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.




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.




Issues in 21st Century World Politics


Book Description

The third edition of this popular textbook offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the key questions that will confront anyone interested in world politics for decades to come. This text is a collation of topical chapters, each authored by experts in their own field and written in a clear and balanced manner. The issues which endure, as well as new and unexpected issues, are all covered within this text, with cross-referencing between chapters and to external work. New chapters cover the major developments of this era, including the impact of the financial crisis, climate change, the refugee crisis, the rise of China and Russia. Beeson and Bisely hone this text with their careful editorship. They place this text within the context of the key questions that arise from these issues: to what extent can policy makers cope with fundamental changes to politics, what will the impact of non-state actors be, what can we predict about future world politics, to name a few. This makes the text indispensable to students wishing to understanding contemporary world politics. Being wide-ranging and completely up-to-date, this is the ideal companion for both undergraduates and postgraduate students of internationals relations and politics. The text has been written in a clear and approachable manner to make it accessible to students unfamiliar with the topic.




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.




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.




Capital in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.




American Energy


Book Description

There are rapid, and sometimes radical, changes now transforming energy production and consumption in the United States. Utilizing contemporary examples throughout his narrative, Walter A. Rosenbaum captures this transformation in American Energy: The Politics of 21st Century Policy while analyzing how important actors, institutions, and issues impact American energy policymaking. With clear explanations of relevant energy technologies—from controversial fracking to mountain top mining to nuclear waste storage—the book first looks at the policy options available in governing the energy economy and then discusses specific resources (petroleum and natural gas, coal, nuclear power, electricity, renewable energy, conservation) and the global energy challenges associated with climate change. This is a perfect supplement for any environmental politics course.




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.




Global Politics in the 21st Century


Book Description

Objective, critical, optimistic, and with a global focus, this textbook combines international relations theory, history, up-to-date research, and current affairs to give the student a comprehensive, unbiased understanding of international politics. It integrates theory and traditional approaches with globalization and research on newer topics such as terrorism, the rise of new economic superpowers, and the impact of global communications and social networking to offer the ideal breadth and depth of coverage for a one-semester undergraduate course. Student learning is supported and enhanced by box features and "Close Up" sections with context and further information, "Critical Case Studies" that highlight controversial and complex current affairs topics and show how the world works in practice, and questions to stimulate discussion, review key concepts, and encourage further study. It brilliantly demonstrates the significance and interconnectiveness of globalization and new security challenges in the 21st century and illuminates the role of leadership in transnational crises.