Timothy W. Luke - Böcker

The world that was revolutionized by industrialization is being remade by the information revolution. But this is mostly a revolution from above, increasingly shaped by a new class of technocrats, experts, and professionals in the service of corporate capitalism. Using Marx as a touchstone, Timothy W. Luke warns that if communities are not to be overwhelmed by new class economic and political agendas, then the practice of democracy must be reconstituted on a more populist basis. However, the galvanizing force for this new, more community-centered populism will not be the proletariat, as Marx predicted, nor contemporary militant patriotic groups. Rather, Luke argues that many groups unified by a concern for ecological justice present the strongest potential opposition to capitalism. Wide-ranging and lucid, Capitalism, Democracy, and Ecology is essential reading in the age of information.

Between June 1967 and the end of 1973, most independent Black African states abandoned their neutral position in the Middle East conflict, cut their ties with Israel, and gave full support to the political aims of the Arab states. Since the beginning of 1974, however, and despite attempts by the Arabs to shield their new allies from the adverse effects of the 1973-74 world oil and economic crises, the alliance has begun to fragment as the African states become transformed from partners to clients and dependents of the Arabs. This study examines the roots of the African conversion, the nature of the evolving relationship between the African and Arab states, and the reasons—economic and political—for the transformation of the alliance. Basic to that transformation, the authors argue, is a fundamental change in the international status and power of the Arab states, a change that has led them to cast their lot with the industrialized "First World" rather than with the poorer, less developed countries.

Between June 1967 and the end of 1973, most independent Black African states abandoned their neutral position in the Middle East conflict, cut their ties with Israel, and gave full support to the political aims of the Arab states. Since the beginning of 1974, however, and despite attempts by the Arabs to shield their new allies from the adverse effects of the 1973-74 world oil and economic crises, the alliance has begun to fragment as the African states become transformed from partners to clients and dependents of the Arabs. This study examines the roots of the African conversion, the nature of the evolving relationship between the African and Arab states, and the reasons—economic and political—for the transformation of the alliance. Basic to that transformation, the authors argue, is a fundamental change in the international status and power of the Arab states, a change that has led them to cast their lot with the industrialized "First World" rather than with the poorer, less developed countries.

In our media-saturated culture, momentous events occur quickly, as news and images are broadcast around the country and the world. We are often riveted by the news and our everyday reality is suddenly changed. Yet, almost as quickly, that critical event is replaced by a new story. The old event fades from memory, and we move on to the next thing before understanding why it commanded our attention and how our world was changed.On April 16, 2007, such an event occurred on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. That day a student killed 32 of his classmates and professors and then turned the gun on himself. The media focused their power and our attention on the campus, the students and faculty of Virginia Tech, and the gunman and his victims. But we have yet to understand fully what happened in Blacksburg. There is a Gunman on Campus brings our thoughts back to the shocking campus shootings and the public reactions to the event, shining needed light on what occurred at the university, how American society reacted, and how it all fits into contemporary culture.The contributors to this insightful and compelling volume preserve and deepen our memory of April 16th. Many of the authors are distinguished men and women of letters, and some were on the Virginia Tech campus the day when the shots rang out. From the psychology of the shooter to the role of media in covering the event to parallels to other American tragedies such as Columbine, the chapters constitute an incisive portrait of early 21st century America.

Social Theory and Modernity combines the analytical techniques of political theory and comparative politics as a method for conducting innovative inquiry and research in political science. The focus of political theory, for example, results in new issues for historical and cross-national comparative analysis--whereas comparative analysis provides new parameters for analyzing the ideology of social institutions. In presenting this method, Luke elaborates upon Rousseau's discursive style and critical methods, Marx's historical materialism, Gramsci's theoretical tactics, Marcuse's instrumental rationality, Cabral's theories of critique and revolution, Weber's interpretive method, and Foucault's system of political and social analysis. It concludes by offering an incisive analysis of the moral and ideological influence of behavior and the link between ideology and political economy, especially in modern society. Social Theory and Modernity is essential reading for professionals and students in the fields of political theory, history, comparative politics, sociology, anthropology, social philosophy, and cultural studies. "Luke's book is a tour de force. He writes critical theory in the best sense, applying the ideas of the Frankfurt School, Gramsci, and postmodernism to real social and political issues today. Social Theory and Modernity avoids arid exegesis in favor of engaged and lucid analysis of the global problematics of late capitalism. Not content simply to rehearse the masters of critical theory, Luke refreshes and extends their ideas by developing his own important theoretical voice. Luke is witty and pulls no punches. This accessible book will appeal to readers in a wide range of social-science disciplines, notably including political science and sociology. This book reinforces Luke's reputation as one of the two or three leading critical theorists working today." --Ben Agger, SUNY, University at Buffalo "This collection of essays provides a rich reading for it collates a lot of innovative ideas in the present day Marxist theory." --Financial Express

