Arguing against a common sense view of bilingualism as the co-existence of two linguistic systems, this volume develops a critical perspective which approaches bilingualism as a wide variety of sets of sociolinguistic practices connected to the construction of social difference and of social inequality under specific historical conditions.
What does it mean to say Indian movies are melodramatic? How do film audiences engage with socio-political issues? What role has cinema played in the emergence of new economic forms, consumer cultures and digital technologies in a globalizing India? Ravi Vasudevan addresses these questions in a wide-ranging analysis of Indian cinema.
This book examines how German-language authors have intervened in contemporary debates on the obligation to extend hospitality to asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants; the terrorist threat post-9/11; globalisation and neo-liberalism; the opportunities and anxieties of intensified mobility across borders; and whether transnationalism necessarily implies the end of the nation state and the dawn of a new cosmopolitanism. The book proceeds through a series of close readings of key texts of the last twenty years, with an emphasis on the most recent works. Authors include Terézia Mora, Richard Wagner, Olga Grjasnowa, Marlene Streeruwitz, Vladimir Vertlib, Navid Kermani, Felicitas Hoppe, Daniel Kehlmann, Ilija Trojanow, Christian Kracht, and Christa Wolf, representing the diversity of contemporary German-language writing. Through a careful process of juxtaposition and differentiation, the individual chapters demonstrate that writers of both minority and nonminority backgrounds addresstransnationalism in ways that certainly vary but which also often overlap in surprising ways.
This book offers a long overdue, extensive study of one of the most beloved television shows: Friends. Why has this sitcom become the seminal success that it is? And how does it continue to engage viewers around the world a quarter century after its first broadcast? Featuring original interviews with key creative personnel (including co-creator Marta Kauffman and executive producer Kevin S. Bright), the book provides answers by identifying a strategy of intimacy that informs Friends' use of humour, performance, style and set design. The authors provide fascinating analyses of some of the most well-remembered scenes-the one where Ross can't get his leather pants back on, and Ross and Rachel's break-up, to name just a couple-and reflect on how and why A-list guest performances sometimes fell short of the standards set by the ensemble cast. Also considered are the iconic look of Monica's apartment as well as the programme's much discussed politics of representation and the critical backlash it has received in recent years. An exploration of Joey, the infamous spin-off, and several attempts to adapt Friends' successful formula across the globe, round out the discussion, with insights into mistranslated jokes and much more. For students, scholars, creative industry practitioners and fans alike, this is a compelling read that lets us glimpse behind the scenes of what has become a cultural phenomenon and semi-permanent fixture in many of our homes.
This book offers both marketing and sales professionals a rare combined insight into both worlds to continuously capture customer intelligence and create value, by blending detailed research with academic rigor and commercial experience of the authors in both Europe and North America. It has never been easier to produce great marketing content and sales collateral. And yet, 90% of the content that marketing produces is NEVER used by sales. Why not? Because it's not relevant to the audience or the prospect doesn't even know the content exists. Furthermore 58% of deals end up in "no decision" because Sales has not presented value effectively.
Companies are creating lots of noise but failing to resonate with the customers.
So what? The danger, aside from marketing wasting tens of millions of dollars on ineffective content and tools, is that customers will disengage. 94% of prospects say they have completely disengaged with vendors because of irrelevant content.
In order to grow fast, the authors argue, Sales and Marketing teams need to slow down. They need to work together to truly understand their customers' needs, wants, motivations and pain points so that they can offer customized "value". The book sets out how to establish a formal program to continuously capture customer intelligence and insights - the shiny gems of understanding that help prospects to connect the dots - so that value can be consistently articulated in marketing and sales conversations.
By integrating the best ideas and practice from commercial experience and academic research the authors show how to create value across the entire marketing and sales value chain - not only get a new customer, but to continue to create value for future purchases by creating "post-sales" value.
This edited book considers the need for the continued dismantling of conceptual and cultural hegemonies of `East' and `West' in the humanities and social sciences. Cutting across a wide range of literature, film and art from different contexts and ages, this collection seeks out the interpenetrating dynamic between both terms. Highlighting the inherent instability of East and West as oppositional categories, it focuses on the `crossings' between East and West and this nexus as a highly-charged arena of encounter and collision. Drawing from varied literary contexts ranging from Victorian literature to Chinese literature and modern European literature, the book covers a diverse range of subject matter, including material drawn from psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory and studies related to race, religion, diaspora, and gender, and investigates topical social and political issues -including terrorism, nationalism, citizenship, the refugee crisis, xenophobia and otherness. Offering a framework to consider the salient questions of cultural, ideological and geographical change in our societies, this book is a key read for those working within world literary studies.
