Society and culture: general Books

Book SynopsisGoverning the Displaced answers a straightforward question: how are refugees governed under capitalism in this moment of heightened global displacement? To answer this question, Ali Bhagat takes a dual case study approach to explore three dimensions of refugee survival in Paris and Nairobi: shelter, work, and political belonging. Bhagat''s book makes sense of a global refugee regime along the contradictory fault lines of passive humanitarianism, violent exclusion, and organized abandonment in the European Union and East Africa. Governing the Displaced highlights the interrelated and overlapping features of refugee governance and survival in these seemingly disparate places. In its intersectional engagement with theories of racial capitalism with respect to right-wing populism, labor politics, and the everyday forms of exclusion, the book is a timely and necessary contribution to the field of migration studies and to political economy.

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Book SynopsisIn International Law and the Public, Geoffrey P.R. Wallace investigates the public as a crucial, often overlooked, actor in international law. He asks just who is it that counts in the operation of the international legal order. Defying conventional wisdom that sees governments, leaders, generals, lawyers, or elites from the upper echelons of society as the main international legal players, Wallace advances a popular international law where ordinary people are considered important legal actors in their own right alongside the usual focus on elites. Far from powerless or unwitting, publics possess both the cognitive and material capacities to understand and contribute to the intricacies of international legal rules. Combining rigorous theorizing with wide-ranging evidence, International Law and the Public is an account of an international legal politics from below, taking seriously the place of ordinary people in international affairs.

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Book SynopsisFederal entitlement programs are strewn throughout the pages of U.S. history, springing from the noble purpose of assisting people who are destitute through no fault of their own. Yet as federal entitlement programs have grown, so too have their inefficiency and their cost. Neither tax revenues nor revenues generated by the national economy have been able to keep pace with their rising growth, bringing the national debt to a record peacetime level. The High Cost of Good Intentions is the first comprehensive history of these federal entitlement programs. Combining economics, history, political science, and law, John F. Cogan reveals how the creation of entitlements brings forth a steady march of liberalizing forces that cause entitlement programs to expand. This process—as visible in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as in the present day—is repeated until benefits are extended to nearly all who could be considered eligible, and in turn establishes a new base for future expansions. His work provides a unifying explanation for the evolutionary path that nearly all federal entitlement programs have followed over the past two hundred years, tracing both their shared past and the financial risks they pose for future generations.Trade Review"John Cogan's book is an extensively researched and unbiased examination of how well-intentioned federal entitlement programs have evolved to become our country's number one fiscal challenge. His timely historical work deepens our understanding of how entitlement programs have grown into a costly burden that we ultimately cannot afford. Cogan makes clear that slowing the growth of entitlements is essential and that meeting this challenge is more about simple arithmetic than ideology. This book should be read by anyone interested in addressing our nation's fiscal and economic future, regardless of their political persuasion." -- Sam Nunn * former U.S. Senator *"Finally someone has written a comprehensive history of America's efforts to help worthy groups of Americans: the elderly, the veteran, the less fortunate, and the very young. It is a history of ever more generous help to ever larger groups of people. You can agree or disagree with the merit of all these programs, but the cost is clear, and John Cogan shows why that cost has been either ignored or passed to future generations. The first step in fixing our entitlements is knowing their history. Cogan has now given us that history." -- Bill Bradley * former U.S. Senator *"John Cogan thoroughly reviews one of the greatest challenges facing our country: the unsustainable growth of entitlement spending. He provides a comprehensive view of the issue by looking at the history, the evolution, and the daunting numbers. Cogan brings his extraordinary knowledge and background in economics, fiscal policy, health care, and Social Security to bear in this book to give the reader a full understanding of the roots and the extent of this growing problem that must be tackled." -- Paul D. Ryan * Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives *"John Cogan lays bare the historic roots of the most important economic problem confronting American policymakers today: our runaway entitlements juggernaut. In the past half-century it has consumed ten percentage points of GDP, threatening productivity and economic growth. Cogan does not profess to have found an easy, short-term solution to runaway entitlement growth, but his masterful historical perspective does suggest what must be done sooner, rather than later. This is an important and splendid book." -- Alan Greenspan * former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States (1987–2006) and former Chairman of the National Commission on Social Security Reform (1983) *"The High Cost of Good Intentions is a thoroughly researched, intellectually serious history of every major American entitlement program, from Revolutionary and Civil War pensions to Social Security, food stamps, and Obamacare. I know of no other work that offers such a comprehensive, readable history of the American welfare state." -- R. Shep Melnick * Claremont Review of Books *"John Cogan gives us a blockbuster treatise on the history of federal entitlement programs. Part education, part cautionary tale, this richly researched book is above all a fascinating and insightful saga on how and why federal entitlements grow. A valuable guide to the future." -- George P. Shultz, Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; former U.S. Secretary of State, Treasury * and Labor; and former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget *"John Cogan's history of federal entitlement programs warns us that the ice we skate on has grown thinner decade by decade....Cogan provides useful case studies of measures that were sensible, self-limiting, and freedom-enhancing like the GI Bill, and current ones that grow as each benefit expansion leads to future entitlements that leave worthy original goals no longer recognizable." -- World Magazine 2017 Books of the Year"[The book] will surely be of interest to academics, policymakers, and the members of the public with concern for the consequences of entitlements in the United States....[T]his is an easy book to recommend." -- Bill Dupor * National Association for Business Economics *"People often wonder how "the land of the free" acquired such a huge government that interferes with so many parts of our lives. Cogan has shown how that happened with entitlement programs, which are a huge part of government." -- David R. Henderson * Regulation *"John F. Cogan handles the historical details of myriad social programs with considerable competence...This book covers subjects missing from the historical literature and generalizes across cases in useful ways. It will surely aid historians as they write about the modern welfare state."––Edward D. Berkowitz, Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Introduction chapter abstractThe book addresses the question of how and why federal entitlement programs have grown so large and have become so far removed from the ideals on which they were founded. It presents a history of major federal entitlement programs from the beginning of the Republic to the present, showing how they evolved and explaining the forces that caused their evolution. The programs covered include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, other welfare programs, and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century veterans' disability pensions. These programs have sprung from the noble intention of providing assistance to people who are destitute through no fault of their own. As well-meaning and beneficial as many entitlements may be, they have come at a high cost, measured by lower national savings, higher public debt, and slower economic growth. Today, entitlements present the United States with a fiscal challenge unlike any other in the nation's history. 2Creating Legislative Precedents: Revolutionary War Pensions chapter abstractRevolutionary War pensions were the nation's first entitlement program. The program's evolution provides an early glimpse of Congress's tendency to liberalize entitlements and the forces that drive Congress. The original federal program limited annual pensions to Continental Army soldiers and seamen who became impoverished as a result of disabling wartime injuries or illness. Congress enlarged and expanded these benefits until, in the 1830s, they covered virtually all Revolutionary War seamen and soldiers, including volunteers and members of the state militia, and their widows, regardless of disability or income. Each liberalization was justified on the grounds that it was providing pensions to veterans who were no less worthy of assistance than veterans who were already receiving pensions. Each established a new base of benefits from which Congress considered subsequent liberalizations. Each was a result of political pressures generated by large federal budget surpluses. 3An Experiment with Government Trust Funds: Navy Pensions chapter abstractThe navy pension fund program was the federal government's first trust fund. It was financed by a single, dedicated source of revenue: prize money from the sale of captured enemy and pirate ships and their contents, commonly called "booty." The navy pension's early history provides a second example of Congress's tendency to liberalize entitlement program eligibility whenever surplus funds are available. However, in the case of navy pensions, it was surpluses of prize money in the trust fund rather than overall federal budget surpluses, that mattered. The trust fund's insolvency in 1840, the direct result of an ill-considered benefit expansion, serves as an early warning for Social Security and Medicare trust funds. 4The First Great Entitlement: Civil War Pensions chapter abstractThe Civil War pension program followed the same evolutionary path as earlier veterans' pensions, except on a far grander scale. The program evolved into a general disability and retirement program for virtually all Union soldiers. At the program's peak in 1896, pensions were provided to nearly 1 million Union soldiers and their survivors, and annual pension expenditures reached an extraordinary 40 percent of federal budget expenditures. The program's liberalizations were fueled by large federal budget surpluses. In the late nineteenth century, the Republican Party used generous Civil War pension benefits to gain electoral advantage. The pensions played an important role in the realignment of the American electorate behind the party in the 1890s. The pension program also spawned America's first national, single-issue lobby: the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR exerted a powerful influence on pension legislation and served as a forerunner to large twentieth-century lobbying organizations. 5Repeating Past Mistakes: World War I Veterans' Benefits chapter abstractCongress enacted World War I disability pension programs with the objective of preventing a repeat of the Civil War pension program's excesses. The novel programs were designed to alleviate future political pressures to liberalize disability pensions as veterans aged. These programs proved to be no match for claims for benefits by ineligible veterans and the availability of large budget surpluses. Congress not only extended World War I veterans' pensions as it had previous wartime pensions; it did so at a much faster pace. Promises of benefits, called "bonus" payments, by a 1924 law spawned mass marches by veterans in cities throughout the country demanding their promised entitlement benefit. The most memorable of these was the 1932 Bonus Expeditionary Force march on Washington, D.C., which ended when troops under General Douglas McArthur's command drove the veterans from the city. 6Retrenchment: Roosevelt and the Veterans chapter abstractThe first year of the Roosevelt administration witnessed the largest reduction in an entitlement program in U.S. history. Franklin Roosevelt terminated pensions for 450,000 veterans and reduced the amount of monthly pensions for thousands of veterans who remained on the rolls. The story of how he achieved this result provides lessons for future presidents. The president made a strong moral and economic case for terminating veterans and used the budget crisis created by the Great Depression to prod Congress to give him the authority to cut pensions. Throughout the remainder of the president's first two terms, President Roosevelt used his veto power and other powers of the office of the president to sustain the vast majority of these reductions. 7The Birth of the Modern Entitlement State chapter abstractThe New Deal marks the beginning of the modern entitlement system. Until the New Deal, federal entitlements were restricted to people who had performed a specific government service, mainly veterans. The New Deal expanded federal entitlements to people in the population at large, state governments, and private businesses. The landmark Social Security program provided retirement benefits to industrial workers. New federal welfare programs entitled state governments to matching payments for their welfare programs. Unfortunately, important lessons from the government's experience with wartime veterans' pensions went unheeded. The New Deal entitlements also ushered in a new era for the federal courts. The Supreme Court allowed the New Deal entitlements to pass constitutional muster under the "general welfare" clause. Once federal entitlement rights had been granted, the courts adjudicated the nature and extent of these legal rights, eventually creating welfare entitlement rights where none had been legislated. 8The Consequences of Social Security Surpluses chapter abstractCongress again demonstrated its inability to withstand pressures to increase entitlement benefits when surplus funds are available. The 1935 Social Security Act called for the program to build up a large reserve fund during the program's early years that could be drawn on in later years to finance benefits in lieu of higher payroll taxes. The "large reserve" debate led congressional liberals and conservatives to join together in 1939 to use the surplus to raise benefit levels, add survivors' benefits, and delay a previously scheduled payroll tax increase from taking place. 9A New Kind of Entitlement: The GI Bill chapter abstractThe Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the GI Bill, introduced a new type of entitlement program: one that provided in-kind benefits rather than unrestricted cash assistance. The law provided World War II veterans with educational assistance and home, farm, and business loan guarantees. The new type of entitlement bestowed a legal right to reimbursement on persons and institutions that provide the benefits prescribed by the law, in addition to those who receive their services. The GI Bill was the forerunner of the numerous in-kind benefit entitlements enacted in the 1960s and 1970s to provide health care, nutrition, and social services for the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. 10Setting the Postwar Entitlement Agenda: 1946–1950 chapter abstractAt the war's end, the American entitlement state stood at a crucial policy juncture. The New Deal had set the building blocks of the modern American entitlement state firmly in place, but its future remained highly uncertain. President Truman set the course that entitlements would follow for the remainder of the twentieth century. Large Social Security accounting surpluses provided President Truman and congressional Democrats with the means to ensure that Social Security, instead of state old-age programs, became the primary vehicle for delivering assistance to the elderly. In 1950, Congress took a major step toward this end by sharply increasing Social Security benefits and significantly expanding coverage in the workforce. The benefit increase, timed to coincide with the 1950 congressional elections, demonstrated that Democrats had developed the practice of using a major entitlement program to gain electoral advantage into a finely honed skill. Republicans, after showing modest resistance, acquiesced. 111951–1964: Establishing Social Insurance Dominance chapter abstractFrom 1950 to the Great Society, congressional Republicans and Democrats joined together to ensure that Social Security replaced state-run old-age assistance as the first line of defense against poverty among the elderly. Monthly benefits were incrementally expanded, and coverage became nearly universal. Large Social Security accounting surpluses fueled the increases in the early 1950s despite the overall federal budget's often poor condition. Congress's use of Social Security to gain electoral advantage was raised to a fine art, as election-year benefit increases were strategically timed. The only new major new entitlement of the 1950s was the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Soon after it was established, the program followed the familiar path that had been blazed by nineteenth-century veterans' pensions, as eligibility was extended to "equally worthy" groups that had been excluded from the original program. 12The Great Turn in Welfare Policy: 1951–1964 chapter abstractWhile legislation during the years 1951 to 1964 incrementally expanded federal funding for state welfare programs, major fissures emerged in the New Deal's bedrock welfare policy principles of state autonomy and cash assistance. Federal welfare officials used the threat of withholding federal funds as a lever to limit state authority to set welfare eligibility rules. The threats were a response to state and local government actions, particularly those taken by southern state governments with a history of discriminatory treatment of African Americans, to curtail welfare eligibility. As tensions between the two levels of government mounted, Congress stepped in with legislation to strengthen federal authority. By the mid-1960s, the principle of state autonomy had been greatly eroded. At the same time, welfare officials began to question the wisdom of providing additional cash assistance to the poor and turned increasingly to providing in-kind benefits in lieu of additional cash assistance. 13The First Great Society chapter abstractThe Great Society program in 1965 marks the beginning of a remarkable ten-year period in which Congress expanded entitlements at a rapid rate unprecedented in U.S. history. Under President Johnson, new health care entitlement programs, Medicare and Medicaid, were created; Social Security disability was expanded to temporarily disabled workers; two large general increases in Social Security benefits were enacted; and the Aid for Dependent Children program experienced its largest expansion in its thirty-year history. Federal revenues from a rapidly expanding economy provided the fuel for this legislative blitzkrieg. The revenue surge, as with previous surges, made the desire to expand entitlement benefits irresistible. The period, one of great social upheaval, witnessed a new entitlement phenomenon: welfare mothers, urged on by government-funded activists, organized and marched on federal, state, and local governments to demand higher welfare benefits and fewer restrictions on eligibility. 14A Legal Right to Welfare chapter abstractThis legal view that welfare benefits were a gratuity and not an entitlement underwent a significant change in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Three major Supreme Court decisions from 1969 to 1971 radically expanded the legal rights of welfare recipients and claimants. The Court (1) declared that long-standing state "suitable home" regulations violated federal law, (2) struck down state residence requirements for welfare as a violation of an individual's constitutional right to travel, and (3) ruled that welfare benefits were akin to property and were therefore protected by the Constitution's due process requirements. This last case established a legal entitlement right to welfare benefits. 15The Second Great Society chapter abstractDuring Richard Nixon's presidency, the food stamp program was nationalized, a permanent federal unemployment program was created, a new revenue-sharing program that entitled states and local governments to a share of federal revenue was established, and child nutrition programs were converted into an entitlement to school districts. Presidential proposals for a federally guaranteed annual income and national health insurance program failed. Fueled by pressure from large accounting surpluses in the Social Security trust fund, Congress raised Social Security benefits by 69 percent in four years and indexed Social Security benefits to inflation. But the flawed indexing formula set the program on a path to insolvency. The entitlement liberalizations from 1969 to 1975 caused federal entitlement spending to grow annually at a remarkable 10 percent inflation-adjusted rate. By 1975, entitlements accounted for nearly half of all federal spending. 16First Inklings of Fiscal Limits: 1975–1980 chapter abstractThe years of Jimmy Carter's presidency, plagued by large federal budget deficits from the prior dozen years of entitlement liberalizations, witnessed a dramatically slower pace of entitlement expansions. No new entitlements were written onto the federal statute books. Expansions were mainly limited to the food stamp program in which stamps were made free of charge. The major legislative action concerned Social Security. By 1977, the flawed indexing formula that had been written into the statute books in 1972 had pushed Social Security toward imminent insolvency. Congress responded by enacting a new wage replacement formula that, for the first and only time in the program's history, significantly reduced benefits that had been promised to workers. The reductions were not limited to people who would retire decades later. They were also reduced for workers who were in their late 50s at the time the law was enacted. 17A Temporary Slowdown: 1981–1989 chapter abstractPresident Reagan was the first president in U.S. history to attempt to comprehensively reduce entitlement spending. His efforts were part of a larger package of economic policies designed to restore noninflationary growth to the U.S. economy. The package produced a colossal battle with Congress. The first two years of furious combat dominated the business of Congress. Congress subjected almost every major entitlement program to at least some retrenchment. Fiercely contested budget battles continued for the next six years as Congress sought to return to its long-standing practice of incrementally expanding entitlements. The administration's implacable opposition and large budget deficits severely limited entitlement liberalizations. The entitlement restraint from 1981 to 1989 reversed a thirty-year upward trend. Yet despite the Reagan administration's achievements, the entitlement state in 1989 remained largely intact. Its largest programs had defied retrenchment. 18Recognition and Denial: 1989–2014 chapter abstractBy the early 1990s, federal officials recognized the true magnitude of the looming fiscal storm that entitlements had created. Yet the executive and legislative branches of government ignored the warnings. Both branches of government worked in concert to expand eligibility for Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and food stamps and to expand Medicare to prescription drugs. These liberalizations mainly extended aid to "worthy" nonpoor persons. Congress and President Obama capped off the period by extending health insurance subsidies to people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty line. Attempts to restrain federal spending proved fruitless. In one striking departure from these legislative patterns, Congress enacted reversed decades of federal welfare policy by eliminating an individual's entitlement to AFDC benefits and transferring program policymaking authority to the states. 19A Challenge Unlike Any Other in U.S. History chapter abstractFederal entitlements now distribute government aid on a scale that is unprecedented in history. Over half of all U.S. households receive entitlement assistance. Most entitlement spending serves purposes other than reducing the degree of poverty among the poor. The soaring growth in entitlement spending creates a unique fiscal challenge. History provides a guide to meeting the challenge, but a fundamental restructuring is needed. A restructuring must keep in mind that providing assistance to individuals who are impoverished through no fault of their own is a hallmark of a compassionate society. The book optimistically concludes by noting that the main elements for a change in entitlement policy are coming into place. There is widespread public skepticism that entitlements are delivering on their promises and that the country can afford to deliver on future promises. But mounting public pressure will ultimately force a change in government policies.

