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Jesuits and Asian Goods in the Iberian Empires, 1580–1700 (Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History)
by Pedro Omar Svriz-WuchererThis book analyzes the exchange relations between the colonies of the Iberian Empires, starting from two cities ports, Buenos Aires and Macau in the period 1580-1700. Agents, who were not professional traders such as the members of the Society of Jesus, and the circulation and consumption of Asian goods in the local populations of Buenos Aires and Macau, were analyzed. Both cases of study will show us how these non-state agents- the Jesuits- build their own networks and exchange channels to Chinese goods distribution (i.e silk, porcelain, musk, amber and others) between Asia and Latin American. This book intends to break with the local scheme of Jesuit studies in order to combine the local scale with analysis of inter-regional processes on a continental scale, from a comparative perspective.
Asian Spiritualities and Social Transformation
by Simon Shui-Man KWAN Wai-Yin ChowThis book offers a cross-cultural and inter-religious understanding of the ways social transformation in Asia is related to Asian spiritualities. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from different cultures and fields of study, it collates cutting-edge research and applies it to the role of Asian spiritualities in social transformation. Spirituality has garnered increasing attention in recent years across diverse fields of research and practice, from psychology and healthcare, to anthropology, education, sociology, political sciences, social work, feminist studies, cultural studies, religious studies, theology, philosophy, and so on. However, the term means different things within these different disciplines. Spirituality can be understood to be private and personal, but also public and societal, not only as a force that brings about change but also one that helps maintain the status quo – not only as a core element in religion but also as something disconnected from it. This book poses that to gain a firm grasp of spirituality, one needs to traverse these different terrains. Disbarring the orientalist understanding of spirituality that is often found embedded in stereotypes of the East as mystical, esoteric, and spiritual, in contrast to the West as scientific and rational, this book deconstructs this binarism to enable a sophisticated understanding of the diversity within Eastern and Western spiritualities. It presents “Asian spirituality” as a misnomer, focusing on the plurality of spiritualties and the region’s multifaceted religiosity, and it also excavates interfaith terrains. It is of interest to social scientists, theologians and religious scholars, and students and researchers interested in Asian spiritualties and social movements
Spirituality, Mental Health and Quality of Life: Pathways in Indian Psychology
by Naveen PantThis book is about spiritual intelligence and its effects on mental health and quality of life. As mental health and related problems are increasing rapidly and have become a matter of great concern, there has not been a unanimous and empirical approach to assess and cure it, due to its divergence or other causes. This book is based on the most developed construct: spiritual intelligence and its effects on mental health and quality of life. Spirituality and its other constructs are one of the most interesting topics nowadays in the area of positive/indigenous/transpersonal psychology and among social/behavioral scientists. This book provides content on spirituality, spiritual intelligence, mental health, and quality of life. The book also attempts to review related literature (whether review or empirical), to have a look at past and current scenarios on spirituality and mental health and quality of life research. Through an exploration of Indian indigenous psychology, this book provides a look at mental health and the mind from an Indian psychological perspective and examines Indian psychology, taking into consideration modern psychological concepts.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait: 1941–1991 (Contemporary Gulf Studies)
by Ali A. AlkandariThe Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most influential, organized, social, and political movement in Kuwait. With the succession in Kuwait, the role of the organisation become more interesting for people interested in Kuwait and Gulf domestic politics as well as those interested in the MB and Political Islam. This book traces the emergence and development of MB while considering the political and social development of Kuwait that led to its appeal. It explains the evolution of MB’s organisational structure and how it adapted itself during different periods in Kuwait’s history through the Social Movement Theory. It describes MB policies and strategies during challenging times. It traces the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the MB and focuses on its development and its mobilisation strategy. It is certainly one of the first focused studies on MB from its conception in 1941 up to 1991.
