Petroleum is the most valuable commodity in the world and an enormous source of wealth for those who sell it, transport it and transform it for its many uses. As the engine of modern economies and industries, governments everywhere want to assure steady supplies. Without it, their economies would grind to a standstill. Since petroleum is not evenly distributed around the world, powerful countries want to be sure they have access to supplies and markets, whatever the cost to the environment or to human life. Coveting the petroleum of another country is against the rules of international law — yet if accomplished surreptitiously, under the cover of some laudable action, it's a bonanza. This is the basis of "the petroleum game," where countries jockey for control of the world's oil and natural gas. It's an ongoing game of rivalry among global and regional countries, each pursuing its own interests and using whatever tools, allies and organizations offer possible advantage. John Foster has spent his working life as an oil economist. He understands the underlying role played by oil and gas in international affairs. He identifies the hidden issues behind many of the conflicts in the world today. He explores military interventions (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria), tensions around international waterways (Persian Gulf, South China Sea), and use of sanctions or political interference related to petroleum trade (Iran, Russia, Venezuela). He illuminates the petroleum-related reasons for government actions usually camouflaged and rarely discussed publicly by Western politicians or media.Petroleum geopolitics are complex. When clashes and conflicts occur, they are multi-dimensional. This book ferrets out pieces of the multi-faceted puzzle in the dark world of petroleum and fits them together.

Psychoanalysts of all schools have generally dismissed and sometimes openly disapproved feminism and its critique of male universalism. While other disciplines, like sociology and anthropology, have welcomed the contributions of feminist theory, psychoanalysis remains hindered by its own unconscious, which is patriarchal. This book wants to cast light on the unthought of Freudian and Lacanian theory by way of an analysis of the concept of femininity. The aim is to show how phallocentrism functions as a screen which obscures the real relations between the sexes, the meaning of desire and the understanding of sexual difference.

The first Manifesto of Futurism was published in Le Figaro on February 20th, 1909. It was to become the first avant-garde movement in art – it aimed to change the function of art within society, foster Italian culture beyond its provincial domains, and last but not least, to extend language as free expression of a new and forthcoming society of technology. Art in life was the ultimate aim of Marinetti’s poetry, which then expanded well beyond Italian borders and artistic expression, becoming an attitude for new society. The more that society was developing social constraints, the more that artistic expression would become free of canons to let imagination fluently overwhelm reality. The main topics proclaimed as crucial by Futurists are the contemporary most influential topics for social stability: politics, communication and technology as well as the major movers of social change. What can we still learn from the radical claims of avant-garde art?

Since the 1960's, developing countries in Latin America started a complex journey towards establishing new values, the ones of modernity. This volume considers the work of renowned Italian-Argentine sociologist Gino Germani, who more than anyone else has been able to outline the process of modernization from this particular aspect. The author highlights Germani’s idea of ‘freedom’ as a crucial and unavoidable concept at the core of the “modern” way of being persons, subjects, social actors and active participants within a social system. Germani also refers to the opposite direction, that of social marginality, and suggests that a ‘free’ human being is somebody who is responsible for his or her actions. Within this context, every human being is the bearer of rights insofar as he or she is capable of making choices, taking responsibilities and, able to identify – on equal footing with everyone else – the right and duty to be free. Bringing a new light to the great 20th century sociologist’s thought, this book aims to trace the path of modernization and the timely issues of freedom, marginality, and participation that still profoundly defines our social structure.

Among the many tools available for teaching comparative politics, Gregory Mahler's text stands out for its unique exploration of concepts, structures, and illustrative cases. The first part of the book, after setting the stage with a discussion of comparison as a method of inquiry, focuses on the core institutions that affect politics within nations, as well as on political behavior and civil society. In Part 2, those same topics are systematically revisited as they interact in the context of nine detailed, up-to-date (through 2018) country studies. This well-integrated, cross-national, and accessible approach serves perfectly to provide students with the tools and perspectives that they need to better understand the diverse political systems of today's world.

History of Cinema Without Names is an editorial project which gathers research papers presented at Gorizia Conference. It promotes a new research perspective on the notions of film authorship, style, and genre, with the aim of re-articulating their theoretical definition.