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Book SynopsisWhen first written into the Constitution, intellectual property aimed to facilitate "progress of science and the useful arts" by granting rights to authors and inventors. Today, when rapid technological evolution accompanies growing wealth inequality and political and social divisiveness, the constitutional goal of "progress" may pertain to more basic, human values, redirecting IP's emphasis to the commonweal instead of private interests. Against Progress considers contemporary debates about intellectual property law as concerning the relationship between the constitutional mandate of progress and fundamental values, such as equality, privacy, and distributive justice, that are increasingly challenged in today's internet age. Following a legal analysis of various intellectual property court cases, Jessica Silbey examines the experiences of everyday creators and innovators navigating ownership, sharing, and sustainability within the internet eco-system and current IP laws. Crucially, the book encourages refiguring the substance of "progress" and the function of intellectual property in terms that demonstrate the urgency of art and science to social justice today.Trade Review"Against Progress is a satisfying, witty, and altogether magnificent provocation about the ethical limits of owning ideas. What happens when 'the road to progress' (which patent, intellectual property, and trademark laws are supposed to sustain) becomes littered with privatized toll booths and heavy fines? What happens when the right to profit from one's creativity hardens into an extractive vise so overreaching that it stifles broad economies of knowledge production? Most importantly, what happens when the internet's pyrrhic gift of viral reproductibility enables vast abuses of power, outright theft, and the widespread impoverishment of musicians, artists, writers, inventors? Jessica Silbey's brilliant book reanimates the values and virtues that once informed this legal arena: fairness, honesty, civic empathy, restraint, and the world-building sociality of shared creative enterprise."—Patricia J. Williams, Northeastern University"Against Progress announces a timely and needful reorientation of intellectual property scholarship in North America, insisting on democracy, rather than efficiency, as the organizing conceptual principle, offering an unusually insightful and revitalizing translation of efficiency into otherwise latent social justice concerns, and thus of narrowly framed economic issues into vivid dialogues and contestations about political culture. A remarkable work."—Abraham Drassinower, University of Toronto"I have long thought that we as IP lawyers would do well to listen to the voices of creators—especially when those creators are not clients of ours. Against Progress does a fantastic job of letting those creators express, in their own voices, the struggles they face trying to adapt their professional lives to a changing technological environment. Kudos to Silbey for letting their voices be heard, framed by high-level legal discussion of whether our IP laws are doing the work of advancing progress—or pushing back on it."—Gaston Kroub, Above the Law"[Silbey's] book is well-researched and organized and includes an excellent analysis of traditional IP case law and interviews with more than 100 real-world creators about how they navigate the IP law system.... This is an important read for anyone interested in the shifting policies surrounding IP law. Recommended."—J. D. Graveline, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Is Progress More? 1. Everyone's a Photographer Now: The Case of Digital Photography 2. Equality 3. Privacy 4. Distributive Justice (or "Fairer Uses") 5. Precarity and Institutional Failures Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn the 1930s, a cohort of professional human scientists coalesced around a common and particular understanding of objectivity as the foundation of legitimate knowledge, and of fieldwork as the pathway to objectivity. Into the Field is the first collective biography of this cohort, evocatively described by one contemporary as the men of one age. At the height of imperialism, the men of one age undertook field research in territories under Japanese rule in pursuit of "objective" information that would justify the subjugation of local peoples. After 1945, amid the defeat and dismantling of Japanese sovereignty and under the occupation and tutelage of the United States, they returned to the field to create narratives of human difference that supported the new national values of democracy, capitalism, and peace. The 1968 student movement challenged these values, resulting in an all-encompassing attack on objectivity itself. Nonetheless, the legacy of the men of one age lives on in the disciplines they developed and the beliefs they established about human diversity.Trade Review"A very refreshing look at race, culture, and objectivity in modern Japan. This engaging book considers critical issues of the twentieth century: historical continuity, power and knowledge in the empires and the Cold War, and the politics of generations. Sophisticated yet lucidly written, it is accessible and highly stimulating for academics and non-academics alike."—Hiromi Mizuno, University of Minnesota"Kingsberg Kadia's important study allows a glimpse into Japan's postwar re-imagination of itself through the lens of American social science and through the study of its former empire. Her careful archival work exposes the negotiations of human scientists as they attempted to situate Japan in a global order promoting democracy and cosmopolitanism."—Amy Borovoy, Princeton University"Into the Field pays close attention to the interplay between ideas, institutions, and individuals, setting a high standard for the history of the social and human sciences."—George Steinmetz, University of Michigan"[Kingsberg Kadia] utilizes an impressive variety of sources, and the book shines where she inserts Japanese social science endeavors into a broader global context.Into the Fieldis an excellently researched, fascinating study."—Annika A. Culver, H-Diplo"[Kingsberg] Kadia's book . . . shines most in its analyses of how Izumi's generation, across the tempestuous middle decades of the twentieth century, used ethnology continuously to revise and recreate Japanese national identity according to temperamental geopolitical fluctuations."—Hansun Hsiung, University of Durham, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society"Into the Field is an important, thought-provoking, impressively researched contribution to our understanding of how human scientists shaped Japan's views of itself and others in the twentieth century."—Timothy S. George, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction: Men of One Age 1. The Origins of Fieldwork in the Japanese Empire 2. Group Fieldwork in Wartime 3. Objectivity under the U.S. Occupation 4. From "Race" to "Culture" 5. Others into Japanese 6. Japanese into Others 7. Excavating National Identity in the Antipodes 8. 1968 and the Passing of the Field Generation

