A compelling examination of North Korea's elites, their hidden discontent, and the role they may play in shaping the regime's future

Jieun Baek's second book on North Korea is a deeply researched and sharply analytical account of the grievances harbored by the country's elite. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with escapees from Pyongyang, Baek examines how members of this privileged class, granted access to forbidden information and superior material benefits, publicly uphold the regime despite their underlying discontent. She argues that this performative loyalty, born of fear and a desire to survive, masks a critical vulnerability within the regime's core.

Grounded in firsthand testimony and enriched by insights from a global network of academics, intelligence analysts, human rights practitioners, and policymakers, Baek's account challenges the prevailing view of North Korea's elites as uniformly loyal actors. Instead, she reveals a complex and precarious reality faced by those closest to power.

This book sheds new light on how elite grievances may shape the trajectory of the regime's stability and security. Baek offers a provocative argument: that those who seem most invested in preserving North Korea's status quo may become its most dangerous disruptors, not for ideological reasons but because of simmering resentment and vanishing alternatives.

Examining Lu You's (1125-1210) poems about the countryside, this book recreates the rural communities of the Shankuai Plain in eastern Zhejiang during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Spanning six chapters, the book recounts the history of the region, covering topics such as the development of the area, rural community life, and the farming-based economy. Through examining aspects such as the local geography, village layouts, crops cultivated and trade activities, it depicts the daily lives of ordinary villagers and the educated elite. Drawing on small details from a vast number of Lu You's poems, the author explores how local markets and businesses operated, and the influence of the educated elite on the rural world. By using ancient poems and local historical records to support each other, the book describes the social and economic networks of the plain. In a vivid manner, it portrays Lu You as an exceptional chronicler of pastoral life in ancient China.

It is intended for general readers, as well as students and scholars of literature and history, and anyone interested in traditional Chinese culture. Focusing on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, it also offers insights into literature, sociology, economics, and more.

We Are Not South African explores how national identity functions as a colonial tool of communication, control, and power. Author Rachel Lara van der Merwe examines how humans and the planet are integrally shaped by the idea of the nation and speculates on how different sociopolitical imaginaries, instead of the nation, could inform ways of being-together in the world.

Linking national identity to colonialism, the book broadens the idea of the nation to include its impact on all forms of life, human and more-than-human. Van der Merwe builds her argument on three central observations: that nations are made up of conflicting and fractured imaginaries, not unified, cohesive ones; the nation is divisive by nature, tracing back to its colonial origins; and the nation, along with the state, exploits both humans and more-than-humans. In order to build a more just and sustainable planetary society, she argues, liberation from such colonial formations is vital. In response, the book asks, How could we reimagine how we organize our societies through values of relationality and mutual care rather than rigid borders? What sociopolitical imaginaries do we need, or already possess, that might inform new configurations of community?

This book aims to uncover Neoplatonism as an entangled global philosophy that has connected Europe with India for centuries. To demonstrate that argument, it delves into two notable instances ofsolar cults during the long sixteenth century. Both cases are examined through the lens of the longue-duree Great Tradition of Neoplatonism, taking off from the sun cult designed by the Roman Emperor Julian in the fourth century. The book also includes:

• Comprehensive analysis of solar worship traditions across cultures and civilizations
• Detailed examination of Mughal cosmology and millenarian beliefs in India
• In-depth study of Barberini solar cult practices in Renaissance Rome
• Comparative approach to understanding sun worship in different historical contexts
• Scholarly investigation of the longue duree of solar religious traditions

By exploring the intriguing parallels between these coinciding solar cults, this book advocates a truly global intellectual history that transcends the conventional boundaries of world religions and civilizations.

This title has been co-published with Manohar Publishers & Distributors. T&F does not sell or distribute the print editions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Bhutan.

Green Thinking is about unlearning, discarding damaging, outdated ideas deeply rooted in our societies. It seeks to "compost" the views of dead white men (Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Norman Borlaugh) and of some not white or dead (Francis Fukuyama, Richard Dawkins, Richard Thaler), and explores the flowering of probiotic Green thinking, and the rediscovery in the 21st century of powerful indigenous and other previously repressed thinking.

Natalie Bennett understands that the foundation of life is cooperation, not competition; that diversity is essential to resilience and health of systems; that humans are just one more species of animal, or, rather, holobiont; that reductionism has to be replaced by relational thinking; that financialising society has destroyed - as it was meant to do - relationships essential to wellbeing; and, perhaps most crucially of all, that we have to draw on the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous societies that have maintained themselves and their environments in healthy balance for tens of thousands of years. This means acknowledging that the time, energy and talents of all life must contribute to a new way for humans to live in balance with the more-than-human world.

This book will appeal to fans of David Graeber, Kate Raworth, Tyson Yunkaporta, Jason Hickel, Anna Tsing, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ursula Le Guin, Bruno Latour, Wangarii Maathai, Merlin Sheldrake, Vandana Shiva, Lynn Margulis, Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as listeners to the New Books Network, Past Present Future, and HPS podcasts.

