Melissa Butcher – författare

This book documents urban experiences of dissent and emergent resistance against disjunctive global and local capital, technology and labour flows that converge and intersect in some of Asia’s fastest growing cities. Rather than constructing occupants of the city as simply passive victims of globalisation or urbanisation, it presents ways in which people are using everyday strategies embedded in cultural practice to challenge dominant socio-economic and political forces impacting on urban space. Taking the city as a site of contestation and a stage where social conflicts are played out, the book highlights the connections between urban power and dissent; the nature and impact of resistance; how the spatiality and built environment of the city generates conflict and, conversely, how protagonists use the cityscape to stage their everyday and public dissent. The contributors explore the conditions, strategies, and outcomes of such dissent and forms of cultural resistance, and explore the following themes: the impact of urban development, gentrification and ghetto-isation; urban counter narratives and the re-imagining of city spaces; the role of grassroots activism and social movements; cultural resistance in the creation of neighbourhoods and communities; the impact of gender, class and the politics of identity on forms of dissent; the formation of transgressive spaces.

This book documents urban experiences of dissent and emergent resistance against disjunctive global and local capital, technology and labour flows that converge and intersect in some of Asia’s fastest growing cities. Rather than constructing occupants of the city as simply passive victims of globalisation or urbanisation, it presents ways in which people are using everyday strategies embedded in cultural practice to challenge dominant socio-economic and political forces impacting on urban space. Taking the city as a site of contestation and a stage where social conflicts are played out, the book highlights the connections between urban power and dissent; the nature and impact of resistance; how the spatiality and built environment of the city generates conflict and, conversely, how protagonists use the cityscape to stage their everyday and public dissent. The contributors explore the conditions, strategies, and outcomes of such dissent and forms of cultural resistance, and explore the following themes: the impact of urban development, gentrification and ghetto-isation; urban counter narratives and the re-imagining of city spaces; the role of grassroots activism and social movements; cultural resistance in the creation of neighbourhoods and communities; the impact of gender, class and the politics of identity on forms of dissent; the formation of transgressive spaces.

This book documents urban experiences of dissent and emergent resistance against disjunctive global and local capital, technology and labour flows that converge and intersect in some of Asia’s fastest growing cities. Rather than constructing occupants of the city as simply passive victims of globalisation or urbanisation, it presents ways in which people are using everyday strategies embedded in cultural practice to challenge dominant socio-economic and political forces impacting on urban space.

Taking the city as a site of contestation and a stage where social conflicts are played out, the book highlights the connections between urban power and dissent; the nature and impact of resistance; how the spatiality and built environment of the city generates conflict and, conversely, how protagonists use the cityscape to stage their everyday and public dissent.

The contributors explore the conditions, strategies, and outcomes of such dissent and forms of cultural resistance, and explore the following themes:

the impact of urban development, gentrification and ghetto-isation;

urban counter narratives and the re-imagining of city spaces;

the role of grassroots activism and social movements;

cultural resistance in the creation of neighbourhoods and communities;

the impact of gender, class and the politics of identity on forms of dissent;

the formation of transgressive spaces.

This book documents urban experiences of dissent and emergent resistance against disjunctive global and local capital, technology and labour flows that converge and intersect in some of Asia’s fastest growing cities. Rather than constructing occupants of the city as simply passive victims of globalisation or urbanisation, it presents ways in which people are using everyday strategies embedded in cultural practice to challenge dominant socio-economic and political forces impacting on urban space.

Taking the city as a site of contestation and a stage where social conflicts are played out, the book highlights the connections between urban power and dissent; the nature and impact of resistance; how the spatiality and built environment of the city generates conflict and, conversely, how protagonists use the cityscape to stage their everyday and public dissent.

The contributors explore the conditions, strategies, and outcomes of such dissent and forms of cultural resistance, and explore the following themes:

the impact of urban development, gentrification and ghetto-isation;

urban counter narratives and the re-imagining of city spaces;

the role of grassroots activism and social movements;

cultural resistance in the creation of neighbourhoods and communities;

the impact of gender, class and the politics of identity on forms of dissent;

the formation of transgressive spaces.

Despite decades of policy interventions and awareness raising programmes, migration and mobility continue to give rise to tensions and questions of how to live together in a culturally diverse world. Managing Cultural Change takes a new approach to these challenges, re-examining responses to migration and mobility as part of a process of managing wider cultural change. Presenting research from a range of settings, from liberalising India, global workplaces in Asia, and migrant youth culture in Sydney, this book explores the manner in which cultural change disturbs established frames of reference. In considering affective responses to these liminal moments of disruption, it argues that adaptive strategies such as 'demarcating difference' and 're-placing home', that is, reasserting belonging, are deployed in order to reclaim a sense of synchronicity within the self and with a transforming external environment. With attention to the prevalence and durability of the processes and tensions inherent in cultural change, the author also examines the intercultural, or cosmopolitan, competencies developed in interaction with difference, and whether it is possible to 'teach' people these skills in order to re-find 'cultural fit' and manage change in a constantly shifting world. Contributing to research on transnational migration and mobility studies, while developing the use of conceptual tools such as 'cultural fit' and 'liminality', Managing Cultural Change will be of interest to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists working in the fields of globalisation, migration and transnational communities, ethnicity and identity, belonging and cosmopolitanism.

