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Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1: Methods, History, Politics (Framing Film Festivals)
by Aida Vallejo Ezra WintonThis book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals. Contributors from across the globe offer in-depth analysis of both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including Hot Docs (Canada), Nyon (Switcherland), Yamagata (Japan), DocChina, Full Frame (US), Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), Vikalp (India), and DocsBarcelona (Catalonia, Spain), among others. With a special focus on historical and political developments, this first volume draws a map of documentary festivals operating today, and then looks at their origins and evolution. This volume is organized in three sections: the first addresses methodological problems film historians and social scientists face when researching documentary film festivals, the second looks at the historical development of this circuit within the wider frame of history of world and national cinemas, and the third reflects on how politics find their way through festival programs and actions. Curatorial, organizational, industrial and political changes occurred in the festival realm addressed in this book help better understand how these affected documentary production, distribution, curation, exhibition and reception up to this day.
Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives (Framing Film Festivals)
by Aida Vallejo Ezra WintonThis book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals, looking at its contemporary and future challenges. Contributors from across the globe reflect on how documentary has positioned itself within both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including IDFA (Netherlands), Cannes IFF (France), Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Dockanema (Mozambique), Ismailia (Egypt) and Zinebi (Basque Country, Spain), among others. With a special focus on industrial and curatorial developments, this second in a two-volume set looks at recent changes occurred in the festival circuit, such as the proliferation of markets and co-production forums, the inclusion of interactive and VR forms within their programs and the irruption of VOD platforms, and analyse how these affect the future of documentary aesthetics and its production/distribution contexts.This volume is organized in two sections: the first reflects on how the documentary festival circuit has become a key industry node for contemporary documentary and identifies new curatorial trends at documentary and major film festivals. The second gives voice to professionals working for festivals and institutions who collaborate with them, who share inside knowledge and concerns, regarding the future challenges to be faced by documentary in the near future.
Alguien habló de nosotros
by Irene Vallejo«Se puede ser un filólogo magistral y al mismo tiempo escribir como los ángeles. Irene Vallejo riza el rizo de la comunicación hasta convertir su diálogo con el lector en una fiesta literaria.» LUIS ALBERTO DE CUENCA La sociedad contemporánea vive inmersa en la inmediatez. Prioriza, ante todo, lo nuevo y lo superficial; no tiene tiempo para detenerse a cavilar ni para mirar hacia atrás. Por fortuna, libros como este nos invitan a hacer una pausa para darle espacio a las ideas, a dialogar con las voces que antes de nosotros se plantearon nuestras mismas preguntas. En la columna que publica semana a semana en el Heraldo, y de la cual provienen los luminosos ensayos que aquí se recuperan, Irene Vallejo reflexiona sobre las distintas formas en que el presente está ligado a nuestra historia. Su prosa clara, su inquieta curiosidad y la ferviente pasión con que se asoma a la sabiduría clásica son un grato recordatorio de que la antigüedad sigue viva hoy en nosotros, y de que la historia no es un proceso lineal, sino un diálogo intemporal en constante desarrollo.
El futuro recordado
by Irene Vallejo«Los libros de Irene Vallejo, claros e inteligentes, se leen muy bien e invitan a pensar. En la mejor línea humanista.» -CARLOS GARCÍA GUAL La aparente contradicción que da título a este libro es la premisa central de los breves ensayos que contiene: la certeza de que en cada paso que damos está la huella de un mundo que parece haberse quedado atrás en el tiempo, pero que vive y respira en cada uno de nuestros gestos e ideas. En estos ensayos, Irene Vallejo entabla un diálogo con diversas personalidades de la historia y con la cultura que nos han legado; son al mismo tiempo un derroche de erudición sin pretensiones y un homenaje al sutil arte de contar historias. De la filosofía a la geografía, de la literatura a los deportes, de la historia a la vida cotidiana, estos ejercicios narrativos son pistas que nos ayudan a comprender mejor el mundo que habitamos y nos reconcilian con la memoria de aquellos que, antes que nosotros, se hicieron las mismas preguntas que hoy nos mueven.
Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
by Irene VallejoA rich exploration of the importance of books and libraries in the ancient world that highlights how humanity&’s obsession with the printed word has echoed throughout the ages • &“Accessible and entertaining.&” —The Wall Street JournalLong before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched emissaries to the edges of earth to bring them back. When Mark Antony wanted to impress Cleopatra, he knew that gold and priceless jewels would mean nothing to her. So, what did her give her? Books for her library—two hundred thousand, in fact. The long and eventful history of the written word shows that books have always been and will always be a precious—and precarious—vehicle for civilization. Papyrus is the story of the book&’s journey from oral tradition to scrolls to codices, and how that transition laid the very foundation of Western culture. Award-winning author Irene Vallejo evokes the great mosaic of literature in the ancient world from Greece&’s itinerant bards to Rome&’s multimillionaire philosophers, from opportunistic forgers to cruel teachers, erudite librarians to defiant women, all the while illuminating how ancient ideas about education, censorship, authority, and identity still resonate today. Crucially, Vallejo also draws connections to our own time, from the library in war-torn Sarajevo to Oxford&’s underground labyrinth, underscoring how words have persisted as our most valuable creations. Through nimble interpretations of the classics, playful and moving anecdotes about her own encounters with the written word, and fascinating stories from history, Vallejo weaves a marvelous tapestry of Western culture&’s foundations and identifies the humanist values that helped make us who we are today. At its heart a spirited love letter to language itself, Papyrus takes readers on a journey across the centuries to discover how a simple reed grown along the banks of the Nile would give birth to a rich and cherished culture.
Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican American Middle Class
by Jody Agius VallejoToo frequently, the media and politicians cast Mexican immigrants as a threat to American society. Given America's increasing ethnic diversity and the large size of the Mexican-origin population, an investigation of how Mexican immigrants and their descendants achieve upward mobility and enter the middle class is long overdue. Barrios to Burbsoffers a new understanding of the Mexican-American experience. Vallejo explores the challenges that accompany rapid social mobility and examines a new indicator of incorporation, a familial obligation to "give back" in social and financial support. She investigates the salience of middle-class Mexican Americans' ethnic identification and details how relationships with poorer coethnics and affluent whites evolve as immigrants and their descendants move into traditionally white middle-class occupations. Disputing the argument that Mexican communities lack high quality resources and social capital that can help Mexican Americans incorporate into the middle class, Vallejo also examines civic participation in ethnic professional associations embedded in ethnic communities.
Conspiración
by Juan Jesús VallejoHistorias de conspiración internacional que van desde los Ilimiunati y ovnis hasta llegar a los reptilianos en ocho apasionantes capítulos. Qué se esconde detrás del alunizaje? ¿Por qué se nos oculta la raíz de conflictos como el de Oriente Medio? ¿Qué tienen que ver los Illuminati con el gobierno más poderosodel mundo? A pesar de vivir en una época donde es más fácil que nunca acceder a la información, Juan Jesús Vallejo nos muestra que la mentira y el engaño siguen estando a la orden del día. En Conspiración, este reconocido periodista de misterio, que ha recorrido los cinco continentes investigando episodios fascinantes, emprende un nuevo viaje por algunos de los secretos mejor guardados en la historia. En ocho capítulos, que abarcan desde la Antigüedad hasta hoy, y acudiendo a teorías conspirativas, el autor muestra cómo algunos hitos históricos han sido orquestados mediante engaños y mentiras, o se han ocultado sus aspectos menos amables. Así, busca revelar información privilegiada sobre cómo la historia y la opinión pública son manipuladas a diario, y nos invita a ser menos crédulos y a pensar dos veces antes de tomar algo por cierto.
