May 23 2013

Book Review: Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress

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In 2005 the World Bank released a gender assessment of the nation of Jordan, a country that like many in the Middle East has undergone dramatic social and gender transformations, in part by encouraging equal access to education for men and women. The resulting demographic picture there—highly educated women who still largely stay at home as mothers and caregivers— prompted the World Bank to label Jordan a “gender paradox.” Cheryl Brumley is impressed by the way this book challenges development truisms and hopes the policymakers and development professionals take heed before enacting broad policies in the Middle East.

Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress. Fida J. Adely. University of Chicago Press. 2012.

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In an episode of the popular Jordanian sketch comedy Bath Bayakha (Broadcasting Silliness), an actor opens a skit outside a centre which trains Jordanians how to become Khalijin (Gulf Arabs). Inside he teaches participants about the Saudi currency, and takes jabs at the Gulf accent.They also dance spiritedly with gold-plated guns, a knock at the perceived excess of Khaliji life.

Two men then deliver animated testimonials about the benefits of the programme, “I used to be a Jordanian now I’m a Khaliji – very good” one says with two thumbs up. As the montage reaches its end, a woman in a niqab appears. It is assumed at this point she will give an equally enthusiastic testimonial. Instead, she blinks and stares as crickets faintly croak in the background. This is the climax of the skit, aside from the obvious swipes at the Gulf’s most distinctive stereotypes, it all builds up to the silence of the women in the niqab.

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May 23 2013

Book Review: Remaking Citizenship in Multi-Cultural Europe: Women’s Movements, Gender and Diversity

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This book aims to offer a ground-breaking analysis of how women’s movements have been remaking citizenship in multicultural Europe. Presenting the findings of a large scale cross-national feminist research project, the authors discuss the differences women’s movements and feminism have made to experiences and practices of citizenship, and how we might assess the state of citizenship in contemporary Europe from the perspective of minority women. Reviewed by Keerty Nakray. 

Remaking Citizenship in Multi-Cultural Europe: Women’s Movements, Gender and Diversity. Edited by Beatrice Halsaa, Sasha Roseneil and Sevil Sümer. Palgrave Macmillan. August 2012.

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This edited volume successfully encapsulates the debates on various dimensions of citizenship in contemporary European society. The chapters – edited by Professor at the University of Oslo Beatrice Halsaa, Birkbeck Professor Sasha Roseneil, and University of Bergen researcher Sevil Sümer – are based on empirical research findings from FEMCIT: a multi-disciplinary, cross-national research project led by several European universities. It undertakes the onerous task of revisiting the concept of citizenship in the context of juxtaposing imperatives that include rapid “Europeanization” and establishment of European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, the institutionalisation of gender equality in the transnational laws and policies, the global financial crisis, the war on terror, and the changing demographic and economic landscape – specifically related to the ageing population and a marked increase in the influx of immigrants from developing economies.

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May 22 2013

Book Review: America’s Blind Spot: Chávez, Oil and US Security

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Latin America holds some of the world’s biggest oil reserves, but unstable political events in the region are hindering its potential, especially in Venezuela. Global U.S. security would benefit from a revamping of outdated policies towards Latin America, argue Andrés Cala and Michael Economides. This is a blind spot in American politics, one that threatens U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. In this book, the authors aim to offer a thorough analysis of key geopolitical and economic threats to the U.S., highlighting the need for a new Latin American policy doctrine based on military and strategic priorities. Reviewed by Luis Boscán.

America’s Blind Spot: Chávez, Oil and US Security. Andrés Cala and Michael Economides. Continuum Books. 2012

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Despite economic woes in an increasingly multipolar world characterised by the ascent of countries like China, Brazil, India and Russia, Andrés Cala and Michael Economides argue that the United States ‘will remain the single most powerful country for some time’ (p. xix).  The central argument of America’s Blind Spot is that a failed and outdated US foreign policy towards its south-of-the-border neighbours has hindered the achievement of energy security. With the world’s second largest crude oil reserves (largely untapped), the region is in the best position to supply an important share of US energy needs (p. 125). Why hasn’t this been the case until now? What would it take for this to change?

Andrés Cala, a Colombian journalist based in Madrid, and Michael Economides, a US-based energy analyst and Petroleum Engineering professor, have teamed up to produce a timely, well documented, yet concise examination of the issue. With a solid command of geopolitics and a clear understanding of petroleum economics, the authors present a valuable insight into the balance of power plays in Latin American politics, the role of the late Hugo Chávez in the region, and a detailed analysis of US energy policy to sustain the claim that ‘Venezuela is perhaps best placed to significantly improve American energy and national security in the short term’ (p. 81).

