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Ethnic Religious Minorities in Iran
by S. Behnaz HosseiniThis book explores the experiences of the ethnic and religious minorities of Iran, such as Jews, Yarsani, Christian, Sabean Mandaean, Bahai, Zoroastrian, Baluch, Kurd, and others and provides a historical overview of their position in society before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and highlights their contribution to the country's history, diversity, and development. It also focuses on the historical, sociopolitical, and economic factors that affected the minorities' development during the last century. Author Behnaz Hosseini has shaped this book with authentic material and has assembled the experiences and opinions of academics of diverse backgrounds who approach the minorities’ issues in Iran in a constructive and ingenious way: from debating their efforts to preserve their identity and cultural heritage and ensure their survival to discussing their relations with the majority and other minorities, the role of religion in everyday life, and their contribution to the rich cultural history of Iran.
Uneasy Encounters: Christian Churches in Greater China (Christianity in Modern China)
by Magdaléna RychetskáThe book examines the dynamic processes of the various social, political, and cultural negotiations that representatives of Christian groups engage in within authoritarian societies in Greater China, where Christianity is deemed a foreign religious system brought to China by colonial rulers. The book explores the political and social cooperation and negotiations of two particular Christian groups in their respective and distinct settings: the open sector of the Catholic Church in the communist People’s Republic on mainland China from 1945 to the present day, and the Presbyterian church of Taiwan in the Republic of China in Taiwan during the period of martial law from 1949 to 1987. Rather than simply confirm the ‘domination-resistance’ model of church–state relations, the book focuses on the various approaches adopted by religious groups during the process of negotiation. In an authoritative Chinese environment, religious specialists face two related pressures: the demands of their authoritarian rulers and social pressure requiring them to assimilate to the local culture. The book uses two case studies to support a wider theory of economic approach to religion.
An Introduction to Early Buddhist Soteriology: Freedom of Mind and Freedom by Wisdom
by G. A. SomaratneThe book offers a comprehensive discussion on the Buddhist liberation and meditation concepts based on the original Pāli scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism. It interprets the early Buddhist soteriology critically and sympathetically by interweaving the Buddhological and the Buddhistic debates on understanding the Buddha’s original teaching on bondage, liberation, liberated ones, and meditation. It showcases the liberal and pluralistic character of early Buddhist soteriology by interpreting it psychologically through the lens of the Buddha's recognition of two sets of psychosomatic and epistemic mental configurations active in the human mind. It shows how this dualism pervades the early Buddhist soteriology by pointing out its recognition of craving and ignorance as two causes of suffering; the emancipation of mind and the emancipation by wisdom as two constituents of liberation; and the meditative appeasing and the meditative watching as two methods to attain that liberation. It demonstrates how the Buddha structures a gradual path to liberation enabling individuals to experience many temporary and irreversible secondary goals along the way and allowing them to join the path at any stage appropriate to their temperaments and advancement at a given time and space. The book therefore serves the students and scholars of Buddhism, religion, and psychology to obtain a comprehensive and insightful introduction to Buddhist soteriology.
Sound and Reason: Synesthesia as Metacognition (Palgrave Studies in Sound)
by Sven Hroar KlempeThis book is about the human mental capacities that are mostly veiled in the use of language yet can be revealed through music activities. In speech, just one word is articulated at the time, whereas in music different pitches sound simultaneously. This conflict demonstrates that rationality must be regarded as relative, as rationality in music may create chaos in speech. Moreover, investigating the role of sound in synesthesia reveals that its aesthetic combinations are related to the human capacity to enjoy different types of harmonies in music. Drawing on new research regarding synesthesia as a more fundamental basis for human cognition, this book brings this a step further by introducing synesthesia as a general metacognitive process, hinting at the aesthetical origin of fundamental logical operations. Bringing together a number of cultural perspectives on music, language, and mathematics, this volume expertly illustrates that music reveals a fundamental system that deeply combines the sensorial and the intellectual human capacities.
