candidates who survive vetting face bias in favor of the regime's preferred candidates. This chapter serves two purposes: providing important background on Vietnam's electoral institutions, and highlighting important institutions that facilitate the signaling value of elections and give the regime control over legislative behavior. 3"Unconditional Party Government": Legislative Organization in the VNA chapter abstractThis chapter examines legislative organization in the VNA, describing the extremely hierarchical system as "unconditional party government." Building from a theory of "conditional party government" to explain party control of legislatures in democracies, this chapter describes the extreme dominance of the VNA Standing Committee over legislative proceedings and agenda setting. Given the party's role in deciding who will serve on the Standing Committee and fill vital full-time roles in the legislature, the party ensures its control over legislative output and the legislative agenda. As with elections, party dominance of legislative output through the Standing Committee ensures that the VNA serves to signal strength to the population at the expense of the legislature's capacity to inform or constrain. 4Explaining the Evolution of the VNA chapter abstractThis chapter explores the institutionalization of the VNA to examine the argument that the Vietnam Communist Party empowered it to check the government rather than to constrain or inform the party leadership. Before defending this argument, which contradicts existing accounts of the development of authoritarian legislatures and the VNA, the chapter also establishes that the VNA is a most likely case for the competing arguments for authoritarian legislative institutionalization and a least likely case for the book's signaling argument. The chapter then defends the signaling argument by examining the role party leaders played versus those of political and economic reformers at critical moments when the legislature gained increased powers. An examination of the decisions to empower the legislature with greater staff, televised query sessions, and a regularized vote of confidence measure shows that it was the party leaders who supported the measures rather than economic liberalizers in the government. 5Mobilized or Motivated? Voting Behavior in Vietnamese Elections chapter abstractThis chapter examines how electoral institutions impact electoral behavior in a single-party regime. Existing work suggests that citizens in authoritarian regimes vote in a partially informed manner and provide information through their votes. By contrast, this chapter argues that party strength rather than voter interest drives electoral behavior. Using unique data from Vietnam, which for the first time combine actual electoral returns with district-level survey data, this chapter shows little evidence of strategic voting, competitiveness driving turnout, or knowledge of candidates. Instead, connection to the party drives participation. The findings imply that Vietnamese voters are ill informed about their candidates and that their votes contain little informational content. Consequently, elections are largely an exercise in mobilizing public compliance and support for the party. 6Explaining Oversight Behavior: Position Taking or Position Ducking? chapter abstractThis chapter examines legislative behavior in the VNA. The signaling and blame deflection theory of the book holds that the legislature should not criticize the party. By contrast, when the legislature is critical, it should direct its attention toward government leaders. Using an original dataset of public opinion data and legislative behavior, this chapter uses automated text analysis to show that the VNA only debates hot-button issues on government-controlled issues. When issues arise on party-controlled portfolios, the legislature is not called into action. The findings imply that the legislature does not primarily inform or constrain the party through legislative behavior but rather serves to damage rivals in the government. 7Intimidation or Legitimation? The Signaling Value of the VNA chapter abstractA final implication of the book's signaling theory is that legislative behavior and elections should increase support for the party and reduce the likelihood of public resistance. Such an effect could operate through two potential channels. First, it could convince citizens that resistance is futile. Alternatively, it could convince citizens more directly to support the regime. Using an Internet-based survey experiment in Vietnam, this chapter shows that legislative behavior and elections seem to boost public confidence in the legitimacy of the legislature and the electoral process. This in turn leads to greater support for the party and satisfaction in the overall political environment in Vietnam. Conclusion: Conclusion: Curbing our Expectations for the VNA, Single-Party Legislatures chapter abstractThe conclusion examines the implications of the theory and findings for broader understanding of the role of legislatures in single-party and hybrid regimes outside Vietnam. This chapter argues that while elections for legislatures in hybrid regimes may be more informative than in single-party contexts, the importance of legislatures for policy outcomes is likely minimal in these contexts as well. The chapter then examines why such legislatures have been associated with improved investment and economic growth if they have little policy input. It suggests that one reason is that legislative closures are typically correlated with the process of consolidation, which hinders these outcomes. The chapter also considers the implications of the argument for theories of democratization and Vietnam's political development. It argues that while the VNA may facilitate a smoother transition should democratization occur, the VNA and other single-party legislatures are not likely to spearhead such a transition.