This volume is the result of the 2012 International Economic Association's series of roundtables on the theme of Industrial Policy. The first, 'New Thinking on Industrial Policy,' was hosted by the World Bank in Washington, D.C, and the second, 'New Thinking on Industrial Policy: Implications for Africa,' was held in Pretoria, South Africa.
Respected film critic Gonzalo Aguilar offers a lucid and sophisticated analysis of Argentine films of the last decade. This is the most complete and up-to-date work in English to examine the 'new Argentine cinema' phenomenon. Aguilar looks at highly relevant films, including those by Lucrecia Martel and Sergio Rejtman.
Remaking Madrid is the first full-length study of Madrid's transformation from the dreary home of the Franco dictatorship into a modern and vibrant city. It argues that this remarkable transformation in the 1980s helped secure Spain's fragile transition to democracy and that the transformation itself was primarily a product of "regionalism"-even though the capital is typically associated with "Spanishness" and with "the nation." The official project to distance Madrid from its dictatorial past included urban renewal and administrative reform; but, above all, it involved greater cultural participation, which led the revival of the capital's public festivals and the development of a modern cultural outpouring known as the movida madrileña. The book also explains the ultimate failure of regionalism in the capital by the end of the 1980s and asks whether or not Madrid's inclusive form of "civic" identity might have served as a model for the country as a whole.
This original and panoramic book proposes that the underlying forces of demography and globalisation will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends - it will raise inflation and interest rates, but lead to a pullback in inequality. "Whatever the future holds", the authors argue, "it will be nothing like the past". Deflationary headwinds over the last three decades have been primarily due to an enormous surge in the world's available labour supply, owing to very favourable demographic trends and the entry of China and Eastern Europe into the world's trading system. This book demonstrates how these demographic trends are on the point of reversing sharply, coinciding with a retreat from globalisation. The result? Ageing can be expected to raise inflation and interest rates, bringing a slew of problems for an over-indebted world economy, but is also anticipated to increase the share of labour, so that inequality falls. Covering many social and politicalfactors, as well as those that are more purely macroeconomic, the authors address topics including ageing, dementia, inequality, populism, retirement and debt finance, among others. This book will be of interest and understandable to anyone with an interest on where the world's economy may be going.
This book presents a comprehensive analysis of Kenya's foreign policy decisions, examining its pivotal role in global affairs and its interplay with regional and international dynamics. Through an insightful exploration of Kenya's national security concerns and diplomatic engagements, the book delves into the intricate nexus between geography, political stability, and foreign policy.Featuring a near-chronological examination, the book is organized thematically, with each chapter analysing Kenya's multifaceted foreign policy landscape. From exploring the genesis of Kenya's foreign policy to unravelling the political intricacies of territorial integrity and regionalism, the book illuminates the nation's historical journey in the global arena. Drawing on empirical research, it presents the complexities of Kenya's involvement in regional conflicts and its substantial contributions to international peacekeeping efforts. Furthermore, it offers a nuanced understanding of Kenya's engagement in global multilateral platforms, shedding light on its contributions to the UN Security Council and other international governing bodies. By critically analysing the socio-economic implications of global policies such as the Washington Consensus and Structural Adjustment Programs, the book details the intricate web of influences shaping Kenya's economic landscape and its intricate relations with other nations. Engaging readers with a deep exploration of Kenya's role in addressing humanitarian crises and its response to global challenges, the book provides a compelling narrative on how a seemingly 'small power' can significantly influence broader global dynamics. By emphasizing the intricate relationship between local challenges and global implications, the book serves as an indispensable guide for scholars, policymakers, and global stakeholders seeking to comprehend the nuanced interplay of geopolitics, diplomacy, and regional security within the broader context of the Global South.
This book looks at culturally significant, English-language texts produced in Singapore in the last 20 years by writers such as Balli Kaur Jaswal, Alfian Sa'at, Claire Tham, Amanda Lee Koe, Ng Yi-Sheng and Kevin Kwan. It provides an analysis sensitive to the writers' socio-political and cultural contexts, and shows how Singapore's Anglophone literature successfully disrupts the government's narrative on transforming the island into a global city. By asking difficult questions, challenging hegemonic perspectives and exploring alternatives, the writers interrogate the country's colonial history, its post-colonial Cold War development, and the normalization of totalizing narratives. Their texts also grapple with key aspects of contemporary Singapore society: its official multiracialism, forms of inequality, distribution of privilege, and gender and sexual politics. By connecting these texts to developments in postcolonial literary criticism, cosmopolitanism and globalization studies, thisbook sheds light on the ideological and cultural forces at work in Singapore society today.
