Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus Since the Fall of the Soviet Union

Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus Since the Fall of the Soviet Union
Author: Bayram Balci
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2018-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190050195

With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, a major turning point in all former Soviet republics, Central Asian and Caucasian countries began to reflect on their history and identities. As a consequence of their opening up to the global exchange of ideas, various strains of Islam and trends in Islamic thought have nourished the Islamic revival that had already started in the context of glasnost and perestroika--from Turkey, Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, and from the Indian subcontinent; the four regions with strong ties to Central Asian and Caucasian Islam in the years before Soviet occupation. Bayram Balci seeks to analyse how these new Islamic influences have reached local societies and how they have interacted with pre-existing religious belief and practice. Combining exceptional erudition with rare first-hand research, Balci's book provides a sophisticated account of both the internal dynamics and external influences in the evolution of Islam in the region.

Coming Home? Vol. 2

Coming Home? Vol. 2
Author: Sharif Gemie
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2014-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443864161

The wars of the twentieth century uprooted people on a previously unimaginable scale to the extent that being a refugee became an increasingly widespread experience. With the arrival of refugees, governments of host countries had to mediate between divided national populations: some wished to welcome those arriving in search of refuge; others preferred a strategy of exclusion or even expulsion. At the same time, refugees had to manage conflicts of the self as they responded to the loss of nationhood, families, socio-political networks, material goods, and arguably also a sense of belonging or home. While return migration was usually perceived by governments and refugees alike as the best solution to the dilemmas of forced displacement, consensus about the timing and dynamics of how this would actually occur was very difficult to achieve. In practice, the return of refugees to their countries of origin rarely, if ever, produced a wholly satisfactory outcome. Conflicts clearly resulted in forced displacement, but it is equally true that forced displacement created conflicts. The complex inter-relationship of conflict, return migration and the sometimes chimerical, but still compelling search for a sense of home is the central preoccupation of the contributors to the two volumes of the Coming Home? series. Scholars from history, literature, cultural studies and sociology explore the tensions between nation-states and migrants as they have anticipated, implemented or challenged the process of return migration during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The first volume – Coming Home? Conflict and Return Migration in the Aftermath of Europe’s Twentieth-Century Civil Wars – covers the period of the Spanish Civil War to the Cold War with a focus on Western, Central and Eastern Europe. This book shifts attention to the colonial and post-colonial framework of the French-North African nexus.

Gender, Migration and the Media

Gender, Migration and the Media
Author: Myria Georgiou
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317981111

This volume brings together a number of experts who explore conceptual and policy challenges, as well as empirical realities, associated with gender and migration in highly mediated societies. The need to more systematically address the gendered experience of migration, especially in relation to political and cultural representation, is in the core of the discussions that unfold in this book. The book's chapters address a number of critical questions in relation to the representation of women as members of communities and as outsiders in culturally diverse societies. In doing so, the collection pays particular attention to the sphere of media and communications. Mediated communication has become crucially important in the construction of meanings of identity and citizenship, while the media have taken centre stage in framing debates on migration, border control and gender representations in culturally diverse societies. Gender, Migration and the Media presents a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary understanding of the practices and the consequences of mediated communication for identity and citizenship. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Transnational American Spaces

Transnational American Spaces
Author: Tina Powell
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1648894380

As people migrate, they face the need to create a stable space within a disconcertingly unfamiliar environment. This experience of creating new spaces opens opportunities for positive transcultural connections; however, these opportunities can also serve as the disciplining of the migrant body. This text focuses on the movement of bodies in transnational communities and the formation of domestic and communal spaces that provide respite from migratory paths, negotiate transnational relationships, or establish a new home. In doing so, we explore literary texts that question, challenge, and deepen our understanding of the experience of migration through the use of space and place. The texts in question examine three levels of transnational spaces: intimate spaces such as family, personal growth, or sexuality; inherited spaces reflected in generational conflicts, religious identity, and inherited histories; and national spaces that look at issues of broader national identities. The texts we examine engage with transnational communities within the United States, and the ways in which narratives reimagine new space to negotiate change and create new norms. These narratives can sometimes bridge both cultures or can sometimes result in a violent sense of displacement. Each chapter problematizes a different aspect of transcultural adaptation, and the geographic ties of each community focus reflect the multicultural reality of the U.S., with connections to Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.

The Principle of Non-Refoulement under the ECHR and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The Principle of Non-Refoulement under the ECHR and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Author: Eman Hamdan
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004319395

In this study, Eman Hamdan examines the protection against refoulement under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention against Torture, with the aim to determine which of those Conventions affords better protection for international protection seekers. Hamdan explores the scope and content of the principle of non-refoulement under both Conventions and the application of the principle to the immigration control measures and the extraordinary rendition operations. The author provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the case-law of both the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture on the procedural and substantive aspects of the principle of non-refoulement, in order to help practitioners to determine which of these human rights treaty bodies is more favorable for their specific non-refoulement case. This book was chosen to participate in the Professor Walther Hug Prize 2014-2015, which is a prize for the best legal researches in Switzerland for each academic year.

