The face: our most distinguishing feature, but one which remains alien to us and which hides as much as it reveals. The slightest variation in characateristics, their volume, lines and intensity, is enough to distinguish one physiognomy from another, and to determine identity and draw a line between one person and another. In the moral hierarchy of bodily geography, the face embodies the highest value. It is the privileged site of love and hate, and judgements of beauty or ugliness are inscribed within it. It is so highly valued that any change, any visible trace of injury, is a tragedy, akin to an attack on one's identity. An individual's unique face corresponds to the uniqueness of his or her personal adventure. It is also the vehicle through which we produce and manage our daily interactions with others. The face precedes individuals, announces their presence, indicates whether they are known and displays their possible intentions. An integral part of the human body, the face is a part like no other.

David Le Breton offers a wide-ranging cultural history and anthropology of the face, from the mirror and the veil, the portrait and the invention of photography to cosmetic surgery, the selfie, facial recognition and AI. He reflects on how age leaves its mark on our fragile faces and how the symbolic violence perpetrated by racism expresses itself in the refusal to grant a person the dignity of a face. He reflects too on how the proliferation of faces in the age of the selfie renders the face banal, destroys its aura and weakens the social bond. Selfies proliferate in a world where face-to-face encounters are becoming increasingly rare, as individuals become monads focused on their phones. We are less and less together and more and more side by side, fragmented, our eyes glued to our screens, no longer looking at each other.

This magisterial book will appeal to anyone interested in the face and the many roles it has played in our history, culture and social life, and in how these roles might be changing today in our contemporary digital age.

This book presents a timely and original study of the meaning, uses, and impact of cultural data today. Working across critical and creative strands of inquiry, the book situates cultural data in the context of contemporary social, environmental, and political challenges such as the future of the arts and climate change.

Drawing on fields ranging from sociology and art history through to computer science and digital heritage, Cultural Data expands the possibilities for the study of arts and culture using computational methods at a critical moment for both national and global discussions about the future of digitisation and cultural data. Combining computer-assisted quantitative research with qualitative and theoretical approaches, this book examines historical trends, demographic politics, and data cultures alongside experimental data visualisations that build distinctive narratives for the arts and creative industries. Through using and manipulating the open-source interoperability of arts and cultural data, the book presents new approaches, both theoretical and empirical, for telling stories about individual artistic careers, events, organisations, and networks. It also explores the unspoken, often hidden or obscured, content of cultural data: its murky histories, gaps, inconsistencies, silences and bias.

This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners in fields including cultural heritage studies, creative and performing arts, archival science, cultural policy, gender studies, art history, and cultural theory. It will also be of interest to the growing community of digital humanities laboratories and centres around the globe that operate at the intersection of humanities research, data science and creative practice.

This book explores the role of heritage in contemporary British visual culture through an analysis of a selection of British factual television series.

Despite being the most popular genre on British and American television since the late-2000s, factual entertainment is often dismissed for its triviality. As such, it has been left out of discussions concerned with visual depictions of British heritage onscreen, which are typically reserved for costume dramas. This book explores television's relationship with contemporary nostalgic culture, examining Britain's relationship with its past, its heritage, and its identity. Focusing on a cross-section of factual television programmes, from talent shows and cooking competitions to children's television and national live sporting events, the author argues that they not only explicitly reflect the socio-political context and nostalgic culture in Britain in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis but have also been instrumental in shaping it.

Proposing a new subgenre of factual entertainment - factual heritage television - this book will be a must-read for scholars and students in television studies, popular culture, history and heritage studies, cultural studies and media studies.

Navigating the video game industry is like playing on expert mode - without a strategy guide.

In this rapidly evolving, hit-driven industry, technology advances at breakneck speed while personalities and business dynamics shift constantly. Many aspiring professionals ask how to break into game audio, but fewer discuss what happens after you're in - or how to avoid getting lost along the way.

Student of the Game offers a rare, unfiltered perspective from an independent video game composer who has survived and thrived over the past decade. Through candid anecdotes and hard-won insights, this book reveals:

• The reality behind industry buzzwords like "networking" and "imposter syndrome"
• Practical strategies for building sustainable professional relationships
• Red flags and pitfalls that can derail promising collaborations
• Mental frameworks for persistence when facing inevitable setbacks
• The truth about gigs that didn't work out - and why

This isn't just another "how to break in" guide. It's a survival manual for anyone serious about building a lasting career in game audio, complete with the aches, breaks and breakthroughs that define professional growth in this challenging but rewarding field.

