SpringerBriefs in Political Science – serie

Especially when there is a lot of political rhetoric in the air, those of us with strong political convictions are inclined to reflect on just why we hold certain views even as others who are basically like us hold very different ones. Social scientists and other thinkers struggle to explain it, but the puzzle remains—in part because they, too, disagree so much with one another. Whether the arena is politics, religion, business, scientific research, or education, individuals who operate in the same environment and experience the same conditions may have radically different interpretations of the facts and diametrically opposed convictions about how to react to them. When faced with a fundamental disagreement, we ask ourselves: Why are these folks so wrong? And how can they be so convinced that we are wrong? In this provocative monograph, Tibor Machan explores the principles of truth, reason, and ideology, with particular respect to the profound political, economic, and social crises gripping the world today. In so doing, he not only sheds light on the nature of “truth” but also suggests a framework for embracing differences to come up with creative solutions.

The majority of Latin Americans now live in countries that are governed by democratically elected governments on the political left, which is unprecedented in that region.  This book analyzes this occurrence by asking a question that up until now has been largely ignored in the literature on the contemporary Latin American left: to what extent have these governments governed with, and promoting the interests of, the women's movements that are an important part of their base of support?  This question is examined by focusing on a critical case that is rarely analyzed in the literature on the new Latin American left, the case of Nicaragua. The broader implications for Latin America will be shown, making this book of interest to researchers and graduate students in Latin American studies as well as gender studies and political science.

The publication aims to familiarize students of public policy with the precautionary principle, which plays a vital role in the European Union’s approach toward regulating risks. The precautionary principle contends that policy makers should refrain from actions having a suspected risk of causing harm to the public and/or the environment. However, the precautionary principle only provides guidance to policy makers but does not prescribe specific policy responses. Therefore, there should be variation in the way the principle is applied. Furthermore, precautionary measures are, in principle, of a provisional nature, suggesting that they are likely to be subject to changes over time. This book is thus interested in shedding light on how the precautionary principle is put into practice and to what extent precautionary measures become modified. Empirically, it focuses on how the EU has regulated the use of growth hormones in meat production, the cultivation of genetically modified corn and the use of Stevia-based sweeteners in foods and beverages. The main theoretical argument advanced by this study is that the way in which the original regulatory standards were formulated affects whether and how they are changed. By placing particular emphasis on the relevance of scientific evidence for the (re-)definition of precautionary measures, the book is expected to appeal to both academics and practitioners.

​​​Progressives need a balanced federal budget morethan Conservatives, because they believe that government has an important role toplay in modern life. Lack of a long term plan to move toward a sustainablebudget crowds out short term Progressive priorities: infrastructure spending,green technology, education and needed governmental interventions in the shortterm to support and improve our weak economy. The federal budget is unsustainable. For all the bluster of the debt ceilingdebate, the plan passed so far does not address the changes most obviouslyneeded if we are to ever have a balanced budget again: an increase in taxes andthe next steps on health reform to address the biggest driver of our long termbudget deficit, health care costs.Slowing the rate at which health care costs are growing is a necessary, but nota sufficient condition to developing a long range balanced budget. You shouldask any politician saying they think a balanced budget is a priority onequestion: what is your health reform plan? Without one, they have no hope ofachieving their goal.   This book offers progressives solutions to health care reform and a balanced budget, and will be of interest to academics, students and educated readers interested in politics, public policy and government finance.

Social science theory often builds on sets and their relations. Correlation-based methods of scientific enquiry, however, use linear algebra and are unsuited to analyzing set relations. The development of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) by Charles Ragin has given social scientists a formal tool for identifying set-theoretic connections based on Boolean algebra. As a result, interest in this method has markedly risen among social scientists in recent years. This book offers the first complete introduction on how to perform QCA in the R software environment for statistical computing and graphics with the QCA package. Developed as a comprehensive solution, QCA provides an unprecedented scope of functionality for analyzing crisp, multi-value and fuzzy sets. The reader is not required to have knowledge of R, but the book assumes an understanding of the fundamentals of QCA. Using examples from published work, the authors demonstrate how to make the most of QCA’s wide-ranging capabilities for the reader’s own purposes. Although mainly written for political scientists, this book is also of interest to scholars from other disciplines in the social sciences such as sociology, business, management, organization, anthropology, education and health.