This book assesses how digitalization of public organizations affects their bureaucratic structure and features. Drawing on rich ethnographic data from two highly digitalized government agencies in Denmark, it analyses how digitalization both enhances and distorts fundamental characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy, including division of labour, hierarchy, rules and programmability, and bureaucratic discretion. The book also examines the ways in which digitalization influences demands on employees' and managers' expertise and relationships with other organizational actors, and demonstrates the implications of digitalization for the enactment of public bureaucratic values such as legality, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. In doing so, it provides an analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing public bureaucracies in the digital age. Above all, the book offers a nuanced understanding of how digital transformation reshapes the public bureaucracy, and thereby one of the foundation stones on which our societies stand.
Whether in everyday disagreements, bargaining episodes, or high-stakes disputes, people typically see a spectrum of possible responses to dealing with differences with others, ranging from avoidance and accommodation to competition and aggression. When coming across such circumstances, it is crucial to advocate for oneself -our positions, to achieve personal goals, overcome difficulties, and be determined- but control aggressive impulses without harming the rights and interests of others. This book addresses assertiveness from a human rights perspective, using a mixed methods approach. It explores how assertiveness as a human right promotes human dignity and helps build more just, equitable, peaceful, and inclusive societies. With interdisciplinary contributors working in diverse fields, the collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on assertive rights. The collection examines assertive rights as critical factors for developing assertive behavior and as a virtue for personal development, empowerment, and thriving.
This book assesses to what extent marketisation in Higher Education can be attributed to Neoliberalism. Higher education sectors in many countries have increasingly relied on market mechanisms in their management and functioning, particularly in their provision of education. Many assume that Neoliberalism, with its pursuit of free markets and competition, is the key driver. Neoliberalism continues to be a popular concept to describe the social, political, and economic worlds around us, but there is little consensus on how it should be defined or understood. The book argues that there is a clear scope for the use of Neoliberalism to describe the direction HE is shifting towards, but it is rather inadequate on its own and not applicable in all areas.
This book starts from the very beginning of the cultural exchanges between China and the western regions, to the exchanges in modern times, featuring large time span and interdisciplinarity. In addition to elaborate illustrations including precious pictures and sketch maps, a large amount of archaeological data, as well as both Chinese and foreign literature, are employed in the book to provide the readers with a comprehensive, in-depth and systematic introduction of the cultural exchanges between China and the west regions from neolithic age to present China after Reform and Opening Up. The intended readership includes professionals, college students, graduates specializing in Chinese history, philosophy and culture, as well as those interested in oriental civilizations.
This book reflects on how the pandemic impacted upon qualitative social research, but also how it affected the lives of the members of the Irish diaspora on the European continent. The crisis acted as a pressure cooker for those `living abroad,' transforming distance and migration situations to resemble times gone by, when travel was far more prohibitive and emigration felt more permanent. At the same time, `expat lives' were being thrown headlong into a new future, shaped more profoundly than ever by digital means. This work is a close examination of how Irish migrants in Germany construct their Irishness and, in doing so, maintain their belonging to Ireland across a geographic distance transformed by the pandemic. This work seeks to draw out the underlying patterns and meanings in the day-to-day practices of Irishness by members of Ireland's putative diaspora in Germany by interweaving a multitude of ethnographic vignettes and rich interview material with relevant and interestingtheoretical concepts. Interlocutors see Ireland as a site of personal memory - good, bad and in-between - and of meaning-making practices. Ireland is deeply personal to them; that understood, their practices of belonging to Ireland are nonetheless embroiled in the political goal of making Ireland visible abroad.
This book brings to light a lesser-explored facet of cultural globalization by unearthing Bollywood films circulations in the Middle East. Delving into the intricacies of South-South cinematic circuits, it unveils the networks linking the Bombay film industry with the Arab world. Through a blend of historical analysis and ethnographic insights, the book offers an exploration of how film circulations have evolved amidst geopolitical shifts and technological advancements. By reframing our perspective to view Arab cinema cultures through the lens of the Bombay film industry, it challenges prevailing Orientalist narratives, offering a nuanced and refreshing portrayal of the Arab-speaking region.
