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Communication for Successful Aging: Empowering Individuals Across the Lifespan
by Howard Giles Jessica Gasiorek Shardé M. Davis Jane GilesThis essential volume explores the vital role of communication in the aging process and how this varies for different social groups and cultural communities. It reveals how communication can empower people in the process of aging, and that how we communicate about age is critically important to – and is at the heart of – aging successfully.Giles et al. confront the uncertainty and negativity surrounding "aging" – a process with which we all have to cope – by expertly placing communication at the core of the process. They address the need to avoid negative language, discuss the lifespan as an evolving adventure, and introduce a new theory of successful aging – the communication ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA). They explore the research on key topics including: age stereotypes, age identities, and messages of ageism; the role of culture, gender, ethnicity, and being a member of marginalized groups; the ingredients of intergenerational communication; depiction of aging and youth in the media; and how and why talk about death and dying can be instrumental in promoting control over life’s demands. Communication for Successful Aging is essential reading for graduate students of psychology, human development, gerontology, and communication, scholars in the social sciences, and all of us concerned with this complex academic and highly personal topic.
The Limits of Criminological Positivism: The Movement for Criminal Law Reform in the West, 1870-1940 (Routledge SOLON Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice Histories)
by Michele PifferiThe Limits of Criminological Positivism: The Movement for Criminal Law Reform in the West, 1870-1940 presents the first major study of the limits of criminological positivism in the West and establishes the subject as a field of interest. The volume will explore those limits and bring to life the resulting doctrinal, procedural, and institutional compromises of the early twentieth century that might be said to have defined modern criminal justice administration. The book examines the topic not only in North America and western Europe, with essays on Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Finland but also the reception and implementation of positivist ideas in Brazil. In doing so, it explores three comparative elements: (1) the differing national experiences within the civil law world; (2) differences and similarities between civil law and common law regimes; and (3) some differences between the two leading common-law countries. It interrogates many key aspects of current penal systems, such as the impact of extra-legal scientific knowledge on criminal law, preventive detention, the ‘dual-track’ system with both traditional punishment and novel measures of security, the assessment of offenders’ dangerousness, juvenile justice, and the indeterminate sentence. As a result, this study contributes to a critical understanding of some inherent contradictions characterizing criminal justice in contemporary western societies. Written in a straight-forward and direct manner, this volume will be of great interest to academics and students researching historical criminology, philosophy, political science, and legal history.
Global Views on Climate Relocation and Social Justice: Navigating Retreat (Routledge Studies in Environmental Migration, Displacement and Resettlement)
by Idowu Jola Ajibade A. R. SidersThis edited volume advances our understanding of climate relocation (or planned retreat), an emerging topic in the fields of climate adaptation and hazard risk, and provides a platform for alternative voices and views on the subject. As the effects of climate change become more severe and widespread, there is a growing conversation about when, where and how people will move. Climate relocation is a controversial adaptation strategy, yet the process can also offer opportunity and hope. This collection grapples with the environmental and social justice dimensions from multiple perspectives, with cases drawn from Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, South America, and North America. The contributions throughout present unique perspectives, including community organizations, adaptation practitioners, geographers, lawyers, and landscape architects, reflecting on the potential harms and opportunities of climate-induced relocation. Works of art, photos, and quotes from flood survivors are also included, placed between sections to remind the reader of the human element in the adaptation debate. Blending art – photography, poetry, sculpture – with practical reflections and scholarly analyses, this volume provides new insights on a debate that touches us all: how we will live in the future and where? Challenging readers’ pre-conceptions about planned retreat by juxtaposing different disciplines, lenses and media, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental migration and displacement, and environmental justice and equity.