Selected Proceedings from the 1st International Conference on Contemporary Islamic Studies (ICIS 2021)
by Nur Nafhatun Md Shariff Mohd Asmadi Yakob Zety Sharizat Hamidi Zeiad Amjad Abdulrazzak Aghwan Najahudin LatehThis book collates selective outputs from the 1st International Conference on Contemporary Islamic Studies, focusing on interdisciplinary research that is relevant and timely. One of the most vital areas for national development in Malaysia, and other parts of the Muslim world, is the field of Islamic studies. With a selection of regional and international contributions, the volume covers several topics, including Zakat, Wakaf, Islamic philanthropy, Islamic Turath, Islamic astronomy, Islamic texts - both ancient and modern - Halal, the Muslim family, fiqh, and Islamic finance. Cutting across both academia and religious practice, the book seeks to demarcate various aspects within Islamic law and culture, in the context of the IR 4.0 era. It is relevant to students and researchers working within the interdisciplinary landscape of Islamic studies, from Asia to beyond.
A Buddhist Theory of Killing: A Philosophical Exposition
by Martin KovanThis book provides a philosophical account of the normative status of killing in Buddhism. Its argument theorises on relevant Buddhist philosophical grounds the metaphysical, phenomenological and ethical dimensions of the distinct intentional classes of killing, in dialogue with some elements of Western philosophical thought. In doing so, it aims to provide a descriptive account of the causal bases of intentional killing, a global justification and elucidation of Buddhist norms regarding killing, and an intellectual response to and critique of alternative conceptions of such norms presented in recent Buddhist Studies scholarship. It examines early and classical Buddhist accounts of the evaluation of killing, systematising and rationally assessing these claims on both Buddhist and contemporary Western philosophical grounds. The book provides the conceptual foundation for the discussion, engaging original reconstructive philosophical analyses to both bolster and critique classical Indian Buddhist positions on killing and its evaluation, as well as contemporary Buddhist Studies scholarship concerning these positions. In doing so, it provides a systematic and critical account of the subject hitherto absent in the field. Engaging Buddhist philosophy from scholastic dogmatics to epistemology and metaphysics, this book is relevant to advanced students and scholars in philosophy and religious studies.
The Logic of Chinese Behaviors
by Xuewei ZhaiThis book presents a discussion on Chinese people’s internal and external psychologies and logics, as well as the respective stage of social development and cultural context they were raised in, and from sociological, social psychological, and cultural anthropological perspectives. In particular, the book explores the relationship between Chinese people’s behaviors and China’s social and cultural structure. It puts forward a theoretical framework for the analysis of Chinese social behaviors, which is based on the realistic aspects of Chinese people’s day-to-day-lives. The book also concludes that any attempt to study Chinese psychologies and behaviors should “seek the constant among the changes, or at least those aspects that are hardest to change” and investigate the context and background, which can provide a point of departure for current and future research.
Psychological Perspectives on Identity, Religion and Well-Being: Empirical Findings from India
by Preeti Kapur Girishwar Misra Nitin K. VermaThis book takes a social psychological perspective to study the ways in which identity, religious beliefs and well-being are related to and affect each other in the contemporary world. It simultaneously draws upon intellectual resources from the extant interdisciplinary literature to build connections within the broader societal context. In view of the social diversity and changes in post-globalization India, issues of identity, religion and well-being emerge as dynamic and vibrant aspects of social reality in both individual and group contexts, across age groups and genders. The current social-cultural-political scenario in the India, therefore, points to the need to investigate the outcome of personal and social well-being in relation to identity and religion. As contexts change, these issues take different shades and influence human conditions differentially. This book undertakes the investigation by going beyond the traditional tropes of behavioral science and discussing the dynamic interplay and confluence of socio-cultural-political variables in changing times. It draws from a large sample from the four major religious faiths in India—Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism—and enables readers to understand significant interactions among facets of identity (personal and social), religious beliefs and practices and well-being (personal and social) with age and gender in an important segment of the global population.
L. S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works, Volume 3: Pedology of the Adolescent I: Pedology in the Transitional Age (Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research #11)
by L. S. VygotskyThis book contains the first complete translation of the first half of the Pedology of the Adolescent by the Soviet thinker, educator, and teacher L.S. Vygotsky. It was the longest work published in his lifetime and was a correspondence course written by Vygotsky for teachers across the Soviet Union. The book is a sustained argument about the borders of pedology, the nature of the transition between childhood and adulthood, and the concrete character of the distinction between the lower psychological functions that we largely share with animals and those that are specific to fully socialized humans. After an initial methodological introduction, three kinds of maturation—general anatomical, sexual, and sociocultural—are explored. This book will be followed by a companion volume covering pedology of the transitional age as a psychological and social problem.
Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India
by Madhu KhannaThis book explores the tantric concept of Shakti, or the principal female cosmic entity and her pilgrimage sites. It offers a first-hand view of the multidimensional ways in which Shakti asserted its supremacy over existing Vaishnava and orthodox Brahmanical traditions in post mediaeval Bengal and India. The interdisciplinary chapters pave the way to understanding the intra-textual relationships between philosophical and conceptual ideas in literary texts and their oral transmission. Divided into three thematic sections: Cult Inclusiveness, Śakti Pithas, and the Śākta Philosophy, the book invites readers to explore a contested area of scholarship from unique perspectives, offering rich insights into the nature of negotiations between diverse religious streams. It also urges readers to examine the many innovative approaches and theoretical models on the goddess culture of East India. The book is of interest to students and scholars of religious textual studies, anthropology, pilgrimage studies, comparative religion, Sanskrit and Bengali languages, regional studies, South Asian cultures, goddess traditions and cultural history of mediaeval Bengal.
Regenerating Cultural Religious Heritage: Intercultural Dialogue on Places of Religion and Rituals
by Olimpia NiglioThis book introduces important reflections on understanding the meaning of cultural-religious heritage in an international context and their relationship with issues of sustainability at the local community level. Through a holistic approach, the book charts new courses in analyzing different cultural policies and methods for preserving and enhancing cultural heritage. Stemming from an intercultural seminar promoted by the International Scientific Committee Places of Religion and Ritual (ICOMOS PRERICO) under the theme of “Reuse and regenerations of cultural-religious heritage in the world: Comparison among cultures,” the book examines the scientific diplomacy and cultural strategies promoted by countries in dialogue with the UN 2030 Agenda, as well as Agenda 21 for Culture. The book seeks to reinforce the value of local cultural policies for supporting and enhancing cultural-religious heritage through specific programs and collaborations in dialogue with government policies. This collection is relevant to scholars working in areas relating to cultural heritage, religious heritage, architectural restoration, protection of the local inheritances, law, and management of the cultural sites.
Wealth Management and Investment in Islamic Settings: Opportunities and Challenges
by Toseef Azid Murniati Mukhlisin Othman AltwijryThis book addresses the theory, practices, challenges, key issues and potential future policies concerning investment and wealth management in connection with Islamic finance. There is a noted scarcity of literature on Islamic approaches towards wealth management from a jurisprudential perspective, and so this book aims to address this lacuna in available literature. It demonstrates strategies for wealth management in keeping with the Qur’an and Sunn’ah, posing questions relating to interest and investment, and proposing financial models for benefiting the poorer segments of society while simultaneously satisfying economic necessities in keeping with Islamic law. Given its breadth of scope, combining perspectives from scholars and practitioners with extensive experience in the banking and finance sector from different Islamic settings including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Brunei and Indonesia, this edited volume will benefit practitioners, researchers, and graduate students studying finance, economics and business management in an Islamic context.
Formation for Mission in Catholic Education: Transformation in an Ecological Space (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by William Sultmann Janeen Lamb David HallThis book arose from commissioned research by the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) on the alignment and effectiveness of 'A Framework for Formation for Mission in Catholic Education' (NCEC, 2017). It articulates contemporary best practice, and traces the experience of the Catholic Church in pursuing formation as integral to mission. This book also reviews and reports on formation within the context of the Catholic school. Its research validates ‘The Framework’ in Catholic education, and provides a complementary narrative for enhancing formation alignment and effectiveness, specifically with a focus on the Catholic school, but also with implications for formation in the wider context of ministry applications.This book is developed based on three questions, which also serve as thematic chapters that structure the narrative: what is the context and culture in which formation occurs; how is formation presented and enacted within the Australian context; and how can the understanding and practice of formation be advanced beyond its context and culture, policy, programs and ‘The Framework’ principles.
