Search results for ""author pal""

While Western media are shrinking their foreign correspondent networks, Chinese media, for the first time in history, are rapidly expanding worldwide. The Chinese government is financing most of this growth, hoping to strengthen its influence and improve its public image. But do these reporters willingly serve formulated agendas or do they follow their own interests? And are they changing Chinese citizens’ views of the world? Based on interviews and informal conversations with over seventy current and former correspondents, Reporting for China documents a diverse group of professionals who hold political views from nationalist to liberal, but are constrained in their ability to report on the world by China’s media control, audience tastes, and the declining market for traditional media.

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Pál Ács discusses various aspects of the cultural and literary history of Hungary during the hundred years that followed the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the onset of the Reformation. The author focuses on the special Ottoman context of the Hungarian Reformation movements including the Protestant and Catholic Reformation and the spiritual reform of Erasmian intellectuals. The author argues that the Ottoman presence in Hungary could mean the co-existence of Ottoman bureaucrats and soldiers with the indigenous population. He explores the culture of occupied areas, the fascinating ways Christians came to terms with Muslim authorities, and the co-existence of Muslims and Christians. Ács treats not only the culture of the Reformation in an Ottoman context but also vice versa the Ottomans in a Protestant framework. As the studies show, the culture of the early modern Hungarian Reformation is extremely manifold and multi-layered. Historical documents such as theological, political and literary works and pieces of art formed an interpretive, unified whole in the self-representation of the era. Two interlinked and unifying ideas define this diversity: on the one hand the idea of European-ness, i.e. the idea of strong ties to a Christian Europe, and on the other the concept of Reformation itself. Despite its constant ideological fragmentation, the Reformation sought universalism in all its branches. As Ács shows, it was re-formatio in the original sense of the word, i.e. restoration, an attempt to restore a bygone perfection imagined to be ideal.

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Twenty years ago, commercial tourism in the People’s Republic of China hardly existed. Today, China has a burgeoning tourist industry, characterized by a unique style with deep roots in traditional Chinese culture. Scenic Spots is an engaging exploration of why Chinese tourists pursue certain kinds of experiences, what they make of them, and how their experiences and interpretations are shaped by the state. Working from within a Chinese cultural framework, Pál Nyíri argues that China’s brand of tourism is distinct from the traditions of both Western bourgeois tourism, which values authenticity, and Soviet tourism, with its emphasis on rugged and selfless experience. In China, tourism development is guided by the state, and “scenic spots” (jingdian) and theme parks are used to demonstrate China’s heroic past and as tools of patriotic education and modernization – or as forms of “indoctritainment.” The tourist site is perceived as a product, and, as such, it is bounded, approved, rated, and consumed. In a style both straightforward and provocative, Nyíri argues that the uniformity and undisguised commercialism of Chinese tourist sites are a direct result of the state’s ultimate authority to determine the meaning of landscape and to control culture. Scenic Spots serves as a lens through which to explore mechanisms of cultural control and resistance in a highly commercialized sphere of everyday life in contemporary China.

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While Western media are shrinking their foreign correspondent networks, Chinese media, for the first time in history, are rapidly expanding worldwide. The Chinese government is financing most of this growth, hoping to strengthen its influence and improve its public image. But do these reporters willingly serve formulated agendas or do they follow their own interests? And are they changing Chinese citizens’ views of the world? Based on interviews and informal conversations with over seventy current and former correspondents, Reporting for China documents a diverse group of professionals who hold political views from nationalist to liberal, but are constrained in their ability to report on the world by China’s media control, audience tastes, and the declining market for traditional media.

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The simplest mathematical model of the Brownian motion of physics is the simple, symmetric random walk. This book collects and compares current results — mostly strong theorems which describe the properties of a random walk. The modern problems of the limit theorems of probability theory are treated in the simple case of coin tossing. Taking advantage of this simplicity, the reader is familiarized with limit theorems (especially strong ones) without the burden of technical tools and difficulties. An easy way of considering the Wiener process is also given, through the study of the random walk.Since the first edition was published in 1990, a number of new results have appeared in the literature. The original edition contained many unsolved problems and conjectures which have since been settled; this second revised and enlarged edition includes those new results. Three new chapters have been added: frequently and rarely visited points, heavy points and long excursions. This new edition presents the most complete study of, and the most elementary way to study, the path properties of the Brownian motion.

