International and Area Studies Commons^™

Ordinary 'Worthiness': Sex Work, Police Raids, And Human Rights Violence In Sonagachhi, Simanti Dasgupta

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Based upon ethnographic research with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a grass-roots sex workers organization in Sonagachhi, the iconic red light district in Kolkata, India, this paper explores the relationship between police raids and human rights violation. It especially focuses on the nature of violence initiated by the construction of “corrupt” evidence to justify a raid, which in this case is not solely a state initiative; the police usually work in tandem with other rescue missions such as the International Justice mission (IJM). The raid involves a practice and a narrative commonly referred to by both the police and the …

Localizing Human Rights In Response To Global Urban Crises And Right-Wing Populism, Jackie Smith

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Human rights are under increased threat as the world faces economic insecurity, financial volatility, climate change, and the rise of right-wing populist movements. At a time global interdependence demands more intensive cooperation among national governments to address economic and environmental crises, nationalist tendencies are polarizing politics within and among countries.

Although news headlines have focused on the rise of exclusionary and racist movements, there is evidence of significant popular mobilization around more inclusive human rights claims. Because these movements challenge basic elements of the capitalist system, they get less traction in electoral contests and remain marginal to mainstream media and …

Faith-Based Resistance, Human Rights, And Emancipatory Practices, Curtis Kline

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Progressive political theologies can expand and deepen both the strength and the conceptualization of human rights advocacy. However, not all political theologies are an effort to defend human dignity; neither are all understandings and practices of human rights. The validation of progressive political theologies as well as the validation of human rights conceptualizations comes from their capacity to concretely change the lived reality of poor and oppressed peoples of the world.

As with political theologies, there is a constant struggle over the control of how to conceptualize what constitutes a human rights issue. While many communities of faith find liberating …

State Sovereignty And Human Security: The Migration-Securitization Nexus In The Global South, Eugene R. Sensenig

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper deals with the issues of state sovereignty and refugee policy in insecure and marginalized regions of the Global South. Using the displaced Syrian populations (UN-recognized and undocumented) in Lebanon as a case in point, the attempt will be made to portray and discuss the responses of underdeveloped host communities to overwhelming increases in the size of their non-national population. Lebanon has faced various waves of refugees since its independence in 1943, making up between 2.5% (Iraqis) and 25% (Syrians) of the entire citizen population, currently estimated to be slightly over 4 million. Almost 500,000 Palestinian refugees are registered …

Providing Refuge: A Regime Analysis Of Legal Protections For Displaced Persons In Sub-Saharan Africa, Natasha Bennett, Hannah K. Brown

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

While refugees are entitled to the right of asylum vis-a-vis the U.N. 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the subsequent 1967 Protocol, which includes rights of a legal resident in the host country, African states vary in their domestic implementation of refugee rights.

Sub-Saharan Africa host approximately 29 percent of the world’s refugees and as such represents a key region for understanding the dynamics of refugee rights and protections. With 45 member states having ratified (another 4 having signed) the Organization of African Unity’s 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa (OAU …

Front Matter, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Intrigue Of Paradigmatic Similarity: Leibniz And China, Yu Liu

Comparative Civilizations Review

The cosmology of China is indeed strikingly similar to the metaphysics of Leibniz, but precisely where the two resemble each other, the former is unmistakably different from Christianity. Scholars of Leibniz have so far generally taken it for granted that he was ideologically aligned with Christianity, but his paradigmatic similarity to China should alert us of a surprisingly different story. Leibniz was indisputably “the greatest of the seventeenth century sinophiles” and key Chinese cosmological ideas were introduced to Europe long before he formulated his worldview. Together, these two facts can help us decide whether he “owes to Chinese organic naturalism …

Narrativized Ethics And Hiroshima: Harry S. Truman, Homer, And Aeschylus, Michael Palencia-Roth

Comparative Civilizations Review

Discussions of the atomic bomb and Hiroshima have to be deeply troubling for anyone. The natural inclination is to turn one’s eyes away or to remain silent. Avoidance and silence, however, were not valid options immediately after the Second World War and are not valid options today. The decision – or decisions, for there were many – to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and later Nagasaki raises issues of profound importance for the human community. It compels us to ask who we are as individuals and as members of a society engaged in actions with such devastating consequences. We …

William Egginton, The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered In The Modern World. Bloomsbury, 2016., Ernest B. Hook

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Scott L. Montgomery And Daniel Chirot, The Shape Of The New: Four Big Ideas And How They Made The Modern World. Princeton University Press, 2015., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

Daniel Chirot is the Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies in the University of Washington’s Henry Jackson School of International Studies. Chirot’s most recent book, co-authored with Scott Montgomery, is The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2015.) Chirot’s other books have been about genocide, ethnic conflicts, tyranny, social change, and Eastern Europe.

48th Annual Conference Of The International Society For The Comparative Study Of Civilizations, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note: A Banner Year For Iscsc And The Comparative Civilizations Review, Peter Hecht

Comparative Civilizations Review

The past year has witnessed an enhanced level of dedication, by many volunteers, to the sustainability of our parent organization, the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilization, as well as to the continuing quality of the Comparative Civilizations Review. Costs are down, membership is up, our journal is more popular than it has been in years, the new website continues to amaze, and our 2017 conference was a success.