CHINA and the Catholic Church: Through Mutual Eyes (Christianity in Modern China)
by Sergio TicozziThe volume approaches the relations between China and the Catholic Church in a quite comprehensive and unprejudiced way. Its approach is new since it clarifies the root of the persistent antagonism of both the imperial and republican Chinese Authorities toward the Catholic Church: no matter how the Catholic approach has been, they kept their Sino-centric attitude. It also points out the lack of a truly objective and complete understanding of China by the Western society, including Catholic missionaries: from a blind admiration to a negative evaluation, determined by contingent circumstances and motivations. It tries to clarify myths and stereotyped understandings, that have been created during the historical process, including the role of the Jesuits and in particular of Fr. Matteo Ricci. It also pays particular attention to the role of the Vatican in the recent religious policy of Chinese Government. The reading of the book could be enlightening especially for academics, university students and Christian clergy interested in the history of Catholic Missions in China.
The ‘Crossed-Out God’ in the Asia-Pacific: Religious Efficacy of Public Spheres
by Julian MillieThis book explores the evaluations made by religious groups and individuals about the potential of public spheres for religious practice, focussing upon public religion in societies of the Asia-Pacific. Across this region we observe a resurgence of religious traditions, increasing mediatisation of religion, and an inward turn toward conservative political programs. Against this background, relations between religion and public domains are critical influences upon civic inclusion and equal citizenship.In contrast to conventional approaches to religion and public life that focus upon the public potential of religion, chapter authors focus upon the religious potential of public domains, taking the perspectives of religious actors as their points of departure. The book’s chapters capture the dynamic nexus between religion and politics in Asia-Pacific public spheres: why would Indonesia’s minority Shiite movement strive to develop a public profile in a national environment where it attracts widespread disapproval? What constructions of religion and public space make Banaras so unconducive to female mobility? Why does the success of the social services wing of Australia’s Salvation Army create anxiety for its religious wing? What is at stake for followers of Australian Spiritualism when they attend spirit-medium sessions? How are popular Islamic preachers vulnerable to action from Indonesia’s civil society organisations? What do media representations of Hajj pilgrimage by Indonesia’s presidents have in common with middle-class representations of gender? Why did Indonesia’s traditionalist Muslim intellectuals draw heavily upon the ideas of Jürgen Habermas in their theorisations of state-society relations?An epilogue by the Indonesian neo-traditionalist intellectual Ahmad Baso, the most prominent theorist of state-religion relations in that country, overviews the issues against the background of that country’s religious and political histories.
Digital Authoritarianism and its Religious Legitimization: The Cases of Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and India
by Ihsan YilmazThis book explores how digital authoritarianism operates in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and how religion can be used to legitimize digital authoritarianism within democracies. In doing so, it explains how digital authoritarianism operates at various technological levels including sub-network level, proxy level, and user level, and elaborates on how governments seek to control cyberspace and social media. In each of these states, governments, in an effort to prolong – or even make permanent – their rule, seek to eliminate freedom of expression on the internet, punish dissidents, and spread pro-state propaganda. At the same time, they instrumentalize religion to justify and legitimize digital authoritarianism. Governments in these five countries, to varying degrees and at times using different methods, censor the internet, but also use digital technology to generate public support for their policies, key political figures, and at times their worldview or ideology. They also, and again to varying degrees, use digital technology to demonize religious and ethnic minorities, opposition parties, and political dissidents. An understanding of these aspects would help scholars and the public understand both the technical and social aspects of digital authoritarianism in these five countries.
Islam in the Anglosphere: Perspectives of Young Muslims in Australia, the UK and the USA
by Ihsan YilmazUsing semi-structured interviews with 122 young Muslims in Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) from diverse ethnic backgrounds, this book investigates the lived reality of young Muslims from their own perspectives. It explores their ideas of key Islamic and secular issues, their struggles, world views, triumphs, how the stigmatized group negotiates their identity in these three English language speaking Western countries, 20 years after 9/11. The key aspect of this book is to transcend binaries and reductionisms by exploring what Muslims actually think and say rather than intellectual articulations on them. The book presents a very detailed account of these young Muslims in the Anglophone West on their political beliefs, their knowledge and understanding of sharia law, their interest and participation in local and transnational political activism, their positive and negative feelings about their own communities, and indeed how they define their community.
