This book argues that just as the ideas of Pan-Africanism birthed by Henry Sylvester-Williams and others in the late 1800s and Negritude ushered by Aime Cesaire and others in the early 1900s emboldened many major Black thinkers to push for independence across Africa, so will these early thinkers' ideas help in the building of a new Africa. The various chapters explore the proposition that the thoughts of early great Diaspora Black thinkers are still wellsprings of tenets that can be used to build a new Africa. The chapters examine how these thinkers conceptualized Africa in their works, with the main objective of delineating their conceptualizations to generate suggestions on how to build a new Africa.

?This work analyzes carnival in Rio de Janeiro through the irreverent view disclosed by the illustrated Brazilian magazines Fon-Fon! and Careta. For such purpose, texts and illustrations elaborated by great names in caricature and literature were used, as well as by journalists who remained anonymous due to the fact that their chronicles and articles did not carry their signatures. The way in which carnival was dealt with in said publications, was intimately related to the world view which intellectuals enjoyed, the Belle Epoque, and to the readers of these magazines: the urban middle classes and part of the elite. To understand both the view and the type of humoristic approach used, songs and the works of chronicle writers, memorialists and historians who worked on the theme were also investigated. At the end, what could be verified through the study of these publications was the importance that carnival enjoyed in the lives of those men of letters and brushes, and how relevant was the counterpart which they made possible not only to readers, but also to us, historians.

Through these publications, it is possible to redeem and reconstruct part of the history of carnival as well as understand the context of the period, political problems, stylishness, innovations and changes in the lives of Rio de Janeiro (carioca) dwellers. So much attention to the theme from the illustrated press denotes the importance of carnival to the financial health of newspaper companies, since the subject and its well-humored approach pleased readers, besides showing that not only did those writers and artists write about the festivities in an irreverent manner, but they also actively participated in them as carnival merrymakers, and therefore they were, themselves, artificers of that history.

The French countryside is as beloved by the many millions of tourists who visit it each year as it is of French people themselves. But it has not always looked like it does today. An Environmental History of France instead presents the countryside in which people live and work and through which they travel as a human creation across 250 years of economic and cultural change, war and revolution. It is a book about the 'making' of the French landscape and an engrossing story linking human geography, history, agriculture and culture.

Showing an awareness of the origins and nature of current ecological and social challenges, Peter McPhee uses a blend of environmental and cultural approaches to paint a vivid picture of rural France's modern history. From the aristocratic control of agrarian resources in the 1770s, to widespread mechanisation in the 19th century, through to the impact of the World Wars and an intriguing discussion about the uncertain future of French rural communities, McPhee provides a nuanced, detailed and absorbing account of a distinctive version of France that is essential to the country's identity.

Building on the notion of everyday(ness) as a conceptual tool and a study object in urban research, this book presents 10 case-studies describing and questioning how cities and urban spaces are lived, experienced, interpreted, (self-)produced and/or appropriated. The chapter authors (Raffael Beier & Soufiane Chinig; Patricia Pereira; Frederic Vidal, Elisa Lopes da Silva & Alexandre Vaz; Priscilla Santos; Graca Cordeiro & Giuseppe Formato; Andrzej Bukowski & Marta Smagacz-Poziemska; Ryanne Flock; Sophie Zviadadze; Rita Cachado; and Sonja Lakic) analyse the dynamic/interchangeable relationship between material and social dimensions of urban change through thought-provoking ethnographic narratives.

This book holds a distinguished promise of an intellectual understanding and complete account of that shifts in laying out resilient planning, development, and policy landscapes for the cities to come.

The approach offers a unique perspective on planning and development in the post-pandemic era, addressing the interconnectedness of diverse spatial, social, cultural, economic, demographic, and political aspects. It provides insights into the transformational behavior of cities and citizens, explores the influence of remote work on the real estate market, emphasizes the need for resilient infrastructure and adaptive planning, and reinforces the association between health infrastructure and planning for resilient cities.

The book provides a comprehensive account of the shifts and challenges faced in planning and development due to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores transformational urban planning, sociocultural, and economic landscapes and addresses topics, including land use changes, transformational real estate market, urban recreational space, adaptive infrastructure, and the need for resilient planning. It offers valuable insights for urban designers, architects, geographers, city planners, policymakers, and pubic officials seeking to enhance city resilience in the post-pandemic era.

The intended readership of the book includes urban designers, architects, city planners, geographers, policy makers, and public officials. It caters to individuals interested in gaining a critical understanding of the interconnectedness between various spatial, social, cultural, economic, demographic, and political aspects. The content level is academic, offering scholarly insights and a unique post-pandemic perspective on enhancing city resilience.