This book explores how gender intersects with political violence, and particularly terrorism.  We ask how gender relations and understandings of femininity and masculinity influence political violence, which includes politics related to terrorism, state terrorism, and genocide. We investigate how women cope with and influence the politics of terrorism and genocide. The book’s goals are descriptive and analytical.  We (1) describe in what ways women are present (and/or perceived as absent) in political contexts involving violence, and (2) analyze what gender assumptions, identities, and frames women face and themselves express and act upon regarding political violence encountered in their lives.  The manuscript is divided into seven chapters: introduction, women as victims/survivors of violence, women as perpetrators of violence, women in social movements responding to violence, women politicians leading policy regarding violence, the public opinion of women and men concerning violence, and a conclusion.  Each chapter explores the intersection between gender and terrorism through the lens of the chapter focus.

The mostcritical factor explaining the disjuncture between empathy’s revolutionarypotential and today’s empathically-impaired society is the interaction betweenthe brain and our dominant political culture. The evolutionary process hasgiven rise to a hard-wired neural system in the primal brain and particularlyin the human brain.  This book argues that the crucial missing piece inthis conversation is the failure to identify and explain the dynamicrelationship between an empathy gap and the hegemonic influence of neoliberalcapitalism, through the analysis of the college classroom, the neoliberalstate, media, film and photo images, marketing of products, militarization,mass culture and government policy. This book will contribute to an empiricallygrounded dissent from capitalism’s narrative about human nature.   Empathyis putting oneself in another’s emotional and cognitive shoes and then actingin a deliberate, appropriate manner.   Perhaps counter-intuitively, itrequires self-empathy because we’re all products of an empathy-anesthetizingculture. The approach in this book affirms a scientific basis for acting with empathy,and it addresses how this can help inform us to our current political cultureand process, and make its of interest to students and scholars in politicalscience, psychology, and other social sciences. ​​

This book provides a critical commentary on China's situation and future outlook from the perspective of the 2012-13 generational power transfer. In this power transfer, taking place against the background of an increasingly unstable domestic situation, an apparently outstandingly successful generation of “half-communist” leaders, recently increasingly plagued by scandal, transferred responsibility to a generation confronted by mixed expectations and factional in-fighting. Many international observers doubt that the new leadership will have the will or the power to introduce serious reforms in a country that reports 100,000 riots involving more than 500 persons in public areas per year. The China of 2013 seems to be in the midst of a transition seldom seen since the 1970s. The question is if the resulting hope expressed by Chinese dissidents and Western leaders for a “necessary” development of China's still largely autocratic system towards a kind of context-adequate democracy is plausible or not. Featuring incisive commentary by the authors and interviews with experts on the region’s political economy, the volume addresses such timely questions as: Should “rapid democratization” of China be the strategic goal of the West or rather a step-by-step approach towards the “rule of law“ first, and “illiberal democracy” to follow? Should the West be more worried about a thriving China, or a China in crisis? Will China’s success contribute to the success of the global community and the world order system, or be a threat to it? What can the West do to help China develop more participatory and inclusive approaches in order to secure social stability? And how can the West strengthen its democratic allies on China’s borders?Endorsements“This is a book I recommend to students and teachers around the globe. It provides a concise introduction into present China’s main problems, questions and perspectives. A must forall who try to understand the rising Pacific giant not through short-term answers, but through long-term questions.”Professor Ole Bruun, Institute for Society and Globalization, Roskilde University, Denmark“The rise of China to global superpower calls for clear, condensed, yet comprehensive comments for the broader public. This book accomplishes those goals, providing a quick yet comprehensive introduction into what we may expect as the Middle Kingdom seeks to assert what it increasingly sees as its rightful role as a leading world power.”Professor Richard Appelbaum, MacArthur Foundation Chair in Global & International Studies and Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara “The new constellation between China and the West needs inspiring departure points of discussion, which may be sober or provocative. This booklet is both in one. It should be used as a basis for in-depth discussion and I recommend it for classrooms and the global civil society debate.”Professor Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara

How, where and when can a universal basic income be put into political practice? This book discusses these questions by analyzing the political logic of a basic income and its controversial political and scientific implications. The author studies the institutions, rules, and decision-making processes of conventional democracies to reveal an institutional framework in which a universal basic income for all citizens could eventually become politically viable. The work addresses a broad range of topics, such as nationwide experiments with a basic income, voters’ support for the idea, and the effects of a basic income on business cycles and demographic policies. As such, it will appeal to anyone interested in the preconditions and implications of introducing a universal basic income.

