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"In 1992, a gang leader was shot dead by an ANC member in Kroonstad. The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog's stoep. In Begging to Be Black, Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely in scope, both in time - reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe - and in space, as we follow Krog's experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her. Begging to Be Black is a book of journeys - moral, historical, philosophical and geographical. These form strands that Krog interweaves and sets in conversation with each other, as she explores questions of change and becoming, coherency and connectedness, before drawing them closer together as the book approaches its powerful end. Experimental and courageous, Begging to Be Black is a welcome addition to Krog's own oeuvre and to South African literary non-fiction"--Book jacket

"Begging, Street Politics and Power explores the complex phenomenon of begging in the context of two different religions and societies in South Asia. Focusing on India and Pakistan, the book provides an in-depth examination of the religious and secular laws regulating begging along with discussion of the power dynamics involved. Drawing on textual analysis and qualitative field research, the chapters consider the notion of charity within Hinduism and Islam, the transaction of giving and receiving, and the political structures at play in the locations studied. The book engages with the conflicting compassionate and criminal sides of begging and reveals some of the commonalities and differences in religion and society within South Asia. It will be of interest to scholars working across the fields of religious studies, social science, law and Asian studies"--

A review of Al Contrario: Sobre Liderazgo, Globalizacion e Injerenicia (On the Contrary: One Leadership, Globalization and Interference), by Carlos Alsonso Zalidivar, is presented.

A discussion of the obstacles presented in Catharine MacKinnon's Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989), drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's analyses to overcome some of the difficulties detected. It is argued that MacKinnon's failure to distinguish between the ways that law textures & tears apart sexual objectification leaves little room for political practice besides legislative reform & impact legislation. Bourdieu's conceptions of symbolic violence & the habitus are employed to distinguish between discursive & prediscursive forms of power, & to underscore the need for & some of the limits to reflexive scholarship. It is suggested that the dominant legal habitus uses interpretive strategies that support the assumption that law acts as discourse when it does not act by overt bodily restraint. This assumption is questioned, & a research orientation is suggested that reveals the ways in which discursive & prediscursive knowledge perpetuate this idea. 120 References. D. Schwartz

Juxtaposes two subareas of First Amendment jurisprudence -- commercial speech & begging -- to investigate how law is the institutionalization of power. Commercial advertising & panhandling engage in the same expression -- asking for monetary consideration -- yet one is deemed speech, hence protected, while the other is determined to be conduct, hence abridgeable. The fact that commercial speech receives protection & begging does not implies that the law is power. The speech emanating from corporations & middle class charitable organizations is protected, while the parallel expression from the poor & homeless is not. In tracing the treatment of commercial speech & begging-as-speech, a movement of First Amendment legal doctrine is revealed: it initially encompasses the political theories of participation from the civil rights movement, then proceeds to the present, where doctrine reflects a revolt against individual rights in consideration of the political theory of communitarianism. The denial of beggars' right to engage in expressive conduct in limited public forums rests on a newly articulated right of the community against individual-oriented rights & signals a diminution of the power of speech of the poor. 130 References. Modified AA

AbstractEconomic crises during Chile's civic–military dictatorship (1973–90) forced a growing number of people onto the streets, including women who commuted from peripheral neighbourhoods to beg in downtown Santiago. Under military rule, impoverished women in public spaces became a police problem. Despite their constant presence on the streets throughout the twentieth century, Chile's begging laws were rarely applied to women, except for a brief period under Pinochet, when begging emerged as a female crime in Santiago. This paper examines female begging and the policing of female begging, revealing both to be framed as a defence of the family.