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Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping
by Kseniya OksamytnaHow do international organizations change? Many organizations expand into new areas or abandon programmes of work. Advocacy and Change in International Organizations argues that they do so not only at the collective direction of member states. Advocacy is a crucial but overlooked source of change in international organizations. Different actors can advocate for change: national diplomats, international bureaucrats, external experts, or civil society activists. They can use one of three advocacy strategies: social pressure, persuasion, and 'authority talk'. The success of each strategy depends on the presence of favourable conditions related to characteristics of advocates, targets, issues, and context. Institutionalization of new issues in international organizations as a multi-stage process, often accompanied by contestation. This book demonstrates how the advocacy-focused framework explains the origins of three workstreams of contemporary UN peacekeeping operations: communication, protection, and reconstruction. The issue of strategic communications was promoted by UN officials through the strategy of persuasion. Protection of civilians emerged due to a partially successful social influence campaign by a coalition of elected Security Council members and a subsequent (and successful) persuasion efforts by Canada. Quick impact projects entered peacekeepers' practice as the result of 'authority talk' by an expert panel. The three issues illustrate the diversity of pathways to change in international organizations, representing the top-down, bottom-up, and outside-in pathways. Moreover, they have achieved different degrees of institutionalization in UN's policies, structures, and frameworks: protection of civilians is the most institutionalized, as evidenced by measures to hold peacekeepers accountable for non-implementation, while quick impact projects are the least institutionalized.
Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation: Theory and Practice
by Annette Gardner Claire BrindisThis is the first book-length treatment of the concepts, designs, methods, and tools needed to conduct effective advocacy and policy change evaluations. By integrating insights from different disciplines, Part I provides a conceptual foundation for navigating advocacy tactics within today's turbulent policy landscape. Part II offers recommendations for developing appropriate evaluation designs and working with unique advocacy and policy change–oriented instruments. Part III turns toward opportunities and challenges in this growing field. In addition to describing actual designs and measures, the chapters includes suggestions for addressing the specific challenges of working in a policy setting, such as a long time horizon for achieving meaningful change. To illuminate and advance this area of evaluation practice, the authors draw on over 30 years of evaluation experience; collective wisdom based on a new, large-scale survey of evaluators in the field; and in-depth case studies on diverse issues—from the environment, to public health, to human rights. Ideal for evaluators, change makers, and funders, this book is the definitive guide to advocacy and policy change evaluation.
Advocacy Coalitions and Democratizing Media Reforms in Latin America: Whose Voice Gets on the Air? (Contributions to Political Science)
by Christof MauersbergerThis book examines democratizing media reforms in Latin America. The author explains why some countries have recently passed such reforms in the broadcasting sector, while others have not. By offering a civil society perspective, the author moves beyond conventional accounts that perceive media reforms primarily as a form of government repression to punish oppositional media. Instead, he highlights the pioneering role of civil society coalitions, which have managed to revitalize the debate on communication rights and translated them into specific regulatory outcomes such as the promotion of community radio stations. The book provides an in-depth, comparative analysis of media reform debates in Argentina and Brazil (analyzing Chile and Uruguay as complementary cases), supported by original qualitative research. As such, it advances our understanding of how shifting power relations and social forces are affecting policymaking in Latin America and beyond.
Advocacy Group Effects in Global Governance: Populations, Strategies, and Political Opportunity Structures
Global governance is no longer a matter of state cooperation or bureaucratic politics. Since the end of the cold war, advocacy groups have proliferated and enjoyed increasing access to global governance institutions such as the European Union, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations climate conferences. This book seeks to push theories of interest groups and international non-governmental organizations forward. It argues that the advocacy group effects on global governance institutions are best understood by examining how groups use and shape domestic and global political opportunity structures. Chapters examine how, when, and why domestic and global political opportunity structures shape advocacy group effects in global governance, across global institutions, levels of government, advocacy organizations, issue areas, and over time. As special interests are becoming increasingly involved in global governance, we need to better understand how advocacy organizations may impact global public goods provision.