This book offers a cross-national comparison of open data policies in Estonia and Kazakhstan. By analyzing a broad range of open data-driven projects and startups in both countries, it reveals the potential that open data phenomena hold with regard to promoting public sector innovations. The book addresses various political and socioeconomic contexts in these two transitional societies, and reviews the strategies and tactics adopted by policymakers and stakeholders to identify drivers of and obstacles to the implementation of open data innovations. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars, policymakers, e-government practitioners and open data entrepreneurs interested in implementing and evaluating open data-driven public sector projects.

This book will expand the body of literature on capacity-building in science and improve public understanding of the issues regarding geographical concentration of federal research funding.  The federal government has been the primary sponsor of academic research in the U.S., and the peer-review system has been the primary mechanism for distributing federal government funding for research among universities. The peer-review system ensures the production of the best science by funding the most capable researchers in the country. As a result, federal research funding has been concentrated in high-capacity states where many of the most capable researchers reside. Despite official action - such as the implementation of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which targets low capacity jurisdictions for federal funding - the amount of resources going to each state for research is highly uneven. This book provides recommendations on how to improve policy design and program implementation for better research capacity-building outcomes. The book lends itself to a wide audience, as it does not focus entirely on high-level statistical analysis, but will have specific appeal to researchers in science policy, federal budgeting and higher education policy.

This book highlights fundamental, but often neglected, issues important for a better understanding of present-day Iran. It underlines the idea that the most effective means for a nation to meet challenges and practices of the modern era lies with the fundamental values and norms that resonate with its inhabitants.This book is meant to be a companion to the author’s published book Iran Revisited: Exploring the Historical Roots of Culture, Economics, and Society that expands upon that book’s ideas, without repeating its theoretical reasoning. Its goal is to offer a better understanding of the current and evolving situations in Iran.  In this regard, the author tried to clarify his position through a host of suggestions, most notably, the need to consider social rights as the bare minimum but extremely imperative criteria in our contemporary discourse for the betterment of our society.  These rights, he argues, are the most fundamental tenets of any community that strives to succeed and flourish. In this context, the underlying discussion rests on the following claim: the most persisting problems in Iran are the outcomes of the gradual regression of the people’ mindset that persistently overlooked their heritage and value system in favor of imitating ideas that were/are neither compatible with their culture and history, nor applicable to the country’s socioeconomic conditions.  The author, therefore, presumed that these predicaments are self-inflicted: they were neither caused by a specific state, nor belong to a historical period, or individual(s); they cannot be characterized by political or economic terminologies, but are firmly rooted in people inability to recognize that the most vital principle in developing and propelling a nation forward is the existence of a unified people.

This book provides a timely and unique contribution to current debates on how effectively voluntary party quotas address the persistent underrepresentation of women in legislatures. Using a most similar case design and a mixed-methods approach, the authors draw attention to the ways in which electoral systems and party regulations interface with voluntary party quotas in Germany and Austria. All quota parties in these countries support the goal of equal participation of women and men in elected office, and quotas are presented as a means to precisely that end. In order to assess parties’ commitment to their declared goals, and the effectiveness of quotas, the book introduces the concept of the post-quota gender gap and defines it as the difference between a party’s adopted quota and the actual share of women in legislative bodies at the national and regional level. Complementing the existing literature on recruitment and socio-cultural legacies, the authors argue that the problem of voluntary party quotas lies at the intersection of party quota design and electoral law. Either parties need to design quotas that actually work within a given electoral system, or we need legislative action geared toward advancing parity not just in candidate selection, but in the composition of legislatures. The book draws on gendered candidate and election data, on the party statutes of federal and state-level party organizations, and on interviews with party officials and party women’s organizations.

This book adopts a long-term perspective to consider political self-determination, peacekeeping and the creation of political meaning. It analyzes problems in the nation-state system and assesses current issues regarding separatism and secession movements. Drawing on extensive research in the fields of political theory, democracy studies and social welfare, the book develops a framework of new rules on a fundamental level that can help nations overcome conflicts concerning borders and nationalities.

