Download or read book Year of the Elephant written by Barbara Parmenter and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes glossary and interview with the author.

Download or read book African Literacies written by Kasper Juffermans and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is often depicted as the continent with the lowest literacy rates in the world. Moving beyond this essentialising representation, this volume explores African literacies within their complex and diverse multilingual and multiscriptal histories and contexts of use. The chapters examine contexts from the Maghreb to Mozambique and from Senegambia to the Horn of Africa and critically analyse multiple literacy genres and practices â " from ancient manuscripts to instant messaging â " in relation to questions of language-in-education and policy, livelihoods, Islamic scholarship, colonialism, translocal migration, and writing systems. As a whole, the book serves as an advanced introduction to language and society in Africa seen through the lens of literacy, and marks a unique contribution to scholarship in literacy studies offering a convenient collection of perspectives on and from Africa.

Download or read book We are what We Celebrate written by Amitai Etzioni and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004-12 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday become a national holiday? Why do we exchange presents on Christmas and Chanukah? What do bunnies have to do with Easter? How did Earth Day become a global holiday? These questions and more are answered in this fascinating exploration into the history and meaning of holidays and rituals. Edited by Amitai Etzioni, one of the most influential social and political thinkers of our time, this collection provides a compelling overview of the impact that holidays and rituals have on our family and communal life. From community solidarity to ethnic relations to religious traditions, We Are What We Celebrate argues that holidays such as Halloween, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day play an important role in reinforcing, and sometimes redefining, our values as a society. The collection brings together classic and original essays that, for the first time, offer a comprehensive overview and analysis of the important role such celebrations play in maintaining a moral order as well as in cementing family bonds, building community relations and creating national identity. The essays cover such topics as the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday; the importance of holidays for children; the mainstreaming of Kwanzaa; and the controversy over Columbus Day celebrations. Compelling and often surprising, this look at holidays and rituals brings new meaning to not just the ways we celebrate but to what those celebrations tell us about ourselves and our communities. Contributors: Theodore Caplow, Gary Cross, Matthew Dennis, Amitai Etzioni, John R. Gillis, Ellen M. Litwicki, Diana Muir, Francesca Polletta, Elizabeth H. Pleck, David E. Proctor, Mary F. Whiteside, and Anna Day Wilde.

Download or read book Sociolinguistics in African Contexts written by Augustin Emmanuel Ebongue and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a new perspective on sociolinguistics in Africa. Eschewing the traditional approach which looks at the interaction between European and African languages in the wake of colonialism, this book turns its focus to the social dynamics of African languages and African societies. Divided into two sections, the book offers insight into the crucial topics such as: language vitality and endangerment, the birth of ‘new languages’, a sociolinguistics of the city, language contact and language politics. It spans the continent from Algeria to South Africa, Guinea-Bissau to Kenya and addresses the following broad themes: Language variation, contact and changeThe dynamics of urban, rural and youth languagesPolicy and practice This book provides an alternative to the Eurocentric view of sociolinguistic dynamics in Africa, and will make an ideal read or supplemental textbook for scholars and students in the field/disciplines of African languages and linguistics, and those interested in southern theory or ‘sociolinguistics in the margins’.

Download or read book Nations Matter written by Craig Calhoun and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-04-20 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Craig Calhoun, one of the most respected social scientists in the world, re-examines nationalism in light of post-1989 enthusiasm for globalization and the new anxieties of the twenty-first century. Nations Matter argues that pursuing a purely postnational politics is premature at best and possibly dangerous. Calhoun argues that, rather than wishing nationalism away, it is important to transform it. One key is to distinguish the ideology of nationalism as fixed and inherited identity from the development of public projects that continually remake the terms of national integration. Standard concepts like 'civic' vs. 'ethnic' nationalism can get in the way unless they are critically re-examined – as an important chapter in this book does. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, history, political theory and all subjects concerned with nationalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism.