The essays in this volume explore the myriad ways in which caste (varna and jati) has been theorized and critiqued in multiple philosophical, religious, logical and narrative traditions in India. Spanning ancient, medieval and modern times, and in diverse classical and vernacular languages, the chapters show how the social fact of caste, and imaginations of kinship, community and humanity were historically subject to epistemological, spiritual, and existential debate in both elite and popular circles in India.

Textual Lives of Caste Across the Ages seeks to bridge the interdisciplinary gap between historians and sociologists by focusing on texts that help us think across the sociological and philosophical, the political and the religious, the epistemological and the aesthetic, and indeed, the elite and the popular. The volume also sets up a conversation between scholars specializing in different regions, archives, and historical periods and demonstrates how caste imaginaries have been deeply diverse and contested in India's past. Reconstructing these diverse traditions of social and existential criticism helps us in our contemporary struggles against caste hierarchy and untouchability and enriches our contemporary critical repertoire.

World-renowned scholar of human geography, development, and environmental change Antonio Ioris presents an original reconceptualisation of the notions of difference and indifference and their impacts on social structures.

Drawing on a wide range of philosophical debates, and offering groundbreaking new insights into geographically specific trends through the lens of indigenous geographies, Ioris explores how political actors use notions of difference to foster indifference for the purposes of domination, which ultimately crystallizes in what he terms mis-difference: a calcified, difficult-to-overcome obstacle to concord and fairness that underpins capitalist relations of property and production. At the same time, Ioris shows how some social actors use the concept of difference for reconciliation, for overcoming indifference and mis-difference, and suggests how these moves can help to fight against ideologies that produce our unequal world and facilitate land-grabs. Ioris elucidates all of this in concrete terms through a study of the Guarani-Kaiowa people in Brazil: of how they have been oppressed by state-sanctioned indifference and misdifference, and of how they are resisting through a contestation of what difference can mean, and how it can function, in the contemporary world.

This book is one of two volumes that examines the role of political communication, media and language in transforming politics, governance and democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Interdisciplinary in approach, this first volume assesses themes including participatory politics, mass media, digital censorship, and social media and politics in the region. It also considers how politicians utilise language and the media to legitimate their authority, influence citizens' behaviour, and the ways in which they vote. It will appeal to all those interested in governance, political communication, media studies and African politics.

This open access practical guide to reproductive ethics navigates the complex subject of the policy around IVF treatment and disability screening based on the concerns around the welfare of future children. It focuses on 3 questions in order to examine these often complex philosophical issues:

? Should we allow prospective parents using IVF to implant an embryo with a condition considered to be a disability?
? Is routine screening for Down syndrome in pregnancy ethically acceptable, even if there is evidence that individuals may feel pressure to accept this screening?
? Are we justified in attempting to evaluate the potential parenting ability of those trying to access fertility treatment (e.g. disabled people or individuals with past criminal convictions) and prevent access in some cases?

Rebecca Bennett walks the reader through different answers to these questions, exploring issues such as whether it is ever morally wrong to reproduce, whether we have a moral obligation to try and bring the 'best' children we can into existence and how we can assess the quality of future lives.There is, of course, no consensus about what the 'right' answers are to these questions, however answers are needed.

This area of policy and regulation is one that, Bennett argues, is heavily influenced by intuition, social norms and bias. The Welfare of Future Children invites us to question these norms and to come to a position on these issues that emphasises reason, transparency and accountability.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the University of Manchester, UK.

Winner of a Gourmand Food Culture Book Award 2025 - 1st place in Africa category

In this open access book, Stephen Wooten offers a holistic historical ethnography of cooking and female agency in West Africa, and of the broader cultural and historical significance of women's culinary agency.

Drawing on archaeological evidence, historical accounts, and extensive ethnographic research, Stephen Wooten documents and theorizes Malian women's culinary agency. He finds that their cooking not only transforms raw ingredients into cooked fare, providing essential physical nourishment, but also helps foster fundamental values, facilitate elemental family and community dynamics, and reproduce gender identities and relations. These findings shed light on the cultural productivity of cooking within a specific African context and foster a deeper appreciation for the significance of culinary dynamics more broadly. The study makes important contributions to the fields of African studies, anthropology, and "everyday studies".

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.

This book addresses the limitations of dominant ways of thinking about and doing politics in Northern Ireland. Arguing for the foregrounding of anti-sectarianism as a way of displacing the divisive dynamics of religion and nationalism, it provides a new lens for studying Northern Ireland. Drawing upon a close reading of the political philosophy of Jacques Ranciere, the book aligns anti-sectarianism to the ways that people refuse affiliation with the traditional ethnic values and practices. It describes this refusal as dis-identification, and reveals how dissensus acts as an alternative to the displacing of equality. Returning equality and equality claims-making to a clear position of visibility, the book provides a radical rethinking of Northern Ireland a quarter century beyond the 1998 peace accord. It will appeal to all those interested in politics and peacebuilding studies.

