The dynamic and interconnected ways Afghans and Iranians invented their modern selves through literature.

Contrary to the presumption that literary nationalism in the Global South emerged through contact with Europe alone, Reading across Borders demonstrates how the cultural forms of Iran and Afghanistan as nation-states arose from their shared Persian heritage and cross-cultural exchange in the twentieth century. In this book, Aria Fani charts the individuals, institutions, and conversations that made this exchange possible, detailing the dynamic and interconnected ways Afghans and Iranians invented their modern selves through new ideas about literature.

Fani illustrates how voluntary and state-funded associations of readers helped formulate and propagate "literature" as a recognizable notion, adapting and changing Persian concepts to fit this modern idea. Focusing on early twentieth-century periodicals with readers in Afghan and Iranian cities and their diaspora, Fani exposes how nationalism intensified-rather than severed-cultural contact among two Persian-speaking societies amidst the diverging and competing demands of their respective nation-states. This interconnected history was ultimately forgotten, shaping many of the cultural disputes between Iran and Afghanistan today.

What urban food networks reveal about middle class livability in times of transformation

In recent years, the concept of "livability" has captured the global imagination, influencing discussions about the implications of climate change on human life and inspiring rankings of "most livable cities" in popular publications. But what really makes for a livable life, and for whom?

Cultivating Livability takes Bengaluru, India, as a case study-a city that is alternately described as India's most and least livable megacity, where rapid transformation is undergirded by inequalities evident in the food networks connecting peri-urban farmers and the middle-class public. Anthropologist Camille Frazier probes the meaning of "livability" in Bengaluru through ethnographic work among producers and consumers, corporate intermediaries and urban information technology professionals.

Examining the varying efforts to reconfigure processes of food production, distribution, retail, and consumption, she reveals how these intersections are often rooted in and exacerbate ongoing forms of disenfranchisement that privilege some lives at the expense of others.

Examining the racial underpinnings of food, microbial medicine, and disgust in America

American Disgust shows how perceptions of disgust and fears of contamination are rooted in the country's history of colonialism and racism. Drawing on colonial, corporate, and medical archives, Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer argues that microbial medicine is closely entwined with changing cultural experiences of digestion, excrement, and disgust that are inextricably tied to the creation of whiteness.

Ranging from nineteenth-century colonial encounters with Native people to John Harvey Kellogg's ideas around civilization and bowel movements to mid-twentieth-century diet and parenting advice books, Wolf-Meyer analyzes how embedded racist histories of digestion and disgust permeate contemporary debates around fecal microbial transplants and other bacteriotherapeutic treatments for gastrointestinal disease.

At its core, American Disgust wrestles with how changing cultural notions of digestion-what goes into the body and what comes out of it-create and impose racial categories motivated by feelings of disgust rooted in American settler-colonial racism. It shows how disgust is a changing, yet fundamental, aspect of American subjectivity and that engaging with it-personally, politically, and theoretically-opens up possibilities for conceptualizing health at the individual, societal, and planetary levels.

This book explores how New Zealand, a small country almost as far from Western Europe as it is possible to be, assumed political importance in Britain's accession to the European Community vastly out of proportion to its size, proximity and strategic position. At several points in accession negotiations, the issue of New Zealand's continued trade with Britain threatened to derail UK Government attempts to join the Community. This issue also interacted with the broader context of the Cold War, economic shocks and decolonisation, materially affecting the terms of entry into the European Community, and altering Britain's relations with its European partners and the British public's perceptions of British membership. After entry, New Zealand continued to resurface as a continued source of tension between Britain and an integrating Europe. The role that New Zealand played sheds light on Britain's attempts to retain global influence after the demise of its formal empire. Contributing to a growing body of research which challenges the traditional historical narratives of British 'decline' and colonial 'independence' in the second half of the twentieth century, this book fills an important gap in the historiography of Britain following the 1973 enlargement of the European Communities.

This book opens new pathways for decolonial autoethnography, presented as a series of reflective stories that showcase how Maori have negotiated and navigated their personal and professional identities within contemporary society. Framed within the academic methodology of Indigenous Autoethnography, authors recount their personal and professional experiences to address their encounters with cultural trauma and personal enlightenment. As a culturally responsive methodology, Indigenous Autoethnography embraces reflective practice and critical awakening to validate Indigenous knowledge, ensuring that it remains meaningful and responsive to the needs of Maori. Utilising metaphorical storytelling as a primary means of sensemaking, this work reinforces the importance of Maori and other Indigenous People to seek wisdom from the past to guide them into the future. With Indigenous knowledge historically ignored and misrepresented in higher education, this seminal text provides invaluable guidance for global Indigenous researchers seeking to produce story work that genuinely encompasses physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.

Assesses the broad impact of China's influential leader

The Xi Jinping Effect explores the relationship between the People's Republic of China's current "paramount leader"-arguably the most powerful figure since Mao Zedong (1893-1976)-and multiple areas of political and social transformation. It illuminates not just policy arenas in which his leadership of China has had an outsized impact but also areas where his initiatives have faltered due to unintended consequences, international pushback, or the divergence of local priorities from those of the central government. Collectively, the book's chapters document the ways in which Xi's neo-totalitarianism has dismantled Reform Era legacies, while reconfiguring governance and rewiring China's global connections. Contributions by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists consider such issues as Xi's anticorruption campaign and obsession with ideological governance, state surveillance, the status of ethnic minorities and migrants, income inequality, and China's relations with Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295752822

Encompassing the institutions, organisations and policy processes that make up EU public administration, it critically reviews existing literature and presents avenues for future research. Contributors consider a broad spectrum of theoretical approaches to the topic, including federalism, institutionalism, constructivism and organisational theory. The Handbook introduces and discusses specific aspects of European public administration, in particular EU-level institutions, agencies, committees and networks, and their impact on EU governance. Chapters also analyse different stages of the policy cycle and issues surrounding the legitimacy of EU public administration.

This essential Handbook is a vital resource for graduate and postgraduate students in the disciplines of European studies, political science and EU law. It will also be of great benefit to academics and public administration practitioners interested in expanding their knowledge of public management, policy and governance.

Structured around the flood risk management cycle, chapters explore the critical importance of managing the consequences of flooding whilst examining key concepts such as mitigation, preparedness, emergency management and recovery. An international range of expert contributors from an array of disciplines recognize the inadequacies of existing governance approaches and mechanisms when it comes to addressing urban flooding, and identify the ways in which these can be strengthened in order to create an integrated flood and water management framework. Adopting a forward-thinking approach, the Research Handbook also investigates future directions of flood risk management research.

The Research Handbook on Flood Risk Management will be an indispensable resource for academics, researchers, and students interested in environmental geography, environmental governance and regulation, urban studies, politics and public policy and the management of natural resources.