The Politics of Literature in a Divided 21st Century


Book Description

How does literature matter politically in the 21st century? This book offers an ecocritical framework for exploring the significance of literature today. Featuring a diverse body of texts and authors, it develops a future-oriented politics embedded in those transgressive realities which our political system finds impossible to tame. This book re-imagines political agency, voices, bodies and borders as transformative processes rather than rigid realities, articulating a ‘dia-topian’ literary politics. Taking a contextual approach, it addresses such urgent global issues as biopolitics, migration and borders, populism, climate change, and terrorism. These readings revitalize fictional worlds for political enquiry, demonstrating how imaginative literature seeds change in a world of closed-off horizons. Prior to the pragmatics of power-play, literary language breathes new energy into the frames of our thought and the shapes of our affects. This book shows how relation, metamorphosis and enmeshment can become salient in a politics beyond the conflict line.




On Politics of 21st Century First Edition


Book Description

Jerico Matias Cruz, the author and speaker of the book of poems entitled “On Politics of 21st Century First Edition,” writes about the exciting and exhilarating highlights and extraordinary phenomenon of American Politics from circa 2000 to 2025. The author and speaker writes poetic verses of each phenomenal event, utilizing his personal, professional and academic background knowledge in military, economics, history, international relations, science, technology, and other theories of knowledge or academic disciplines. The author and speaker recognizes the importance of freedom of expression as a way to propel human innovation for creative thinkers, writers, innovators, scientists, researchers, recording artists, screenwriters, filmmakers, software engineers, and other individuals who intend to propel the future of human innovations in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM). Part I: Circa 2000 – 2005, the author and speaker begins with introduction of poetic verses about the author and speaker’s arrival at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport Terminal 5 and then follows with highlights of American Politics, involving American culture, public education, 9/11/2001, inclusion and diversity, political populism, and popular sports. Part II: Circa 2006 – 2010, the author and speaker introduces with poetic verses of a rising non-white politician in American Politics and then follows with American domestic economy, central bank’s monetary policies, mortgage crisis, banking crisis, financial crisis between 2007 and 2009, federal government’s fiscal policy, and lastly economic cycles. Part III: Circa 2011 – 2015, the author and speaker initiates with poetic verses of economic recovery and threat of American Politics, follows with economics of war, geopolitical issues, coupling and decoupling between American Politics and China’s Rise, influences of Catholicism and foreign policy in American Politics, impacts of American trade pacts in Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, links between American Politics and continental European economics, and the rise of China’s land and water trade pacts and American Politics’s geopolitical maneuvering and containment. Part IV: Circa 2016 – 2020, the author and speaker reintroduces poetic verses with the rise of populism in American Politics, and follows with domestic economic growth, rise of Animal Spirits of American Politics, causes and effects of chaotic events of the impeachment tragedy of American Politics, rise of Covid-19 pandemic, quagmire of American Politics to fight Covid-19 pandemic, and the race of developing Covid-19 vaccines. Part V: Circa 2021 – 2025, the author and speaker shares poetics verses with mass production of Covid-19 vaccines, spreads of Covid-19 variants, issues of January 6, 2021 insurrection in American Politics, causes and effects of rising energy and food prices, reintroduction of economic cycles, responses of American central bank’s unconventional monetary policies, effects of American foreign policy agendas and new era of NATO Alliance, China’s Rise and American Politics’s technological decoupling, and Russia’s Space Race 2.0.




Defending Politics


Book Description

Citizens around the world have become distrustful of politicians, skeptical about democratic institutions, and disillusioned about the capacity of democratic politics to resolve pressing social concerns. Many feel as if something has gone seriously wrong with democracy. Those sentiments are especially high in the U.S. as the 2012 election draws closer. In 2008, President Barack Obama ran--and won--on a promise of hope and change for a better country. Four years later, that dream for hope and change seems to be waning by the minute. Instead, disillusionment grows with the Obama adminstration's achievements, or depending where you fall on the spectrum, its lack thereof. Defending Politics meets this contemporary pessimism about the political process head on. In doing so, it aims to cultivate a shift from the negativity that appears to dominate public life towards a more buoyant and engaged "politics of optimism." Matthew Flinders makes an unfashionable but incredibly important argument of utmost simplicity: democratic politics delivers far more than most members of the public appear to acknowledge and understand. If more and more people are disappointed with what modern democratic politics delivers, is it possible that the fault lies with those who demand too much, fail to acknowledge the essence of democratic engagement, and ignore the complexities of governing in the twentieth century? Is it possible that the public in many advanced liberal democracies have become "democratically decadent," that they take what democratic politics delivers for granted? Would politics appear in a better light if we all spent less time emphasizing our individual rights and more time reflecting on our responsibilities to society and future generations? Democratic politics remains "a great and civilizing human activity...something to be valued almost as a pearl beyond price," Bernard Crick stressed in his classic In Defense of Politics fifty years ago. By returning to and updating Crick's arguments, this book provides an honest account of why democratic politics matters and why we need to reject the arguments of those who would turn their backs on "mere politics" in favor of more authoritarian, populist or technocratic forms of governing.




