Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Ethnic Studies - General

Joe Appiah lived an extraordinary life against a tumultuous background. This is the story of his life, his country, and his continent - the memoirs of an African patriot living through one of the most remarkable periods of change in Ghanian history. Appiah views his country's history from his own uniquely personal perspective: that of an Ashanti aristocrat, heir to a leading Ashanti capitalist, a devout methodist. Born in 1918, Appiah actively engaged in the politics of his country from colonial domination, through independence in 1957, and for the next 25 years of political, military, and...

Entrepreneurship is recognised as an integral element of economic advancement and social force. With socio-political transformation within China in the past three decades, integration of China s economy into the global market, and the wide spreading of Chinese businesses to other parts of the world, Chinese entrepreneurs have increasingly absorbed modern entrepreneurial norms, practice and spirit. The cultural and historical effects intricately interact with rapid changes in social, economic and political institutions. This has led to a high degree of continuity of the unique...

This book presents a comprehensive survey of Moroccan foreign policy since 1999. It considers the objectives, actors and decision-making processes involved, and outlines Morocco's foreign policy activity in key areas such as the international management of the Western Sahara conflict and relations with the other states of North Africa, relations with the European Union, especially France and Spain, and relations with the United States and the Middle East. The book links the behaviour and discourses analysed to differing conceptions of Morocco's national role on the international scene -...

Hinduism cannot be understood without the Great Goddess and the goddess-orientated kta traditions. The Goddess pervades Hinduism at all levels, from aniconic village deities to high-caste pan-Hindu goddesses to esoteric, tantric goddesses. Nevertheless, the highly influential tantric forms of South Asian goddess worship have only recently begun to draw scholarly attention. This book addresses the increasing interest in the Great Goddess and the tantric traditions of India by exploring the history, doctrine and practices of the kta tantric traditions.

The highly influential...

Religious nationalists and women's activists have transformed India over the past century. They debated the idea of India under colonial rule, shaped the constitutional structure of Indian democracy, and questioned the legitimacy of the postcolonial consensus, as they politicized one dimension of identity.

Using a historical comparative approach, the book argues that external events, activist agency in strategizing, and the political economy of transnational networks explain the relative success and failure of Hindu nationalism and the Indian women's movement rather than...

Western liberal constitutionalism has expanded recently, with, in East Asia, the constitutional systems of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan based on Western principles, and with even the socialist polities of China and Vietnam having some regard to such principles. Despite the alleged universal applicability of Western constitutionalism, however, the success of any constitutional system depends in part on the cultural values, customs and traditions of the country into which the constitutional system is planted. This book explains how the values, customs and traditions of East Asian countries...

The decollectivization of Chinese agriculture in the early post-Mao period is widely recognized as a critical part of the overall reform program. But the political process leading to this outcome is poorly understood. A number of approaches have dominated the existing literature: 1) a power/policy struggle between Hua Guofeng's alleged neo-Maoists and Deng Xiaoping's reform coalition; 2) the power of the peasants; and 3) the leading role of provincial reformers. The first has no validity, while second and third must be viewed through more complex lenses.

This study provides a new...

This book explores developments in the countries of the South Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia since the EU included the region in the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2003. It considers issues related to energy, ethnic conflict, steps towards regional integration, and, above all, security including the involvement of Russia, Iran, Turkey and the United States. It assesses the key importance of energy, argues that the prospects for regional integration are weak, and contends that while the approach of Europe and the United States has been confused and weak, not holding out great...

The Arab uprisings have put Lebanon under increased strain. While the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt caused limited reverberations, the war in Syria echoed in the fine-tuned political and confessional balance of Lebanon. Over one million refugees, equal to one-quarter of Lebanon s population, have moved in from Syria. The country s economy and its already weak public infrastructure have been impacted heavily. Hizbullah s engagement in Syria has posed questions about Lebanon s disassociation policy. Terrorist attacks by ISIL and the growing risk of radicalization across the confessional...

The modern history of Chinese temples and Daoism go hand in hand, and while both temples and Daoists serve Chinese society, the relationship between the two has yet to be thoroughly analysed. This book questions whether temples and Daoism are two independent aspects of modern Chinese religion, or if they are indissolubly linked.

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining historical research and fieldwork, the book focuses on urban centres in China, as this is where socio-political changes came earliest and affected religious life to the greatest extent, and also where the...

Education has long been highly valued in China, and continues to be highly valued, both by the state, which appreciates the value of education for maintaining China's economic rise, and by parents, who, affected by the One Child Policy, devote a large proportion of their incomes to their one child's education. This book explores current systems of teacher management in China and assesses their effectiveness. It charts the development of China's education system, outlines present day human resource management methods in Chinese schools, including practices for recruitment and selection,...

Over the past two decades, Japan's socioeconomic environment has undergone considerable changes prompted by both a long recession and the relaxation of particular labour laws in the 1990s and 2000s. Within this context, "freeters," part-time workers aged between fifteen and thirty-four who are not housewives or students, emerged into the public arena as a social problem.

This book, drawing on six years of ethnographic research, takes the lives of male freeters as a lens to examine contemporary ideas and experiences of adult masculinities. It queries how notions of adulthood and...

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the 'Sepah', has wielded considerable and increasing power in Iran in recent decades. Established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini as a paramilitary organisation charged with protecting the nascent Islamic regime and countering the untrustworthy Imperial army (or 'Artesh'), the Sepah has evolved into one of the most powerful political, ideological, military and economic players in Iran over recent years. The Sepah is entrusted with a diverse set of indoctrination apparatus, training programmes and system welfare provisions intended to broaden...

Family businesses have been an important part of the economy in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and in the Chinese diaspora, and, since the reforms, in mainland China itself. Some people have argued that the success of Chinese family businesses occurs because of the special characteristics and approach of such businesses. This book examines the nature of Chinese family business and the key issues involved by exploring in detail the case of a leading Hong Kong jewellery company, Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (TSL), which was established by Tse Sui Luen in the 1960s and which has grown to become one...

Economic liberalisation processes and the rapid development of the private sector are widely visible signs of over thirty years of reform policies in the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has managed to preserve the basic political institutions of the Leninist Party-state, including its own unrestrained position of political power. Against this background, this book investigates the interrelationship between processes of marketisation and commercialisation, and the stability of the CCP regime.

The aim of the book is to complement...

This book examines the crisis in Ukraine, tracing its development and analysing the factors which lie behind it. It discusses above all how the two sides have engaged in political posturing, accusations, escalating sanctions and further escalating threats, arguing that the ease with which both sides have reverted to a Cold War mentality demonstrates that the Cold War belief systems never really disappeared, and that the hopes raised in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union for a new era in East-West relations were misplaced. The book pays special attention to the often ignored...

This book examines the ruptured characteristics of colonialism in nineteenth-century India. It connects the British East India Company's efforts at the bourgeoisation of India with the Revolt of 1857. The volume shows how the mutiny of Indian sepoys in the British Indian army became a popular uprising of peasants, artisans and discontented aristocrats against the British. Tracing the rationale and consequences of this conflict, the monograph highlights how newly introduced political, economic and agrarian policies as part of industrial Britain's colonial policy wreaked havoc, resulting in...