The Limits of Criminological Positivism: The Movement for Criminal Law Reform in the West, 1870-1940 (Routledge SOLON Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice Histories)
by Michele PifferiThe Limits of Criminological Positivism: The Movement for Criminal Law Reform in the West, 1870-1940 presents the first major study of the limits of criminological positivism in the West and establishes the subject as a field of interest. The volume will explore those limits and bring to life the resulting doctrinal, procedural, and institutional compromises of the early twentieth century that might be said to have defined modern criminal justice administration. The book examines the topic not only in North America and western Europe, with essays on Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Finland but also the reception and implementation of positivist ideas in Brazil. In doing so, it explores three comparative elements: (1) the differing national experiences within the civil law world; (2) differences and similarities between civil law and common law regimes; and (3) some differences between the two leading common-law countries. It interrogates many key aspects of current penal systems, such as the impact of extra-legal scientific knowledge on criminal law, preventive detention, the ‘dual-track’ system with both traditional punishment and novel measures of security, the assessment of offenders’ dangerousness, juvenile justice, and the indeterminate sentence. As a result, this study contributes to a critical understanding of some inherent contradictions characterizing criminal justice in contemporary western societies. Written in a straight-forward and direct manner, this volume will be of great interest to academics and students researching historical criminology, philosophy, political science, and legal history.
Global Views on Climate Relocation and Social Justice: Navigating Retreat (Routledge Studies in Environmental Migration, Displacement and Resettlement)
by Idowu Jola Ajibade A. R. SidersThis edited volume advances our understanding of climate relocation (or planned retreat), an emerging topic in the fields of climate adaptation and hazard risk, and provides a platform for alternative voices and views on the subject. As the effects of climate change become more severe and widespread, there is a growing conversation about when, where and how people will move. Climate relocation is a controversial adaptation strategy, yet the process can also offer opportunity and hope. This collection grapples with the environmental and social justice dimensions from multiple perspectives, with cases drawn from Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, South America, and North America. The contributions throughout present unique perspectives, including community organizations, adaptation practitioners, geographers, lawyers, and landscape architects, reflecting on the potential harms and opportunities of climate-induced relocation. Works of art, photos, and quotes from flood survivors are also included, placed between sections to remind the reader of the human element in the adaptation debate. Blending art – photography, poetry, sculpture – with practical reflections and scholarly analyses, this volume provides new insights on a debate that touches us all: how we will live in the future and where? Challenging readers’ pre-conceptions about planned retreat by juxtaposing different disciplines, lenses and media, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental migration and displacement, and environmental justice and equity.
Kinetic Atmospheres: Performance and Immersion
by Johannes BirringerThis book offers a sustained and deeply experiential pragmatic study of performance environments, here defined at unstable, emerging, and multisensational atmospheres, open to interactions and travels in augmented virtualities. Birringer’s writings challenge common assumptions about embodiment and the digital, exploring and refining artistic research into physical movement behavior, gesture, sensing perception, cognition, and trans-sensory hallucination. If landscapes are autobiographical, and atmospheres prompt us to enter blurred lines of a "forest knowledge," where light, shade, and darkness entangle us in foraging mediations of contaminated diversity, then such sensitization to elemental environments requires a focus on processual interaction. Provocative chapters probe various types of performance scenarios and immersive architectures of the real and the virtual. They break new ground in analyzing an extended choreographic – the building of hypersensorial scenographies that include a range of materialities as well as bodily and metabodily presences. Foregrounding his notion of kinetic atmospheres, the author intimates a technosomatic theory of dance, performance, and ritual processes, while engaging in a vivid cross-cultural dialogue with some of the leading digital and theatrical artists worldwide. This poetic meditation will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre, performing arts as well as media arts practitioners, composers, programmers, and designers.
Kinetic Atmospheres: Performance and Immersion
by Johannes BirringerThis book offers a sustained and deeply experiential pragmatic study of performance environments, here defined at unstable, emerging, and multisensational atmospheres, open to interactions and travels in augmented virtualities. Birringer’s writings challenge common assumptions about embodiment and the digital, exploring and refining artistic research into physical movement behavior, gesture, sensing perception, cognition, and trans-sensory hallucination. If landscapes are autobiographical, and atmospheres prompt us to enter blurred lines of a "forest knowledge," where light, shade, and darkness entangle us in foraging mediations of contaminated diversity, then such sensitization to elemental environments requires a focus on processual interaction. Provocative chapters probe various types of performance scenarios and immersive architectures of the real and the virtual. They break new ground in analyzing an extended choreographic – the building of hypersensorial scenographies that include a range of materialities as well as bodily and metabodily presences. Foregrounding his notion of kinetic atmospheres, the author intimates a technosomatic theory of dance, performance, and ritual processes, while engaging in a vivid cross-cultural dialogue with some of the leading digital and theatrical artists worldwide. This poetic meditation will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre, performing arts as well as media arts practitioners, composers, programmers, and designers.
