Thekla Verlag
We are a publisher from Germany with a selected list of children's and young adult books.
View Rights PortalWe are a publisher from Germany with a selected list of children's and young adult books.
View Rights PortalTheart Press is a South African publisher specialisingin inspirational books - including poetry, children's books and biography.
View Rights PortalDe-centering queer theory seeks to reorient queer theory to a different conception of bodies and sexuality derived from Eastern European Marxism. The book articulates a contrast between the concept of the productive body, which draws its epistemology from Soviet and avant-garde theorists, and Cold War gender, which is defined as the social construction of the body. The first part of the book concentrates on the theoretical and visual production of Eastern European Marxism, which proposed an alternative version of sexuality to that of western liberalism. In doing so it offers a historical angle to understand the emergence not only of an alternative epistemology, but also of queer theory's vocabulary. The second part of the book provides a Marxist, anti-capitalist archive for queer studies, which often neglects to engage critically with its liberal and Cold War underpinnings.
As human and machine agency become increasingly intermingled and digital media is overlaid onto the urban landscape, The machinic city argues that performance art can help us to understand contemporary urban living. Dias analyses interventions from performance artists such as Blast Theory, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Rimini Protokoll, which draw from a rich history of avant-garde art movements to create spaces for deliberation and reflection on urban life, and speculation on its future. While cities are increasingly controlled by autonomous processes mediated by technical machines, Dias analyses the performative potential of the aesthetic machine, as it assembles with media, capitalist, human and urban machines. The aesthetic machine of performance art in urban space is examined through its different components - design, city and technology actants. This unveils the unpredictable nature and emerging potential of performance art as it unfolds in the machinic city.
Populism is a powerful force today, but its full scope has eluded the analytical tools of both orthodox and heterodox 'populism studies'. This book provides a valuable alternative perspective. It reconstructs in detail for the first time the sociological analyses of US demagogues by members of the Frankfurt School and compares these with contemporary approaches. Modern demagogy emerges as a key under-researched feature of populism, since populist movements, whether 'left' or 'right', are highly susceptible to 'demagogic capture'. The book also details the culture industry's populist contradictions - including its role as an incubator of modern demagogues - from the 1930s through to today's social media and 'Trumpian psychotechnics'. Featuring a previously unpublished text by Adorno on modern demagogy as an appendix, it will be of interest to researchers and students in critical theory, sociology, politics, German studies, philosophy and history of ideas, as well as all those concerned about the rise of demagogic populism today.
Men in political theory builds on feminist re-readings of the traditional canon of male writers in Political Philosophy by turning the 'gender lens' on to the representation of men in widely studies texts. It explains the distinction between 'man' as an apparently de-gendered 'individual' or 'citizen', and 'man' as an overtly gendered being in human society. Both these representations of 'man' are crucial to a clearer understanding of the operation of gender. Newly available in paperback, the book is the first to use the 'men's studies' and 'masculinities' literatures in re-thinking the political problems that students and specialists in the social sciences and humanities must encounter: consent, obligation, patriarchy, gender, sexuality, life-cycle, and discriminatory disadvantage related to sex, age, class, race/ethnicity and disability. It does this by re-examining the historical materials from which present-day concepts of citizenship, individuality, identity, subjectivity, normativity and legitimacy arise. The ten chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx and Engels show the operation of the 'gender lens' in different ways, depending on how the philosopher deploys concepts of men and masculinity to pose and solve classic problems. They can all be read independently and are as suitable for those just making the acquaintance of these classic writers as for those with specialist knowledge and interests. ;
How will physiotherapy adapt to developments and challenges in the 21st century? New thinking while keeping the tried-and-tested: This is the motto adopted by eight physiotherapy researchers and practitioners in this handbook. Their contributions advance the theory for their discipline. They have met regularly at the so-called Berlin Salon since 2015: they analyze, discuss, and incorporate existing models and adopt a theory. They are all professionally qualified physiotherapists with further training in fields such as health science, education, and therapy management. They all suffer from the lack of theory in professional practice, and they have all experienced the diverse, often unconscious discourses in the field. Theoretical understanding and theory development require theory-driven reflection, the results of which have long since left the Berlin Salon and been adopted internationally. Target Group: Physiotherapists, healthcare scientists, university instructors
This book offers a unique and timely reading of the early Frankfurt School in response to the recent 'affective turn' within the arts and humanities. Resisting the overly rationalist tendencies of political philosophy, it argues that critical theory actively cultivates a powerful connection between thinking and feeling, and rediscovers a range of often neglected concepts that were of vital importance to the first generation of critical theorists, including melancholia, hope, (un)happiness, objects and mimesis. In doing so, it brings the dynamic work of Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch and Siegfried Kracauer into conversation with more recent debates around politics and affect. An important intervention in the fields of affect studies and social and political thought, Critical theory and feeling shows that sensuous experience is at the heart of the Frankfurt School's affective politics.