Advocacy Leadership: Toward a Post-Reform Agenda in Education (Critical Social Thought)
by Gary L. AndersonIn this timely and important new book, Gary Anderson provides a devastating critique of why a managerial role for educational leaders is counterproductive, especially for improving opportunities for low-income students and students of color, and instead proposes ways of re-theorizing educational leadership to emphasize its advocacy role. Advocacy Leadership lays out a post-reform agenda that moves beyond the neo-liberal, competition framework to define a new accountability, a new pedagogy, and a new leadership role definition. Drawing on personal narrative, discourse analysis, and interdisciplinary scholarship, Anderson delivers a compelling argument for the need to move away from current inauthentic and inequitable approaches to school reform in order to jump-start a conversation about an alternative vision of education today.
Advocacy Leadership: Toward a Post-Reform Agenda in Education (Critical Social Thought)
by Gary L. AndersonIn this timely and important new book, Gary Anderson provides a devastating critique of why a managerial role for educational leaders is counterproductive, especially for improving opportunities for low-income students and students of color, and instead proposes ways of re-theorizing educational leadership to emphasize its advocacy role. Advocacy Leadership lays out a post-reform agenda that moves beyond the neo-liberal, competition framework to define a new accountability, a new pedagogy, and a new leadership role definition. Drawing on personal narrative, discourse analysis, and interdisciplinary scholarship, Anderson delivers a compelling argument for the need to move away from current inauthentic and inequitable approaches to school reform in order to jump-start a conversation about an alternative vision of education today.
Advocacy Networks and the Responsibility to Protect: The Politics of Norm Circulation (Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect)
by Sarka KolmasovaThis book contributes to existing debates on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) by demonstrating new advocacy strategies and the greater interconnectedness of various R2P proponents. In 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a new resolution on R2P, which reaffirmed its commitment from the 2005 World Summit Outcome and put R2P on the annual agenda. For many R2P proponents, this was another manifestation of worldwide R2P relevance and of growing support among UN members to protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Yet the existing crises in Myanmar, Venezuela, Belarus, Syria and many others revealed the widening gap between the discourse and practice. This book aims to find out what keeps the concept alive despite its indisputable pitfalls. In contrast to existing studies that treat the R2P endorsement or contestation as intertwined processes of norm evolution, it argues that the status of R2P has been accomplished by the conscious politics of its advocates operating in complex global networks. As such, the book puts emphasis on the agency of R2P champions and examines who keeps the idea resonating and how they manage to preserve its worldwide relevance. Rather than proposing a new model of advocacy, the book aims to pinpoint the politics of R2P's circulation, the importance of individual R2P champions and their interconnectedness through innovative forms of cooperation within complex networks. This book will be of much interest to students of the R2P, diplomacy, human rights, foreign policy and International Relations.
Advocacy Networks and the Responsibility to Protect: The Politics of Norm Circulation (Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect)
by Sarka KolmasovaThis book contributes to existing debates on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) by demonstrating new advocacy strategies and the greater interconnectedness of various R2P proponents. In 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a new resolution on R2P, which reaffirmed its commitment from the 2005 World Summit Outcome and put R2P on the annual agenda. For many R2P proponents, this was another manifestation of worldwide R2P relevance and of growing support among UN members to protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Yet the existing crises in Myanmar, Venezuela, Belarus, Syria and many others revealed the widening gap between the discourse and practice. This book aims to find out what keeps the concept alive despite its indisputable pitfalls. In contrast to existing studies that treat the R2P endorsement or contestation as intertwined processes of norm evolution, it argues that the status of R2P has been accomplished by the conscious politics of its advocates operating in complex global networks. As such, the book puts emphasis on the agency of R2P champions and examines who keeps the idea resonating and how they manage to preserve its worldwide relevance. Rather than proposing a new model of advocacy, the book aims to pinpoint the politics of R2P's circulation, the importance of individual R2P champions and their interconnectedness through innovative forms of cooperation within complex networks. This book will be of much interest to students of the R2P, diplomacy, human rights, foreign policy and International Relations.