Algorithms and the End of Politics


Book Description

As the US contends with issues of populism and de-democratization, this timely study considers the impacts of digital technologies on the country’s politics and society. Timcke provides a Marxist analysis of the rise of digital media, social networks and technology giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. He looks at the impact of these new platforms and technologies on their users who have made them among the most valuable firms in the world. Offering bold new thinking across data politics and digital and economic sociology, this is a powerful demonstration of how algorithms have come to shape everyday life and political legitimacy in the US and beyond.




The United Nations in the 21st Century


Book Description

The United Nations in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the United Nations, exploring the historical, institutional, and theoretical foundations of the UN. This popular text for courses on international organizations and international relations also discusses the political complexities facing the organization today. Thoroughly revised throughout, the fifth edition focuses on major trends since 2012, including changing power dynamics, increasing threats to peace and security, and the growing challenges of climate change and sustainability. It examines the proliferating public-private partnerships involving the UN and the debates over reforming the Security Council and the Secretary-General selection process. This edition also includes new case studies on peacekeeping and the use of force in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, transnational terrorism and the emergence of ISIS, the Security Council's failure to act in Syria, the Syrian and global refugee/migrant crisis, and the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals and framing of the Sustainable Development Goals.




Twenty-First Century Chicago (Revised Edition)


Book Description

This text investigates the social, economic, political, and governmental conditions of Chicago in this century.




Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

In the years since 9/11, followed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, public attention the world over has been on foreign policy. From the United States to Yemen, from China to Venezuela, the quality of the decisions taken by politicians and diplomats has been under the closest scrutiny. What is more, with the increased personal mobility created by globalization, many individuals and groups now focus as much on international events as on affairs within their own state. Diasporas, company managers, humanitarian volunteers and other non-state actors are aware of the necessity for effective diplomacy to secure the outcomes they hope for. This revised and retitled new edition of the author's acclaimed The Changing Politics of Foreign Policy provides the concepts and analysis needed to make sense of contemporary developments in this key site of political action. It provides a clear and engaging synthesis of what foreign policy means in the twenty-first century and shows how it can vary according to regime, level of development and geopolitical position. Stressing the interplay between context and shared dilemmas, it examines how actors – including the many non- and sub-state entities which have developed international strategies – engage, and attempt to manage their differences, within a network of complex multilateral relationships. Written by a leading scholar of international renown, this new edition has been updated throughout, with particular attention given to contemporary issues such as soft power, transnational security challenges and the role of regional actors such as the European Union. New to this Edition: - Substantially revised and updated new edition of an extremely influential, acclaimed and widely used foreign policy text - Updated coverage of events and theory




State of Change


Book Description

Colorado has recently been at the center of major shifts in American politics. Indeed, over the last several decades the political landscape has altered dramatically on both the state and national levels. State of Change traces the political and demographic factors that have transformed Colorado, looking beyond the major shift in the dominant political party from Republican to Democratic to greater long-term implications. The increased use of direct democracy has resulted in the adoption of term limits, major reconstruction of fiscal policy, and many other changes in both statutory and constitutional law. Individual chapters address these changes within a range of contexts--electoral, political, partisan, and institutional--as well as their ramifications. Contributors also address the possible impacts of these changes on the state in the future, concluding that the current state of affairs is fated to be short-lived. State of Change is the most up-to-date book on Colorado politics available and will be of value to undergraduate- and graduate-level students, academics, historians, and anyone involved with or interested in Colorado politics.




The United Nations in the 21st Century


Book Description

The United Nations in the 21st Century, Sixth Edition, provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the UN. It explores the historical, institutional, and theoretical foundations of the UN as well as major global trends and challenges facing the organization today, including changing major power dynamics, new threats to peace and security, the migration and refugee crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the existential challenges of climate change and sustainability. Thoroughly revised and expanded, it contains two new chapters on the UN and the environment and on human security, including issues of health, food security, global migration, and human trafficking. There is enhanced analysis of theoretical perspectives on post-colonialism, feminist theory, constructivism, and non-Western views. New content has also been added on the UN's budget crisis, public-private partnerships, and the role of women in the organization. By examining the UN as an intergovernmental organization facing the broader need for global cooperation to address economic, social, and environmental interdependencies alongside the threats posed by rising nationalism and populism, this popular text is the perfect reference for all students and practitioners of international organizations, global governance, and international relations.




Global Latin America


Book Description

Latin America is home to emerging global powers such as Brazil and Mexico and has important links to other titans including China, India, and Africa. Global Latin America examines a range of historical events and cultural forms in Latin America that continue to influence peoples’ lives far outside the region. Its innovative essays, interviews, and stories focus on insights from public intellectuals, political leaders, artists, academics, and activists from the region, allowing students to gain an appreciation of the global relevance of Latin America in the twenty-first century.