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Celebrity offers the first comprehensive global study of how gender shapes celebrity culture across diverse contexts and media landscapes.

Bringing together 37 original chapters from leading and emerging scholars worldwide, this volume transforms celebrity studies by centring gender to expand cultural, geopolitical, and methodological boundaries. Through case studies spanning Turkey to Hollywood and Bangladesh to Spain, contributors explore issues such as queer stardom in Hong Kong, feminist digital activism in Pakistan, Indigenous celebrity, and China's 'traffic idols'. Employing methodologies, including discourse analysis, digital ethnography, archival research, and qualitative interviews, the Companion purposefully decentres Western perspectives, tracing localised and transnational circuits of fame while addressing historical and contemporary intersections of gender and celebrity.

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Celebrity is ideal for scholars, students, and researchers in gender studies, media and cultural studies, sociology, and related fields seeking fresh insights into global celebrity cultures and their political and social implications.

Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This edited volume offers a resource for instructors who are interested in developing innovative and effective teaching practices at the intersection of critical media and information literacy and civic engagement.

Responding to increasingly complex media environments and myriad crises in our democratic systems, this book foregrounds the importance of teaching students media and information literacy skills to prepare them for a life of active citizenship. Using a series of case studies, this book shows how media and information literacy can be interwoven with course design, instruction, and assessment, all in service of civic learning. The contributions provide models that are useful for faculty and teaching staff across a wide range of disciplines and fields of study, including interdisciplinary and co-curricular projects. Readers can draw from these examples in part or in whole to advance their own pedagogical goals and, at the same time, draw on the broader lessons of engaged pedagogy offered by the editors and featured contributors. Readers are encouraged to engage and to reengage the text, focusing their attention on strategies that help address their specific needs when building these skills into their teaching practices.

This volume is ideal for college and university educators who are looking to integrate civic and information literacies into their undergraduate teaching, as well as graduate students preparing for careers that include postsecondary teaching.

This book investigates the processes and products of the language work of social media influencers (SMIs) and copywriters in the advertising industry.

Olivia Droz-dit-Busset examines the mediatised discourses, metadiscourses and working processes of SMIs and copywriters, exploring how SMIs might be considered as 'new- generation' copywriters. The volume makes the case for not only exploring the advertising textual products created by these wordsmiths (i.e. relatively elite language workers) but also the underpinning workflows behind them. In doing so, Droz-dit-Busset reveals how SMIs' and copywriters' strategic use of frame-shifting, voice work and professional labelling illuminates broader transformations in how language work, and labour more generally, is valued, organised and legitimised in contemporary digital economies.

This essential volume will appeal to scholars in sociolinguistics, digital media studies and professional communication, as well as practitioners interested in understanding how new forms of language work are reshaping traditional advertising and marketing practices in the social media age.

This book offers the first comprehensive study of the representation of gay men in Egyptian cinema, tracing how these portrayals have emerged, shifted, and been contested across different historical and political moments.

Through close analysis of several key films, it examines how gay male characters are frequently framed through harmful stereotypes-depicted as mentally unstable, socially deviant, or as products of so-called Western decadence. Such representations often erase complexity, reducing queer figures to symbolic threats within broader narratives of moral panic and national anxiety. While state censorship remains a significant force shaping these depictions, the book highlights that it is not the sole factor. Drawing on interviews with Egyptian filmmakers, writers, and cultural critics, the author explores how creative decisions are negotiated amid intersecting pressures of social norms, commercial demands, institutional regulation, and personal ideology. By examining how cinema both reflects and shapes public discourse on gender, sexuality, and national identity, the book sheds light on the evolving boundaries of representation, censorship, and cultural belonging in Egypt and beyond.

Situated at the intersection of film studies, queer theory, and Arab cultural studies, this work fills a significant gap in existing scholarship and contributes to the growing field of queer Arab studies. It will be of interest to scholars and students of film and media studies, queer studies, Middle Eastern studies, and postcolonial cultural criticism.

Drawing on extensive research of 153 feature films by 65 female directors, this book examines the dislocation between Chinese women's cinema and Western feminist theories.

