Converging Regions


Book Description

For over a millennium, Asia and the Middle East have been closely connected through maritime activities and trade, a flourishing relationship that has given rise to new and thriving societies across the Indian Ocean region and Arabia. In recent times, with the global political and economic power shifts of the past decade, significant events in the Middle East and Asia have brought about fundamental global change; the Arab uprisings, the emergence of India and China as powerful global economies, the growing strength of various new Islamic movements, and serious financial uncertainties on a global scale have laid the foundations of a new world order between East and West. The current volume examines this renewed global dynamic, and how it is changing the relationships between the interdependent global communities across Asia and the Middle East. Focussing on the broader aspects of finance and trade between the Middle East and Asia, as well as growing security issues over natural resources and questions of sovereignty, this volume concludes with speculations on the growing importance of Asia and the Middle East in the global setting.




Converging Territories


Book Description

According to Islamic tradition, men dominate the public sphere and women are expected to remain indoors at most times. In Essaydi's native Morocco, this confinement has been further used as a punishment for those who transgress the rules of gender conduct. Here, women are given a voice not only through their actions, but also through their words. Words adorn the clothes, skin and rooms of these women in a deliberate and powerful act of rebellion. Here is the opportunity for women to engage in the emerging culture of Islamic feminism.




Converging Territories


Book Description

"Converging Territories: Island Incubator envisions a new campus on Roosevelt Island, charged with disrupting the equilibrium of the traditional research university with the real-time volatility of tech start-up companies. An essay and interview highlight the background and recent work of WEISS/MANFREDI and explore the firm's ongoing interest in an expanded territory for architecture. Converging Territories also traces a geneaology of relevant and visionary academic and corporate research centers, investigating the potential of these models to energize new ecological imperatives, academic agendas, and design strategies. Nine student proposals for a new research and development center on Roosevelt Island are included alongside commentary by a selection of notable juniors including Felipe Correa, Joyce Hsiang, Florian Idenburg, Paul Lewis, Thom Mayne, Hilary Sample, Joel Sanders, and Dean Robert A. M. Stern.".




Les Femmes Du Maroc


Book Description

Alluring and rich, Lalla Essaydi's work plays with the representation of Islam and the Orient in the West. Her work reaches far beyond Islamic culture to invoke the Western fascination with the veil and the harem as expressed in 19th-century Orientalist painting which suggested exoticism, fantasy and mysticism were abound in Arab culture. In an act of reclamation, Essayadi re-uses this visual language - the exquisite architecture, the interior decor, the clothing - to turn both the visualisation of women and of Islam in a different direction.




Writing through the Visual and Virtual


Book Description

Writing Through the Visual and Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean interrogates conventional notions of writing. The contributors—whose disciplines include anthropology, art history, education, film, history, linguistics, literature, performance studies, philosophy, sociology, translation, and visual arts—examine the complex interplay between language/literature/arts and the visual and virtual domains of expressive culture. The twenty-five essays explore various patterns of writing practices arising from contemporary and historical forces that have impacted the literatures and cultures of Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Morocco, Niger, Reunion Island, and Senegal. Special attention is paid to how scripts, though appearing to be merely decorative in function, are often used by artists and performers in the production of material and non-material culture to tell “stories” of great significance, co-mingling words and images in a way that leads to a creative synthesis that links the local and the global, the “classical” and the “popular” in new ways




Ecocriticism and Geocriticism


Book Description

Although treated as two distinct schools of thought, ecocriticism and geocriticism have both placed emphasis on the lived environment, whether through social or natural spaces. For the first time, this interdisciplinary collection of essays addresses the complementary and contested aspects of these approaches to literature, culture, and society.




OECD Multi-level Governance Studies The Future of Regional Development and Public Investment in Wales, United Kingdom


Book Description

The Welsh Government has set an ambitious and innovative path for regional development and public investment – one focused on generating growth and increasing productivity, while also reducing territorial disparities and ensuring the well-being of citizens, now and in the future. Yet, it faces significant challenges, accentuated by limited fiscal decentralisation and changes to public investment financing post-Brexit.




Accountability in Higher Education


Book Description

Looks at accountability initiatives around the world. This title provides a comparative analysis of the promises, perils and paradoxes of accountability, and the potential effect on power structures and higher education autonomy, trust and the legitimacy of the sector.




Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists


Book Description

The rich history and culture of the Arab American people is found in the passionate works of its artists. Whether they be traditional media such as painting and calligraphy, or more sophisticated media such as digital work and installation, the pieces represent the beauty of heritage, the struggles of growing up in war-torn countries, the identity conflicts of female artists in male-dominated societies, and the issues surrounding migration to a Western culture very different from one's own. Many of the artists included here, though their works appear in museums and galleries throughout the world, have never before been featured in a reference book. Interviews conducted by the author provide a personal look into the experiences and creative processes of these artists. Artists included: *Etel Adnan *Wasma Chorbachi *Nihad Dukhan *Kahlil Gibran *Sari Khoury *Emily Jacir *Sari Khoury *Mamoun Sakkal *Mary Tuma *Madiha Umar *Afaf Zurayk




Converging Regional Education Policy in France and Germany


Book Description

How have regionalization processes across Europe impacted on policy convergence? This book takes as its starting point the curious fact that autonomous regional policymaking may be parallel to regional governments pursuing policy similarity. The author proposes that these observations are paradoxical only if sector-specific policy norms are disregarded and when autonomy is considered as the exclusive goal of regional governments. Focusing on common yet under-studied regional situations where a sense of cultural or historical distinctiveness is not readily apparent, if at all, the book argues that in policy sectors where norms of territorial equality have long been dominant, regional governments endorse them as a way to secure or expand their policy capacity when the central state or other policy entrepreneurs challenge it. This results in converging policies. A textured comparative account of educational policymaking in German Länder and French conseils régionaux over three decades forms the backbone of this analysis of policymaking in ordinary regions.