The ongoing global mass extinction of biotic life threatens the institutional foundations of many developed nations, which have historically depended on exploiting natural resources. As we enter the global Age of Ecosystem Restoration, a transformative governance paradigm emerges that could guide societies through the current biodiversity crisis.

This institutional shift requires states to fundamentally reimagine their relationship with nature. In this groundbreaking book, Dr Nick Kirsop-Taylor presents a compelling framework for state transformation grounded in socio-ecological practice and contemporary theories of governance and institutions. This book argues that nature-depleted regions must evolve into 'Nature Restoration States' - entities where place-based ecological restoration becomes the central organising principle of mission-driven governance. This represents a radical departure from extractive models towards regenerative institutional frameworks designed to navigate our ecological future.

This book is essential reading for scholars and researchers covering environmental conservation and protection, environmental policy, and socio-ecological practices.

This book reintroduces the work of Raymond Aron and demonstrates the pertinence of his thought for reflection on social interaction and the human condition.

One of Europe's leading intellectuals, Aron was primarily a sociologist, but his writings transcended disciplinary boundaries and engaged with philosophy and political theory. A clear and concise introduction to Aron's thought on a variety of major socio-political questions-including the importance to social thought of historical understanding, the connection between ideology and socio-political thinking, the development and nature of sociology itself, labor relations, international relations, and trans-disciplinary socio-political thought-Reintroducing Raymond Aron explains Aron's work within its historical context, underlining its importance and relevance for contemporary sociological and political problems.

It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of sociology, sociological theory, political theory, and international relations.

Environmental Ethics and Film presents and defends a systematic and comprehensive account of the moral relation between human beings and their natural environment and assumes that human behaviour toward the natural world can and is governed by moral norms.

In contemporary society, film has provided a powerful instrument for the moulding of such ethical attitudes. Through a close examination of the medium, Environmental Ethics and Film explores how historical ethical values can be re-imagined and re-constituted for more contemporary audiences. Building on an extensive back-catalogue of eco-film analysis, the author focuses on a diverse selection of contemporary films which target audiences' ethical sensibilities in very different ways. Each chapter focuses on at least three close readings of films and documentaries, examining a wide range of environmental issues as they are illustrated across contemporary Hollywood films. In this thoroughly revised new edition, the author updates each chapter with the latest developments in various core concepts and principles, including the Tragedy of the Commons, Lifeboat Ethics, Indigenous Otherness, Deep Ecology and Intergenerational Justice.

The coverage in this edition has been expanded to include tensions over anthropocentricism and ethics with more contemporary examples. This book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of environmental communication, film studies, media and cultural studies, environmental philosophy and ethics.

Free Up Yuhself explores and theorizes what it means to embody and be empowered by the chaos of transgression, evaluating the implications for people who destabilize the Caribbean region's dominant gender and sexuality politics within the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora. This book examines how people actively utilize the carnivalesque-spaces of festivity and places of excitement, the extraordinary, the ritualistic-to confront, negotiate, disrupt, and transgress normative trends, boundaries, and perspectives in the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora communities. This book is particularly concerned with the ways that Caribbean people contest sexual and gendered expectations through their bodily performances across regional and diasporic festival spaces.

Through illustrative, analytical, evaluative, and reflective chapters, the collection contemplates the themes of freedom, belonging, acceptance, and recognition as these affect the experience of people's sense of being. The authors reflect on "freeing up" as a contentious politics, understanding that people have the capacity to enact their freedom through transgressive movements and performances that persistently grapple with notions of respectability, agency, empowerment, disruption, and the meanings and consequences of their varied social and political locations.

What happens when ancient systems of oppression travel across oceans? How do Indian diaspora communities across five nations challenge centuries-old systems of oppression while building new forms of solidarity? Caste, Country, and Creed: Struggles for Social Justice in the Contemporary Indian Diaspora takes readers inside the dynamic world of contemporary social justice activism spanning Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

This groundbreaking collection brings together the voices of artists, activists, and scholar-activists who are reshaping conversations about caste discrimination, Islamophobia, and Hindu nationalism beyond India's borders. Through intimate first-person accounts and critical reflections, contributors reveal how diaspora activists are creating powerful counter-narratives and mobilizing collective resistance across local and transnational networks.

The book documents the lived realities of organizing-the values, knowledge traditions, and pivotal moments that spark political protest. Caste, Country, and Creed shows how activists construct alternative knowledge to dissent, build solidarity, and inspire political participation. Contributors offer nuanced insights into the complex relationships and power dynamics that sustain collective action for social justice in the Indian diaspora.

For copyright reasons this edition is not for sale in India.

