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— The accompanying book to the Kassel exhibition "Trost" ("Comfort") in spring 2023 — A book to counter desolation in these challenging times — What comfort is and why people need it "Comfort" is one of those words that has a somewhat tarnished reputation: cold comfort, false comfort, consolation prize, someone is not to be comforted ... "Action instead of comfort" is the maxim; "therapy instead of resignation" the variant. There is something old-fashioned about comfort. And still we long for it; people have always looked for "sources of comfort". In the midst of the climate and global political upheavals of our time, in the middle of a Ukraine war, a play recently celebrated at the Salzburg Festival is called, "Crazy for Consolation". People seek comfort because just helping is no longer helping; they are at the end of their abilities. "Comfort" would appear to be a gift in both senses of the word. But "comfort" is a mystery. Jean-Pierre Wils attempts to solve it in this essay.
This book sets out to answer what it means to hold a formal title as one of the eight 'Arctic states'; is there such a thing as an Arctic state identity, and if so, what does this mean for state personnel? It charts the thoughtful reflections and stories of state personnel from three Arctic states: Norway, Iceland, and Canada, alongside analysis of documents and discourses. This book shows how state identities are narrated as both geographical and temporal - understood through environments, territories, pasts and futures - and that any identity is always relational and contextual. As such, demonstrating that to understand Arctic geopolitics we need to pay attention to the people whose job it is to represent the state on a daily basis. And more broadly, it offers a 'peopled' view of geopolitics, introducing the concept and framework of 'state identity'.
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The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.
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The mediated Arctic analyses the multiple relations between geography and cultural production that have long shaped - and are currently transforming - the circumpolar world. It explores how twenty-first-century cultural practitioners imagine and poeticise various elements of Arctic geography, and in doing so negotiate pressing environmental, (geo)political, and social concerns. From the plasmatic force of ice in Disney's Frozen films to the spatial vocabulary of circumpolar Indigenous hip hop, it addresses Arctic geographical imaginaries in a wide range of media, including literature, cinema, comic books, music videos, and cartographic art. The book brings together a plurality of voices from within and outside the circumpolar North, both in terms of the works analysed and in its own collaborative scholarly practice. The book bridges Indigenous and Southern mediations of the Arctic and combines different epistemologies to do justice to these imaginaries in their diversity.
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Postmodern, postcolonial and post-truth are broadly used terms. But where do they come from? When and why did the habit of interpreting the world in post-terms emerge? And who exactly were the 'post boys' responsible for this? Post-everything examines why post-Christian, post-industrial and post-bourgeois were terms that resonated, not only among academics, but also in the popular press. It delves into the historical roots of postmodern and poststructuralist, while also subjecting more recent post-constructions (posthumanist, postfeminist) to critical scrutiny. This study is the first to offer a comprehensive history of post-concepts. In tracing how these concepts found their way into a broad range of genres and disciplines, Post-everything contributes to a rapprochement between the history of the humanities and the history of the social sciences.
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A hospital somewhere in remote South Sudan. A place where peoples’ lives are marked by extreme poverty, war, violence, the climate crisis and the daily struggle for survival. How does it feel to be human under these conditions? What moves someone to voluntarily go where nobody would want to? Andreas Lutz takes you on a journey to a project run by the humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières in the northeast of South Sudan. Impressed by encounters with people who live under the precarious conditions of this crisis zone, he writes about his experiences as a caregiver and, among other things, about how healthcare provision works with very limited resources.
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Borders and conflict in South Asia is the first full-length study of the 1947 drawing of the Indo-Pakistani boundary in Punjab. Using the Radcliffe commission as a window onto the decolonization and independence of India and Pakistan, and examining the competing interests, both internal and international, that influenced the actions of the various major players, it highlights British efforts to maintain a grip on India even as the decolonization process spun out of control. Drawing on extensive archival research in India, Pakistan, and Britain, combined with innovative use of cartographic sources, the book paints a vivid picture of both the partition process and the Radcliffe line's impact on Punjab. This book will be vital reading for scholars and students of colonialism, decolonization, partition, and borderlands studies, while providing anyone interested in South Asia's independence with a highly readable account of one of its most controversial episodes.