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Book SynopsisFederal entitlement programs are strewn throughout the pages of U.S. history, springing from the noble purpose of assisting people who are destitute through no fault of their own. Yet as federal entitlement programs have grown, so too have their inefficiency and their cost. Neither tax revenues nor revenues generated by the national economy have been able to keep pace with their rising growth, bringing the national debt to a record peacetime level. The High Cost of Good Intentions is the first comprehensive history of these federal entitlement programs. Combining economics, history, political science, and law, John F. Cogan reveals how the creation of entitlements brings forth a steady march of liberalizing forces that cause entitlement programs to expand. This process—as visible in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as in the present day—is repeated until benefits are extended to nearly all who could be considered eligible, and in turn establishes a new base for future expansions. His work provides a unifying explanation for the evolutionary path that nearly all federal entitlement programs have followed over the past two hundred years, tracing both their shared past and the financial risks they pose for future generations.Trade Review"John Cogan's book is an extensively researched and unbiased examination of how well-intentioned federal entitlement programs have evolved to become our country's number one fiscal challenge. His timely historical work deepens our understanding of how entitlement programs have grown into a costly burden that we ultimately cannot afford. Cogan makes clear that slowing the growth of entitlements is essential and that meeting this challenge is more about simple arithmetic than ideology. This book should be read by anyone interested in addressing our nation's fiscal and economic future, regardless of their political persuasion." -- Sam Nunn * former U.S. Senator *"Finally someone has written a comprehensive history of America's efforts to help worthy groups of Americans: the elderly, the veteran, the less fortunate, and the very young. It is a history of ever more generous help to ever larger groups of people. You can agree or disagree with the merit of all these programs, but the cost is clear, and John Cogan shows why that cost has been either ignored or passed to future generations. The first step in fixing our entitlements is knowing their history. Cogan has now given us that history." -- Bill Bradley * former U.S. Senator *"John Cogan thoroughly reviews one of the greatest challenges facing our country: the unsustainable growth of entitlement spending. He provides a comprehensive view of the issue by looking at the history, the evolution, and the daunting numbers. Cogan brings his extraordinary knowledge and background in economics, fiscal policy, health care, and Social Security to bear in this book to give the reader a full understanding of the roots and the extent of this growing problem that must be tackled." -- Paul D. Ryan * Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives *"John Cogan lays bare the historic roots of the most important economic problem confronting American policymakers today: our runaway entitlements juggernaut. In the past half-century it has consumed ten percentage points of GDP, threatening productivity and economic growth. Cogan does not profess to have found an easy, short-term solution to runaway entitlement growth, but his masterful historical perspective does suggest what must be done sooner, rather than later. This is an important and splendid book." -- Alan Greenspan * former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States (1987–2006) and former Chairman of the National Commission on Social Security Reform (1983) *"The High Cost of Good Intentions is a thoroughly researched, intellectually serious history of every major American entitlement program, from Revolutionary and Civil War pensions to Social Security, food stamps, and Obamacare. I know of no other work that offers such a comprehensive, readable history of the American welfare state." -- R. Shep Melnick * Claremont Review of Books *"John Cogan gives us a blockbuster treatise on the history of federal entitlement programs. Part education, part cautionary tale, this richly researched book is above all a fascinating and insightful saga on how and why federal entitlements grow. A valuable guide to the future." -- George P. Shultz, Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; former U.S. Secretary of State, Treasury * and Labor; and former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget *"John Cogan's history of federal entitlement programs warns us that the ice we skate on has grown thinner decade by decade....Cogan provides useful case studies of measures that were sensible, self-limiting, and freedom-enhancing like the GI Bill, and current ones that grow as each benefit expansion leads to future entitlements that leave worthy original goals no longer recognizable." -- World Magazine 2017 Books of the Year"[The book] will surely be of interest to academics, policymakers, and the members of the public with concern for the consequences of entitlements in the United States....[T]his is an easy book to recommend." -- Bill Dupor * National Association for Business Economics *"People often wonder how "the land of the free" acquired such a huge government that interferes with so many parts of our lives. Cogan has shown how that happened with entitlement programs, which are a huge part of government." -- David R. Henderson * Regulation *"John F. Cogan handles the historical details of myriad social programs with considerable competence...This book covers subjects missing from the historical literature and generalizes across cases in useful ways. It will surely aid historians as they write about the modern welfare state."––Edward D. Berkowitz, Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Introduction chapter abstractThe book addresses the question of how and why federal entitlement programs have grown so large and have become so far removed from the ideals on which they were founded. It presents a history of major federal entitlement programs from the beginning of the Republic to the present, showing how they evolved and explaining the forces that caused their evolution. The programs covered include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, other welfare programs, and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century veterans' disability pensions. These programs have sprung from the noble intention of providing assistance to people who are destitute through no fault of their own. As well-meaning and beneficial as many entitlements may be, they have come at a high cost, measured by lower national savings, higher public debt, and slower economic growth. Today, entitlements present the United States with a fiscal challenge unlike any other in the nation's history. 2Creating Legislative Precedents: Revolutionary War Pensions chapter abstractRevolutionary War pensions were the nation's first entitlement program. The program's evolution provides an early glimpse of Congress's tendency to liberalize entitlements and the forces that drive Congress. The original federal program limited annual pensions to Continental Army soldiers and seamen who became impoverished as a result of disabling wartime injuries or illness. Congress enlarged and expanded these benefits until, in the 1830s, they covered virtually all Revolutionary War seamen and soldiers, including volunteers and members of the state militia, and their widows, regardless of disability or income. Each liberalization was justified on the grounds that it was providing pensions to veterans who were no less worthy of assistance than veterans who were already receiving pensions. Each established a new base of benefits from which Congress considered subsequent liberalizations. Each was a result of political pressures generated by large federal budget surpluses. 3An Experiment with Government Trust Funds: Navy Pensions chapter abstractThe navy pension fund program was the federal government's first trust fund. It was financed by a single, dedicated source of revenue: prize money from the sale of captured enemy and pirate ships and their contents, commonly called "booty." The navy pension's early history provides a second example of Congress's tendency to liberalize entitlement program eligibility whenever surplus funds are available. However, in the case of navy pensions, it was surpluses of prize money in the trust fund rather than overall federal budget surpluses, that mattered. The trust fund's insolvency in 1840, the direct result of an ill-considered benefit expansion, serves as an early warning for Social Security and Medicare trust funds. 4The First Great Entitlement: Civil War Pensions chapter abstractThe Civil War pension program followed the same evolutionary path as earlier veterans' pensions, except on a far grander scale. The program evolved into a general disability and retirement program for virtually all Union soldiers. At the program's peak in 1896, pensions were provided to nearly 1 million Union soldiers and their survivors, and annual pension expenditures reached an extraordinary 40 percent of federal budget expenditures. The program's liberalizations were fueled by large federal budget surpluses. In the late nineteenth century, the Republican Party used generous Civil War pension benefits to gain electoral advantage. The pensions played an important role in the realignment of the American electorate behind the party in the 1890s. The pension program also spawned America's first national, single-issue lobby: the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR exerted a powerful influence on pension legislation and served as a forerunner to large twentieth-century lobbying organizations. 5Repeating Past Mistakes: World War I Veterans' Benefits chapter abstractCongress enacted World War I disability pension programs with the objective of preventing a repeat of the Civil War pension program's excesses. The novel programs were designed to alleviate future political pressures to liberalize disability pensions as veterans aged. These programs proved to be no match for claims for benefits by ineligible veterans and the availability of large budget surpluses. Congress not only extended World War I veterans' pensions as it had previous wartime pensions; it did so at a much faster pace. Promises of benefits, called "bonus" payments, by a 1924 law spawned mass marches by veterans in cities throughout the country demanding their promised entitlement benefit. The most memorable of these was the 1932 Bonus Expeditionary Force march on Washington, D.C., which ended when troops under General Douglas McArthur's command drove the veterans from the city. 6Retrenchment: Roosevelt and the Veterans chapter abstractThe first year of the Roosevelt administration witnessed the largest reduction in an entitlement program in U.S. history. Franklin Roosevelt terminated pensions for 450,000 veterans and reduced the amount of monthly pensions for thousands of veterans who remained on the rolls. The story of how he achieved this result provides lessons for future presidents. The president made a strong moral and economic case for terminating veterans and used the budget crisis created by the Great Depression to prod Congress to give him the authority to cut pensions. Throughout the remainder of the president's first two terms, President Roosevelt used his veto power and other powers of the office of the president to sustain the vast majority of these reductions. 7The Birth of the Modern Entitlement State chapter abstractThe New Deal marks the beginning of the modern entitlement system. Until the New Deal, federal entitlements were restricted to people who had performed a specific government service, mainly veterans. The New Deal expanded federal entitlements to people in the population at large, state governments, and private businesses. The landmark Social Security program provided retirement benefits to industrial workers. New federal welfare programs entitled state governments to matching payments for their welfare programs. Unfortunately, important lessons from the government's experience with wartime veterans' pensions went unheeded. The New Deal entitlements also ushered in a new era for the federal courts. The Supreme Court allowed the New Deal entitlements to pass constitutional muster under the "general welfare" clause. Once federal entitlement rights had been granted, the courts adjudicated the nature and extent of these legal rights, eventually creating welfare entitlement rights where none had been legislated. 8The Consequences of Social Security Surpluses chapter abstractCongress again demonstrated its inability to withstand pressures to increase entitlement benefits when surplus funds are available. The 1935 Social Security Act called for the program to build up a large reserve fund during the program's early years that could be drawn on in later years to finance benefits in lieu of higher payroll taxes. The "large reserve" debate led congressional liberals and conservatives to join together in 1939 to use the surplus to raise benefit levels, add survivors' benefits, and delay a previously scheduled payroll tax increase from taking place. 9A New Kind of Entitlement: The GI Bill chapter abstractThe Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the GI Bill, introduced a new type of entitlement program: one that provided in-kind benefits rather than unrestricted cash assistance. The law provided World War II veterans with educational assistance and home, farm, and business loan guarantees. The new type of entitlement bestowed a legal right to reimbursement on persons and institutions that provide the benefits prescribed by the law, in addition to those who receive their services. The GI Bill was the forerunner of the numerous in-kind benefit entitlements enacted in the 1960s and 1970s to provide health care, nutrition, and social services for the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. 10Setting the Postwar Entitlement Agenda: 1946–1950 chapter abstractAt the war's end, the American entitlement state stood at a crucial policy juncture. The New Deal had set the building blocks of the modern American entitlement state firmly in place, but its future remained highly uncertain. President Truman set the course that entitlements would follow for the remainder of the twentieth century. Large Social Security accounting surpluses provided President Truman and congressional Democrats with the means to ensure that Social Security, instead of state old-age programs, became the primary vehicle for delivering assistance to the elderly. In 1950, Congress took a major step toward this end by sharply increasing Social Security benefits and significantly expanding coverage in the workforce. The benefit increase, timed to coincide with the 1950 congressional elections, demonstrated that Democrats had developed the practice of using a major entitlement program to gain electoral advantage into a finely honed skill. Republicans, after showing modest resistance, acquiesced. 111951–1964: Establishing Social Insurance Dominance chapter abstractFrom 1950 to the Great Society, congressional Republicans and Democrats joined together to ensure that Social Security replaced state-run old-age assistance as the first line of defense against poverty among the elderly. Monthly benefits were incrementally expanded, and coverage became nearly universal. Large Social Security accounting surpluses fueled the increases in the early 1950s despite the overall federal budget's often poor condition. Congress's use of Social Security to gain electoral advantage was raised to a fine art, as election-year benefit increases were strategically timed. The only new major new entitlement of the 1950s was the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Soon after it was established, the program followed the familiar path that had been blazed by nineteenth-century veterans' pensions, as eligibility was extended to "equally worthy" groups that had been excluded from the original program. 12The Great Turn in Welfare Policy: 1951–1964 chapter abstractWhile legislation during the years 1951 to 1964 incrementally expanded federal funding for state welfare programs, major fissures emerged in the New Deal's bedrock welfare policy principles of state autonomy and cash assistance. Federal welfare officials used the threat of withholding federal funds as a lever to limit state authority to set welfare eligibility rules. The threats were a response to state and local government actions, particularly those taken by southern state governments with a history of discriminatory treatment of African Americans, to curtail welfare eligibility. As tensions between the two levels of government mounted, Congress stepped in with legislation to strengthen federal authority. By the mid-1960s, the principle of state autonomy had been greatly eroded. At the same time, welfare officials began to question the wisdom of providing additional cash assistance to the poor and turned increasingly to providing in-kind benefits in lieu of additional cash assistance. 13The First Great Society chapter abstractThe Great Society program in 1965 marks the beginning of a remarkable ten-year period in which Congress expanded entitlements at a rapid rate unprecedented in U.S. history. Under President Johnson, new health care entitlement programs, Medicare and Medicaid, were created; Social Security disability was expanded to temporarily disabled workers; two large general increases in Social Security benefits were enacted; and the Aid for Dependent Children program experienced its largest expansion in its thirty-year history. Federal revenues from a rapidly expanding economy provided the fuel for this legislative blitzkrieg. The revenue surge, as with previous surges, made the desire to expand entitlement benefits irresistible. The period, one of great social upheaval, witnessed a new entitlement phenomenon: welfare mothers, urged on by government-funded activists, organized and marched on federal, state, and local governments to demand higher welfare benefits and fewer restrictions on eligibility. 14A Legal Right to Welfare chapter abstractThis legal view that welfare benefits were a gratuity and not an entitlement underwent a significant change in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Three major Supreme Court decisions from 1969 to 1971 radically expanded the legal rights of welfare recipients and claimants. The Court (1) declared that long-standing state "suitable home" regulations violated federal law, (2) struck down state residence requirements for welfare as a violation of an individual's constitutional right to travel, and (3) ruled that welfare benefits were akin to property and were therefore protected by the Constitution's due process requirements. This last case established a legal entitlement right to welfare benefits. 15The Second Great Society chapter abstractDuring Richard Nixon's presidency, the food stamp program was nationalized, a permanent federal unemployment program was created, a new revenue-sharing program that entitled states and local governments to a share of federal revenue was established, and child nutrition programs were converted into an entitlement to school districts. Presidential proposals for a federally guaranteed annual income and national health insurance program failed. Fueled by pressure from large accounting surpluses in the Social Security trust fund, Congress raised Social Security benefits by 69 percent in four years and indexed Social Security benefits to inflation. But the flawed indexing formula set the program on a path to insolvency. The entitlement liberalizations from 1969 to 1975 caused federal entitlement spending to grow annually at a remarkable 10 percent inflation-adjusted rate. By 1975, entitlements accounted for nearly half of all federal spending. 16First Inklings of Fiscal Limits: 1975–1980 chapter abstractThe years of Jimmy Carter's presidency, plagued by large federal budget deficits from the prior dozen years of entitlement liberalizations, witnessed a dramatically slower pace of entitlement expansions. No new entitlements were written onto the federal statute books. Expansions were mainly limited to the food stamp program in which stamps were made free of charge. The major legislative action concerned Social Security. By 1977, the flawed indexing formula that had been written into the statute books in 1972 had pushed Social Security toward imminent insolvency. Congress responded by enacting a new wage replacement formula that, for the first and only time in the program's history, significantly reduced benefits that had been promised to workers. The reductions were not limited to people who would retire decades later. They were also reduced for workers who were in their late 50s at the time the law was enacted. 17A Temporary Slowdown: 1981–1989 chapter abstractPresident Reagan was the first president in U.S. history to attempt to comprehensively reduce entitlement spending. His efforts were part of a larger package of economic policies designed to restore noninflationary growth to the U.S. economy. The package produced a colossal battle with Congress. The first two years of furious combat dominated the business of Congress. Congress subjected almost every major entitlement program to at least some retrenchment. Fiercely contested budget battles continued for the next six years as Congress sought to return to its long-standing practice of incrementally expanding entitlements. The administration's implacable opposition and large budget deficits severely limited entitlement liberalizations. The entitlement restraint from 1981 to 1989 reversed a thirty-year upward trend. Yet despite the Reagan administration's achievements, the entitlement state in 1989 remained largely intact. Its largest programs had defied retrenchment. 18Recognition and Denial: 1989–2014 chapter abstractBy the early 1990s, federal officials recognized the true magnitude of the looming fiscal storm that entitlements had created. Yet the executive and legislative branches of government ignored the warnings. Both branches of government worked in concert to expand eligibility for Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and food stamps and to expand Medicare to prescription drugs. These liberalizations mainly extended aid to "worthy" nonpoor persons. Congress and President Obama capped off the period by extending health insurance subsidies to people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty line. Attempts to restrain federal spending proved fruitless. In one striking departure from these legislative patterns, Congress enacted reversed decades of federal welfare policy by eliminating an individual's entitlement to AFDC benefits and transferring program policymaking authority to the states. 19A Challenge Unlike Any Other in U.S. History chapter abstractFederal entitlements now distribute government aid on a scale that is unprecedented in history. Over half of all U.S. households receive entitlement assistance. Most entitlement spending serves purposes other than reducing the degree of poverty among the poor. The soaring growth in entitlement spending creates a unique fiscal challenge. History provides a guide to meeting the challenge, but a fundamental restructuring is needed. A restructuring must keep in mind that providing assistance to individuals who are impoverished through no fault of their own is a hallmark of a compassionate society. The book optimistically concludes by noting that the main elements for a change in entitlement policy are coming into place. There is widespread public skepticism that entitlements are delivering on their promises and that the country can afford to deliver on future promises. But mounting public pressure will ultimately force a change in government policies.

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Book SynopsisAn innovative reassessment of the last writings and final years of Karl Marx. In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions—studying recent anthropological discoveries, analyzing communal forms of ownership in precapitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia, and expressing critiques of colonial oppression in India, Ireland, Algeria, and Egypt. Between 1881 and 1883, he also traveled beyond Europe for the first and only time. Focusing on these last years of Marx's life, this book dispels two key misrepresentations of his work: that Marx ceased to write late in life, and that he was a Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. With The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto claims a renewed relevance for the late work of Marx, highlighting unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. Readers are invited to reconsider Marx's critique of European colonialism, his ideas on non-Western societies, and his theories on the possibility of revolution in noncapitalist countries. From Marx's late manuscripts, notebooks, and letters emerge an author markedly different from the one represented by many of his contemporary critics and followers alike. As Marx currently experiences a significant rediscovery, this volume fills a gap in the popularly accepted biography and suggests an innovative reassessment of some of his key concepts.Trade Review"Marcello Musto, arguably the greatest connoisseur of Marx's life, offers us one revelation after another. Whereas many have understood the period after the Paris Commune as a time of divulgation and implementation of his already established political doctrine, Musto instead brilliantly demonstrates that Marx spent these years opening new and important theoretical horizons upon which we must meditate in order not to remain 'Marxists' against Marx himself!"—Étienne Balibar, author of The Philosophy of Marx"Marcello Musto's work is essential for his analysis of Marx's life and thought. In this book, Musto focuses on Marx's inquiries in his final years. The anthropological manuscripts, the studies on the transformation of property, and the criticism of colonialism written in this period are striking. Musto takes us by the hand and invites us to discover a new Marx."—Antonio Negri, author of Marx beyond Marx"This volume is a major contribution to the study of Marx and revolutionary thought. Beautifully written, constructed through an insightful examination of thousands of pages of Marx's unpublished writings and notes, this book represents a timely contribution to the contemporary Marx revival. It is a gift to the many who still look to Marx for political inspiration."—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation"[A] study that breaks new ground in our understanding of Marx between 1881 and 1883....Musto gives us a portrait of a thinker in his last years that challenges the representations others have imposed upon him."—Daniel Whittall, Review 31"Musto masterfully weaves together rich biographical detail and a sophisticated engagement with Marx's mature, oftentimes self-questioning writing."—Nicolas Allen, Jacobin"Marcello Musto is undoubtedly the rising star on the "marxological" firmament. The Last Years of Karl Marx is an innovative book that helps us, in a magisterial way, to discover Marx's intellectualactivity during the period 1881-1883."—Aktief"There has been a gaping hole in studies of Karl Marx leaving out the last few years before his death in March 1883. Despite the recent revival of Marx studies, this 'forgotten chapter' of his life has remained in the shadows, until now with Marcello Musto's informative and well-crafted book, The Last Years of Karl Marx."—Robert Ware, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books"Musto's book presents an overview of Marx's studies, debates, correspondence, affectionate relationships, diseases, sorrows, and journeys during the last years of his life. Pages cataloguing Marx's readings are very useful and informative... Such pages are... followed by stories of Marx's family life, correspondence regarding politics, and Marx's personal relations with his comrades. This rhythm of the prose leads the reader through the pages of this book, which is packed with detailed information."—Paula Rauhala, Socialism and Democracy"Musto clears up the many misunderstandings of Marx, conveying, for example, that Marx did not believe that interpretive frameworks based on Western European history should be slavishly applied to other contexts, and that he was not an economic determinist...Highly recommended."—M. J. Wert, CHOICE"Marcello Musto's combination of personal biography and intellectual appraisal makes for inspiring reading. He argues very well that Marx's ideas cannot be limited to a simplistic formula, but are living and dynamic."—Barry Healy, Green Left"Musto...makes a strength of what is usually claimed to be a liability of Marx's theory: that he does not sketch the communist future. Just as capitalism permeates different historical and geographical environments differently and at a different pace, albeit with some common features, Marx's nimble historical understanding means that we are more likely to confront communist futures rather than a single monolith."—Amy E. Wendling, The Review of Politics"Musto's study makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of Marx in his last years, offering an angle from which to consider him that departs from the more usual focus on either the young Marx orCapital.(...)As it stands, this study by Musto fills a huge gap in our understanding of Marx."—Kevin B. Anderson, New Politics: Journal of Socialist Thought"By stitching together the unfinished work in progress and the whole range of disciplines Marx was preoccupied with in his last years, Marcello Mustopresents a systematically connected bold socio-political reading of Marx."—Arkayan Ganguly, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory"Marcello Musto's The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography provides an illuminating glance at the work and life of Karl Marx during the most unexamined period of his life. Musto's oscillation between Marx's work and life provides readers with both an intellectual allurement towards research in Marx's later years and with a warm image of Marx's intimate life sure to guarantee both laughs and tears."—Carlos L. Garrido, Midwestern Marx"In The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto provides an affectionate and careful journey through the final two years of Marx's life."—William Clare Roberts, Political Science QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. New Research Horizons 2. Controversy over the Development of Capitalism in Russia 3. The Travails of "Old Nick" 4. The Moor's Last Journey