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Chinese citizens are becoming increasingly mobile, both inside China and abroad, as migrant workers, tourists, and students. China is caught between perceived benefits and dangers posed by mobility, complicated by the government’s own conflicting impulses to support and discourage it. Mobility and Cultural Authority in Contemporary China demonstrates this intricate balance through an in-depth look at patterns of migration and state response. Pál Nyíri argues that the loosening of China’s restrictions on internal and international migration, its promotion of domestic tourism, and its increasingly positive portrayal of migrants all follow a similar logic in which mobility comes to epitomize a new and modern China. Yet the loosening of administrative control is compensated by the imposition of cultural control over how mobility is represented and how mobile citizens make sense of their new experiences, as well as by continued restrictions on types of movement that are seen as undesirable. With ever-growing popular and academic scrutiny of the topic of national and international migration, this compact, engrossing, and timely study is well poised to be read widely by scholars interested in globalization, nationalization, modernization, tourism, and modern China.

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Edward Said is perhaps best known as the author of the landmark study Orientalism, a book which changed the face of critical theory and shaped the emerging field of post-colonial studies, and for his controversial journalism on the Palestinian political situation.Looking at the context and the impact of Said's scholarship and journalism, this book examines Said's key ideas, including: the significance of 'worldliness', 'amateurism', 'secular criticism', 'affiliation' and 'contrapuntal reading' the place of text and critic in 'the world' knowledge, power and the construction of the 'Other' links between culture and imperialism exile, identity and the plight of Palestine a new chapter looking at Said's later work and style This popular guide has been fully updated and revised in a new edition, suitable for readers approaching Said's work for the first time as well as those already familiar with the work of this important theorist. The result is the ideal guide to one of the twentieth century's most engaging critical thinkers.

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The book critically examines the question of the ideology of Pakistan and the related claim concerning Islam as a system. The author attempts to discuss the issue in the context of the economy of Pakistan and argues in favour of renewed efforts towards the reconstruction of Islamic thought to meet the challenge of modernity in the area of economic policy.

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A novel exploring the descent of superficially decent people into vindictive killers. What could bring people to form a mob and attack others? What circumstances could provoke a thirst for blood at the market square? Who will gang up to batter their neighbor, improbably returned from deportation? How can a person be swept up among lynchers? Pál Závada’s novel examines and analyses the anti-Semitic mass hysteria and political opportunism surrounding the pogroms in Hungary that followed World War II and the Holocaust. In May 1946, at the village market, Mária Csóka witnessed a group of women set upon and beat to death a Jewish egg seller. The wife of a schoolteacher accused of anti-Semitic incitement, and daughter of a respected shopkeeper, Mária fears for her husband’s life yet cannot ignore the victims. The murderous fury spreads through the neighborhood like wildfire, dragging out women, children, and the elderly alike. Mária’s notes from the bloody day at the village market and from the subsequent trial in Budapest testify to a state of human relations that is intimately complex and irreparably scarred.

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Russian nationalism, previously dominated by 'imperial' tendencies - pride in a large, strong and multi-ethnic state able to project its influence abroad - is increasingly focused on ethnic issues. In 2014, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the subsequent violent conflict in Eastern Ukraine utterly transformed the nationalist discourse in Russia. This book provides an up-to-date survey of Russian nationalism as a political, social and intellectual phenomenon by leading Western and Russian experts in the field of nationalism studies. It includes case studies on migrantophobia; the relationship between nationalism and religion; nationalism in the media; nationalism and national identity in economic policy; nationalism in the strategy of the Putin regime as well as a survey-based study of nationalism in public opinion.

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Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 brought East West relations to a low. But, by selling the annexation in starkly nationalist terms to grassroots nationalists, Putin's popularity reached record heights. This volume examines the interactions and tensions between state and societal nationalisms before and after the annexation.

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Today's world is shaped by an obsession with cultural difference that penetrates everyday life and matters of state in unprecedented ways. Culture and cultural difference are commonly used to explain everything that's in the news - from wars to economic development and consumer behavior. This fuels the belief that our world is shaped by clashing cultures, a view that is counterproductive when it assumes falsely that culture is a timeless container that traps nations and ethnic groups. Seeing Culture Everywhere challenges the misguided and dangerous global obsession with cultural difference and directly critiques the popular notion that world affairs are determined by essential civilizations with immutable and conflicting cultures. The book offers an alternative view of a world in which cultural mixing, not isolation, is the norm, but where several historical trends have come together at the beginning of the twenty-first century to produce the current wave of "culture think." Brimming with concrete examples that move from genocide in Rwanda to schools in Berlin, from the Chrysler boardroom to the war in Iraq, it contemplates how ethnic identity can be mobilized in the service of all kinds of goals - violent or nonviolent, laudable or despicable - and the unintended effects such mobilization invariably produces. The authors suggest ways to remain sensitive to the cultural impacts of policies and decisions without falling into the traps of determinism, essentialism, and misrepresentation. Seeing Culture Everywhere will be useful in the fields of anthropology, law, intercultural communication, and international relations, as well as for general readers interested in ethnicity and travel.

