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Subject: Sociology

Going Real: The Value of Design in the Era of PostCapitalism

Giovanni Innella, Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology, Japan and Marco Petroni

April 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-605-8
Availability: In stock
92pp. [Color] ¦ $54 £40 €46

In the age of post-capitalism, what is the value of design? Is value defined by economic potential? Or is it something far less tangible? Now more than ever design has the ability to engage us in economic, political and cultural debate, to actively resist the monotony of daily life, and to counteract the precarious situation on which modern society seems to rest. Positioning itself as a lens through which to view the world, design allows us, and in some cases, even forces us to reflect on the many aspects of the societies in which we live. Divided into three chapters, GOING REAL positions itself in relation to the works of Marc Jongen, Maurizio Lazzarato, Adam Greenfield and Tiziana Terranova, among others. However, unlike the abovementioned authors, this book draws on the works of selected designers and artists to reflect on the economic, political and cultural aspects of our post-capitalist societies. Beginning with an in-depth case study of Detroit during the downfall of the industrial era, this volume moves on to a timely and provocative insight into the human crises surrounding current migration trends with a particular focus on Calais. Finally, in the third chapter, the human body itself is laid bare as the authors analyse how and why the most personal of ‘spaces’ became not only the ultimate marketplace for businesses but also an object of control for governments.

Monsters, Monstrosities, and the Monstrous in Culture and Society

Edited by Diego Compagna, University of Applied Sciences Munich, Germany and Stefanie Steinhart, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

November 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-536-5
Availability: In stock
426pp. ¦ $68 £51 €58

Existing research on monsters acknowledges the deep impact monsters have especially on Politics, Gender, Life Sciences, Aesthetics and Philosophy. From Sigmund Freud’s essay ‘The Uncanny’ to Scott Poole’s ‘Monsters in America’, previous studies offer detailed insights about uncanny and immoral monsters. However, our anthology wants to overcome these restrictions by bringing together multidisciplinary authors with very different approaches to monsters and setting up variety and increasing diversification of thought as ‘guiding patterns’. Existing research hints that monsters are embedded in social and scientific exclusionary relationships but very seldom copes with them in detail. Erving Goffman’s doesn’t explicitly talk about monsters in his book ‘Stigma’, but his study is an exceptional case which shows that monsters are stigmatized by society because of their deviations from norms, but they can form groups with fellow monsters and develop techniques for handling their stigma. Our book is to be understood as a complement and a ‘further development’ of previous studies: The essays of our anthology pay attention to mechanisms of inequality and exclusion concerning specific historical and present monsters, based on their research materials within their specific frameworks, in order to ‘create’ engaging, constructive, critical and diverse approaches to monsters, even utopian visions of a future of societies shared by monsters. Our book proposes the usual view, that humans look in a horrified way at monsters, but adds that monsters can look in a critical and even likewise frightened way at the very societies which stigmatize them.

All Around Monstrous: Monster Media in Their Historical Contexts

Edited by Frank Jacob, Nord University, Norway and Verena Bernardi, Saarland University, Germany

June 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-458-0
Availability: In stock
298pp. ¦ $65 £48 €55

We know all kinds of monsters. Vampires who suck human blood, werewolves who harass tourists in London or Paris, zombies who long to feast on our brains, or Godzilla, who is famous in and outside of Japan for destroying whole cities at once. Regardless of their monstrosity, all of these creatures are figments of the human mind and as real as they may seem, monsters are and always have been constructed by human beings. In other words, they are imagined. How they are imagined, however, depends on many different aspects and changes throughout history. The present volume provides an insight into the construction of monstrosity in different kinds of media, including literature, film, and TV series. It will show how and by whom monsters are really created, how time changes the perception of monsters and what characterizes specific monstrosities in their specific historical contexts. The book will provide valuable insights for scholars in different fields, whose interest focuses on either media studies or history.

Political Corruption in a World in Transition

Edited by Jonathan Mendilow, Rider University and Éric Phélippeau, Université Paris Nanterre, France

June 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-332-3
Availability: In stock
337pp. ¦ $65 £49 €55

This book argues that the mainstream definitions of corruption, and the key expectations they embed concerning the relationship between corruption, democracy, and the process of democratization, require reexamination. Even critics who did not consider stable institutions and legal clarity of veteran democracies as a cure-all, assumed that the process of widening the influence on government decision making and implementation allows non-elites to defend their interests, define the acceptable sources and uses of wealth, and demand government accountability. This had proved correct, especially insofar as ‘petty corruption’ is involved. But the assumption that corruption necessarily involves the evasion of democratic principles and a ‘market approach’ in which the corrupt seek to maximize profit does not exhaust the possible incentives for corruption, the types of behaviors involved (for obvious reasons, the tendency in the literature is to focus on bribery), or the range of situations that ‘permit’ corruption in democracies. In the effort to identify some of the problems that require recognition, and to offer a more exhaustive alternative, the chapters in this book focus on corruption in democratic settings (including NGOs and the United Nations which were largely so far ignored), while focusing mainly on behaviors other than bribery.

The Pertinence of Exodus: Philosophical Questions on the Contemporary Symbolism of the Biblical Story

Edited by Sandro Gorgone, University of Messina, Italy and Laurin Mackowitz, University of Innsbruck, Austria

August 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-771-0
Availability: In stock
216pp. ¦ $61 £47 €54

The Exodus has a risky and combative character that links individuals to their unconscious, to the uncertainty of their reality, and to the possibility of the disturbing event of the incalculable arrival of the Other. This encounter with the unknown does not expect a messianic salvation but a human solution, which is aware that change requires the abandonment of self-referential identities. This eccentricity is more than evasive desertion or escapism, but an experiment with new modes of organizing community that grows on the responsibilities that go with it. This collected volume gathers contemporary philosophical perspectives on the Exodus, examining the story’s symbolic potentials and dynamics in the light of current social political events. The imagination of the Promised Land, the figure of the migrant, the provisional and precarious dwelling of the camp, the promise of a better future or the gradual estrangement from inherited habits are all challenges of our time that are already conceptualized in the Exodus. The authors reaffirm the pertinence of the story by addressing the fundamental link between the ancient narrative and the human condition of the 21st century.

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