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For the uninitiated, the Irish District Court is a place of incomprehensible, organised chaos. This comprehensive account of the court's criminal proceedings, based on an original study which involved observing hundreds of cases, aims to demystify the mayhem and provide the reader with descriptions of language, participant discourse and procedure in the typical criminal case. In addition, the book captures a recent and important change in the District Court: the advent of the immigrant or the Limited-English-proficient (LEP) defendant. It traces the rise of these defendants and explores the issues involved in ensuring access to justice across languages. It also provides an original description of LEP defendants and interpreters in District Court proceedings, ultimately considering how they have altered the institution and how the characteristics of the District Court affect how limited English proficient defendants access justice at this level of the Irish courts system.
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A compelling account of the project to transform post-war Manchester, revealing the clash between utopian vision and compromised reality. Urban renewal in Britain was thrilling in its vision, yet partial and incomplete in its implementation. For the first time, this deep study of a renewal city reveals the complex networks of actors behind physical change and stagnation in post-war Britain. Using the nested scales of region, city and case-study sites, the book explores the relationships between Whitehall legislation, its interpretation by local government planning officers and the on-the-ground impact through urban architectural projects. Each chapter highlights the connections between policy goals, global narratives and the design and construction of cities. The Cold War, decolonialisation, rising consumerism and the oil crisis all feature in a richly illustrated account of architecture and planning in post-war Manchester.
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— True crime stories from the morgue — Famous deaths and autopsy stories resolved, such as Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the case of Anne Greene, who survived her execution by hanging The post-mortem examination. A glimpse inside the interior of the human being. Many find the idea fascinating; for others it is creepy or even repugnant. There are still numerous myths and horror stories surrounding the autopsy, many of them associated with primal human fears such as that of being buried alive, which have existed since Antiquity. It is precisely for this reason that it is important to carry out the post-mortem examination with the utmost conscientiousness. Pathologist Roland Sedivy provides an exciting insight into his profession. Profound and with tremendous humour, he tells us about the early days of the autopsy, and shares with us some macabre and some mysterious cases.
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For five short years in the 1980s, a four-piece Manchester band released a collection of records that had undeniably profound effects on the landscape of popular music and beyond. Today, public and critical appreciation of The Smiths is at its height, yet the most important British band after The Beatles have rarely been subject to sustained academic scrutiny. Why pamper life's complexities?: Essays on The Smiths seeks to remedy this by bringing together diverse research disciplines to place the band in a series of enlightening social, cultural and political contexts as never before. Topics covered by the essays range from class, sexuality, Catholicism, Thatcherism, regional and national identities, to cinema, musical poetics, suicide and fandom. Lyrics, interviews, the city of Manchester, cultural iconography and the cult of Morrissey are all considered anew. The essays breach the standard confines of music history, rock biography and pop culture studies to give a sustained critical analysis of the band that is timely and illuminating. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of sociology, literature, geography, cultural and media studies. It is also intended for a wider audience of those interested in the enduring appeal of one of the most complex and controversial bands. Accessible and original, these essays will help to contextualise the lasting cultural legacy of The Smiths.
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With an eye to recovering the experiences of those in frontier zones of contact, Savage Worlds maps a wide range of different encounters between Germans and non-European indigenous peoples in the age of high imperialism. Examining outbreaks of radical violence as well as instances of mutual co-operation, it examines the differing goals and experiences of German explorers, settlers, travellers, merchants, and academics, and how the variety of projects they undertook shaped their relationship with the indigenous peoples they encountered. Examining the multifaceted nature of German interactions with indigenous populations, this volume offers historians and anthropologists clear evidence of the complexity of the colonial frontier and frontier zone encounters. It poses the question of how far Germans were able to overcome their initial belief that, in leaving Europe, they were entering 'savage worlds'.