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow did the economy become bound up with faith in infinite wealth creation and obsessive consumption? Drawing on the economic writings of eighteenth-century French theologians, historian Charly Coleman uncovers the surprising influence of the Catholic Church on the development of capitalism. Even during the Enlightenment, a sense of the miraculous did not wither under the cold light of calculation. Scarcity, long regarded as the inescapable fate of a fallen world, gradually gave way to a new belief in heavenly as well as worldly affluence. Animating this spiritual imperative of the French economy was a distinctly Catholic ethic that—in contrast to Weber's famous "Protestant ethic"—privileged the marvelous over the mundane, consumption over production, and the pleasures of enjoyment over the rigors of delayed gratification. By viewing money, luxury, and debt through the lens of sacramental theory, Coleman demonstrates that the modern economy casts far beyond rational action and disenchanted designs, and in ways that we have yet to apprehend fully.Trade Review"With deft analysis and compelling exposition, Charly Coleman unearths the neglected yet highly significant contributions of French Catholic theology to the growth and development of capitalism. He helps us grasp why, amid supposed disenchantment and the brute materiality of modernity, commodities continue to hold such sway and consumption still promises us salvation." -- Devin Singh * Dartmouth College *"The Spirit of French Capitalism is a brilliant, provocative book that deserves a wide readership. Charly Coleman compellingly argues that to understand the genesis of modern capitalism, we need to understand how economic visions of unlimited consumption and plenitude arose out of the 'economic theology' of the Catholic Reformation. Delving deep into theological debates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Coleman traces surprising connections to the period's economic thought—and economic practice as well." -- David A. Bell * Princeton University *"Coleman's book offers a valuable example of research on the connection of theological notions and religious practices, on the one hand, and the field of French political economy during the 17th and 18th centuries, on the other. The main contribution is definitely to clarify the long history of the semantic crossing between theological and economic representation, opening the way to future interdisciplinary research carried out between theologians and historians of economic thought. " -- Maxime Menuet * Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractAgainst assertions of Anglo-American exceptionalism, this book shifts attention to the economic writings of theologians in France, the most powerful Catholic kingdom in eighteenth-century Europe. In so doing, it argues that Catholic economic theology prepared the ground in which the master-ideas of Enlightenment political economy took root. Beyond wielding enormous financial power, the church administered an infinitely reproducible treasure of grace through the sacraments. In contrast to Max Weber's thesis in The Protestant Ethic, I make the case for a distinctly Catholic ethic that animated the spirit of capitalism by valorizing the enjoyment of consumption over delayed gratification. Only by engaging with Catholic economic theology can we begin to understand how the quintessential capitalist fantasy of unbridled consumption first coalesced—in ruminations on the mystery of the Eucharist, the generative faculties of money, the legality of usury, the allure of commodities, and the limits of luxury. 1The Economy of the Mysteries chapter abstractIn response to Protestant challenges, the Catholic Church avowed that the Eucharist operated as a sign that brought the body and blood it signified into being. Yet the prelates at the Council of Trent did not merely reiterate ancient teachings; rather, their deliberations marked a shift in emphasis from the visceral or fleshly aspect of the rite to its economic valence. Reverence for the host surged among the thousands who enlisted in religious and lay confraternities. Members incurred devotional as well as financial obligations, the fulfillment of which made one eligible to receive indulgences granted by the pope. Their liturgies articulated a new Christian variant of materialism, with the Eucharist as its venerable base. Professional theologians defended transubstantiation by justifying the doctrine as a means of spiritual enrichment that assured consolation in this life and eternal beatitude in the next. 2Perpetual Penance and Frequent Communion chapter abstractThe value of frequent communion remained a source of deep controversy throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the 1640s, Antoine Arnauld challenged abuses in the administration of the Eucharist and penance, drawing the lines of a protracted theological battle between the Jansenist militants of Port-Royal and the Society of Jesus. A century later, the Jesuit Jean Pichon's defense of frequent communion elicited a response no less violent than had Arnauld's criticism of the practice. During the same decade, it fell to the French crown to adjudicate between the parlement of Paris and the Gallican episcopate in cases involving the refusal of the sacraments to Jansenists. This dispute carried sweeping implications for the limits of royal as well as clerical authority, and even compelled ruminations over whether subjects had a right to communion akin to that of property. 3The Spirit of Speculation chapter abstractSacramental theology exerted a surprising influence on the reception of John Law's System, proponents of which depicted banknotes and company shares as yielding previously unfathomable riches. A Eucharistic-alchemical complex lent itself to describing these instruments and their myriad effects. Priests-cum-alchemists explicitly likened the philosopher's stone to the consecrated host. Cartesians such as Jean Terrasson justified the infinite extension of matter with direct references to the sacrament. In defending Law's reforms, he went so far as to transpose his metaphysical doctrines into an economic theology of money. He held that, like the Eucharist, paper's efficacy followed from its dual nature as both visible and transparent—that is, as a means of exchange that not only passively reflected but also brought into being the very existence of wealth. The spiritual ideal of boundlessness drove participation in Law's System, emboldening investors to place their faith in accumulation without limit. 