Reimagining Chan Buddhism: Sheng Yen and the Creation of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism)
by Jimmy YuThis book is the first socio-intellectual history of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan (Zen), a new lineage of Buddhism founded by the late Chinese Buddhist cleric, Sheng Yen (1931–2009)—arguably one of the most influential Chan masters in contemporary times. The book challenges the received academic and popular image of Chan Buddhism as a meditation school that bypasses scriptural learning. Using Sheng Yen’s doctrinal classification (Chn. panjiao) chart as an example, the book shows Sheng Yen’s Chan as a synthesis of both Indian and Chinese premodern forms of Buddhism, and as the summum bonum of Han transmission of Chinese Buddhism (Chn. Hanchuan fojiao). The book demonstrates how Sheng Yen’s presentation of Chan was intimately related to the volatile social and political realities of his life—the Communist takeover of China and the subsequent industrial boom that impacted Taiwanese society. In short, this book presents a historically and culturally embodied approach to the formation of Buddhist doctrine and practice. Drawing on the works of postcolonial theories that integrate the role of the researcher into the research, the book also offers a more integrated approach between emic and etic, insider and outsider perspectives to research. Advancing the field of Buddhist studies, the book will be of interest to scholars of Buddhism in the modern period, twentieth-century religious history of China and Taiwan, Chan/Zen studies, World Religions, Asian civilizations, and Modern Biographies.
Reimagining Chan Buddhism: Sheng Yen and the Creation of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism)
by Jimmy YuThis book is the first socio-intellectual history of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan (Zen), a new lineage of Buddhism founded by the late Chinese Buddhist cleric, Sheng Yen (1931–2009)—arguably one of the most influential Chan masters in contemporary times. The book challenges the received academic and popular image of Chan Buddhism as a meditation school that bypasses scriptural learning. Using Sheng Yen’s doctrinal classification (Chn. panjiao) chart as an example, the book shows Sheng Yen’s Chan as a synthesis of both Indian and Chinese premodern forms of Buddhism, and as the summum bonum of Han transmission of Chinese Buddhism (Chn. Hanchuan fojiao). The book demonstrates how Sheng Yen’s presentation of Chan was intimately related to the volatile social and political realities of his life—the Communist takeover of China and the subsequent industrial boom that impacted Taiwanese society. In short, this book presents a historically and culturally embodied approach to the formation of Buddhist doctrine and practice. Drawing on the works of postcolonial theories that integrate the role of the researcher into the research, the book also offers a more integrated approach between emic and etic, insider and outsider perspectives to research. Advancing the field of Buddhist studies, the book will be of interest to scholars of Buddhism in the modern period, twentieth-century religious history of China and Taiwan, Chan/Zen studies, World Religions, Asian civilizations, and Modern Biographies.
COVID-19, Business, and Economy in Malaysia: Retrospective and Prospective Perspectives (COVID-19 in Asia)
by Weng Marc Lim Surinderpal Kaur Huey Fen CheongPart of a mini-series of Focus books on COVID-19 in Malaysia, the chapters in this book address the pandemic’s impact on business and the economy in Malaysia. Covering a range of challenges and opportunities for business and the economy over a year-long period, starting from Malaysia’s first pandemic lockdown in March 2020 to the state of the country as of May 1, 2021, the contributors highlight the impact of the pandemic on the Malaysian business and economy and how Malaysians are finding ways to adapt and rise above adversity. They illustrate how the pandemic has affected businesses and anticipate the prospects for the Malaysian economy going forward. This is also an opportunity to witness how researchers from multiple disciplines can join forces during challenging times to deliver insightful research with impact. More importantly, there are many lessons to be learned from the successes and failures in responding to the pandemic in this developing Southeast Asian economy. A fascinating read for individuals with an interest in crisis adaptation in non-Western contexts, especially those with a particular interest in Malaysia or Southeast Asia more generally.