Historical Mosques in Indonesia and the Malay World: Roots, Transformations, and Developments
by Bagoes WiryomartonoThe book is an interdisciplinary study on the relationship between Muslims and their mosques in Indonesia and Malaysia. It presents selected historic mosques that demonstrate local interpretations and sociocultural assimilation, as well as a geographical syncretism, of Islam in local societies. The book unveils the contestations, synchronizations, assimilations, and integrations of local and foreign elements into the contextual architecture and sociologically institutionalized system that is the mosque: the Islamic place of worship. The author excavates the mosque’s historical origins and traces the iconic elements, features, and designs from their earliest historical settings and contexts. He then identifies, analyzes, and theorizes the outcomes of the interaction between Islam and local traditions through Malaysian and Indonesian case studies. The book proposes that Islam, at its philosophical level, can be culturally acceptable anywhere because it contains universal virtues of humanity for equality, fraternity, and social justice. The book unfolds how a dialectical contestation and acculturation of Dutch colonialism, Middle Eastern elements of culture, and local customs and traditions, might then come into dialogue, peacefully. Finally, the book considers the relationship between Malay and Indonesian architecture within their respective political cultures, shedding light on Islam and its practice within rich multicultural contexts. Relevant to students and researchers in Islamic studies, architecture, and Southeast Asian studies more broadly, the book uncovers the issues, constraints, and opportunities relating to the meaning of mosques for Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide: Approaches, Experiences, and Practices
by Johannes M. Luetz Denise A. Austin Adis DuderijaThis book features reflections by scholars and practitioners from diverse religious traditions. It posits that the global challenges facing humanity today can only be mastered if humans from diverse faith traditions can meaningfully collaborate in support of human rights, reconciliation, sustainability, justice, and peace. Seeking to redress common distortions of religious mis- and dis-information, the book aims to construct interreligious common ground ‘beyond the divide’.Organised into three main sections, the book features sixteen conceptual, empirical, and practice-informed chapters that explore spirituality across faiths and cultures. Chapter 1 delineates the state of the art in relation to interfaith engagement, Chapters 2–8 advance theoretical research, Chapters 9–12 discuss empirical perspectives, and Chapters 13–16 showcase field projects and recount stories and lived experiences.Comprising works by scholars, professionals, and practitioners from around the globe, Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide: Approaches, Experiences, and Practices is an interdisciplinary publication on interreligious thought and engagement:Assembles a curated collection of chapters from numerous countries and diverse religious traditions;Addresses interfaith scholarship and praxis from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives;Comprises interfaith dialogue and collaborative research involving authors of different faiths;Envisions prospects for peace, interreligious harmony in diversity, and a world that may be equitably and enduringly shared.The appraisal of present and future challenges and opportunities, framed within a context of public policy and praxis, makes this interdisciplinary publication a useful tool for teaching, research, and policy development. Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
A Social View of Socotra Island: People, Culture, Heritage
by Nataša Slak Valek Ahmad Abdelmoniem ZedanThis book focuses on Socotra Island, geographically based in Yemen, and aims to explore the island from the social sciences point of view. This book focuses on people indigenous to Socotra, Socotri cultures, heritage and also offers contributions from business, tourism, linguistic, communication, and anthropology. While a lot has been published in natural science about Socotra’s endemic species, biodiversity, and nature in general, social scientific research of the island is very limited. This book addresses therefore addresses this gap and explores various topics of tourism, behaviours, cultures, and language.This book focuses on a clear social science approach of Socotra. The purpose of this book is to publish research about the people, behaviors, heritage, and potential tourism of Socotra. The Socotra Archipelago has long been a land of mystery. It is unknown as a tourism destination for many, however, is a popular destination for adventurers, photographers and travelers who like to travel to remote and undeveloped places. This book explains how Socotra has limited resources of electricity, which is provided by diesel generators, Internet is very slow and limited to certain points on the island. There are no shopping malls or five-star hotels. Roads, schools, and hospitals have been built only recently. This book shoes how these island people do not know the development as we do, which makes it principally interesting to research. Previous interviewers of Socotri people about tourism development in the island have faced many challenges such as language barriers, lack of understanding the meanings and interviewing content, lack of support for the anticipated research results. This book successfully undertakes this challenge as not only in understanding the language, but understanding phenomena like e.g. tourism. Whilst acknowledging the ways in which indigenous island people have never travelled or seen a developed city. Thus, words like ‘developed’, ‘tourism destination’ or ‘washing machine’ may be unfamiliar terms for them. Therefore, new and innovative research methods that are sensitive to Socotra people were implemented in the creation of this book.
