front cover of Demilitarization in the Contemporary World
Demilitarization in the Contemporary World
Edited by Peter N. Stearns
University of Illinois Press, 2013
Contemporary world history has highlighted militarization in many ways, from the global Cold War and numerous regional conflicts to the general assumption that nationhood implies a significant and growing military. Yet the twentieth century also offers notable examples of large-scale demilitarization, both imposed and voluntary. Demilitarization in the Contemporary World fills a key gap in current historical understanding by examining demilitarization programs in Germany, Japan, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

In nine insightful chapters, this volume's contributors outline each nation's demilitarization choices and how they were made. They investigate factors such as military defeat, border security risks, economic pressures, and the development of strong peace cultures among citizenry. Also at center stage is the influence of the United States, which fills a paradoxical role as both an enabler of demilitarization and a leader in steadily accelerating militarization.

Bookended by Peter N. Stearns' thought-provoking historical introduction and forward-looking conclusion, the chapters in this volume explore what true demilitarization means and how it impacts a society at all levels, military and civilian, political and private. The examples chosen reveal that successful demilitarization must go beyond mere troop demobilization or arms reduction to generate significant political and even psychological shifts in the culture at large. Exemplifying the political difficulties of demilitarization in both its failures and successes, Demilitarization in the Contemporary World provides a possible roadmap for future policies and practices.

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front cover of Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World
Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World
From Narratology to Reception
Louise Pratt and C. Michael Sampson, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 2018
Contemporary classicists often find themselves advocating for the value and relevance of Greco-Roman literature and culture, whether in the classroom, or social media, or newsprint and magazines. In this collection, twelve top scholars apply major critical approaches from other academic fields to open new channels for dialogue between ancient texts and the contemporary world.

This volume considers perennial favorites of classical literature—the Iliad and Odyssey, Greek tragedy, Roman comedy, the Argonautica, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses—and their influence on popular entertainment from Shakespeare’s plays to Hollywood’s toga films. It also engages with unusual and intriguing texts across the centuries, including a curious group of epigrams by Artemidorus found on the island sanctuary of Thera, mysterious fragments of two Aeschylean tragedies, and modern-day North African novels. These essays engage an array of theoretical approaches from other fields—narratology, cognitive literary theory, feminist theory, New Historicist approaches to gender and sexuality, and politeness theory—without forsaking more traditional philological methods. A new look at hospitality in the Argonautica shows its roots in the changed historical circumstances of the Hellenistic world. The doubleness of Helen and her phantom in Euripides’ Helen is even more complex than previously noted. Particularly illuminating is the recurrent application of reception studies, yielding new takes on the ancient reception of Homer by Apollonius and of Aeschylus by Macrobius, the reception of Plautus by Shakespeare, and more contemporary examples from the worlds of cinema and literature.

Students and scholars of classics will find much in these new interpretations and approaches to familiar texts that will expand their intellectual horizons. Specialists in other fields, particularly English, comparative literature, film studies, and gender and sexuality studies, will also find these essays directly relevant to their work.
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front cover of Exotic No More, Second Edition
Exotic No More, Second Edition
Anthropology for the Contemporary World
Edited by Jeremy MacClancy
University of Chicago Press, 2019
In this new edition of the anthropological classic Exotic No More, some of today’s most respected anthropologists demonstrate the tremendous contributions that anthropological theory and ethnographic methods can make to the study of contemporary society. With chapters covering a wide variety of subjects—the economy, religion, the sciences, gender and sexuality, human rights, music and art, tourism, migration, and the internet—this volume shows how anthropologists grapple with a world that is in constant and accelerating transformation. Each contributor uses examples from their adventurous fieldwork to challenge us to rethink some of our most firmly held notions. This fully updated edition reflects the best that anthropology has to offer in the twenty-first century. The result is both an invaluable introduction to the field for students and a landmark achievement that will set the agenda for critical approaches to the study of contemporary life.