4Usury Redeemed chapter abstractThe eighteenth century offered novel answers to the perennial question of usury, which the church formally banned but in practice permitted. Pope Benedict XIV's 1745 encyclical on the legitimacy of interest-bearing contracts prompted soul-searching among clergy and laity alike. The archbishop of Paris commissioned lengthy compendia on how priests and parishioners should conduct themselves in commercial transactions. Theologians who favored interest—including Turgot, an ex-seminarian—highlighted the peculiar character of money as a substance that could maintain and even augment itself. Defenders of tradition denied that financial instruments could share in the representational productivity of the sacraments, thereby implicitly confirming the association. Even as credit relations grew more impersonal, the French economy could not subsist without faith in money's capacity to breathe life and value into matter. 5The Cult of Consumption chapter abstractDevotional objects such as crucifixes, rosaries, and religious images, the market for which escaladed after Trent, served as an incitement to spending for pleasure. Instruments of piety possessed value not only as productions of artisanal labor authorized by church and state but also as keys unlocking spiritual treasures. Like the Eucharist, the rosary in particular attracted mass devotion on the part of the laity. Once established as a remunerative observance, the demand for prayer beads set an entire economy in motion. Confraternities were founded with the ideal of saying the rosary in perpetuity. Trade corporations and religious orders sold the necklaces in shops and along pilgrimage routes. Successive popes actively encouraged the market by issuing indulgences for little more than the donning of an accessory. Huguenot skeptics like Jean-Frédéric Bernard and Bernard Picart took note of the church's permissiveness as proof of its spiritual venality. 6Luxury and the Origins of the Fetish chapter abstractEighteenth-century luxury debates remained fertile ground for economic theologians. Priests led the charge in condemning luxury as the symptom of a deep-seated spiritual illness, with women as its most dangerous vector. Those afflicted fell prey to a delusion that worldly idols could bring the fulfillment that only celestial riches promised. Theological appraisals of feminized luxury acquired new force in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, as French subjects immersed themselves in a glittering market for goods. Like their clerical contemporaries, philosophes sought to distinguish legitimate sources of wealth from wasteful profligacy. Rousseau joined the Physiocrats not only in elevating agriculture as nation's material base but also in avowing jouissance as the guiding virtue of economic activity. Turgot supplemented the landed theory of value with his observation that proprietors were motivated less by pastoral virtue than the pleasures that money could buy. Epilogue: Encounters with Economic Theology chapter abstractAlthough the idea of the commodity fetish is often attributed to Karl Marx, ecclesiastics had long denounced luxury as idolatrous while, at the same time, inscribing profusion in the very materials of the sacrament. Marx drew on this tradition in Capital, a text that employs Catholic terms, even transubstantiation, to account for the allure of manufactured goods and belief in the power of money to reproduce itself through mere circulation. Walter Benjamin would further develop these insights in his work on nineteenth-century sites of consumption, especially the Parisian arcades. Émile Zola would do the same for department stores. Even today, French fashions remain deeply indebted not only to religion, but especially to the rich history of Catholic devotion. Designers such as Coco Chanel, herself raised by nuns, further exemplify the associations between France and luxury in the popular imagination.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab uprisings of 2010–11 left indelible imprints on the Middle East. Yet, these events have not reshaped the region as pundits once predicted. With this volume, top experts on the region offer wide-ranging considerations of the characteristics, continuities, and discontinuities of the contemporary Middle East, addressing topics from international politics to political Islam, hip hop to human security. This book engages six themes to understand the contemporary Middle East—the spread of sectarianism, abandonment of principles of state sovereignty, the lack of a regional hegemonic power, increased Saudi-Iranian competition, decreased regional attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and fallout from the Arab uprisings—as well as offers individual country studies. With analysis from historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, and up-to-date discussions of the Syrian Civil War, impacts of the Trump presidency, and the 2020 uprisings in Lebanon, Algeria, and Sudan, this book will be an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the current state of the region.Trade Review"The essays in The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval, edited by distinguished historian James Gelvin, are an indispensable guide to making sense of the Middle East's current disorder and future direction. A must-read for academics, policy makers, and informed general audiences."—Frederic Wehrey, Senior Fellow, Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"A first-rate collection of analyses from leading scholars across a range of disciplines, The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval is essential reading for anyone interested in how the Middle East has and has not changed since the uprisings of 2011."—Jillian Schwedler, Hunter College, CUNY"In the past two decades, the Middle East has faced an external invasion, civil wars and populist uprisings. Thus, it is fitting that a collection of Middle East scholars have come together to assess the future of this turbulent region."—Ray Takeyh, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy"The Contemporary Middle East is a much-needed interdisciplinary study about the state of the Middle East in the early decades of the twenty-first century."