Complexifying Religion
by Andrei-Razvan ColteaThis book provides an original and challenging perspective of religions as abstract complex adaptive systems, using an interdisciplinary approach to try to understand what religions are and how they function, two fundamental issues which, despite an intense struggle from several fields, have not yet been resolved. What is the source of religious belief? How do religions work and what are they made of? Why is religion so important for us that it has survived centuries of scientific progress and secularization? Why are people religious even outside religion? The book addresses these questions using an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to untangle the Gordian knot of defining religion. In short, they can be considered entropy-reducing technologies. What differentiates them from other meaning-producing systems is their configuration which employs specific building blocks as tools for mitigating entropy, which are also subsystems and combine in various ways to build a unique configuration: rituals, myths, taboos, supernatural agents, authority, identity, superstitions, moral obligations, afterlife beliefs and the sacred. As a reaction to perturbances or pressure, systems can collapse. Inspired by Nicholas Nassim Taleb, it is, in this book, referred to as fragility—the negative reaction of systems to random events, and four parameters can be used to evaluate it in religious systems: monotonicity (the inability to learn from past mistakes), coupling (linking with other systems: such as political or economic), centralization and stress starvation. Several case studies are provided in order to test the theoretical claims made in this book, based on the author's field research in Romania, Japan, North Korea and Mongolia, and offering details that could be of interest to casual readers, students and researchers of religion.
Research on Islamic Business Concepts: Proceedings of the 13th Global Islamic Marketing Conference, October 2022 (Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics)
by Veland Ramadani Baker Alserhan Léo-Paul Dana Jusuf Zeqiri Hasan Terzi Mehmet BayirliThis proceedings volume presents selected chapters from the 13th Global Islamic Marketing Conference, featuring contributions from renowned experts from around the world. The chapters offer an up-to-date overview of research and insights into Islamic business practices, with a specific focus on Islamic marketing and entrepreneurship strategies. Authored by experts hailing from diverse countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Morocco, the chapters collectively provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. Covering a wide range of topics including understanding Muslim consumer behavior and marketing, halal tourism and healthcare, entrepreneurship and business in Muslim societies, women empowerment and entrepreneurship, Islamic ethics and values in organizations, psychological factors and social issues, technology and future trends, and social and labor issues in Muslim societies, this book encompasses a global perspective on the subject matter. With the expertise and diverse backgrounds of the contributing authors, this book serves as an invaluable resource for researchers interested in delving into the intricacies of Islamic business practices. It also offers valuable insights and practical implications for business consultants seeking a deep understanding of conducting business in Islam-oriented regions. The collective knowledge and experiences shared by these renowned experts contribute to a comprehensive exploration of the topic, making this volume a significant contribution to the field of Islamic marketing and business studies.
Digitalization in Halal Management (Contributions to Environmental Sciences & Innovative Business Technology)
by Ahmad RafikiThe book emphasizes the digitalization process in halal management of products and industries, which relate to the comparisons and cases in many countries viewed from an Islamic perspective. It needs a new view of using information technology to achieve wider coverage of promoting halal products as well as to develop the halal industries. A global perspective that consists of experiences from Muslim majority and minority countries will be presented in this book. This topic is also associated with the concepts on Islamic business and management. Islamic business not only focuses on finance/banking, but beyond that Islam teaches all people to do Shariah-compliant transactions or business. The book gives solutions to halal industry through digitalization. Islam has many solutions to be offered, and thus, it is important to reveal and discuss the Islamic way of managing business, including halal management. The book also discusses the halal products and its certifications. This book is intended for stakeholders of different industries, from environmental to food, in the need of digital tools and IT infrastructure.
