What is a small country? Is a country small because of the size of its territory or its population? Can smallness be relative, based on the subjective perception of a country's inhabitants or in comparison with one's neighbors? How does smallness, however it is defined, shape a country and its relations with other countries? Answers to these questions, among others, can be found in Small Countries, the first and only anthropological study of smallness as a defining variable.

What is a small country? Is a country small because of the size of its territory or its population? Can smallness be relative, based on the subjective perception of a country's inhabitants or in comparison with one's neighbors? How does smallness, however it is defined, shape a country and its relations with other countries? Answers to these questions, among others, can be found in Small Countries, the first and only anthropological study of smallness as a defining variable.

Comparison has long been the backbone of the discipline of anthropology. But recent developments in anthropology, including critical self-reflection and new case studies sited in a globalized world, have pushed comparative work aside. For the most part, comparison as theory and method has been a casualty of the critique of 'grand theory' and of a growing mistrust of objectivist, hard-science methodology in the social sciences.Today it is time for anthropology to resume its central t...

This book gives a clear and readable overview of the philosophical work of Jürgen Habermas, the most influential German philosopher alive today, who has commented widely on subjects such as Marxism, the importance and effectiveness of communication, the reunification of Germany, and the European Union. Gordon Finlayson provides readers with a clear and readable overview of Habermas's forbiddingly complex philosophy using concrete examples and accessible language. He then goes on to analyse...

*Released early for the UK election.*From our earliest wanderings to the rise of the digital nomad, here is the story of human migration.For hundreds of thousands of years, the ability of Homo sapiens to travel across vast distances and adapt to new environments has been key to our survival as a species. Yet this deep migratory impulse is being tested as never before. By building ever stronger walls and raising barriers to progress, governments are harming th...

An indispensable guide to seeing and understanding our planet through the divisions we make, find, or feel.Our world has innumerable boundaries. They range from the obvious—an ocean, or a mountain range—to subtle differences in language or climate. We cross boundaries all the time, sometimes without realizing it. They can be subjective: our perceptions of a boundary may not be shared by others. And yet they shape the way we engage with the world. Geographer Maxim S...

Stanley R. Barrett's Anthropology has long been a premiere sourcebook for students, providing a comprehensive overview of both theory and method in the discipline. In this updated second edition, Barrett's discussion of the origins and evolution of anthropology remains, augmented by sections addressing recent changes and ongoing questions in the field.The second edition of Anthropology adds important new material on questions of culture versus power, Max Weber's t...

Leading anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen shows how anthropology is a revolutionary way of thinking about the human world. Perfect for students, but also for those who have never encountered anthropology before, this book explores the key issues in an exciting and innovative way.Lucid and accessible, What is Anthropology? draws examples from current affairs as well as previous anthropological studies. He looks at the history of anthropology, its unique research methods and some...

Many educational practices are based upon ideas about what it means to be human. Thus education is conceived as the production of particular subjectivities and identities such as the rational person, the autonomous individual, or the democratic citizen. Beyond Learning asks what might happen to the ways in which we educate if we treat the question as to what it means to be human as a radically open question; a question that can only be answered by engaging in education rather than as a que...

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each r...

An independently minded champion of ‘the project of modernity’ in a supposedly post-modern age, Jurgen Habermas (1929- ) is one of the most widely influential thinkers of our times.An easy-to-use A-Z guide to a body of work that spans philosophy, sociology, politics, law and cultural theory, Habermas: The Key Concepts explores Habermas’ writings on:capitalismgeneticslawneo-conservatismuniversal pragmatics.

The surprising case for liberal nationalismAround the world today, nationalism is back—and it’s often deeply troubling. Populist politicians exploit nationalism for authoritarian, chauvinistic, racist, and xenophobic purposes, reinforcing the view that it is fundamentally reactionary and antidemocratic. But Yael (Yuli) Tamir makes a passionate argument for a very different kind of nationalism—one that revives its participatory, creative, and egalitarian virtues, an...