Bøker utgitt av Lexington Books

Often rejected out of hand as the enemy of clarity and convincingness, ambiguity-in thought, speech, writing, analysis, or theory-should not be overlooked. Donald A. Crosby explores the innumerable positive contributions of conceptual and discursive ambiguity in situations where ambiguity can be the amicable friend of intelligibility and convincingness rather than their sworn enemy. While people have been willing to acknowledge the positive role ambiguity can play in poetry, story, myth, ritual, oratory, and song, Crosby argues that its positive roles extend far beyond these modes of reflection and expression and into the whole of life. Amicable Ambiguity: The Indispensable Value of Vagueness, Open-Endedness, and Uncertainty shows how, why, and when this claim may hold true and needs to incorporated both across academic disciplines as well as in the more ordinary areas of thought and experience.

This book interrogates the altered nominating processes of the 2020 U.S. election, illustrating the importance of the national nominating convention, both as an ongoing custom that speaks to the unique political structure of the nation and as a source of valuable information that goes well beyond the explicit purposes conceptualized by the parties.

Visual Cultures in India: Contesting the Sites of Sights delves into our visual experiences through diverse media, while unpacking how we encounter and interpret the visual, moving beyond simple "seeing" to deeper levels of meaning. This book explores our experience of visual media that reveals the complex interplay between sight, meaning, and contestation. The authors delve into the very "sites" where visuals are born, displayed, and interpreted. This nuanced approach sheds light on how visual media shapes our understanding of the world and ourselves. From the captivating world of film and photography to the enduring artistry of sculpture and dance, and even the visual tapestry of everyday life, this book weaves a compelling narrative of the complex relationship between media and visual culture in India. It is a timely and significant contribution in an age saturated with imagery. This book equips scholars, researchers, students, and media professionals with a framework to navigate the power of sight and gain a deeper understanding of visual cultures in India.

Entanglements, Narratives, and the Environment: Inter-American Perspectives provides an interdisciplinary ecocritical reading of narratives and environmental entanglements from an Inter-American perspective, predominantly providing literary, film, and cultural analysis of texts from the Americas. In light of Amitav Ghosh's (2016) exploration of "a crisis of the imagination" in the face of climate change and environmental degradation, this book addresses the potential of literature, history, and politics in comprehending the profound dimensions and violence of these challenges. The chapters show, among others, that the Anthropocene demands fresh narratives and theoretical perspectives, particularly within the framework of Inter-American Studies, which can offer a new venue to discuss pressing issues and to provide intersectional and inter-regional considerations. Thus, drawing on Inter-American perspective with its hemispheric perspectives opens the possibilities for an ecocritical reading of the complexities and relationalities of the climate crisis in the humanities as well as the social sciences. As a result, the book includes historical and political analysis, as well as literary, cultural and film analysis of texts from the Americas. The chapters engage in deconstructing popular myths, de-centering Western approaches, and eventually show through these critical engagements how the climate crisis demands multi-dimensional readings.

In Social Media Cultures, Dhiraj Murthy provides a theoretically-grounded, historical exploration of the social media landscape. Uniquely tracing the evolution of social media - from traditional media like letters, postcards, and the telephone to new media and platforms - Murthy argues that these contemporary phenomena are not divorced from their analog antecedents. The historical and theoretical frameworks employed in this book allow readers to better understand the intricacies of nuanced modern dynamics like cancel culture, self-expression, and celebrity influence. Focusing on mobility, political discourse, and the power of witnessing from global perspectives, Murthy uses empirical case studies from both the Global South and North to demonstrate the profound impact of social media on culture, politics, and everyday life. Ultimately, Murthy encourages readers to reflect on their roles within the broader social media ecosystem and to consider the far-reaching consequences of social media engagement on a global scale. Scholars of communication, media studies, social media, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.

The Genocide against the Tutsi witnessed the deaths of close to a million Tutsis and non-extremist Hutus within a 100-day period. While the genocide is extensively researched, the war that led to its conclusion is relatively unexplored. The Strategy to End the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda: Understanding the War in Kigali by Jonathan Beloff addresses how the Rwandan Civil War impacted the rate of killings and how the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)-the military wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)-liberated Rwanda's capital city, Kigali. Through archival research, the testimonies and experiences of eight genocide survivors, and the testimonies of military personnel, this book also provides unique insight into Rwandan history and a chronological examination of the war. Utilizing Strategic Theory as a theoretical framework for warfare, Beloff examines the various tactics and operations used by the RPA to provide critical insights into decision-making during the war and genocide.

In Christian Ethics and Biomedical Innovation, Stephen Goundrey-Smith outlines a strategy for future adoption of human enhancement technologies which will ensure that such technologies are a common good, a strategy which is appropriate for a pluralistic society, yet consistent with Christian ethical principles. Drawing on the history of biomedical innovation to date in pharmaceutical medicine, he argues that technological capability alone is not enough, and that the responsible adoption of enhancement technologies will require active ethical deliberation and robust public policy discourse. Goundrey-Smith argues that biomedical technology, ethics, and public policy together form an essential triad for appropriate future enhancement technology adoption. This approach helps to ensure that biomedical technologies introduced will be common goods, and to reduce the risk of their instrumental use. The use of any technology is closely linked to its sociopolitical and cultural context and, drawing on Augustine's The City of God, Goundrey-Smith presents a theological vision for good biomedical technology innovation in human society.

