This book offers a critical examination of the 2023 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women's World Cup, being held in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, history, political science, and management, it sheds new light on the development of women's soccer and on women's sport more broadly.

This book examines the politics of the build-up to the tournament, including the bidding process, as well as how the tournament has been represented in the media, the governance structures of the tournament itself, and policy proposals designed to leave an enduring legacy for women and girls in sport. The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is the first Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere and the first to be held with an expanded 32-team format. This book shows why the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup represents a unique opportunity to enhance our understanding of women's football, gender-oriented sport development initiatives and strategies, national sport policy and programming, and the management of international sporting events.

This book is fascinating reading for any student, researcher, or practitioner with an interest in sport development, sport management, sport policy, sport sociology, event management, gender studies, political science, or the relationship between sport and wider society.

This book tells the important story of the 30-year social movement against all-seated stadia in football in England and Wales that developed in the wake of the Hillsborough stadium disaster and the wider European and international significance of that movement.

Examining the fan networks, relations, tactics, and interactions which built the 'Safe Standing' movement, this book reveals an untold social history of football supporter activism and represents an important contribution to our understanding of football supporter-based social movements, the sociology of football, and social movement studies more broadly. This book argues that Safe Standing is sociologically highly significant because the restriction and partial exclusion of football fans as a social group in the timescape of English football after Hillsborough marked a moment of profound social change in the UK. Applying relational sociology, and drawing on original research and insider access, this book considers how events and ruptures, such as Hillsborough, shape the dynamics of a social movement. In this case, supporters, who have been deeply affected by the all-seating legislation, are now in a position to affect the future consumption of football. This book shows how this was achieved and how a small core network of approximately 30 supporters, networked with supporter groups across Europe, now stand to impact and shape the consumption habits of a key leisure practice all over the world.

This is fascinating reading for any student, researcher, or policy-maker with an interest in football, sociology, political science, public policy, or cultural and social history.

As the first volume of a two-volume set on new media users in China, this book approaches the subject from a macro level by regarding users as constructive nodes within networks, thereby giving insights into the interaction between users and new media and among individuals within the ambit of new media.

The author revisits the roles of the typical new media user that has changed from that of a passive "audience member" to a basic unit of the network itself, acting as both a node in the communication network, social network, and service network and also a link between the three. In viewing users as nodes functioning in communication networks and social networks, this volume unravels the new landscapes of communication of the new media era and the consequent profound changes in social relationships, interpersonal connection modes and different methods of interaction. In terms of their role in service networks resting upon the network economy, new media users not only are consumers with personalized needs, but also serve as service guides, resource contributors, and even major productive forces.

This title will be a must-read for scholars, students and media professionals interested in the topics of internet communication, new media usage, and media and society as a whole.

Is the West prepared for a world where power is shared with China? A world in which China asserts the same level of global leadership that the USA currently assumes? And can we learn to embrace Chinese political culture, as China learned to embrace ours?

Here, one of the world's leading voices on China, Kerry Brown, takes us past the tired cliches and inside the Chinese leadership - as they lay out a roadmap for working in a world in which China shares dominance with the West.

From how, and why, China as a dominant superpower has been inevitable for many years, to how the attempts to fight the old battles are over, Brown digs deeper into the problematic nature of China's current situation - its treatment of dissent, of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the severe limitations on its management of relations with other cultures and values. These issues impact the way the West sees China, China sees the West, and how both see themselves.

There are obstacles to the West accepting a more prominent place for China in the world - but just because this will be a difficult process does not mean that it should not happen. As Kerry Brown writes: history is indeed ending, but not how the West thought it would.

Drawing on debates from a multi-disciplinary perspective, this book examines what it means to offer a genuine sociological critique of religious faith, illiberalism and anti-secularism from a macro perspective. Arguing that as a discipline concerned with real issues in the social world, sociology should be at the forefront of any analysis of religious power and legitimacy, the author contends that much religious faith is fundamentally incompatible with any twenty-first-century society that seeks inclusive, utilitarian and humanistic principles as its goals.

With an emphasis on sociology, the effects of organised religion's overall decline in modern Western contexts are explored, while the troubling re-emergence or persistence of faith-based and other non-evidentiary perspectives is also discussed via debates around identity politics, postmodernism and multiculturalism. Through an analysis of the rise of irrational thinking in our politics and our entire social and cultural fabric, the book moves to conclude that religious beliefs and other forms of dogmatism are underpinned by powerful, influential and potentially dangerous ideological structures at various levels of society and that viable, secular alternatives to faith teachings ought to be nurtured in their place.

A critique of religion that advances modern, secular humanistic thought, Truth Claims in a Post-Truth World will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory and philosophy with interests in religion, political thought, ethics and civil society.