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Book SynopsisIn the 1930s, a cohort of professional human scientists coalesced around a common and particular understanding of objectivity as the foundation of legitimate knowledge, and of fieldwork as the pathway to objectivity. Into the Field is the first collective biography of this cohort, evocatively described by one contemporary as the men of one age. At the height of imperialism, the men of one age undertook field research in territories under Japanese rule in pursuit of "objective" information that would justify the subjugation of local peoples. After 1945, amid the defeat and dismantling of Japanese sovereignty and under the occupation and tutelage of the United States, they returned to the field to create narratives of human difference that supported the new national values of democracy, capitalism, and peace. The 1968 student movement challenged these values, resulting in an all-encompassing attack on objectivity itself. Nonetheless, the legacy of the men of one age lives on in the disciplines they developed and the beliefs they established about human diversity.Trade Review"A very refreshing look at race, culture, and objectivity in modern Japan. This engaging book considers critical issues of the twentieth century: historical continuity, power and knowledge in the empires and the Cold War, and the politics of generations. Sophisticated yet lucidly written, it is accessible and highly stimulating for academics and non-academics alike."—Hiromi Mizuno, University of Minnesota"Kingsberg Kadia's important study allows a glimpse into Japan's postwar re-imagination of itself through the lens of American social science and through the study of its former empire. Her careful archival work exposes the negotiations of human scientists as they attempted to situate Japan in a global order promoting democracy and cosmopolitanism."—Amy Borovoy, Princeton University"Into the Field pays close attention to the interplay between ideas, institutions, and individuals, setting a high standard for the history of the social and human sciences."—George Steinmetz, University of Michigan"[Kingsberg Kadia] utilizes an impressive variety of sources, and the book shines where she inserts Japanese social science endeavors into a broader global context.Into the Fieldis an excellently researched, fascinating study."—Annika A. Culver, H-Diplo"[Kingsberg] Kadia's book . . . shines most in its analyses of how Izumi's generation, across the tempestuous middle decades of the twentieth century, used ethnology continuously to revise and recreate Japanese national identity according to temperamental geopolitical fluctuations."—Hansun Hsiung, University of Durham, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society"Into the Field is an important, thought-provoking, impressively researched contribution to our understanding of how human scientists shaped Japan's views of itself and others in the twentieth century."—Timothy S. George, Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction: Men of One Age 1. The Origins of Fieldwork in the Japanese Empire 2. Group Fieldwork in Wartime 3. Objectivity under the U.S. Occupation 4. From "Race" to "Culture" 5. Others into Japanese 6. Japanese into Others 7. Excavating National Identity in the Antipodes 8. 1968 and the Passing of the Field Generation

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Book SynopsisThe backlash against globalization and the rise of cultural anxiety has led to considerable re-thinking among social scientists. This book provides multiple theoretical, historical, and methodological orientations to examine these issues. While addressing the rise of populism worldwide, the volume provides explanations that cover periods of both cultural turbulence and stability. Issues addressed include populism and cultural anxiety, class, religion, arts and cultural diversity, global environment norms, international trade, and soft power. The interdisciplinary scholarship from well-known scholars questions the oft-made assumption in political economy that holds culture "constant," which in practice means marginalizing it in the explanation. The volume conceptualizes culture as a repertoire of values and alternatives. Locating human interests in underlying cultural values does not make political economy's strategic or instrumental calculations of interests redundant: the instrumental logic follows a social context and a distribution of cultural values, while locating forms of decision-making that may not be rational.Trade Review"This book offers a multifaceted approach to problems of social order, inclusion, difference, value, and values. During a time when there is a tendency to simplify complex problems with reductive recipes, slogans, and tweets, Cultural Values in Political Economy is a timely contribution to reviving and rethinking our collective approach to political economy." -- Paolo Quattrone * Alliance Manchester Business School *"Understanding the ever-changing relationship between culture, economy, and politics is among the herculean tasks of the social sciences. With Cultural Values in Political Economy, J.P. Singh has collected excellent essays by leading scholars that revisit this relationship in the context of 21st-century shifts." -- Helmut K. Anheier, Hertie School * Berlin *"This masterful collection illuminates many of the all-important interfaces between culture and economy. Distinguished authors from diverse fields show how economies order cultural values, and how cultural change can reshape economic policies. These insights have never been more important than in these times when cultures and economies are being challenged." -- W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington * Seattle *"Topics include social class dynamics, religious values, cultural anxiety, the humanities and cultural diversity, the global environment and the green revolution, worldwide trade patterns, and the soft power of persuasion as employed by some countries to influence the policies of other nations.The latter is particularly salient in the conduct of relationships by major powers among developing nations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, where international education agendas and the development of natural resources are frequently contested... Recommended." -- S. Prisco III * CHOICE *"Understanding the relationship between culture, economy, and politics is an essential future task in the development of the social sciences, and the book edited by J. P. Singh is an important and timely contribution to this challenging research agenda." -- Trine Bille * International Journal of Cultural Policy *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsForeword: Cultural Mediations and Political Economy chapter abstractCulture is often treated as a marginal or residual factor in explanations of economic and political behavior. The foreword argues that to understand the interconnected role of values, interests, and agency in the study of global transactions in political economy, culture needs to be seen as independent, generative, and future oriented. By taking this richer approach to culture, many phenomena that escape the net of rational choice theory become more understandable, especially in a world of new connections, mobilizations, and innovations in the political sphere. 1Introduction: Cultural Values in Political Economy chapter abstractAn intrinsic part of culture is its history. However, at any given time, different cultural values are sifted through this history and mobilized for collective action. This chapter provides a context for understanding the role of cultural values in political economy examined in this book. Conceptually, the book attempts to provide an interdisciplinary and comprehensive understanding of cultural values imbricated in political economy and the way to move from collective to individual interests, and vice versa. These theoretical moorings allow the authors to operationalize culture through a variety of methods including historical, ethnographic, case-study, and quantitative evidence. Part I provides the conceptual foundations that engender the cultural assumptions held implicit or constant in a few analyses and explains the contexts under which cultures transform interests. Part II presents chapters that examine the processes of cultural interactions that flow from underlying values. 2Culture and Preference Formation chapter abstractEconomists take preferences to be comparative evaluations of alternatives that incorporate every factor the agent takes to influence her choices other than beliefs and constraints. Rational choice is determined by rational preferences among the alternatives that agents believe to be feasible and, to a reasonable degree of approximation, the theory of rational choice does double duty as a theory of actual choice. It may seem impossible to employ the economist's model to make sense of the influence of culture or of the mechanisms of cultural change because the economist's model treats norms and ideals as merely different influences on preferences. Yet, as this chapter argues, nothing in the economist's model rules out incorporating additional mechanisms of preference formation and change. Moreover, it argues that doing so is helpful both in understanding the interactions between culture and action and in articulating a more detailed and promising theory of rational choice. 3Value and Values in Economics and Culture chapter abstractIssues of value and valuation are fundamental to any consideration of the relationships between economics and culture. This chapter discusses these relationships at both macro and micro levels. First, we consider the possible connections between the cultural values of different societies and their national economic performance. Then, turning to a functional sense of culture, the chapter argues that in addressing questions of the value of art and culture, it is essential to distinguish between economic value and cultural value, in which the latter refers to aspects of value that are not expressible in monetary terms. Illustrations are drawn from studies of the value of the visual arts, literature, and music. Next, we consider culture in international economic relations, discussing value and valuation in the areas of intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, and sustainable development. The chapter concludes with a plea for more dialogue at an interdisciplinary level. 4Creating a Culture of Environmental Responsibility chapter abstractThis chapter explores possibilities for creating a new culture of environmental responsibility, drawing mainly on recent work in environmental political theory and philosophy. It begins from the assumption that culture—conceived as a repertoire of shared values—is crucial to understanding the interests that people feel themselves to have and that cultural values can powerfully influence long-term changes in society. If we want to improve environmental outcomes, we will need a new culture of environmental responsibility. Key to establishing this culture is novel ways of thinking about what responsibility means and creating new political and economic practices to support it. 5Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Economy, Culture, and Political Conflict chapter abstractBoth political economy and culture have been marshalled as explanations for parochialism and cosmopolitanism, opposing orientations that influence contemporary politics and foreign policy. Simple models based on international economic position do not adequately explain parochial attitudes on such issues as Brexit or immigration. Cosmopolitan attitudes are linked to a particular, often local, cultural infrastructure (information environment, educational institutions, and transnational experience). In explaining both parochial and cosmopolitan attitudes and action, the effects of globalization on local culture and politics are of central importance. The link from economy to political behavior and outcomes is created by divergent locational effects of globalization and the local cultures they produce: globalized urban environments versus disadvantaged hinterlands that perceive themselves as left behind. International political economy must illuminate this link between economy and culture, which has important public policy implications. 6Crossing Borders: Culture, Identity, and Access to Higher Education chapter abstractThrough the adoption of a semiotic approach to culture, this chapter aims to assist in the development of a cultural explanation of global political culture. A semiotic approach asserts that meaning is assigned by participants to social patterns and behaviors found in society. The experience of boundary spaces offers a laboratory of sorts for revealing the contours of culture and cultural differences, including class differences. It is the experience of stepping out of a comfort zone and into alien space, a place where one does not necessarily know what goes with what, that is most revealing. Habituated roles create the contours of borders and boundaries that come with attendant expectations and customs associated with nation, class, race, gender, and age, among other identities. 7Ideology, Economic Interests, and American Exceptionalism: The Case of Export Credit chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes the sources and implications of American exceptionalism in the area of export credit. For virtually all major economies, export credit is an important industrial policy tool to promote economic growth. Remarkably, however, while its rivals are dramatically increasing their use of export credit, the United States has become a major outlier. An ideologically driven campaign led by the Tea Party sharply constrained the operations of the US Export-Import Bank: the bank was shut down entirely for five months in 2015 and subsequently limited to financing only minor transactions for nearly four years. This chapter argues that American exceptionalism on export credit cannot be understood without reference to culture, specifically the market fundamentalist ideology of the Tea Party, which has led to a conception of national economic interests and preferences that departs radically from other states. 8Strangest of Bedfellows: Why the Religious Right Embraced Trump and What That Means for the Movement chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the connection and disconnection between cultural and material factors in the rise of the religious right in the United States. This social movement comprises socially conservative and politically active born-again and evangelical Christians, as well as some ultraconservative Catholics. This movement comes out of a unique subculture that is suspicious of mainstream political and social institutions and that rejects many of the conventional norms of a democratic society. At once, this subculture claims moral superiority in what it considers a corrupted society while pursuing access to levers of power in order to conform the mainstream culture more to its own idealized image of the United States. Religious conservatives were the key to electing Donald J. Trump as president, and this chapter explores linkages of social and cultural issues to the broader economic factors that played a substantial role in religious conservative support for his election. 9Applying the Soft Power Rubric: How Study Abroad Data Reveals International Cultural Relations chapter abstractA country's ability to attract foreign students to its universities is one common way to understand its soft power in the international community. Applying the Soft Power Rubric to empirical data, this chapter reveals the preferences of students who go abroad and uncovers South Africa's and Malaysia's roles as rising regional hubs and France's slowing growth as a global hub, which complicate our understanding of North-South or core-periphery postcolonial relations. The rubric reconceives soft power as when foreigners transform their thinking from "us" and "them" to a collective "we," emphasizing the perspective of the countries at the periphery rather than at the core, unveiling important networks of cultural relations, offering a path forward to bring cultural data into empirical modeling, and pointing to fruitful areas for future work. The chapter also offers a contrast with others in this book that emphasize a reaction against globalization.

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Book SynopsisWhen first written into the Constitution, intellectual property aimed to facilitate "progress of science and the useful arts" by granting rights to authors and inventors. Today, when rapid technological evolution accompanies growing wealth inequality and political and social divisiveness, the constitutional goal of "progress" may pertain to more basic, human values, redirecting IP's emphasis to the commonweal instead of private interests. Against Progress considers contemporary debates about intellectual property law as concerning the relationship between the constitutional mandate of progress and fundamental values, such as equality, privacy, and distributive justice, that are increasingly challenged in today's internet age. Following a legal analysis of various intellectual property court cases, Jessica Silbey examines the experiences of everyday creators and innovators navigating ownership, sharing, and sustainability within the internet eco-system and current IP laws. Crucially, the book encourages refiguring the substance of "progress" and the function of intellectual property in terms that demonstrate the urgency of art and science to social justice today.Trade Review"Against Progress is a satisfying, witty, and altogether magnificent provocation about the ethical limits of owning ideas. What happens when 'the road to progress' (which patent, intellectual property, and trademark laws are supposed to sustain) becomes littered with privatized toll booths and heavy fines? What happens when the right to profit from one's creativity hardens into an extractive vise so overreaching that it stifles broad economies of knowledge production? Most importantly, what happens when the internet's pyrrhic gift of viral reproductibility enables vast abuses of power, outright theft, and the widespread impoverishment of musicians, artists, writers, inventors? Jessica Silbey's brilliant book reanimates the values and virtues that once informed this legal arena: fairness, honesty, civic empathy, restraint, and the world-building sociality of shared creative enterprise."—Patricia J. Williams, Northeastern University"Against Progress announces a timely and needful reorientation of intellectual property scholarship in North America, insisting on democracy, rather than efficiency, as the organizing conceptual principle, offering an unusually insightful and revitalizing translation of efficiency into otherwise latent social justice concerns, and thus of narrowly framed economic issues into vivid dialogues and contestations about political culture. A remarkable work."—Abraham Drassinower, University of Toronto"I have long thought that we as IP lawyers would do well to listen to the voices of creators—especially when those creators are not clients of ours. Against Progress does a fantastic job of letting those creators express, in their own voices, the struggles they face trying to adapt their professional lives to a changing technological environment. Kudos to Silbey for letting their voices be heard, framed by high-level legal discussion of whether our IP laws are doing the work of advancing progress—or pushing back on it."—Gaston Kroub, Above the Law"[Silbey's] book is well-researched and organized and includes an excellent analysis of traditional IP case law and interviews with more than 100 real-world creators about how they navigate the IP law system.... This is an important read for anyone interested in the shifting policies surrounding IP law. Recommended."—J. D. Graveline, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Is Progress More? 1. Everyone's a Photographer Now: The Case of Digital Photography 2. Equality 3. Privacy 4. Distributive Justice (or "Fairer Uses") 5. Precarity and Institutional Failures Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn this innovative book, Celia Lury argues that the time has come for us to explore the world not only with new methods, but with a new approach to methodology itself. Fundamental changes are taking place in how we produce knowledge, how we communicate it and, indeed, what we consider to be knowledge. These changes demand innovative and creative responses to research questions. Lury's rethinking of the nature of social inquiry starts by reconceptualizing the 'problem space'. Problems are not static or a 'given'; rather, they are created and continually recomposed as part of the methodological process itself. Following the line of thought that methods are practices that articulate as much as capture a social problem, Lury further develops the notion of compositional methodology to think through its implications. With remarkable fluency, the book draws into conversation a range of hot-button issues, both longstanding and novel, from observation, reflexivity, recursive measurement and feminist methodologies, to participation, context, datafication and platformization. Always with an eye to the methodological potential of new trends, the book provides a strong challenge to much received wisdom and argues that a combination of techniques can contribute to better understanding of the problem spaces we all inhabit.Trade Review“An exciting new book, offering a fresh lens to think about how and why methodology matters [...] This is a powerful way of thinking through what methods do sociologically, and politically, which is particularly pressing in a context of multiple global intersecting crises of a social, environmental, and economic nature, which require new, critical forms of academic praxis.” The Sociological Review“This jewel of a book addresses the wicked problem of thinking about problems by treating problems as emergent, contingent, circulating spaces in which forms generate methods in an open series of linked processes. Celia Lury brings great clarity and originality to this novel approach to the problem of method.”Arjun Appadurai, New York University “Only Celia Lury could bring together insights from various disciplines to track the profound changes in knowledge production in relationship to a new regime of truth and to respond with what she discusses as compositional methodology and epistemic infrastructures. This is precisely the book to read right now no matter your discipline or practice! I look forward to sharing it with my colleagues and students.”Patricia Ticineto Clough, The City University of New York and author of The User UnconsciousTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Compulsion of Composition Part 1 Chapter 1: Problem Spaces Part 2 Chapter 2: The Parasite and the Octopus Chapter 3: Indexing the Human (with Ana Gross) Chapter 4: Platforms and the Epistemic Infrastructure Part 3 Chapter 5: More than Circular Chapter 6: Know-ability and Answer-ability Conclusion: How and Why Methodology Matters Bibliography

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Book SynopsisScience and technology produce a wide range of benefits in society but they also create harm, both of which are unequally distributed across social groups and geographic regions. This incisive book provides a set of analytical tools to understand how inequality relating to science and technology is produced, and how the field can be reorganized to make good on its promise to improve life for all. Using a range of evidence and examples, Frickel and Moore show that science and technology are closely bound up with social inequalities, including linked problems of poor health, environmental degradation, racism, and sexism. They use the frame of scientific inequality formations to investigate the technoscientific sources of unequal power relations in society, examining issues such as the underdevelopment of non-profitable technologies, how laws and markets direct scientific advances, and the exclusion of certain social groups from the creation of knowledge and solutions relevant to their lives. This timely book illuminates interventions that redirect science and technology toward more equitable ends with the potential to be more widely distributed, charting a path to a more just future.