The Phenomenology of Revelation in Heidegger, Marion, and Ricoeur provides a critical framework for understanding the phenomenology of revelation through a series of close readings that serve as the basis for an imagined dialogue between Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Marion, and Paul Ricoeur. Adam J. Graves distinguishes between two dominant approaches to revelation: a "radical" approach that seeks to disclose a pre-linguistic experience of revelation through a radicalization of the phenomenological reduction, and a "hermeneutical" one that characterizes revelation as an eruption of meaning arising from our encounter with concrete symbols, narratives, and texts. According to Graves, the radical approach is often driven by a misplaced concern for maintaining philosophical rigor and for avoiding theological biases, or "contaminations." This preoccupation leads to a process of "counter-contamination" in which the concept of revelation is ultimately estranged from the phenomenon's rich historical and linguistic content. While Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology may do a better job of accommodating the concrete content of revelation, it does so at the price of having to renouncing the kind of "presuppositionlessness" generally associated with phenomenological method. Ultimately, Graves argues that a more nuanced appreciation of the complex nature of our linguistic inheritance enables us to reconceive the relationship between revelation and philosophical thought.

This book assesses canals as a major technological system re-shaping Britons' relationship with their landscape and environment between 1760 and 1968, and argues this 200-year arc of historical experience is essential to understanding canals as sites of recreation, leisure, heritage, and experience of the natural environment.

This book presents a Roman Catholic theology arguing God's grace abounds beyond the gender binary. In response to the sex abuse crisis, clericalism, and rigid gender complementarity, the author offers a vision of theological anthropology and ecclesiology that affirms the holiness and fecundity of all bodies across sexual difference.

This book reflects on the paradoxes in ancient Israelite literature, with a focus on narratives of the garden of Eden. Contributions approach the subject not only from Jewish but also Christian and Buddhist perspectives and include new research on the nature of Israel's religion as well as science fiction approaches to biblical exegesis.

This volume offers original analyses of capitalism and coloniality while proposing new critical and decolonizing approaches to education. Grounding teaching in the fundamental logics of radical thought, contributors propose rigorous and imaginative modes of pedagogical praxis applicable in a variety of contexts.

Ronald Mangum provides a rare glimpse into a nation's national security decision making processes and how those processes hamper Georgia's progress toward becoming a democracy. It is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex Geo-political relationships affecting this South Caucasus country.

By recognizing the pervasive influence that Herodotus's career as an oral performer had on his composition of the Histories, The Audiences of Herodotus: Oral Performance and the Battle Narratives argues that the Histories' versions of the three most important battles in the Persian Wars-the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea-persistently and disproportionately advance the interests, biases, and political agendas of distinct audiences in the mid-fifth century, well before Herodotus assembled his famous work of history as it survives to us. The Salamis and Plataea narratives reflect a mid-century audience of Athenians and their allies; the Thermopylae narrative reflects an Amphictyonic audience gathered at the Pythian Festival. Ian Oliver concludes that, as a participant in a culture of wisdom performance (epideixis), Herodotus originally composed short, ideologically motivated performance pieces that he intended to promote tendentious reinterpretations of these momentous events, then relied on these narratives when he composed his final text: the unitary Histories.

In our modern era of hyperconnectivity, the intricacies of our interpersonal relationships wield a profound influence on our sense of self. Throughout history, Italian literature has served as a rich tapestry reflecting these dynamics, offering poignant glimpses into the interplay of identity, belonging, and the concept of the Other. Alterity and Identity in Italian Literature: Encountering the Other from Dante to the Present embarks on a journey spanning from the Middle Ages to contemporary times, traversing the diverse landscapes of Italian literary tradition. Through a nuanced diachronic lens, this volume explores how Italian authors across centuries have grappled with encounters with the Other. Each essay provides a unique perspective on the dynamic interplay between the Self and the Other through close readings of pivotal texts, including but not limited to Boccaccio's Decameron, Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Gadda's Acquainted with Grief, and Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. From the grand epics of medieval Italy to the nuanced narratives of modern novels, this volume unveils the ways in which Italian literature serves as a mirror reflecting the complexities of human experience. It invites readers to immerse themselves in the timeless echoes of alterity that resonate throughout Italian literary history, offering profound insights into the enduring quest for understanding and identity.

