Table of Contents: Past the Human: Narrative Ontologies and Ontological Stories. Editorial, Serenella Iovino, Roberto Marchesini, Eleonora Adorni - Posthumanism in Literature and Ecocriticism. Introduction, Serenella Iovino - From Posthumanism to Posthuman Ecocriticim, Serpil Oppermann - Threatening Animals?, Heather I. Sullivan - The Posthuman that Could Have Been: Mary Shelley’s Creature, Margarita Carretero González - Gadda’s Pasticciaccio and the Knotted Posthuman Household, Deborah Amberson, Elena Past - Posthuman Spaces of Relation: Literary Responses to the Species Boundary in Primate Literature, Diana Villanueva Romero - Can the Humanities Become Post-human? Interview with Rosi Braidotti, Cosetta Veronese - Recent Approaches in the Posthuman Turn: Braidotti, Herbrechter, and Nayar, Başak Ağın Dönmez - More-than-green Ecologies, Christopher Schliephake - Posthuman Narratives, Italian Style, Emiliano Guaraldo - Deep Breathing Ecocriticism: Stories, Matter, and Spiritual Dimensions, Alessandro Macilenti

In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later the Soviet Union disintegrated. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union discredited the idea of socialism for generations to come. It was seen as representing the final and irreversible victory of capitalism. This triumphal dominance was barely challenged until the 2008 financial crisis threw the Western world into a state of turmoil. Through analysis of post-socialist Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the United Kingdom, China and the United States, Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives confronts the difficulty we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism and threatening populist regimes. Beginning with accounts of the impact of capitalism on countries left behind by the planned economies, the volume moves on to consider how China has become a beacon of dynamic economic growth, aggressively expanding its global influence. The final section of the volume poses alternatives to the ideological dominance of neoliberalism in the West. Since the 2008 financial crisis, demands for social change have erupted across the world. Exposing the failure of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom and examining recent social movements in Europe and the United States, the closing chapters identify how elements of past ideas are re-emerging, among them Keynesianism and radical socialism. As those chapters indicate, these ideas might well have potential to mobilise support and challenge the dominance of neoliberalism.

Poetics and Justice in America, Japan, and Taiwan shows how entitlements are implicated in all areas of life—human and nonhuman—that poetry reaches. Through a creative adaptation of Badiou’s philosophical framing, this book argues that poetry matters as a form of media particularly suited to integrating diverse fields of knowledge and attention in newspapers, Tweets, and performance as well as volumes of poetry. Recasting intertextuality as more relational than referential, the author argues for the importance of poetry in realizing how social change and ecological justice are bound up in our orientations of affiliation. Each chapter focuses on particular sets of problems engaged by poets in different contexts to various ends in Japan, the US, and Taiwan. Some chapters explore the subtle implications of openly provocative styles, while others question the muted poetic intimations of injustices that are left standing unchanged in the name of aesthetics. Poets and performance artists featured include Amiri Baraka, John Ashbery, Tawara Machi, Rodrigo Toscano, Hung Hung, and John Cage. The author argues for examining poetic expressions in terms of what discursive fusions and affiliations they embody beyond the intimation of good intentions or ironic passing over.

Women from North Move to South by Oksana Koshulko tells us about migration of women from the Former Soviet Union countries to Turkey. The book draws on a pioneering research in this area discussing the results from a field research carried out in Turkey. Koshulko interviewed women from the Former Soviet Union countries to understand their motives, difficulties and struggles they go through in their lives in Turkey. She explores their common problems in Turkey, their education, opportunities and restrictions with reference to broader economic and political circumstances. Dr Oksana Koshulko earned her PhD in Economic Sciences at the National University of Food Technologies in Kyiv. She is an Associate Professor and a member of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS), USA. She studies migration, women, human capital and gender issues.

The book analyses EU foreign policy with Turkey over the last decade by uncovering how its internal functioning and structural context affect the European Union’s decisions. Acknowledging that EU enlargement policy is part of a broader foreign policy framework, which includes also other domains (energy, migration and CFSP), Elena Baracani adopts a unique approach, combining more actor-oriented factors with structural factors to analyse EU–Turkey Relations at national, multinational and international levels.