Advocacy NGOs and the Neoliberal Pacification of the Demands of the Street
by Juan Francisco Palma CarvajalThis book critically explores the role of two advocacy NGOs actively involved in processes of education policymaking during the recent education reforms carried out in Chile, the country known as the first laboratory of neoliberalism around the world. Based on Foucault’s theoretical work on governmentality the book argues that neoliberalism as a form of governmentality has permeated in Chilean policymaking, generating new forms of domination through freedom by situating NGOs as active and responsible subjects of government. In this way, this volume contests the supposed benefits of NGOs as a force to enhance democracy and foment social participation, arguing instead, that NGOs image as representatives of civil society can be used to pacify social movements demands for radical change and build a political consensus that serves to legitimate government interests in policymaking.
The advocacy trap: Transnational activism and state power in China (Alternative Sinology Mup Ser.)
by Stephen NoakesThis book asks what happens to transnational civil society actors as a result of their engagement with China, recognising its status and influence as a rising world power. Taking an interactive and processed-based approach, it aims to explain the multiple, divergent pathways or functional forms of advocacy campaigns in China.
The advocacy trap: Transnational activism and state power in China (Alternative Sinology Ser.)
by Stephen NoakesThis book asks what happens to transnational civil society actors as a result of their engagement with China, recognising its status and influence as a rising world power. Taking an interactive and processed-based approach, it aims to explain the multiple, divergent pathways or functional forms of advocacy campaigns in China.
The Advocate's Daughter
by Alex Finlay'SMART, SOPHISTICATED, SUSPENSEFUL, AND WRITTEN WITH REAL INSIDER AUTHENTICITY. A WINNER' LEE CHILD It's not who you know, it's what you know about them . . . Among Washington D.C. power players, everyone has something to hide, including Sean Serrat, a Supreme Court lawyer. Sean transformed his misspent youth into a model adulthood, and now has one of the most respected legal careers in the country. But just as he learns he's on the short list to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, his daughter, Abby, a talented and dedicated law student, goes missing.When Abby's lifeless body is discovered shoved into a shelf at the Supreme Court Library, Sean is wracked with grief. Does her murder have anything to do with the secret he's been keeping for years? He follows the footsteps of his daughter's last days and stumbles over secrets within his own family – as well as the lies of some of the most powerful people in the country. People who will stop at nothing to prevent Sean from exposing the truth . . .Praise for The Advocate's Daughter: 'Keeps twisting and turning right up until its shock of an ending. Long-buried secrets and shadowy agendas murderously collide – smack in the middle of a heated Supreme Court nomination clash [...] Read and marvel' GREGG HURWITZ'The tension starts on the very first page, and keeps ratcheting up. Once it grabs you it won't let go' JOSEPH FINDER'A brilliant thriller that's smart, well-written, and heart-stopping' LINDA FAIRSTEIN'A taut and twisting thriller... It crackles with authenticity and moves with an irresistible momentum' LISA UNGER'A smart, suspenseful thriller filled with insider knowledge of the Supreme Court, D.C. politics, and collisions between the two. It's also an absorbing story about families and the sacrifices we make for the people we love' ALAFAIR BURKE'Fast paced, sharply plotted... A blast!' ROBERT DUGONI'Engaging and riveting... This no-holds-barred potboiler shines a light on Washington's halls of power only to reveal the darkness lurking within them' PROVIDENCE JOURNAL'The 'best of the best' when it comes to suspense' SUSPENSE MAGAZINE'A taut, twisting thriller' HUFFINGTON POST'This fast-paced thriller will appeal to fans of Brad Meltzer, Joseph Finder, and Scott Turow' BOOKLIST'Rich and fine in plot background with a flowing narrative style – this is fiction rooted in reality... Highly recommended' NEW MYSTERY READER MAGAZINE'Judicial fiction at its finest' FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS.COM'A riveting legal thriller that will keep you turning pages until the breathtaking end' ABOVE THE LAW'Tautly written and expertly put together, if there is one crime thriller you want to add to your collection, then let this be it' CRIMINAL ELEMENTWhat Amazon reviewers are saying: 'Nobody does it better [...] than Franze. He's perfectly suited to tell this story, himself a starred Supreme Court advocate. And he tells it so well, smoothly slipping in and blending day-to-day Supreme Court realisms with a highly suspenseful tale' ?????'Best leisure read of my life. Real. Intoxicating. Impactful. Superior. Franze's latest offering is fueled by uncommonly salacious access to many elements of the world's highest and most exclusive secret society' ?????'A tremendously enjoyable read. Finished in just a couple days – actually a couple very late nights. If you enjoy fast paced thrillers, then you will not be disappointed' ?????'Great characters, tight narrative, and interesting insider facts about the Supreme Court. And non-stop action. The whole thing is really clever. Plus, a great twist at the end that I did not see coming' ?????