From the outset, Paul Ricœur's work gives centrality to man's bodily and sensitive nature-his primordial affectivity and fragility-as sources of free action. From Vulnerability to Promise: Perspectives on Ricœur from Women Philosophers explores this dimension and its ethical, political, and conceptual implications, focusing on the embodied dimension of existence, its vulnerability, and its possibilities of attestation and recognition. Edited by Sophie-Jan Arrien and Beatriz Contreras, this book examines the relationships-passivity and activity, mind and body, singularity and sociality, finitude and transcendence-that lie at the heart of Ricœur's philosophical anthropology, revealing its ontological richness and ethical significance. Within this dimension, the ten contributors approach personal human identity in Ricœur's work from multiple perspectives: the narrative dimension of understanding; birth and privacy; freedom and recognition; love and consent; justice and respect in the face of abuse; the vulnerability of our natural environment; our inescapable finitude. These viewpoints are informed by both their vision as women philosophers, empowering their embodied condition in a reflexive way, and the urgency of reflecting on the human condition in order to find continuity between its passionate, affective, and finite forces.

This book traces the material-cultural dynamics of the honeybee and beekeeping from prehistory to the present in the areas that would become Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Beekeeping and the cultural meanings around the honeybee and its products have been fundamental to this region's history.

Bruno Latour and Martin Heidegger seem like opposite thinkers, but in tandem they can in fact help us avoid some of the most profound perils of our time. Their understandings of modernity and technology offer a number of interwoven insights that may demolish dangerous dogmas and lead to new hope.

This book offers a comprehensive scholarly analysis of the digital adaptation of Indigenous African communication methods, challenging conventional narratives of media development through real life case studies to highlight the resilience and relevance of African cultural expressions in an increasingly interconnected world.

War in the Taiwan Strait is neither imminent nor probable. However, Beijing, Taipei, and Washington each face the "Yizhou Dilemma" that neither action nor inaction would lead to desirable outcomes.

This book investigates various public aspects of the management, use, and control of social media by police agencies in Canada. This book aims to illustrate the process by which new information technologynamely, social mediaand related changes in communication formats have affected the public face of policing and police work. Schneider argues that police use of social media has altered institutional public police practices in a manner that is consistent with the logic of social media platforms. Policing is changing to include new ways of conditioning the public, cultivating self-promotion, and expanding social control. While each case study presented here focuses on a different social media platform or format, his concern is less with the particular format per se, as these will undoubtedly change, and more with developing suitable analytical and methodological approaches to understanding contemporary policing practices on social media sites.

Through close readings of literary texts by Camara Laye to Ata Aidoo, via Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, this book re-evaluates the issue of double consciousness originally raised by W.E.B. DuBois and, in doing so, problematize the role of the intellectuals in relation to their community.

In 1970s California, when many school communities resisted progress, visionary teachers and dynamic students at Sunnyvale High School created a vibrant, multiracial school community where students took on meaningful leadership roles, found common ground, and blazed multiple paths to successful adulthood.

Andrei Pop argues that Frege's distinction between sense and reference, concept and object, and asserted and unasserted thought provides a superior account of the overlapping categories of fiction and art. This book also tackles case studies in Fregean art history and theory.

Anatomy of Local Government in Bangladesh delves deep into the heart of governance in this vibrant nation, exploring its local government institutions' intricacies, challenges, and evolution. As a foundational layer of governmental hierarchy, these Local Government Institutions (LGIs) are a vital component of field administration, as enshrined in the country's constitution. With an unwavering commitment to a qualitative approach, this comprehensive study takes readers on a journey through the very essence of local government in Bangladesh, focusing on its structure, functions, and the hurdles it confronts. Leveraging an array of secondary data sources, the book unveils the inner workings of LGIs, painting a clear picture of their historical development, present organization, and financial dynamics. The chapters in this book lay bare the patron-client relationship between national and local governments, urging a shift towards greater autonomy and genuine representation of local citizens' needs. The path to democracy, decentralization, and enhanced local administration is illuminated, with insights drawn from foreign donors and citizen activism. This compelling book is a scholarly exploration and a guide for policymakers and activists, offering valuable lessons and suggestions for the future.

This book invokes the relationship between nature and urban contexts as powerful storytellers through a timely contribution to the historical understanding of our mechanisms of production of narratives about nature, therefore breaking new ground for current and future research for locally situated and globally shared environmental concerns.

Using Karanga/Kalanga concepts of cosmology and philosophy as well as local narratives, this book provides new perspectives on the cultural landscape of Great Zimbabwe and contributes to the reformation of the practice, interpretation, and construction of archaeological narratives in Africa.

As the rise of the Anthropocene has led to serious deliberation about how energy is best produced and distributed in a world pressured by both the depletion of natural resources and global climate change, advances in technology have enabled new systems of extracting energy like High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF), commonly known as fracking, that complicate these discussions. In this book, Barbara George explores how citizens impacted by HVHF tell stories about environmental risks, the conflict they experience in attempting to articulate these risks, and the hope for a post-carbon future in which HVHF is banned. Deep ideologies linked to history, coal, and industry permeate areas like the Rust Belt and Appalachia and, George argues, create "frames" that encourage and advocate for HVHF and make it difficult for publics in these locales to find a platform to tell their stories in a meaningful way. This book offers a case study of three communities in the United States - New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio - and how each community frames HVHF environmental and health risks differently based on their differing sociocultural histories. Scholars of communication, environmental studies, history, and sociology may find this book of particular interest.