Dramatic social transformation in Western society over recent decades has had a profound impact on the way the life course is studied. While people continue to experience the implications of class, gender, ethnicity and, of course, age, they are more than ever able to take personal control of their own lives. The Life Course considers how, in a diverse and uncertain world, the previously predictable stages of life are no longer fixed but increasingly open to change. Focusing on continuities and change, this book looks not only at the different 'phases of life', but also at the transformation of a number of closely related social institutions such as the family, education and the workplace. Recognising that the established cradle-to-grave view is now outdated, the trajectory from infancy and youth to later and end-of-life is followed not as a stable object of study, but as a starting point for critical analysis. This second edition offers an essential overview of the sociology of the life course, incorporating both contemporary and conventional perspectives. It calls upon current theorising around the life course as well as on up-to-date empirical research data. This thought-provoking text is relevant to researchers and students of life course studies and sociology, as well as to those in nursing, social work and related caring professions.

The US–India nuclear deal, popularly known as the 123 Agreement, announced by George W. Bush and Manmohan Singh on 18 July 2005, was a defining moment in the relationship of the two countries, as also India’s relationship with the non-proliferation regime. The Bush administration’s implied recognition of India’s nuclear weapons, and its abrupt reversal of three decades of sanctions to restore Indian access to nuclear fuel, reactors, and dual-use technologies despite being a non-proliferation treaty non-signatory, led to contentious debates in both India and the USA. A Debate to Remember emphasizes the multifaceted debate in India over the nuclear deal using concepts from science and technology studies. It focuses on the intense contestation over the civil-military mix of India’s separation plan, the competition between the Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline and the nuclear deal, the role of retired nuclear scientists, and the issue of liability that has stalled the full implementation of the nuclear deal. The impact of domestic factors on issues ranging from the civil-military status of breeder reactors to the Indian insistence on no restriction on future nuclear testing in the 123 Agreement is also revealed in this book.

This book explores the extent to which China’s rise is changing the economic, security, political, and social-cultural aspects of the Middle East – a region of significant strategic importance to the West and of increasing importance to the East. With its growing dependence on Middle East oil and gas, China has more at stake in this region than any other Asian power and, not surprisingly, has begun increasing its engagement with the region, with profound implications for other stakeholders. The book charts the history of China’s links with the Middle East, discusses China’s involvement with each of the major countries of the region, considers how China’s rise is reshaping Middle Easterners’ perceptions of China and the Chinese people, and examines the very latest developments.

This book aims to evaluate the contribution of Latin America to the development of international law at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This contemporary approach to international adjudication includes the historical contribution of the region to the development of international law through the emergence of international jurisdictions, as well as the procedural and material contribution of the cases submitted by or against Latin American states to the ICJ to the development of international law. The project then conceives international jurisdictions from a multifunctional perspective, which encompasses the Court as both an instrument of the parties and an organ of a value-based international community. This shows how Latin American states have become increasingly committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes and to the promotion of international law through adjudication. It culminates with an expansion of the traditional understanding of the function of the ICJ by Latin American states, including an analysis of existing challenges in the region. The book will be of interest to all those interested in international dispute resolution, including academic libraries, the judiciary, practitioners in international law, government institutions, academics, and students alike.

The defeat of Donald Trump in November 2020 followed by the attack on the US Congress on 6th January 2021 represented a tipping point moment in the history of the American republic. Divided at home and facing a world sceptical of American claims to be the ‘indispensable nation’ in world politics, it is clear that the next few years will be decisive ones for the United States. But how did the US, which was riding high only 30 years ago, arrive at this critical point? And will it lead to the fall of what many would claim has been one of the most successful empires of modern times? In this volume, Michael Cox, a leading scholar of American foreign policy, outlines the ways in which five very different American Presidents – Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden – have addressed the complex legacies left them by their predecessors while dealing with the longer-term problems of running an empire under increasing stress. In so doing, he sets out a framework for thinking critically about US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War without ever losing sight of the biggest question of all: can America continue to shape world affairs or is it now facing long-term decline?