This accessible book introduces students to perspectives from the field of science and technology studies.

Putting forward the thesis that science and democracy share important characteristics, it shows how authority cannot be taken for granted and must continuously be reproduced and confirmed by others. At a time when fundamental scientific and democratic values are being threatened by sceptics and populist arguments, an understanding of the relationship between them is much needed.

This is an invaluable resource for all who are interested in the role of scientific knowledge in governance, societal developments and the implications for democracy, concerned publics and citizen engagement.

This volume examines the distinct structural characteristics of Indian politics and unearths significant sociopolitical and economic processes which are critical to the political articulation of governance in the country. It reflects on the foundational values of Indian polity, the emergence of the nation post-colonialism, the structural fluidity of federalism in India, and the changing nature of the planning process in the country. The book also studies the electoral processes, social movements, party system, local and state governance. Apart from analyzing corruption and public grievance systems, the volume also probes into significant issues in Indian politics.

This book will be useful to the students, researchers and faculty working in the field of political science, public administration, political sociology, political economy and post-colonial contemporary Indian politics in particular. It will also be an invaluable and interesting reading for those interested in South Asian studies.

This book analyses regional expressions of the queer experience in texts available in the Indian vernacular languages. It studies queer autobiographies and literary and cinematic texts written in the vernacular languages on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. The authors outline the specific terms that are popular in the bhashas (languages) to refer to the queer people and discuss any neo coinages/modes of communication invented by the queer people themselves. The volume also addresses the lack of queer representation in certain language communities and the lack of queer interaction in non-metropolitan cities in India.

An important contribution to the field of queer studies in India, this timely book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of gender studies, queer studies, cultural studies, discrimination and exclusion studies, language studies, political studies, sociology, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.

This volume examines how protest movement counter-conducts the ways in which the citizens have been governed. It studies the rationale, forms, technologies, techniques, practices, and impact of two protest movements in Northeast India: the tribal movement led by the Joint Action Committee Against Anti-Tribal Bills (hereafter JACAATB) in Manipur, and the anti-corruption movement led by the Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) in Nagaland.

The study is an ethnographic enquiry into three counter-conduct approaches:

• First, the attempt at disciplining the local state government through the adoption and deployment of certain technologies of citizenship, making individuals politically active and capable of self-governance
• Second, the desire for truth through the usage of Right to Information Act and the judicial inquiry against the misconducts of the state governments
• Third, counter-conduct activities through techniques of critique and self-examination to not only resist or evade the state, but also usher in new subjectivities and forms of governance

An in-depth look at citizenship and state in contemporary Northeast India, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, governance, public policy, Northeast Studies, and South Asia studies.

Politics of Socio-Spatial Transformation in Pakistan analyses the relationship between socio-spatial transformation, styles of leadership and nature of constituents in Pakistan. It examines the way social change influences politics and leadership in its most populated province.

Offering a unique viewpoint to study the relationship between politics and social change by examining the nature of relationship between leaders and their constituents, the author introduces the concept of Gradients of Engagements. The book describes the way values of engagement (Talluq) and styles of leadership mediate engagements among politicians, citizens and state bureaucracy in villages and small towns of Pakistani Punjab. Starting with the mapping of socio-economic and spatio-demographic non-metropolitan locales, the book illustrates the centrality of the processes of "rurbanization" and "governmentalization". It points out how political leaders mediate these processes, personal and public demands of their constituents' invoking claims or representativeness and public service. The author breaks engagements between leaders and constituents into four gradients of representation (elections), public service delivery (development), everyday problem-solving (governance) and collective action, thus providing a contextualized and grounded comprehension of the process democratization and its substantive and performative aspects. In addition to providing a historical sketch of economic development, evolution of social organization and development of political institutions in Punjab, the book includes an ethnography of political elites and study of everyday political engagements to show how the styles of leadership mediates the process of institutional development and public service delivery in "rurban" Punjab.

A novel contribution to the study of political processes such as state formation, collective action, representation, and citizenship in a comparative manner embedded in space and informed by cultural meanings, the book will be of interest to researchers studying South Asian, Pakistan and Punjab/Sikh studies, Development Studies and Urban Studies.

This book examines European countries' engagement in promoting regional integration in the East African Community (EAC). In addition to their usage of the European Union (EU), states employ other bilateral initiatives to channel their regional aid to the EAC. The book explores differing national interests and the decisions to engage with the EAC, both multilaterally via the EU and through their other bilateral channels.

In addition to analysing states' interests, the book goes further, to examine how lack of coordination of those European initiatives creates various challenges in the EAC. It is shown how EAC bureaucrats have to engage separately with the EU and its member states in their different channels, thus experiencing challenges in different stages of their aid project cycles, for instance in the identification, implementation and reporting phases. This book will be an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners focusing on the topics of European promotion of regional integration, development aid, African and European regional integration processes, as well as foreign policy analysis.

