From The Margins

DIVState-of-the-art volume by the major voices in historical anthropology./div

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Arab world has undergone a series of radical transformations. One of the most significant is the resurgence of activist and puritanical forms of religion presenting as viable alternatives to existing social, cultural and political practices. The rise in sectarianism and violence in the name of religion has left scholars searching for adequate conceptual tools that might generate a clearer insight into these interconnected conflicts. In Striking from the Margins, leading authorities in their field propose new analytical frameworks to facilitate greater understanding of the fragmentation and devolution of the state in the Arab world. Challenging the revival of well-worn theories in cultural and post-colonial studies, they provide novel contributions on issues ranging from military formations, political violence in urban and rural settings, transregional war economies, the crystallisation of sect-based authorities and the restructuring of tribal networks. Placing much-needed emphasis on the re-emergence of religion, this timely and vital volume offers a new, critical approach to the study of the volatile and evolving cultural, social and political landscapes of the Middle East.

This book asks the question: what is the role of memory during a political transition? Drawing on Ethiopian history, transitional justice, and scholarly fields concerned with memory, museums and trauma, the author reveals a complex picture of global, transnational, national and local forces as they converge in the story of the creation and continued life of one modest museum in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa—the Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum. It is a study from multiple margins: neither the case of Ethiopia nor memorialization is central to transitional justice discourse, and within Ethiopia, the history of the Red Terror is sidelined in contemporary politics. From these nested margins, traumatic memory emerges as an ambiguous social and political force. The contributions, meaning and limitations of memory emerge at the point of discrete interactions between memory advocates, survivor-docents and visitors. Memory from the margins is revealed as powerful for how it disrupts, not builds, new forms of community.

Rukmini Pande’s examination of race in fan studies is sure to make an immediate contribution to the growing field. Until now, virtually no sustained examination of race and racism in transnational fan cultures has taken place, a lack that is especially concerning given that current fan spaces have never been more vocal about debating issues of privilege and discrimination. Pande’s study challenges dominant ideas of who fans are and how these complex transnational and cultural spaces function, expanding the scope of the field significantly. Along with interviewing thirty-nine fans from nine different countries about their fan practices, she also positions media fandom as a postcolonial cyberspace, enabling scholars to take a more inclusive view of fan identity. With analysis that spans from historical to contemporary, Pande builds a case for the ways in which non-white fans have always been present in such spaces, though consistently ignored.

Have you ever heard, "you were really great, but the chosen candidate just had a bit more experience?" How about "we really liked your pitch, but the other vendor tightened their pricing/" Or, "you've been doing a fabulous job, but I think we'll hold off this year for your promotion?" If you've ever experienced any of these, somewhere deep in your gut, you've probably questioned what you could have done differently to change the outcome. Where in the interview, meeting, or day-to-day performance did you "lose" the chance for success? At The Margins: Mastering the Nuances of Communication to Build Credibility, Persuade and Differentiate will help you dramatically increase your success in every high stakes communication. The line between winning a pitch or getting that great job is often no different than the Olympic sprinter who wins the Gold Medal by fractions of seconds. All the competitors are outstanding, but the winner did a few subtle things marginally better, giving them the winning edge. At The Margins looks at every aspect of Communication with a similar lens. In a competitive environment where everyone is good, you need to master all the nuances of presenting an idea and yourself credibly, persuasively and, confidently to give decision-makers that feeling that you are the best! At The Margins will help you build your entire communication repertoire: effective presentations, pitches, starting and carrying conversations, asking great questions...and most critically, listening. Persuading key stakeholders may result in winning a major piece of business, getting approval on a critical initiative, building your professional credibility, or making you feel empowered. You know how important it is to communicate with confidence, clarity, and conviction. Like anyone great at anything, it looks effortless, but every great athlete, artist, or musician has spent countless hours honing their skills to make it look easy. Communication is no different. At The Margins: Mastering the Nuances of Communication to Build Credibility, Persuade, and Differentiate will help you rethink Communication without having to give up any of your authenticity. Whether you're a "natural" or the person who is deathly afraid of being the centre of attention, this book will help you be consistently credible, persuasive, and differentiate you from your competition. Neil Grammer has been a Communication Coach and Consultant for over 25 years. He has coached thousands of business professionals from CEO's and Board Members to new hires just starting their careers. He has worked with hundreds of decision-makers to learn what ultimately persuades them to commit their time, resources and, ultimately, reputations when they approve a contract or new hire. This combination of in-depth real-world experience and perspective on how decision-makers think that makes At The Margins a book that will help you improve at the one skill that most differentiates you and your business.

What does it mean to be French? What constitutes Frenchness ? Is it birth, language, attachment to republicanism, adherence to cultural norms? In contemporary France, these questions resonate in light of the large number of non-French and non-European immigrants, many from former French colonies, who have made France home in recent decades. Historically, French identity has long been understood as the product of a centralized state and culture emanating from Paris that was itself central to European history and civilization. Likewise, French identity in terms of class, gender, nationality, and religion mainly has been explained as a strong, indivisible core, against which marginal actors have been defined. This collection of essays offers examples drawn from an imperial history of France that show the power of the periphery to shape diverse and dynamic modern French identities at its center. Each essay explains French identity as a fluid process rather than a category into which French citizens (and immigrants) are expected to fit. In using a core/periphery framework to explore identity creation, Views from the Margins breaks new ground in bringing together diverse historical topics from politics, religion, regionalism, consumerism, nationalism, and gendered aspects of civic and legal engagement.

Each of the chapters in this volume derives from recently conducted research grounded in an attempt to examine some of the issues posed in what can be described as postmodernist theorising on the nature of the contemporary city. Implicit in the very conception of the book, and running through each of the contributions, is the view that contemporary popular culture is crucial to the understanding of the transformations to which we refer, and that the investigation of this popular culture needs to move beyond the parameters of cultural studies to include sociological, political and economic analyses. In addition to students of popular cultural studies, the book will be of interest to all those studying sociology, urban studies and cultural studies, as well as those with a desire to have contemporary social theorising more firmly located in empirical investigation.