Representation and Resistance: South Asian and African Women's Texts at Home and in the Diaspora compares colonial and national constructions of gender identity in Western-educated African and South Asian women's texts. Jaspal Kaur Singh argues that, while some writers conceptualize women's equality in terms of educational and professional opportunity, sexual liberation, and individualism, others recognize the limitations of a paradigm of liberation that focuses only on individual freedom. Certain diasporic artists and writers assert that transformation of gender identity construction occurs, but only in transnational cultural spaces of the first world-spaces which have emerged in an era of rampant globalization and market liberalism. In particular, Singh advocates the inclusion of texts from women of different classes, religions, and castes, both in the Global North and in the South.

This is the first comprehensive text on social psychological approaches to communication, providing an excellent introduction to theoretical perspectives, special topics, and applied areas and practice in communication. Bringing together scholars of international reputation, this book provides a unique contribution to the field.

By focusing on three key aspects of life and change as the European state developed, Peter Blickle brings together a wealth of scholarly experience from all over the continent to discuss the subject's role in State formation. Europe has undergone a remarkable process of democratization sincethe end of the Second World War, shifting the thrust of government policy away from foreign affairs and towards internal matters, and rendering social interest and conflict the driving forces in the historical process. This widespread acceptance of democracy has led to a renewed study of the historyof the estates, and a corresponding increase in debate over the concept of representation. Here the debate is taken further with an examination of the role of the city constitution, and developments in rural settlements. Inextricably linked with the advent of wide-scale representation was an increase in resistance: this book examines the geographical spread of such uprisings, and offers explanations of why revolts were so few in Northern Europe but so prevalent in the Central states. The questions of who gainedfrom the uprisings, and what they contributed to the development of the different forms of representation and community are addressed from a pan-European angle. The cities and villages of the late Middle Ages and early modern period were instrumental in building the political structure of the time. These settlements were determinative of the spirit of community, and a close inspection of these communities throws interesting light on the differences betweenpeasant and burgher morality, and how these norms and values were integrated into the legitimizing of the state. This fascinating work examines the citizen's role in European development with a theoretical and conceptual, but also practical and pragmatic approach. The discussion crosses all national boundaries, and in a Europe which is constantly evolving is a relevant and timely addition to theseries.

This book is a clear, systematic, original and lively account of how media representations shape the way we see our and others’ lives in a global age. It provides in-depth analysis of a range of international media representations of disaster, war, conflict, migration and celebration. The book explores how images, stories and voices, on television, the Internet, and in advertisements and newspapers, invite us to relocate to distant contexts, and to relate to people who are remote from our daily lives, by developing ‘mediated intimacy’ and focusing on the self. It also explores how these representations shape our self-narratives. Orgad examines five sites of media representation – the other, the nation, possible lives, the world and the self. She argues that representations can and should contribute to fostering more ambivalence and complexity in how we think and feel about the world, our place in it and our relation to far-away others. Media Representations and the Global Imagination will be of particular interest to students and scholars of media and cultural studies, as well as sociology, politics, international relations, development studies and migration studies.

This title was first published in 2000: An original explanation for the importance South Africans attachment to ethnic and racial group categories in everyday speech and practice. The answers emerge by presenting a history of dominant and resistance discourses as they relate to collective identity - a move which breaks with prevailing approaches to South African political history, problematises ethnic group categories and offers new ways of seeing old debates.

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.

In the critical essays collected in Black Looks, bell hooks interrogates old narratives and argues for alternative ways to look at blackness, black subjectivity, and whiteness. Her focus is on spectatorship—in particular, the way blackness and black people are experienced in literature, music, television, and especially film—and her aim is to create a radical intervention into the way we talk about race and representation. As she describes: "the essays in Black Looks are meant to challenge and unsettle, to disrupt and subvert." As students, scholars, activists, intellectuals, and any other readers who have engaged with the book since its original release in 1992 can attest, that's exactly what these pieces do.

Refugee Journeys presents stories of how governments, the public and the media have responded to the arrival of people seeking asylum, and how these responses have impacted refugees and their lives. Mostly covering the period from 1970 to the present, the chapters provide readers with an understanding of the political, social and historical contexts that have brought us to the current day. This engaging collection of essays also considers possible ways to break existing policy deadlocks, encouraging readers to imagine a future where we carry vastly different ideas about refugees, government policies and national identities.

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry’s stunning internationally acclaimed bestseller, is set in mid-1970s India. It tells the story of four unlikely people whose lives come together during a time of political turmoil soon after the government declares a “State of Internal Emergency.” Through days of bleakness and hope, their circumstances – and their fates – become inextricably linked in ways no one could have foreseen. Mistry’s prose is alive with enduring images and a cast of unforgettable characters. Written with compassion, humour, and insight, A Fine Balance is a vivid, richly textured, and powerful novel written by one of the most gifted writers of our time.