A timely dethroning of the human subject and embracing of a new kind of existence, in this book Christine Daigle highlights the affirmative potential of vulnerability amidst unprecedented times of more-than-human crises. By bringing together traditions as diverse as feminist materialist philosophy, phenomenology, and affect theory, Daigle convincingly pleas for the radical embracing of a shared posthumanist vulnerability.

Posthuman Vulnerability fills a significant theoretical gap - whilst feminism has explored the affirming power of vulnerability, it's been from a very human-centric viewpoint. In posing a feminist and posthuman take on vulnerability, Daigle is bridging traditions in a totally original and much needed way.

This book examines the relationship between the newly independent Indian state and its New Cinema movement. It looks at state formative practices articulating themselves as cultural policy. It presents an institutional history of the Film Finance Corporation (FFC), later the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), and their patronage of the New Cinema in India, from the 1960s to the 1990s, bringing into focus an extraordinary but neglected cultural moment in Indian film history and in the history of contemporary India.

The chapters not only document the artistic pursuit of cinema, but also the emergence of a larger field where the market, political inclinations of the Indian state, and the more complex determinants of culture intersect - how the New Cinema movement faced external challenges from the industrial lobby and politicians, as well as experienced deep rifts from within. It also shows how the Emergency, the Janata Party regime, economic liberalization, and the opening of airwaves all left their impact on the New Cinema.

The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of film studies, politics and public policy, especially cultural policy, media and culture studies, and South Asian studies.

In this comprehensive and up to date history, from prehistoric proto-Indo-Iranian times to the post-Soviet period, Richard Foltz traces the complex linguistic, cultural and political history of the Tajiks, a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group from the modern-day Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. In eight chapters, the author explores the revitalisation of Persian culture under the Samanid Empire in the Tajik heartlands of historical Khorasan and Transoxiana; analyses the evolution of the politics of Tajik identity; and traces the history of the ethnic Tajik diaspora today.

This revised edition includes a new chapter on the Tajiks' situation in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan since 2018, covering notably the effects of the Taliban's return to power in August 2021 and the COVID pandemic in all three countries, as well as border clashes with Kyrgyzstan.

What is it like to have a baby in climate crisis?

This book explores the experiences of pregnant women and their partners, pre- and post-birth, during the catastrophic Australian bushfire season of 2019-20 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. Engaging a range of concepts, including the Pyrocene, breath, care and embodiment, the authors explore how climate crisis is changing experiences of having children. They also raise questions about how gender and sexuality are shaped by histories of human engagements with fire.

This interdisciplinary analysis brings feminist and queer questions about reproduction and kin into debates on contemporary planetary crises.

This book examines the connection between affects, mobilisation, and political transformation. Offering unique insights into the affective and emotional dynamics of occupied Tahrir and Taksim Squares, this book builds a novel understanding of urban mass protests and their capacity to "travel" across time and space. Its Midan Moment concept breaks new ground in affect and emotion studies with a focus on political transformation in Egypt and Turkey. It is based on empirically grounded research which covers the 2011 and 2013 uprisings and their authoritarian aftermath.

This book will appeal to scholars and students interested in affect and emotion studies in a range of disciplinary areas, including political science, sociology, anthropology, area studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and postcolonial studies.

This exciting new edition of the successful textbook for students of Middle Eastern politics provides a highly relevant and comprehensive introduction to the complexities of a region in constant flux. Combining a thematic framework for examining patterns of politics with individual chapters dedicated to specific countries, the book places the very latest developments and long-standing issues within an historical context. This third edition extends its analysis to post-2015 developments in the region, as well as expanding the range of pedagogical features on offer.

Presenting information in an accessible and inclusive format, the book offers:

• Coverage of the historical influence of colonialism and major world powers on the shaping of the modern Middle East
• A detailed examination of the legacy of Islam
• Analysis of the political and social aspects of Middle Eastern life, including alienation between the state and society, poverty and social inequality, and ideological crisis and renewal
• Case studies on countries in the Fertile Crescent (Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine); the Northern Belt (Turkey and Iran); and those West and East of the Red Sea (Egypt and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council)

A key introductory text for students of Middle Eastern politics and history at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, this new edition has been extensively updated to also become a timely and significant reference for policy-makers and any motivated reader.

Made in Scotland: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, politics, culture, and musicology of twentieth- and twenty-first-century popular music in Scotland. The volume consists of essays by local experts and leading scholars in Scottish music and culture, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of popular music in Scotland. Each essay provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book includes a general introduction to Scottish popular music, followed by essays organized into three thematic sections: Histories, Politics and Policies, and Futures and Imaginings.