People, Place, Race, and Nation in Xinjiang, China: Territories of Identity
by David O’Brien Melissa Shani BrownIn one of the only works drawing on interviews with both Uyghurs and Han in Xinjiang, China, and postcolonial perspectives on ethnicity, nation, and race, this book explores how forms of banal racism underpin ideas of self and other, assimilation and modernisation, in this restive region. Significant international attention has condemned the CCP’s use of forced internment in ‘re-education’ camps, as well as its campaign of cultural assimilation. In this wider context, this book focuses upon the ways in which ethnic difference is writ through the banalities of everyday life: who one trusts, what one eats, where one shops, even what time one’s clocks are set to (Xinjiang being perhaps one of the only places where different ethnic groups live by different time-zones).Alongside chapters focusing upon the coercive ‘re-education’ campaign, and the devastating Ürümchi Riots in 2009, this book also unpacks how discourses of Chinese nationalism romanticise empire and promote racialised ways of thinking about Chineseness, how cultural assimilation (‘Sinicisation’) is being justified through the rhetoric of ‘modernisation’, how Islamic sites and Uyghur culture are being secularised and commodified for tourist consumption. We also explore Uyghur and Han perspectives, including of each other, giving insight into the diversity of opinions within both groups.Based on many years of living and working in China, and fieldwork and interviews specifically in Xinjiang, this book will be valuable to a variety of readers interested in the region and Uyghur and Han identity, ethnic/national identities in contemporary China, and racisms in non-western contexts.
Discursive Mediation in Translation: Living History and its Chinese Translations
by Hui WangThis book explores the actual process of mediation operation in the translation process and the interaction between mediation and social structure. It defines mediation in translation in a parameterized manner, characterizing the linguistic properties of mediation for ease of mediation identification. On this basis, it puts forward an integrated systematic approach to map out mediation operation at the text level and discuss the interactive relationship between mediation and social structure, with a view to unveiling how the source text is altered for the purpose of power balance in the translation process. It is a key read for those interested in better understanding of how translators mediate in the translation process so as to maneuver a text to achieve a certain purpose, thereby increasing mediation efficiency and avoiding potential pitfalls in mediation operation. It will be of interest to students and scholars in translation studies, professional translators, as well as those working in language and culture, intercultural communication, and cultural studies.
Edification in the Chinese Philosophy of Confucianism (Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture)
by Jinglin LiThis pivot focuses on “the concept of edification” in a bid to systematically expound its connotative structure and logical evolution. It is divided into ten chapters, embracing various issues, such as human nature as the foundation of edification, the development of edification and cultivation, the evolution of edification and the resultant life based on ritual and music, the political orientation and ultimate care of edification, and the nurturing of social edification, in an effort to offer a panoramic view of the intellectual features of Confucianism, and consequently a profound reflection on the cultural consciousness of contemporary China. The book is expected to satisfy the needs for a better understanding of edification as a Confucian concept, and the conceptual features of Chinese philosophy, or rather, Confucianism.
Formation of Teachers for Catholic Schools: Challenges and Opportunities in a New Era (Catholic Education Globally: Challenges and Opportunities #1)
by Leonardo Franchi Richard RymarzThis book explores in a theoretical and practical sense the challenges and opportunities arising in the initial and ongoing formation processes for teachers in Catholic schools. It showcases a range of international perspectives on how prospective teachers for Catholic schools are prepared both academically and pastorally for their professional role. Divided into two parts, Part 1 of the book focuses on certain countries in the Anglosphere; each country with a dedicated chapter in which the academic and pastoral approaches to teacher formation are examined in the context of its particular cultural, political and religious landscape. Part 2 of the book examines specific areas of interest with particular reference to what it means for the Catholic Church’s mission to offer suitable formation to its corps of teachers. Building on the editors' previous work, this book offers a fresh perspective on this subject by bringing together observations from selected local contexts on what Catholic teacher formation looks like as a set of organised processed and structures. It also shows how the study of educational themes offers challenges to current practices, but also opportunities for fruitful engagement with other educational perspectives.
English Bilingual Project: Exploring the Pedagogical Function of Mentalese
by Mathew VargheseToday, English is the global lingua franca and competent English communication skills should be one of the rights of all educated individuals irrespective of any socio-cultural limits. By introducing a new method, this book focuses on helping any learner to get sufficient communication skills in English as much as in the native language. This method helps one to avoid translating from mother tongue to English. And by using the method of thinking in English, one could acquire the required English bilingual skills naturally. The method is founded on the philosophical idea of mentalese—mind language as the base language of thinking available for humans for constructing thoughts. The proposed English Bilingual Project (EBP) helps one to transfer thoughts from a structureless mentalese to the grammatical structure of any language English/Japanese/Chinese. The method described in this book works in two ways: one it helps one to intuitively understand the working of mentalese; the other is by practicing think in English with the mentalese, one could generate the bilingual brain. The main procedure for transferring thoughts from the mentalese to English is through writing one’s thoughts. This helps one to think effectively in English like one’s own mother tongue. This method works as a prime requirement model for one to generate multilingual skills. The book resourced the idea of mentalese from the classical philosophy, reflects it with the modern generative theories, links it with the studies in neuro-linguistic studies on bilingualism and the bilingual brain.