Download or read book The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism written by Gerard Delanty and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2006-06-14 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ′With its list of distinguished contributors and its wide range of topics, the handbook is surely destined to become an invaluable resource for all serious students of nationalism′ - Michael Billig, Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University and author of ′Banal Nationalism′ (SAGE 1995) ′The persistence - some would say: revival - of nationalism across the recent history of modernity, in particular the past two decades, has taken many scholars in the social sciences by surprise. In response, interest in the analysis of nationalism has increased and given rise to a great variety of new angles under which to study the phenomenon. What was missing in the cacophony of voices addressing nationalism was a volume that brought them together and confronted them with each other. This handbook does just that. It deserves particular praise for the wide range of approaches and topic included and for the systematic attempt at studying nationalism as a phenomenon of our time, not a remnant from the past′ - Peter Wagner, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute; and Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick ′For students concerned with the contemporary study of nationalism this will be an invaluable publication. The three-fold division into approaches, themes and cases is a very solid and sensible one. The editors have commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field [and]this handbook provides the best single-volume overview of contemporary nationalism′ - John Breuilly, Professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity, London School of Economics Nationalism has long excited debate in political, social and cultural theory and remains a key field of enquiry among historians, anthropologists, sociologists as well as political scientists. It is also one of the critical media issues of our time. There are, however, surprisingly few volumes that bring together the best of this intellectual diversity into one collection. This Handbook gives readers a critical survey of the latest theories and debates and provides a glimpse of the issues that will shape their future. Its three sections guide the reader through the theoretical approaches to this field of study, its major themes - from modernity to memory, migration and genocide - and the diversity of nationalisms found around the globe. The overall aim of this Handbook is to relate theories and debates within and across a range of disciplines, illuminate themes and issues of central importance in both historical and contemporary contexts, and show how nationalism has impacted upon and interacted with other political and social forms and forces. This book provides a much-needed resource for scholars in international relations, political science, social theory and sociology.

Download or read book Contemporary Populism written by Sergiu Gherghina and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental question uniting the contributions to this volume is: what exactly is populism? This is certainly not a new question, as a large amount of literature has focused on this topic for more than half a century. As little conceptual consensus has been reached so far, this book aims to reduce the level of abstraction. To this end, it approaches the populist phenomenon from a broader theoretical and empirical perspective, making reference to its developments on several continents. The book is divided into two parts: the first is theoretical and discusses various perspectives on populism, while the second is empirical and emphasises the diversity of the forms populism has embraced throughout the world. Without aiming to solve old dilemmas, to cover all the existing forms of populism, or to outline unequivocal conclusions, the contributions to this book fulfil a twofold task. On the one hand, they help to clarify theoretically a concept that is difficult to grasp and use. On the other hand, by way of reflecting these difficulties, they present several forms of populism worldwide. Their main purpose is to highlight the differences between the continents. Each of the chapters in the second section successfully accomplishes this, providing an overview that is useful both in analysing populism and in identifying the populist elements in national and international political actions or discourses.

Download or read book States of Memory written by Jeffrey K. Olick and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2003-07-21 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: States of Memory illuminates the construction of national memory from a comparative perspective. The essays collected here emphasize that memory itself has a history: not only do particular meanings change, but the very faculty of memory—its place in social relations and the forms it takes—varies over time. Integrating theories of memory and nationalism with case studies, these essays stake a vital middle ground between particular and universal approaches to social memory studies. The contributors—including historians and social scientists—describe societies’ struggles to produce and then use ideas of what a “normal” past should look like. They examine claims about the genuineness of revolution (in fascist Italy and communist Russia), of inclusiveness (in the United States and Australia), of innocence (in Germany), and of inevitability (in Israel). Essayists explore the reputation of Confucius among Maoist leaders during China’s Cultural Revolution; commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States Congress; the “end” of the postwar era in Japan; and how national calendars—in signifying what to remember, celebrate, and mourn—structure national identification. Above all, these essays reveal that memory is never unitary, no matter how hard various powers strive to make it so. States of Memory will appeal to those scholars-in sociology, history, political science, cultural studies, anthropology, and art history-who are interested in collective memory, commemoration, nationalism, and state formation. Contributors. Paloma Aguilar, Frederick C. Corney, Carol Gluck, Matt K. Matsuda, Jeffrey K. Olick, Francesca Polletta, Uri Ram, Barry Schwartz, Lyn Spillman, Charles Tilly, Simonetta Falasca Zamponi, Eviatar Zerubavel, Tong Zhang

Download or read book The Postcolonial Exotic written by Graham Huggan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graham Huggan examines some of the processes by which value is given to postcolonial works within their cultural field using both literary-critical and sociological methods of analysis.