Examining music as cultural expression in a country that is both a nation and a region within a larger state, this volume uses popular music to analyse Scottishness, independence, and diversity and offers new insights into the complexity of cultural identity, the power of historical imagination, and the effects of power structures in music. It is a vital read for scholars and students interested in how popular music interacts with and shapes such issues both within and beyond the borders of Scotland.

This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. With a critique of ongoing planning reforms by the UK government, the book argues that the planning system is often blamed for a range of issues caused by ineffective policy making by government.

Including chapters on housing, localism, design, zoning and the consequences of Brexit for environmental planning, the contributors unpick a complicated set of recent reforms and counter the claims of the think-tank-led assault on democratic planning.

The sixth edition of Africana Womanism provides important updates to the classic text in which Clenora Hudson (Weems) sets out a paradigm for women of African descent. Differentiating itself from the problematic theories of Western feminisms, Africana Womanism allows an establishment of cultural identity and relationship directly to ancestry and land.

Introduced in the mid-1980s, Africana Womanism offers a new term and paradigm for women of African descent, a family-centered concept, prioritizing race, class, and gender. This new edition includes an Africana Womanist reading of Angie Thomas' twenty-first-century novel, The Hate U Give, continuing existing Africana Womanist readings of twentieth-century novels by Hurston, Ba, Marshall, Morrison, and McMillan; a Prologue, a previously unpublished interview with the author; a revised conclusion; updated bibliographies; an updated annotated bibliography; and a new section outlining key questions, clarifications, considerations, and commentaries surrounding Africana Womanism in relation to other female-based theories.

Africana Womanism remains an important work and essential reading for researchers and students in women and gender studies, Africana studies, African American studies, literary studies, and cultural studies.

This volume provides a clear and concise exploration of Mexico City, one of the world's most populous urban centers, with coverage on such topics as politics, crime, the environment, and city life.

Located in the middle of the Western Hemisphere and having a history that dates back to the early fourteenth century, Mexico City is perhaps the place where the collision between the European colonizers and Native American peoples was most violent and where the legacy of this encounter has been the most pronounced. Over the past 500 years, Mexico City has navigated the complexities and issues of this civilizational clash in ways that have made the city a vanguard. This book looks at the rich, complex, and often troubled history of this city with the express purpose of highlighting the creative political, economic, cultural, and artistic contributions that this dynamic place has afforded the world.

Narrative chapters discuss such topics as Mexico City's history, politics, economy, culture and lifestyle, and more. "Life in the City" sidebars provide readers with interviews with people who lived in, traveled to, or were born in Mexico City. This volume is ideal for students and general readers interested in learning about the city in greater detail than may be found in travel guides.

• Provides readers with an understanding of the rich complexity of one of the world's largest, most populous, and most interesting places, where European and native American indigenous cultures produced a society and culture unlike those of any other place across the world
• Raises the possibilities of what the nexus of modernity and traditional blending in the realm of economic and political life as well as cultural expression might look like as the world continues to globalize and as borders become increasingly tenuous
• Offers an example of how revolutionary and social movements can not only be processes that enrich the world but that also can transcend the violence that often accompanies such movements
• Provides a succinct, at-a-glance timeline of events in the history of the city in a Timeline
• Helps readers to gain a better understanding of what life is like in the city, told from the viewpoint of city inhabitants and visitors, in "Life in the City" inset boxes
• Reveals fun facts about the city, such as interesting laws and cultural taboos, in sidebars

The Disability Bioethics Reader is the first introduction to the field of bioethics presented through the lens of critical disability studies and the philosophy of disability.

Introductory and advanced textbooks in bioethics focus almost entirely on issues that disproportionately affect disabled people and that centrally deal with becoming or being disabled. However, such textbooks typically omit critical philosophical reflection on disability. Directly addressing this omission, this volume includes 36 chapters, most appearing here for the first time, that cover key areas pertaining to disability bioethics, such as:

• state-of-the-field analyses of modern medicine, bioethics, and disability theory
• health, disease, and the philosophy of medicine
• issues at the edge- and end-of-life, including physician-aid-in-dying, brain death, and minimally conscious states
• enhancement and biomedical technology
• invisible disabilities, chronic pain, and chronic illness
• implicit bias and epistemic injustice in health care
• disability, quality of life, and well-being
• race, disability, and healthcare justice
• connections between disability theory and aging, trans, and fat studies
• prenatal testing, abortion, and reproductive justice.

The Disability Bioethics Reader, unlike traditional bioethics textbooks, also engages with decades of empirical and theoretical scholarship in disability studies-scholarship that spans the social sciences and humanities-and gives serious consideration to the history of disability activism.