Bøker utgitt av Lexington Books

At first sight, tattoos, nudity, and veils do not seem to have much in common except for the fact that all three have become more frequent, more visible, and more dominant in connection with aesthetic presentations of women over the past thirty years. No longer restricted to biker and sailor culture, tattoos have been sanctioned by the mainstream of liberal societies. Nudity has become more visible than ever on European beaches or on the internet. The increased use of the veil by women in Muslim and non-Muslim countries has developed in parallel with the aforementioned phenomena and is just as striking. Through the means of conceptual analysis, Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos: The New Feminine Aesthetics reveals that these three phenomena can be both private and public, humiliating and empowering, and backward and progressive. This unorthodox approach is traced by the three's similar social and psychological patterns, and by doing so, Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos hopes to sketch the image of a woman who is not only sexually emancipated and confident, but also more and more aware of her cultural heritage.

Narratives of contemporary Spanish writer Soledad Puertolas (1947-), inducted into the Real Academia Espaola in 2010, depict the psychological struggles of the individual in postmodern democratic European society. Puertolas's realist style emphasizes storytelling and character portrayal, and her urban middle-class characters seek satisfying interactions with others and a sense of purpose. Memory aids characters in their quest for meaning and identity, and their use of memory reveals their self-perception and outlook on life. This book maps four ways in which Puertolas's narratives use memory to approach the fundamental problem of the individual's search for purpose and identity.Some characters are burdened by memory in certain texts, especially Das del Arenal (1992) and Burdeos (1986). Reflection upon a painful self-defining memory affects their present mood and behavior. For some, this burden causes them to withdraw or to act irresponsibly; others accept and overcome the scars of the past. A second type of character takes an escapist approach to memory, as seen in Queda la noche (1989). Their nostalgic retreat indicates a restless dissatisfaction with the present. In a third type of memory, a secondary character provides the organizing force behind a protagonist's reminiscences, often an extroverted foil to highlight the protagonist's introspective nature. Memory of the relationship motivates the protagonist to mentally order his or her own life through the life review process; Una vida inesperada (1997) and La seora Berg (1998) provide examples. Finally, in the amnesic mode, Puertolas departs from realism to experiment with different forms of amnesia, as in La rosa de plata (1999) and Si al atardecer llegara el mensajero (1995). Memory loss highlights the centrality of memory to personhood and identity, while at the same time it draws attention to the inadequacy of memory to explain the totality of existence.

Is a tax amnesty a good tax policy? To address this question, this book examines whether a typical state tax amnesty is likely to generate substantial short term tax revenues without a corresponding significant negative effect on long run tax compliance. Although U.S. states have several motivations for implementing tax amnesties, the underlying objective boils down to raising tax revenues, either through the taxes collected immediately or through additions of new tax payers to the tax rolls and through an enlarged tax base. Are state tax amnesties successful in achieving this basic objective (i.e. bringing revenues to the state treasury that would not otherwise be collected)? This book revisits this critical question, given the significant fiscal crisis that many state governments have confronted since the turn of the twenty-first century.

This anthology shares creative ways feminists in higher education respond to the challenges of budget cuts, staffing shortages, and restructuring that are hallmarks of neoliberal universities. Contributors argue that neoliberal discourses undermine, commodify, and co-opt radical, transformative feminist work.

This book explores the cultural, aesthetic, and political relevance of music in radio art from its beginnings to present day. Contributors include musicologists, literary studies, and cultural studies scholars and cover radio plays, radio shows, and other programs in North American, English, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and German radio.

This book addresses important issues facing neighborhoods as they strive to meet the human needs of their residents. It examines neighborhood mobilization from multiple perspectives.

Using a variety of methodological perspectives, this volume explores ethical and doctrinal implications in the social practice of music. Grouped according to the threefold ministry of Christ (prophet, priest, shepherd) the essays discuss a wide range of musics-from medieval chant and psalmody to protest songs, metal, and Daft Punk.

This book explores the convergence of gender, race, and social identities in the often-exclusionary arena of American politics. Contributors examine contemporary issues as they relate to candidate positioning, acceptance, and clashing ideologies that pervade America's political landscape.

In this new and updated volume, the contributors examine the phenomena of presidential swing states in the 2016 presidential election. They explore the reasons why some states and, now counties are the focus of candidate attention, are capable of voting for either of the major candidates, and are decisive in determining who wins the presidency.