COVID-19, Business, and Economy in Malaysia: Retrospective and Prospective Perspectives (COVID-19 in Asia)
by Weng Marc LimPart of a mini-series of Focus books on COVID-19 in Malaysia, the chapters in this book address the pandemic’s impact on business and the economy in Malaysia. Covering a range of challenges and opportunities for business and the economy over a year-long period, starting from Malaysia’s first pandemic lockdown in March 2020 to the state of the country as of May 1, 2021, the contributors highlight the impact of the pandemic on the Malaysian business and economy and how Malaysians are finding ways to adapt and rise above adversity. They illustrate how the pandemic has affected businesses and anticipate the prospects for the Malaysian economy going forward. This is also an opportunity to witness how researchers from multiple disciplines can join forces during challenging times to deliver insightful research with impact. More importantly, there are many lessons to be learned from the successes and failures in responding to the pandemic in this developing Southeast Asian economy. A fascinating read for individuals with an interest in crisis adaptation in non-Western contexts, especially those with a particular interest in Malaysia or Southeast Asia more generally.
The Contested Idea of South Africa (Routledge Contemporary South Africa)
by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni Busani NgcaweniThis book reflects on the complex and contested idea of South Africa, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Ever since the delineation of South Africa as a country, the many diverse groups of people contained within its borders have struggled to translate a mere geographical description into the identity of a people. Today the new struggles ‘for South Africa’ and ‘to become South African’ are inextricably intertwined with complex challenges of transformation, xenophobia, claims of reverse racism, social justice, economic justice, service delivery, and the resurgent decolonization struggles reverberating inside the universities. This book covers the genealogy of the idea of South Africa, exploring how the country has been conceived of by a broad group of actors, including the British, Afrikaners, diverse African nationalist traditions, and new formations such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Black First Land First (BLF), and student formations (Rhodes Must Fall & Fees Must Fall). Over the course of the book, a broad range of themes are covered, including identity formation, modernity, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, autochthony, land, gender, intellectual traditions, poetics of South Africanness, language, popular culture, truth and reconciliation, and national development planning. Concluding with important reflections on how a colonial imaginary can be changed into a free and inclusive postcolonial nation-state, this book will be an important read for Africanist researchers from across the humanities and social sciences.
The Honest Politician’s Guide to Prisons and Probation
by Roy D. King Lucy WillmottThrough a comprehensive analysis of legislative and organisational changes and interviews with all the key players, The Honest Politician’s Guide to Prisons and Probation provides an authoritative account of the crisis which has gradually engulfed the prison and probation services since 1991. Setting out the nature and extent of the crisis, King and Willmott show how the Woolf agenda was overridden in a process of political churn, through explorations of the Conservative government until 1997, New Labour from 1997 to 2010 and the Coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. Uniquely, interviews with all surviving Home Secretaries and Justice Secretaries of the period include insightful and candid reflections upon their time in office, and how they saw the future. Views from both inside and outside the prisons and probation services are also explored, based on interviews with the Director Generals of the Prison Service and of the new National Probation Service, Chief Inspectors of Prisons and Probation and the four most recent Lord Chief Justices, including Lord Woolf himself. Concluding by drawing on this collective wisdom, King and Willmott set out what is needed for an effective and sustainable future. It is essential reading not just for those in Westminster, but also for practitioners in criminal justice, advocacy organisations, thinktanks and scholars and students in Criminology, Criminal Justice, British Politics and Public Policy.
The Contested Idea of South Africa (Routledge Contemporary South Africa)
by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-GatsheniThis book reflects on the complex and contested idea of South Africa, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Ever since the delineation of South Africa as a country, the many diverse groups of people contained within its borders have struggled to translate a mere geographical description into the identity of a people. Today the new struggles ‘for South Africa’ and ‘to become South African’ are inextricably intertwined with complex challenges of transformation, xenophobia, claims of reverse racism, social justice, economic justice, service delivery, and the resurgent decolonization struggles reverberating inside the universities. This book covers the genealogy of the idea of South Africa, exploring how the country has been conceived of by a broad group of actors, including the British, Afrikaners, diverse African nationalist traditions, and new formations such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Black First Land First (BLF), and student formations (Rhodes Must Fall & Fees Must Fall). Over the course of the book, a broad range of themes are covered, including identity formation, modernity, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, autochthony, land, gender, intellectual traditions, poetics of South Africanness, language, popular culture, truth and reconciliation, and national development planning. Concluding with important reflections on how a colonial imaginary can be changed into a free and inclusive postcolonial nation-state, this book will be an important read for Africanist researchers from across the humanities and social sciences.
