"In Praise of Ambiguity" presents a discourse about the seriousness of play. Erasmus and Huizinga are its main characters, their books In Praise of Folly (1511) and Homo Ludens (1938) its main subject. It treats those books as contemporaries and asks what they still have to say to us. The main theme of both books is the contrast between two attitudes of life: the conviction that each subject has two or more sides as opposed to the certainty that there is always only one side to the matter. It...

Anthropocene, post-humanism, biopolitics ... These terms are often used first in an academic context before being used outside the academic world, once their usefulness has become known to the wider public. Whether in official policy documents, in catalogues of expositions or in applications for subsidies, these terms tend to show up regularly.

In this book, 50 terms that are important in contemporary cultural theory are explained by experts in the field. They clarify what the term means, how...

A seven-step toolkit to help you produce winning essay and assignments, build your confidence and improve your grades.

A well written, easy to navigate and comprehensive guide to how to develop core skills and to make the most of one's abilities in written work.

This book is an introduction to Intercultural Communication (IC) that takes into account the much neglected dynamic paradigm of culture in the literature. It posits that culture is not static, context is the driving force for change, and individuals can develop a multicultural mind.

It is also the first IC textbook in the field that incorporates insight from evolutionary biology and the newly emerging discipline of cultural

neurosciences. Such an interdisciplinary approach provides readers wi...

Joining the SAGE Social Thinkers series, this book provides readers with a clear and concise introduction and includes coverage of Weber's insights on the promise and peril of Western industrial society, and of his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Economy and Society.

This book frames speculation on what postcapitalist societies could be, with regimes of private accumulation replaced by a politics and ethics of a democratic and ecologically-grounded Commons.

In the early modern centuries, several European states issued pioneering regulations to protect what they thought of as “heritage” – that is, antiquities, monuments, and paintings considered important for their country’s splendour. These early protocols have had a substantial impact on the development of legal and aesthetic approaches to heritage protection in recent times.

In this volume, legislation is explored from both a legal and art-historical perspective in order to understand ...

Dit boek gaat over ‘moedige burgers’: denkers, kunstenaars, activisten en collectieven die via hun gedachten, ideeën en acties een centrale rol spelen in de strijd voor een rechtvaardige samenleving. Het zijn burgers (met of zonder officieel burgerschap) die moed en doorzettingsvermogen tonen door zich, te midden van complexe maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen en processen, dagelijks in te zetten voor het bouwen van een inclusieve, gezamenlijke toekomst.

Aan de hand van theoretische perspec...

A must for anyone working with questions of drug use; from students across the social sciences to practitioners such as nurses, health workers and social workers. This is not a medical text but rather a critical account of psychoactive drugs in our society that enables the reader to think about drugs beyond cultural myths and presuppositions.