The author explores how local feminist discourses in China shape major feminist narratives in contemporary Chinese women's cinema and establishes "China as methodology" in Chinese cinema studies, offering interpretive paradigms rooted in China's history, culture and politics. The author introduces frameworks to decode Chinese women's cinema, including a model of socialist feminist legacies, a liberal feminism that critiques abstract female subjectivity, a consumerist pseudo-feminism characterized by double-distancing, a female homoeroticism that (dis)entangles an indigenous matrix of female bonding and a Western matrix of lesbian sexuality as well as the East Asian mother-daughter relationship underpinned by imperial power dynamics.

Chinese Women's Cinema Through a Feminist Lens is essential reading for scholars and students in gender studies, Chinese cinema and cultural studies.

Comics in the Classroom is an innovative and essential guide for educators teaching children aged 7 to 14, offering a fresh perspective on the use of comics in education. As one of the first books published in the UK to comprehensively show how comics can be used in educational settings, it draws on a growing body of evidence to demonstrate how comics can transform learning experiences, enhance engagement, and support key educational outcomes.

The book begins with an exploration of the history and rationale for using comics in education, before delving into their role in fostering reading for pleasure, visual literacy, and oracy. It also examines how comics can inspire creative writing and drawing, serve as tools for critical thinking, and be integrated across the curriculum. Later chapters address important topics such as representation, accessibility, diversity, and the potential of comics in sustainable education. Each chapter combines research insights, real-world case studies, and practical activities, equipping educators with the tools to overcome challenges and start using comics effectively.

Packed with practical advice, this book is an invaluable resource for both new and experienced teachers eager to unlock the potential of comics in the classroom.

Trophy films seized from the German film archive at the end of the Second World War were widely screened in Soviet cinemas. This monograph is the first dedicated study of these films, investigating their history in the USSR through three main perspectives: seizure and translocation, economic exploitation and reception.

Drawing on extensive archival research, this book examines the mechanisms governing Soviet film distribution and exhibition, including planning, taxation and the everyday logistics of print circulation. It introduces previously unanalysed quantitative data on audience statistics and box-office figures to reassess the popularity of Western cinema in the USSR during the first post-war decade. Using diaries and memoirs, it explores how Soviet audiences interpreted, appropriated, and reworked Western films, tracing these practices diachronically from immediate post-war screenings to late Soviet and post-Soviet remembrance. This book demonstrates how heterogeneous experiences were gradually consolidated into a coherent narrative of 'trophy cinema'.

Western Cinema in the USSR is valuable for scholars and students specialising in Russian and Eurasian studies, film history and reception studies, German studies, cultural diplomacy, Cold War history, and memory studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology is an extensive and authoritative collection of topical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives in the broad field of linguistic anthropology. Now in its second edition, it has been fully updated to address current and pressing global challenges and inspire action.

Carefully edited by Bonvillain and Garcia-Sanchez, this volume advances readers' understanding of how language intersects with power structures, social identities of gender, race, sexual orientation, cognitive processes, and neurodiversity. Across 28 chapters, contributors outline the foundations and key issues of linguistic anthropology, particularly language ideologies, while exploring practical approaches to research. Drawing from their research experience in universities across North America and abroad, they particularly emphasize ways in which theories and methodologies can contribute to social action and social justice movements on environmental and transitional justice, immigration and multilingualism, and Indigenous language revitalization or reawakening.

This handbook is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of applied and linguistic anthropology.

This comprehensive volume offers a framework for understanding the descriptive and prescriptive functions of oral narratives. Drawing upon narratological theory and linguistic analysis, it traces the evolution of folktales across generations, showcasing how they adapt to changing societal contexts while maintaining their core functions.

The book investigates the intersections of language, culture, and narrative, offering a rich, cross-disciplinary perspective that highlights the enduring relevance of oral traditions in constructing and preserving ethnic identity. It examines how narrative forms contribute to the continuity of cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and social cohesion. Exploring the narratological and linguistic structures of Dogri folktales, this study illuminates a crucial facet of the cultural heritage of the Dogra community in Jammu and Kashmir. Folktales are presented not merely as entertainment but as powerful tools of cultural transmission, embodying deeply rooted moral, social, and philosophical values.