Despite decades of policy interventions and awareness raising programmes, migration and mobility continue to give rise to tensions and questions of how to live together in a culturally diverse world. Managing Cultural Change takes a new approach to these challenges, re-examining responses to migration and mobility as part of a process of managing wider cultural change. Presenting research from a range of settings, from liberalising India, global workplaces in Asia, and migrant youth culture in Sydney, this book explores the manner in which cultural change disturbs established frames of reference. In considering affective responses to these liminal moments of disruption, it argues that adaptive strategies such as ''demarcating difference'' and ''re-placing home'', that is, reasserting belonging, are deployed in order to reclaim a sense of synchronicity within the self and with a transforming external environment. With attention to the prevalence and durability of the processes and tensions inherent in cultural change, the author also examines the intercultural, or cosmopolitan, competencies developed in interaction with difference, and whether it is possible to ''teach'' people these skills in order to re-find ''cultural fit'' and manage change in a constantly shifting world. Contributing to research on transnational migration and mobility studies, while developing the use of conceptual tools such as ''cultural fit'' and ''liminality'', Managing Cultural Change will be of interest to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists working in the fields of globalisation, migration and transnational communities, ethnicity and identity, belonging and cosmopolitanism.

Despite decades of policy interventions and awareness raising programmes, migration and mobility continue to give rise to tensions and questions of how to live together in a culturally diverse world. Managing Cultural Change takes a new approach to these challenges, re-examining responses to migration and mobility as part of a process of managing wider cultural change. Presenting research from a range of settings, from liberalising India, global workplaces in Asia, and migrant youth culture in Sydney, this book explores the manner in which cultural change disturbs established frames of reference. In considering affective responses to these liminal moments of disruption, it argues that adaptive strategies such as ''demarcating difference'' and ''re-placing home'', that is, reasserting belonging, are deployed in order to reclaim a sense of synchronicity within the self and with a transforming external environment. With attention to the prevalence and durability of the processes and tensions inherent in cultural change, the author also examines the intercultural, or cosmopolitan, competencies developed in interaction with difference, and whether it is possible to ''teach'' people these skills in order to re-find ''cultural fit'' and manage change in a constantly shifting world. Contributing to research on transnational migration and mobility studies, while developing the use of conceptual tools such as ''cultural fit'' and ''liminality'', Managing Cultural Change will be of interest to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists working in the fields of globalisation, migration and transnational communities, ethnicity and identity, belonging and cosmopolitanism.

Despite decades of policy interventions and awareness raising programmes, migration and mobility continue to give rise to tensions and questions of how to live together in a culturally diverse world. Managing Cultural Change takes a new approach to these challenges, re-examining responses to migration and mobility as part of a process of managing wider cultural change. Presenting research from a range of settings, from liberalising India, global workplaces in Asia, and migrant youth culture in Sydney, this book explores the manner in which cultural change disturbs established frames of reference. In considering affective responses to these liminal moments of disruption, it argues that adaptive strategies such as 'demarcating difference' and 're-placing home', that is, reasserting belonging, are deployed in order to reclaim a sense of synchronicity within the self and with a transforming external environment. With attention to the prevalence and durability of the processes and tensions inherent in cultural change, the author also examines the intercultural, or cosmopolitan, competencies developed in interaction with difference, and whether it is possible to 'teach' people these skills in order to re-find 'cultural fit' and manage change in a constantly shifting world. Contributing to research on transnational migration and mobility studies, while developing the use of conceptual tools such as 'cultural fit' and 'liminality', Managing Cultural Change will be of interest to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists working in the fields of globalisation, migration and transnational communities, ethnicity and identity, belonging and cosmopolitanism.

An illuminating account of how Americans have been divided by the very value that unites them.America today is being torn apart by the struggle over a single concept, deeply rooted in the country’s sense of self: freedom. Battered by wave after wave of crises, ordinary people of all political persuasions have come to feel that their freedom is under threat – and with it, nothing less than the soul of the nation.In The trouble with freedom, journalist and researcher Melissa Butcher takes a trip into the ferociously polarised world of American politics, hoping to find out what’s going on beneath the surface. Criss-crossing the country, she talks to a wide range of people: Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, urban and rural, immigrants, First Nations, Black, white, the incarcerated. What she discovers is that political conflict is often the outcome of very personal experiences of managing cultural change. Exploring the different ways freedom has been used to define what it means to be American, Butcher encounters anger and distrust, but also untapped possibilities for empathy and care.

International Development in a Changing World introduces key issues, debates and ideas about development in the 21st century. Uniquely interweaving international relations and development studies, the authorial team examines the contested concepts of poverty, inequality and livelihood, and the emergence of ''new powers'' that will affect the architecture of international development. Themes of power and agency, history and scale integrate the many stories of development covered in the book, highlighting development as a complex process of change and interaction between people as well as between people and institutions, including governments and non-governmental organizations. Interdisciplinary in character, the book incorporates theories and tools from across the social sciences to provide a more holistic understanding of the social, economic and political transformations involved than most textbooks in the field can offer. Chapters are designed to inform policy and practice, moving from the theoretical to look closely, using a series of case studies, at the deliberate actions of people to improve their livelihoods, communities and societies. International Development in a Changing World is the first of two books in The Open University''s International Development series. Whether used as a stand-alone text, or alongside its companion text: New Perspectives in International Development, this is an ideal introduction to the field for students of International Development, International Relations, Global Politics and Global Social Policy.

New Perspectives in International Development focuses on the latest thinking in the field, moving the debate into areas such as the connection between security, conflict, and development, managing energy crises, the impact of environmental and climate change, and the role that technology can play in alleviating these challenges. The book explores the theme of development as a process of change; as historical transformation in relation to contested sites of power; it considers how human agency can affect change and the different scales, from the local to the transnational, at which change can occur. The interaction between these threads highlights the complex processes involved in international development that cannot be understood in isolation. Writers bring their own theoretical and empirical tools from social sciences including geography, politics, economics and environmental science. Chapters move from the theoretical to include case studies, placing theory in the context of the deliberate actions of people to improve their lives. The book concludes by suggesting possible ways forward to link development theories, models and practices.New Perspectives in International Development is the second of two books in The Open University's International Development series.