Memory and Identity in Modern and Postmodern American Literature
by Lovorka Gruic Grmusa Biljana OklopcicThis book discusses how American literary modernism and postmodernism interconnect memory and identity and if, and how, the intertwining of memory and identity has been related to the dominant socio-cultural trends in the United States or the specific historical contexts in the world. The book’s opening chapter is the interrogation of the narrator’s memories of Jay Gatsby and his life in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The second chapter shows how in William Faulkner’s Light in August memory impacts the search for identities in the storylines of the characters. The third chapter discusses the correlation between memory, self, and culture in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Discussing Robert Coover’s Gerald’s Party, the fourth chapter reveals that memory and identity are contextualized and that cognitive processes, including memory, are grounded in the body’s interaction with the environment, featuring dehumanized characters, whose identities appear as role-plays. The subsequent chapter is the analysis of how Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated deals with the heritage of Holocaust memories and postmemories. The last chapter focuses on Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day, the reconstructive nature of memory, and the politics and production of identity in Southeastern Europe.
Saint Paul and the Education Encounter: Lessons on Love, Event and Change
by Michael VictoryThis book connects the Biblical Paul’s work as an educator with the revival of interest in Paul’s impact on contemporary social and cultural experience, sometimes referred to as ‘Paul’s new moment’. It presents Paul's letters as being the testament of an educator who brought a radical emancipatory approach to the communities with whom he lived and worked. The book draws on history, philosophy, New Testament studies, and social theory to present the case for Paul as the initiator of a pedagogy of the event. This book explores the concept of a pedagogy of the event, and provides a case study of success in its implementation.
‘Pre-Islamic Survivals’ in Muslim Central Asia: Tsarist, Soviet and Post-Soviet Ethnography in World Historical Perspective (Islam and Global Studies)
by R. Charles WellerThe book traces the conceptual lens of historical-cultural ‘survivals’ from the late 19th-century theories of E.B. Tylor, James Frazer, and others, in debate with monotheistic ‘degenerationists’ and Protestant anti-Catholic polemicists, back to its origins in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions as well as later more secularized forms in the German Enlightenment and Romanticist movements. These historical sources, particularly the ‘dual faith’ tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, significantly shaped both Tsarist and later Soviet ethnography of Muslim Central Asia, helping guide and justify their respective religious missionary, social-legal, political and other imperial agendas. They continue impacting post-Soviet historiography in complex and debated ways. Drawing from European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and world history, the fields of ethnography and anthropology, as well as Christian and Islamic studies, the volume contributes to scholarship on ‘syncretism’ and ‘conversion’, definitions of Islam, history as identity and heritage, and more. It is situated within a broader global historical frame, addressing debates over ‘pre-Islamic Survivals’ among Turkish and Iranian as well as Egyptian, North African Berber, Black African and South Asian Muslim Peoples while critiquing the legacy of the Geertzian ‘cultural turn’ within Western post-colonialist scholarship in relation to diverging trends of historiography in the post-World War Two era.
A Kaleidoscope of Malaysian Indian Women’s Lived Experiences: Gender‐Ethnic Intersectionality and Cultural Socialisation
by Premalatha Karupiah Jacqueline Liza FernandezThis book presents a compilation of chapters relating to the socio-cultural experiences of Malaysian Indian women. It includes a historical background covering Indian women’s migration to Malaya, and explores the lived realities of contemporary Indian women who are members of this minority ethnic group in the country. The authors cover a wide range of issues such as gender inequality, poverty, the involvement of women in performing arts, work, inter‐personal relationships, and well-being and happiness, drawing on substantial empirical data through a gendered lens. This book addresses the gap in the intersectional gender studies literature on minority groups of women in Malaysia, while simultaneously highlighting the multiple forms of subordination minority women - particularly Indian women - experience in society, including those that arise from gender‐ethnic intersectionality. In examining the case of Indian women in Malaysia, it also speaks to and enriches existing literature on the lives of minority groups of women in the Global South more broadly This anthology is beneficial to researchers and students in the social sciences, particularly in disciplines related to gender studies and minority studies. In addition, it is also useful for policy makers and social activists working with minority women in the Global South.
