Bøger udgivet af Stanford University Press

Only a decade ago, the eighteenth-century distinction between civil society -- a voluntary community of political actors -- and the state had fallen into disrepute among political thinkers. The author shows how and why, in a wholly unexpected reversal of fortunes, the seemingly antiquated term civil society now has wider currency and greater political importance -- among politicians, academics, journalists, business leaders, and citizens' organizations -- than at any previous point in history.The author clarifies the debate between political scientists over the exact meaning of civil society, identifying three overlapping approaches to the concept, and also discusses the wide range of political uses to which it has been put. He is particularly interested in demonstrating that the concept of civil society has moved outside Western Europe and the United States to become a global phenomenon; he analyzes the rise of the language of civil society in various guises within the Islamic world, the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, China, South Korea, and South Africa. The book argues that the civil society perspective makes it possible to develop bold new concepts of power, property, violence, politics, and democracy, and suggests that the formation of civil society may be the best antidote to the worldwide problems of nationalism.At the same time, the author also explores the fissures within civil society; he asks why civil societies generate patterns of violence that contradict the freedom and solidarity on which they are based, and discusses the possible effects on civil society of the fracturing of "the public sphere" and public opinion in the face of rapid changes ininformation technology. The author, however, is firmly convinced of the promise of civil society, and ends his narrative with a discussion of the prospect that civil society offers countries in which internecine violence has long been the rule.

"This will be important reading for anyone interested in the enormous influence of communication systems on literature and philosophy."--Choice

A reference for activists and government officials who truly wish to represent the future of the planet. Helen Caldicott, The Progressive The quality and prodigious depth of Wittner s scholarship in tracing such a disparate and complex multinational history mark a new and invaluable contribution to our understanding of where the struggle has been and where it might lead. . . . [Wittner] provides the best and most comprehensive account yet to be written of the anti-nuclear movement and its interactions with officialdom. Out of the welter of facts he has crafted a highly readable narrative cum analysis that should long weather the test of time. Social Alternatives"

How do the concepts "border," "exile," and "diaspora" shape individual and group identities across cultures? Taking this question as a point of departure, this wide-ranging volume explores the ways that people create and represent a home away from home. Throughout, the authors emphasize the multiple subjectivities, cultural displacements, and identity politics that have characterized the postcolonial and post-World War II eras. They simultaneously affirm and challenge previous understandings of these three terms, and they investigate their malleability--the extent to which they apply to diverse communities.Once the idea of diaspora is dissociated from the historical experiences of a particular group of people, it becomes a universal designation, applicable to all displaced groups. This understanding of diaspora also allows for the creation of a "nonnormative" intellectual community, one experienced by many contemporary critics and with which they identify. In the postcolonial context, a global "middle voice" emerges that incorporates the critic and his or her identity as the participant-observer of the discourses on identity. As personal narratives transcend the autobiographical, they become indispensable guarantors of a free theoretical field, without a priori boundaries. The diaspora's voice is thus national and cultural, but it lacks the nation or the geographical definition that would constrain its subject.The essays in this volume approach the ideas of border, exile, and diaspora primarily as subjects of literary representations while recognizing the political stakes of diasporic identity. They synthesize the poetic with the political, but they also probe the existential consequences of displacement and cultural dislocation. The essays compel us to examine, within a dialogical complex, antagonistic but concurrent phenomena endowed with a new internal logic. This volume serves as a canvas representing the open-ended, discontinuous, and syncretic nature of the postmodern world. Rather than give definitive answers, the essays provide contingent responses to the myriad questions about culture, identity, and language embedded in modern history.

Marking a complete break with previous scholarship in the field, this book rewrites the history of early Chan (Zen) Buddhism, focusing on the genealogy and doctrine of one of its dominant strains, the so-called Northern school that flourished at the turn of the eighth century.The traditional interpretation of the Northern school was heavily influenced by the polemics of one of its opponents, the monk Shenhiu, who characterized the Northern school's teaching as propounding the belief that enlightenment occurred gradually, was measurable, and could be expressed in conventional language. To all this, Shenhiu and his teaching of "sudden enlightenment" were opposed, and Shenhiu's school and its version of history would later prevail. On the basis of documents found at Dunhuang, this book shows how the traditional view is incorrect, that Shenhiu's imposition of a debate between gradual and sudden conceals the doctrinal continuity between the two schools and the diversity of Chan thought in the period. The author buttresses his conclusions by placing the evolution of early Chan in the intellectual, political, social, and economic context of the mid-Tang.The book is in three parts. The first part treats the biography and thought of the "founder" of the Northern school, Shenxiu, the nature of his followers, and his affinities for Buddhistic scholasticism. The second part studies the way in which the Northern school, after Shenxiu, adapted to new circumstances: changes in imperial policies, the rise of rival schools, and changes in the nature of its followers. The third part focuses on the internecine struggles around the genealogy of Chan as reflected in the Lengqie shizi ji (Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara [School]) by the monk Jingjue. A close reading of this work reveals that it foreshadowed many of the themes and issues that would later come to the forefront in Zen, and contributes significantly to our reassessment of the teachings and practices of "pre-classical" Chan.

