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5 books match the query 'Contestation'

cover of Culture and Contestation in the New Century

Culture and Contestation in the New Century

Edited by Marc James Léger

Intellect Books, 2011

A series of essays by internationally known artists, scholars, and critics in the growing field of cultural theory, Culture and Contestation in the New Century examines the conditions of cultural production in the first decade of the twenty-first century. With an emphasis on how current neoliberal policies have affected institutions of cultural production and dissemination, it emphasizes the ensuing changes to critical theory. The contributors here are among the most respected scholars in art, art criticism, and cultural studies, and this powerful analysis poses important questions about cultural democracy and social change.

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cover of In the Land of the Patriarchs: Design and Contestation in West Bank Settlements

In the Land of the Patriarchs

Design and Contestation in West Bank Settlements

Noam Shoked

University of Texas Press, 2023

2024 On The Brinck Book Award and Lecture Series, University of New Mexico
2024 PROSE Award, Architecture–Urban Planning, Association of American Publishers

An on-the-ground account of the design and evolution of West Bank settlements, showing how one of the world’s most contested landscapes was produced by unexpected conflicts and collaborations among widely divergent actors.

Since capturing the West Bank in 1967, Israel has overseen the construction of scores of settlements across the territory’s rocky hilltops. The settlements are part of a fierce political conflict. But they are not just hotly contested political ventures. They are also something more everyday: residential architectural projects.

In the Land of the Patriarchs is an on-the-ground account of the design and evolution of West Bank settlements. Noam Shoked shows how settlements have been shaped not only by the decisions of military generals, high-profile politicians, and prominent architects but also by a wide range of actors, including real estate developers, environmental consultants, amateur archeologists, and Israelis who feel unserved by the country’s housing system. The patterns of design and construction they have inspired reflect competing worldviews and aesthetic visions, as well as everyday practices not typically associated with the politics of the Israeli occupation. Revealing the pragmatic choices and contingent circumstances that drive what appears to be a deliberately ideological landscape, Shoked demonstrates how unpredictable the transformation of political passion into brick and mortar can be.

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cover of Learning One’s Native Tongue: Citizenship, Contestation, and Conflict in America

Learning One’s Native Tongue

Citizenship, Contestation, and Conflict in America

Tracy B. Strong

University of Chicago Press, 2019

Citizenship is much more than the right to vote. It is a collection of political capacities constantly up for debate. From Socrates to contemporary American politics, the question of what it means to be an authentic citizen is an inherently political one.
           
With Learning One’s Native Tongue, Tracy B. Strong explores the development of the concept of American citizenship and what it means to belong to this country,
starting with the Puritans in the seventeenth century and continuing to the present day. He examines the conflicts over the meaning of citizenship in the writings and speeches of prominent thinkers and leaders ranging from John Winthrop and Roger Williams to Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Franklin Roosevelt, among many others who have participated in these important cultural and political debates. The criteria that define what being a citizen entails change over time and in response to historical developments, and they are thus also often the source of controversy and conflict, as with voting rights for women and African Americans. Strong looks closely at these conflicts and the ensuing changes in the conception of citizenship, paying attention to what difference each change makes and what each particular conception entails socially and politically.
 
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cover of Resisting Europe: Practices of Contestation in the Mediterranean Middle East

Resisting Europe

Practices of Contestation in the Mediterranean Middle East

Edited by Raffaella A. Del Sarto and Simone Tholens

University of Michigan Press, 2020

Resisting Europe conceptualizes the foreign policies of Europe—defined as the European Union and its member states—toward the states in its immediate southern “neighborhood” as semi-imperial attempts to turn these states into Europe’s southern buffer zone, or borderlands. In these hybrid spaces, different types of rules and practices coexist and overlap, and negotiations over meaning and implementation take place. This book examines the diverse modalities by which states in the Mediterranean Middle East and North Africa (MENA) reject, resist, challenge, modify, or entirely change European policies and preferences and provides rich empirical evidence of these contestation practices in the fields of migration and border control, banking and finance, democracy promotion and telecommunications. It addresses the complex question of when and how MENA states capitalize on their leverage and interdependence in their relationships with Europe and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of Europe-Middle East relations, while engaging with broader debates on power and interdependence, order and contestation in international relations. While a contribution on the practices of resistance and contestation of MENA states vis-à-vis European policies and preferences in this geopolitically significant region was overdue, this volume leads the way for subsequent studies that seek to overcome the constraints of exceptionalism so characteristic of research of the Middle East, Europe/the European Union, and certainly of their relationship.
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cover of World Making with Malay-Indonesian Manuscripts: Circulation, Contestation and Connection

World Making with Malay-Indonesian Manuscripts

Circulation, Contestation and Connection

Edited by Maznah Mohamad and Sher Banu Khan

National University of Singapore Press, 2026

An innovative account of Malay-Indonesian manuscripts as dynamic agents of knowledge and cultural reinvention in the region. 

What new framings emerge when we revisit the vibrant world of Malay-Indonesian manuscripts, looking beyond the boundaries imposed by colonial and nationalist scholarship? This volume revitalizes manuscript studies by using texts in entirely fresh ways, situating them as dynamic instruments of knowledge and cultural transformation. Through contextual readings, it uncovers multiple historical and cultural narratives within and between manuscripts, challenging established understandings of power, identity, and authorship. Chapters explore themes ranging from the origins of kingdoms and intellectual traditions to the reinvention of contemporary lives through politicized readings of older texts. 

By foregrounding the diversity and versatility of Malay-Indonesian textual traditions, this book recenters manuscripts as vital agents in shaping Southeast Asian histories, decenters fixed notions of a singular “Malay” worldview, and reveals the fluidity of cultural memory across time and place.
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