Out of Africa

Out of Africa
Author: Giovanni Carbone
Publisher: Ledizioni
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 8867056670

The EU is struggling to cope with the so-called "migration crisis" that has emerged over the past few years. Designing the right policies to address immigration requires a deep understanding of its root causes. Why do Africans decide to leave their home countries? While the dream of a better life in Europe is likely part of the explanation, one also needs to examine the prevailing living conditions in the large and heterogeneous sub-Saharan region. This Report investigates the actual role of political, economic, demographic and environmental drivers in current migration flows. It offers a comprehensive picture of major migration motives as well as of key trends. Attention is also devoted to the role of climate change in promoting migration and to intra-continental mobility (two-thirds of sub-Saharan migrant flows start and end within the region). Two country studies on Eritrea and Nigeria are also included to get a closer sense of local developments behind large-scale migration to Europe.

Disputing Citizenship

Disputing Citizenship
Author: Clarke, John
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2014-01-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1447312554

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Citizenship is always in dispute – in practice as well as in theory – but conventional perspectives do not address why the concept of citizenship is so contentious. This unique book presents a new perspective on citizenship by treating it as a continuing focus of dispute.The authors dispute the way citizenship is normally conceived and analysed within the social sciences, developing a view of citizenship as always emerging from struggle. This view is advanced through an exploration of the entanglements of politics, culture and power that are both embodied and contested in forms and practices of citizenship. This compelling view of citizenship emerges from the international and interdisciplinary collaboration of the four authors, drawing on the diverse disputes over citizenship in their countries of origin (Brazil, France, the UK and the US). The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the field of citizenship, no matter what their geographical, political or academic location.

The Spatial Dynamics of Juvenile Series Literature

The Spatial Dynamics of Juvenile Series Literature
Author: Michael G. Cornelius
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2020-11-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1527561968

Where we come from, where we are, where we have been, and where we are going all have a huge impact on who we are. Theories of space and place also hold that the converse is equally true—that we have an impact on those spaces and places we inhabit or dwell within. We make space: our agencies, our cultures, our beliefs and values and understandings shape the macro- and micro-environments around us. Just as much, however, those places we inhabit shape us, causing us to adapt ourselves to them. Children exist in spaces that are crafted for them by adults—by parents, by school administrators and teachers—and, as such, their impact on space can be somewhat limited. Space is made for them, but certainly not to their own specifications or liking. In children’s literature, spaces are often seen as noteworthy markers of a child’s progression toward adulthood, whether the space is Laura Ingalls’ little house or Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. For these characters, movement through space is about growth and change, about accepting the inevitability of growing up and the responsibility of the adulthood, whether that be marriage and motherhood or vanquishing the most evil wizard of all time. However, what about juvenile series books, whose central protagonists generally never grow or change? The central character of these series—usually a flat, unchanging trope more than a fully realized, fleshed-out, dynamic figure—is a static creation. Though characters like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys frequently move through different geographies, they never change as characters. In fact, one could argue that the only dynamic that ever experiences any alteration in a series like Nancy Drew is setting. Surely there is something significant about the relationship of series books to those spaces their protagonists inhabit? This collection explores that relationship, the dynamics between the controlled spaces of childhood and the variable spaces of juvenile series literature. It shows that the unchanging series book characters demonstrate that their impact on space is far greater than its impact ever is on them, reflecting an exercise in spatial authority that most children and even children’s book heroes never quite experience.

Fighting Discrimination in Europe

Fighting Discrimination in Europe
Author: Mathias Möschel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 113574940X

The member states of the EU have only very recently begun to consider race and racism in the framework of equality legislation and policies. As opposed to an established Anglo-Saxon tradition of naming races and using racial categorisation to fight racism, most continental European countries resist this approach. This book investigates the problematic reception and elaboration of race as a socio-legal category in Europe. Fighting Discrimination in Europe takes a fresh and interdisciplinary look at the normative, theoretical and concrete problems raised by the challenge of devising and enforcing policies to combat race discrimination in Europe. It engages with the juridical and political spheres, from the international level down to concrete cases of state and city policies. As the multifaceted relationship between race, discrimination and immigration is explored, new normative positions and practical approaches are developed, and new questions raised. This collection presents important new research for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Ethnic Studies, Migration Studies, Legal Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Policy Studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Changing Societies

Changing Societies
Author: Vincent Mariet
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527555798

Putting movement at the center of our political and practical perspectives is to consider several issues related to the movement itself, including questions about the concept of “pure” culture. The migrant—s/he who moves—is seen as an “intruder” and a threat to cultural norms, but other frightening social mutations such as environmental problems or the growing place of artificial intelligence in societies are just some examples of evolving cultural and social identity, observable in each temporality, each geographical area and even in each discipline, and make it possible to study the different aspects of the dynamic movement that is at the origin of social changes. This volume explores the ways in which populations confronted with such social changes are affected, and which consequently can foster new ways of individual or collective decision-making.