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May 22 2013

Book Review: A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences

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In A Tale of Two Cultures, Gary Goertz and James Mahoney argue that qualitative and quantitative methods constitute different cultures, each internally coherent yet marked by contrasting norms, practices, and toolkits. The authors seek to promote toleration, exchange, and learning by aiming to enable scholars to think beyond their own culture and see an alternative scientific worldview. Those instructing research methods will find the book a particularly helpful teaching tool, writes Maria Kuecken, with clear examples and case studies throughout.

A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences. Gary Goertz and James Mahoney. Princeton University Press. August 2012.

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Between camps of quantitative and qualitative researchers, a discussion of research methods is one that usually incites more contention than cooperation. But, according to Gary Goertz and James Mahoney, conflict doesn’t need to be the norm. By carefully dissecting each methodological tradition in their book A Tale of Two Cultures, Goertz and Mahoney do social scientists a great service by promoting mutual understanding and appreciation of both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Goertz and Mahoney frame their book with the assertion that “the quantitative-qualitative disputation in social sciences is really a clash of cultures.” Like different cultures, they explain that each tradition abides by its own sets of practices and beliefs. And while there is potentially a great deal to be gained from cross-over between the two, more often than not cross-cultural interactions are waved away or, at the very least, misunderstood.

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May 21 2013

Book Review: Laruelle and Non-Philosophy

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Presenting critical essays on the work of arguably one of the most important French philosophers of the last 20 years, this collection provides an overview of Laruelle’s thought and an understanding of his contemporary relevance. Aiming to challenge concepts such as immanence, pluralism, resistance, science, democracy, Marxism, theology and materialism, Laruelle’s concept of ‘non-philosophy’ also expands our view of what counts as philosophical thought, through art, science and politics, and beyond. Reviewed by Miranda Nell.

laruelle-and-non-philosophyLaruelle and Non-Philosophy. John Mullarkey and Anthony Paul Smith (eds.). Edinburgh University Press. July 2012.

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Francois Laruelle is a current French thinker who has been writing for decades, but has only recently been translated into English. Although he has a small but enthusiastic following, he is not widely known in the philosophy world, and this collection is the first significant work commenting on his ideas. For those already familiar with him, the book will satisfy with a well-rounded introduction, ten essays engaging the material in diverse ways, a contribution from Laruelle, and an intriguing interview with him as well. The more interesting question is how this volume suits a reader new to Laruelle, and whether it makes a case for his merit.

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May 21 2013

Book Review: Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East

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Syria’s 1970 bloodless coup by General Hafez al-Assad put in place a powerful autocratic machinery at the core of the state which continues under the control of his son Bashar. Power and Policy in Syria presents an analysis of Syria’s political structure: a ‘despotic’ state monopoly, a bureaucratic climate marked by fear, and an administrative structure through which centralized control is exercised. Andreas Aagaard Nøhr finds that this book’s value lies in the bold boundaries it attempts to push rather than its ultimate conclusion.

Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East. Radwan Ziadeh. I.B. Tauris. November 2012.

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Since March 2011 the situation in Syria has been worsening day by day. The UN is now describing it as a humanitarian crisis that is “dramatic beyond description” – with well beyond four million people displaced either internally or in neighbouring countries. The civil war has intensified without any decisive outcomes while international society has been perplexed by the intervention dilemma; recent reports of the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian population might just resolve such dilemmas and provoke a military response. Yet, the reports also paint an ever-darker picture of the strong desire to maintain power within the regime. A question that seems reasonable to ask is thus: how did it come to this – what political structures have to be in place to produce such a terrible state of affairs?

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May 20 2013

Book Review: Social Research After the Cultural Turn

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Social Research after the Cultural Turn aims to address fundamental questions facing those working in the social and human sciences today: How have the epistemological and political contexts of social research changed? Can we still define a distinct sphere of ‘the social’ to research? What distinguishes social research from cultural studies and the humanities? Donna Peach writes that the breadth of topics and depth of enquiry into epistemological and methodological assumptions makes this book a useful companion for academics in any area of the social sciences.

Social Research After the Cultural Turn. Sasha Roseneil & Stephen Frosh (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan. January 2012.

