Modernity is ubiquitous, unavoidable and indecipherable. This exciting volume in the Transitions series explores both history and contemporary ideas, pushing forward the boundaries of what we can unde
From cultural studies, sociology, media studies, gender studies and elsewhere there have been a spate of books recently which have attempted to characterize the state of modernity. Many of these have
Cities are sites of great wealth and poverty, of hope and despair, of social and economic dynamism, as well as tradition and established power. Social scientists and humanities scholars have over the
This is a multidimensional study of a simulation of modernity that transformed Nantong, a provincial town, from a rural backwater to a model of progress in early twentieth-century China. The author a
First Published in 1988, this volume works towards a new understanding and exploration of the rise and development of modern society, taking its lead from two classical theorists, Emile Durkheim and M
`...encompasses all the recent work on the archaeology of ourselves...transform[ing] archaeology into a discipline that can both contribute to a wide range of contemporary social issues and provide ne
The period between 1916 and 1956 was a unique interval in the history of Canadian publishing. During this period not only were a significant number of non-commercial literary, arts, and cultural magaz
Modernity theory approaches modern experience as it incorporates a sense of itself as ‘modern’ (modernity), along with the possibilities and limitations of representing this in the arts and culture ge
In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brough
In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brough
In Managing "Modernity," Rudra Sil examines how institution-builders respond to the competing influences of institutional models and inherited social legacies as they attempt to generate and sustain a
Cruel Modernity is a bold and important analysis of acts of extreme cruelty perpetrated in Latin America, and the ways that governments and rogue organizations justify their barbarity. Jean Franco ar
Modernity has had so many meanings and carries so many contradictory values that it crashes like a computer program full of bugs every time we use it to define the future. We need to reset modernity's
Sociologists, other social scientists, and historians explore the notion of cosmopolitan democracy: that democracy among nations is the safest path for the spread of democracy within nations. Their to
Analyzing the conditions under which dehumanizing cruelty came to be used by states and rogue groups in Latin America, Jean Franco argues that acts of extreme cruelty and the ways they are rationalize
This volume condenses and presents the social systems theory of German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), focusing on the structure and political aspects of the theory. The author first presents
The uncanny is an experience of disorientation, where the world suddenly seems strange, alienating or threatening. Using film, literature, and perspectives from cultural theory, this book explores the
In this important theoretical and empirical statement John Law argues against the purity of post-enlightenment political and social theory, and offers an alternative post-modern sociology. Arguing in
Is popular culture merely a process of creating, marketing, and consuming a final product, or is it an expression of the artist's surroundings and an attempt to alter them? Noted Argentine/Mexican ant
Written by a team of international scholars, the seventeen essays in this book collectively and critically reflect on the historical genesis of modern racism, from its constitution in early modernity,
The Architecture of James Gowan: Modernity and Reinvention chronicles the course of James Gowan's life and work, with his involvement in some of the most important and influential buildings in post-wa
Until the late nineteenth century, Japan could boast of an elaborate cultural tradition surrounding the love and desire that men felt for other men. By the first years of the twentieth century, howeve
Modernity's break with the Middle Ages is distinguished by a comprehensive turn to a world of individual, empirical experience, a turn that was a repudiation of Plato's idea that there is a reality of
The scale of the 2012 bicentenary celebrations of Dickens's birth is testimony to his status as one of the most globally popular literary authors the world has ever seen. Yet Dickens has also become a
An astonishing group of sixty-nine “Character Heads” by German sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) has fascinated viewers, artists, and collectors for more than two centuries. The heads, ca
In Cote d’Ivoire, appearing modern is so important for success that many young men deplete their already meager resources to project an illusion of wealth in a fantastic display of Western imitation,
This book offers critical engagements with four objects from the nineteenth century: The ruins of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham and the dinosaurs that remain, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Garden
This book consists of essays and reviews that address social, political, and cultural issues which arose in connection with literature broadly conceived in the wake of the First World War, and extendi
Originally published in 1962, when Lefebvre was beginning his career as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Strasbourg, it established his position in the vanguard of a movement which was to
Marsh locates Pound and Williams firmly in the Jeffersonian tradition and examines their epic poems as manifestations of a Jeffersonian ideology in modernist terms.The modernist poets William Carlos W
It's a critical cliche that Cervantes' Don Quixote is the first modern novel, but this distinction raises two fundamental questions. First, how does one define a novel? And second, what is the relatio
