A collection of stories about the life of a migrant family.

Mximo Serrano Hrcules was born in El Salvador in February 1961. He comes from a peasant family working in the countryside. He had very little education due to the precarious economic conditions in the country, so he had to start working on the farms since his adolescence. Being so young, he sees himself in a desperate situation due to the internal political war in El Salvador. By the simple instinct to preserve life, he was forced to immigrate to other countries, and he adventured in other unknown lands as a working journey from Guatemala, Mexico, the United States, and Canada in infrahuman situations as an undocumented being. Because of the veracity of the war problem that caused bloodshed in his country, he was granted by the United Nations to become a permanent resident in Canada since 1989, and now he has become a regular worker as a Canadian citizen. He uses his free moments for literature and for his tasks as a human being. He loves poetry and anything related with arts and culture.

How do international encounters in Nicaragua connect spiritual formation and liberation theology to transform communities? Seekers of justice from around the world found inspiration in the Nicaraguan revolution and struggle for freedom. After recognizing the patronizing, neocolonial structure of missionary models of aid, pastor Leslie Penrose founded a nonprofit organization, JustHope, with core values of solidarity, mutuality, collaboration, and sustainability in partnership. Hundreds of participants have joined this quest to enact the compassionate and just ethics of the Hebrew prophets and the liberating power of Jesus. Inspiring stories of Nicaraguan-led creativity exploring a new future with volunteers from the U.S. are told by pastoral theologian and ethicist Kathleen McCallie. Framed as an interdisciplinary case study of seminary students traveling for solidarity to explore social justice with JustHope, the book offers glimpses of one group’s journey. Readers explore possibilities for an international partnership between U.S. volunteers and Nicaraguan community organizers. The Nicaraguan base-community model offers critiques of and alternatives to the church in the U.S. and neoliberal development. McCallie contributes to academic and activist discourses about dismantling abusive theology, racism, sexism, and U.S. hegemony.

All around the world and throughout history, resistance has played an important role - and it still does. Some strive to raise it to cause change. Some dare not to speak of it. Some try to smother it to keep a status quo. The contributions to this volume explore phenomena of resistance in a range of historical and contemporary environments. In so doing, they not only contribute to shaping a comparative view on subjects, representations, and contexts of resistance, but also open up a theoretical dialogue on terms and concepts of resistance both in and across different disciplines. With contributions by Micha Brumlik, Peter McLaren, and others.

By following indigenous organizing experiences at multiple levels--local, regional, national, and international--this book explores how some Mayas became involved in political activism and opposition to a repressive state.

Textbook

This book will address a number of urgent themes in education today that include multiculturalism, the politics of whiteness, the globalization of capital, neoliberalism, postmodernism, imperialism, and current debates in Marxist social theory. The above themes will be linked to critical educational praxis, particularly to teaching activities within urban schools. Finally, the book will develop the basis for a wider political project directed at resisting and transforming economic exploitation, cultural homogenization, political repression, and gender inequality. Recent and widespread scholarly attention has been given to the unabated mercilessness of global capitalism. Little opposition exists as capital runs amok, unhampered and undisturbed by the tectonic upheaval that is occurring in the geopolitical landscape that has recently witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the regimes of the Eastern Bloc. As we examine education policies within the context of economic globalization, we attempt to address the extent to which the pedagogy and politics of everyday life has fallen under the sway of what we identify as cultural and economic imperialism. Finally, the book raises a number of urgent questions: What are the current limitations to educational reform efforts among the educational left? What are some of the problems associated with certain developments within postmodern education? How can a return to Marxist theory and revolutionary politics revitalize the educational left at a time when capitalism appears to be unstoppable? What actions need to be taken in both local and global arenas to overcome the exploitation that the globalization of capital has wreaked upon the world?

Economy and Architecture addresses a timely, critical, and much-debated topic in both its historical and contemporary dimensions. From the Apple Store in New York City, to the street markets of the Pan American Highway; from commercial Dubai to the public schools of Australia, this book takes a critical look at contemporary architecture from across the globe, whilst extending its range back in history as far as the Homeric epics of ancient Greece. The book addresses the challenges of practicing architecture within the strictures of contemporary economies, grounded on the fundamental definition of ‘economy’ as the well managed household – derived from the Greek oikonomia – oikos (house) and nemein (manage). The diverse enquiries of the study are structured around the following key questions: How do we define our economies? How are the values of architecture negotiated among the various actors involved? How do we manage the production of a good architecture within any particular system? How does political economy frame and influence architecture? The majority of examples are taken from current or recent architectural practice; historical examples, which include John Evelyn’s villa, Blenheim Palace, John Ruskin’s Venice, and early twentieth century Paris, place the debates within an extended critical perspective.