Politikk

[Not final] The Syrian civil war, ongoing since 2011, is one of the most destructive armed conflicts of our time. Yet, destruction and the spaces where it has taken place have been largely unexplored, as the study of war in the region has focused on broader macro dynamics.This book examines how the urbicide of Syria - the destruction and violent spatial alteration of its cities - emerges as a mechanism of governmental and sovereign power, reshaping political subjectivities and state-society relations. It does so by exploring socio-material transformations in everyday urban spaces and processes, from the ruination of homes and neighbourhoods to urban planning and reconstruction. Taking the cases of Damascus and Aleppo, this volume provides a unique window to the Syrian civil war and shows the importance of approaching war through lived experience.By employing critical political theory and a postcolonial perspective, the study situates urbicide within Syria's state formation. It unravels how colonial socio-material power relations remain central to how spatial violence is mobilised to produce political loyalty. Benefiting from a wide range of in-depth interviews, archival research, and aesthetic sources, the book provides an invaluable window to the interplay between the Syrian regime and various other local and international actors. Notably, the book emphasises the role of Syrians' political agency and creativity amid urbicidal violence, destruction, and authoritarian survival.Ultimately, this volume reveals the intricate relations between political violence, urban space, and the formation of identities in contemporary Syria, contributing meaningfully to the scholarly literature on the Post-Arab Spring Middle East.

What went wrong with Britain? presents a comprehensive account of the devastating legacy left by the Conservative government. Shining a light into every dark corner, the book exposes the full extent of the damage inflicted on the country's economy, social fabric and political integrity. When the Conservatives were voted out of government in July 2024, they left behind a miserable record of rising poverty, inequality and division. This book reveals the forces that have driven the country to the point of crisis, from austerity and economic mismanagement to sheer political dysfunction. Each chapter offers new insights into the far-reaching consequences of government policies that prioritised ideology, personal ambition and party politics over the public good. Examining the rise of populism, the politics of Brexit, the UK's response to the pandemic and the steady erosion of public trust, this shocking account of the legacy of Conservative government from 2010 to 2024 is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand exactly what went wrong with Britain.

This book explores what lies between the statuses of insider and outsider in immigrant nations. It highlights the often-overlooked conditionality and temporality of immigrant inclusion, the messiness of policies aimed at ethnic diversity, and the uneven distribution of attitudes among members of minority groups.

First published in 1980, The Western Saharans looks at the background to the conflict and provides a comprehensive economic, political, and social portrait of the key constituents: Mauritania, the Spanish Sahara, Morocco, and the Polisario Front.

The chapters in this book explore the cultural and social significance of diasporic memorialisation done in reference to Partition, as it overlaps with the commemoration of key historical moments of change for the South Asian diaspora.

An indispensable guide to Greenland-why it matters, who covets it and why this wilderness of 56,000 inhabitants could become the next global flashpoint.

This book examines Turkey's increasingly unstable position in the liberal international order and its complicated relationship with the West.

A major new political history of the French Revolution   In 1786, France’s ancien régime was functioning as usual. Its alliance with the victorious American colonies had restored its diplomatic prestige, the economy seemed to be flourishing, and internal politics seemed quiet. But just a few short years later, the dynasty which had ruled France for over 800 years was swept away. What happened to cause such devastating change to the long-established political structure?   John Hardman traces the political history of the French Revolution, from its origins to its aftermath. Hardman argues that the nature of ancien régime politics, the mismanagement of the fiscal crisis, and a new generation of young, overly confident politicians brought the Bourbon monarchy’s apparatus crashing down. He shows how feudalism was on its last legs in 1789, and analyses the key roles played by Louis XVI, Antoine Barnave, and Georges Danton.   This is a remarkable history of one of modern Europe’s defining moments, shedding new light on the complex politics of the day.

Drawing on her experience working in some of the most conflict-ravaged parts of the world, a bold new thinker and social scientist argues that a good society is not given to us by rules and the state, but is rather something we must create together.

Economy, Society, and Public Policy is a new way to learn economics. The only resource to show students from any programme of study how to use economics to understand and articulate reasoned views on some of the most pressing policy problems facing our societies: inequality, financial instability, the future of work, environmental degradation, wealth creation, and innovation.  Free online resources at: core-econ.org/resources. FOR LEARNERS Economist in Action videos by Al Roth, James Heckman, Anat Admati, Juliet Schor, Thomas Piketty, Petra Moser and others give you a glimpse of what economists do and how they engage in real policy questions Diagrams with step-by-step explanations FOR INSTRUCTORS: Lecture slides in PowerPoint format Slides of figures Answers to exercises with teaching ideas Economy, Society, and Public Policy is accompanied by Doing Economics, a free open-access e-book which helps students develop their quantitative skills using real-world problems and data: www.core-econ.org/doing-economics.

The Recurrence of the End Times: Voegelin, Hegel, and the Stop-History Movements explores the deep connection between modern political ideologies and the secular eschatological hopes and dreams of a post-Christian society. Focusing primarily upon the thought of 20th century German émigré political scientist Eric Voegelin, the book argues that we cannot understand the globalized world in which we live unless we appreciate the lasting influence of the various "End of History" speculators-specifically, G.W.F Hegel, Alexandre Kojève, and Francis Fukuyama. Through a Voegelinian lens, he dissects the relationship between these three thinkers, also claiming that while Voegelin may have misunderstood Hegel, his critiques of the Hegelian approach to history offer fresh and important perspectives on the contemporary world. This makes a forceful argument that the idea of history as a teleological path, leading toward some goal-whether perfect harmony between nations, a technocratic utopia, a return to some romanticized idyllic "state of nature," or what Kojève and Fukuyama called the "universal and homogenous State"-has vast, and perverse, implications for the trajectory of American foreign and domestic policy.

The Making of American Whiteness: The Formation of Race in Seventeenth-Century Virginia changes the narrative about the origins of race and Whiteness in America. With an exhaustive array of archival documents, Carmen P. Thompson demonstrates not only that Whiteness predates European expansion to the Americas as evidenced in their participation in the transatlantic slave trade since the fifteenth century, but more importantly that it was the principal dynamic in the settlement of Virginia, the first colony in what would become the United States of America. And just as the system of White supremacy was the principal framework that fueled the transatlantic slave trade, it likewise was the framework that drove the organization of civil society in Virginia, including the organization and structure of the colony's laws, social, political, and economic policies as well as its system of governance. The book shows what Whiteness looked like in everyday life in the early seventeenth century, in a way eerily prescient to Whiteness today.