Colapso México: Los culpables y las víctimas de nuestra crisis climática
by Mael VallejoYA ESTAMOS VIVIENDO UNA CRISIS PEOR QUE LA PANDEMIA. La crisis ambiental se cobrará más vidas y golpeará más duraderamente a México que el Covid-19, simplemente no hemos querido verlo. Los reportajes de este libro retratan las caras que ya presenta este fenómeno en el país: el horror de los huracanes en Centroamérica y la inundación migratoria que desatan, la confluencia de los vientos del Polo Norte con la minería más salvaje, el vínculo entre la llegada de un tren y la agonía del jaguar, la sangre que derrama la tala clandestina, el agua como vida y muerte de personas y poblados, y la relación entre el silencio y las piedras en los pulmones, entre otros. En Colapso México, algunos de los periodistas más importantes de la región documentan que, más allá de la amenaza real del calentamiento global, es necesario actuar ya ante la avaricia desbocada de los empresarios y la falta de regulación y entendimiento del problema de las autoridades. Afortunadamente, en este diagnóstico viene también el germen de la solución...
Acoso Textual
by Raúl Vallejo¿Una? ¿Un? estudiante universitario explora su identidad inventando múltiples personalidades virtuales e intercambiando correos electrónicos con curiosos personajes, virtuales ellos también, alrededor del mundo. Así, banano@wam.umd.edu en ocasiones se presenta como un romántico en busca del amor, en otras es una posgraduada de ciencias políticas que problematiza las utopías socialistas del siglo xx, o se convierte en un explorador del placer del sexo virtual. Para cada uno de sus interlocutores cibernéticos tiene un género, un interés y una personalidad distintos. Es un ser andrógino como el lenguaje. Ahora, banano@wam.umd.edu debe enfrentarse a sus propias preguntas: ¿Debo matar a las personalidades ficticias para encontrar mi identidad verdadera? ¿Debería convertir mis relaciones virtuales en realidades físicas? ¿Qué valor tiene la palabra virtual? Acoso textual, novela pionera en la literatura hispanoamericana en el uso de correos electrónicos para relaciones epistolares, nos ubica en un espacio virtual en que las personas se construyen a sí mismas con las palabras que van y vienen a través de Internet.
Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar
by Virginia VallejoAmando a Pablo, Odiando a Escobar cuenta desde la intimidad la historia del narcotraficante más poderoso de todos los tiempos: Pablo Escobar, el creador de los cárteles. Virginia Vallejo, quien fuera su amante y compañera durante más de cuatro años, narra una historia que nadie más podía haber contado. La increíble historia de amor entre el narcotraficante más buscado del mundo y la estrella más famosa de Colombia En julio de 2006 un avión de la DEA sacó a Virginia Vallejo de Colombia. Su vida estaba en peligro por haberse convertido en el testigo clave de los dos procesos criminales más importantes de la segunda mitad del siglo XX en su país: el asesinato de un candidato presidencial y la toma del Palacio de Justicia, donde fallecieron alrededor de cien personas, entre magistrados, guerrilleros y civiles. Veinte años atrás, Virginia Vallejo era la presentadora de televisión más popular de Colombia y la celebridad que aparecía en las portadas de las principales revistas. Cortejada por multimillonarios, conoció en 1982 a Pablo Escobar, un misterioso político de treinta y tres años que en realidad manejaba los hilos de un mundo de riqueza inigualable, en el que gran parte del incesante flujo de dinero procedente del tráfico de cocaína se canalizaba a proyectos de caridad y a las campañas de candidatos presidenciales de su elección. Este libro, una apasionada historia de amor convertida en crónica del horror y la vergüenza, describe la evolución de una de las mentes criminales más siniestras de nuestro tiempo: su capacidad de infundir terror y generar corrupción, los vínculos entre sus negocios ilícitos y varios jefes de Estado, los asesinatos de candidatos presidenciales y la guerra en que sumió a su país. Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar es también la única visión íntima posible del legendario barón del narcotráfico, plena de glamour y espíritu de supervivencia, y no exenta de humor. Virginia Vallejo narra esta historia descarnada como nadie más podía haberlo hecho.
