Ìs a plural, polyethnic, democratic society possible? Starting with Ernest Gellner's observation that "culturally plural societies worked well in the past", but "genuine cultural pluralism ceases to be viable under current conditions", this study explores pluralism in three sett…
The "public sphere" is widely debated in contemporary literary and cultural studies circles in the United States. The topic's significance underscores the pressing problem of the location of these contemporary debates: Is the "public sphere" a single authoritative and universal …
Explores how the aesthetic and cultural movement 'steampunk, ' [an aesthetic style grounded in the Victorian era, in clothing and accoutrements modeled on a heightened and hyper-extended age of steam], persuades audiences and wins new acolytes"--Amazon.com
Today the barriers between high and low culture have crumbled, but, as Terry Eagleton's book asks: does this mean our obsession with "culture" has overtaken everything else? Can we still be politically engaged in today's freewheeling, postmodern era? How is it possible to justif…
How is social life lived today? What social relations and responsibilities do we recognize? Is there any sense in which contemporary social life can be described as 'ethical'? In this exciting book Maffesoli argues that the conventional approaches to understanding society and so…
"Th̀is is a book that will attract a great deal of attention among anthropologists and social scientists in general. It is a great advance on earlier critiques of Writing Culture (1986) that have emerged at intervals, a large number of them cited by the contributors. Its strength…
Since 9/11, the American government has presumed to speak and act in the name of 'civilization'. But is that how the rest of the world sees it? And if not, why not? Stephen Mennell leads up to such contemporary questions through a careful study of the whole span of American deve…
Contributes to scholarship on Edward Said by providing a comprehensive account of his theory of exile Edward Said was an exiled individual - the `out of place' Palestinian in the USA. He saw the consequences of the 1948 dismantling of Palestine and the establishment of Israel th…