—Arab Studies QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Is There a New Middle East? What Has Changed, and What Hasn't? —Joel Beinin 2. What Future for the Private Sector in the New Middle East? —Ishac Diwan 3. Education and Human Security: Centering the Politics of Human Dignity —Laurie A. Brand 4. Myths of Middle-Class Political Behavior in the Islamic Republic —Kevan Harris 5. Poets of the Revolutions: Authoritarians, Uprisings, and Rappers in North Africa, 1990s–Present —Aomar Boum 6. Islamism at a Crossroads? The Diffusion of Political Islam in the Arab World —Peter Mandaville 7. Islamists before and after 2011: Assuming, Overlooking, or Overthrowing the Administrative State? —Nathan J. Brown 8. Homeland (Dis-)Engagement Processes among the New Syrian Diaspora —Lindsay A. Gifford 9. Saudi Arabia: How Much Change? —F. Gregory Gause III 10. Erdoğan, Turkish Foreign Policy, and the Middle East —Henri J. Barkey 11. The Syrian Civil War and the New Middle East —James L. Gelvin 12. State Building, Sectarianization, and Neo-Patrimonialism in Iraq —Harith Hasan 13. The Post-Uprising Transformation of International Relations in the Middle East and North Africa —Fred H. Lawson 14. Proxy War and the New Structure of Middle East Regional Politics —Marc Lynch 16. Afterword: The Fourth Dream —Moncef Marzouki

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab uprisings of 2010–11 left indelible imprints on the Middle East. Yet, these events have not reshaped the region as pundits once predicted. With this volume, top experts on the region offer wide-ranging considerations of the characteristics, continuities, and discontinuities of the contemporary Middle East, addressing topics from international politics to political Islam, hip hop to human security. This book engages six themes to understand the contemporary Middle East—the spread of sectarianism, abandonment of principles of state sovereignty, the lack of a regional hegemonic power, increased Saudi-Iranian competition, decreased regional attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and fallout from the Arab uprisings—as well as offers individual country studies. With analysis from historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, and up-to-date discussions of the Syrian Civil War, impacts of the Trump presidency, and the 2020 uprisings in Lebanon, Algeria, and Sudan, this book will be an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the current state of the region.Trade Review"The essays in The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval, edited by distinguished historian James Gelvin, are an indispensable guide to making sense of the Middle East's current disorder and future direction. A must-read for academics, policy makers, and informed general audiences."—Frederic Wehrey, Senior Fellow, Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"A first-rate collection of analyses from leading scholars across a range of disciplines, The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval is essential reading for anyone interested in how the Middle East has and has not changed since the uprisings of 2011."—Jillian Schwedler, Hunter College, CUNY"In the past two decades, the Middle East has faced an external invasion, civil wars and populist uprisings. Thus, it is fitting that a collection of Middle East scholars have come together to assess the future of this turbulent region."—Ray Takeyh, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy"The Contemporary Middle East is a much-needed interdisciplinary study about the state of the Middle East in the early decades of the twenty-first century."—Arab Studies QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Is There a New Middle East? What Has Changed, and What Hasn't? —Joel Beinin 2. What Future for the Private Sector in the New Middle East? —Ishac Diwan 3. Education and Human Security: Centering the Politics of Human Dignity —Laurie A. Brand 4. Myths of Middle-Class Political Behavior in the Islamic Republic —Kevan Harris 5. Poets of the Revolutions: Authoritarians, Uprisings, and Rappers in North Africa, 1990s–Present —Aomar Boum 6. Islamism at a Crossroads? The Diffusion of Political Islam in the Arab World —Peter Mandaville 7. Islamists before and after 2011: Assuming, Overlooking, or Overthrowing the Administrative State? —Nathan J. Brown 8. Homeland (Dis-)Engagement Processes among the New Syrian Diaspora —Lindsay A. Gifford 9. Saudi Arabia: How Much Change? —F. Gregory Gause III 10. Erdoğan, Turkish Foreign Policy, and the Middle East —Henri J. Barkey 11. The Syrian Civil War and the New Middle East —James L. Gelvin 12. State Building, Sectarianization, and Neo-Patrimonialism in Iraq —Harith Hasan 13. The Post-Uprising Transformation of International Relations in the Middle East and North Africa —Fred H. Lawson 14. Proxy War and the New Structure of Middle East Regional Politics —Marc Lynch 16. Afterword: The Fourth Dream —Moncef Marzouki

Read more less

Book SynopsisMuhtars, the lowest level elected political position in Turkey, hold an ambiguously defined place within the administrative hierarchy. They are public officials, but local citizens do not always associate them with the central government. Street-Level Governing is the first book to investigate how muhtars carry out their role—not only what they are supposed to do, but how they actually operate—to provide an ethnographic study of the state as viewed from its margins. It starts from the premise that the seeming "margin" of state administration is not peripheral at all, but instructive as to how it functions. As Elise Massicard shows, muhtars exist at the intersection of everyday life and the exercise of power. Their position offers a personalized point of contact between citizens and state institutions, enabling close oversight of the citizenry, yet simultaneously projecting the sense of an accessible state to individuals. Challenging common theories of the state, Massicard outlines how the position of the muhtar throws into question an assumed dichotomy between domination and social resistance, and suggests that considerations of circumvention and accommodation are normal attributes of state-society functioning.Trade Review"Street-Level Governing is a brilliant and engaging study that overturns dyed-in-the-wool ideas about the nature of the state and modernity. With a sophisticated command of the literature leavened by on-the-ground observation, Elise Massicard makes an excellent contribution to a new global scholarship of informality in politics and politics as performance."