Struggle and Suffrage in Glasgow: Women's Lives and the Fight for Equality (Struggle And Suffrage Ser.)
by Judith VallelyOn a dark January night in 1914, Glasgow&’s iconic Kibble Palace at the Botanic Gardens became the target of a bomb attack which shattered 27 large panes of glass. The police concluded it was the work of militant suffragettes after discovering footprints of ladies&’ shoes…and an empty champagne bottle and cake. The attack was just one of many incidents as the women of Glasgow battled for the right to vote: marching on the streets, daring escapes from under the nose of police officers, and a meeting which ended in a riot. One hundred years from when some women were finally able to go to the ballot box for the first time, this book examines the inspirational women of Glasgow of the time and their quest for equal rights and improvements in all areas of society. The women who challenged miserable conditions facing workers, who fought for a formal university education and helped to improve the health of the nation. The women who took part in the suffrage movement in Glasgow, from the first meetings to militant action and force feeding. The women who took on work from driving trams to staffing hospitals on the frontline when war broke out. And the journey from women gaining the right to vote to being able to take a seat in Parliament for the first time. Struggle and Suffrage in Glasgow uncovers stories of the pioneering women of the city who left a legacy for generations to come.
De sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period: The Authors of the Commentaries
by Matteo VallerianiThis open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology. Johannes de Sacrobosco compiled his Tractatus de sphaera during the thirteenth century in the frame of his teaching activities at the then recently founded University of Paris. It soon became a mandatory text all over Europe. As a result, a tradition of commentaries to the text was soon established and flourished until the second half of the 17th century. Here, readers will find an informative overview of these commentaries complete with a rich context. The essays explore the educational and social backgrounds of the writers. They also detail how their careers developed after the publication of their commentaries, the institutions and patrons they were affiliated with, what their agenda was, and whether and how they actually accomplished it. The editor of this collection considers these scientific commentaries as genuine scientific works. The contributors investigate them here not only in reference to the work on which it comments but also, and especially, as independent scientific contributions that are socially, institutionally, and intellectually contextualized around their authors.
Philosophy of Population Health: Philosophy for a New Public Health Era (History and Philosophy of Biology)
by Sean A VallesPopulation health has recently grown from a series of loosely connected critiques of twentieth-century public health and medicine into a theoretical framework with a corresponding field of research—population health science. Its approach is to promote the public’s health through improving everyday human life: afford-able nutritious food, clean air, safe places where children can play, living wages, etc. It recognizes that addressing contemporary health challenges such as the prevalence of type 2 diabetes will take much more than good hospitals and public health departments. Blending philosophy of science/medicine, public health ethics and history, this book offers a framework that explains, analyses and largely endorses the features that define this relatively new field. Presenting a philosophical perspective, Valles helps to clarify what these features are and why they matter, including: searching for health’s "upstream" causes in social life, embracing a professional commitment to studying and ameliorating the staggering health inequities in and between populations; and reforming scientific practices to foster humility and respect among the many scientists and non- scientists who must work collaboratively to promote health. Featuring illustrative case studies from around the globe at the end of all main chapters, this radical monograph is written to be accessible to all scholars and advanced students who have an interest in health—from public health students to professional philosophers.
Poor and Pregnant in New Delhi, India (International Institute for Qualitative Methodology Series)
by Helen VallianatosIn this innovative contribution to the study of food, gender, and power, Helen Vallianatos meticulously documents cultural values and beliefs, dietary practaices, and the nutritional and health status of mothers in Indian squatter settlements. She explores both large-scale forces—incorporating critical medical anthropology and feminist theory into a biocultural paradigm—and the local and individual choices New Delhi women make in interpreting cultural dietary norms based on their reproductive histories, socioeconomic status, family structure, and other specific conditions. Her findings have significant implications for nutritional and medical anthropology and development studies, and her innovative research design serves as a model for multi-method studies that use participatory research principles, combine quantitative and qualitative investigations, and interpret diverse types of data.