Civilizational Analysis, Political Discourse, And The Reception Of Western Modernity In Post-Soviet Russia, Yulia Prozorova

Comparative Civilizations Review

Official political discourse retains a special importance since the communicative practices of the political elites generate interpretations and meanings, which are able to become programmatic for the design and arrangement of the main societal domains. This paper considers civilizational analysis and associated multiple modernities theory as a promising framework for understanding of the post-Soviet Russians experience of modernity in Russia. It also provides a review of how contemporary Russian political discourse receives and interprets the Western modernity project.

The Challenge To Religious Tolerance: Fundamentalist Resistance To A Non-Muslim Leader In Indonesia, Hisanori Kato

Comparative Civilizations Review

It is important to question whether a long-standing tradition of religious tolerance in Indonesia has been overturned by the 2017 gubernatorial election. Equally important is that we explore the influence of religion in relation to the socio-political behavior of people. In the following parts of this paper, we attempt to find answers to these questions and to comprehend the meaning of this political event thoroughly.

Workplace Bullying Ii: A Civilizational Shortcoming Examined In A Comparative Content Analysis, Leah P. Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

According to Freud, civilization is meant to protect humans from the forces of nature, to protect human frailty; but then, paradoxically, it falls short of such protection by its lack of concomitant regulation (1991). In fact, civilized service to society, delivered via organizations, creates strife and anxiety. While civilization is a structure created to protect people from nature and to support a frail humanity, its rules and power structures yield aggression, spawning the need for people to control each other (Freud & Strachey, 1991).

Such control and the power structures that arise within organizations can be considered the root of …

Comments On “Civilizational Analysis And Paths Not Taken”, Johann P. Arnason

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

A Reply To Johann Arnason, Toby Huff

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Revolutions In History, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

I saw the Iranian Revolution of 1979 up close and personally-- a revolution against a modernizing authoritarian king. I watched otherwise clever intellectuals deceive themselves that they would emerge the rulers of a democratic Iran, while the crafty theocrats waited in the wings to seize power. How could all these leftists be so naïve about how revolutions work? The trajectory of revolutions should be no mystery. Crane Brinton’s The Anatomy of Revolution” spelled it all out in 1952, and his observations have stood the test of time.

Buried On Three Continents In Three Civilizations: A Jewish Fate, Yishai Shuster

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Andrew Scull, Madness In Civilization: A Cultural History Of Insanity From The Bible To Freud From The Madhouse To Modern Medicine. Princeton University Press, 2015., Michael Palencia-Roth

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Comparative Civilizations Review Style Sheet, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis. Harpercollins, 2016., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

The growing gap in the traditional trajectory from poverty to middle class may have less to do with color than with culture. We can see during this present election process the anger and distress of poor white men, flocking to the rallies of candidate Donald Trump. These men, who were once doing well during the post-WWII era, when our country was a manufacturing giant, are now victims of a changing economy.

Johan Galtung, World Politics Of Peace And War. Hampton Press, 2015., Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

This 2015 book published by Hampton Press, New York, NY, has 192 pages of text in 12 chapters, an appendix on trends and predictions, an index, 5 figures and 22 tables. Its author is Johan Galtung, an undoubted world leader in development of “peace studies,” an emerging field, which I have watched emerge. The book is based on a series of lectures he taught at Princeton and other universities from 1985-2000. He has reflected deeply on his geopolitical theory of peace and war since then of course, in many venues not least the Transcend, Global, on-line Peace University, which he …

Full Issue, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

End Matter, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Parallels Between The U.S. And Russia: The Trump Administration, Andrew S. Langmeier

International ResearchScape Journal

Russia has come up repeatedly in discussions of Donald Trump and the current U.S. administration. In time for the 100^th anniversary of the 1917 Russian revolution, this paper aims to describe the importance and interconnectedness of image, information, hegemony, and power by exploring connections between the U.S. and Russia. An interdisciplinary approach drawing from fields such as cultural studies, linguistics, and anthropology will be applied to selected events and actions of the Trump administration. This study provides a method of framing US political events against Russian history and contemporary reality.

Legacy Of Research In Japanese Gerontology, Elijah Beaudoin

International ResearchScape Journal

No abstract provided.

The Globalized Classroom: Integrating Technology To Improve Communicative And Cultural Proficiency, Nicholas Frank

International ResearchScape Journal

The purpose of this project was to explore how the integration of technology affects students’ communicative and cultural proficiency in a second language when connecting two world language classrooms from across the globe. Through a series of weekly emails between partner schools, students practiced their interpretive reading and presentational writing skills while gaining knowledge of their partners’ cultures and colloquial language in a meaningful and individualized manner. The participants were U.S. high school students learning Spanish and Spanish high school students learning English. This created an authentic and organic environment for language acquisition, showing improvement in both communicative and cultural …

The Almost Great Escape: The Continuing Tourism Development Of Croatia As A Destination, Jennifer N. Wohlgamuth

International ResearchScape Journal

The tourism industry in Croatia is experiencing a slower development than other European countries. Because of their current union in the communist state of Yugoslavia and the Civil War between Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Croatian Tourism Board needs to recreate a stable infrastructure in which to grow their tourism. Some of the occurring issues with current Croatian tourism is high seasonality, lack of multiple foreign languages, underdeveloped transportation structures, and homogenization of Croatian culture. This paper offers a brief history of Croatian tourism, current developments, current development issues, and suggestions for a change in managerial structure to increase the …

Chinatowns In Latin America, Wendy W. Tan

Publications and Research

The author has visited many of the Chinatowns in Latin America. The impressions after visiting those Chinatowns were the driving force to write about the journeys, mainly about the criticism of “Chinatown without Chinese” and those astonishing Chinatown Paifangs