—Jenny White, Stockholm University, author of Turkish Kaleidoscope"Street-Level Governing is one of the most interesting and original recent books I have read on contemporary Turkey. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and deep knowledge of Turkish politics and society, Elise Massicard gives us a vivid and up-close account of the muhtarlık in the context of state-society relations in Turkey."—Reşat Kasaba, University of Washington, author of A Moveable Empire"Street-Level Governing is a commendable study that approaches contemporary Turkey from an original angle with both rigour and scholarship. It certainly deserves to be read and discussed."—Marc Juyient, Manara Magazine"Massicard's outstanding book on the neglected urban agency of muhtarlık crucially challenges major ideas on urban politics, stands as a methodological resource, and contributes to the literature on urban studies by speaking to scholars' broader interest in how local actors and their interrelations with complex urban outcomes have been reproduced."—Gülşah Aykaç, Urban Studies"Street-Level Governing, as implied by the title, rejects traditional notions about the Turkish state and its bureaucracy to build on Migdal's state-in-society framework and the rich ethnographic scholarship on Turkey it has recently engendered. However, whereas this new body of work focuses on the marginalized, studying the ever-present muhtar helps Massicard reveal how even mundane interactions shape the contours of the state."—Devrim Yavuz, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association"Moving beyond the clientelism-versus-governance divide and engaging critically with fields of the political sociology and the anthropology of state, Massicard's excellent book on the dynamics of urban politics in Turkey examines state-society interaction in everyday life and successfully demonstrates how they mutually transform, constitute, and produce each other on the ground."—Osman Savaşkan, Political Science QuarterlyTable of Contents1. An Incompletely Formed Institution 2. How the Muhtarlık Fuels the Production of Notables 3. The Muhtars' Changing Role 4. The Residents' Champion 5. Ambivalent Interface with the Official Order 6. Enacting Context-Dependent Roles 7. Working within and Modulating Institutional Constraints 8. The Muhtarlıks' Waning Autonomy Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs China and the U.S. increasingly compete for power in key areas of U.S. influence, great power conflict looms. Yet few studies have looked to the Middle East and Africa, regions of major political, economic, and military importance for both China and the U.S., to theorize how China competes in a changing world system. China's Rise in the Global South examines China's behavior as a rising power in two key Global South regions, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Dawn C. Murphy, drawing on extensive fieldwork and hundreds of interviews, compares and analyzes thirty years of China's interactions with these regions across a range of functional areas: political, economic, foreign aid, and military. From the Belt and Road initiative to the founding of new cooperation forums and special envoys, China's Rise in the Global South offers an in-depth look at China's foreign policy approach to the countries it considers its partners in South-South cooperation. Intervening in the emerging debate between liberals and realists about China's future as a great power, Murphy contends that China is constructing an alternate international order to interact with these regions, and this book provides policymakers and scholars of international relations with the tools to analyze it.Trade Review"China's Rise in the Global South is a must read for anyone interested in truths and myths about China's growing global influence and U.S.–China strategic competition. Judicious and deeply researched, this book is an invaluable resource."—Thomas J. Christensen, Columbia University"Dawn C. Murphy offers a rich, nuanced empirical treatment of China's relations with the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. China's Rise in the Global South is especially valuable for those interested in China's Middle Eastern policy since it fills a major gap in the scholarly literature on China's regional relations."—Rosemary Foot, Oxford University"China's Rise in the Global South is a very welcome addition to the literature on China's rise in the developing world. Dawn C. Murphy offers a clear and astute assessment of China's Middle East strategy."—Jon B. Alterman, Center for Strategic and International Studies"China's Rise in the Global South will be welcomed by scholars and students alike for its timely insights and empirical content. Dawn C. Murphy contributes to understanding China's role in Africa and the Middle East, from economic operations to military growth and beyond."—Chris Alden, London School of Economics"There has been a significant gap in the studies of China's foreign policy beyond the Asia Pacific region. Murphy's excellent book fills this intellectual gap by focusing on China's rise in the Global South... More in-depth investigations and research will be encouraged by Murphy's book, which is a valuable addition to the scholarly literature and policy analysis on China's rise in the developing world." –Kai He, The Developing Economies"China's Rise in the Global South provides an amazingly granular description of China's presence in and relations with Africa and the Middle East. All the readers, from the novice to the veteran China-and-Africa/Middle East watcher, will enjoy the comprehensiveness of Murphy's work, which is solidly grounded in the analysis of written sources in various languages as well as numerous interviews conducted in China and several countries in Africa and the Middle East."—Andrea Ghiselli, Journal of Chinese Political Science"The text [of China's Rise in the Global South] is richly and densely comparative in studying China's behaviour in the two regions it relies upon most for its external energy and key minerals, and contains many useful facts and much elucidating analysis."