The Honest Politician’s Guide to Prisons and Probation
by Roy D. King Lucy WillmottThrough a comprehensive analysis of legislative and organisational changes and interviews with all the key players, The Honest Politician’s Guide to Prisons and Probation provides an authoritative account of the crisis which has gradually engulfed the prison and probation services since 1991. Setting out the nature and extent of the crisis, King and Willmott show how the Woolf agenda was overridden in a process of political churn, through explorations of the Conservative government until 1997, New Labour from 1997 to 2010 and the Coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. Uniquely, interviews with all surviving Home Secretaries and Justice Secretaries of the period include insightful and candid reflections upon their time in office, and how they saw the future. Views from both inside and outside the prisons and probation services are also explored, based on interviews with the Director Generals of the Prison Service and of the new National Probation Service, Chief Inspectors of Prisons and Probation and the four most recent Lord Chief Justices, including Lord Woolf himself. Concluding by drawing on this collective wisdom, King and Willmott set out what is needed for an effective and sustainable future. It is essential reading not just for those in Westminster, but also for practitioners in criminal justice, advocacy organisations, thinktanks and scholars and students in Criminology, Criminal Justice, British Politics and Public Policy.
Rethinking Copyright for Sustainable Human Development: Higher Education and Access to Knowledge (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Sileshi Bedasie HirkoThis book explores the interface between copyright and higher education, and their complementarities for the advancement of sustainable human development. In its broader sense, the concept of human development is noted as a set of freedoms and human capabilities that are essential for human flourishing. Adopting a rights-based human development and capability approach (HDCA), this book primarily examines the relevant policy and legal flexibilities under the existing international copyright system, and their implications for access to knowledge required for creative innovation and higher education. Exploring the interfaces between copyright and higher education, this book argues that an unbalanced and restrictive copyright system impedes reasonable access to knowledge, and stifles creative and learning freedoms or capabilities. In effect, a restrictive copyright system results in serious ramifications for sustainable human development. In view of its findings, this book underscores the need for rethinking copyright and reframing its relevant flexibilities as users' rights that are vital for promoting creative and learning capabilities towards sustainable human development. Further, the book emphasizes the complementarities between copyright and higher education, and their joint roles for sustainable human development. Given its application of the HDCA to explore ranges of interlinked topics, this book will be of a great interest to researchers across the fields of intellectual property law, innovation, global development, human rights, and higher education.
Rethinking Copyright for Sustainable Human Development: Higher Education and Access to Knowledge (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Sileshi Bedasie HirkoThis book explores the interface between copyright and higher education, and their complementarities for the advancement of sustainable human development. In its broader sense, the concept of human development is noted as a set of freedoms and human capabilities that are essential for human flourishing. Adopting a rights-based human development and capability approach (HDCA), this book primarily examines the relevant policy and legal flexibilities under the existing international copyright system, and their implications for access to knowledge required for creative innovation and higher education. Exploring the interfaces between copyright and higher education, this book argues that an unbalanced and restrictive copyright system impedes reasonable access to knowledge, and stifles creative and learning freedoms or capabilities. In effect, a restrictive copyright system results in serious ramifications for sustainable human development. In view of its findings, this book underscores the need for rethinking copyright and reframing its relevant flexibilities as users' rights that are vital for promoting creative and learning capabilities towards sustainable human development. Further, the book emphasizes the complementarities between copyright and higher education, and their joint roles for sustainable human development. Given its application of the HDCA to explore ranges of interlinked topics, this book will be of a great interest to researchers across the fields of intellectual property law, innovation, global development, human rights, and higher education.