"Held's new book on models of democracy is itself a model of its kinda meticulously edited, easily accessible, and clearly signposted critical analysis of theories of democracy from classical antiquity to the present day."Ethics"In this timely and thought-provoking study, Held provides a critical reassessment of major theories of democracy from ancient Greece to the present, along with his own prescription for revitalizing contemporary democratic politics. . . . This volume should be read and pondered by anyone interested in the future of democracy."The Annals"

Drawing upon social history, material culture, and the sciences, this is the first interdisciplinary study of the Russian avant-garde, a brilliant constellation of personalities and ideas that changed the course of Russian culture just before and after the First World War. Though different in creative systems and applications, the artists and writers of the Russian avant-garde shared certain fundamental attitudes toward the purpose of culture, believing, for example, that art had the power to change "life", even as defined by science. The essays discuss the many refractions of that common denominator, treating the avant-garde not as a purely artistic and literary movement, but as a multifarious phenomenon that included cultural experimentation normally considered beyond the confines of the avant-garde. In one way or another, all the contributors demonstrate that the artists and writers of the Russian avant-garde attempted to make the word flesh by restructuring human life, for the avant-garde not only generated new configurations of geometries and dissonant phonemes, but also heralded the transformations of the world by seeking to overcome physical, even biological barriers.

How can we affirm the independence of critical artists and intellectuals when confronted by the new crusaders of Western culture, the neo-conservative champions of morality and good taste, the sponsorship of multinationals and the patronage of the state, and the self-indulgent preoccupations of fashionable theorists who have lost all touch with reality? How can we safeguard the world of free exchange which is and must remain the world of artists, writers and scholars? These are some of the questions discussed by the leading social thinker Pierre Bourdieu and the artist Hans Haacke in this remarkable new book. Their frank and open dialogue on contemporary art and culture ranges widely, from censorship and obscenity to the social conditions of artistic creativity. Among the examples they discuss are the controversies surrounding the exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, the debates concerning multiculturalism and ethnic diversity, and the uses of art as a means of contesting and disrupting symbolic domination. They also explore the central themes of Hans Haacke's work, which is used to illustrate the book.

This text is a systematic, comparative, multidisciplinary study of immigration policy and policy outcomes in nine industrialized democracies: the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Japan. It has two central theses. The first, the convergence hypothesis, is that there is a growing similarity in immigration policy, results, and public reaction within these nine countries. The second thesis, the gap hypothesis, argues that the gap between the goals of immigration policy and its outcomes is wide and growing wider. Beyond testing these hypotheses against new evidence, the book seeks to explain the declining effectiveness of immigration control measures in todays labour-importing democracies. In each of the country profiles, the author explains why certain measures were chosen, and why they usually failed to achieve their stated objectives.

"An enormously refreshing contribution that blends careful, nuanced analysis with a deserved tribute. Although Brysk connects the disparate strands of the human rights literature, her study is squarely situated within the larger framework of social movements."--Political Science Quarterly"A well-documented and vivid presentation of the emergence, development, and eventual decline of the human rights movement in Argentina."--The Review of Politics

What makes a tale worth telling? When is a detail significant and when extraneous? And how much irrelevant detail can a reader take in stride? This book addresses tellability by looking at texts that raise the question themselves, works by Chekhov, Zoshchenko, and Gogol.

A comprehensive, wide-ranging introduction to the work of Anthony Giddens, arguably the preeminent contemporary social theorist of the English-speaking world, it is drawn from more than a dozen of his books and reflects Giddens's extraordinary range, his inventiveness, and his ability to illuminate the obscure.

This is a book about the novel of manners or mondanité as a form. It examines how the customs, mores, and rules of personal intercourse allow novelists to write about precisely those aspects of human experience that are quite unmannerly. Readings of Laclos's Dangerous Liasons, Goethe's Elective Affinities, and Henry James's the Golden Bowl show how each text addresses the manners organizing society in such a way as to engage the issues that most threaten the novel of manners itself. Because manners are ostensibly conservative, these works manifest a productive tension between their conventions of representation and overt ideological concerns on the one hand and their hidden agendas on the other. Winnett not only shows how each novelist uses a particular set of formal conventions to articulate a theme he would not have been able to treat directly, but also what it means to choose manners to represent concerns that manners would seem to proscribe.