When we imagine the polar regions, we see a largely lifeless world covered in snow and ice where icebergs drift listlessly through frozen waters, like solitary wanderers of the oceans floating aimlessly in total silence. But nothing could be further from the truth.

This book takes us into the fascinating world of icebergs and glaciers to discover what they are really like. Through a series of historical vignettes recalling some of the most tragic and most exhilarating encounters between human beings and these gigantic pieces of matter, and through vivid descriptions of their cycles of birth and death, Olivier Remaud shows that these entities are teeming with many forms of life and that there is a deep continuity between iceberg life and human life, a complex web of reciprocal interconnections that can lead from the deadliest to the most vital. And precisely because there is this continuity, icebergs and glaciers tell us something important about life itself - namely, that it thrives in the most unexpected of places, even where there seems to be no life at all.

At a time when we are increasingly aware that the melting of ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice is one of the many disastrous consequences of global warming, this beautiful meditation is a poignant reminder of the interconnectedness of all life and the fragility of the Earth's ecosystems.

This book argues that a leading cause of the political instability in the Horn of Africa is a crisis of governance, caused by extreme centralization of power, weak institutions, and the failure to institutionalise the responsible use of authority.

In recent years, many attempts have been made to resolve the ongoing conflicts in Somalia and South Sudan, but problems remain, and in 2019 the instability spread to Ethiopia. This book critically examines how many of the governance problems in the region can be addressed through institutional design. The central argument is that an inclusive system of governance through federalism, devolution, and inclusive political institutions as well as ensuring the institutionalization of power through strengthening the rule of law has the potential to make governments more accountable, inclusive, and be able to deliver critical services. Such systems ensure relative stability and peace and reduce the risks of state fragmentation - a major concern in the region.

Demonstrating that the threats of further fragmentation and conflict due to the crisis of governance are likely to continue unless serious steps are taken to deal with the situation, the book will be an important read for researchers and policy makers with an interest in peacemaking, politics, constitutional law, and federalism in the region.

Foregrounding street art in the capital cities of Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, this book argues that Antillean street artists diagnose the "impossible state" of the arrested present (colonized, occupied, or under dictatorship) while simultaneously imagining liberated futures and fully sovereign states.

Jana Evans Braziel launches a comparative study of art, politics, history, urban street cultures, engaged citizenships, and social transformations in three Antillean capital cities-Havana, Cuba; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and San Juan, Puerto Rico-of the Greater Caribbean. The book includes a photo documentary archive of street art, murals, and installations by key muralists in these cities: Yulier Rodriguez Perez, "Jerry" Rosembert Moise, and Colectivo Morivivi (Chachi Gonzalez Colon, Raysa Rodriguez Garcia, and Salome Cortes). Braziel offers art historical and geopolitical analyses of the urban street art in their cities of production, underscoring street art as political, economic, and environmental engagements (and not as exclusively aesthetic ones) with urban space and street life.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, Caribbean studies, Latin American studies, and urban studies.

This book sheds light on the outcomes of social movements in Brazil. It provides an extensive analysis of how and when collective mobilization and protest activities brought about social and political change.

Charting the dynamics and characteristics of Brazil's social movements from the abolition of slavery in 1888 to the present day, the contributors to this edited volume demonstrate the processes of social movement activism in Brazil, and its relations with political institutions across various types of governments and political regimes. They bring to light both political opportunity structures of different historical periods, and the political and cultural consequences of mobilization stemming from the collective action of social movements. Showcasing various approaches, the book encompasses a plurality of methodological perspectives including network analysis, collective memory, trajectories, and quantitative techniques of process analysis. Ultimately, the authors present new empirical evidence about social movement outcomes in Brazil, including the mobilization for housing rights, institutionalization processes in a re-democratized society, the effects of anti-dictatorship movements on activists, transformations of political agendas and the diffusion of social protests.

Interdisciplinary at its core and highly engaging, The Consequences of Brazilian Social Movements in Historical Perspective offers essential reading on social movement studies to academics, activists and students.

Bringing together scholarly research by climate experts working in different locations and social science disciplines, this book offers insights into how climate change is socially and culturally constructed.

Whereas existing studies of climate cultural differences are predominantly rooted in a static understanding of culture, cultural globalization theory suggests that new formations emerge dynamically at different social and spatial scales. This volume gathers analyses of climate cultural formations within various spaces and regions in the United States and the European Union. It focuses particularly on the emergence of new social movements and coalitions devoted to fighting climate change on both sides of the Atlantic. Overall, Climate Cultures in Europe and North America provides empirical and theoretical findings that contribute to current debates on globalization, conflict and governance, as well as cultural and social change.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental policy and politics, environmental sociology, and cultural studies.

Robinson details the life and times of France-Albert Rene (1935-2019), the second post-independence leader of Seychelles who oversaw the nation's transition to democracy after over a decade of his brutal dictatorship.

Rene's career was Seychelles' history over the forty-three years from independence in 1976 until his peaceful death. Having seized power in a violent coup he presented himself as a socialist in the Cold War but transitioned to build Africa's most successful relationship with international lenders and developed Seychelles as a major offshore tax haven. He also sustained and cultivated Seychelles' position as a Western tourism-based economy. Robinson outlines not only Rene's use of political violence and extrajudicial killing but also his unique relationship with transnational, organised crime including his links with the New York mafia, Italian organised crime interests and even helping to arm the Rwandan genocide. Nevertheless, Rene - a white leader of an African nation - avoided the self-isolation of Rhodesia and South Africa; endowed racial harmony; enabled women to advance politically and socially; and left Seychelles with high incomes, currency convertibility, and robust human and physical infrastructure.

This is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the history of Seychelles, which will also be of great value to scholars of postcolonial states, African studies, microstates and the Indian Ocean region.

This book provides an important critical analysis of the autobiographies of nine major leaders of national liberation movements in Africa. By examining their self-narratives, we can better understand how decolonisation unfolded and how activist-politicians sought to immortalise their roles for posterity.

Focusing on the autobiographies of Peter Abrahams, Albert Luthuli, Ruth First and Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), George Mwase (Malawi), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Maurice Nyagumbo (Zimbabwe), and Oginga Odinga (Kenya), the book uncovers the social and cultural forces which galvanized the anti-colonial resistance movement in African societies. In particular, the book explores the disdain for foreign domination, economic exploitation and cultural imperialism. It delves into themes of African cultural sovereignty before the colonial encounter, the disruptive presence of colonialism, the nationalist ferment against European imperial domination, the achievement of political autonomy by African nation-states and the corpus of contradictions which attended postcolonial becoming.

With important insights on how these key historical figures navigated the process of self-determining nationhood in Africa, this book will be of interest to researchers of African literature, history, and politics.