Introduction

Author(s):  
Shawn Malley

The introductory chapter establishes relationships between archaeology as a trope within SF film and television and as a cultural site from which to investigate the medium’s critical engagement with post 9/11 geopolitics. Arguing that the imagination of the future is indelibly overrun by the past, scholars like Fredric Jameson, Gary Wolfe and Carl Freeman contend that SF is a historicist genre that exposes its master fantasy of progress to the kinds of real and symbolic assaults on Western global power represented by 9/11. The introduction contends that SF film and television offer resistant readings of the ways mediatized weapons of retaliation on the West circulate within popular culture as potent images of threat and fear that have leant Western governments extraordinary powers of surveillance and control over its citizens and the world in the name of freedom and security. The introduction historicises the cinematic and televisual response to 9/11 and its aftermath by looking back to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a film that speaks obliquely to the terrible events of the year it imagines, in which the cinematics of terror have been naturalized within the SF cinematic imagination.

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Barabantseva

This article examines how China, understood as a construct made up of multiple identities, constantly negotiates its relationships with the world. The oppositions—between tradition and modernity, the past and the present, China and the West— that are often presumed or reproduced in our thinking about China's place in the world are called into question. China's relationship with the world must be understood through the interplay between history and present, and thus through the particular uses of history in practice. The article especially explores how the world and China's place in it are seen in Chinese popular culture and visual expressions of state initiatives to promote Chinese culture. It focuses on the way images of the ever-changing world are depicted in two visual narratives: a promotional video of the Confucius Institute and the film The World (Shijie).


Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Urry

Energy forms and their extensive scale are remarkably significant for the ways that societies are organized. This article shows the importance of how societies are ‘energized’ and especially the global growth of ‘fossil fuel societies’. Much social thought remains oblivious to the energy revolution realized over the past two to three centuries which set the ‘West’ onto a distinct trajectory. Energy is troubling for social thought because different energy systems with their ‘lock-ins’ are not subject to simple human intervention and control. Analyses are provided here of different fossil fuel societies, of coal and oil, with the latter enabling the liquid, mobilized 20th century. Consideration is paid to the possibilities of reducing fossil fuel dependence but it is shown how unlikely such a ‘powering down’ will be. The author demonstrates how energy is a massive problem for social theory and for 21st-century societies. Developing post-carbon theory and especially practice is far away but is especially urgent.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gubara Hassan

The Western originators of the multi-disciplinary social sciences and their successors, including most major Western social intellectuals, excluded religion as an explanation for the world and its affairs. They held that religion had no role to play in modern society or in rational elucidations for the way world politics or/and relations work. Expectedly, they also focused most of their studies on the West, where religion’s effect was least apparent and argued that its influence in the non-West was a primitive residue that would vanish with its modernization, the Muslim world in particular. Paradoxically, modernity has caused a resurgence or a revival of religion, including Islam. As an alternative approach to this Western-centric stance and while focusing on Islam, the paper argues that religion is not a thing of the past and that Islam has its visions of international relations between Muslim and non-Muslim states or abodes: peace, war, truce or treaty, and preaching (da’wah).


2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Brien

This essay has been written to serve as a prolegomenon for a new journal in Global History. It opens with a brief depiction of the two major approaches to the field (through connexions and comparisons) and moves on to survey first European and then other historiographical traditions in writing ‘centric’ histories up to the times of the Imperial Meridian 1783–1825, when Europe’s geopolitical power over all other parts of the world became hegemonic. Thereafter, and for the past two centuries, all historiographical traditions converged either to celebrate or react to the rise of the ‘West’. The case for the restoration of Global History rests upon its potential to construct negotiable meta-narratives, based upon serious scholarship that will become cosmopolitan in outlook and meet the needs of our globalizing world.


Fahm-i-Islam ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Dr Aurangzeb

Over the past several years, despite the constant evolution of the legislation the problem of gender equality in the West has been steadily increasing. What is the reason why there is no significant progress in solving gender equality issues in the West yet? Several reports and researches have pointed out to this problem. On the contrary, Islam provides a viable solution to this ever increasing problem; for Islam has a comprehensive yet simple view of gender equality. But the West, instead of understanding Islamic principles objectively, raises objections without a thorough study. However, the Western principle of gender equality has completely failed. In this article a critical analysis of the western gender equality and Islamic principles has been carried out. It also highlights Islamic view point of gender equality. The study argues that the contemporary gender equality problems and issues that have engulfed the world particularly the Western countries can be mitigated by employing the Islamic principles of gender equality


