Social and ethical issues Books

Book SynopsisWhy can't there be enough food, shelter, jobs, health care, homes, schools, education, safety and security for everyone? How can people work together to challenge the way things are, to help redistribute wealth and power, to create a more just and humane society? The answer is Creative Community Organizing. This latest work by legendary activist, musician and author Si Kahn, is a different kind of community organizing book. As with other books, including some by Kahn himself, it does outline many of the practical tactics organizers use. But itâs also about community organizing as a way of thinking and a way of life. Creative Community Organizing suggests ways that readers can identify and analyze the various options for action, weigh the positives and negatives and make choices among them. In other words, focus on the end goal and then determine the best strategies, tactics and methods to achieve that goal. It will help established community organizers become more creative and innovative, encourage them to question established principles and decide whether or not they still work. Those new to the field will discover a whole new way of looking at the world - theyâll gain a new sense of empowerment, understand that things donât have to be the way they are, that the world can be more fair and humane and that they can live and work in ways that help make that happen.

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Book SynopsisThe approach the United States has taken to addressing teen pregnancy— a ubiquitous concern in teen education and perennial topic in popular culture— has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Specifically since the radical overhaul of welfare policy in 1996, Clare Daniel argues, teen pregnancy, previously regarded as a social problem requiring public solutions, is seen as an individual failure on the part of the teens involved. Daniel investigates coordinated teen pregnancy pre- vention efforts within federal political discourse, along with public policy, popular culture, national advocacy, and local initiatives, revealing the evidence of this transformation. In the 1970s and 1980s, political leaders from both parties used teen pregnancy to strengthen their attacks on racialized impoverished communities. With a new welfare policy in 1996 that rhetoric moved toward blaming teen pregnancy— seemingly in a race- and class- neutral way— on the teens who engaged in sex prematurely and irresponsibly. Daniel effectively illustrates that the construction of teen pregnancy as an individual’s problem has been a key component in a neoliberal agenda that frees the government from the responsibility of addressing systemic problems of poverty, lack of access to education, ongoing structural racism, and more.Trade Review“Anyone who is doing research on teen pregnancy— from any perspective— should read this book, including people who might not usually engage in thinking about theories like intimate citizenship, biopolitics, and neoliberalism. Daniel writes about these topics in a very approachable fashion.” — Tasha n. Dubriwny, author of The Vulnerable Empowered Woman: Feminism, Postfeminism, and Women’s Health“Mediating Morality is lucidly written, meticulously researched, and thoughtfully constructed. It is an important contribution to scholars across disciplines working on women’s reproduction, youth cultures, media studies, and contemporary neoliberal discourses. I also hope it falls into the hands of policy- makers, social activists, and nonprofit leaders because it has the potential to change current framings of teen pregnancy and sex education.” — Karen Weingarten, author of Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880–1940

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Book SynopsisThis issue of Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies focuses on the visual, material, and sonic cultures of Lusophone Africa from the pre­colonial period to the contemporary moment and seeks to complicate current understandings of Lusophone Africa that are based on colonial and postindependence national borders.