The first sustained critique of the ways museum exhibits shape cultural assumptions and political valuesEach year the more than seven thousand museums in the United States attract more attendees than either movies or sports. Yet until recently, museums have escaped serious political analysis. The past decade, however, has witnessed a series of unusually acrimonious debates about the social, political, and moral implications of museum exhibitions as varied as the Enola Gay display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum and the Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In this important volume, Timothy W. Luke explores museums’s power to shape collective values and social understandings, and argues persuasively that museum exhibitions have a profound effect on the body politic. Through discussions of topics ranging from how the National Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles have interpreted the Holocaust to the ways in which the American Museum of Natural History, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and Tucson’s Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum have depicted the natural world, Luke exposes the processes through which museums challenge but more often affirm key cultural and social realities.

It has long been considered a mark of naÏvetÉ to ask of a work of art: What does it say? But as Timothy W. Luke demonstrates in Shows of Force, artwork is capable of saying plenty, and much of the message resides in the way it is exhibited. By critically examining the exhibition of art in contemporary American museums, Luke identifies how art showings are elaborate works of theater that reveal underlying political, social, and economic agendas.The first section, “Envisioning a Past, Imagining the West,” looks at art exhibitions devoted to artworks about or from the American West. Luke shows how these exhibitions-displaying nineteenth- and early-twentieth century works by artists such as George Caleb Bingham, Frederic Remington, Frederic Edwin Church, and Georgia O’Keefe-express contemporary political agendas in the way the portray “the past” and shape new visions of “the West.”In “Developing the Present, Defining a World,” Luke considers artists from the post-1945 era, including Ilya Kabokov, Hans Haacke, Sue Coe, Roger Brown, and Robert Longo. Recent art exhibits, his analysis reveals, attempt to develop politically charged conceptions of the present, which in turn struggle to define the changing contemporary world and art’s various roles within it.Luke brings to light the contradictions encoded in the exhibition of art and, in doing so, illuminates the political realities and cultural ideologies of the present. Shows of Force offers a timely and surely controversial contribution to current discussions of the politics of exhibiting art.

Schools, theatres and malls used to be safe havens. Marathons were triumphal, not tragic. Today, public life is risky. Citizens are on edge, either calling for gun control or purchasing personal weapons of self-defense. In this timely book, prominent US and international authors examine gun violence in public life. They offer the latest data and analysis on topics such as comparative gun homicide rates, the efficacy of gun control, risks associated with gun ownership, concealed-carry data and policy, media and gaming violence, gender and guns, and school shootings. New insights are developed from a comparative case study of Canada, a country in which gun ownership is common but with a much lower rate of gun violence. Neither demonising nor mythologising guns, the contributors provide evidence-based analyses that shed light on policy directions and personal conduct.

Schools, theatres and malls used to be safe havens. Marathons were triumphal, not tragic. Today, public life is risky. Citizens are on edge, either calling for gun control or purchasing personal weapons of self-defense. In this timely book, prominent US and international authors examine gun violence in public life. They offer the latest data and analysis on topics such as comparative gun homicide rates, the efficacy of gun control, risks associated with gun ownership, concealed-carry data and policy, media and gaming violence, gender and guns, and school shootings. New insights are developed from a comparative case study of Canada, a country in which gun ownership is common but with a much lower rate of gun violence. Neither demonising nor mythologising guns, the contributors provide evidence-based analyses that shed light on policy directions and personal conduct.

Through the planned volume’s extensive scope of contributions emphasizing environmental policy issues, normative prescriptions, and implementation strategies, the next generation of thinkers and activists will have very useful profiles of the theories, concepts, organizations, and movements central to environmental politics and theory.