“Provid[es] a much-needed overview of the state of the field regarding the sexual victimization of queer people.” —Shanna Felix, Criminal Justice ReviewThe underlying argument of this groundbreaking study is this: Sexual orientation and gender identity influence how sexual assault is experienced, how it is perceived, and ultimately, how victims (and perpetrators) are treated by the criminal justice system.Focusing much of their work on the queer community—a community with a disproportionately high risk of sexual assault—the authors introduce the Identity Inclusive Sexual Assault Myth Scale (IISAMS) to explore the unique aspects of sexual assault and the process of disclosure as experienced by queer victims. They also incorporate participant recommendations, collected during interviews, as they foreground ways for more effectively preventing and responding to sexual violence throughout contemporary society.

The Cuban model of communism has been an inspiration—from both a positive and negative perspective—for social movements, political leaders, and cultural expressionists around the world. With changes in leadership, the pace of change has accelerated following decades of economic struggles. The death of Fidel Castro and the reduced role of Raúl Castro seem likely to create further changes, though what these changes look like is still unknown. For now, Cuba is opening in important ways. Cubans can establish businesses, travel abroad, access the internet, and make private purchases. Paths for Cuba examines Cuba’s internal reforms and external influences within a comparative framework. The collection includes an interdisciplinary group of scholars from around the world to explore reforms away from communism.

The complex security dynamics of the pivotal Asia Pacific region, involving disparate and contentious power blocs, clearly have implications far beyond the region itself. Thomas Wilkins sheds new light on those dynamics, providing a rich framework for better understanding the nature of security alignments in Asia Pacific, as well as a reexamination of the dominant forces at play: the US alliance system, ASEAN, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Vietnam is an ancient and beautiful land, with a deep history of occupational conflict that remains an enigma in Americans’ collective memory. It is still easy to forget that Vietnam is a country and not a war, even as America’s role in Vietnam inflamed and divided the American citizenry in ways that are still evident today. It is as if Vietnam’s civil war resurrected our own. And if you are a Vietnam War veteran or a family member of a vet, it’s worse, because, even after a half-century, many of the wounds won’t heal. What do you do when you have given up on forgetting? Chuck Forsman is one of a sizable number of aging Vietnam vets who have found deep satisfaction in revisiting Vietnam, supporting charities, orphanages, and clinics, doing volunteer work and more—anything to redeem what the U.S. military did there. He is also a renowned painter and photographer who depicts places and environments in ways that become unforgettable visual experiences for the contemporary viewer. Lost in Vietnam chronicles a journey, not a country. They were taken on visits averaging two months each and two-year intervals over a decade. Forsman traveled largely by motorbike throughout the country—south, central, and north—sharing his experiences through amazing photographs of Vietnam’s lands and people. His visual journey of one such veteran’s twofold quest: the one for redemption and understanding, and the other to make art. The renowned Le Ly Hayslip introduces the book and sets the table for Forsman’s incredible sojourn.

The relationship between East and West remains a topic of burning timeliness, particularly in its political dimension. Yet, we can gain a complete understanding of the current tensions only if we consider them within a broader historical framework, spanning from art to diplomacy, from religion to ethnography. The present volume tackles precisely this complex task, offering its reader a rich mosaic of case studies and scholarly research, relating to the mutual approaches between the Euro-American ‘West’, and the Sino-Japanese ‘East’. In the first part of the book, art historian Marco Musillo uses the depictions of Tartars in fourteenth-century Italian frescoes as the starting point of a trajectory leading to eighteenth-century European literature on China. In the second part, the reader is introduced to two cases of diplomatic encounter, one in sixteenth-century Italy between Japanese subjects and local courts, and the other one between Qing China and twentieth-century United States, in the space of the universal exhibition in St. Louis. Finally, the last section proposes three interconnected art historical explorations: the screen design of Chinese origin in colonial Mexico, Medieval Christian tombstones in China, and early-modern Filipino sacred sculpture.