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Book SynopsisThe pepperoni roll, a soft bread roll with pepperoni baked in the middle, originated in the coal mining areas of north central West Virginia when Italian immigrants invented a food that could be eaten easily underground.This spicy snack soon found its way out of the mines and into bakeries, bread companies, restaurants, and event venues around the state, often with additional ingredients like cheese, red sauce, or peppers.As the pepperoni roll’s reputation moves beyond the borders of West Virginia, this food continues to embody the culinary culture of its home state. It is now found at the center of bake offs, eating contests, festivals, as a gourmet item on local menus, and even on a bill in the state’s legislature. The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll is a comprehensive history of the unofficial state food of West Virginia. With over 100 photographs and countless recipes and recollections, it tells the story of the immigrants, business owners, laborers, and citizens who have developed and devoured this simple yet practical food since its invention.Trade Review“In The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll, Candace Nelson offers us an insider’s take on the pepperoni roll, exploring the history, science, great pepperoni roll debates (sticks v. slices, Sheetz v. the people of West Virginia), cultural context, regional variations, and adaptations as only a native could. As the nature of my work as state folklorist takes me all over West Virginia, hungry both in appetite and in my quest to sample local traditional culture—including foods—I am grateful to have such a guide.” - From the foreword by Emily Hilliard

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Book SynopsisIn a hard driving society like the United States, holidays are islands of softness. Holidays are times for creating memories and for celebrating cultural values, emotions, and social ties. All Together Now considers holidays that are celebrated by American families: Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Halloween, and the December holidays of Christmas or Chanukah. This book shows how entire families bond at holidays, in ways that allow both children and adults to be influential within their shared interaction. The decorations, songs, special ways of dressing, and rituals carry deep significance that is viscerally felt by even young tots. Ritual has the capacity to condense a plethora of meaning into a unified metaphor such as a Christmas tree, a menorah, or the American flag. These symbols allow children and adults to co-opt the meaning of symbols in flexible and age-relevant ways, all while the symbols are still treasured and shared in common. Trade Review“Beautifully written, persistently theoretically insightful and methodologically sound and innovative, All Together Now is a gem. Cindy Dell Clark builds on and expands her earlier work on holidays from an interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspective. This engaging book shines through with scholarship capturing the production of celebratory communal events at the individual, family, community and cultural level. A landmark study!” -- William A. Corsaro * author of The Sociology of Childhood 5th edition *"As a folklorist, it has long been my belief that we must look to the younger generations as well as the elder when studying tradition. Thankfully, Cindy Dell Clark provides us with a careful and important volume of research on American holidays as experienced by children. Clark examines children's holiday anxieties that we adults have forgotten or simply ignore. Her research includes the understudied Memorial Day and Chanukah, and focuses our attention on children who are marginalized by normative national celebrations such as diabetic children at Halloween and Jewish children at Christmas." -- Jack F Santino * editor of Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death *"Researcher’s New Book Explores Symbolism of Fourth of July and Other American Holidays" by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers-Camden News Now *Not a positive review; no pull quote available. * Choice *"Let the Ghoul Times Roll: Halloween Culturally Significant Despite Social-Distancing Norms, Says Researcher," by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers Today *“Beautifully written, persistently theoretically insightful and methodologically sound and innovative, All Together Now is a gem. Cindy Dell Clark builds on and expands her earlier work on holidays from an interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspective. This engaging book shines through with scholarship capturing the production of celebratory communal events at the individual, family, community and cultural level. A landmark study!” -- William A. Corsaro * author of The Sociology of Childhood 5th edition *"As a folklorist, it has long been my belief that we must look to the younger generations as well as the elder when studying tradition. Thankfully, Cindy Dell Clark provides us with a careful and important volume of research on American holidays as experienced by children. Clark examines children's holiday anxieties that we adults have forgotten or simply ignore. Her research includes the understudied Memorial Day and Chanukah, and focuses our attention on children who are marginalized by normative national celebrations such as diabetic children at Halloween and Jewish children at Christmas." -- Jack F Santino * editor of Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death *"Researcher’s New Book Explores Symbolism of Fourth of July and Other American Holidays" by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers-Camden News Now *Not a positive review; no pull quote available. * Choice *"Let the Ghoul Times Roll: Halloween Culturally Significant Despite Social-Distancing Norms, Says Researcher," by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers Today *Table of ContentsContents Preface 1 Introduction 2 Spring Season: Easter 3 Summer Season: Memorial Day and July 4th 4 Autumn Season: Halloween 5 Winter Season: Christmas and Chanukah 6 How Ritual Meaning Comes Together Appendix: About This Research Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title In The Queer Aesthetics of Childhood, Hannah Dyer offers a study of how children’s art and art about childhood can forecast new models of social life that redistribute care, belonging, and political value. Dyer suggests that childhood’s cultural expressions offer insight into the persisting residues of colonial history, nation building, homophobia, and related violence. Drawing from queer and feminist theory, psychoanalysis, settler-colonial studies, and cultural studies, this book helps to explain how some theories of childhood can hurt children. Dyer’s analysis moves between diverse sites and scales, including photographs and an art installation, children’s drawings after experiencing war in Gaza, a novel about gay love and childhood trauma, and debates in sex-education. In the cultural formations of art, she finds new theories of childhood that attend to the knowledge, trauma, fortitude and experience that children might possess. In addressing aggressions against children, ambivalences towards child protection, and the vital contributions children make to transnational politics, she seeks new and queer theories of childhood. Trade ReviewExciting, tender, persuasive, and smart. Dyers’ book is a clarion call to care for the bodies we call children. Let their creativity, strange in all its beauties, tell us how they’re harmed—hurt by norms that foster inequalities. I believe more than ever, thanks to Hannah Dyer, that “children” and “aesthetics” are the most profound pairing for safeguarding pleasure, for all living creatures, amid world trauma. — Kathryn Bond Stockton, author of The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century The Queer Aesthetics of Childhood makes a necessary and nuanced intervention in contemporary theorizations of the child, balancing the sociopolitical with the material while interrogating the array of affects and artifacts always in dialogue with the child. Working from a vibrant interdisciplinary stance — including biopolitics, psychoanalysis, racial capitalism, queer theory, Dyer weaves a fresh framework to read the child and, as centrally, to query child development and its attendant affects. Engaging a generative lens of arts and aesthetics — films, contemporary artists and other cultural workers— that provoke audiences to recognize the layered arrangements of power that both surround and mark the child, Dyer’s lyrically crafted book is essential reading for the emergent field of critical child studies and for all of us who struggle to build freer and more joyous futures for all. — Erica R. Meiners, author of For the Children? Protecting Innocence in a Carceral State "The range of Dyer’s objects of study is as impressive as her command of contemporary critical theory, and her project promises to significantly enrich the field of child studies and beyond. Highly recommended."— ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction: Childhood’s Queer Intimacies and Affective Intensities 1 Queer Temporality in the Playroom: Ebony G. Patterson and Jonathon Hobin’s Aesthetics of Child Development 2 Art and the Refusal of Empathy in A Child’s View from Gaza 3 The Queer Remains of Childhood Trauma: Notes on A Little Life 4 Reparation for a Violent Boyhood in This is England Epilogue: The Contested Design of Children’s Sexuality Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is it like to grow up in an orphanage? What do residents themselves have to say about their experiences? Are there ways that orphanages can be designed to meet children's developmental needs and to provide them with necessities they are unable to receive in their home communities? In this book, detailed observations of children's daily life in a Cambodian orphanage are combined with follow-up interviews of the same children after they have grown and left the orphanage. Their thoughtful reflections show that the quality of care children receive is more important for their well-being than the site in which they receive it. Life in a Cambodian Orphanage situates orphanages within the social and political history of Cambodia, and shows that orphanages need not always be considered bleak sites of deprivation and despair. It suggests best practices for caring for vulnerable children regardless of the setting in which they are living.Trade Review"Life in a Cambodian Orphanage is very well written — a significant addition to the literature on child circulation."— David F. Lancy, author of Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans and Laborers "Wonderfully nuanced and engagingly written, Kathie Carpenter has produced the definitive book on the rise and fall of the Cambodian orphanage ‘industry’. The voices of children themselves are brilliantly contextualised making this a compelling and compassionate book, rich in detail and empathy."