This book examines the ways in which artists and arts organizations today forge collaborative, socially engaged situations that involve non-professionals in the process of making art, often over a period of time, through creating opportunities to examine collective concerns and needs. Collaborative art praxis is gaining prominence in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region. This is a discursive method that is experimental, with results that often expand the notions of what art is—and how it can be produced. After an introduction to global approaches to such a practice, Ali examines the foundation of contemporary art in the MENASA that is linked to a longer history of colonialism. The book analyzes artist-led initiatives and community-based organizations through themes including relational aesthetics, war and violence, blight in marginalized places around the world, in addition to questions associated with art and its value in the fields of global contemporary art and society.

This book examines the ways in which artists and arts organizations today forge collaborative, socially engaged situations that involve non-professionals in the process of making art, often over a period of time, through creating opportunities to examine collective concerns and needs. Collaborative art praxis is gaining prominence in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region. This is a discursive method that is experimental, with results that often expand the notions of what art is—and how it can be produced. After an introduction to global approaches to such a practice, Ali examines the foundation of contemporary art in the MENASA that is linked to a longer history of colonialism. The book analyzes artist-led initiatives and community-based organizations through themes including relational aesthetics, war and violence, blight in marginalized places around the world, in addition to questions associated with art and its value in the fields of global contemporary art and society.

Efforts to create greener urban spaces have historically taken many forms, often disorganized and undisciplined. Recently, however, the push towards greener cities has evolved into a more cohesive movement. Drawing from multidisciplinary case studies, Urban Natures examines the possibilities of an ethical lively multi-species city with the understanding that humanity’s relationship to nature is politically constructed. Covering a wide range of sectors, cities, and urban spaces, as well as topics ranging from edible cities to issues of power, and more-than-human methodologies, this volume pushes our imagination of a green urban future.

This book examines the processes of adaptation across a number of intriguing case studies and media. Turning its attention from the 'what' to the 'how' of adaptation, it serves to re-situate the discourse of adaptation studies, moving away from the hypotheses that used to haunt it, such as fidelity, to questions of how texts, authors and other creative practitioners (always understood as a plurality) engage in dialogue with one another across cultures, media, languages, genders and time itself. With fifteen chapters across fields including fine art and theory, drama and theatre, and television, this interdisciplinary volume considers adaptation across the creative and performance arts, with a single focus on the collaborative.

This book explains why multistakeholder partnerships are needed to solve societal problems in the 21st century. It identifies global problems and contexts where multistakeholder partnerships are currently in use and offers numerous case examples of such partnerships to help readers grasp their nature and operation.

The book presents the state-of-the-art document describing the knowledge, data, cost-effectiveness and technologies employed to manage the waste in several countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordon, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen. It covers diverse topics including the status of the waste in the region, solid waste management, solid waste recovery and disposal, the use of the agricultural waste in feeding poultry, sludge disposal and management, wastewater treatment and energy production. Also, the book explains how waste management systems are becoming more complex in many countries with the move from landfill-based to resource recovery-based solutions following the setting of international and national targets to divert waste from landfill and to increase recycling and recovery rates. Besides, this book also evaluates the environmental legislation in the selected countries and suggests new performance enhancements. This book is of interest to environmental professionals including scientists and policymakers in the Middle East, North Africa, and areas with similar features.

Bridging art and innovation, this book invites readers into the processes of artists, curators, cultural producers and historians who are working within new contexts that run parallel to or against the phenomenon of ‘maker culture’. The book is a fascinating and compelling resource for those interested in critical and interdisciplinary modes of practice that combine arts, technology and making. It presents international case studies that interrogate perceived distinctions between sites of artistic and economic production by brokering new ways of working between them. It also discusses the synergies and dissonances between art and maker culture, analyses the social and collaborative impact of maker spaces and reflects upon the ethos of the hackathon within the fabric of a media lab’s working practices. Art Hack Practice: Critical Intersections of Art, Innovation and the Maker Movement is essential reading for courses in art, design, new media, computer science, media studies and mass communications as well as those working to bring new forms of programming to museums, cultural venues, commercial venture and interdisciplinary academic research centres.

Jim Cummins is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

This volume investigates the nature and changing roles of the non-state armed groups in the Middle East with a special focus on Kurdish, Shia and Islamic State groups. To understand the nature of transformation in the Middle Eastern geopolitical space, it provides new empirical and analytical insights into the impact of three prominent actors, namely ISIS, YPG and Shia Militias. With its distinctive detailed and multi-faceted analyses, it offers new findings on the changing contours of sovereignty, geopolitics and ideology, particularly after the Arab Uprisings. Overall this volume contributes to the study of violent geopolitics, critical security studies and international relations particularly by exploring the ideologies and strategies of the new non-state armed actors.