Paul's Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia are more pertinent than ever forty years later. The chapters in this book reflect the lectures' original intricacy as the authors not only insightfully analyze them but also creatively apply them.

This work provides an anthology of close textual readings and examinations of a wide range of topics by leading scholars in interreligious scholarship and Hindu-Jewish dialogue, offering innovative approaches to categories such as ritual, sacrifice, ethics, and theology while underscoring affinities between Hindu and Jewish philosophy and religion

This collection examines the Young Men's Christian Association's support for soldiers and civilians during World War I and World War II. The contributors approach the topic from various angles and argue that the YMCA's efforts routinely resulted in conflict with governments, other civic organizations, and individuals.

This book explores how parents make sense of, and respond to, differing cultural influences within their family. Chapters identify the communication strategies employed by the parents as they strive to create affirming relationships between children and their heritages.

This book examines the condition of religious organizations or teachings within a different culture where one or more indigenous religions are already present.

This interdisciplinary collection examines Tokyo in the cultural imagination. The contributors analyze how Tokyo has been perceived and experienced through such cultural lenses as novels, poetry, short stories, and films created in Japan since the 1980s.

In Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964-85, Neringa Klumbyte and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova bring together scholarship examining the social and cultural life of the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1964 to 1985.

This book is examines particular African countries that are recovering from civil wars that left thousands of their citizens internally displaced or as refugees in surrounding countries. The countries examined in the book are in the process of rebuilding institutions of governance that include judicial, legislative, and executive branches.

This book looks at the African diasporas as a process characterized by identity transformations, lived experiences, and realities; including the capturing of the historical trends that are acted out in multiple social domains.

Growth against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World, by H.L.T. Quan, is a radical critique of development as a modern project. Using three historical cases (Brazil-Japan, China-Africa, and US-Iraq), Quan probes the discursive practices of modern development, exploring the coercive and juridical dimensions of trade, diplomacy and war and their impact. This study builds on the critical works of neoliberalism, capitalist development, and empire to lay the groundwork for an honest assessment of neoliberal economics and foreign conducts and their impact on human life.

This collection examines the historical development of society's relationship to the environment in Central and Southeastern Europe. The contributors analyze the growth of environmental consciousness since the eighteenth century, the inception of environmental history as an academic discipline, and the rise of environmental movements in the region.

This book explores culture, development, and spirituality from a social work perspective using case studies from around the world. It serves as a guide for those who want to better understand and incorporate spirituality into successful social work interventions, practice, and research.

Thinking about Animals in the Age of the Anthropocene makes connections between the Anthropocene discourse and human-animal studies, thus facilitating further interdisciplinary work on the topic of animals in the Anthropocene.

Unraveling and Reweaving Sacred Canon in Africana Womanhood, a pioneering collection of essays by continental and diasporan African women, emerges from conversations about black female wellbeing and religious ideas in oral, written, and embodied forms. Through essays that affirm words and practices that enhance women's lives, contributors challenge traditional conceptions of sacred texts to untangle beneficial statements and uses of religious ideas from harmful patterns of employing religion and religious texts to diminish, disempower, and subjugate women and girls.

This edited collection raises questions about globalization, Japan's relationships with other Asian countries, and the continued importance of U.S.-Japan relations. The contributors analyze the historical development of the region and its current situation from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives to answer these questions.

This collection explores how the role of cinematography will evolve in an ever-increasing digitized industry in a transnational context. Contributors aim to bridge conversations about critical film studies and technical film practices while proposing that cinema has always been at the foreground of transnational culture.

This book offers case studies analyzing a full array of genres in children's literature, from picture books to young adult novels. This volume's contributions interrogate how children's literature is a powerful yet under examined space of rhetorical discourse that influences one of the most impressionable segments of our population.

This volume asks how and why the concept of nature has changed its meaning in modernity and whether a rearticulation of premodern ideas about nature is possible. Building on the work of Voegelin, Strauss, Lonergan, Finnis, and others, the book compares and contrasts classical, medieval, and modern conceptions of nature.

Employing the concept of "layering," this book seeks to rethink our relation to textual tradition against the background of the emergence of digital culture, the increasing spectacularization of psychic as well as social life, the renegotiation of historical thinking and the precarious position of the theoretical humanities within academia.

This collection examines contemporary artist and activist-inspired utopian projects and DIY communities of interest. Throwing into relief the immense difficulty of thinking beyond the current system of consumer capitalism, coupled with the powerful desire to do just that, this anthology explores what our ideals and desires tell us about ourselves.