Philosophies of Appropriated Religions: Perspectives from Southeast Asia
by Soraj Hongladarom Jeremiah Joven Joaquin Frank J. HoffmanThis book brings together different intercultural philosophical points of view discussing the philosophical impact of what we call the ‘appropriated’ religions of Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is home to most of the world religions. Buddhism is predominantly practiced in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos, and Cambodia; Islam in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei; and Christianity in the Philippines and Timor-Leste. Historical data show, however, that these world religions are imported cultural products, and have been reimagined, assimilated, and appropriated by the culture that embraced them. In this collection, we see that these ‘appropriated’ religions imply a culturally nuanced worldview, which, in turn, impacts how the traditional problems in the philosophy of religion are framed and answered—in particular, questions about the existence and nature of the divine, the problem of evil, and the nature of life after death. Themes explored include: religious belief and digital transition, Theravāda Buddhist philosophy, religious diversity, Buddhism and omniscience, indigenous belief systems, divine apology and unmerited human suffering, dialetheism and the problem of evil, Buddhist philosophy and Spinoza’s views on death and immortality, belief and everyday realities in the Philippines, comparative religious philosophy, gendering the Hindu concept of dharma, Christian devotion and salvation during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines through the writings of Jose Rizal, indigenous Islamic practices in the Philippines, practiced traditions in contemporary Filipino celebrations of Christmas, role of place-aspects in the appropriation of religions in Southeast Asia, and fate and divine omniscience. This book is of interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy of religion, sociology of religion, anthropology of religion, cultural studies, comparative religion, religious studies, and Asian studies.
Minzu as Technology: Ethnic Identity and Social Media in Post 2000s China
by Lei HaoThis book provides a unique ethnographic approach to the understanding of ethnogenesis in the Chinese context, with a particular focus on how it is being reshaped in the post-2000s era. It reinterprets the Chinese concept of ethnicity, or minzu, by investigating its evolution in relation to the proliferation of media technologies. In an era characterized by digital connectivity, the quest for ethnic identity has taken on new dimensions. Ethnic groups, like the Sibe community from Xinjiang, are now extending beyond the state’s traditional interpretations of minzu. Leveraging the power of media technology, they are articulating and expressing their ethnic identities in new and personalised ways. These developments have led to the emergence of what this book terms ‘networked ethnicity,’ a fresh manifestation of ethnic identity formation in the era of social media. The pivotal question this book attempts to answer is: How does an ethnic group in China today understand its identity, and what role does technology and media play in that process? This exploration offers a critical perspective on the complex interplay between digital technology, individual agency, and ethnic identity formation. This study will be of interest to scholars of cultural studies, Chinese society, ethnic studies, and media studies, or anyone keen to understand the changing landscape of ethnic identity in the digital age.
Chinese People’s Time Use and Their Quality of Life: Research Report of Chinese Time Use Survey
by Fenglian Du Wenbin Wang Xiaoyuan DongThis book analyzes how Chinese people use their time, including how busy Chinese seek a healthy work-life balance, how some children win from the outset in terms of education, and how people pursue quality of life outside of or after work. General readers will get a vivid and detailed impression of the way Chinese people spend their time, while researchers will find a wealth of phenomena and data for analysis from both economic and social perspectives. The research presented here was conducted in the context of the Chinese Time Use Survey (CTUS), a nationwide initiative launched by Inner Mongolia University in 2017. The CTUS covers 29 Chinese provinces, and the database contains the time use information of 30,591 people aged 3 years and over from 12,471 households. The survey collects information at three main levels: personal, family and community.
