Green College Thematic Lecture Series – serie

Since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, surveillance has been put forward as the essential tool for the ‘war on terror,’ with new technologies and policies offering police and military operatives enhanced opportunities for monitoring suspect populations. The last few years have also seen the public’s consumer tastes become increasingly codified, with ‘data mines’ of demographic information such as postal codes and purchasing records. Additionally, surveillance has become a form of entertainment, with ‘reality’ shows becoming the dominant genre on network and cable television.In The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility, editors Kevin D. Haggerty and Richard V. Ericson bring together leading experts to analyse how society is organized through surveillance systems, technologies, and practices. They demonstrate how the new political uses of surveillance make visible that which was previously unknown, blur the boundaries between public and private, rewrite the norms of privacy, create new forms of inclusion and exclusion, and alter processes of democratic accountability. This collection challenges conventional wisdom and advances new theoretical approaches through a series of studies of surveillance in policing, the military, commercial enterprises, mass media, and health sciences.

Attempting to bridge the gap between specialised scholarship in the humanistic disciplines and an interdisciplinary project of cultural analysis, Mieke Bal has written an intellectual travel guide that charts the course 'beyond' cultural studies. As with any guide, it can be used in a number of ways and the reader can follow or willfully ignore any of the paths it maps or signposts.Bal's focus for this book is the idea that interdisciplinarity in the humanities - necessary, exciting, serious - must seek its heuristic and methodological basis in concepts rather than its methods. Concepts are not grids to put over an object. The counterpart of any given concept is the cultural text or work or 'thing' that constitutes the object of analysis. No concept is meaningful for cultural analysis unless it helps us to understand the object better on its own terms.Bal offers the reader a sustained theoretical reflection on how to 'do' cultural analysis through a tentative practice of doing just that. This offers a concrete practice to theoretical constructs, and allows the proposed method more accessibility.

As public issues stretch out to affect an ever expanding population, democratizing planning and governance becomes increasingly important. How localized communities embrace the progressive qualities of civil society is a critical topic in an era where diverse and divergent forces often counteract civil society formation and community initiatives. This collection explores the theoretical underpinnings of democratic planning and governance in relation to civil society formation and social learning.The contributors to this volume use multiple lenses to uncover the challenges of democratizing planning and governance, helping to create a better understanding of how civil societies learn from their experiences, and how these lessons might be applied in other contexts. Learning Civil Societies provides insights for developing a critical methodology for studying civil societies and their formations and suggests that new organizational mechanisms within and outside civil societies must be created if more democratic forms of planning and governance are to emerge, be revitalized, and become institutionalized in the coming decades.

Current notions of nationhood, communal identity, territorial entitlement, and collective destiny are deeply rooted in historic interpretations of the Bible. Interweaving elements of history, theology, literary criticism, and cultural theory, the essays in this volume discuss the ways in which biblical understandings have shaped Western – and particularly European and North American – assumptions about the nature and meaning of the nation.Part of the Green College Lecture Series, this wide-ranging collection moves from the earliest Pauline and Rabbinic exegesis through Christian imperial and missionary narratives of the late Roman, medieval, and early modern periods to the entangled identity politics of 'mainstream' nineteenth-and twentieth-century North America. Taken together, the essays show that, while theories of globalization, postmodernism, and postcolonialism have all offered critiques of identity politics and the nation-state, the global present remains heavily informed by biblical-historical intuitions of nationhood.

Current notions of nationhood, communal identity, territorial entitlement, and collective destiny are deeply rooted in historic interpretations of the Bible. Interweaving elements of history, theology, literary criticism, and cultural theory, the essays in this volume discuss the ways in which biblical understandings have shaped Western – and particularly European and North American – assumptions about the nature and meaning of the nation.Part of the Green College Lecture Series, this wide-ranging collection moves from the earliest Pauline and Rabbinic exegesis through Christian imperial and missionary narratives of the late Roman, medieval, and early modern periods to the entangled identity politics of 'mainstream' nineteenth-and twentieth-century North America. Taken together, the essays show that, while theories of globalization, postmodernism, and postcolonialism have all offered critiques of identity politics and the nation-state, the global present remains heavily informed by biblical-historical intuitions of nationhood.

In this study Dominick LaCapra addresses the ongoing concern with the application of theory - namely that of literary studies and linguistics - to contemporary historical research and analysis. History and Reading is an attempt to address the concerns of those scholars who either resist theoretical discussions or disavow the use of interdisciplinary study.LaCapra begins with an extensive discussion of the problem of reading and interpretation as it relates to the understanding of history. The focus then moves to two classic texts that serve as case studies: Alexis de Tocqueville's Old Régime and the French Revolution and Michel Foucault's Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique (partially translated into English as Madness and Civilization). In the final chapter, LaCapra deals with the problem of rethinking and reconfiguring French studies, suggesting how this discipline could itself profit from the theoretical innovations for which it has been so important a conduit in the last few decades.LaCapra offers sensitive readings of Tocqueville and Foucault, authors who present vastly different narrative strategies and modes of analysis. Looking at these and other theorists whose work addresses the writing and understanding of history, he considers how their distinctive textual practices have transformed standard modes of interpretation and analysis.A distinguished and widely respected European historian, LaCapra offers a sophisticated consideration of how to combine textual analysis with traditional historical practices, and shows how this practice can be brought to bear on French studies and help to shape its future directions.