Contributors:Ruben Andersson, Philippe Bourgois, Catherine Buerger, James G. Carrier, Marcus Colchester, James Fairhead, Kim Fortun, Mike Fortun, Katy Gardner, Faye Ginsburg, Roberto J. González, Tom Griffiths, Chris Hann, Susan Harding, Faye V. Harrison, Laurie Kain Hart, Richard Jenkins, George Karandinos, Christopher M. Kelty, Melissa Leach, Margaret Lock, Jeremy MacClancy, Sally Engle Merry, Fernando Montero, Matt Sakakeeny, Anthony Alan Shelton, Christopher B. Steiner, Richard Ashby Wilson
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front cover of Global Dimensions
Global Dimensions
Space, Place and the Contemporary World
John Rennie Short
Reaktion Books, 2001
Globalization is one of today's most powerful and pervasive ideas – for some a welcome dream, for others a nightmare. The term is used in the popular press as a sort of shorthand for the notion that all parts of the world are becoming more alike. It is also used as a marketing concept to sell goods, commodities and services. "Going global" has become the mantra for a whole range of companies, business gurus and institutions.

John Rennie Short disagrees with this interpretation, arguing that the world today actually thrives on local differences and that a global polity tends to reinforce – not repress – the power of individual nation-states. He insists that globalization is not so much replacing difference with sameness as providing opportunities for new interactions between spaces and locations, new connections between the global and the local, new social landscapes and more diversity rather than less.
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front cover of Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World
Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World
Navigating Symbolism, Meaning, and Significance
Liam M. Brady
University Press of Colorado, 2016
Rock art has long been considered an archaeological artifact reflecting activities from the past, yet it is also a phenomenon with present-day meaning and relevance to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World challenges traditional ways of thinking about this highly recognizable form of visual heritage and provides insight into its contemporary significance.
 
One of the most visually striking forms of material culture embedded in landscapes, rock art is ascribed different meanings by diverse groups of people including indigenous peoples, governments, tourism offices, and the general public, all of whom relate to images and sites in unique ways. In this volume, leading scholars from around the globe shift the discourse from a primarily archaeological basis to one that examines the myriad ways that symbolism, meaning, and significance in rock art are being renegotiated in various geographical and cultural settings, from Australia to the British Isles. They also consider how people manage the complex meanings, emotions, and cultural and political practices tied to rock art sites and how these factors impact processes relating to identity construction and reaffirmation today.
 
Richly illustrated and geographically diverse, Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World connects archaeology, anthropology, and heritage studies. The book will appeal to students and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, heritage, heritage management, identity studies, art history, indigenous studies, and visual theory, as well as professionals and amateurs who have vested or avocational interests in rock art.
 
 
Contributors: Agustín Acevedo, Manuel Bea, Jutinach Bowonsachoti, Gemma Boyle, John J. Bradley, Noelene Cole, Inés Domingo, Kurt E. Dongoske, Davida Eisenberg-Degen, Dánae Fiore, Ursula K. Frederick, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Catherine Namono, George H. Nash, John Norder, Marianna Ocampo, Joshua Schmidt, Duangpond Singhaseni, Benjamin W. Smith, Atthasit Sukkham, Noel Hidalgo Tan, Watinee Tanompolkrang, Luke Taylor, Dagmara Zawadzka
 
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front cover of Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World
Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World
John C. Torpey
Temple University Press, 2016

Today’s warfare has moved away from being an event between massed national populations and toward small numbers of combatants using high-tech weaponry. The editors of and contributors to the timely collection Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World show that this shift reflects changes in the technological, strategic, ideological, and ethical realms.

The essays in this volume discuss:

·the waning connection between citizenship and soldiering; 

·the shift toward more reconstructive than destructive activities by militaries; 

·the ethics of irregular or asymmetrical warfare; 

·the role of novel techniques of identification in military settings; 

·the stress on precision associated with targeted killings and kidnappings; 

·the uses of the social sciences in contemporary warfare. 

In his concluding remarks, David Jacobson explores the extent to which the contemporary transformation of warfare is a product of a shift in the character of the combatants themselves. 

Contributors include: Ariel Colonomos, Roberto J. González, Travis R. Hall, Saskia Hooiveld, Rob Johnson, Colonel C. Anthony Pfaff, Ian Roxborough, and the editors

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