This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, and educators in the fields of linguistics, folklore studies, cultural anthropology, literature, and South Asian studies. It will also serve as a valuable resource for policymakers, cultural preservationists, and general readers.

This foundational text establishes a cohesive, systematic framework for film geography. It integrates theories of transactionalism and phenomenology with core elements of communication (Source, Medium, Receiver) to document the transactions between geography and film, specifically emphasizing the resulting ontological distinction between the cinematic "reel" world and the lived "real" world.

This book provides a holistic framework for defining the scope of film geography and answering two core questions: what areas of film studies pertain to geography, and what significance does film research hold for geography. It offers a clear, comprehensive overview of the field, especially for understanding film/geography interrelations. This is delivered through a unique methodology that maps these interactions onto the basic elements of communication. This modeling exercise serves as a conceptual framework to document and explain the various ways geography and film are interconnected. The work emphasizes the significant role that filmic representations play in shaping our attitudes toward place and influencing human transactions with the environment.

Aimed at scholars and students interested in humanistic geography, media studies, and film theory, this book serves as an indispensable starting point for academic inquiry.

This book compares the origins of samba, jazz, and the blues, discussing the racial and popular class elements surrounding them and how white middle-class composers gradually appropriated them, in the context of Brazil and the United States, providing invaluable comparative insights about modernity, music, and race. These musical styles developed at the beginning of the twentieth century when Brazil and the United States, despite their differences, underwent significant social processes, such as dealing with the consequences of enslavement, European and global migration, rapid urbanization and industrialization, monetization of life, changes in gender and family relations, and the building of national identities. Their lyrics carry potent messages that reflect their social context and shed light on recurring themes such as work, money, love, gender, family, and race. Many of these songs have become classics that continue to resonate with the imaginaries of both countries. Brazilian and American music intertwined through the performances of Black musicians in 1920s Paris, the development of jazz bands in Brazil, and the presence of artists like Carmen Miranda in 1940s Hollywood.

The book will be of interest to those studying the modern Americas, popular culture, music and race, affect in history, gender, and modernity.

Realising the Value of Culture brings together international scholars to explore how values shape economies, organisations, and societies. It provides conceptual framing and tools for those seeking to align their practices with economic, cultural, and societal values.

The chapters in this collection bridge cultural economics, sociology, cultural studies, and urban studies to present an alternative to standard economic perspectives centred on price, profit, and efficiency. Foregrounding qualities - the quality of work, environment, and community - this book offers new methods to evaluate and realise cultural and social values. Its theoretical and methodological contributions include the conceptualisation of value realisation, the commons as shared practices, and the evaluation of impact through qualitative dimensions. Drawing on examples from the arts, crafts, cultural heritage, education, management, and urban development, it demonstrates how the value-based approach can inform circular, creative, and sharing economies.

Aimed at undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars, and practitioners - such as cultural managers, creatives, urban planners, policy-makers, and organisational leaders - this book offers an insightful framework for understanding the dynamic interrelations between individuals, institutions, and the communities they serve. The book functions as both a practical manual and an inspiration for continued research and application.

This edited volume explores the transformation of post-communist societies following the Bulgarian case in the period 1990s-2010s. By identifying, analysing, and typologizing the subcultural groups that became active agents of social change in Eastern Europe, the book brings forth an integrative theory of social development.

Based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines the perspectives of Political Sciences, Sociology, Social History, and Social Anthropology, the volume creates a theoretical toolkit that offers an effective application of subcultural theory to theories of social development, social transformation, and social transitions. Organized into three parts, Part 1 analyses, on a macro, societal level, structural changes in societies, and how social change is sought commutatively and culturally. Part 2 presents five subcultures that can be identified as active subjects of social change in Bulgaria in the 1980s-2010s. The political ones: the subculture of "Real socialism" (ex-communists, former communists) and the Anti-communism subculture, the economic ones of the "Mutri" and the subculture of "Honest businessmen" (new capitalists), and the cultural ones of the "Chalga/Popfilk". Part 3 mainly examines the social change in Bulgaria through the 'realms of memory'.

Subcultures as Active Agents of the Post-Communist Transition in Eastern Europe will be of interest to undergraduate students of East European Studies and Cultural Anthropology as well as practitioners working in the fields of cultural heritage, musical studies, archives, and libraries.