Social Trust: Foundational and Philosophical Issues (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Kevin VallierWith increasingly divergent views and commitments, and an all-or-nothing mindset in political life, it can seem hard to sustain the level of trust in other members of our society necessary to ensure our most basic institutions work. This book features interdisciplinary perspectives on social trust. The contributors address four main topics related to social trust. The first topic is empirical and formal work on norms and institutional trust, especially the relationships between trust and human behaviour. The second topic concerns trust in particular institutions, notably the legal system, scientific community, and law enforcement. Third, the contributors address challenges posed by diversity and oppression in maintaining social trust. Finally, they discuss different forms of trust and social trust. Social Trust will be of interest to researchers in philosophy, political science, economics, law, psychology, and sociology.
Unmasking the Sexual Offender
by Veronique N. ValliereThis book unmasks the sexual offender by providing clear, comprehensible information about the motivations, techniques, and dynamics of sexual offenders and their behavior. It not only explores the biases and myths that the reader may rely upon to understand deviance but also explains pathways to offending, the distorted thinking and relating that offenders engage in, and the ways offenders manipulate and exploit others. Sexual offenders are surrounded by mythology, fascination, and revulsion. People who commit sexual offenses present difficult and complicated issues interpersonally, as well as in treatment and management; denial, victim-blaming, aggression, and blatant chronic deception are inherent in interactions with them. Unfortunately, the failure to truly understand their motives and techniques helps provide excuses for and further camouflage of their deviance. The first part of the text explores the presumptions commonly adopted about sexual offenders and shows how misinformation supports the inappropriate behavior of the sexual offender. The second section focuses on exposing the sexual offender using straightforward language and tangible examples. A final, third section includes safety and management strategies for dealing with sex offenders for those both inside and outside the realms of law enforcement and offender supervision. This book is intended for anyone interested in learning about sexual offenders. It is useful for both professionals and non-professionals, including students, paralegals, victim advocates, and others involved in the criminal justice system or mental health field.
Words and Silences: Nenets Reindeer Herders and Russian Evangelical Missionaries in the Post-Soviet Arctic
by Laur VallikiviWords and Silences tells the story of an extraordinary group of independent Nenets reindeer herders in the northwest Russian Arctic. Under socialism these nomads managed to avoid the Soviet state and its institutions of collectivization, but soon after the atheist regime collapsed, while some staunchly resisted, many of them became fervent fundamentalist Christians. By exploring differing concepts of how traditional and convert Nenets use and define words and of the meanings they ascribe to the withholding of speech, Laur Vallikivi shows how a local form of global Christianity has emerged through intricate negotiations of self, sociality, and cosmology. Moving beyond studies of modernization and globalization that have all-too-predictable outcomes for indigenous peoples, Words and Silences invites us to view not only religious devotees, but words themselves, as agents of a complex and ongoing transformation.
Mortality and Causes of Death in 20th-Century Ukraine
by Jacques Vallin France Meslé Vladimir Shkolnikov Sergei Adamets Serhii PyrozhkovThe Ukraine faced two very different kinds of health crises during the twentieth century. First, in the 1930s and 1940s, famine, war and political upheaval caused massive population losses. Previous evaluations of overall losses have given an idea of the scale of these catastrophes but do not distinguish between crisis mortality, birth shortfall and loss through emigration. Based on a painstaking work of reconstitution, this study is the first to provide a detailed estimation of the hecatomb in terms of number of deaths and life expectancy. The famine of 1933 was alone responsible for the deaths of 2.6 million Ukrainians and reduced male and female life expectancies to 7 and 11 years respectively. Once the crises of the 1930s and 1940s were over, the earlier trend in health resumed and mortality declined steadily until the 1960s. At this point, however, a new type of crisis appeared that caused a sustained reversal in the existing trends. Life expectancy for women stopped increasing altogether, while that for men began a relentless year on year regression. Notwithstanding the confusing picture created by the fluctuations of the 1980s and 1990s, the long-term trend is to further deterioration. To understand the factors involved, this study analyses in detail the combined effects of different causes of death at different ages.