Advocating Transitional Justice in Africa: The Role of Civil Society (Springer Series in Transitional Justice)
by Jasmina Brankovic Hugo van der MerweThis edited volume examines the role of local civil society in shaping understandings and processes of transitional justice in Africa – a nursery of transitional justice ideas for well over two decades. It brings together practitioners and scholars with intimate knowledge of these processes to evaluate the agendas and strategies of local civil society, and offers an opportunity to reflect on ‘lessons learnt’ along the way. The contributors focus on the evolution and effectiveness of transitional justice interventions, providing a glimpse into the motivations and inner workings of major civil society actors. The book presents an African perspective on transitional justice through a compilation of country-specific and thematic analyses of agenda setting and lobbying efforts. It offers insights into state–civil society relations on the continent, which shape these agendas. The chapters present case studies from Southern, Central, East, West and North Africa, and a range of moments and types of transition. In addition to historical perspective, the chapters provide fresh and up-to- date analyses of ongoing transitional justice efforts that are key to defining the future of how the field is understood globally, in theory and in practiceEndorsements:"This great volume of written work – Advocating Transitional Justice in Africa: The Role of Civil Society – does what virtually no other labor of the intellect has done heretofore. Authored by movement activists and thinkers in the fields of human rights and transitional justice, the volume wrestles with the complex place and roles of transitional justice in the project of societal reconstruction in Africa. … This volume will serve as a timely and thought-provoking guide for activists, thinkers, and policy makers – as well as students of transitional justice – interested in the tension between the universal and the particular in the arduous struggle for liberation. Often, civil society actors in Africa have been accused of consuming the ideas of others, but not producing enough, if any, of their own. This volume makes clear the spuriousness of this claim and firmly plants an African flag in the field of ideas." Makau Mutua
Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next
by John Kasarda Greg LindsayFrom Dubai to Amsterdam, Memphis to South Korea, a new phenomenon is reshaping the way we live and transforming the way we do business: the aerotropolis.A combination of giant airport, planned city, shipping facility and business hub, the aerotropolis will be at the heart of the next phase of globalization. Drawing on a decade's worth of cutting-edge research, John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay offer a visionary look at how the metropolis of the future will bring us together - and how, in our globalized, 'flat' world, connecting people and goods is still as important as digital communication. Airport cities will change the face of our physical world and the nature of global enterprise. Aerotropolis shows us how to make the most of this unparalleled opportunity.
Aeschines And Athenian Politics
by Edward M. HarrisFilling a major gap in scholarship, this is the first full-length study of the Athenian politician Aeschines. Along with Isocrates, Aeschines was one of the most prominent Athenian politicians who advocated friendly ties with the Macedonian king Philip II. Though overshadowed by his famous rival Demosthenes, Aeschines played a key role in the decisive events that marked the rise of Macedonian power in Greece and formed the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. Three long speeches by Aeschines, all delivered in court battles with his opponent Demosthenes, have been preserved and provide us with valuable information about Athenian politics during a major turning point in Greek history. This study of Aeschines' political career examines the reliability of court speeches as historical evidence and shows how they help reveal how democratic institutions actually functioned in Athens when faced with the rise of Macedonian power.