Futurism and the African Imagination: Literature and Other Arts (Routledge Studies in African Philosophy)
by Dike OkoroThis book investigates how African authors and artists have explored themes of the future and technology within their works. Afrofuturism was coined in the 1990s as a means of exploring the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology, science and science fiction. However, this book argues that literature and other arts within Africa have always reflected on themes of futurism, across diverse forms of speculative writing (including science fiction), images, spirituality, myth, magical realism, the supernatural, performance and other forms of oral resources. This book reflects on themes of African futurism across a range of literary and artistic works, also investigating how problems such as racism, sexism, social injustice and postcolonialism are reflected in these narratives. Chapters cover authors, artists, movements and performers such Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Elechi Amadi, Mazisi Kunene, Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes, Leslie Nneka Arimah and the New African Movement. The book also includes a range of original interviews with prominent authors and artists, including Tanure Ojaide, Lauren Beukes, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Benjamin Kwakye, Ntongela Masilela and Bruce Onobrakpeya. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book will be an important resource for researchers across the fields of African literature, philosophy, culture and politics.
Futurism and the African Imagination: Literature and Other Arts (Routledge Studies in African Philosophy)
by Dike OkoroThis book investigates how African authors and artists have explored themes of the future and technology within their works. Afrofuturism was coined in the 1990s as a means of exploring the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology, science and science fiction. However, this book argues that literature and other arts within Africa have always reflected on themes of futurism, across diverse forms of speculative writing (including science fiction), images, spirituality, myth, magical realism, the supernatural, performance and other forms of oral resources. This book reflects on themes of African futurism across a range of literary and artistic works, also investigating how problems such as racism, sexism, social injustice and postcolonialism are reflected in these narratives. Chapters cover authors, artists, movements and performers such Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Elechi Amadi, Mazisi Kunene, Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes, Leslie Nneka Arimah and the New African Movement. The book also includes a range of original interviews with prominent authors and artists, including Tanure Ojaide, Lauren Beukes, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Benjamin Kwakye, Ntongela Masilela and Bruce Onobrakpeya. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book will be an important resource for researchers across the fields of African literature, philosophy, culture and politics.
Art and Architectural Traditions of India and Iran: Commonality and Diversity
by Nasir Raza KhanThis book presents a comprehensive overview of the historical and cultural linkages between India and Iran in terms of art and architectural traditions and their commonality and diversity. It addresses themes such as early connections between Iran, India and Central Asia; study of the Qutb Complex in Delhi; the great immigration of Turks from Asia to Anatolia; the collaboration of Indian and Persian painters; design, ornamentation techniques and regional dynamics; women and public spaces in Shahjahanabad and Isfahan; the noble-architects of emperor Shah Jahan's reign; development of Kashmir’s Islamic religious architecture in the medieval period; role of Nur Jahan and her Persian roots in the evolution of the Mughal Garden; synthesis of Indo-Iranian architecture; and confluence of Indo-Persian food culture to showcase the richness of art, architecture, and sociocultural and political exchanges between the two countries. Bringing together a wide array of perspectives, it delves into the roots of connection between India and Iran over centuries to understand its influence and impact on the artistic and cultural genealogy and the shared past of two of the oldest civilizations and regional powers of the world. With its archival sources, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of medieval history, Indian history, international relations, Central Asian history, Islamic studies, Iranian history, art and architecture, heritage studies, cultural studies, regional studies, and South Asian studies as well as those interested in the study of sociocultural and religious exchanges.
Art and Architectural Traditions of India and Iran: Commonality and Diversity
by Nasir Raza KhanThis book presents a comprehensive overview of the historical and cultural linkages between India and Iran in terms of art and architectural traditions and their commonality and diversity. It addresses themes such as early connections between Iran, India and Central Asia; study of the Qutb Complex in Delhi; the great immigration of Turks from Asia to Anatolia; the collaboration of Indian and Persian painters; design, ornamentation techniques and regional dynamics; women and public spaces in Shahjahanabad and Isfahan; the noble-architects of emperor Shah Jahan's reign; development of Kashmir’s Islamic religious architecture in the medieval period; role of Nur Jahan and her Persian roots in the evolution of the Mughal Garden; synthesis of Indo-Iranian architecture; and confluence of Indo-Persian food culture to showcase the richness of art, architecture, and sociocultural and political exchanges between the two countries. Bringing together a wide array of perspectives, it delves into the roots of connection between India and Iran over centuries to understand its influence and impact on the artistic and cultural genealogy and the shared past of two of the oldest civilizations and regional powers of the world. With its archival sources, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of medieval history, Indian history, international relations, Central Asian history, Islamic studies, Iranian history, art and architecture, heritage studies, cultural studies, regional studies, and South Asian studies as well as those interested in the study of sociocultural and religious exchanges.