This book addresses the question of political legitimacy in the European Union from the much neglected angle of political responsibility. It develops an original communitarian approach to legitimacy based on Alasdair MacIntyre's ethics of virtues and practices, that can be contrasted with prevalent liberal-egalitarian and neo-republican approaches. Tsakatika argues that a 'responsibility deficit', quite distinct from the often discussed 'democratic deficit', can be diagnosed in the European Union. This is documented in chapters that provide in-depth analysis of accountability, transparency and the difficulties associated with identifying responsibility in European governance. Closing this gap requires going beyond institutional engineering. It calls for gradual convergence towards certain core social and political practices and for the flourishing of the virtues of political responsibility in Europe's nascent political community. Throughout the book, normative political theory is brought to bear on concrete dilemmas of institutional choice faced by the EU during the recent constitutional debates. 'Political responsibility and the European Union' will be of interest to specialists and postgraduate students of political theory, constitutional law and European Union Studies. ;
One of the few books which systematically brings post-structuralist theory to bear on substantive political analysis. Offers accessible accounts of different strands of discourse theory such as deconstruction, psychoanalysis and genealogy, which are applied to the analysis of specific cases such as Northern Ireland and contemporary East European politics. Each chapter addresses a key theme and issue in contemporary politics. Draws on inspiration from Ernesto Laclau, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. Contains a clear introductory statement of the theoretical approach used and concludes with an assessment of the future directions of discourse theory in the social sciences. ;
Political marketing has become a global phenomenon as parties try to copy the market-oriented approach employed by Tony Blair to win power for New Labour in 1997. Increasingly voters choose parties like consumers choose products, and this study looks at how some political parties, such as Sinn Fein, have been able to capitalise on this to gain support. It raises fresh perspectives on the more established political marketing practices in the UK and US, such as how to incorporate political leadership within the market-oriented framework and the democratic implications when faced with the actually business of governing. This book also highlights how the market-oriented party approach has spread around the world, including Europe and the new democracies of Brazil and Peru. The chapters, in demonstrating this convergence in practices, also question whether this strategy is appropriate for political systems based on proportional representation and coalition governments such as those in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and devolved systems in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The collection also introduces the debate on whether such practices enhance or undermine democracy, raising important questions on the future of political marketing. This book should become an established essential text for students and academics of political science and marketing. ;
Political marketing has become a global phenomenon as parties try to copy the market-oriented approach employed by Tony Blair to win power for New Labour in 1997. Increasingly voters choose parties like consumers choose products, and this study looks at how some political parties, such as Sinn Fein, have been able to capitalise on this to gain support. It raises fresh perspectives on the more established political marketing practices in the UK and US, such as how to incorporate political leadership within the market-oriented framework and the democratic implications when faced with the actually business of governing. This book also highlights how the market-oriented party approach has spread around the world, including Europe and the new democracies of Brazil and Peru. The chapters, in demonstrating this convergence in practices, also question whether this strategy is appropriate for political systems based on proportional representation and coalition governments such as those in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and devolved systems in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The collection also introduces the debate on whether such practices enhance or undermine democracy, raising important questions on the future of political marketing. This book should become an established essential text for students and academics of political science and marketing.
Child, nation, race and empire is an innovative, inter-disciplinary, cross cultural study that contributes to understandings of both contemporary child welfare practices and the complex dynamics of empire. It analyses the construction and transmission of nineteenth-century British child rescue ideology. Locating the origins of contemporary practice in the publications of the prominent English Child rescuers, Dr Barnardo, Thomas Bowman Stephenson, Benjamin Waugh, Edward de Montjoie Rudolf and their colonial disciples and literature written for children, it shows how the vulnerable body of the child at risk came to be reconstituted as central to the survival of nation, race and empire. Yet, as the shocking testimony before the many official enquiries into the past treatment of children in out-of-home 'care' held in Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada make clear, there was no guarantee that the rescued child would be protected from further harm.
Since constitutional arrangements are what make politics work, they are a central concern of political theory. This book, now completely updated, was the first comprehensive exploration of the political theory of constitutions. Jan-Erik Lane begins by examining the origins and history of constitutionalism and answers key questions such as: what is a constitution? Why are there constitutions? From where does constitutionalism originate? How is the constitutional state related to democracy and justice? Constitutions play a major role in domestic and international politics in the early 21st century and an updated version of this classic textbook will introduce students to a number of different areas - theoretical, empirical and moral - which will aid their understanding of this important topic. ;
Ideas about marriage, gender and the family were central to political debate in late Stuart England. Newly available in paperback, this book shows how political argument became an arena in which the proper relations between men and women, parents and children, public and private were defined and contested. Using sources that range from high political theory to scurrilous lampoons, she considers public debates about succession, resistance and divorce. Weil examines the allegedly fraudulent birth of the Prince of Wales in 1688, the uses to which Williamite propagandists put the image of the paradoxically sovereign but obedient Mary II, anxieties about the influence of bedchamber women on Queen Anne, the political self-image of the notorious Duchess of Marlborough, the relationship of feminism and Tory ideology in the polemical writings of Mary Astell and the scandal novels of Delariviere Manley. Solidly grounded in current historical scholarship, but written in an engaging manner accessible to non-specialists, this book will interest students of literature, gender studies, political culture and political theory as well as historians. ;
The political theory of the Irish Constitution considers Irish constitutional law and the Irish constitutional tradition from the perspective of Republican theory. It analyses the central devices and doctrines of the Irish Constitution - popular sovereignty, constitutional rights and judicial review - in light of Republican concepts of citizenship and civic virtue. The Constitution, it will argue, can be understood as a framework for promoting popular participation in government as much as a mechanism for protecting individual liberties. It will be of interest to students and researchers in Irish politics, political theory and constitutional law, and to all those interested in political reform and public philosophy in Ireland.