This new biography of JFK offers a comprehensive analysis of the man, the leader, and the cultural icon. Mark White, the leading authority in Britain on JFK, draws on more than 30 years of research to provide a nuanced portrait of one of the most iconic figures in American and world history.

John F. Kennedy was a president like no other, with a movie star's public image and an extraordinary private life. He was no less remarkable politically, with his achievements including the resolution of the 1961 Berlin crisis and the Cuban missile crisis, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and a strong commitment to civil rights.

This book provides what no previous biography has: an in-depth analysis of not only JFK's political life, particularly his record as a policymaker in the White House, but also his private life, his role as a cultural icon, and what might have happened to a Kennedy presidency had he not been assassinated.

This sophisticated, multi-dimensional biography sheds new light on JFK's life and legacy, and makes a compelling case for why he was the finest president of his generation.

This book, achieved in cooperation with the Academic Alliance for Reconciliation Studies in the Middle East and North Africa (AARMENA), focuses on peacebuilding, conflict transformation, and shifts toward approaching the reconciliation process as an inter-, trans- and multidisciplinary field. The research presented in the series focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, highlighting contributions by practitioners and scholars alike.

The book is divided into five sections:

Sections 1: Theoretical and Philosophical Framework

Section 2: Digital Humanities on Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peace Studies

Section 3: Research Science on Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peace Studies

Section 4: Practices of Studies on Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peace Studies

Section 5: Cases Studies on Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peace Studies

The book's first part focuses on theories and the philosophical framework for the research on reconciliation, conflict transformation, and peace studies. The second part of the book is dedicated to digital humanities development in the reconciliation and peace education field, its impact on the reconciliation process in societies, and the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in analysis techniques to differentiate and identify research in different domains. The book's third part is dedicated to the research on reconciliation and conflict transformation in different disciplines. The fourth part concentrates on the practices in the field, and the fifth part illustrates case studies on reconciliation, conflict transformation, and peace studies.

The target audience is professors, scholars, practitioners, students, and scientists that are experts in the field of Middle East and North Africa.

The success or failure of China's development will impact not only its own citizens but also those of the world. The tensions between communist and capitalist identities continue to divide society as China searches for a path to modernization. Can China move to a more market-based economy, while controlling environmental degradation?
In this revised fifth edition and essential guide to the subject, Tony Saich delivers a thorough introduction to all aspects of politics and governance in post-Mao China, taking full account of the changes of the 20th Party Congress and the 13th National People's Congress as well as the situation in Hong Kong and current debates in Chinese society. The new edition offers increased coverage of Chinese ideology, situating recent social movements like MeToo and contemporary political challenges like environmental crises and increased migration within a longer history. Integrating end of chapter reading suggestions and updated case studies, Governance and Politics of China is essential reading for students of Chinese governance and wider comparative politics.

?This book provides a newer definition of political scandal and applies it in a way to remove "ordinary corruption" from the discussion. It then defines pop culture and examines how scandal and pop culture interact. The discussion addresses the question: when does a scandal actually enter into our pop culture. The mechanisms or vehicles by which this occurs include editorial cartoons, Broadway shows, music, movies, television, and more. The first chapter lays out the two main definitions and gives a bit of historical background to the discussion that follows. This new edition builds on the previous book with analysis of January 6th, George Santos, allegations of election fraud, and Rudy Giuliani.

This book works well as a supplement in a course on American Government, in American Studies, and is aimed at a wide range of readers from college freshmen to more advanced scholars and political junkies.

This book examines Occidentalism, or the set of cultural, literary and political uses of 'the West', in the works of canonical 20th and 21st century Egyptian novelists. Beginning with the writings of Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Lorenzo Casini here traces the way that imaginaries and representations of the West became bound up with the notions of modernity and national identity with which Egyptian novelists grappled, from the works of Tawfiq al-Hakim to those of Taha Husayn. The book also explores the trope of the European woman as an embodiment of the free, modern, seductive West as an essential facet of Occidentalism in this formative period.

The second part of the book examines the ways in which later novelists -from Latifa al-Zayyat and Yusuf Idris, to Radwa Ashur and Ahdaf Soueif- subverted dominant Occidentalist themes as a way of re-examining concepts of personal, political, and national identity. The author argues that these later novelists reacted to the changing political circumstances in Egypt, from Nasser's rule and the slide to authoritarianism to the 2011 Revolution, to envisage different kinds of Egyptian political community with a more complicated and less binary relationship with the imagined West.