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The idiom ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ certainly applies to this book. The seemingly innocuous title, alongside the subtle hues of yellow thermometers hanging from blue helium-filled balloons against a grey background, suggests a restrained selection of content. The need for a more measured approach quickly becomes apparent though, as Social Research after the Cultural Turn impressively traverses the multifaceted tensions and opportunities associated with the movement to make culture the focus of contemporary debates within the social sciences. Sasha Roseneil & Stephen Frosh provide a stimulating excursion illuminated by diverse perspectives that extend the socio-cultural arena and negotiate the current limits of its navigation. All but two of the contributors – Gordon Lynch (Kent) and Mike Savage (York) – are based at Birkbeck, University of London. Thus, this anchors them and presumably the majority of their readership, including myself, to a British strand of social research.

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May 20 2013

Book Review: Dickens and Race

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Dickens and Race offers a unique contextualisation of Dickens’s fictional engagements with race in relation to his lesser-known journalism, with wider nineteenth-century debates about differences between humans, with issues of empire, and with the race shows of London. A potentially invaluable resource for students interested in Charles Dickens, Victorian studies, racial difference and empire, and childhood, writes Steven Harkins.

Dickens and Race. Laura Peters. Manchester University Press. January 2013.

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Did the social critic, ‘champion of the oppressed’, and celebrated Victorian novelist Charles Dickens advocate genocide on behalf of the British Empire? This is one of the questions tackled by Laura Peters in her new book Dickens and Race, published to coincide with the bicentenary of one of the best known literary figures from the Victorian era.

Peters is a specialist in nineteenth-century literature and this book examines literature, journalism, and letters written by Charles Dickens in order to produce a thoroughgoing, sharp, and surprising examination of his often controversial views on the subject of racial difference. The book examines how Dickens’ early views on the subject of race are shaped by his voyages in the ‘paper boats’ of boyhood African adventure stories, alongside other narratives from his childhood like the Tales of the Arabian Nights and Robinson Crusoe. As an adult, Dickens was to become ‘attracted to the increasingly influential narrative of science’ in order to gain a better understanding of racial difference. Although Dickens’ views on race were to change over time, Peters argues that his thoughts were consistently shaped by the two influential ideas of the ‘exotic of fancy’ and the ‘scientific narrative of racial thinking’.

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May 19 2013

Book Review: Evidence-Based Policy: A Practical Guide to Doing It Better

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Over the last twenty or so years, it has become standard to require policy makers to base their recommendations on evidence. That is now uncontroversial to the point of triviality – of course, policy should be based on the facts. But are the methods that policy makers rely on to gather and analyse evidence the right ones? Evidence-Based Policy contends that the dominant methods which are in use now – methods that imitate standard practices in medicine like randomised control trials – do not work. Michael Bassey believes policymakers should engage in the kind of critical and analytical processes advocated by this book before rolling out social changes.

Evidence-Based Policy: A Practical Guide to Doing it Better. Nancy Cartwright and Jeremy Hardie.  Oxford University Press. 2012.

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In March this year the UK government announced the launch of a network of six “What Works” centres aimed at providing robust evidence to inform policy making. The rationale was given as “It is a fundamental principle of good public services that decisions are made on the basis of strong evidence and what we know works. Yet all too often evidence is not presented in a simple, relevant format that enables it to be used to its maximum potential by service providers, commissioners and policymakers.” 

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May 18 2013

Book Review: Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law

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Since the early 2000s, Turkey has been obliged to fulfill important requirements in the field of human rights as part of the Europeanization process. A historically nationalist and repressive state, the country has recently been making progress in this field. However, according to EU progress reports, a lot more is required especially in regards to anti-discrimination and minority rights laws. Kally Zarali highly recommends Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law as an interesting and in-depth historical overview of the case of minority rights and diversity.

Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law. Derya Bayir. Ashgate. 2013.

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Turkey was granted the status of EU-candidate country in 1999. Since then, and while negotiations and relations with the EU have gone through various phases, the country remains on the path of Europeanization and harmonization with the Enlargement requirements. At the same time, the emergence of AKP, the moderate Islamist party of Tayip Erdogan, and its dominance in political life since 2002, has brought about important changes in the governance of the country and also in its profile and role in the region and the world. In comparison to other Muslim countries of the region still striving to find their internal and external balances after the Arab Spring, Turkey is regarded as a stable and rising economic power, experiencing constant and peaceful democratization. This process however is not as rapid and far-reaching as one would expect, and thus most of the malfunctions of a historically nationalist society are still present, especially in the field of human and minority rights.

Derya Bayir focuses on the Turkish legal system and judiciary and their roles in the formation, interpretation, and implementation of policies on diversity and the management of minorities in the country. Through extensive and meticulous examination of parliamentary papers, laws, and judicial decisions the author composes the meaning of the terms “Turk” and “Turkish nation” throughout history, and describes eloquently the repressive and assimilative practices that have been used against minorities by the Turkish state in the name of Turkish nationalism.

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