This is a critical study of the major novels and short stories of Minako Oba (1930-) the undisputed leader in the resurgence of women writers in Japan. Oba is a postmodernist, rethinking gender and culture, encompassing the theme of female Bildungsroman, and drawing on marinated memories.

Based on the idea that children are experts of their lives, this pioneering book suggests that children's active participation in applied linguistics research can open up exciting new possibilities. It is essential reading for researchers in second language education, as well as anyone who wants to conduct research involving children.

Can the workplace be more productive by including avatars, three-dimensional environments, and participant-driven outcomes? This grounded and thought-provoking book by Byron Reeves and Leighton Read proves that it is not only possible, it is inevitable. Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhancee collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making. Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity. Of course, the strong psychological power of games can have both positive and negative consequences for the workplace. That's why it's important to put them into practice correctly from the beginning - and Reeves and Read explain how by showing which good design principles are a powerful antidote to the addictive and stress-inducing potential of games. Supported by specific case studies and years of research, Total Engagement will completely change the way you view both work and play.

This monograph addresses a perceived lack of clarity in the recent turns toward 'theological interpretation', presenting an understanding of theological interpretation that is highly eclectic.

This formative work discusses transgender people’s inclusion in everyday sport in the United Kingdom. It adopts a trans feminist approach to explore pivotal issues regarding the barriers to participation faced by transgender and non-binary people. Offering a critical perspective on the current landscape surrounding this topic, the book draws from insightful interviews conducted by the author with 18 transgender and non-binary individuals. The author uses a critical social science approach to explore the heteropatriarchal construction of sport in the modern industrialised West, and how this has formed the backdrop to the continuing discrimination towards many athletes, not just those who are transgender. Using first-hand perspectives, it focuses on the three themes of the sporting body, sporting spaces and sporting communities. It investigates why conversations about fairness and safety regarding transgender athletes have become so polarised within the media, and the significance of taking a trans feminist approach to reducing barriers in sport. Lastly, the book’s key findings initiate a dialogue on the importance of gender affirmation in sport, the value of supportive teammates/role models and how sporting spaces can be reimagined to promote greater inclusion for all. Transgender and Non-Binary People in Everyday Sport is a crucial resource for researchers, academics, and students in the field of social science, sports organisations, policy makers, third-sector organisations, activists and other related disciplines. The book will also be a compelling read for anyone with an interest in improving inclusion for transgender and non-binary people in everyday sport and wants to learn more about how trans feminism can achieve this.

This book provides a thorough and novel examination of the gendered nature of innovations in the new economy. It tracks the contemporary shift from heavy industry to game industry and how this has altered relationships between gender, identity, corporate culture, creative work, and the future of business. Through empirical research and theoretical analysis, the authors present their own carefully contextualized cases and conceptual frameworks relating themes of innovation and gender to recent theories concerning globalization and transnationalism. This wide-ranging and interdisciplinary text provides readers with insightful entries on what innovations are and the ways innovation processes become gendered. It explores the business landscape based on creative work and offers a wealth of information for scholars of entrepreneurship, management, sociology, cultural studies, and communication.

Doing Fandom presents a body of knowledge essential to football fandom research, and the study of gender, space, emotions and culture more generally. The analytical framework follows the theory of practice, drawing on three acclaimed sociological concepts to expand current scholarship on fandom: habitus, doing gender, and claiming the right to space. The authors apply these perspectives to interrogate the development, performative and experiential aspects of fandom, and inform analysis of fans' social and political activism beyond the stadium. Drawing on several case studies conducted among fans in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, the anthology provides substantial insight into the construction of fandom, and will be invaluable for students and scholars across sociology, anthropology of sport, and cultural studies.

This book examines the role of women bloggers in the Indian Blogosphere. It explores how women use new media technologies to create online spaces that share knowledge, raise awareness, and build communities. A unique work at the intersection of digital culture, feminist theory, and diaspora/transnationalism studies, this book brings to light layered and complex issues such as identity, gender performativity, presentation of self, migration, and citizenship. This volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, political studies, gender studies, women’s studies, sociology, diaspora studies, feminist theory, media and communication studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Sport, Gender and Sexuality brings together important new work from 68 leading international scholars that, collectively, demonstrates the intrinsic interconnectedness of sport, gender and sexuality. It introduces what is, in essence, a sophisticated sub-area of sport sociology, covering the field comprehensively, as well as signalling ideas for future research and analysis. Wide-ranging across different historical periods, different sports, and different local and global contexts, the book incorporates personal, ideological and political narratives; varied conceptual, methodological and theoretical approaches; and examples of complexities and nuanced ways of understanding the gendered and sexualized dynamics of sport. It examines structural and cultural forms of gender segregation, homophobia, heteronormativity and transphobia, as well as the ideological struggles and changes that have led to nuanced ways of thinking about the sport, gender and sexuality nexus. This is a landmark work of reference that will be a key resource for students and researchers working in sport studies, gender studies, sexuality studies or sociology.

Issues of socio-economic development, democracy and peace are linked to gender equality. This book argues that gender equality needs to be placed on the policy and programme agenda of the entire spectrum of peace and conflict-related initiatives and activities to achieve conflict transformation.