Political Modernity and Social Theory

Modern liberal democracy and authoritarian collectivism have known diverse political regimes; autocratic, oligarchic or democratic, they each consist of a mixed, partly oligarchic regime in which plebeian politics are subordinated. With authoritarian collectivism’s defeat, a return to modernity has produced one more hybrid configuration. An in-depth investigation of political modernity and how it is differentiated from other forms of society, this book researches its origins and trajectory as a specific dimension of modern civilisation – articulating a renewed critical theory through an analysis of rights and law, politics, state and autonomy, social reproduction, crisis and political change. Examining these diverse aspects, Political Modernity and Social Theory proposes an encompassing and far-reaching approach spanning past and present – stressing radical plebeian democracy and maintaining a strong opening to the future and to possible alternatives to modernity. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license

The Globalization of Foreign Aid

Why do aid agencies from wealthy donor countries with diverse domestic political and economic contexts arrive at very similar positions on a wide array of aid policies and priorities? This book suggests that this homogenization of policy represents the effects of common processes of globalization manifest in the aid sector. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative analysis of policy adoption, the book argues that we need to examine macro-level globalizing influences at the same time as understanding the micro-level social processes at work within aid agencies, in order to adequately explain the so-called ‘emerging global consensus’ that constitutes the globalization of aid. The book explores how global influences on aid agencies in Canada, Sweden, and the United States are mediated through micro-level processes. Using a mixed-methods approach, the book combines cross-national statistical analysis at the global level with two comparative case studies which look at the adoption of common policy priorities in the fields of gender and security. The Globalization of Foreign Aid will be useful to researchers of foreign aid, development, international relations and globalization, as well as to the aid policy community. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY) 4.0 license

Spatial Agency and Occupation

There are around 340,000 Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, but the ways in which they experience migration is largely hidden in the homes of their employers. This book helps us to understand the complexities of migrant experiences by analysing the socio-spatial consequences that emerge from global migrant labour, and examining the capacity of the disenfranchised to create new spatialities by using public space to resist their disempowerment. This approach gives voice to a phenomenon silenced by the hegemony of mainstream urban economics and, in turn, reveals practices that cut across global labour. By shedding light on the importance of space in moulding these practices and how these practices, in turn, shape space, Kwok demonstrates the power and limits of spatial agency in pushing back against the deleterious consequences of considering labour as another commodity, and reveals what lies behind the curtain of Hong Kong’s ‘successful’ spatial capitalism

Changing Transatlantic Security Relations

This new book shows how the idea of a strategic triangle can illuminate the security relationships among the United States, the European Union and Russia in the greater transatlantic sphere. This concept highlights how the relationships among these three actors may, on some issues, be closely related. A central question also follows directly from the use of the notion of the triangle: does the EU have actor capability in this policy sphere or will it get it in the future? The reason this is so important for our project is that only if the Union is regarded by the two other actors, and regards itself, as an actor in security policy does the strategic triangle really exists. Consequently, this book has a strong focus upon the development of the actor capability of the Union. In the case of the United States, it examines to what extent the concept of the strategic triangle has significance under each of five grand strategies that serve as alternative visions of the superpower’s role in the world

Allied Air Attacks and Civilian Harm in Italy, 1940–1945

Tens of thousands of Italian civilians perished in the Allied bombing raids of World War II. More of them died after the Armistice of September 1943 than before, when the air attacks were intended to induce Italy’s surrender. Allied Air Attacks and Civilian Harm in Italy, 1940–1945 addresses this seeming paradox, by examining the views of Allied political and military leaders, Allied air crews, and Italians on the ground. It tells the stories of a little-known diplomat (Myron Charles Taylor), military strategist (Solly Zuckerman), resistance fighter (Aldo Quaranta), and peace activist (Vera Brittain) – architects and opponents of the bombing strategies. It describes the fate of ordinary civilians, drawing on a wealth of local and digital archival sources, memoir accounts, novels, and films, including Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and John Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro. The book will be of interest to readers concerned about the ethical, legal, and human dimensions of bombing and its effects on civilians, to students of military strategy and Italian history, and to World War II buffs. They will benefit from a people-focused history that draws on a range of eclectic and rarely used sources in English and Italian. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 licens

Emotion, Race, and Space in Contemporary African American Literature

This open access book examines how selected African American authors—Colson Whitehead, Edward P. Jones, Toni Morrison, Brit Bennett, Percival Everett, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Sherri L. Smith, and N.K. Jemisin—narrate relationships between emotion, race, and space. On the one hand, they bear witness to the structural production of Black emotional pain at the confluence of racial and spatial discrimination. On the other hand, they reveal meaningful and subversive interlinkages between Black emotional experiences and Black spatial practices. Weaving together insights from psychology, narrative theory, African American studies, affect theory, and Black Geographies, Marijana Mikić interrogates fear, hope, shame, guilt, anger, and grief in relation to the racial-geographic projects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and their continued legacies. Mikić draws attention to the narrative strategies contemporary African American authors employ to prompt their readers’ engagement with both the pain and the possibility that continues to shape Black lives in the twenty-first century

Constitutional Discussions on Nuclear Energy in Germany

This book analyses the German constitutional system's responses towards nuclear energy. Robert Rybski begins with a presentation of energy security as a constitutional value and explores how it connects with nuclear energy. He also examines constitutional standards derived from the German Constitution, which directly regulates nuclear energy issues within the German system of power. The book presents the structure of sources of law that are binding in the area of security of nuclear installations and considers the impact that The European Atomic Energy Community had on the German constitutional system. The final part of the book is devoted to a novel judicial concept of the so-called Restrisiko – a risk that cannot be avoided – which has been developed in the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court. The essence of this concept is an assumption that as long as the legal framework regulating nuclear energy fulfils conditions formulated in that judgment, then each citizen has to accept risks resulting from the nuclear energy sector. Covering the entire period of commercial usage of nuclear energy for power generation, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars and energy experts who are active in researching or adopting public policies related to the nuclear energy sector. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license