—Lauren A. Johnston, The China Quarterly"Dawn Murphy... recently published a fascinating book which offers alternative readings of China's strategy in the Global South which helps to bridge many of these debates and make sense of what is—and isn't—going on. She suggests that China is indeed promoting an alternative international order—but that this promotion looks very different across different parts of the world, and only challenges the existing American-led order in certain areas, in certain ways."—Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark's MENA Academy"Murphy's discussion of how China uses the regular regional forums it organizes is excellent, as is her analysis of the relationships China has forged in military cooperation, foreign aid, and trade."—Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Affairs"Professor Murphy has significantly advanced scholarship on post-Cold War Chinese foreign relations with this well-conceived and well-executed assessment of Chinese foreign relations with the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa."—Robert Sutter, Political Science Quarterly"China's Rise in the Global South is a solid contribution to the academic literature on China's engagement with Africa and the Middle East.... [T]he breadth of Murphy's work and its attention to politics and security offered this reader much welcome respite from the never-ending flow of ever-narrower (and duller) studies on economic topics in Sino-African relations."—Joshua Eisenman, Pacific AffairsTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Analytical Approach 3. What Does China Want in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa? 4. Competing with Cooperation Forums? China-Arab States Cooperation Forum and Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 5. A Responsible Power? How China Portrays Itself as a Great Power through Special Envoys for the Middle East, Syria, and Africa 6. Competing for Influence? Economic Relations 7. Making Friends and Building Influence? Political Relations 8. Cooperating for Peace and Security? Military Relations 9. Belt and Road and China's Relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa 10. Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe November 1970 coup that brought Hafiz al-Asad to power fundamentally transformed cultural production in Syria. A comprehensive intellectual, ideological, and political project—a Ba'thist cultural revolution—sought to align artistic endeavors with the ideological interests of the regime. The ensuing agonistic struggle pitted official aesthetics of power against alternative modes of creative expression that could evade or ignore the effects of the state. With this book, Max Weiss offers the first cultural and intellectual history of Ba'thist Syria, from the coming to power of Hafiz al-Asad, through the transitional period under Bashar al-Asad, and continuing up through the Syria War. Revolutions Aesthetic reconceptualizes contemporary Syrian politics, authoritarianism, and cultural life. Engaging rich original sources—novels, films, and cultural periodicals—Weiss highlights themes crucial to the making of contemporary Syria: heroism and leadership, gender and power, comedy and ideology, surveillance and the senses, witnessing and temporality, and death and the imagination. Revolutions Aesthetic places front and center the struggle around aesthetic ideology that has been key to the constitution of state, society, and culture in Syria over the course of the past fifty years.Trade Review"Innovative, meticulous, and brilliantly written, Revolutions Aesthetic will serve as the standard bearer for studies on the modern cultural history of the Arab world and the broader Middle East. Max Weiss's work has profound implications for understanding the relationship of cultural producers and the state within postcolonial revolutionary systems around the world."—Kamran Rastegar, Tufts University"Revolutions Aesthetic intervenes in a rich conversation about 20th- and early 21st-century cultural production in Syria's evolving dictatorship. Max Weiss's attention to gender dynamics and competing artistic visions, as well as his admirably lucid prose, make this book a valuable contribution to understanding the relationship between politics and aesthetics."—Lisa Wedeen, University of Chicago"Max Weiss dives into the history of the revolution's aesthetic, which, like a safe for the imagination, senses, and freedom of Syrians, the dictator has failed to melt into his full metal statue. Revolutions Aesthetic enters the Syrian cinematic shot to observe and understand how it works."—Ossama Mohammed, director of Stars in Broad Daylight and Sacrifices"For readers who are interested in the intersection between culture and politics in the context of Syria and the Middle East, this book is a must-read."—Shaoqun Lian, China International Strategy Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisDelhi, one of the world's largest cities, has faced momentous challenges—mass migration, competing governing authorities, controversies over citizenship, and communal violence. To understand the contemporary plight of India's capital city, this book revisits one of the most dramatic episodes in its history, telling the story of how the city was remade by the twin events of partition and independence. Treating decolonization as a process that unfolded from the late 1930s into the mid-1950, Rotem Geva traces how India and Pakistan became increasingly territorialized in the imagination and practice of the city's residents, how violence and displacement were central to this process, and how tensions over belonging and citizenship lingered in the city and the nation. She also chronicles the struggle, after 1947, between the urge to democratize political life in the new republic and the authoritarian legacy of colonial rule, augmented by the imperative to maintain law and order in the face of the partition crisis. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Geva reveals the period from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s as a twilight time, combining features of imperial framework and independent republic. Geva places this liminality within the broader global context of the dissolution of multiethnic and multireligious empires into nation-states and argues for an understanding of state formation as a contest between various lines of power, charting the links between different levels of political struggle and mobilization during the churning early years of independence in Delhi.Trade Review"This elegantly written book sheds fresh light on issues of violence, migration, citizenship, and the politics of self-expression. It enriches both the narrativization of Partition and historical understanding of India's contemporary emergence as an ethnic democracy."