Crafts and Craftsmen in Pre-colonial Eastern India: Technology and Culture
by Asha Shukla ChoubeyThis book presents a comprehensive socio-cultural history of crafts and crafts persons in pre-colonial Eastern India. It focuses on the technology of crafts as being integral to the traditional lives of the crafts persons and explores their cultural and social world. It offers an in-depth analysis of the complexities of craft technologies in the three sectors of cotton textile, sericulture and silk textile and mining and metallurgy in the regions of Bihar and Jharkhand in Eastern India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Apart from technology, the book discusses a range of socio-economic themes including craft production systems; marketing and financing patterns; impact of contact with the world market; craft persons’ identities in terms of caste affiliations and group divisions; negotiations for upward caste mobility; contestations and dissent of lower castes; power and social stratification; functioning of caste panchayats; gender division of craft labour; myths, beliefs and religiosity attributed to craft usages; social and ritual traditions; and contemporary craft traditions. Rich in archival and diverse sources, including oral traditions, paintings, and findings from extensive field visits and interactions with crafts persons, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of crafts, medieval Indian history, social history, sociology and social anthropology, economic history, cultural history, science and technology studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest government and non-governmental organisations, textile historians, craft and design specialists, contemporary craft industrial sector, and museums.
Cultures Differ Differently: Selected Essays of S.N. Balagangadhara (Critical Humanities Across Cultures)
by S. N. Balagangadhara Jakob De Roover Sarika RaoThis volume brings together a collection of essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S.N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. These essays illustrate how ‘decolonisation of social sciences’ is a cognitive task and offer novel hypotheses about human beings and society. They demonstrate the implications of cultural difference in the study of domains such as psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology, and philosophy. The book addresses new questions in the study of Western and Indian culture and social sciences, and discusses themes like selfless morality and the moral self; knowledge and action; critical representations of Indian traditions and classical literature; law, religion and culture; translation and interpretations; and varna and social systems. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this interdisciplinary volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, religious studies, postcolonial studies, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, literature, comparative studies and Global South studies.
Crafts and Craftsmen in Pre-colonial Eastern India: Technology and Culture
by Asha Shukla ChoubeyThis book presents a comprehensive socio-cultural history of crafts and crafts persons in pre-colonial Eastern India. It focuses on the technology of crafts as being integral to the traditional lives of the crafts persons and explores their cultural and social world. It offers an in-depth analysis of the complexities of craft technologies in the three sectors of cotton textile, sericulture and silk textile and mining and metallurgy in the regions of Bihar and Jharkhand in Eastern India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Apart from technology, the book discusses a range of socio-economic themes including craft production systems; marketing and financing patterns; impact of contact with the world market; craft persons’ identities in terms of caste affiliations and group divisions; negotiations for upward caste mobility; contestations and dissent of lower castes; power and social stratification; functioning of caste panchayats; gender division of craft labour; myths, beliefs and religiosity attributed to craft usages; social and ritual traditions; and contemporary craft traditions. Rich in archival and diverse sources, including oral traditions, paintings, and findings from extensive field visits and interactions with crafts persons, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of crafts, medieval Indian history, social history, sociology and social anthropology, economic history, cultural history, science and technology studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest government and non-governmental organisations, textile historians, craft and design specialists, contemporary craft industrial sector, and museums.
Cultures Differ Differently: Selected Essays of S.N. Balagangadhara (Critical Humanities Across Cultures)
by Jakob De Roover Sarika RaoThis volume brings together a collection of essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S.N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. These essays illustrate how ‘decolonisation of social sciences’ is a cognitive task and offer novel hypotheses about human beings and society. They demonstrate the implications of cultural difference in the study of domains such as psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology, and philosophy. The book addresses new questions in the study of Western and Indian culture and social sciences, and discusses themes like selfless morality and the moral self; knowledge and action; critical representations of Indian traditions and classical literature; law, religion and culture; translation and interpretations; and varna and social systems. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this interdisciplinary volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, religious studies, postcolonial studies, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, literature, comparative studies and Global South studies.