**Missing**: A Sociology of the Everyday (Asia in Transition #20)
by Lian Kwen Fee Paul J. Carnegie Noor Hasharina HassanThis thoughtful and wide-ranging open access volume explores the forces and issues shaping and defining contemporary identities and everyday life in Brunei Darussalam. It is a subject that until now has received comparatively limited attention from mainstream social scientists working on Southeast Asian societies. The volume helps remedy that deficit by detailing the ways in which religion, gender, place, ethnicity, nation-state formation, migration and economic activity work their way into and reflect in the lives of ordinary Bruneians. In a first of its kind, all the lead authors of the chapter contributions are local Bruneian scholars, and the editors skilfully bring the study of Brunei into the fold of the sociology of everyday life from multiple disciplinary directions. By engaging local scholars to document everyday concerns that matter to them, the volume presents a collage of distinct but interrelated case studies that have been previously undocumented or relatively underappreciated. These interior portrayals render new angles of vision, scale and nuance to our understandings of Brunei often overlooked by mainstream inquiry. Each in its own way speaks to how structures and institutions express themselves through complex processes to influence the lives of inhabitants. Academic scholars, university students and others interested in the study of contemporary Brunei Darussalam will find this volume an invaluable resource for unravelling its diversity and textures. At the same time, it hopefully stimulates critical reflection on positionality, hierarchies of knowledge production, cultural diversity and the ways in which we approach the social science study of Brunei. ‘I wish to commend the editors for bringing this volume to fruition. It is an important book in the context of Southeast Asian sociology and even more important for the development of our social, geographical, cultural and historical knowledge of Brunei.’ —Victor T. King, University of Leeds
Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes (Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences)
by Pravin S. Rana Olimpia Niglio Rana P. B. SinghPlacemaking and cultural landscapes are worldwide multidisciplinary global concerns that cover many points of view of the common impacts of socio-economic cultural and rights jurisprudence planning, wellbeing and related advancements. Concerned with the complex interactions between the development and environment of those factors, it is important to seek ways, paths and implications for framing sustainability in all social activities. This book is mostly based on the 10th ACLA – Asian Cultural Landscape Association International Webinar Symposium that took place during September 26–27, 2020, in the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. It examines contemporary social–cultural issues in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and associated cultural and sacred landscapes. There, the emphasis is on awakening deeper cultural sensitivity in harmonizing the world and the role of society and spiritual systems, drawing upon multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural interfaces—all within the scope of the future of the earth. The book’s chapters add a new dimension of cultural understanding in the broad domain of emerging human geoscience, considered as key policy science for contributing towards sustainability and survivability science together with future earth initiatives.
The Medico-Legal Development of Neurological Death in the UK
by Kartina A. ChoongDiagnosis of death by neurological criteria (DNC) is a construct which has been part of the British medico-legal landscape for nearly half a century. This book examines the factors behind its emergence, and discusses the various changes that took place in the last few decades that culminated in the current definition and clinical criteria for determining brain-based death. It highlights the continuities and discontinuities in practice, and the impact they have on the issue of withdrawal of mechanical ventilation in intensive care units and on the field of organ transplantation. The book also explores the law’s response to the introduction and development of DNC in clinical practice. It demonstrates how the legitimacy of the definition and criteria used by the medical profession were forged in the courtroom rather than in Parliament. It documents why case law were introduced in court, and assesses whether organ donation was a consideration in the deliberations. It will be emphasised that courts have given insufficient consideration to requests made in recent cases to consider a broader range of methods to determine death. Those pleas were made on the grounds that the definition and criteria used in the UK are dissimilar to those used in other jurisdictions that also adopt DNC; and that faith communities have a different understanding of death. By taking a close look at those other approaches before highlighting the inherent limitations of the courtroom as the forum that confers DNC its legitimacy, the book puts forward the argument that the democratic process should be engaged.