— Heather Montgomery, co-editor of Childhood, Youth and Violence in Global Contexts: Research and Practice in DialogueTable of Contents1 Introduction 2 History of Orphanages in Cambodia 3 Orphanage Tourism and the Anti-Orphanage-Tourism Campaign 4 Methods 5 The Rhythms of Daily Life in the Orphanage 6 The Orphanage Remembered: Milestones and Experiences 7 Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead: Interpreting the COC Experience 8 Discussion and Conclusions Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSince the advent of the American toy industry, children’s cultural products have attempted to teach and sell ideas of American identity. By examining cultural products geared towards teaching children American history, Playing With History highlights the changes and constancies in depictions of the American story and ideals of citizenship over the last one hundred years. This book examines political and ideological messages sold to children throughout the twentieth century, tracing the messages conveyed by racist toy banks, early governmental interventions meant to protect the toy industry, influences and pressures surrounding Cold War stories of the western frontier, the fractures visible in the American story at a mid-century history themed amusement park. The study culminates in a look at the successes and limitations of the American Girl Company empire. Trade Review"Playing with History: American Identities and Children’s Consumer Culture doesn’t just explain the critical messages to children delivered by toys, amusements, and books, it provides a window into twentieth-century American life and the children who grew up receiving those messages—about race, class, and gender. It is both a powerful and an exceptionally interesting work of history. The rich details and the wonderful descriptions make this a pleasure to read." — Janet Golden, author of Babies Made Us Modern: How Infants Brought Americans into the Twentieth Century "Molly Rosner’s richly imagined study captures the complicated ways children’s things—toys, trains, dolls, books and a forgotten amusement park—smuggled lessons of history into hours of play and taught generations of white Americans to feel at home in a culture driven by consumption and fractured by class, gender and race." — Ann Fabian, author of The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America's Unburied Dead "Molly Rosner has provided us with a lively and vitally important addition to the historical literature on children, consumerism, and twentieth-century American culture. Perceptive, nuanced, thoroughly researched, imaginative, and beautifully written, Playing with History: American Identities and Children's Consumer Culture will not only appeal to, but inform educators, students, parents, and general readers about the process through which our children have, over the past century, learned what it meant to be an American." — David Nasaw, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Professor of History Emeritus at CUNY Graduate Center.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Made in America: The Rise of the American Toy Industry 2 Dolling Up History: 1930s Antique Dolls and the Clark Doll Study 3 “Gosh, It’s Exciting to Be an American”: The “Orange” and Landmark History Books during the Cold War 4 Family Fun for Everyone? Freedomland U.S.A., 1960–1964 5 Selling Multicultural Girlhood: The American Girl Doll, 1986 to Present Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisSecuritizing Youth offers new insights on young people’s engagement in a wide range of contexts related to the peace and security field. It presents empirical findings on the challenges and opportunities faced by young women and men in their efforts to build more peaceful, inclusive, and environmentally secure societies. The chapters included in this edited volume examine the diversity and complexity of young people’s engagement for peace and security in different countries across the globe and in different types and phases of conflict and violence, including both conflict-affected and relatively peaceful societies. Chapter contributors, young peacebuilders, and seasoned scholars and practitioners alike propose ways to support youth’s agency and facilitate their meaningful participation in decision-making. The chapters are organized around five broad thematic issues that correspond to the 5 Pillars of Action identified by UN Security Council Resolution 2250. Lessons learned are intended to inform the global youth, peace, and security agenda so that it better responds to on-the-ground realities, hence promoting more sustainable and inclusive approaches to long-lasting peace. Trade Review"Today’s super-youthful world features a dispiriting irony: young people at the center of much policy discussion usually are unable to make their own case. Fortunately, the contributors in this important book collectively contrast current policy confusions with dynamic youth on the ground. The result is a timely, foundational book. Strongly recommended."— Marc Sommers, author of The Outcast Majority: War, Development, and Youth in Africa "Anyone interested in understanding youth as a demographic dividend will find this book fascinating. Securitizing Youth provides an excellent overview of key issues raised by the UN’s policy focus on youth that is detailed, informative and accessible. The chapters provide keen insights into important topics ranging from youth engagement in mediating local conflicts to addressing climate change and their role in transitional justice. Marisa Ensor has made a significant contribution to this field of study."