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Book SynopsisToday, the European Union is facing a crisis as serious as anything it has experienced since its origins more than half a century ago. What makes this so serious is that it is not a single crisis but rather multiple crises – the euro crisis, the migration/refugee crisis, Brexit, etc. – that overlap and reinforce one another, creating a cumulative array of challenges that threatens the very survival of the EU. For the first time in its history, there is a real risk that the EU could break up. This volume brings together sociologists, economists and political scientists from around Europe to shed light on how the EU got into this predicament. It argues that the multiple crises that have plagued the European Union in the last decade stem to a large extent from flaws in its construction and that these flaws are consequences of the political processes that led to the formation of the EU – in other words, the decisions that made possible the development of the EU created the conditions for the multiple crises it experiences today. This timely and wide-ranging book on one of the most important issues of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, to politicians and policy-makers and to anyone concerned with Europe and its future.Trade Review"Castells and his colleagues convincingly show that the multiple crises facing Europe today - from Greece to Brexit - are not problems imposed on it from without but are to a large extent crises of its own creation. Their wide-ranging and insightful account should be read by everyone concerned with Europe and its future - and above all by those politicians and policy-makers who could change the direction of the EU before it’s too late." Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future"To understand what we Europeans must do to secure a brighter future together, firstly we must understand the multifaceted nature of the challenges that our common project is facing. This insightful book reminds us that constructive self-criticism is an indispensable exercise in today's Europe." Javier Solana, President at ESADE Geo-Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution"Europe's Crises takes the reader on a journey of relationships and interdependencies, from Maastricht to Brexit [,..] [and] unlike the mainstream media's insistence on hiding the wider context, the reader is constantly reminded of the history, geography and wider geopolitics impacting on the daily lives of Europeans."Morning Star Table of Contents List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction Part I: Economic Crises Chapter 1: The End of European Integration as We Knew It: A Political Economy Analysis Olivier Bouin Chapter 2: Making Sense of the Greek Crisis, 2010-2016 Manos Matsaganis Chapter 3: The Consequences of Crisis on the European Banking System Emilio Ontiveros Chapter 4: The Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of the Italian Banking System Sviatlana Hlebik Chapter 5: European Science and Technology in a Time of Crisis: ERC, EIT and Beyond João Caraça et al. Part II: Social Crises Chapter 6: Austerity and Health: The Impact of the Crisis in the UK and Rest of Europe David Stuckler et al. Chapter 7: Suffering: The Human and Social Costs of Economic Crisis John B. Thompson et al. Chapter 8: Achilles’ Heel: Europe’s Ambivalent Identity Manuel Castells Chapter 9: Europe Facing Evil: Xenophobia, Racism, anti-Semitism and Terrorism Michel Wieviorka Chapter 10: Europe and Refugees: Tragedy Bordering on Farce Paul Collier Part III: Political Crises Chapter 11: The Crisis of Legitimacy of European Institutions Sara B. Hobolt Chapter 12: Narratives of Responsibility: German Politics in the Greek Debt Crisis Claus Offe Chapter 13: The Double Crisis of European Social Democracy Colin Crouch Chapter 14: The Rise of the Radical Right Michel Wieviorka Chapter 15: From Crisis to Social Movement to Political Change: Podemos in Spain Manuel Castells Chapter 16: Italy: Autumn of the Second Republic by Pierfranco Pelizzetti Chapter 17: Brexit: The Causes and Consequences of the UK’s Decision to Leave the EU Geoffrey Evans et al. Chapter 18: Social Movements, Participation and Crisis in Europe Gustavo Cardoso et al. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTo analyse social and behavioural phenomena in our digitalized world, it is necessary to understand the main research opportunities and challenges specific to online and digital data. This book presents an overview of the many techniques that are part of the fundamental toolbox of the digital social scientist. Placing online methods within the wider tradition of social research, Giuseppe Veltri discusses the principles and frameworks that underlie each technique of digital research. This practical guide covers methodological issues such as dealing with different types of digital data, construct validity, representativeness and big data sampling. It looks at different forms of unobtrusive data collection methods (such as web scraping and social media mining) as well as obtrusive methods (including qualitative methods, web surveys and experiments). Special extended attention is given to computational approaches to statistical analysis, text mining and network analysis. Digital Social Research will be a welcome resource for students and researchers across the social sciences and humanities carrying out digital research (or interested in the future of social research).Trade Review‘We need more books like this. With his far-reaching and accessible overview of the field, Giuseppe A. Veltri makes a very welcome contribution.’Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, and President of the Association of Internet Researchers ‘Giuseppe A. Veltri’s innovative approach locates digital methods within the established canon of social research methodology, without the hyperbole that often surrounds such discussion. Students will learn about the essential principles of social scientific research and where new methods sit in relation to traditional methods.’Nick Allum, Professor of Research Methodology, University of Essex ‘This is a timely and important book. Its real strength is that it moves beyond the “how to” to explain the “why”. This is achieved with clear language that makes the book of value to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates alike.’Scott Wright, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Political Communication, University of MelbourneTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Social research using digital data and methods 2. Unobtrusive vs Obtrusive methods 3. Online obtrusive data collection methods 4. Quantitative data analysis reloaded 5. Networks and data 6. Text mining 7. Final remarks References

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Book SynopsisTo analyse social and behavioural phenomena in our digitalized world, it is necessary to understand the main research opportunities and challenges specific to online and digital data. This book presents an overview of the many techniques that are part of the fundamental toolbox of the digital social scientist. Placing online methods within the wider tradition of social research, Giuseppe Veltri discusses the principles and frameworks that underlie each technique of digital research. This practical guide covers methodological issues such as dealing with different types of digital data, construct validity, representativeness and big data sampling. It looks at different forms of unobtrusive data collection methods (such as web scraping and social media mining) as well as obtrusive methods (including qualitative methods, web surveys and experiments). Special extended attention is given to computational approaches to statistical analysis, text mining and network analysis. Digital Social Research will be a welcome resource for students and researchers across the social sciences and humanities carrying out digital research (or interested in the future of social research).Trade Review‘We need more books like this. With his far-reaching and accessible overview of the field, Giuseppe A. Veltri makes a very welcome contribution.’Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, and President of the Association of Internet Researchers ‘Giuseppe A. Veltri’s innovative approach locates digital methods within the established canon of social research methodology, without the hyperbole that often surrounds such discussion. Students will learn about the essential principles of social scientific research and where new methods sit in relation to traditional methods.’Nick Allum, Professor of Research Methodology, University of Essex ‘This is a timely and important book. Its real strength is that it moves beyond the “how to” to explain the “why”. This is achieved with clear language that makes the book of value to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates alike.’Scott Wright, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Political Communication, University of MelbourneTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Social research using digital data and methods 2. Unobtrusive vs Obtrusive methods 3. Online obtrusive data collection methods 4. Quantitative data analysis reloaded 5. Networks and data 6. Text mining 7. Final remarks References

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Book SynopsisEthics is a field of study that we all need. This is because we all make choices, and ethics is about the general norms that govern how we should make those choices. Not surprisingly, there is disagreement over what the “norms” are, but by working through such disagreement, we can learn how to make better choices. James P. Sterba presents a general overview of ethics, using relevant examples and accessible arguments. He takes up the question of why we should be ethical or moral, discusses competing ethical theories and proposes a way to reconcile them, and considers the relationship between ethics and religion. Ultimately, he reveals how the material discussed in the book can be used to make better ethical choices in our day-to-day lives. What is Ethics? is a book you can rely on to improve your ability to make ethical choices.Trade Review“A stimulating, fair-minded, and clear guide to ethics by a distinguished expert.”Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College “This concise, lucid examination of ethics attempts to reconcile differences among major theories of ethics, thereby providing practical, reasonable guidelines for addressing today’s pressing ethical issues.”Michael S. Pritchard, Western Michigan UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 Why be Moral? 3 Consequentialism 4 Nonconsequentialism 5 Reconciliation 6 Morality and Religion 7 Conclusion Notes

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Book SynopsisEthics is a field of study that we all need. This is because we all make choices, and ethics is about the general norms that govern how we should make those choices. Not surprisingly, there is disagreement over what the “norms” are, but by working through such disagreement, we can learn how to make better choices. James P. Sterba presents a general overview of ethics, using relevant examples and accessible arguments. He takes up the question of why we should be ethical or moral, discusses competing ethical theories and proposes a way to reconcile them, and considers the relationship between ethics and religion. Ultimately, he reveals how the material discussed in the book can be used to make better ethical choices in our day-to-day lives. What is Ethics? is a book you can rely on to improve your ability to make ethical choices.Trade Review“A stimulating, fair-minded, and clear guide to ethics by a distinguished expert.”Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College “This concise, lucid examination of ethics attempts to reconcile differences among major theories of ethics, thereby providing practical, reasonable guidelines for addressing today’s pressing ethical issues.”Michael S. Pritchard, Western Michigan UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 Why be Moral? 3 Consequentialism 4 Nonconsequentialism 5 Reconciliation 6 Morality and Religion 7 Conclusion Notes

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Book SynopsisAt the start of the twentieth century, the pre-eminent black sociologist, W.E.B. DuBois, identified the color line as America's great problem. While the color line is increasingly variegated beyond black and white, and more openly discussed than ever before as more racial and ethnic groups call America home, his words still ring true. Today, post-racial and colorblind ideals dominate the American narrative, obscuring the reality of racism and discrimination, hiding if only temporarily the inconvenience of deep racial disparity. This is the quintessential American paradox: our embrace of the ideals of meritocracy despite the systemic racial advantages and disadvantages accrued across generations. This book provides a sociology of the Black American experience. To be Black in America is to exist amongst myriad contradictions: racial progress and regression, abject poverty amidst profound wealth, discriminatory policing yet equal protection under the law. This book explores these contradictions in the context of residential segregation, labor market experiences, and the criminal justice system, among other topics, highlighting the historical processes and contemporary social arrangements that simultaneously reinforce race and racism, necessitating resistance in post-civil rights America.Trade Review�Branch and Jackson present a compelling and engaging analysis of how past and present practices have affected Black people, even while Blackness takes on multiple forms, including the diverse ways Black people have resisted racist social structures. This book will be a great teaching resource.� Margaret L. Andersen, University of Delaware �Powerfully written, well documented, theoretically sophisticated, and covering central themes of America�s racial history. This is the book we need for our courses on race matters in the United States. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authors.� Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsSpotlights on Resistance Contributors Introduction Are We ‘Post-Racial’ Yet? Chapter 1 How Blacks Became the Problem: American Racism and the Fight for Equality Chapter 2 Crafting the Racial Frame: Blackness and the Myth of the Monolith with Candace S. King and Emmanuel Adero Chapter 3 Whose Life Matters? Value and Disdain in American Society Chapter 4 Staying Inside the Red Line: Housing Segregation and the Rise of the Ghetto Chapter 5 Who Gets to Work? Understanding the Black Labor Market Experience Chapter 6 Is Justice Blind? Race and the Rise of Mass Incarceration with Lucius Couloute Chapter 7 Reifying the Problem: Racism and the Persistence of the Color Line in American Politics with Emmanuel Adero Epilogue About the Contributors Glossary References

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Book SynopsisAt the start of the twentieth century, the pre-eminent black sociologist, W.E.B. DuBois, identified the color line as America's great problem. While the color line is increasingly variegated beyond black and white, and more openly discussed than ever before as more racial and ethnic groups call America home, his words still ring true. Today, post-racial and colorblind ideals dominate the American narrative, obscuring the reality of racism and discrimination, hiding if only temporarily the inconvenience of deep racial disparity. This is the quintessential American paradox: our embrace of the ideals of meritocracy despite the systemic racial advantages and disadvantages accrued across generations. This book provides a sociology of the Black American experience. To be Black in America is to exist amongst myriad contradictions: racial progress and regression, abject poverty amidst profound wealth, discriminatory policing yet equal protection under the law. This book explores these contradictions in the context of residential segregation, labor market experiences, and the criminal justice system, among other topics, highlighting the historical processes and contemporary social arrangements that simultaneously reinforce race and racism, necessitating resistance in post-civil rights America.Trade Review�Branch and Jackson present a compelling and engaging analysis of how past and present practices have affected Black people, even while Blackness takes on multiple forms, including the diverse ways Black people have resisted racist social structures. This book will be a great teaching resource.� Margaret L. Andersen, University of Delaware �Powerfully written, well documented, theoretically sophisticated, and covering central themes of America�s racial history. This is the book we need for our courses on race matters in the United States. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authors.� Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsSpotlights on ResistanceContributorsIntroduction Are We ‘Post-Racial’ Yet?Chapter 1 How Blacks Became the Problem: American Racism and the Fight for EqualityChapter 2 Crafting the Racial Frame: Blackness and the Myth of the Monolith with Candace S. King and Emmanuel AderoChapter 3 Whose Life Matters? Value and Disdain in American SocietyChapter 4 Staying Inside the Red Line: Housing Segregation and the Rise of the GhettoChapter 5 Who Gets to Work? Understanding the Black Labor Market Experience Chapter 6 Is Justice Blind? Race and the Rise of Mass Incarceration with Lucius CoulouteChapter 7 Reifying the Problem: Racism and the Persistence of the Color Line in American Politics with Emmanuel AderoEpilogueAbout the ContributorsGlossaryReferences

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Book SynopsisThis new book by Massimo Recalcati focuses on the psycho-social life of the son. Comparing and contrasting the tragic story of Oedipus by Sophocles and the parable of the prodigal son, Recalcati argues that all common parenting strategies, whether authoritarian or democratic, are attempts at sealing the fate of sons – that is, they are designed to ensure that sons realize the dreams and fantasies of the parents. But all that sons want – and this is their secret because they generally do not want, or are unable, to confront their parents directly – is to be recognized as unique, as different, as independent, free-thinking individuals who are able to chart their own path in life, rather than extensions of their parents' fantasies. The parents' task is to acknowledge this, and to create the space for this desire to flourish. Continuing his remarkable reflections on parents, children and family life, this new book by one of Italy's leading and bestselling public intellectuals will be of interest to a wide general readership.

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Book SynopsisThis new book by Massimo Recalcati focuses on the psycho-social life of the son. Comparing and contrasting the tragic story of Oedipus by Sophocles and the parable of the prodigal son, Recalcati argues that all common parenting strategies, whether authoritarian or democratic, are attempts at sealing the fate of sons – that is, they are designed to ensure that sons realize the dreams and fantasies of the parents. But all that sons want – and this is their secret because they generally do not want, or are unable, to confront their parents directly – is to be recognized as unique, as different, as independent, free-thinking individuals who are able to chart their own path in life, rather than extensions of their parents' fantasies. The parents' task is to acknowledge this, and to create the space for this desire to flourish. Continuing his remarkable reflections on parents, children and family life, this new book by one of Italy's leading and bestselling public intellectuals will be of interest to a wide general readership.