—Ian Talbot, University of Southampton"In this innovative new history, Rotem Geva explores the sweeping changes that swept over Delhi as a result of India's independence and partition violence in 1947. The millenarian visions that shaped both the Indian nationalist movement and the movement for Pakistan provide a backdrop to the on-the-ground changes wrought by migration, struggles over property, and new forms of religious identity politics and state-making—which transformed the city forever."—David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University"Rotem Geva supplies a concise, perceptive history of 'how the twin events of partition and independence remade Delhi.'"—Michael M. Rosen, The Federalist"For geographers, there is much to cherish, admire, and be inspired by here. Though never absent of framings drawn from subaltern or postcolonial theory, this is an empirically grounded volume which takes us deep into the urban geographies of India's capital. These geographies are material and social, but also literary, journalistic, and emotional."—Stephen Legg, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography"The affective structure of [Delhi Reborn] interweaves disparate or distant events (like the violence of 1857, the partition, or the years of the Emergency) through memories and reportage to situate the memories in a longer lineage of violence. The beauty of this long-term view lies in the fact that instead of framing it as a teleological account of the atrocities that the Muslim community has had to endure in Delhi, it shows how despite the rampant and recurring efforts to displace and hurt families, resistance to these efforts never desist, and take up new forms."—Aprajita Sarcar, H-Soz-KultTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Dreaming Independence in the Colonial Capital 2. Partition Violence Shatters Utopia 3. An Uncertain State Confronts "Evacuee Property" 4. Claiming the City and Nation in the Urdu Press 5. Citizens' Rights: Delhi's Law and Order Legacy Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe November 1970 coup that brought Hafiz al-Asad to power fundamentally transformed cultural production in Syria. A comprehensive intellectual, ideological, and political project—a Ba'thist cultural revolution—sought to align artistic endeavors with the ideological interests of the regime. The ensuing agonistic struggle pitted official aesthetics of power against alternative modes of creative expression that could evade or ignore the effects of the state. With this book, Max Weiss offers the first cultural and intellectual history of Ba'thist Syria, from the coming to power of Hafiz al-Asad, through the transitional period under Bashar al-Asad, and continuing up through the Syria War. Revolutions Aesthetic reconceptualizes contemporary Syrian politics, authoritarianism, and cultural life. Engaging rich original sources—novels, films, and cultural periodicals—Weiss highlights themes crucial to the making of contemporary Syria: heroism and leadership, gender and power, comedy and ideology, surveillance and the senses, witnessing and temporality, and death and the imagination. Revolutions Aesthetic places front and center the struggle around aesthetic ideology that has been key to the constitution of state, society, and culture in Syria over the course of the past fifty years.Trade Review"Innovative, meticulous, and brilliantly written, Revolutions Aesthetic will serve as the standard bearer for studies on the modern cultural history of the Arab world and the broader Middle East. Max Weiss's work has profound implications for understanding the relationship of cultural producers and the state within postcolonial revolutionary systems around the world."—Kamran Rastegar, Tufts University"Revolutions Aesthetic intervenes in a rich conversation about 20th- and early 21st-century cultural production in Syria's evolving dictatorship. Max Weiss's attention to gender dynamics and competing artistic visions, as well as his admirably lucid prose, make this book a valuable contribution to understanding the relationship between politics and aesthetics."—Lisa Wedeen, University of Chicago"Max Weiss dives into the history of the revolution's aesthetic, which, like a safe for the imagination, senses, and freedom of Syrians, the dictator has failed to melt into his full metal statue. Revolutions Aesthetic enters the Syrian cinematic shot to observe and understand how it works."—Ossama Mohammed, director of Stars in Broad Daylight and Sacrifices"For readers who are interested in the intersection between culture and politics in the context of Syria and the Middle East, this book is a must-read."—Shaoqun Lian, China International Strategy Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisChina after Mao has undergone vast transformations, including massive rural-to-urban migration, rising divorce rates, and the steady expansion of the country's legal system. Today, divorce may appear a private concern, when in fact it is a profoundly political matter—especially in a national context where marriage was and has continued to be a key vehicle for nation-state building. Marriage Unbound focuses on the politics of divorce cases in contemporary China, following a group of women seeking judicial remedies for conjugal grievances and disputes. Drawing on extensive archival and ethnographic data, paired with unprecedented access to rural Chinese courtrooms, Ke Li presents not only a stirring portrayal of how these women navigate divorce litigation, but also a uniquely in-depth account of the modern Chinese legal system. With sensitive and fluid prose, Li reveals the struggles between the powerful and the powerless at the front lines of dispute management; the complex interplay between culture and the state; and insidious statecraft that far too often sacrifices women's rights and interests. Ultimately, this book shows how women's legal mobilization and rights contention can forge new ground for our understanding of law, politics, and inequality in an authoritarian regime.Trade Review"Ke Li's sophisticated multi-disciplinary analytic framing and explicit critique of received wisdom engage debates over the role of courts, legal professionals, and black-letter law beyond those of China or of authoritarian states. One of the most analytically original and theoretically informed investigations of divorce I have ever read."