Author: Peter Scholliers File Type: pdf Food and drink have provided fascinating insights into cultural patterns in consumer societies. There is an intimate relationship between food and identity but processes of identity formation through food are far from clear. This book adds a new perspective to the existing body of scholarship by addressing pivotal questions is food central or marginal to identity construction? Does food equally matter for all group(ing)s? Why would, in peoples experience, food become especially important at one moment, or, on the contrary, lose its significance?The origin of food habits is also interrogated. Contributors investigate how, when, why and by whom cooking, eating and drinking were used as a means of distinction. Leading historians and sociologists look at concepts of authenticity, adjustment, invention and import, as well as food signs and codes, and why they have been accepted or rejected. They examine a wide range of periods and topics the elderly, alcohol and identity in Early Modern Europe food riots and national identity noble families, eating and drinking in eighteenth-century Spain consumption and the working class in the nineteenth century commensality the meaning of Champagne in Belle-Epoque France the narrative of food in Norway wine and bread in French Algeria food and identity in post-war Germany.This intriguing book brings together new, comparative insights and research that allow a better understanding of processes of integration and segregation, the role of food in the construction of identity, and the relationship between old and new food habits.ReviewA refreshing addition to the field of food studies ... This book makes an important contribution to food studies by placing food in the foreground of identity formation as well as explaining how various groups have used food at various times. --Journal of Social HistoryAlways interesting and rewarding to read. --The Economic History Review In general this series is highly valuable to people interested in the history of nutrition especially given the many interesting case studies presented. --Sozial und KulturgeschichteAn intriguing book that presents a history of food in a reader-friendly style. --suite101.com About the AuthorPeter Scholliers is a Professor of History, at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Author: Eugene Thacker File Type: pdf Life is one of our most basic concepts, and yet when examined directly it proves remarkably contradictory and elusive, encompassing both the broadest and the most specific phenomena. We can see this uncertainty about life in our habit of approaching it as something at once scientific and mystical, in the return of vitalisms of all types, and in the pervasive politicization of life. In short, life seems everywhere at stake and yet is nowhere the same.In After Life, Eugene Thacker clears the ground for a new philosophy of life by recovering the twists and turns in its philosophical history. Beginning with Aristotles originary formulation of a philosophy of life, Thacker examines the influence of Aristotles ideas in medieval and early modern thought, leading him to the work of Immanuel Kant, who notes the inherently contradictory nature of life in itself. Along the way, Thacker shows how early modern philosophys engagement with the problem of life affects thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Georges Bataille, and Alain Badiou, as well as contemporary developments in the speculative turn in philosophy.At a time when life is categorized, measured, and exploited in a variety of ways, After Life invites us to delve deeper into the contours and contradictions of the age-old question, what is life?**

Author: Francis Halsall File Type: pdf Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices brings together eminent international philosophers to discuss the inter-dependence of critical communities and aesthetic practices. Their contributions share a hermeneutical commitment to dialogue, both as a model for critique and as a generator of community. Two conclusions emerge The first is that ones relationships with others will always be central in determining the social, political, and artistic forms that philosophical self-reflection will take. The second is that our practices of aesthetic judgment are bound up with our efforts as philosophers to adapt ourselves and our objects of interest to the inescapably historical and indeterminate conditions of experience. The papers collected here address the issue that critical communities and aesthetic practices are never politically neutral and can never be abstracted from their particular contexts. It is for this reason that the contributors investigate the politics, not of laws, parties or state constitutions, but of open, indefinably critical communities such as audiences, peers and friends. Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices is distinctive in providing a current selection of prominent positions, written for this volume. Together, these comprise a pluralist, un-homogenized collection that brings into focus contemporary debates on critical and aesthetic practices.From the Back CoverCritical Communities and Aesthetic Practices brings together eminent international philosophers to discuss the inter-dependence of critical communities and aesthetic practices. Their contributions share a hermeneutical commitment to dialogue, both as a model for critique and as a generator of community. Two conclusions emerge The first is that ones relationships with others will always be central in determining the social, political, and artistic forms that philosophical self-reflection will take. The second is that our practices of aesthetic judgment are bound up with our efforts as philosophers to adapt ourselves and our objects of interest to the inescapably historical and indeterminate conditions of experience. The papers collected here address the issue that critical communities and aesthetic practices are never politically neutral and can never be abstracted from their particular contexts. It is for this reason that the contributors investigate the politics, not of laws, parties or state constitutions, but of open, indefinably critical communities such as audiences, peers and friends. Critical Communities and Aesthetic Practices is distinctive in providing a current selection of prominent positions, written for this volume. Together, these comprise a pluralist, un-homogenized collection that brings into focus contemporary debates on critical and aesthetic practices. About the AuthorFrancis Halsall is lecturer in the history and theory of moderncontemporary art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. His research focuses on theories of art after modernism (and in particular the systems-theoretical approach such as that of Niklas Luhmann). He is the author of Systems of Art (Peter Lang, 2008) and co-editor (with Julia Jansen & Tony OConnor) of Rediscovering Aesthetics, (Stanford University Press, 2008). Recent articles include One Sense is Never Enough Journal of Visual Art Practice (October, 2004) Art History versus Aesthetics? in Elkins, J, (ed.) Art History Versus Aesthetics, (Routledge, 2005) and Chaos, Fractals and the Pedagogical Challenge of Jackson Pollocks All-Over Paintings, Journal of Aesthetic Education, (2008) Julia Jansen is lecturer in Philosophy at University College Cork, Ireland. Her current research explores the intersections of Kants Philosophy of Mind, Husserlian Phenomenology, Aesthetics, and Cognitive Science. Her recent publications include Husserls First Philosophy of Phantasy A Transcendental Phenomenology of Imagination, in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (2005) Schnittstelle und Brennpunkt Das asthetische Erlebnis als Aufgabe fur eine Kooperation von Phanomenologie und Neurowissenschaft, in Interdisziplinare Perspektiven der Phanomenologie, ed. by D. Lohmar und D. Fonfara (Springer, 2006). Currently she is finishing a monograph on imagination and transcendental philosophy in Kant and Husserl. She is the co-editor (with Francis Halsall & Tony OConnor) of Rediscovering Aesthetics (Stanford University Press, 2008). Sinead Murphy lectures in Philosophy at the Newcastle University. Her background is in Aesthetics, Hermeneutics and literary theory, and her current research is into the extent to, and manner in, which hermeneutic philosophy exemplifies a constructive mode of philosophical practice. She is a regular contributor at the conferences of, for example, the Irish Philosophical Society, the Society for European Philosophy and the International Association for Philosophy and Literature, and has published on Kants sublime and on feminist literary theory.

Author: David Karpf File Type: pdf Some of the most remarkable impacts of digital media on political activism lie not in the new types of speech it provides to disorganized masses, but in the new types of listening it fosters among organized pressure groups. Beneath the easily visible waves of e-petitions, likes, hashtags,and viral videos lies a powerful undercurrent of activated public opinion. In this book, David Karpf offers a rich, detailed assessment of how political organizations carefully monitor this online activity and use it to develop new tactics and strategies that help them succeed in the evolving hybridmedia system. Karpf discusses the power and potential of this new analytic activism, exploring the organizational logics and media logics that determine how digital inputs shape the choices that political campaigners make. He provides the first careful analysis of how organizations like Change.organd Upworthy.com influence the types of political narratives that dominate our Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter timelines. He investigates how MoveOn.org and it netroots peers use analytics to listen more effectively to their members and supporters. He also identifies two boundaries of analyticactivism - the analytics floor and analytics frontier - which define the scope of this new style of organized citizen engagement. The book concludes by examining the limitations of analytic activism, raising a cautionary flag about the ways that putting too much faith in digital listening can lead to a weakening of civil society as a whole.