Air Vagabonds
by Anthony J. ValloneAir Vagabonds is the story of the amazing, true (mis)adventures of a band of rogues piloting aircraft alone into exotic and deadly destinations.In the late 1970s and through the 1980s the demand for light aircraft eclipsed anything seen before or since. This created the need for a small air force of pilots--ferry pilots--willing to fly thousands of planes to clients in every corner of the globe. Long-range solo flying is not for everyone, and it attracted a cast of eccentric, unforgettable mavericks who flew from one misadventure to the next, battling storms, desert winds, aircraft malfunctions, primitive navigational aids, loneliness, chemical imbalances, and dangerous Third World politics. Some carried on international scams and love affairs, some were lost at sea, some imprisoned by African despots. They're all here, described with humor and high drama by one of their own, a survivor with phenomenal recall, a knack for distinguishing character from bluster, and a great ear for dialogue and aviation lore.
Big and Small: A Cultural History of Extraordinary Bodies
by Lynne ValloneA groundbreaking work that explores human size as a distinctive cultural marker in Western thought Author, scholar, and editor Lynne Vallone has an international reputation in the field of child studies. In this analytical tour-de-force, she explores bodily size difference—particularly unusual bodies, big and small—as an overlooked yet crucial marker that informs human identity and culture. Exploring miniaturism, giganticism, obesity, and the lived experiences of actual big and small people, Vallone boldly addresses the uncomfortable implications of using physical measures to judge normalcy, goodness, gender identity, and beauty. This wide-ranging work surveys the lives and contexts of both real and imagined persons with extraordinary bodies from the seventeenth century to the present day through close examinations of art, literature, folklore, and cultural practices, as well as scientific and pseudo-scientific discourses. Generously illustrated and written in a lively and accessible style, Vallone’s provocative study encourages readers to look with care at extraordinary bodies and the cultures that created, depicted, loved, and dominated them.
Jewish Women Writers in Britain
by Nadia ValmanAgainst a background of enormous cultural change during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, writing by British Jewish women grappled with shifting meanings of Jewish identity, the pressure of social norms, and questions of assimilation. Until recently, however, the distinctive experiences and perspectives of Jewish women have been absent from accounts of both British Jewish literature and women's writing in Britain. Drawing on new research in Jewish studies, postcolonial criticism, trauma theory and cultural geography, contributors in Jewish Women Writers in Britain examine the ways that these women writers interpreted the experience of living between worlds and imaginatively transformed it for a wide general readership. Editor Nadia Valman brings together contributors to consider writers whose Jewish identity was central to their practice as well as those whose relationship to their Jewish heritage was oblique, complicated, or mobile and figured in their work in varied and often unexpected ways. The chapters cover a range of genres including didactic fiction, devotional writing, modernist poetry, autobiographical fiction, the postmodern novel, memoir, and public poetry. Among the writers discussed are Grace Aguilar, Celia and Marion Moss, Katie Magnus, Lily Montagu, Amy Levy, Nina Salaman, Mina Loy, Betty Miller, Eva Figes, Ruth Fainlight, Elaine Feinstein, Anita Brookner, Julia Pascal, Diane Samuels, Jenny Diski, Linda Grant, and Sue Hubbard. Expanding the concerns of Jewish literature beyond existing male-centered narratives of the heroic conflict between family expectations and personal aspirations, women writers also produced fiction and poetry exploring the female body, maternity, sexual politics, and the transmission of memory. While some sought to appropriate traditional Jewish literary forms, others used formal and stylistic experimentation to challenge a religious establishment and social conventions that constrained women's public freedoms. The extraordinary range of responses to Jewish culture and history in the work of these writers will appeal to literary scholars and readers interested in Jewish women's history.