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Book SynopsisOn June 3, 2015, massive women’s street demonstrations took place in many cities across Argentina to protest against femicide. Under the slogan Ni una menos, Not One (Woman) Less, thousands of women took to the streets to express their outrage at systematic violence against women, giving a face and a voice to women who might otherwise have died in silence. Maria Pia López, a founding member and active participant in the Not One Less protest, offers in this book a first-hand account of the distinctive aesthetics, characteristics and lineages of this popular feminist movement, while examining the broader issues of gender politics and violence, inequality and social justice, mourning, performance and protest that are relevant to all contemporary societies. A unique analysis of a social movement as well as a rich and original work of feminist theory and practice, this book will appeal to a wide readership concerned about gender based violence in the neoliberal contexts and what can be done to resist it.Trade Review"In this kaleidoscopic study that is part chronicle, part critical feminist theory, part manifesto, María Pia López, one of Latin America�s most lucid thinkers today, lays out the organizational and aesthetic modalities of a movement that has birthed forceful political subjects." Marcela Alejandra Fuentes, Northwestern UniversityTable of ContentsPrologue – Natalia Brizuela and Leticia Sabsay Introduction: The Tide Mourning: All Victims Count Violence: The Role of Crime Strike: The End of the End of History Power, Representation, and Bodies: The Construction of a Political Subject Modes of Appearing: Language and Theatricality Provisional Epilogue Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOn June 3, 2015, massive women’s street demonstrations took place in many cities across Argentina to protest against femicide. Under the slogan Ni una menos, Not One (Woman) Less, thousands of women took to the streets to express their outrage at systematic violence against women, giving a face and a voice to women who might otherwise have died in silence. Maria Pia López, a founding member and active participant in the Not One Less protest, offers in this book a first-hand account of the distinctive aesthetics, characteristics and lineages of this popular feminist movement, while examining the broader issues of gender politics and violence, inequality and social justice, mourning, performance and protest that are relevant to all contemporary societies. A unique analysis of a social movement as well as a rich and original work of feminist theory and practice, this book will appeal to a wide readership concerned about gender based violence in the neoliberal contexts and what can be done to resist it.Trade Review"In this kaleidoscopic study that is part chronicle, part critical feminist theory, part manifesto, María Pia López, one of Latin America�s most lucid thinkers today, lays out the organizational and aesthetic modalities of a movement that has birthed forceful political subjects." Marcela Alejandra Fuentes, Northwestern UniversityTable of ContentsPrologue – Natalia Brizuela and Leticia Sabsay Introduction: The Tide Mourning: All Victims Count Violence: The Role of Crime Strike: The End of the End of History Power, Representation, and Bodies: The Construction of a Political Subject Modes of Appearing: Language and Theatricality Provisional Epilogue Bibliography

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Book SynopsisBetween Germany and Russia is a region strewn with monuments to the horrors of war, genocide and disaster – the bloodlands where the murderous regimes of Hitler and Stalin unleashed the violence that scarred the twentieth century and shaped so much of the world we know today. In September 2016 the German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani set out to discover this land and to travel along the trenches that are now re-emerging in Europe, from his home in Cologne through eastern Germany to the Baltics, and from there south to the Caucasus and to Isfahan in Iran, the home of his parents. This beautifully written travel diary, enlivened by conversations with the people Kermani meets along the way, brings to life the tragic history of these troubled lands and shows how this history leaves its traces in the present. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with current affairs and with the events that have shaped, and continue to shape, the world in which we live today.Trade Review"Along the Trenches is an important and timely book, reminding us of the complex cultural and communal currents that have always flowed from Isfahan to Cologne and beyond, enriching along the way the lives of everyone they touch."—John Burnside, University of St Andrews "A book so moving and so powerful that it's worth taking 54 days over it, so that each day you can immerse yourself in a new world."—Katja Weise, NDR Kultur "Kermani has succeeded in writing a stirring plea for Europe, one which confirms his place among the ranks of Germany's most influential intellectuals."—Rainer Hermann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "A Herodotus for our times."—Philipp Holstein, Rheinische Post "A breathtaking travel diary and a passionate plea for the diversity of cultures, for Europe and the beauty of stories."—Bayrischer Rundfunk "On almost every page there is something for the reader to think about, to learn, to marvel at."—Tages-Anzeiger "Navid Kermani ... is the best kind of scholar: one who writes with a touch as elegant as it is light."—Catholic Herald "... revealing and thought-provoking...."—Financial TimesTable of ContentsContents Cologne First Day: Schwerin Second Day: From Berlin to Wroc aw Third Day: Auschwitz Fourth Day: Cracow Fifth Day: From Cracow to Warsaw Sixth Day: Warsaw Seventh Day: Warsaw Eighth Day: From Warsaw to Masuria Ninth Day: Kaunas Tenth Day: Vilnius and Vicinity Eleventh Day: Via Paneriai to Minsk Twelfth Day: Minsk and Khatyn Thirteenth Day: Into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Fourteenth Day: Kurapaty and Minsk Fifteenth Day: Into the Exclusion Zone East of Krasnapolle Sixteenth Day: From Minsk to Kiev Seventeenth Day: Kiev Eighteenth Day: From Kiev to Dnipro Nineteenth Day: To the Front in Donbas Twentieth Day: Via Mariupol to the Black Sea Twenty-first Day: Along the Black Sea to Odessa Twenty-second Day: Odessa Twenty-third Day: Leaving Odessa by Air Twenty-fourth Day: Via Moscow to Simferopol Twenty-fifth Day: Via Bakhtshyssarai to Sevastopol Twenty-sixth Day: Along the Crimean Coast Twenty-seventh Day: From Crimea to the Russian Mainland Twenty-eighth Day: To Krasnodar Twenty-ninth Day: From Krasnodar to Grozny Thirtieth Day: Grozny Thirty-first Day: In the Chechen Mountains Thirty-second Day: From Grozny to Tbilisi Thirty-third Day: Tbilisi Thirty-fourth Day: Tbilisi Thirty-fifth Day: To Gori and the Georgian-Ossetian Cease-fire Line Thirty-sixth Day: From Tbilisi to Kakheti Thirty-seventh Day: From Kakheti to Azerbaijan Thirty-eighth Day: Along the Azeri-Armenian Cease-fire Line Thirty-ninth Day: By Night Train to Baku Fortieth Day: Baku Forty-first Day: Baku and Qobustan Forty-second Day: Leaving Baku by Air Forty-third Day: Yerevan Forty-fourth Day: Yerevan Forty-fifth Day: To Lake Sevan and On to Nagorno-Karabakh Forty-sixth Day: Through Nagorno-Karabakh Forty-seventh Day: To the Armenian-Azeri Cease-fire Line and On to Iran Forty-eighth Day: Via Jolfa to Tabriz Forty-ninth Day: Via Ahmadabad to Alamut Castle Fiftieth Day: To the Caspian Sea and On to Tehran Fifty-first Day: Tehran Fifty-second Day: Tehran Fifty-third Day: Tehran Fifty-fourth Day: Flying Out of Tehran With Family in Isfahan The Journey Begins Acknowledgements Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAs the major driver of US demographic change, Latinos are reshaping key aspects of the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of the country.In this second edition ofLatina/os in the United States,Sáenz, Morales, and Rayo-Garza highlight the experiences of Latinos in a variety of domains, including gender and sexuality, education, political engagement, work and economic life, family, religion, health and health care, crime and victimization, mass media, and the arts. This updated edition includes the latest demographic trends, discusses recent mass shootings of Latinos, the impact of the Trump administration, and COVID-19. With greater focus on the Afro-Latino population and Latina/o social thought, it offers sociological perspectives on both native-born and immigrant populations, and engages readers in thinking about the major issues that Latinos are facing. The book clearly illustrates the diverse experiences of the array of Latino groups in the United States, with some of these groups succeeding socially and economically, while other groups continue to experience major social and economic challenges. The book concludes with a discussion of what the future holds for Latinos.This book is essential reading for students, social scientists, and policymakers interested in Latinos and their place in contemporary society.

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Book SynopsisAs polarized factions in society pull apart from economic dislocation, tribalism, and fear, and as strident attacks on the press make its survival more precarious, the need for an institutionally organized forum in civic life has become increasingly important. Populist challenges amplified by a counter-institutional media system have contributed to the long-term decline in journalistic authority, exploiting a post-truth mentality that strikes at its very core. In this timely book, Stephen Reese considers these threats through a new conception of the ‘hybrid institution’: an idea that extends beyond the traditional newsroom, and distributes across multiple platforms, national boundaries, and social actors. What is it about the institutional press that we value, and around what normative standards could a hybrid institution emerge? Addressing these questions, Reese highlights how this is no time to be passive but rather to articulate and defend greater aspirations. The institutional press matters more than ever: a reality that must be communicated to a public that depends on it. The Crisis of the Institutional Press is an essential resource for students and scholars of journalism, media and communication.Trade Review"In many countries, professional journalism is in crisis, undermined by a perfect storm of collapsing business models and political attacks on its authority to speak the truth. Reese shows how institutional power matters deeply for journalism’s crucial public role, but he goes further, by showing how such power now depends upon assemblages of actors far beyond the traditional newsroom. A fresh and exciting account that takes the field in new directions."—Andrew Chadwick, Loughborough University "Reese delivers an insightful analysis of the crisis of the modern press, and shows how journalism is reinventing itself in these challenging times for democracy."—W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington "a state-of-the-art survey of a news eco-system always in the process of becoming."—Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly "This book is particularly valuable for practitioners, students, and scholars who are interested in journalism, media, political science, and communication in general... Compared to other recent academic publications, this book offers a more holistic view of the definition, typology, and research on news institutions. This important work shows scholars and students a rigorous analysis of the current crisis within the institutional press during challenging times for democracy."—International Journal of CommunicationTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1 The Crisis of the Institutional Press 2 Enemies of the Institution 3 Defining the Institution 4 The Implicated Institution 5 The Emerging Hybrid Institution 6 The Sustainable Institution 7 Aspirations for the Institution Epilogue Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisWe commonly think of society as made of and by humans, but with the proliferation of machine learning and AI technologies, this is clearly no longer the case. Billions of automated systems tacitly contribute to the social construction of reality by drawing algorithmic distinctions between the visible and the invisible, the relevant and the irrelevant, the likely and the unlikely – on and beyond platforms. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this book develops an original sociology of algorithms as social agents, actively participating in social life. Through a wide range of examples, Massimo Airoldi shows how society shapes algorithmic code, and how this culture in the code guides the practical behaviour of the code in the culture, shaping society in turn. The ‘machine habitus’ is the generative mechanism at work throughout myriads of feedback loops linking humans with artificial social agents, in the context of digital infrastructures and pre-digital social structures. Machine Habitus will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, media and cultural studies, science and technology studies and information technology, and to anyone interested in the growing role of algorithms and AI in our social and cultural life.Trade Review‘I strongly suspect that Massimo Airoldi’s “machine habitus” is a concept that will be utilized and debated for years to come. At its centre, this book is a lively and original take on how we can understand social connections and society itself in a world laced with algorithms: it is an agenda-setting text.’David Beer, University of York ‘Machine Habitus is without question an original and high-quality book. It is one of the first books that uses sociological theory to make sense of machine learning algorithms. Hence it will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding algorithms and their growing role in our societies.’Simon Egbert, Universität BielefeldTable of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures List of Tables Preface 1. Why not a sociology of algorithms? 2. Culture in the code 3. Code in the culture 4. A Theory of Machine Habitus 5. Techno-Social Reproduction References

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Book SynopsisOnline dating has become a widespread feature of modern social life. In less than two decades, seeking partners through commercial intermediaries went from being a marginal and stigmatized practice to being a common activity. How can we explain this rapid change and what does it tell us about the changing nature of love and sexuality? In contrast to those who praise online dating as a democratization of love and those who condemn it as a commodification of intimacy, this book tells a different story about how and why online dating became big. The key to understanding the growing prevalence of digital dating lies in what Marie Bergström calls “the privatization of intimacy.” Online dating takes courtship from the public to the private sphere and makes it a domestic and individual practice. Unlike courtship in traditional settings such as school, work, and gatherings of family and friends, online dating makes a clear distinction between social and sexual sociability and renders dating much more discrete. Apparently banal, this privatizing feature is fundamental for understanding both the success and the nature of digital matchmaking. Bergström also sheds light on the persisting inequalities of intimate life, showing that online dating is neither free nor fair: it has its winners and losers and it differs significantly according to gender, age and social class. Drawing on a wide range of empirical material, this book challenges what we think we know about online dating and gives us a new understanding of who, why, and how people go online to seek sex and love.Trade Review“A refreshing lack of hysteria about the impact the internet has had on our sex lives.”The Guardian“The New Laws of Love is an insightful deep dive into the world of digitally mediated dating. Bergström eloquently and convincingly navigates a nuanced path between moral decline theses on the one side and uncritical celebrations of online dating on the other, to reach evidence-based conclusions and analyses.”Brady Robards, Monash UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures List of Surveys Introduction PART 1 The Privatization of Dating Chapter 1. The History of Matchmaking Chapter 2. Dating Technicians Chapter 3. The keys to success Chapter 4. Time for Sex and Love PART 2 Unequal Before the Laws of Love Chapter 5. Class at first sight Chapter 6. The Age of singles Chapter 7. Digital double standards Conclusion. Private matters Bibliography

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Book SynopsisWhat if the most joyful act was not to transgress a norm but to erect it? What if creativity consisted in enunciating a law under the pretext of violating it? And what if it turned out that you, who claim to prefer exceptions, only talk about them because they allow you to imagine the rules? This book proposes a provocative interpretation of the dynamic relationship between the normative and the transgressive. Combining sociology, biopolitics and satire, it offers a surprising theory of normative imagination as a cognitive mode characteristic of the era of emotional capitalism. Gender, fashion, artistic creation and surveillance are analyzed from the perspective of a regulatory drive, a continuously renovated and imperative push for normalcy that no longer comes from factual powers but from citizens themselves. These, united in a spontaneous popular court, armed with smartphones and driven by juridical compulsion, become the axis of societies of control. In this way the affective ways of constructing subjectivity are replaced by the distinctive pathology of our times, the name of the globalized game: normopathy for all.Trade Review“Eloy Fernández Porta has invented a new way of thinking that impresses us with his freedom and mordacity.”Le Monde "Eloy Fernández Porta has established himself as one of the best - and most sardonic - analysts of contemporary society in an age when transgression has become the norm. In this book he explores the new regime of normativity at work in the collective farce in which “hypersensitive tweeters” are acting in a “normative happening” where transgression is an omnipresent norm, inscribed in the mind and body of everyone. A 'blow to the heart of social media'!" Christian Salmon, Centre for Research in the Arts and Language at the CNRS, Paris