This book brings together two separate fields by combining a study of Shakespeare's original stage conditions with an exploration of his plays in performance across the globe. The book contributes new insights into how early-modern stage conditions shaped the writing, production, and reception of Shakespeare's plays, but takes the further step of examining how original stage conditions re-emerge, not only in Globe replicas like the London Globe, but in unexpected and sometimes unconscious reconfigurations in adaptations and productions from around the world: film versions of Othello from Mexico to India that take dancing cues and anxieties about dance from the play and centralize dance; Korean adaptations for the madang (or yard) that reimagine Shakespeare's theatrical spaces and their relationships to audiences; Noh re-imaginings on film and onstage that foreground the theatrical; a teen film remake of Othello that raises questions about how blackness is figured today and on Shakespeare's stage, among others. By studying original stage conditions and their global afterlives, the book illuminates how global productions negotiate historical and cultural differences and thereby, paradoxically, engage with the cultural specificities of the present.
This book provides an exposition on the professional and cultural life of Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914), more popularly known as P. W. Joyce, who lived and worked during the final phase of British rule in Ireland. The focus throughout is very much on how family, locale, and schooling influenced this significant Irish patriot, polymath, and pioneering pedagogue who worked across a range of disciplines, including education, language, history, and music. Moreover, attention is paid to how his achievements were possible only because of the variety of leading roles he played in the development of the Irish National School System between 1845 and 1893. Thus positioned, Joyce was in many ways a significant choreographer of a slow revolution in which education, in both formal and informal settings, was used to educate the Irish people regarding their cultural heritage.
This book offers an exercise in reception theory and investigates the key figures in the reception of Nietzsche's critique of Judeo-Christianity in the course of the twentieth century. It has often been remarked upon - but rarely, if ever, explained - why Nietzsche, the author of the famous parable in The Gay Science in which a madman announces the "death of God" and a self-proclaimed opponent of organised religion, should have been a figure of such profound interest to writers, thinkers and theologians who were of a Christian persuasion. In order better to understand the attractiveness of Nietzsche to practitioners of faith, this book undertakes an analytical study of the reception of Nietzsche by around a dozen writers and thinkers working within the discourse of twentieth-century theology in the European tradition (French, Italian, German, Polish, and Swiss).
This book explores the multifaceted dimensions of the Girmitya diaspora and post-memory. The intersections of dis/re-location and memory have always been a focus of scholarly interest and the volume envisages the roots of migration and culture, life stories, narratives, and personal anecdotes. It further accentuates Girmitiya struggles, politics of displacement, relationships with the homeland and host land, oral traditions, repercussions, and retention of the archival sites. The cross-examination of memories helps in building a framework to study the varied experiences of the Girmitiya community. In this volume, through a blend of historical and scholarly discourse, we embark on a journey to unearth the layers of meaning embedded within the Girmitya experience. The tales of Girmitya migration amplifies marginalized voices and illuminates the enduring resilience. By chronicling the experiences of the indentured migration, we pay homage to the pioneers, recognize the intricacy of their toils, and commemorate the continuing legacy.
This volume unpacks the phenomenon of skipped generation households-where children live with their grandparents and without their parents-as they become an increasingly common family dynamic in Nigeria and globally. The skipped generation household's emergence in sub-Saharan Africa has been driven by factors including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, labour-based migration, and ethno-religious conflicts. By examining the data from a national study on skipped generation households in Nigeria, contributions track benefits, opportunities, and effects associated with growing up in these households. Details including academic performance and career aspirations for grandchildren, as well as social-psychological and physical well-being of both them and their grandparents, are explored.
This book offers a contemporary perspective on trauma and resilience, presenting an overview of surrounding issues, and describing their history and in the context of recent scientific research. This book argues that the skills underlying resilience can be strengthened at any age, and that it is never too late to build resilience or embark on a path of healing and evolution. Resilience is intertwined with the ability to learn, develop relationships with others, motivate oneself in achieving goals, set aspirations and have determination in pursuing those goals. All of these aspects can be fostered through a psychotherapy, reprocessing the traumatic memory within a safe and empathic space.
The book is innovative because it provides an overview of theories that pertain to different fields of psychology: areas pertaining to psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, EMDR and many others are explored in depth while also highlighting the advances that science has made regarding these issues. This book will be a valuable contribution to the knowledge of students, mental health professionals, and it can also be a very interesting manuscript for those who want to broaden their knowledge about trauma and resilience.