The Routledge Handbook of Indian Diaspora Writers is a seminal and comprehensive volume comprising an all-encompassing collection of thirty-eight critical essays that meticulously dissect pivotal diasporic texts written by pioneering Indian diaspora writers. This handbook systematically traverses many canonical texts from the Indian diaspora, delineating a sophisticated critical cartography and a refined blueprint of the entire subject area. The quinque-partite structure of this handbook orchestrates a synergy of critical insights, providing rigorous and in-depth analysis of select texts. This critical compendium offers an appraisal and analytical elucidation on such a large scale that it covers thirty-eight writers within a single volume. This substantive volume, a foundational reference tool on Indian diaspora writers, warrants not a superficial perusal but a rigorous analysis from all researchers in this field. This monumental compilation stands as a testament to scrupulous scholarship and an essential vade-mecum for PhD scholars, researchers, faculty members, students, and all connoisseurs of literature alike, seeking comprehensive, state-of-the-art perspectives on the enduring global impact of Indian diaspora literature.

Medical Misinformation in Early Modern Germany examines how doctors, writers, and printers in sixteenth-century Germany responded to the rapid expansion of print and its implications for medical knowledge. The spread of printed texts generated widespread suspicion about print's reliability as a conduit of information and led writers to reflect on questions of audience, vernacularity, and medical authority in their responses to disease. The book investigates literary texts alongside popular vernacular medical pamphlets on the major epidemic diseases of the period--plague, syphilis, and the English sweating sickness--to reveal a widespread concern with the impact of printed texts on public health. During the 1529 outbreak of the English sweating sickness, this concern culminated in writers' use of a "rhetoric of virality," explicitly comparing the circulation of texts to the spread of disease, as they confronted the parallel contagions of disease and information.

This concise textbook provides a comprehensive framework for understanding and implementing effective public-private partnerships in an era of complex policy challenges and resource constraints. Drawing on research and empirical evidence, it examines how cross-sector collaboration has evolved from traditional contracting relationships to strategic partnerships that create substantial public value.

This book offers a systematic typology of partnership models, analytical tools for partnership evaluation, and practical strategies for collaborative leadership. It integrates theoretical foundations with actionable insights on partnership formation, governance structures, and performance management across diverse policy domains including healthcare, cities, and climate initiatives. Each chapter includes suggested reading and discussion questions.

Designed primarily for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in public administration, public policy, and business management programmes, this volume also serves as an essential resource for public managers and policy practitioners.

This volume explores the complex relationships between hazard, vulnerability and disaster for steering the challenges posed by disaster. Divergent to popular conviction and moving beyond technocratic approach, this book argues that natural hazards alone do not result in disasters. When they intersect with the vulnerability of vulnerable people, these hazards turn into disastrous events. Mostly depending on qualitative and comparative investigation, the book contends that various people - men and women, young and old, wealthy and poor as well as people of different social identities - encounter diverse outcomes confronting the same hazard. While transmuting hazards to disaster, social vulnerability plays a crucial role in determining resilience to natural hazards. The main objective of this book is to understand why and how disasters occur as it helps in constructing plans to address their root causes and identifying long-term solutions. The book aims to augment the voices of those vulnerable people who are most at risk from disasters. Although the book emphasises people's vulnerability at the centre of disaster and few countries in South Asia, the implications can be realistic across a variety of disaster settings in diverse social contexts.

Posing an understanding of social construction of disasters in the context of the South Asia, this book will be of interest to academicians in the fields of Disaster Studies, Environmental Studies, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, History, Economics, International Development Studies and Governance Studies. It will also be an invaluable reading for policymakers, practitioners, academicians, development planners and all those interested in understanding the complexity and addressing the challenges of making South Asia a disaster-resilient region.

Designed for use in American government courses, Politics in Action encourages students to take a critical approach to contemporary events and consider the impact of politics on this Republic and its citizens.

The book offers short in-depth cases that enliven the teaching of political concepts and help students grasp key issues shaping their lives. Each of the 15 chapters work as self-contained stories drawing attention to important and current actors, events, and issues in American politics. This edition highlights conflicts such as A Woman for President?, Trump vs. the Press, Re-presenting the Climate, Partisan Federalism: The Battles Over Immigration, The Politics of Abortion, Trying to Steal Georgia's 2020 Election: Republicans Dissent, The Fight Over Fighting Words on Campus, and The Best and the Brightest in the Afghanistan War, to illustrate polarized public affairs in America. Taken together, these concise reader-friendly stories go beyond the headlines to reflect the energy, debates, and realities of modern politics.

Features

• A three-part and 15-chapter organization echoes an introductory American Government syllabus, allowing for seamless integration into teaching the course
• The chapters begin with an introduction that frames the discussion, connecting it to significant issues and players
• A "Concepts to Consider" box ends each chapter to aid understanding of the key topics presented by the case stories

Politics in Action provides short case stories to complement undergraduate courses on American government, as well as informing readers following contemporary politics.