Aeschines and Athenian Politics
by Edward M. HarrisFilling a major gap in scholarship, this is the first full-length study of the Athenian politician Aeschines. Along with Isocrates, Aeschines was one of the most prominent Athenian politicians who advocated friendly ties with the Macedonian king Philip II. Though overshadowed by his famous rival Demosthenes, Aeschines played a key role in the decisive events that marked the rise of Macedonian power in Greece and formed the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. Three long speeches by Aeschines, all delivered in court battles with his opponent Demosthenes, have been preserved and provide us with valuable information about Athenian politics during a major turning point in Greek history. This study of Aeschines' political career examines the reliability of court speeches as historical evidence and shows how they help reveal how democratic institutions actually functioned in Athens when faced with the rise of Macedonian power.
The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature
by Peter J. KallineyHow decolonization and the cold war influenced literature from Africa, Asia, and the CaribbeanHow did superpower competition and the cold war affect writers in the decolonizing world? In The Aesthetic Cold War, Peter Kalliney explores the various ways that rival states used cultural diplomacy and the political police to influence writers. In response, many writers from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean—such as Chinua Achebe, Mulk Raj Anand, Eileen Chang, C.L.R. James, Alex La Guma, Doris Lessing, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Wole Soyinka—carved out a vibrant conceptual space of aesthetic nonalignment, imagining a different and freer future for their work.Kalliney looks at how the United States and the Soviet Union, in an effort to court writers, funded international conferences, arts centers, book and magazine publishing, literary prizes, and radio programming. International spy networks, however, subjected these same writers to surveillance and intimidation by tracking their movements, tapping their phones, reading their mail, and censoring or banning their work. Writers from the global south also suffered travel restrictions, deportations, imprisonment, and even death at the hands of government agents. Although conventional wisdom suggests that cold war pressures stunted the development of postcolonial literature, Kalliney's extensive archival research shows that evenly balanced superpower competition allowed savvy writers to accept patronage without pledging loyalty to specific political blocs. Likewise, writers exploited rivalries and the emerging discourse of human rights to contest the attentions of the political police.A revisionist account of superpower involvement in literature, The Aesthetic Cold War considers how politics shaped literary production in the twentieth century.
The aesthetic exception: Essays on art, theatre, and politics
by Tony FisherThe aesthetic exception theorises anew the relation between art and politics. It challenges critical trends that discount the role of aesthetic autonomy, to impulsively reassert art as an effective form of social engagement. But it equally challenges those on the flipside of the efficacy debate, who insist that art’s politics is limited to a recondite space of ‘autonomous resistance’. The book shows how each side of the efficacy debate overlooks art’s exceptional status and its social mediations. Mobilising philosophy and cultural theory, and employing examples from visual art, performance, and theatre, it proposes four alternative tests to ‘effect’ to offer a nuanced account of art’s political character. Those tests examine how art relates to politics as a practice that articulates its historical conjuncture, and how it prefigures the ‘new’ through simulations capable of activating the political life of the spectator.
The aesthetic exception: Essays on art, theatre, and politics
by Tony FisherThe aesthetic exception theorises anew the relation between art and politics. It challenges critical trends that discount the role of aesthetic autonomy, to impulsively reassert art as an effective form of social engagement. But it equally challenges those on the flipside of the efficacy debate, who insist that art’s politics is limited to a recondite space of ‘autonomous resistance’. The book shows how each side of the efficacy debate overlooks art’s exceptional status and its social mediations. Mobilising philosophy and cultural theory, and employing examples from visual art, performance, and theatre, it proposes four alternative tests to ‘effect’ to offer a nuanced account of art’s political character. Those tests examine how art relates to politics as a practice that articulates its historical conjuncture, and how it prefigures the ‘new’ through simulations capable of activating the political life of the spectator.
Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism (Dynamics of Virtual Work)
by Ana Sofia Elias Rosalind Gill Christina ScharffThis volume approaches questions about gender and the politics of appearance from a new perspective by developing the notion of aesthetic labour. Bringing together feminist writing regarding the ‘beauty myth’ with recent scholarship about new forms of work, the book suggests that in this moment of ubiquitous photography, social media, and 360 degree surveillance, women are increasingly required to be 'aesthetic entrepreneurs’, maintaining a constant state of vigilance about their appearance. The collection shows that this work is not just on the surface of bodies, but requires a transformation of subjectivity itself, characterised by notions of personal choice, risk-taking, self-management, and individual responsibility. The book includes analyses of online media, beauty service work, female genital cosmetic surgery, academic fashion, self-help literature and the seduction community, from a range of countries. Discussing beauty politics, postfeminism, neoliberalism, labour and subjectivity, the book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in Gender, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Social Psychology and Management Studies. “This highly engaging, smart, and wide-ranging collection analyzes how, under the self-governing mandates of neoliberalism, the demands that girls and women regulate and control their bodies and appearance have escalated to new, unforgiving levels. A special strength of the book is its emphasis on the rise of ‘aesthetic labour’ as a global, transnational and ever-colonizing phenomenon that seeks to sweep up women of all races, ages and locales into its disciplinary grip. Highly recommended.” -Susan J Douglas, University of Michigan, USA the inherited responsibility that remains women’s particular burden to manage.” -Melissa Gregg, Intel Corporation, USA “This book incisively conceptualizes how neo-liberalist and postfeminist tendencies are ramping up pressures for glamour, aesthetic, fashion, and body work in the general public. In a moment when YouTube ‘makeup how to’ videos receive millions of hits; what to wear and how to wear it blogs clock massive followings; and staying ‘on brand’ is sold to us as the key to personal and financial success, ‘aesthetic entrepreneurship’ is bound to become a go-to concept for anyone seeking to understand the profound shifts shaping labor and life in the 21st century.” -Elizabeth Wissinger, City University of New York, USA
Aesthetic Marx
by Samir Gandesha Johan F. HartleThe whole of Marx's project confronts the narrow concerns of political philosophy by embedding it in social philosophy and a certain understanding of the aesthetic. From those of aesthetic production to the "poetry of the future" (as Marx writes in the Eighteenth Brumaire), from the radical modernism of bourgeois development to the very idea of association (which defined one of the main lines of tradition in the history of aesthetics), steady references to Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe, and the idea that bourgeois politics is nothing but a theatrical stage: the aesthetic has a prominent place in the constellation of Marx's thought. This book offers an original and challenging study of both Marx in the aesthetic, and the aesthetic in Marx. It differs from previous discussions of Marxist aesthetic theory as it understands the works of Marx themselves as contributions to thinking the aesthetic. This is an engagement with Marx's aesthetic that takes into account Marx's broader sense of the aesthetic, as identified by Eagleton and Buck-Morss – as a question of sense perception and the body. It explores this through questions of style and substance in Marx and extends it into contemporary questions of how this legacy can be perceived or directed analytically in the present. By situating Marx in contemporary art debates this volume speaks directly to lively interest today in the function of the aesthetic in accounts of emancipatory politics and is essential reading for researchers and academics across the fields of political philosophy, art theory, and Marxist scholarship.