—Deborah Davis, Yale University"An instant landmark work. Li seamlessly fuses extensive firsthand interviews with a masterful analysis of Chinese legal developments to illustrate the harsh realities confronting migrant women seeking divorce. A must-read for anyone interested in law, society, and gender in China today."—Carl Minzner, Fordham Law School"Li's book presents an illuminating look at the changing social institution of marriage in contemporary China. Highly recommended."—S. K. Ma, CHOICE March"Ke Li's analysis is more than a superb ethnographic and historical account of changes in the Chinese court system and its effect on women. It is also a sustained effort to place the historical changes within an analytical framework that explores how cultural beliefs shape governmental policy and, thus, the resolution of a divorce case."—William Jankowiak, NAN Nü"Based on more than 10 years' in-depth field research in two rural townships in Sichuan Province, Li provides a vivid picture of how rural women struggle in strained marriage, and how they mobilize state law to fight for their freedom and rights in intimate relationships, and how the judicial institutions respond to these women's claims.... Li sees through the gendered outcomes in different individual divorce cases to make a big story that links state law, power, and inequality together."—Mengni Chen, Social Forces"Well-written and insightful, Li's work on divorce litigation sheds significant new light on the law, politics, and inequality in an authoritarian state."—Soo-Yeon Yoon, Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Audiences, Theoretical Objectives, and Arguments 2. Marriage on the Move 3. Disputation as a State Enterprise 4. The Rise and Fall of Legal Workers 5. Judging Divorce in the People's Courts 6. Onstage and Offstage 7. Issues and Nonissues Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisDelhi, one of the world's largest cities, has faced momentous challenges—mass migration, competing governing authorities, controversies over citizenship, and communal violence. To understand the contemporary plight of India's capital city, this book revisits one of the most dramatic episodes in its history, telling the story of how the city was remade by the twin events of partition and independence. Treating decolonization as a process that unfolded from the late 1930s into the mid-1950, Rotem Geva traces how India and Pakistan became increasingly territorialized in the imagination and practice of the city's residents, how violence and displacement were central to this process, and how tensions over belonging and citizenship lingered in the city and the nation. She also chronicles the struggle, after 1947, between the urge to democratize political life in the new republic and the authoritarian legacy of colonial rule, augmented by the imperative to maintain law and order in the face of the partition crisis. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Geva reveals the period from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s as a twilight time, combining features of imperial framework and independent republic. Geva places this liminality within the broader global context of the dissolution of multiethnic and multireligious empires into nation-states and argues for an understanding of state formation as a contest between various lines of power, charting the links between different levels of political struggle and mobilization during the churning early years of independence in Delhi.Trade Review"This elegantly written book sheds fresh light on issues of violence, migration, citizenship, and the politics of self-expression. It enriches both the narrativization of Partition and historical understanding of India's contemporary emergence as an ethnic democracy."—Ian Talbot, University of Southampton"In this innovative new history, Rotem Geva explores the sweeping changes that swept over Delhi as a result of India's independence and partition violence in 1947. The millenarian visions that shaped both the Indian nationalist movement and the movement for Pakistan provide a backdrop to the on-the-ground changes wrought by migration, struggles over property, and new forms of religious identity politics and state-making—which transformed the city forever."—David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University"Rotem Geva supplies a concise, perceptive history of 'how the twin events of partition and independence remade Delhi.'"—Michael M. Rosen, The Federalist"For geographers, there is much to cherish, admire, and be inspired by here. Though never absent of framings drawn from subaltern or postcolonial theory, this is an empirically grounded volume which takes us deep into the urban geographies of India's capital. These geographies are material and social, but also literary, journalistic, and emotional."—Stephen Legg, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography"The affective structure of [Delhi Reborn] interweaves disparate or distant events (like the violence of 1857, the partition, or the years of the Emergency) through memories and reportage to situate the memories in a longer lineage of violence. The beauty of this long-term view lies in the fact that instead of framing it as a teleological account of the atrocities that the Muslim community has had to endure in Delhi, it shows how despite the rampant and recurring efforts to displace and hurt families, resistance to these efforts never desist, and take up new forms."—Aprajita Sarcar, H-Soz-KultTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Dreaming Independence in the Colonial Capital 2. Partition Violence Shatters Utopia 3. An Uncertain State Confronts "Evacuee Property" 4. Claiming the City and Nation in the Urdu Press 5. Citizens' Rights: Delhi's Law and Order Legacy Epilogue

Read more less