The essays in Love, Hate, and Fear in Canada's Cold War present a Cold War different in many respects from the familiar one of anti-communist hysteria. In Canada, the Cold War raised issues of national self-representation that went beyond international political tensions related to capitalistic versus communistic regimes. If the discourse of the Cold War in Canada was anti-communist, it was also anti-American in many ways. Drawing on a number of disciplinary approaches and examining what Michel Foucault called the 'discursive' practices of the period, the contributors examine how, in the Cold War, the personal became the political through the state's attempt to regulate sexuality - in pulp fiction, in film, and in public spaces.A major theme emerging from Love, Hate, and Fear in Canada's Cold War is that many issues associated with the Cold War in Canada actually preceded World War II and continue to haunt us today. This has become particularly apparent after the terrorist attacks of September 2001, when politicians began employing the rhetoric of the 'War on Terror' and invoking issues of border security, immigration and refugee quotas, and 'harmonization' of policies.

Drawing from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, the essays in Multiple Lenses, Multiple Images are oriented around the idea that images of childhood can be understood within three dimensions: time, space, and discipline.Time refers to both the chronological ages of the children under consideration and the historical timeframe in which that particular essay is suited. Space is a dimension that includes familial, community, institutional, and cultural spaces within which children live. The third dimension, discipline, names the specific and distinct areas of scholarship and research that define the ontology, epistemology, and methodology within which the contributors write.Multiple Lenses, Multiple Images is intended to deepen and expand the collaborative, interdisciplinary discourse on children and childhood through reflections not just on what is known about children, but on how it has been learned.

Risk and Morality examines how decisions about risk and uncertainty relate to moral principles and ethical conduct. Editors Richard Ericson and Aaron Doyle have brought together in this volume a selection of original essays on the topic by renowned scholars in the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, law, political science, geography, criminology, and accounting from Canada, the United States, England, France, and Australia. Presenting cutting-edge theory and research, the essays analyse the broader social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of risk and morality.The concept of risk has become pervasive in recent years in political discourse, popular culture, organizational communications, and everyday life. The contributors' respective research projects on risk and morality in politics, business, legal regulation, crime prevention, insurance, extreme sports, and biotechnology provide original empirical evidence to substantiate their theories and address the ideological and policy relevance of their work. Collectively, the contributors explain why risk is such a key aspect of Western culture, and demonstrate that new regimes for risk management are transforming social integration, value-based reasoning and morality. Further, they illustrate that these new regimes do not necessarily foster more responsible conduct or greater accountability in institutions.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, surveillance has been put forward as the essential tool for the ‘war on terror,’ with new technologies and policies offering police and military operatives enhanced opportunities for monitoring suspect populations. The last few years have also seen the public’s consumer tastes become increasingly codified, with ‘data mines’ of demographic information such as postal codes and purchasing records. Additionally, surveillance has become a form of entertainment, with ‘reality’ shows becoming the dominant genre on network and cable television.In The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility, editors Kevin D. Haggerty and Richard V. Ericson bring together leading experts to analyse how society is organized through surveillance systems, technologies, and practices. They demonstrate how the new political uses of surveillance make visible that which was previously unknown, blur the boundaries between public and private, rewrite the norms of privacy, create new forms of inclusion and exclusion, and alter processes of democratic accountability. This collection challenges conventional wisdom and advances new theoretical approaches through a series of studies of surveillance in policing, the military, commercial enterprises, mass media, and health sciences.

Nation-states today are under pressure from opposite directions. In Western Europe, they are being challenged by the call of assimilation into a larger supra-national polity. Elsewhere, as in Southeastern Europe, nation-states are being challenged by separatist forces from within, demanding independence or self-determination for particular ethnic groups. In either instance, the ultimate aim is not simply the breaking of bonds but rather a realignment of belonging.When the prospect of prosperity and the good life requires an adjustment of national identities and alliances, old myths and new tales alike are mobilized in the effort. People's choices of belonging are flexible and often blatantly pragmatic. Some will never renounce their original 'nation,' while others gladly assume two or three national identities in a lifetime, all of them with a deeply felt commitment. In The Shifting Foundations of Modern Nation-States, Sima Godfrey and Frank Unger have gathered together a distinguished, multidisciplinary group of authors to discuss national myths from Europe, North America, and Asia. Just as the plurality of nations implies diverse voices and distinct narratives, the authors, coming from different disciplines and backgrounds, represent multiple discourses on the theme of nationhood.

Attempting to bridge the gap between specialised scholarship in the humanistic disciplines and an interdisciplinary project of cultural analysis, Mieke Bal has written an intellectual travel guide that charts the course 'beyond' cultural studies. As with any guide, it can be used in a number of ways and the reader can follow or willfully ignore any of the paths it maps or signposts.Bal's focus for this book is the idea that interdisciplinarity in the humanities - necessary, exciting, serious - must seek its heuristic and methodological basis in concepts rather than its methods. Concepts are not grids to put over an object. The counterpart of any given concept is the cultural text or work or 'thing' that constitutes the object of analysis. No concept is meaningful for cultural analysis unless it helps us to understand the object better on its own terms.Bal offers the reader a sustained theoretical reflection on how to 'do' cultural analysis through a tentative practice of doing just that. This offers a concrete practice to theoretical constructs, and allows the proposed method more accessibility.

As public issues stretch out to affect an ever expanding population, democratizing planning and governance becomes increasingly important. How localized communities embrace the progressive qualities of civil society is a critical topic in an era where diverse and divergent forces often counteract civil society formation and community initiatives. This collection explores the theoretical underpinnings of democratic planning and governance in relation to civil society formation and social learning.The contributors to this volume use multiple lenses to uncover the challenges of democratizing planning and governance, helping to create a better understanding of how civil societies learn from their experiences, and how these lessons might be applied in other contexts. Learning Civil Societies provides insights for developing a critical methodology for studying civil societies and their formations and suggests that new organizational mechanisms within and outside civil societies must be created if more democratic forms of planning and governance are to emerge, be revitalized, and become institutionalized in the coming decades.