Aesthetic Marx
by Samir Gandesha Johan F. HartleThe whole of Marx's project confronts the narrow concerns of political philosophy by embedding it in social philosophy and a certain understanding of the aesthetic. From those of aesthetic production to the "poetry of the future" (as Marx writes in the Eighteenth Brumaire), from the radical modernism of bourgeois development to the very idea of association (which defined one of the main lines of tradition in the history of aesthetics), steady references to Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe, and the idea that bourgeois politics is nothing but a theatrical stage: the aesthetic has a prominent place in the constellation of Marx's thought. This book offers an original and challenging study of both Marx in the aesthetic, and the aesthetic in Marx. It differs from previous discussions of Marxist aesthetic theory as it understands the works of Marx themselves as contributions to thinking the aesthetic. This is an engagement with Marx's aesthetic that takes into account Marx's broader sense of the aesthetic, as identified by Eagleton and Buck-Morss – as a question of sense perception and the body. It explores this through questions of style and substance in Marx and extends it into contemporary questions of how this legacy can be perceived or directed analytically in the present. By situating Marx in contemporary art debates this volume speaks directly to lively interest today in the function of the aesthetic in accounts of emancipatory politics and is essential reading for researchers and academics across the fields of political philosophy, art theory, and Marxist scholarship.
Aesthetic Perceptions of Urban Environments (Interventions)
by Arundhati VirmaniTo what extent do urban dwellers relate to their lived and imagined environment through aesthetic perceptions, and aspirations? This book approaches experiences of urban aesthetics not as an established framework, defined by imposed norms or legislations, but as the result of a continuous reflexive and proactive gaze, a complex and deep engagement of the mind, body and sensibilities. It uses empirical studies ranging from China, India to Western Europe. Three axes are privileged. The first considers urban everyday aesthetic experiences in the long-term as a historical production, from medieval Italy to a future imagined by science fiction. The second examines the impact of aestheticizing everyday material realities in neighbourhoods, and the tensions and conflicts these engender around urban commons. Finally, the third axis considers these relationships as aesthetic inequalities, exacerbated in a new age of urban development. The book combines local and transnational scales with an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together historians, sociologists, cultural geographers, anthropologists, architects, and contemporary art curators. They illustrate the importance of combining different social science methods and functional perspectives to study such complex social and cultural realities as cities. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of humanities and social sciences, cultural and urban studies, architecture and political geography.
Aesthetic Perceptions of Urban Environments (Interventions)
by Arundhati VirmaniTo what extent do urban dwellers relate to their lived and imagined environment through aesthetic perceptions, and aspirations? This book approaches experiences of urban aesthetics not as an established framework, defined by imposed norms or legislations, but as the result of a continuous reflexive and proactive gaze, a complex and deep engagement of the mind, body and sensibilities. It uses empirical studies ranging from China, India to Western Europe. Three axes are privileged. The first considers urban everyday aesthetic experiences in the long-term as a historical production, from medieval Italy to a future imagined by science fiction. The second examines the impact of aestheticizing everyday material realities in neighbourhoods, and the tensions and conflicts these engender around urban commons. Finally, the third axis considers these relationships as aesthetic inequalities, exacerbated in a new age of urban development. The book combines local and transnational scales with an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together historians, sociologists, cultural geographers, anthropologists, architects, and contemporary art curators. They illustrate the importance of combining different social science methods and functional perspectives to study such complex social and cultural realities as cities. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of humanities and social sciences, cultural and urban studies, architecture and political geography.
The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought
by Nikolas KompridisThe growing exploration of political life from an aesthetic perspective has become so prominent that we must now speak of an "aesthetic turn†? in political thought. But what does it mean and what makes it an aesthetic turn? Why now? This diverse and path-breaking collection of essays answers these questions, provoking new ways to think about the possibilities and debilities of democratic politics.Beginning from the premise that politics is already "aesthetic in principle,†? the contributions to The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought from some of the world's leading political theorists and philosophers, disclose a distinct set of political problems: the aesthetic problems of modern politics. The aesthetic turn in political thought not only recognizes that these problems are different in kind from the standard problems of politics, it also recognizes that they call for a different kind of theorizing – a theorizing that is itself aesthetic.A major contribution to contemporary theoretical debates, The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought will be essential reading to anyone interested in the interdisciplinary crossroads of aesthetic and politics.