Download or read book The French Writers War 1940 1953 written by Gisèle Sapiro and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French Writers' War, 1940–1953, is a remarkably thorough account of French writers and literary institutions from the beginning of the German Occupation through France's passage of amnesty laws in the early 1950s. To understand how the Occupation affected French literary production as a whole, Gisèle Sapiro uses Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the "literary field." Sapiro surveyed the career trajectories and literary and political positions of 185 writers. She found that writers' stances in relation to the Vichy regime are best explained in terms of institutional and structural factors, rather than ideology. Examining four major French literary institutions, from the conservative French Academy to the Comité national des écrivains, a group formed in 1941 to resist the Occupation, she chronicles the institutions' histories before turning to the ways that they influenced writers' political positions. Sapiro shows how significant institutions and individuals within France's literary field exacerbated their loss of independence or found ways of resisting during the war and Occupation, as well as how they were perceived after Liberation.

Download or read book Cultural Memory and Early Civilization written by Jan Assmann and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-05 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pt. 1. The theoretical basis -- Memory culture -- Written culture -- Cultural identity and political imagination -- pt. 2. Case studies -- Egypt -- Israel and the invention of religion -- The birth of history from the spirit of the law -- Greece and disciplined thinking -- Cultural memory : a summary.

Download or read book Lifestyle Migration written by Michaela Benson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relatively affluent individuals from various corners of the globe are increasingly choosing to migrate, spurred on by the promise of a better and more fulfilling way of life within their destination. Despite its increasing scale, migration academics have yet to consolidate and establish lifestyle migration as a subfield of theoretical enquiry, until now. This volume offers a dynamic and holistic analysis of contemporary lifestyle migrations, exploring the expectations and aspirations which inform and drive migration alongside the realities of life within the destination. It also recognizes the structural conditions (and constraints) which frame lifestyle migration, laying the groundwork for further intellectual enquiry. Through rich empirical case studies this volume addresses this important and increasingly common form of migration in a manner that will interest scholars of mobility, migration, lifestyle and culture across the social sciences.

Download or read book The Cambridge History of the Novel in French written by Adam Watt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-25 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This History is the first in a century to trace the development and impact of the novel in French from its beginnings to the present. Leading specialists explore how novelists writing in French have responded to the diverse personal, economic, socio-political, cultural-artistic and environmental factors that shaped their worlds. From the novel's medieval precursors to the impact of the internet, the History provides fresh accounts of canonical and lesser-known authors, offering a global perspective beyond the national borders of 'the Hexagon' to explore France's colonial past and its legacies. Accessible chapters range widely, including the French novel in Sub-Saharan Africa, data analysis of the novel system in the seventeenth century, social critique in women's writing, Sade's banned works and more. Highlighting continuities and divergence between and within different periods, this lively volume offers routes through a diverse literary landscape while encouraging comparison and connection-making between writers, works and historical periods.

Download or read book Voices of Resistance written by Alison Baker and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1998-01-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing new information on women's participation in the Moroccan independence movement, Voices of Resistance offers a rare opportunity to hear Moroccan women speak freely about their personal lives. Each woman is introduced in terms of her family background and personal style, and the interviews are given texture and context by references to Moroccan history and popular culture, including contemporary songs and poems. These women are storytellers, and they lived through stirring times. Their active struggle against French colonialism also challenged and redefined traditional Moroccan ideas about women's roles in society. The narratives reconstruct the little-known history of Moroccan feminism and nationalism, and probe the lives of a remarkable group of Islamic women whose voices have never been heard until now.

Download or read book Three Strong Women written by Marie NDiaye and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new novel, the first by a black woman ever to win the coveted Prix Goncourt, Marie NDiaye creates a luminous narrative triptych as harrowing as it is beautiful. This is the story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged, tyrannical father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a modest but contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her white boyfriend back to France, where his delusional depression and sense of failure poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband’s family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin (the aforementioned Fanta) who lives in France, a place Khady can scarcely conceive of but toward which she must now take desperate flight. With lyrical intensity, Marie NDiaye masterfully evokes the relentless denial of dignity, to say nothing of happiness, in these lives caught between Africa and Europe. We see with stunning emotional exactitude how ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength, even as their humanity is chipped away. Three Strong Women admits us to an immigrant experience rarely if ever examined in fiction, but even more into the depths of the suffering heart.

Download or read book Grammars of Identity alterity written by Gerd Baumann and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deals with the issues of the construction of Self and Other in the context of social exclusion of those perceived as different. This collection focuses on one theoretical proposition, namely, that the seemingly universal processes of identity formation and exclusion of the 'other' can be differentiated according to three modalities.

Download or read book Knowledge Belief Witchcraft written by B. Hallen and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the only analysis of indigenous discourse about an African belief system undertaken within the framework of Anglo-American analytical philosophy.