“Break Boundary” refers to the transformative point at which any system suddenly and irrevocably changes from its original state into something new. Coined by Kenneth E. Boulding in 1963, the term serves as the underlying metaphor for the photographs of Jenee Mateer. In her original works of art, the horizon that divides land, water, and sky shifts and multiplies producing bands of varied colors and luminosity that transform the natural landscape into imaginative “waterscapes” and challenge our understanding of photography. Reminiscent of the abstract paintings of Mark Rothko and the photographic seascapes of Hiroshi Sugimoto and New Mexican landscapes of Edward Weston, Mateer’s images are layered photographs of the natural world assembled to suggest imaginary places where light, water, land and sky coalesce into rhythmic patterns of shimmering opalescence or luscious color. Break Boundary features 34 of Mateer’s waterscapes and also includes her opening essay about the work and two poems by the artist, "The World Is Water" and "The Sky Is Lemonlime," that separate the first series of images from the second series and offer a deeper look into the artist’s thoughts about the work. In the concluding essay by Francine Weiss, curator of the Newport Art Museum, Weiss writes: “From surface to self, Jenee Mateer takes the viewer on a journey from one psychological and spiritual state to another. In Mateer’s “waterscapes,” the conventional or anticipated boundaries between land, water, and sky begin to vanish; horizons multiply and join; and the break boundary emerges.

In Didactic Classroom Studies a group of researchers from the University of Gothenburg who are working in the Scandinavian didactics' tradition show how pupil perspectives, teacher priorities, content and context interrelate, and have different didactical consequences for teaching and learning. Using practical examples the authors examine the nature of classroom work at various levels of education and in the full range of subject areas, including mathematics, science, languages, social science, and home economics. The editors then single out the importance of classroom studies as a potential research direction in didactic studies. Finally, the essays are placed in an international and historical context by Professor Kirsti Klette, University of Oslo. The authors of this volume - all active at the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies - set out to show the strong contribution made by classroom studies to didactic research. At the same time, their empirical studies contribute concretely to the further development of didactic classroom studies as a research area.

Many prominent and well-known figures greatly impacted the civil rights movement, but one of the most influential and unsung leaders of that period was Gloria Richardson. As the leader of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), a multifaceted liberation campaign formed to target segregation and racial inequality in Cambridge, Maryland, Richardson advocated for economic justice and tactics beyond nonviolent demonstrations. Her philosophies and strategies -- including her belief that black people had a right to self--defense -- were adopted, often without credit, by a number of civil rights and black power leaders and activists. The Struggle Is Eternal: Gloria Richardson and Black Liberation explores the largely forgotten but deeply significant life of this central figure and her determination to improve the lives of black people. Using a wide range of source materials, including interviews with Richardson and her personal papers, as well as interviews with dozens of her friends, relatives, and civil rights colleagues, Joseph R. Fitzgerald presents an all-encompassing narrative. From Richardson's childhood, when her parents taught her the importance of racial pride, through the next eight decades, Fitzgerald relates a detailed and compelling story of her life. He reveals how Richardson's human rights activism extended far beyond Cambridge and how her leadership style and vision for liberation were embraced by the younger activists of the black power movement, who would carry the struggle on throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

Our classrooms are multicultural, even where there are no learners from minority ethnic backgrounds. All of our learners have different cultures: socioeconomic status, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, health and other factors contribute to these differences. We continue to find learners for whom traditional teaching approaches don’t work - so we need to provide active, creative learning environments and methods to reach all learners and give them an equal chance to thrive and learn. This book is a practical toolkit for teachers, trainee teachers, and others active in the field of education. The main focus is on the application of a range of co-operative learning approaches, and how to use them with diverse groups of learners.

What are the limits of tolerance in constitutional or liberal democracies today? This is a crucial question, for if there were no limits to tolerance, it would ultimately destroy itself by accepting the intolerable. The concept of tolerance has to be assessed from a political point of view, thus questioning to what extent its potential achievement does not suppose any moral mutation in humanity. For instance, if people were all already ‘virtuous’ according to a commonly held moral framework, there would be simply no need to speak of tolerance. Conversely, if it were the case that people could be made ‘virtuous’, then tolerance would be the matter of an improbable utopia. Ultimately, we need to consider how tolerance can be conceptualised in a way that is relevant to people and their societies as they actually are. In a time when a growing amount of political demands touches on themes of cultural identity and rights, and while we witness a mounting wave of religious fundamentalism, what should democracies accept and what should they refuse?