This book discusses Brexit’s implications for the two most important security institutions in Europe, the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While Brexit is still unfolding, this book asks what it would mean for the future embedding of the UK into CFSP and NATO, as well as how it will most likely affect the inner mechanics of the transatlantic alliance (NATO) and CFSP in particular, in the years to come. The book is divided into two parts. Part I provides a historical overview of the evolution of the relationships between the UK and NATO and the EU, respectively. Part II discusses the geopolitical contexts and potential impacts of Brexit, focusing on the contemporary security environment, as well as the options that the EU has, in the event an agreement is concluded. Using both predictive and normative arguments, this book provides likely scenarios for an event that continues to be a source of much uncertainty forthe global community.Making an important contribution to one of the most important policy debates in international security affairs today, this book is of interest to students and researchers of international security affairs, European politics, and global governance as well as policymakers and practitioners working on the Brexit file.

This open access book aims to show which factors have been decisive in the rise of successful countries. Never before have so many people been so well off. However, prosperity is not a law of nature; it has to be worked for. A liberal economy stands at the forefront of this success – not as a political system, but as a set of economic rules promoting competition, which in turn leads to innovation, research and enormous productivity. Sustainable prosperity is built on a foundation of freedom, equal opportunity and a functioning government. This requires a stable democracy that cannot be defeated by an autocrat. Autocrats claim that “illiberalism” is more efficient, an assertion that justifies their own power. Although autocrats can efficiently guide the first steps out of poverty, once a certain level of prosperity has been achieved, people begin to demand a sense of well-being – freedom and codetermination. Only when this is possible will they feel comfortable, and progress will continue. Respect for human rights is crucial.The rules of the free market do not lean to either the right or left politically. Liberalism and the welfare state are not mutually exclusive. The “conflict” concerns the amount of government intervention. Should there be more or less?As a lawyer, entrepreneur, and board member with over 40 years of experience in this field of conflict, the author clearly describes the conditions necessary for a country to maintain its position at the top.

This Brief provides a comprehensive introduction to current research on armed groups and proposes a unitary political theory for their future analysis. Traditionally, theoretical and historical approaches to armed groups have focused on different categories of armed groups—insurgents, radical groups, militias, governmental forces—instead of treating them as unitary actors in international politics. This Brief departs from this traditional theoretical treatment, arguing that armed groups are fundamental units of politics, outside of class, gender, and the state, and should be analyzed as such.The book begins with a discussion of current classifications and definitions of armed groups as well as methodological approaches towards studying them. Chapter Two discusses armed groups from a historical and anthropological perspective. Chapter Three presents a critical analysis and interpretation of existing political perspectives on armed groups. The book concludes by introducing thenew theory. Challenging traditional methods of political theory and analysis while providing a solid introduction to the field, this Brief will be of use to researchers and scholars in political theory, international relations, political science, and anthropology, as well as to professionals in fields such as policing, counter-terrorism, and internal affairs.

This book provides a practical guide to how groups of people, everywhere, from the local village council to the United Nations Security Council, can best make collective decisions. By comparing the many voting procedures used in democratic decision-making, it explains why win-or-lose binary voting can be inaccurate and divisive, while the more inclusive preferential points system of voting can be so much more accurate and, therefore, more democratic; indeed, it is a win-win methodology. The text, essential reading for anyone interested in fair and participatory collective decision-making, also compares the most common electoral systems.

This book explores the analysis of social phenomena, using a multidisciplinary approach while addressing statistical, economic, sociological, as well as psychological issues.The author presents a detailed account of the procedures and techniques used to gather, process, and analyze data. Topics covered include, but are not limited to survey data, content analysis data, data visualization, as well as data about crimes.The book addresses this methodological framework that drives applied social sciences in an applicative and simple way, by analyzing key social phenomena such as the threats to journalism, the so-called chilling effect, and the market for news. Finally, the author examines the data and measures of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.This book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of the methodological analysis of social phenomena, social and political methodology, and applied science in general.