History of the Development of Chinese Chan Thought
by Tianxiang MaThe book aims to describe the history of Chan (Japanese Zen) School thought from the standpoint of social history. Chan, a school of East Asian Buddhism, was influential on all levels of societies in the region because of its intellectual and aesthetic appeal. In China, Chan infiltrated all levels of society, mainly because it engaged with society and formed the mainstream of Buddhism from the tenth or eleventh centuries through to the twentieth century. This book, taking a critical stance, examines the entire history of Chan thought and practice from the viewpoint of a modern Chinese scholar, not a practitioner, but an intellectual historian who places ideological developments in social contexts. The author suggests that core elements of Chan have their origins in Daoist philosophers, especially Zhuangzi, and not in Indian Buddhist concepts. Covering the period from the sixth century into the twentieth century, it deals with Chan interactions with neo-Confucianism, Quanzhen Daoism, and Gongyang new text philology, as well as with literature and scholarship, its fusion with Pure Land Buddhism, and its syncretic tendencies. Chan’s exchanges with emperors from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty, as well as the motives of some loyalists of the Ming Dynasty for joining Chan after the fall of the Ming, are described. The book concludes with an examination of the views of Chan of Hu Shi, D.T. Suzuki, and the scholar-monk Yinshun.
Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body
by Kaori Fushiki Ryoko SakuradaThis book seeks to break new ground, both empirically and conceptually, in examining changing understandings of the physical human body from a variety of anthropological perspectives. In doing so, it interrogates how the body has been and continues to be conceptualised, experienced and interacted with. After an introductory appraisal of recent approaches to understanding the body, the book provides empirically rich accounts from East and Southeast Asia of how cultural, environmental and social norms shape human physicality. The contributions are organised in four broad themes. Part I, ‘Body and Space’, offers two contrasting case studies from Malaysia, both of which examine gender norms associated with marriage and pregnancy, including the taboos associated with these rites of passage. Part II, ‘Imperfect Bodies: Communication and the Body as Media’, analyses two case studies—Deaf people in Japan and masked theatre performance in Bali, Indonesia, to reflect on changing attitudes towards disability, which reflect broader social norms and cultural beliefs about the nature of disability and its place in society. Part III, ‘The Body and Image’, provides a pair of case studies from Singapore, on male fans of the popular manga boys’ love genre and on ways that the Chinese zodiac system is determined from birth and continues to be spiritually embedded in the body of a Chinese individual through ritual practices. Part IV, ‘The Body as Container: Taming the Bodies?’, presents a single case study from Thailand of spirit possession among schoolchildren. Though wide-ranging, all the case studies posit that the body is a site of constant negotiation. The way the body is presented and the way it is seen are shaped by a complex array of social, cultural, political and ideational factors. Anthropology through the Experience of the Physical Body is a valuable interdisciplinary work for advanced students and researchers interested in representations of the body in East and Southeast Asia and for those with wider interests in the field of critical anthropology.
Towards a New Dharma of Peace Building: Conflict Transformations and Alternative Planetary Futures
by Ananta Kumar Giri Saji VargheseThis volume deals with a new Dharma of peacebuilding and conflict transformations, drawing on the world's philosophical, religious, and spiritual traditions and many recent initiatives and experiments with peace. It deals with issues of sustainable peace, Dharma and Ubuntu of peace from African traditions, neurological insights of peacebuilding, traditions of conscientious objection, Satyagraha, possibilities of Gandhian Ahimsa, and moral and ethical limits of conflict and conflict resolution. It also presents the works of peace thinkers and activists such as Spinoza, Abhinavagupta, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Ulrich Beck, and others. It offers new initiatives and experiments in peace in different parts of the world—Palestine-Israel, Colombia, the Middle East, India, and South Africa. This pioneering and handy book is of interest to students, scholars, teachers, and activists working in peace and conflict studies, development studies, cultural studies, and religious studies as well as in different civil society organizations around the world.
Place Experience of the Sacred: Silence and the Pilgrimage Topography of Mount Athos
by Christos KakalisThis book explores the topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the significance of silence and communal ritual in its understanding. Mount Athos, a mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the world’s largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places. Combining interdisciplinary insights from architectural theory, philosophy, theology and anthropology with archival and ethnographic materials, the book brings a fresh contribution to both Athonite studies and scholarship on sacred space. By focusing on the interrelation between silence and communal ritual, it offers an alternative to the traditional art historical, objectifying approaches. It reintroduces the phenomenological understanding of place, investigating also how this is expressed through a number of narratives, such as travel literature, maps and diaries.