— Melanne Verveer, Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security, and former US Ambassador for Global WomeTable of ContentsIntroduction Marisa O. Ensor PART I Participation 1 Peace by, for, or with Youth? How a PYD Lens Enhances Our View of Young People’s Role in Peacebuilding Carole MacNeil 2 And Then They Came for Me: Youth’s Role in Mediating for Peace in Kibera, Kenya Grace Atuhaire PART II Protection 3 Protecting Marginalized Youths: Romani Children and Formal Education Diana Budur 4 Squeezed Agency: Youth Resistance to the Securitization of Peacebuilding Ali Altiok PART III Prevention 5 Lost in Translation? Youth Employment and Peacebuilding—from Policy to Programs Valeria Izzi 6 Community Ties, Training, and Technology: A More Effective Framework for Peace, Security, and Development for Afghan Youth Nasrat Khalid PART IV Partnerships 7 Climate Change, Environmental Action, and the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda: Global Policies, Local Efforts Marisa O. Ensor 8 Putting Youth on the Agenda: Intersections with the Women, Peace, and Security Framework Jeni Klugman and Matthew Moore PART V Disengagement and Reintegration 9 Securitized Youth, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Disengagement in Rwanda Victoria R. Bishop 10 Digital Media as the Next Frontier for Fighting Violent Extremism among Youth? Willice Onyango Conclusions: Securitizing Youth—Lessons Learned Marisa O. Ensor List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisSecuritizing Youth offers new insights on young people’s engagement in a wide range of contexts related to the peace and security field. It presents empirical findings on the challenges and opportunities faced by young women and men in their efforts to build more peaceful, inclusive, and environmentally secure societies. The chapters included in this edited volume examine the diversity and complexity of young people’s engagement for peace and security in different countries across the globe and in different types and phases of conflict and violence, including both conflict-affected and relatively peaceful societies. Chapter contributors, young peacebuilders, and seasoned scholars and practitioners alike propose ways to support youth’s agency and facilitate their meaningful participation in decision-making. The chapters are organized around five broad thematic issues that correspond to the 5 Pillars of Action identified by UN Security Council Resolution 2250. Lessons learned are intended to inform the global youth, peace, and security agenda so that it better responds to on-the-ground realities, hence promoting more sustainable and inclusive approaches to long-lasting peace. Trade Review"Anyone interested in understanding youth as a demographic dividend will find this book fascinating. Securitizing Youth provides an excellent overview of key issues raised by the UN’s policy focus on youth that is detailed, informative and accessible. The chapters provide keen insights into important topics ranging from youth engagement in mediating local conflicts to addressing climate change and their role in transitional justice. Marisa Ensor has made a significant contribution to this field of study." -- Melanne Verveer * Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security, and former US Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues *"Today’s super-youthful world features a dispiriting irony: young people at the center of much policy discussion usually are unable to make their own case. Fortunately, the contributors in this important book collectively contrast current policy confusions with dynamic youth on the ground. The result is a timely, foundational book. Strongly recommended." -- Marc Sommers * author of The Outcast Majority: War, Development, and Youth in Africa *"Anyone interested in understanding youth as a demographic dividend will find this book fascinating. Securitizing Youth provides an excellent overview of key issues raised by the UN’s policy focus on youth that is detailed, informative and accessible. The chapters provide keen insights into important topics ranging from youth engagement in mediating local conflicts to addressing climate change and their role in transitional justice. Marisa Ensor has made a significant contribution to this field of study." -- Melanne Verveer * Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security, and former US Ambassador for Global Wome *"Today’s super-youthful world features a dispiriting irony: young people at the center of much policy discussion usually are unable to make their own case. Fortunately, the contributors in this important book collectively contrast current policy confusions with dynamic youth on the ground. The result is a timely, foundational book. Strongly recommended." -- Marc Sommers * author of The Outcast Majority: War, Development, and Youth in Africa *Table of ContentsIntroduction Marisa O. Ensor PART I Participation 1 Peace by, for, or with Youth? How a PYD Lens Enhances Our View of Young People’s Role in Peacebuilding Carole MacNeil 2 And Then They Came for Me: Youth’s Role in Mediating for Peace in Kibera, Kenya Grace Atuhaire PART II Protection 3 Protecting Marginalized Youths: Romani Children and Formal Education Diana Budur 4 Squeezed Agency: Youth Resistance to the Securitization of Peacebuilding Ali Altiok PART III Prevention 5 Lost in Translation? Youth Employment and Peacebuilding—from Policy to Programs Valeria Izzi 6 Community Ties, Training, and Technology: A More Effective Framework for Peace, Security, and Development for Afghan Youth Nasrat Khalid PART IV Partnerships 7 Climate Change, Environmental Action, and the Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda: Global Policies, Local Efforts Marisa O. Ensor 8 Putting Youth on the Agenda: Intersections with the Women, Peace, and Security Framework Jeni Klugman and Matthew Moore PART V Disengagement and Reintegration 9 Securitized Youth, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Disengagement in Rwanda Victoria R. Bishop 10 Digital Media as the Next Frontier for Fighting Violent Extremism among Youth? Willice Onyango Conclusions: Securitizing Youth—Lessons Learned Marisa O. Ensor List of Contributors Index

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