On The Edges Of Development Cultural Inventions

This volume re-imagines development through a careful and imaginative exploration of some of the many ways that culture – in the broadest sense of lived experience and its representation – can recentre resistance, suggest alternative models, and advance critiques of development as it is currently practised.

Contemporary society has seen an unprecedented rise in both the demand and the desire to be creative, to bring something new into the world. Once the reserve of artistic subcultures, creativity has now become a universal model for culture and an imperative in many parts of society. In this new book, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz investigates how the ideal of creativity has grown into a major social force, from the art of the avant-garde and postmodernism to the ‘creative industries’ and the innovation economy, the psychology of creativity and self-growth, the media representation of creative stars, and the urban design of ‘creative cities’. Where creativity is often assumed to be a force for good, Reckwitz looks critically at how this imperative has developed from the 1970s to the present day. Though we may well perceive creativity as the realization of some natural and innate potential within us, it has rather to be understood within the structures of a very specific culture of the new in late modern society. The Invention of Creativity is a bold and refreshing counter to conventional wisdom that shows how our age is defined by radical and restrictive processes of social aestheticization. It will be of great interest to those working in a variety of disciplines, from cultural and social theory to art history and aesthetics.

“This new edition of one of the masterworks of twentieth-century anthropology is more than welcome…enduringly significant insights.”—Marilyn Strathern, emerita, University of Cambridge In the field of anthropology, few books manage to maintain both historical value and contemporary relevance. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture, originally published in 1975, is one that does. Wagner breaks new ground by arguing that culture arises from the dialectic between the individual and the social world. Rooting his analysis in the relationships between invention and convention, innovation and control, and meaning and context, he builds a theory that insists on the importance of creativity, placing people-as-inventors at the heart of the process that creates culture. In an elegant twist, he also shows that this very process ultimately produces the discipline of anthropology itself. Tim Ingold’s foreword to the new edition captures the exhilaration of Wagner’s book while showing how the reader can journey through it and arrive safely—though transformed—on the other side.

Culture in development thinking : geographies, actors and paradigms / Sarah A. Radcliffe -- Culture, development and global neo-liberalism / Michael Watts -- Culture and conservation in post-conflict Africa : changing attitudes and approaches / Elizabeth Watson -- Indigenous groups, culturally appropriate development and the socio-spatial fix of Andean development / Sarah A. Radcliffe and Nina Laurie -- Laboring in the transnational culture mines : the work of Bolivian music in Japan / Michelle Bigenho -- Social capital and migration beyond ethnic economies / Jan Nederveen Pieterse -- Social capital as culture : promoting co-operative action in Ghana / Gina Porter and Fergus Lyon -- On the spatial limits of culture in high tech regional economic development / Al James -- Mobilizing culture for social justice and development : South Africa's Amazwi Abesifazane memory cloths program / Cheryl McEwan -- Conclusions: The future of culture & development / Sarah A. Radcliffe.

Debates over the remote and beguiling Southern Kuril Islands have revealed a kaleidoscope of divergent and contradictory ideas, convictions, and beliefs on what constitutes the “national” identity of post-Soviet Russia. Forming part of an archipelago stretching from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, administered by Russia but claimed by Japan, these disputed islands offer new perspectives on the ways in which territorial visions of the nation are refracted, inverted, and remade in a myriad of different ways. At the Edge of the Nation provides a unique account of how the Southern Kurils have shaped the parameters of the Russian state and framed debates on the politics of identity in the post-Soviet era. By shifting the debate beyond a proliferation of Eurocentric and Moscow-focused writings, Paul B. Richardson reveals broad alternatives and possibilities for Russian identity in Asia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Russia was suffering the fragmentation of empire and a sudden decline in its international standing, these disputed islands became symbolic of a much larger debate on self-image, nationalism, national space, and Russia’s place in world politics. When viewed through the prism of the Southern Kurils, ideas associated with the “border,” “state,” and “nation” become destabilized, uncovering new insights into state-society relations in modern Russia. At the Edge of the Nation explores how disparate groups of political elites have attempted to use these islands to negotiate enduring tensions within Russia’s identity, and traces how the destiny of these isolated yet evocative islands became irrecoverably bound to the destiny of Russia itself.

Asia as a continent accounts for half the world's population. Within its boundaries, there is an incomparable diversity of cultures, socio-economic standards and political structures. And all the world's major religions?Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Christianity -- have their origins in Asia. Little wonder that religion is always involved in the flash points that occur across the region. Religious freedom and religious persecution know no boundaries and are alive and well in all their complexions from Korea in the north to Indonesia in the south, from the Philippines in the east to Pakistan in the west. And UCAN has reporters and analysts across Asia's full extent. We have brought our unique network to the task of examining and the evaluating the prospects for religious freedom and the causes of religious persecution in Asia. As rational beings, we humans actualize our highest capacity when we make choices. For that exercise we need freedom. At the heart of all freedoms?political, economic and cultural especially--is the freedom to believe. Religious freedom is the fundamental freedom. Belief and its restriction attack the heart of freedom. But the circumstances and conditions of religious freedom and the persecution of believers vary greatly across the continent. The range and reach of those circumstances and conditions across Asia are what this volume offers.

Straddling disciplines and continents, Feminist Futures interweaves scholarship and social activism to explore the evolving position of women in the South. Working at the intersection of cultural studies, critical development studies and feminist theory, the book's contributors articulate a radical and innovative framework for understanding the linkages between women, culture and development, applying it to issues ranging from sexuality and the gendered body to the environment, technology and the cultural politics of representation. This revised and updated edition brings together leading academics, as well as a new generation of activists and scholars, to provide a fresh perspective on the ways in which women in the South are transforming our understanding of development.

On the Blunt Edge: Technology in Composition’s History and Pedagogy tells the stories of composition’s techno-history, from the roads of the ancient world, which allowed students to travel to school, to the audio-visual aids that populate the classrooms of the modern world. Computers are only a small part of this discussion, a technological Johnny-come-lately in a long-running pedagogical palaver.

Why Enlightenment culture sparked the Industrial Revolution During the late eighteenth century, innovations in Europe triggered the Industrial Revolution and the sustained economic progress that spread across the globe. While much has been made of the details of the Industrial Revolution, what remains a mystery is why it took place at all. Why did this revolution begin in the West and not elsewhere, and why did it continue, leading to today's unprecedented prosperity? In this groundbreaking book, celebrated economic historian Joel Mokyr argues that a culture of growth specific to early modern Europe and the European Enlightenment laid the foundations for the scientific advances and pioneering inventions that would instigate explosive technological and economic development. Bringing together economics, the history of science and technology, and models of cultural evolution, Mokyr demonstrates that culture--the beliefs, values, and preferences in society that are capable of changing behavior--was a deciding factor in societal transformations. Mokyr looks at the period 1500-1700 to show that a politically fragmented Europe fostered a competitive "market for ideas" and a willingness to investigate the secrets of nature. At the same time, a transnational community of brilliant thinkers known as the "Republic of Letters" freely circulated and distributed ideas and writings. This political fragmentation and the supportive intellectual environment explain how the Industrial Revolution happened in Europe but not China, despite similar levels of technology and intellectual activity. In Europe, heterodox and creative thinkers could find sanctuary in other countries and spread their thinking across borders. In contrast, China's version of the Enlightenment remained controlled by the ruling elite. Combining ideas from economics and cultural evolution, A Culture of Growth provides startling reasons for why the foundations of our modern economy were laid in the mere two centuries between Columbus and Newton.