This book presents a number of specific proposals that, if translated into political reality, could contribute to nurturing a Europeanisation of national public spheres. Having left Brexit behind, intellectuals and policy-makers throughout Europe are now passionately discussing how to move forward the process of European integration. Crucial to this effort is the debate about the Europeanisation of national public spheres: a process that should not harm existing national and local identities but, rather, contribute to their enrichment. This book addresses policy-makers, academics, and forward-thinking citizens alike by providing them with a variety of ideas - and the practical steps needed to translate these into reality across selected European countries - to begin narrowing a dangerous gap between national politics and supranational policy-making.

This book discusses the role of millennials in political leadership and governance in Africa going forward. Africa is in the process of significant change. The nature of this change, dimensions, and what change might bring will depend on young people who now represent three quarters of the population of the continent. This book contributes to ongoing discussions and provides a pathway and guide for a new generation of young African leaders to emerge and not to miss the opportunity for real transformative change.The book provides a thought-provoking analysis of the political and economic systems in Africa. In its analysis of development challenges and opportunities, it shows how millennials can be the catalyst for change in leadership and governance behavior. Consequently, the book argues how this can improve the fortunes of Africa's estimated 1.3 billion people. It is inspired by the factual circumstances of Africa’s significant history, a deep understanding of current powerrelations, and motivated by an ambitious vision of Africa’s role in the world.The book combines a deep explanation of concepts with a range of techniques and recent illustrative applications. It also embraces a multi-method approach that allows for the embedding of primary and secondary forms of data. A cross-fertilization of ontological arguments and analytical techniques from a range of allied disciplines further contribute to the book’s novelty. The book appeals to multiple stakeholders including students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers.

This Brief provides a survey of key political, social, and economic issues affecting the Western Balkans region. Taking a two-pronged conceptual approach focusing on fragmentation and integration, the volume highlights commonalities and differences in a number of simultaneous dynamics currently characterizing the region: Europeanization and EU access, market integration, and migration and socio-demographic transformations. Stressing the interconnectedness of these issues, the volume synthesizes key questions for the future of the region, such as the relationship between socio-demographic trends and economic development, the effects of depopulation on further EU integration, and the economic and political repercussions of enhanced intra-regional trade. Explicitly interdisciplinary, this Brief will be useful for researchers and students specializing in the Balkans and Western Balkans, post-socialist countries, European affairs, enlargement, foreign policy, international relations, regional studies, economics, economic transition, and socio-demographics.

This book examines the use and potential impact of deepfakes, a type of synthetic computer-generated media, primarily images and videos, capable of both creating artificial representations of non-existent individuals and showing actual individuals doing things they did not do. As such, deepfakes pose an obvious threat of manipulation and, unsurprisingly, have been the subject of a great deal of alarmism in both the news media and academic articles. Hence, this book sets out to critically evaluate potential threats by analyzing human susceptibility to manipulation and using that as a backdrop for a discussion of actual and likely uses of deepfakes. In contrast to the usual threat narrative, this book will put forward a multi-sided picture of deepfakes, exploring their potential and that of adjacent technologies for creative use in domains ranging from film and advertisement to painting. The challenges posed by deepfakes are further evaluated with regard topresent or forthcoming legislation and other regulatory measures. Finally, deepfakes are placed within a broader cultural and philosophical context, focusing primarily on posthumanist thought. Therefore, this book is a must-read for researchers, students, and practitioners of political science and other disciplines, interested in a better understanding of deepfakes.

This book analyses French cultural policies in the face of what the French government perceives as a challenge to its Republican secular raison d'être. It makes general arguments about France’s changing identity and specific arguments about the burqa and niqab ban. The book further explains how French history shaped the ideology of secularism and of public civil religion, and how colonial legacy, immigration, fear of terrorism, and security needs have led France to adopt the trinity of indivisibilité, sécurité, laïcité while paying homage to the traditional trinity of liberté, égalité, fraternité. The book argues that while this motto of the French Revolution is still symbolically and politically important, its practical significance as it has been translated to policy implementation has been eroded. It shows how the emergence of the new trinity at the expense of the old one is evident when analyzing the debates concerning cultural policies in France in the face of the Islamic garb, the burqa, and the niqab, which are perceived as a challenge to France’s national secular raison d'être. Subsequently, the book raises various important questions, such as: Is the burqa and niqab ban socially just? Does it reasonably balance the preservation of societal values and freedom of conscience? What are the true motives behind the ban? Has the discourse changed in the age of COVID-19, when all people are required to wear a mask in the public space?Therefore, this book is a must-read for students, scholars, and researchers of political science, as well as a general audience interested in a better understanding of French politics, elections, cultural policy, secularism, and identity.