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Book SynopsisThe desire to be recognized is a basic human trait. In contemporary society, social media platforms play a key role in defining how processes of recognition take shape. To post, to like, or to comment have become daily practices of expressing individual recognition. On the one hand, social media platforms make it easier for individuals to be visible and to be recognized; on the other hand, they control the structure of these dynamics. This timely and original book reflects on processes of recognition on social media platforms. Revisiting traditional discussions on recognition theory, Bruno Campanella investigates how the field of media and communication has used the concept and poses new questions raised by the omnipresence of social media. He argues that existing work does not fully explore the impact of platforms on contemporary processes of recognition. Individuals must learn new skills to make themselves visible online, but how to achieve this changes as a consequence of the role played by platforms: what is seen depends on decisions taken by their algorithms, which impacts how individuals and social groups are valued in society. Recognition in the Age of Social Media is a key contribution to the field, and a must-read for students and scholars of media and communication, sociology, and politics.Trade Review‘One of the most theoretically stimulating interventions on social media in years. Campanella shows how a culture of self-promotion meshes alarmingly with conditions of political and economic precarity, producing subjects all too well adapted to datafied societies, including in the Global South.’Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science‘A poignant analysis of how social media and datafication are changing recognition processes, and why this matters to all of us.’Olivier Driessens, University of CopenhagenTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Recognition 2 Recognition and the Media 3 Regimes of Visibility in Social Media Platforms 4 The Demand for New Dispositions Conclusion Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThe desire to be recognized is a basic human trait. In contemporary society, social media platforms play a key role in defining how processes of recognition take shape. To post, to like, or to comment have become daily practices of expressing individual recognition. On the one hand, social media platforms make it easier for individuals to be visible and to be recognized; on the other hand, they control the structure of these dynamics. This timely and original book reflects on processes of recognition on social media platforms. Revisiting traditional discussions on recognition theory, Bruno Campanella investigates how the field of media and communication has used the concept and poses new questions raised by the omnipresence of social media. He argues that existing work does not fully explore the impact of platforms on contemporary processes of recognition. Individuals must learn new skills to make themselves visible online, but how to achieve this changes as a consequence of the role played by platforms: what is seen depends on decisions taken by their algorithms, which impacts how individuals and social groups are valued in society. Recognition in the Age of Social Media is a key contribution to the field, and a must-read for students and scholars of media and communication, sociology, and politics.Trade Review‘One of the most theoretically stimulating interventions on social media in years. Campanella shows how a culture of self-promotion meshes alarmingly with conditions of political and economic precarity, producing subjects all too well adapted to datafied societies, including in the Global South.’Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science‘A poignant analysis of how social media and datafication are changing recognition processes, and why this matters to all of us.’Olivier Driessens, University of CopenhagenTable of ContentsIntroduction1 Recognition2 Recognition and the Media3 Regimes of Visibility in Social Media Platforms4 The Demand for New DispositionsConclusionNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book tells the story of the turbulent decades when the book publishing industry collided with the great technological revolution of our time. From the surge of ebooks to the self-publishing explosion and the growing popularity of audiobooks, Book Wars provides a comprehensive and fine-grained account of technological disruption in one of our most important and successful creative industries. Like other sectors, publishing has been thrown into disarray by the digital revolution. The foundation on which this industry had been based for 500 years – the packaging and sale of words and images in the form of printed books – was called into question by a technological revolution that enabled symbolic content to be stored, manipulated and transmitted quickly and cheaply. Publishers and retailers found themselves facing a proliferation of new players who were offering new products and services and challenging some of their most deeply held principles and beliefs. The old industry was suddenly thrust into the limelight as bitter conflicts erupted between publishers and new entrants, including powerful new tech giants who saw the world in very different ways. The book wars had begun. While ebooks were at the heart of many of these conflicts, Thompson argues that the most fundamental consequences lie elsewhere. The print-on-paper book has proven to be a remarkably resilient cultural form, but the digital revolution has transformed the industry in other ways, spawning new players which now wield unprecedented power and giving rise to an array of new publishing forms. Most important of all, it has transformed the broader information and communication environment, creating new challenges and new opportunities for publishers as they seek to redefine their role in the digital age. This unrivalled account of the book publishing industry as it faces its greatest challenge since Gutenberg will be essential reading for anyone interested in books and their future.Trade ReviewOne of Tyler Cowen's 'Best Non-Fiction Books of 2021' in Marginal Revolution“An expert diagnosis of publishers and publishing, robustly illustrated with charts, graphs, tables, statistics and case studies… For anyone bewildered by the transformation of the book world, Mr. Thompson offers a pointed, thorough and business-literate survey.”The Wall Street Journal“Thompson takes the reader on a wild and exciting ride exploring the changes that have turned book publishing on its head over the last 30 years, with the development of many new technologies that readers may have come to take for granted or never considered… well worth reading to understand where the book was in the latter part of the twentieth century and where it is headed well into the twenty-first.”LSE Review of Books“Book Wars is as comprehensive, wide-ranging and deeply considered an appraisal of the book publishing world as one can imagine – and a sober consideration of what the digital age has meant to a print-centred business. This masterful work should be the foundation for all future thinking about book publishing, and much future thinking about how new technologies change – and don’t change – societies.”Michael Schudson, Columbia University “Thompson weaves together a remarkable account of how and why one of the oldest forms of media has persisted through the challenges posed by digital disruption. Extraordinary in its breadth and depth, Book Wars unpacks the complex implications of digital production and distribution and draws crucial lessons that are relevant well beyond the world of books, providing a valuable lens for examining the profound changes that internet communication has brought to nearly every sector of the economy, and especially media industries.”Amanda Lotz, Queensland University of Technology “John Thompson was there when the digital-driven changes were in full swing, and he uses his bird’s-eye view and thoroughly researched analysis to give the reader the story behind the stories. And it’s a great read too.”John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Publishers USA“An astute deep dive into the current publishing predicament ─ how we got here and what lies ahead. For anyone who wants to understand the key challenges facing our industry today, this book is highly instructive.”Jonathan Galassi, President, Farrar Straus & Giroux “Thrilling reports from the trade-publishing front lines by a leading (as it were) war correspondent….I once (rather pompously) wrote that we need a 'contemporary history of the book'. Well, now we have it, for trade presses at least. I just didn’t expect it to be so interesting.”Times Higher Education“magisterial”The Independent“insightful and intelligent”Publisher’s Weekly “excellent… Every skirmish, every battle, every standoff is covered objectively with supporting data and entertainingly with the case studies I would have chosen.”Richard Charkin, Publishing Perspectives“An important book for anyone interested in publishing.”The Toronto Star“John B. Thompson’s Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing is certain to become this year’s must-read for anyone serious about the publishing industry.”Thad McIlroy, The Future of Publishing “an extremely authoritative account of the revolution which at one time looked like it was going to destroy the fusty old world of book publishing, but has actually ended up reinvigorating it in ways that no one predicted… for anybody wanting to get into publishing this should be compulsory reading. If you are about to go for a job interview anywhere in the industry, read this book first!”Authors Electric“Exceptionally well written, organized and presented... Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing is an extraordinary study and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended for anyone with an interest in how and why the publishing industry works as it does today.”Midwest Book Review “If you’re a serious professional author like me, this book is a must-read because it gives historical perspective. Younger and less experienced writers often lack historical perspective and there aren’t many books on the history of the publishing industry, so Thompson’s book is required reading.”M. L. Ron, Indie Author Confidential Vol. 5 “Thompson’s work is authoritative and will be of tremendous value to future readers and researchers in understanding how a 500-year-old culture of print was able to absorb and adapt. I’m aware of no other title that provides such a useful account of how publishing professionals have fought to ensure stabilization and reliable delivery of content.”The Scholarly Kitchen “magisterial… Thompson has provided an invaluable reference and resource for researchers into the complex and rapidly changing field of book publishing. Elegantly written, thoroughly researched, and remarkably comprehensive, Book Wars tells a fascinating story of how publishers large and small are adapting to the transformational effects of the digital revolution.”Publishing Research Quarterly “Thompson’s Book Wars has been the book-about-book-publishing event of 2021…no one else has Thompson’s ability to marshal the facts into comprehensive and illuminating accounts of publishing in all its splendor.”Publishers Weekly“Nobody arrives better equipped than Thompson to map how the publishing ecosystem has persisted and morphed in the digital environment… it's invaluable to have such thorough documentation of the digital publishing multiverse.”The Los Angeles Review of Books“Thompson sets out to detail the recent history of the digital revolution of books and succeeds in not only providing such a history, but also showing a clear warning sign of how the digital revolution impacts every industry and individual differently… fascinating.”Real Change“fascinating and salutary”The Critic“Thompson is an eloquent and lucid writer who has a real talent for telescoping smoothly from individual cases to a bird's-eye view of the industry of trade publishing… I do not imagine there are many other scholars working today who could provide such a magisterial account of the past two decades of the digital revolution in Anglo-American trade book publishing.”Robert Brown, Journal of Scholarly Publishing“This is a deeply informative book that can be read cover to cover and then put on a nearby shelf as a reference, not only to the grand themes of the digital revolution in books, but to a plethora of companies and organizations that have contributed to every aspect of that revolution, from Smashwords to Booksmart to Blurb to Unbound to Inkshares to so many more.”Alex Holzman, Journal of Scholarly Publishing“Book Wars brings depth and empirical richness to its account of the rapidly changing publishing industry, while contributing to theoretical and conceptual debates about digital platforms and culture industries.”International Journal of Communication“A great book… This is a comprehensive and thoroughly convincing monograph on the digital revolution in publishing. There is just no way round this book, for publishing studies scholars (and students) as well as for book business professionals interested in the inner workings of the digital sector of their industry.”Logos 'a brilliant and singular work'Escola de Llibreria ‘Book Wars presents a comprehensive and compelling narrative of new forms of book production, publication, and dissemination. Anyone considering the current and historical states of Anglo-American trade publishing would benefit from reading this impressive piece of scholarship.’Information & Culture ‘Literary scholars, professionals with a vested interest in books’ value, stand to benefit enormously from Thompson’s account… Book Wars shows that understanding the major forces shaping literary production and circulation requires methods appropriate to resolutely non-textual phenomena. Our disciplinary habitus may not be a reliable guide to the hidden continents of literary media. Thompson’s map of the changing publishing field points to different lines of inquiry for contemporary literary studies—different objects, different questions—than the ones we have so far taken up.’Contemporary Literature ‘Book Wars provides an expansive look at the state of publishing today, and will find readers across a wealth of disciplines and approaches… it will prompt and inform ongoing discussions about the book industry and publishing – and ultimately, help us understand the value of what we still call “the book” in our heavily digitized and media-filled lives.’Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik“Thompson has a long view of publishing, one that isn’t mired in nostalgia. He isn’t dismissive or jaded about the digital revolution, which is exactly the right attitude for any publisher hoping to navigate its turbulent future."The AuthorTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 The Faltering Rise of the Ebook 2 Reinventing the Book 3 The Backlist Wars 4 Google Trouble 5 Amazon's Ascent 6 Struggles for Visibility 7 The Self-publishing Explosion 8 Crowdfunding Books 9 Bookflix 10 The New Orality 11 Storytelling in Social Media 12 Old Media, New Media Conclusion: Worlds in Flux Appendix 1: Sales data from a large US trade publisher Appendix 2: Note on Research Methods Index

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Book SynopsisBerlin in the early 1990s, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall: this is the place to be. Berlin-Mitte, the central district of the city, with its wastelands and decaying houses, has become the centre of a new movement. Artists, musicians, squatters, club owners, DJs and ravers are reclaiming the old city centre and bringing it back to life. This interregnum between two systems – the collapse of the old East Germany, the gentrification of the new Berlin – lasts only a few years. West Berliners, East Berliners and new residents from abroad join together to create music, art and fashion, to open bars and clubs and galleries, even if only for a few weeks. In the months following the fall of the Wall, there is a feeling of new beginnings and immense possibilities: life is now, and to be in the here and now feels endless. The phrase ‘temporary autonomous zone’ is circulating, it describes the idea – romantic and naive but, in the circumstances, not absurd – that, at a certain moment in history, you can actually do whatever you want. Ulrich Gutmair moved to West Berlin as a student in autumn 1989: two weeks later the Wall came down. He spent the next few years studying during the day in the West and exploring the squats, bars and techno clubs in the East at night. He fell in love with House and Techno and raved at Tresor, Elektro, Bunker and many other places that in the meantime have almost disappeared from collective memory. Ten years later he decided to write a book about that period in between, when one regime was brought down and a new one wasn’t yet established. When utopia was actually a place to inhabit for a moment.Trade Review"Gutmair's chronicle is about another mise en scene ... namely that of the first electronic dance clubs. His descriptions of the sounds and smells, bass drums and breakbeats, the low-ceilinged and cinder-strewn dance floors transport one to those locations better than any film version of the day."—The National "[A] fascinating work of cultural history."—SocietyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface to the English edition Map of Locations I. How Long is Now? II. The Year of Anarchy III. Occupying the Government District IV. At the Elektro, Mauerstrasse 15 V. The Nineteenth-Century ‘Founders’ of Berlin VI. U. S. P. Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPhilosophy has provided us with a wealth of moral and ethical theories. Applied ethics is the study of practical moral issues and our best philosophical theories, and how each can inform the other. Acclaimed philosopher and textbook author Robin Attfield invites students to reflect on the key problems of our time. Through lively case studies of topics related to health care, international development, the environment, abortion, punishment and more, he reveals how standard ethical theories can be tested on these real-life scenarios and, if necessary, revised or discarded. Students are encouraged to be their own philosophers, exploring and reaching coherent stances across a wide range of areas of everyday concern. Covering a typical applied ethics syllabus in a comprehensive and accessible manner, Applied Ethics will motivate philosophy students to engage with the most pressing moral issues of the twenty-first century.Trade Review“An outstanding book: comprehensive, systematic, and clear, covering enormous territory. It will be highly successful in courses, as well as with general readers looking for a guide to applied ethics. Attfield is a true, even awesome contributor to the field.”Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College“This clear, scholarly, and engaging book, by a long-standing and internationally eminent contributor to the subject, is the perfect introduction to applied ethics for students. Those already working in the area at any level will also learn much from it.”Roger Crisp, University of OxfordTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 The History and Revival of Applied Ethics 2 Sketches of Some Ethical Theories 3 Inter-Generational Ethics 4 Inter-Species Ethics 5 Biomedical Ethics 6 Development Ethics and Population Ethics 7 Environmental Ethics and Climate Ethics 8 Punishment, Recompense and Capital Punishment 9 The Ethics of War and Peace 10 Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPhilosophy has provided us with a wealth of moral and ethical theories. Applied ethics is the study of practical moral issues and our best philosophical theories, and how each can inform the other. Acclaimed philosopher and textbook author Robin Attfield invites students to reflect on the key problems of our time. Through lively case studies of topics related to health care, international development, the environment, abortion, punishment and more, he reveals how standard ethical theories can be tested on these real-life scenarios and, if necessary, revised or discarded. Students are encouraged to be their own philosophers, exploring and reaching coherent stances across a wide range of areas of everyday concern. Covering a typical applied ethics syllabus in a comprehensive and accessible manner, Applied Ethics will motivate philosophy students to engage with the most pressing moral issues of the twenty-first century.Trade Review“An outstanding book: comprehensive, systematic, and clear, covering enormous territory. It will be highly successful in courses, as well as with general readers looking for a guide to applied ethics. Attfield is a true, even awesome contributor to the field.”Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College“This clear, scholarly, and engaging book, by a long-standing and internationally eminent contributor to the subject, is the perfect introduction to applied ethics for students. Those already working in the area at any level will also learn much from it.”Roger Crisp, University of OxfordTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 The History and Revival of Applied Ethics 2 Sketches of Some Ethical Theories 3 Inter-Generational Ethics 4 Inter-Species Ethics 5 Biomedical Ethics 6 Development Ethics and Population Ethics 7 Environmental Ethics and Climate Ethics 8 Punishment, Recompense and Capital Punishment 9 The Ethics of War and Peace 10 Applied Ethics and Ethical Theory Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn this highly original book, Maboula Soumahoro explores the cultural and political vastness of the Black Atlantic, where Africa, Europe, and the Americas were tied together by the brutal realities of the slave trade and colonialism. Each of these spaces has its own way of reading the Black body and the Black experience, and its own modes of visibility, invisibility, silence, and amplification of Black life. By weaving together her personal history with that of France and its abiding myth of color-blindness, Maboula Soumahoro highlights the banality and persistence of structural racism in France today, and shows that freedom will be found in the journey and movement between the sites of the Atlantic triangle. Africana is the name of that freedom. How can we build and reflect on a collective diasporic identity through a personal journey? What are the limits and possibilities of this endeavor, when the personal journey is that of oft-erased bodies and stories, de-humanized lives, and when Black populations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe identify and misidentify with each other, their sensibilities shaped by the particular locales in which their lives unfold? This book makes an important intellectual contribution to contemporary public conversations and theoretical inquiry into race, racism, blackness, and identity today, as it probes and questions the academic methodologies that have functioned as structures of exclusion.Trade Review“Maboula’s writing is a resolute respiration which, line after line, exposes and challenges the suffocating violence of racism à la française. This is an intimate text that will change how you look at race and blackness.”Mame-Fatou Niang, author of Identités françaisesTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Translator’s Note Foreword – Saidiya Hartman Introduction. Black speech / Speaking blackness On diaspora What is this “I”? The Triangle Chronotope Scholarly and personal implications An intellectual tradition The question of return University Trajectory Black orbit Studying in France Studying overseas The Hexagon “For the great MCs, on behalf of a grateful ‘hood’” 2005: “Right the wrong, by any means necessary” Public discourse Black History Month (BHM) / Africana Days To be done with the burden of race Conclusion. The Orbs are Black, or, what beauty owes to chaos Notes