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Neng Eri Sofiana

<p><em>West Java for the past three years has been included in the top three provinces with the highest number of divorces and the highest rate of child violence. Ridwan Kamil and the Chief of the West Java PKK launched 'Sekoper Cinta' or women's school held by the DP3AKB which make an affort to empower women to achieve equality , participation, access, roles, benefits and control between women and men in all fields. This school has held a graduation ceremony for 2,700 women on October 22, 2019. This program is held to improve the quality of women so they can reduce the rate of divorce and violence against children. So, how is this program carried out in West Java, can it reduce the existing divorce rate? Can it be applied in other areas as a solution to protect women and children? In fact, Sekoper Cinta is able to make women and mothers more empowered and qualified with a lot of materials that encourage family resilience and economic independence, so that if applied it will certainly be able to reduce the divorce rate in West Java and this program can be used as guidelines and examples for other areas because the results are able to give freedom to women from gender injustice.</em></p><p> </p><p>Jawa Barat selama tiga tahun terakhir ini termasuk ke dalam tiga besar provinsi dengan jumlah perceraian terbanyak dan angka kekerasan anak terbesar. Ridwan Kamil beserta Ketua PKK Jawa Barat meluncurkan ‘Sekoper Cinta’ atau Sekolah Perempuan Capai Impian dan Cita-Cita sebagai sekolah khusus perempuan yang diadakan oleh Pemprov Jawa Barat dengan Dinas Pemberdayaan Perempuan Perlindungan Anak dan Keluarga Berencana (DP3AKB) yang berupaya dalam memberdayakan para perempuan demi mewujudkan kesetaraan, partisipasi, akses, peran, manfaat, dan kontrol antara perempuan dan laki-laki di semua bidang. Sekolah ini telah mengadakan wisuda bagi 2.700 perempuan pada 22 Oktober 2019 lalu. Program ini diadakan sebagai salah satu upaya untuk meningkatkan kualitas perempuan sehingga dapat menekan angka perceraian dan kekerasan terhadap anak. Maka, bagaimana program ini dilakukan di Jawa Barat, apakah dapat menekan angka perceraian yang ada? Apakah mampu diterapkan di wilayah lain sebagai solusi melindungi kaum perempuan dan anak? Ternyata, Sekoper Cinta mampu membuat perempuan dan ibu-ibu lebih berdaya dan berkualitas dengan sekian banyak materi yang mendorong kepada ketahanan keluarga dan kemandirian ekonomi, sehingga jika diaplikasikan tentu akan mampu menekan angka perceraian yang ada di Jawa Barat dan program ini dapat dijadikan pedoman serta contoh bagi wilayah lainnya karena hasilnya yang mampu memberi kebebasan kepada perempuan dari ketidakadilan gender.</p>


Author(s):  
Shawn Malley

Well-known in popular culture for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist is also a rich though often unacknowledged figure for constructing ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds’ in science fiction. But more than a well-spring for scenarios, SF’s archaeological imaginary is also a hermeneutic tool for excavating the ideological motivations of digging up the past buried in the future. A cultural study of an array of popular though critically neglected North American SF film and television texts–spanning the gamut of telefilms, pseudo-documentaries, teen serial drama and Hollywood blockbusters–Excavating the Future treats archaeology as a trope for exploring the popular archaeological imagination and the uses to which it is being put by the U.S. state and its adversaries. By treating SF texts as documents of archaeological experience circulating within and between scientific and popular culture communities and media, Excavating the Future develops critical strategies for analyzing SF film and television’s critical and adaptive responses to contemporary geopolitical concerns about the war on terror, homeland security, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, and the ongoing fight against ISIS.


Author(s):  
Anna Sun

This introductory chapter talks about the confusions and controversies over the religious nature of Confucianism. It argues that the confusions come mainly from three sources. First, they come from the conceptualization of Confucianism as a world religion at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe, which was a historical product of the emergence of the “world religions” paradigm in the West. Second, they are caused by the problematic way in which Confucianism—and Chinese religions in general—has been studied and represented by questions which are based on a Judeo-Christian framework that cannot capture the complexity of Chinese religious life. Finally, confusion arises from the often contradictory development of Confucianism in today's China.


1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (0) ◽  
pp. 113-136
Author(s):  
Hak Yol Yoon

From the beginning of history, a great number of wars caused by conflict of ideologies, racial discrimination, needs to reserve natural resources, and territorial ambitions have changed global maps and streams of history with heavy damage to mankind in all parts of the world. As mentioned above, a lot of events have also happened in persons, families, and every side of society. As results of wars, conflicts, party strifes, and ets., small or great events are inevitable at home and abroad. These kinds of great or small events always follow a crisis. Good crisis management can prevent one from causing great or small events by way of overcoming national strifes and international collision. Looking back upon the past history, wars around 900 times had caused sufferings of the Korean.


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