This open access book develops a conceptual framework for glocal governance as a multi-stakeholder local governance approach based on global human rights norms and democratic principles. It discusses glocal governance as part of an ongoing global transformation process that began in the 1990s, when democracy and individualizing responsibilities for governance became the dominant political system worldwide, and continues through today’s dawn of a New Cold War between those countries which have democratized and those which haven’t. This book will intrigue practitioners and scholars alike who are interested in the concepts of glocality and glocalism, local-global connectivity, and the implementation and dissemination of global norms and concepts such as human rights and democracy, at the local and community level as well as among civil society and private enterprises. The author argues that global norms have now become universal benchmarks which private, political,and civil actors use to assess day-to-day situations and market developments, and to make their decisions accordingly. This book will appeal to students, practitioners, and scholars of the social sciences and humanities who are interested in governance, human rights, public diplomacy and international relations; and in conceptualizing mechanisms for governing and enforcing political decisions locally, on the basis of global universal principles, international norms, and laws.

This open access book presents an international comparison of religiously motivated extremism in the Arab world and around the globe. Based on data from the Arab Barometer and the World Values Survey, it applies advanced statistical techniques to analyze how religiously motivated political extremism affects political and social outcomes as well as political violence. The study clearly shows that identification with a political Islam that also influences elections, promotes religious and gender discrimination, and advocates an Islamist interpretation of Islam, are the main interrelated syndromes of political Islam that together explain more than 50% of the total variance of the 24 model variables used.“A carefully and methodically flawlessly researched work, which is highly recommended for all those who deal seriously with this topic. Professor Arno Tausch is clear-headed and possesses a remarkable ability to make the broad picture of Political Islam accessible.“Hon. Prof. Gunther Hauser, Head of the Department Strategy and Security Policy, National Defense Academy, Vienna, Austria“Methodological rigorous, scientifically sound, empirically rich and combining the best of qualitative and quantitative approaches, Prof Arno Tausch has produced a tour de force on Political Islam. This study reflects the best scholarship on the subject and will be of use to both policy makers and academics.”Prof Hussein Solomon, Academic Head of the Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State, South Africa

This Brief introduces a novel research approach to investigate freedom of the press in Hong Kong. The authors pair computational analyses from the field of natural language processing with qualitative content analysis of patterns of journalistic practice in volatile political settings. Together, these shed light on the evolution of press freedom in Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty. Providing an interdisciplinary perspective, the Brief will appeal to a wide range of readers with interests in computational social science, public policy, political sciences as well as policy-makers, think tanks, and practitioners who focus on the China-Hong Kong nexus.

This open access book explores the field of human rights dissemination in Central Asia. Offering a comparative perspective on five post-Soviet Central Asian states—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, it examines compliance with international human rights standards in these countries. The contributions capture various aspects of human rights dissemination through educational programs, seminars, training, and empowerment programs at Central Asian universities, together with Central Asian NGOs/CSOs and international organizations. The book shows that a change of behavior among state and non-state actors in the region can only happen when both local and international actors, usually international donors, jointly take action to report, train, and empower people in human rights. This book is an invitation to anyone interested in the (troubled) nexus between international human rights norms and standards and their implementation on the local level, as well as in the effective empowerment of citizen in the region.

This open access book explores some of the struggles and challenges that researchers and practitioners face when conducting research in the Central Asian research setting. Written for scholars still in the planning stages of their research, it addresses key questions, including: How shall we problematize and reconceptualize the concept of positionality through lenses of local voices from the region? How does practitioners’ and scholars’ positionality contribute to their experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and access to the field? How do scholars navigate issues of personal safety and mental well-being in the more closely monitored societies of Central Asia?The book includes contributors from both Central Asia and Western countries, paying particular attention to the ways researchers’ subjectivity shape how they are received in the region, which, in turn, influences how they write about and disseminate their research. In featuring an even greater variety of voices, this book fills an important gap in the literature on field research and knowledge production in and on Central Asia.