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Book SynopsisLeading philosophers Alice Crary and Lori Gruen offer a searing and desperately needed response to systems of thought and action that are failing animals and, ultimately, humans too. In the wake of global pandemics, mass extinctions, habitat destruction, and catastrophic climate change, they issue a clarion call to address the intertwined problems we face, arguing that we must radically reimagine our relationships with other animals. In stark contrast to traditional theories in animal ethics, which abstract from social mechanisms harmful to human beings, Animal Crisis makes the case that there can be no animal liberation without human emancipation. Borrowing from critical theories such as ecofeminism, Crary and Gruen present a critical animal theory for understanding and combating the structural forces that enable the diminishment of so many to the advantage of a few. With seven case studies of complex human-animal relations, they make an urgent plea to dismantle the “human supremacism” that is devastating animal lives and hurtling us toward ecocide.Trade Review"Animal Crisis presents the reader with the most thorough research into the ways in which animal lives are understood. The arguments are illustrated with stories of individual animals or groups of animals who have been cruelly treated. It is a must for all those who want to understand why we should treat animals ethically."Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace "So radical, so morally unsettling, that you have to take your courage in both hands to read it. But read it you should." Raimond Gaita, author of The Philosopher’s Dog "A deeply moving book that calls on us to reconsider our relationship to animals and to other humans and ecosystems we depend on."Sally Haslanger, author of Resisting Reality"[A]n inspirational and comprehensive book on animal ethics: concise yet packed with an impressive amount of potent information."Leonardo ReviewsTable of ContentsAbout Writing this Book Acknowledgments Prologue 1 Crisis: Orangutans 2 Ethics: Pigs 3 Suffering: Cows 4 Minds: Octopuses 5 Dignity: Rats 6 Seeing: Parrots 7 Politics: Ticks References Index

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Book SynopsisRazors, tweezers, wax and hair removal creams: these are the tools for the initiation rites that signal the passage from girl to woman. Today the only acceptable places for a woman to have hair are on her head (preferably long), her eyebrows (not too wild) and eyelashes (not too sparse). All kinds of cosmetics are sold to achieve the desired effect of localized luxuriance. At the same time, the industry of removing hair everywhere else on the body advances relentlessly. Hair is no longer a sign of joy but a battleground of cosmetic surgery. In this short book, the Catalan writer Bel Olid draws on personal experience to dismantle preconceived ideas about the supposed benefits of waxing and shaving, and to lay bare the social penalties that are meted out to any woman who allows their body hair to grow. With clarity and courage, Bel Olid exposes the contradictions and hidden costs of hair removal, and issues a rousing call to women everywhere to set themselves free from the urge to please everyone else and to focus, instead, on what pleases them.Trade Review‘Insightful, ferociously feminist and always humane. I devoured this.’Kerry Hudson, author of Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain's Poorest Towns ‘This smart, funny, thought-provoking book tackles a serious social and political problem: once you start reading it, you won't want to put it down.’Aurélie Vialette, Stony Brook University‘Excellent, snappy treatise. Olid pulls off a masterful balance of academic erudition and accessible, crisp prose. Persuasive and thought-provoking, this brisk volume deserves a broad audience.’Publisher's Weekly“Olid’s account is thoughtful and thorough: through the prism of her own experience, she convincingly articulates the stakes of this ordinary predicament and makes a robust case for the centrality of body hair to interlocking forms of oppression, both real and symbolic.’Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisIn the 2010s, as chat apps became a primary mode of communication for many people across the world, WhatsApp quickly outpaced rival messaging apps and developed into a platform. In this book, the authors provide a comprehensive account of WhatsApp’s global growth. Charting WhatsApp’s evolution from its founding in 2009 to the present day, they argue that WhatsApp has been transformed from a simple, ‘gimmickless’ app into a global communication platform. Understanding this development can shed light on the trajectory of Meta’s industrial development, and how digital economies and social media landscapes are evolving with the rise of ‘superapps’. This book explores how WhatsApp’s unique characteristics mediate new kinds of social and commercial transactions; how they pose new opportunities and challenges for platform regulation, civic participation and democracy; and how they give rise to new kinds of digital literacy as WhatsApp becomes integrated into everyday digital cultures across the globe. Accessibly written, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars of digital media, cultural studies, and media and communications.Trade Review‘Fascinating and authoritative. This genuinely international and cosmopolitan study shows the ways that WhatsApp is decisively shaped, especially in the Global South.’Gerard Goggin, The University of Sydney‘With a refreshing personal touch, the authors retrace how a seemingly simple chat app morphed into a global communication and business platform.’David B. Nieborg, University of TorontoTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Why WhatsApp Matters Chapter Two: Platform Biography Chapter Three: Everyday Uses of WhatsApp Chapter Four: WhatsApp Publics: Activism, News, Disorder Chapter Five: WhatsApp Business Model Chapter Six: WhatsApp Futures Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisIn October 2016, thirty intellectuals and artists from Africa, its diasporas, and beyond gathered together in Dakar and Saint-Louis, Senegal, to reflect on the present and future of Africa in the midst of transformations that are sweeping through the contemporary world. The aim was to take stock of the renewal of Afro-diasporic critical thought and to discuss the new perspectives emerging from the ongoing projects constructing political, cultural, and social imaginaries for and from the African continent. This book brings together and makes available to the English-speaking world the material presented at the 2016 Ateliers de la pensée – Workshops of Thought – in Dakar. The authors deal with a wide range of issues, including decolonization, the development of social utopias, and the pursuit of new forms of political, economic, and social production on the African continent. Running throughout is a constant concern to interrogate the categories and frames of meaning that have served to characterize the dynamics of the African continent and a shared desire to produce new frames of intelligibility through which to see Africa’s present realities and its future. The contributions also attest to the view that there is no African question that is not also a global question, and that the Africanization of the global question will be a decisive feature of the twenty-first century.To Write the Africa World and its companion volume The Politics of Time will be indispensable for anyone interested in Africa – its past, present, and future – and in the new forms of critical thought emerging from Africa and the Global South.Trade Review“Questions to do with the world and its relationship with Africa have never been more urgent, and Africa is the richest and most indispensable source and location for thinking about these issues. To Write the Africa World is a rich and powerful contribution to the debate.”Fred Moten, New York University “To Write the Africa World is a compelling and urgently necessary collection of essays centered around the present and future role of Africa in the global sphere… For scholars and writers who are interested in the future of Africa and new forms of critical inquiry and thought emerging from the continent, this volume will be essential reading.”JDDavisPoet Table of ContentsThinking for a New Century Achille Mbembe and Felwine Sarr I (European?) Universalism: put to the test by indigenous histories Mamadou Diouf Laetitia Africana: philosophy, decolonization, melancholia Nadia Yala Kisukidi For a truly universal universal Souleymane Bachir Diagne Migrant writers: builders of a balanced globalization of Africa/Europe Benaouda Lebdai II For what is Africa the name? Léonora Miano Epistemological Impasses around the object Africa Maurice Soudieck Dione Reinventing African modernity! Blondin Cissé What is a postcolonial author? Lydie Moudileno III How can one be African? Hourya Bentouhami Re-discovering meaning Bonaventure Mve-Ondo Esteem For Self: Creating One’s Own Sense/Carving Out One’s Own Path Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux Dictionary for lovers of the African continent: two entries Alain Mabanckou and Abdourahman Waberi Emancipatory utopias Françoise Vergès IV Martiality and death in sexual relations in Cameroon Parfait D. Akana Confronted with demographic challenges and technological mutations: does a good paying-job have a future in Africa? Ndongo Samba Sylla Healing the in-common Abdourahmane Seck V Paths of the universal Sami Tchak Re-enchanting the world: Husserl in the post-colony Nado Ndoye Writing the humanities from the vantage point of Africa Felwine Sarr Thinking the world from the vantage point of Africa Achille Mbembe Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAs we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, the world is undergoing a major historical shift: Africa, and the Global South more generally, is increasingly becoming a principal theatre in which the future of the planet plays itself out. But not only this: Africa is at the same time emerging as one of the great laboratories for novel forms of social, economic, political, intellectual, cultural, and artistic life. Often arising in unexpected places, these new forms of life materialize in practices that draw deeply from collective memory while simultaneously assuming distinctly contemporary, even futuristic, guises. In November 2017, the second session of the Ateliers de la pensée – Workshops of Thought – was held in Dakar, Senegal. Fifty African and diasporic intellectuals and artists participated and their debates unfolded along numerous thematic lines, approached from the standpoints of many different disciplines. This volume is the result of that encounter. Among the many topics discussed were the concurrence and entanglement of multiple temporalities, the politics of life in the Anthropocene, the project of decolonization, and the preservation and transmission of different ways of knowing. At a time when the world is haunted by the specter of its own end, the contributors to this volume ask whether one can, by taking Africa as a point of departure, seize hold of other options for the future – not only for Africa, but for the world. The Politics of Time and its companion volume, To Write the Africa World, will be indispensable works for anyone interested in Africa – its past, present, and future – and in the new forms of critical thought emerging from Africa and the Global South.Trade Review“This powerful, multivalent collection captures the effervescent thought and energy of the Ateliers de la pensée, offering new conceptualizations of time and history and new visions of Africa’s futures.”Laurent Dubois, Duke University“The Politics of Time is an urgently necessary and accessible intervention of African philosophy and political theory into the discourse of global affairs... For anyone interested in African politics, philosophy, economics, and social theory, this book is a timely and essential work to understand the role and importance of the African continent and its people for the future of humanity.”JDDavisPoetTable of ContentsPreface Achille Mbembe and Felwine Sarr I From Thinking Identity to Thinking African Becomings Souleymane Bachir Diagne Notes for a Maroon Feminism. From the ‘Body Double’ to the Body as such Hourya Bentouhami Weaving, A Craft for Thought. Writing and Thinking in Africa, or the Knot of the World’s Great Narrative Jean-Luc Raharimanana II Africa and the New Western Figures of Personal Status Law Abdoul Aziz Diouf Rethinking Islam, Or, the Oxymoron of “Secular Theocracy” Rachid Id Yassine The Impossible Meeting. A Free Interpretation of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace Hemley Boum III Circulations Achille Mbembe On the Return. The Political Practices of the African Diaspora Nadia Yala Kisukidi Reopening Futures Felwine Sarr IV Un/learning. Rethinking Teaching in Africa Françoise Vergès The Bewitchment of History: Mohammed Dib’s Who Remembers the Sea Soraya Tlatli Currency, Sovereignty, Development. Revisiting the Question of the CFA Franc Ndongo Samba Sylla V Memories of the World, Memory-World Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux Cum patior Africa: The Political Production of Regimes of ‘the Nigh’ Nadine Machikou The Sahara: A Space of Connection within an Emergent Africa, From the Anthropocene to the Spring of Geo-Cultural Life Benaouda Lebdai Migrations, Narrations, the Refugee Condition Dominic Thomas VI Humanity and Animality: (Re)thinking Anthropocentrism Bado Ndoye The Tree Frogs’ Distress Lionel Manga To Speak and Betray Nothing? Rodney Saint-Éloi The Paths of the Voice Ibrahima Wane Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance. By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.Trade Review‘Diedrich Diederichsen’s book presents itself as a rigorous study of pop music considered as a thing in itself. That it is. But then you turn what seems to be a predictable corner and find yourself ambushed by sly humour, playfulness, a willingness to place large analytical bets on what seem to be slim chances. The book is filled with trap doors which open up again and again.’Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century‘Diedrich Diederichsen is an always compelling analyst of pop and rock music across all its many genres, and Aesthetics of Pop Music sheds new light on the capacities, identities and meanings of the form.’Michael Bracewell, author of England is Mine: Pop Life in Albion from Wilde to Goldie‘an engaging read… With arguments from the Frankfurt school, examples of performers ranging from the 1950s to the twenty-first century, discussion of modern technical recording methods, and commentary on social media, Aesthetics of Pop Music will appeal to a variety of readers, particularly those in multimedia and cultural studies'Journal of the Society for Musicology in IrelandTable of ContentsPreface I. Pop Music is a Form of Indexical Art II. Pop Music is the Second of Three Culture Industries III. At the Heart of Pop Music is No Object, but an Impulse to Connect IV. An Assembly of Effects and Small Noises V. Minus Music: Popularity and Criticism VI. Production Aesthetics Notes

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Book SynopsisThe #MeToo movement created more opportunities for women to speak up about sexual assault. But we are also living in a time when “fake news” and “alternative facts” call into question the very nature of truth. This troubling paradox is at the heart of this compelling book. The convergence of #MeToo and the crisis of post-truth is used to explore the experiences of women and people of color whose claims around issues of sexual violence are often held in doubt. Banet-Weiser and Higgins investigate how the gendered and racialized logics of “believability” are defined and contested within media culture, proposing that a mediated “economy of believability” is the context in which public bids for truth about sexual violence are made, negotiated, and authorized today.Trade Review“Believability … is an essential text for anyone interested in the problem of sexual violence, feminist politics after #MeToo, or contestations around truth in our hyper-mediated and privatised public sphere. … [It]offers the best and most nuanced analysis of the cultural significance of #MeToo I have read … the book is not only a crucial contribution to feminist thought, but also an important step towards reconceptualising the cultural politics of belief and truth in transformative feminist ways.”European Journal of Cultural Studies"Banet-Weiser and Higgins’s timely book presents a powerful feminist analysis of the interacting forces of belief, media and sexual violence in the post-truth era… a transdisciplinary masterpiece.”LSE Review of Books“Carefully crafted and apt … a must read.”CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: (Post)Truth, Belief, Media, and Sexual Violence 1 Construction: #MeToo Media and Representations of Believability 2 Commodification: Buying and Selling Belief in the #MeToo Marketplace 3 Contest: Media, ‘Mob Justice’, and the Digitization of Doubt 4 Conditional: Kavanaughs, Karens, and the Struggle for Victimhood Conclusion: #BelieveWomen, Revisited References Index

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to say that there is a feminist sociology? And how might we engage the full potential of a feminist sociological imagination? These questions lie at the heart of Jo Reger's slim guide to a powerful tool, which has a long history in US sociology and yet remains as urgently needed as ever. Grounded in a need to change both society and the discipline, feminist sociology challenges the foundations of traditional social science and articulates new ways of creating knowledge, doing research, and understanding the role of researchers and the people they study. Drawing on concepts such as positionality and reflexivity and emphasizing the importance of feminist ethics, emotions, activism, and transformation, this concise book traces out what it means to engage in feminist sociology and to claim the identity of a feminist sociologist.

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