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This is the first book to focus explicitly on how China’s rise as a major economic and political actor has affected societies in Southeast Asia. It examines how Chinese investors, workers, tourists, bureaucrats, longtime residents, and adventurers interact throughout Southeast Asia. The contributors use case studies to show the scale of Chinese influence in the region and the ways in which various countries mitigate their unequal relationship with China by negotiating asymmetry, circumventing hegemony, and embracing, resisting, or manipulating the terms dictated by Chinese capital.

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From the Fjords to the Nile brings together essays by students and colleagues of Richard Holton Pierce (b. 1935), presented on the occasion of his 80th birthday. It covers topics on the ancient world and the Near East. Pierce is Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Bergen. Starting out as an expert in Egyptian languages, and of law in Greco-Roman Egypt, his professional interest has spanned from ancient Nubia and Coptic Egypt, to digital humanities and game theory. His contributions as scholar, teacher, supervisor and informal advisor to Norwegian studies in Egyptology, classics, archaeology, history, religion, and linguistics through more than five decades can hardly be overstated.

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In the 1990s, societies across the world were confronted with a sudden mass inflow of Chinese migrants. Transnational Chinese investigates the global nature of this migration by focusing on one of the fastest growing groups of new Chinese international migrants: those from Fujian province in southern China. It specifically focuses on Fujianese migration to Europe, where a broad range of immigration regimes has provided various incentives and disincentives that have influenced their migratory patterns across the continent. Applying intensive, multisited fieldwork research in the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Italy, as well as sending areas in Fujian, Transnational Chinese investigates the origins and mechanics of Fujianese migration, the work and life of Fujianese migrants in Europe, and the many transnational spaces that connect Fujianese across Europe, the United States, and China.

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Industrialist John Paul Getty famously quipped, “The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.” Throughout history, natural resources have been sources of wealth and power and catalysts for war and peace. The cases studies gathered in this innovative volume examine how the intersection of ideas, interest groups, international institutions, and political systems gave birth to distinctive regulatory regimes at various times and places in the modern world. Spanning seven continents and focusing on both advanced and developing economies, the case studies explore how the goals and modes of regulation have changed in response to new economic realities, demands from power brokers and the broader public, and rules and norms for what is considered legitimate government action.Together, the contributors show that regulatory regimes in resource-dependent nations have played a decisive role in the international political economy. They also offer unique insights into why some resource-rich countries have flourished while others have been mired in poverty and corruption.

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Laszlo Bardossy was a wartime prime minister executed for his role in mass murder, but his role remains controversial. His trial was riddled with blunders and some, especially those on the extreme right, now call him a martyr and are demanding a retrial. Was Bardossy a villain or was he himself a victim of Communist-inspired mass murder? He was at the helm in 1941-42 when Hungary declared war on Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and he was charged with sending more than 600,00 Jews to Nazi death camps. This book offers readers a balanced interpretation of Bardossy's life. The volume also includes two rare documents: the charges of the prosecution in his post-war trial, and Bardossy's statement in defense of his policies.

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Twenty years ago, commercial tourism in the People’s Republic of China hardly existed. Today, China has a burgeoning tourist industry, characterized by a unique style with deep roots in traditional Chinese culture. Scenic Spots is an engaging exploration of why Chinese tourists pursue certain kinds of experiences, what they make of them, and how their experiences and interpretations are shaped by the state. Working from within a Chinese cultural framework, Pál Nyíri argues that China’s brand of tourism is distinct from the traditions of both Western bourgeois tourism, which values authenticity, and Soviet tourism, with its emphasis on rugged and selfless experience. In China, tourism development is guided by the state, and “scenic spots” (jingdian) and theme parks are used to demonstrate China’s heroic past and as tools of patriotic education and modernization – or as forms of “indoctritainment.” The tourist site is perceived as a product, and, as such, it is bounded, approved, rated, and consumed. In a style both straightforward and provocative, Nyíri argues that the uniformity and undisguised commercialism of Chinese tourist sites are a direct result of the state’s ultimate authority to determine the meaning of landscape and to control culture. Scenic Spots serves as a lens through which to explore mechanisms of cultural control and resistance in a highly commercialized sphere of everyday life in contemporary China.