Make America Fit Again: CrossFit’s Articulation with Authoritarian Populism
by Shaun E. EdmondsThis book critically examines the CrossFit phenomenon and makes the argument that CrossFit uses the rhetoric and tactics found in modern forms of authoritarian populism to rally adherents around its brand. CrossFit is a private branded fitness organization whose unorthodox methods and adversarial leadership has challenged dominant ideas around health and fitness worldwide. In exploring CrossFit’s articulations with healthism and the obesity epidemic, the risk discourse of the prepper and survivalist movements, and the increasing valorization of the military and military personnel, Shaun E. Edmonds makes legible the ideological underpinnings of the CrossFit practice. After a deeper look at how CrossFit’s variation of authoritarian populism has been used to counter critics and mobilize the community, the book concludes by considering what might be next for CrossFit following former CEO and co-founder Greg Glassman’s controversial departure from the company.
Videolised Society
by Jian Meng Hui ZhaoThis book traces the development of video (especially short video, duan shipin) in China over the past few years, exploring how these videos engaged with China’s rapidly changing society, how they enriched existed theories of society, media and communication, and new theories to be extracted. The book offers a new, critical model for understanding the relationship between video, video theory, video industry and the State. This book sheds light on the overall description and explanation of the current socio-political, economic and cultural environment concerning the development of video (especially short video). It interprets the emergence of the “Social Videolization” through the subjects of media psychology, communication studies and cultural criticism, media industrial studies, sociology and anthropology.
Contemporary Discourse of Halal and Islamic Entrepreneurship: Trends and Future Opportunities
by Lukman Raimi Salisu Monsuru Adekunle Muhammad Salman ShabbirThis book serves as a valuable resource for Islamic entrepreneurship researchers, Halal scholars, Islamic finance professionals, Halal advocates, and Halal business model consultants in the fast-changing global economy. The thematic focus is not only on Islamic and halal entrepreneurship but also on halal production and consumption, ethics and impact investing in Islamic entrepreneurship, Shariah principles guiding business model innovation and utilisation of disruptive technologies (such as crowdfunding for startups, bitcoin, digital ventures, cryptocurrency, blockchain, among others), Islamic entrepreneurship and SDGs, halalisation and sustainability issues, and emergence of Islamic-Fintech in Muslim majority nations and nations with plural economic systems, including the interface of Islamic and halal entrepreneurship with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). At the moment, the working knowledge about Islamic and halal entrepreneurship is at its infancy among Islamic finance professionals, halal consultants, academic researchers, and students nursing the ambition of going into these two fields. Universities, Islamic training academies, and centres are also ill equipped to enrich Islamic and halal curricula with principles and conventional models. One of the proactive ways of breaking financial exclusion, social inequality, and social exclusion caused by apathy and avoidance of Riba, Maysir, and Gharar is by recognising, embracing, and promoting Islamic and halal entrepreneurship among the excluded Muslims and lovers of ethical business models. Overall, this book aims to promote better understanding of Islamic and Halal entrepreneurship in order to assist academics, researchers, practitioners, consultants, and policymakers to improve the growth of Islamic startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by improving social inclusion and financial inclusion and accelerating the attainment of SDG 8 and SDG12.
Legitimacy, the Chinese Communist Party and Confucius
by Wai Kong NgThis book explores the use of Confucianism by the Chinese Communist Party in its assertion of political legitimacy. Confucian thought offers an enduring framework for political legitimacy in East Asian societies, including China. All states strive to acquire legitimacy, and despite once denouncing Confucianism as the remnants of feudal poison, the Party is turning towards Confucianism as part of its legitimation efforts. This suggests that the Party is suffering from an ideological void in terms of legitimacy and legitimation due to the diminishing relevance of Marxism in Chinese societal practices. The book will devise a non-liberal legitimacy framework, drawing on the ideas of Habermas and Bernard Williams, to examine the legitimacy of the Party, and use an analysis of the elite discourse to determine the nature of the Confucian turn, in a sharp polemic that will interest scholars of Chinese politics, of the role of traditional beliefs in Asian modernity, and in China's future.