Rituals can provoke or escalate conflict, but they can also mediate it and although conflict is a normal aspect of human life, mass media technologies are changing the dynamics of conflict and shaping strategies for deploying rituals. This collection of essays emerged from a two-year project based on collaboration between the Faculty of Religious Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and the Ritual Dynamics Collaborative Research Center at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. An interdisciplinary team of twenty-four scholars locates, describes, and explores cases in which media-driven rituals or ritually saturated media instigate, disseminate, or escalate conflict. Each multi-authored chapter is built around global and local examples of ritualized, mediatized conflict. The book's central question is: "When ritual and media interact (either by the mediatizing of ritual or by the ritualizing of media), how do the patterns of conflict change?"

With contributions from leading brand experts around the world, this valuable resource delineates the case for brands (financial value, social value, etc.) and looks at what makes certain brands great. It covers best practices in branding and also looks at the future of brands in the age of globalization. Although the balance sheet may not even put a value on it, a company’s brand or its portfolio of brands is its most valuable asset. For well-known companies it has been calculated that the brand can account for as much as 80 percent of their market value. This book argues that because of this and because of the power of not-for-profit brands like the Red Cross or Oxfam, all organisations should make the brand their central organising principle, guiding every decision and every action. As well as making the case for brands and examining the argument of the anti-globalisation movement that brands are bullies which do harm, this second edition of Brands and Branding provides an expert review of best practice in branding, covering everything from brand positioning to brand protection, visual and verbal identity and brand communications. Lastly, the third part of the book looks at trends in branding, branding in Asia, especially in China and India, brands in a digital world and the future for brands. Written by 19 experts in the field, Brands and Branding sets out to provide a better understanding of the role and importance of brands, as well as a wealth of insights into how one builds and sustains a successful brand.