Shaping Membership, Defining Nation explores and interprets the social politics, religion, and history of Africans (Habshis/Siddis) in Karnataka of South India. Focusing on the continuous dialog between African Indian historical formations and contemporary power structures, Pashington Obeng clearly explains the process of constructing socio-political and religious mores to respond to India's religious, socio-economic, and caste systems. The study begins by contextualizing the history of Africans in India before moving onto a sociological study. Pashington Obeng examines the formal and non-formal religious customs that stress African Indian agency in appropriating and shaping new forms of Indianness as well as African Diasporic realities. The book concludes with an important analysis of African Indian folksongs and dances.Shaping Membership, Defining Nation is a ground-breaking study of interest to scholars of African History and contemporary Indian society.

As questions concerning nationhood and national identity continue to preoccupy both Canada and Australia, Shaping Nations brings together the work of Australian and Canadian scholars around five core themes: constitutionalism, colonialism, republicanism, national identity, and governance.

Why are some countries rich and others poor? Colonialism, globalization, bad government, gender inequality, geography, and environmental degradation are just some of the potential answers to this complex question. Using a threefold framework of the West, the South, and the natural world, Shaping the Developing World provides a logical and intuitive structure for categorizing and evaluating the causes of underdevelopment. This interdisciplinary book also describes the social, political, and economic aspects of development and is relevant to students in political science, international studies, geography, sociology, economics, gender studies, and anthropology. The Second Edition has been updated to include the most recent development statistics and to incorporate new research on topics like climate change, democratization, religion and prosperity, the resource curse, and more. This second edition also contains expanded discussions of gender, financial inclusion, crime and police killings, and the Middle East, including the Syrian Civil War.

Shaping Nations and Markets employs a mixed methods approach to contend that economic ideas, organization of domestic interests and their economic power, asymmetries of information, and political institutions do not sufficiently explain the formation of national interests in processes of trade liberalization. The author proposes that something is missing—identity capital—which also empowers economic sectors that share either liberalizing or protectionist interests. Identity capital is an economic sector’s contribution to the stability of a national identity narrative; it correlates with the degree to which the workforce of any sector represents the dominant conception of national identity. Identity capital creates political power asymmetries among those sectors and impacts the formation of populist movements in both developed and developing states. This book offers a theoretical framework to unpack national identity, trade liberalization, nationalist-populism, domestic politics, and globalization. The author argues that the key for identifying whether liberalizing or protectionist coalitions prevail in trade negotiations is identity capital. He offers a comparison of the three largest contemporary, federal, multicultural democracies: Brazil, India, and the United States, from the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, to the rise of populism in these countries in recent years. This book will be of great interest to graduate students and scholars of international relations, international studies, political science, comparative politics, and economic sociology.

This volume offers a fascinating insight into the continuities and discontinuities in the formation of identities in the Low Countries and its neighbouring countries. It is an important contribution to the ongoing debates about national and other identities.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

An invaluable resource for tourism leaders, policy makers and stakeholders as they drive the global tourism economy forward. Covering topics from the role of government, diplomacy, tourism investment, and destination branding to niche tourism development, media, tourism safety and green tourism, COME CLOSER offers a framework for strategic and practical tourism economy management and competitiveness. The book includes valuable direction for managing the fine balance of government and private industry in tourism to create shared, sustainable destination growth. Using emotive anecdotes to bring readers closer to the heartbeats of the people who inspire and direct industry growth, Mendiratta's collection of topics helps introduce critical aspects of tourism sector development.

How the Constitution Can Guide America Back to True Greatness ​America has become a country lacking in both physical and psychological security—and this insecurity is a clear and present danger to world peace and stability. This must-read, political call to action is for anyone dissatisfied with our dysfunctional government and seeking real change. Simon Chadwick argues that the true American dream is realizing self-actualization (The Pursuit of Happiness), the pinnacle of psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs. Chadwick sets out in simple and straightforward terms how we can save US democracy by fulfilling every citizen’s innate needs, including the top echelon of achieving his or her creative potential. In order to generate greater overall contentment for its citizens, Chadwick proposes that a country must establish a democratic libertarian government, a form that is much closer to the general intent of the Constitution, which gives every person the right to live in peace, without fear, under its protection. By dissecting current events and framing them in Maslow’s hierarchy, Chadwick offers fascinating historical and cultural context, and clear, positive advice for how our country, culture, and government can move toward democratic libertarianism, self-actualization, and ultimate satisfaction.

Bridging nation branding and public diplomacy, this book presents a cohesive framework. At its core is the introduction of the Model of Country Concept, which illustrates the array of factors, including hard- and soft-power initiatives, that shape how global citizens form their opinions about other countries. Each chapter applies the Model of Country Concept across a wide geographic, methodological, and disciplinary range of qualitative and quantitative research studies. The book offers a framework for future positioning of both practice around and research about nation branding and public diplomacy. Written for a broad audience the book offers a comprehensive yet approachable solution for framing a conversation about the heterodox nature of nation branding and public diplomacy, and advances the field through original research.

Become a World-Shaper. The times we are living in are scary, to say the least. The world is unstable. Global politics are volatile. The rate of change we now experience is spiraling out of control. We’re uncertain about what will happen tomorrow, and we feel helpless to do anything about it. Yet what we are facing isn’t new. In the past, there have been many wars. There have been threats and acts of terrorism. History is spotted with violent episodes of unimaginable carnage and horror. And what did people do about them? The only thing they could do: they prayed! Discover with Derek Prince how your prayers and fasting can change the world. Using experiences from his own life, he illustrates how you can make a difference. You don’t have to fight. You don’t have to hold high political position. You don’t have to be a certain age. You don’t even have to have power, money, or influence on earth. What is important is your influence in heaven. Learn to touch the heart of God through prayer—prayer that will change the world!