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With a new introductory theoretical chapter, the book collects thoroughly revised nine articles and book chapters based on Pal Kolsto's thirty years of study of nationalism and ethnic conflict in post-Soviet states. Kolsto examines how the drivers behind ethnic conflicts in the non-Russian republics were not only struggle for collective identities but also more mundane interests, such as competition for jobs and positions. He also analyses the transformations of Russian nationalism, both among the ruling elite and in the opposition, with a particular focus on the use of symbolism.Exploring nationalism as a pervasive feature of politics in the modern world, Kolsto argues that both state leaders and 'ethnic entrepreneurs' employ nationalist rhetoric and stratagems to further their political agendas and achieve particular goals. He examines some of the ways this is used as a political strategy and focuses both on nationalism at the societal level and as a state strategy.

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Philological practices have served to secure and transmit textual sources for centuries. However - this volume contends -, it is only in the light of the current radical media change labeled "digital turn" that the material and technological prerequisites of the theory and practice of philology become fully visible. The seventeen studies by scholars from the universities of Budapest and Cologne assembled here investigate these recent transformations of our techniques of writing and reading by critically examining core approaches to the history and epistemology of the humanities. Thus, a broad praxeological overview of basic cultural techniques of collective memory is unfolded.

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Since its clinical introduction almost 20 years ago, cardiac CT has been embraced as an indispensable noninvasive cardiac imaging modality and an important first-line test for coronary artery disease. Beyond coronary artery disease, the potential of cardiac CT has become evident for diagnosis and guidance of treatment in a variety of other cardiac pathologies, including valvular disease, atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias, endocarditis, cardiac masses, cardiomyopathies, and others. The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) has declared as one of their foremost priorities to facilitate education and training in cardiovascular CT through teaching courses, congresses, and a structured certification program. This handbook represents an important step towards dissemination of skills and knowledge in cardiovascular CT. It is a concise and practical companion, to benefit students, trainees or advanced users; cardiologists, radiologists, cardiac surgeons or technicians, in their everyday practice. Four broad sections cover technical aspects and physical background, coronary indications (e.g. coronary CT angiography, atherosclerosis imaging, stents & bypasses, functional CT imaging, etc.), non-coronary indications (CT for valve disease, infective endocarditis, CT of the left atrium, congenital heart disease, cardiac masses, extracardiac findings, etc.), and finally training and competence in cardiac CT. The handbook features short chapters, enriched with illustrations, tables and condensed summaries, facilitating rapid and intuitive access.

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This is the first book to focus explicitly on how China’s rise as a major economic and political actor has affected societies in Southeast Asia. It examines how Chinese investors, workers, tourists, bureaucrats, longtime residents, and adventurers interact throughout Southeast Asia. The contributors use case studies to show the scale of Chinese influence in the region and the ways in which various countries mitigate their unequal relationship with China by negotiating asymmetry, circumventing hegemony, and embracing, resisting, or manipulating the terms dictated by Chinese capital.

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Why has social peace been preserved in some new, nationalizing countries in Eastern Europe and broken down in others? While civil peace has reigned in Estonia, Moldova experienced a bloody civil war in 1992, claiming more than a thousand casualties. These two states in question share a number of common characteristics, but there is one important difference. National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies analyzes processes of nation-building and ethnic integration in Estonia and Moldova in order to increase our general understanding of how social peace remains strong in one place and disintegrates in another. Chapters employ both "on the ground" empirical studies and a strong theoretical framework to discuss theories on ethnic violence in the modern world and their possible relevance for these two cases. Additionally, the results of two large-scale surveys and four country chapters written by scholars living and working in Moldova and Estonia round out the book's exploration of each country's similarities and differences. The resulting volume contributes to a better understanding of national integration process in Estonia and Moldova and of national integration and communal violence in general.

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In the 1990s, societies across the world were confronted with a sudden mass inflow of Chinese migrants. Transnational Chinese investigates the global nature of this migration by focusing on one of the fastest growing groups of new Chinese international migrants: those from Fujian province in southern China. It specifically focuses on Fujianese migration to Europe, where a broad range of immigration regimes has provided various incentives and disincentives that have influenced their migratory patterns across the continent. Applying intensive, multisited fieldwork research in the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Italy, as well as sending areas in Fujian, Transnational Chinese investigates the origins and mechanics of Fujianese migration, the work and life of Fujianese migrants in Europe, and the many transnational spaces that connect Fujianese across Europe, the United States, and China.

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