Capitalisms and Gay Identities
by Stephen ValocchiIn this important text, Stephen Valocchi brings capitalism back into the study of the gay and lesbian movement. He argues that to understand the collective identity, structure, strategies and goals of the movement, we need to understand the role that capitalism and the state have played. While capitalism and the state have figured centrally in earlier analyses of social movements, these important institutions and their social processes are no longer central concerns of the theory and research of social movements in the United States. Capitalisms and Gay Identities examines how the class-based inequalities and changing class structures of capitalism interact with and indeed help shape the dynamics of other types of inequalities, such as gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. These inequalities and structures, in turn, shape the specific grievances of, and affect the nature of, stigma levied against individuals with sexual and gender nonconformity. Valocchi shows that capitalism is a dynamic system, and as it changes, the nature of the movement and the collective identity created by the movement also changes. A vital text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, social movements, LGBTQ politics and American studies, Capitalisms and Gay Identities challenges our understanding of many aspects of the gay and lesbian movement when viewed through the lens of capitalism, particularly its ability to advance the cause of sexual freedom and gender justice.
Social Movements and Activism in the USA
by Stephen ValocchiWhat can we learn when we listen closely to and engage in dialogue with social movement activists? Social Movements and Activism in the USA addresses this question for a group of progressive activists in Hartford, Connecticut, who do community, labor, feminist, gay and lesbian, peace, and anti-racist organizing. Situated within the twenty-first-century landscape of post-industrialism and neo-liberalism and drawing on oral histories, the book argues for a dialogic and integrative approach to social movement activism. The dialogue between scholar and activist captures the interpretive nature of activists' identity, the variable ways activists decide on strategies and goals, the external constraints on activism, and the creative ways activists manoeuvre around these constraints. This dialogic approach makes the book accessible and useful to students, scholars, and activists alike. The integrative nature of the text refers to its theoretical approach. Rather than advancing a new theory of social movements, it uses existing approaches as a tool kit to examine the what, how, who, and why of social movement activism.
Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics (The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series)
by Kenneth R. ValpeyThis open access book provides both a broad perspective and a focused examination of cow care as a subject of widespread ethical concern in India, and increasingly in other parts of the world. In the face of what has persisted as a highly charged political issue over cow protection in India, intellectual space must be made to bring the wealth of Indian traditional ethical discourse to bear on the realities of current human-animal relationships, particularly those of humans with cows. Dharma, yoga, and bhakti paradigms serve as starting points for bringing Hindu—particularly Vaishnava Hindu—animal ethics into conversation with contemporary Western animal ethics. The author argues that a culture of bhakti—the inclusive, empathetic practice of spirituality centered in Krishna as the beloved cowherd of Vraja—can complement recently developed ethics-of-care thinking to create a solid basis for sustaining all kinds of cow care communities.
Attending Krishna's Image: Chaitanya Vaishnava Murti-seva as Devotional Truth (Routledge Hindu Studies Series)
by Kenneth Russell ValpeyThere is a steady and growing scholarly, as well as popular interest in Hindu religion – especially devotional (bhakti) traditions as forms of spiritual practice and expressions of divine embodiment. Associated with this is the attention to sacred images and their worship. Attending Krishna's Image extends the discussion on Indian images and their worship, bringing historical and comparative dimensions and considering Krishna worship in the context of modernity, both in India and the West. It focuses on one specific worship tradition, the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, as it develops and sustains itself in two specific locales. By applying the comparative category of ‘religious truth’, the book provides a comprehensive understanding of a living religious tradition. It successfully demonstrates the understanding of devotion as a process of participation with divine embodiment in which worship of Krishna’s image is integral.