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Martha Gellhorn was the doyenne of twentieth century war correspondence. Opinionated, honest and unafraid, she covered conflicts from the Spanish Civil War to Reagan's wars in Central America in the 1980s. Martha Gellhorn: the war writer in the field and in the text is the first critical study of her Second World War fiction and journalism. Often overlooked in accounts of war literature is the writer's precise position in relation to battle and his or her resultant standing in the text. Kate McLoughlin traces Gellhorn's daring attempts to access the war zone and her constructions of the woman war correspondent in her despatches, novels, short stories and play. Drawing on unpublished letters, close attention is given to Gellhorn's rivalry with Ernest Hemingway (the two were married from 1940 to 1945) over reaching the Normandy beaches on D-Day and its textual outcome in the pages of Collier's magazine. McLoughlin goes on to examine Gellhorn's increasingly negative portrayals of the glamorous female war reporter and to suggests why such disillusionment might have set in. ;
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Negotiating relief and freedom is an investigation of short- and long-term responses to disaster in the British Caribbean colonies during the 'long' nineteenth century. It explores how colonial environmental degradation made their inhabitants both more vulnerable to and expanded the impact of natural phenomena such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It shows that British approaches to disaster 'relief' prioritised colonial control and 'fiscal prudence' ahead of the relief of the relief of suffering. In turn, that this pattern played out continuously in the long nineteenth century is a reminder that in the Caribbean the transition from slavery to waged labour was not a clean one. Times of crisis brought racial and social tensions to the fore and freedoms once granted, were often quickly curtailed.
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An illuminating look at the world of cleanfluencers that asks why the burden of housework still falls on women. Housework is good for you. Housework sparks joy. Housework is beautiful. Housework is glamorous. Housework is key to a happy family. Housework shows that you care. Housework is women's work. Social media is flooded with images of the perfect home. TikTok and Instagram 'cleanfluencers' produce endless photos and videos of women cleaning, tidying and putting things right. Figures such as Marie Kondo and Mrs Hinch have placed housework, with its promise of a life of love and contentment, at the centre of self-care and positive thinking. And yet housework remains one of the world's most unequal institutions. Women, especially poorer women and women of colour, do most low-paid and unpaid domestic labour. In The return of the housewife, Emma Casey asks why these inequalities matter and why they persist after a century of dramatic advances in women's rights. She offers a powerful call to challenge the prevailing myths around housework and the 'naturally competent' woman homemaker.
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This book charts the building of 1 Angel Square, the remarkable new head office for The Co-operative Group in Manchester's new NOMA district. Combining text and photographs to illustrate the building from commissioning to completion, Len Grant has interviewed the whole project team - clients, architects, engineers, project managers and builders - and has had unreserved access to document the creation of this already award-winning structure. The design of 1 Angel Square by the architects 3DReid, is currently the UK's highest BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method) rated office building to date, and it is set to be one of the most sustainable buildings in Europe. 1 Angel Square, the book, is an intimate record of this fascinating building. Some of the impressive facts include: 3,157 internal and external window panels make up the façade; there are 10,500 data and power outlets; it sits on 539 foundation piles, with an average depth of 18 metres below ground; and there are approximately 22km of power cables. This book will be required reading for students of architecture and construction, sustainability studies and urban planning, and for those with an interest in the history of one of the world's great businesses. ;
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Capitalism in Europe is transformed as a result of liberalisation, privatisation and regulatory reform. Unravelling the state as service provider and employer has posed significant social policy challenges to the emerging regulatory state. The book examines how these challenges have been addressed in different varieties of capitalism and across sectors. It compares change in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, takes stock of the reform movement in Europe and internationally, and discusses policy approaches in telecoms and electricity. It pays special attention to falling mail volumes as a driver of change and a new wave of privatisation triggered by the European sovereign debt crisis. The analysis reveals whether and how social policy goals have been addressed by means of regulation and redistribution. The book explains why liberal market economies have been postal reform latecomers and why the regulatory state benefits consumers, but is likely to leave employees' interests behind. ;
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This volume, newly available in paperback, examines the role of the European Union in creating a system of governance involving the countries and regions of its new 'neighbourhood'. Enlargement has functioned as one of the EU's most effective foreign policy tools, yet the EU is rapidly approaching the limits of its capacity to accept new member states. It therefore must develop ways of extending and preserving the European zone of peace and stability that do not rely on the prospect of membership as a means of influencing the behaviour of non-member countries. A major step in this direction is the EU's new European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ENP aims to create a ring of 'well-governed and friendly' countries along the EU's eastern, southeastern, and southern peripheries. This volume situates this policy in a broad, analytically-coherent framework, supported by a full range of ENP case studies, to explain whether the ENP represents a truly new approach to regional governance.
