Suchergebnisse

By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship--which have emerged together in Thailand's dynamic religious field in recent decades--Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour's account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in which originally distinct cults centred on Indian deities, Chinese gods and Thai religious and royal figures have merged in commercial spaces and media sites to sacralize the market and wealth production. Emerging within popular culture, this complex of cults of wealth, amulets and spirit mediumship is supported by all levels of Thai society, including those at the acme of economic and political power. New theoretical frameworks are presented in analyses that challenge the view that magic is a residue of premodernity, placing the dramatic transformations of cultic ritual centre stage in modern Thai history. It is concluded that modern enchantment arises at the confluence of three processes: neoliberal capitalism's production of occult economies, the auraticizing effects of technologies of mass mediatization, and the performative force of ritual in religious fields where practice takes precedence over doctrine.

This is a fully revised and substantially expanded edition of Peter Jackson's highly regarded pioneering study of an Asian gay culture, Male Homosexuality in Thailand (1989). The hero of Jackson's fascinating narrative is "Uncle Go", which was the pen name of a popular magazine editor who, despite being avowedly heterosexual, was tolerant of all sexual practices and whose "agony uncle" columns in the 1970s provided unique spaces in the national press for Thailand's gays, lesbians and transgenders (kathoeys) to speak for themselves in the public domain. By allowing the voices of alternative sex

The roots of contemporary food anxieties -- Mapping contemporary food anxieties -- Anxiety as a social condition -- Technological change and consumer anxieties about food -- Food scares and the regulation of supply chains -- Mediating science and nature: parental anxieties about food -- Celebrity chefs and the circulation of food anxieties -- Consumer anxieties and domestic food practices -- Rethinking convenience and food waste -- The routes of contemporary food anxieties

This is a major new study of French foreign and security policy before, during and after the First World War. Peter Jackson examines the interplay between two contending conceptions of security: the first based on traditional practices of power politics and the second on internationalist doctrines that emerged in the late nineteenth century. He pays particular attention to the social and political context in which security policy was made and to the cultural dynamics of the policy-making process. The result is a comprehensive reassessment of France's security policy in the era of the Great War. The book reconsiders the evolution of French war aims and reinterprets the peace policy of the Clemenceau government in 1919. It also provides a new perspective on the foreign policy of successive French governments in the early 1920s. It shows that internationalist ideas were far more influential over this entire period than is commonly understood

This innovative book marks a significant departure from tradition anlayses of the evolution of cultural landscapes and the interpretation of past environments. Maps of Meaning proposes a new agenda for cultural geography, one set squarely in the context of contemporary social and cultural theory.Notions of place and space are explored through the study of elite and popular cultures, gender and sexuality, race, language and ideology. Questioning the ways in which we invest the world with meaning, the book is an introduction to both culture's geographies and the geography of culture

This book provides a systematical analysis of all available social and demographic data released by the Chinese government. Additional to western literature, this book provides a good review of relevant research literature published in Chinese. With anacademic background of sociology and demography, the author focuses his analyses on various issues such as migration, marriage, income, consumption and education

This book provides a systematical analysis of all available social and demographic data released by the Chinese government. Additional to western literature, this book provides a good review of relevant research literature published in Chinese. With anacademic background of sociology and demography, the author focuses his analyses on various issues such as migration, marriage, income, consumption and education

This book provides a systematical analysis of all available social and demographic data released by the Chinese government. Additional to western literature, this book provides a good review of relevant research literature published in Chinese. With anacademic background of sociology and demography, the author focuses his analyses on various issues such as migration, marriage, income, consumption and education.

France and the Nazi Menace examines the French response to the challenge posed by National Socialist Germany in the years 1933-1939. Jackson argues that the German threat was far from the only challenge facing French national leaders in an era of economic depression and profound ideological discord. Only after the national humiliation at the Munich Conference did the threat from Nazi Germany take precedence over France's internal problems in the making ofpolicy.