Education and Struggle

ISSN: 2168-6432

"WE ARE THE STORIES WE TELL. The series "Education and Struggle" focuses on conflict as a discursive process where people struggle for legitimacy and the narrative process becomes a political struggle for meaning. But this series will also include the voices of authors and activists who are involved in conflicts over material necessities in their communities, schools, places of worship, and public squares as part of an ongoing search for dignity, self-determination and autonomy. This series focuses on conflict and struggle within the realm of educational politics based around a series of interrelated themes: indigenous struggles; western-Islamic conflicts; globalization and the clash of worldviews; neoliberalism as the war within;colonization and neocolonization; the coloniality of power and decolonial pedagogy; war and conflict and the struggle for liberation. It publishes narrative accounts of specific struggles as well as theorizing "conflict narratives" and the political production of meaning in educational studies. During this time of global conflict and the crisis of capitalism, Education and Struggle promises to be on the cutting edge of social, cultural, educational and political transformation. Central to the series is the idea that language is essentially a dialogical production that is formed through a process of social conflict and interaction. The aim is to focus on key semiotic, literary andpolitical concepts as a basis for a philosophy of language and culture where the underlying materialist philosophy of language and culture serves as the basis for the larger project that we might call dialogism (after Bakhtin’s usage). As the late V.N. Volosinov suggests “Without signs there is no ideology”, “Everything ideological possesses semiotic value” and “individual consciousness is a socio-ideological fact”. It is a small step to claim, therefore, “consciousness itself can arise and become a viable fact only in the material embodiment of signs”. This series is a vehicle for materialist semiotics in the narrative and dialogue of education and struggle."

39 publications

Institutionelle und Sozial-Ökonomie / Institutional and Socio-Economics

"In the "Institutional and Socio-Economics" book series, the economy is studied as a genuinely social system of heterogeneous agents in an institutional context. The series includes a broad range of different methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives and subjects of study. Interdependencies among agents in complex social systems can be studied using evolutionary economic models, as well as institutional economic and simulation studies. Hence, the focus is being laid on approaches that are more explorative than the standard equilibrium analysis; on approaches that allow for complexity; on approaches that consider development, history, institutions, and values. Thus, we may conclude that institutions are more than just devices for the reduction of transaction costs. From an institutionalist perspective, institutions are the common and collective solutions to social decision problems, particularly social dilemma problems, coordination problems, and collective-good problems. Such solutions require ‘recognized interdependence’ and learned coordination and cooperation, thus a learned culture of a long-run perspective – emerging as the result of a process of interactions. Institutions often are transitory only, part of the ongoing dynamics, adequately modeled possibly as an evolutionary process. Also, they may be instrumental solutions to a social decision problem at first and may degenerate into ceremonial power-and-status-based phenomena later, thus limiting the possibility of further innovation and development. In a genealogy of economics, the thematic and methodological spectrum of this book series would embrace the history of thought beginning with the classics including great names such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx but also the late classics who already have struggled with issues like complexity, process, historical time, and evolution. In newer times, the spectrum continues with Veblenian, Keynesian, and Post-Keynesian thinking; it would also include works in the traditions of original institutionalist economics, ecological economics, Neo-Schumpeterian thinking, evolutionary economics, and game theory. Social economics and social policy analysis, behavioral economics, complex modeling, system dynamics, and agent-based computational economics would be embraced as well. Such lists, however, can never be exhaustive. Last not least, institutional and socio-economics deals with the epistemology and substance of values, norms and ethics, value warrants of economic behavior as well as the normative foundations of economics. This series, thus, stands in the best traditions of plural economic research areas and pluralistic theoretical perspectives. It may be called ’heterodox’, but it shall always be cutting-edge and of high quality. Enjoy exploring the works of this book series. The Editors: Wolfram Elsner Editor-in-Chief University of Bremen Torsten Heinrich Managing Editor University of Bremen Wilfred Dolfsma Co-Editor University of Groningen Arne Heise Co-Editor University of Hamburg Helge Peukert Co-Editor University of Erfurt Werner Schönig Co-Editor Catholic University of Applied Sciences Cologne Homepage der Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Elsner (Editor-in-Chief) Dr. rer. pol. Torsten Heinrich (Managing Editor) " "In the "Institutional and Socio-Economics" book series, the economy is studied as a genuinely social system of heterogeneous agents in an institutional context. The series includes a broad range of different methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives and subjects of study. Interdependencies among agents in complex social systems can be studied using evolutionary economic models, as well as institutional economic and simulation studies. Hence, the focus is being laid on approaches that are more explorative than the standard equilibrium analysis; on approaches that allow for complexity; on approaches that consider development, history, institutions, and values. Thus, we may conclude that institutions are more than just devices for the reduction of transaction costs. From an institutionalist perspective, institutions are the common and collective solutions to social decision problems, particularly social dilemma problems, coordination problems, and collective-good problems. Such solutions require ‘recognized interdependence’ and learned coordination and cooperation, thus a learned culture of a long-run perspective – emerging as the result of a process of interactions. Institutions often are transitory only, part of the ongoing dynamics, adequately modeled possibly as an evolutionary process. Also, they may be instrumental solutions to a social decision problem at first and may degenerate into ceremonial power-and-status-based phenomena later, thus limiting the possibility of further innovation and development. In a genealogy of economics, the thematic and methodological spectrum of this book series would embrace the history of thought beginning with the classics including great names such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx but also the late classics who already have struggled with issues like complexity, process, historical time, and evolution. In newer times, the spectrum continues with Veblenian, Keynesian, and Post-Keynesian thinking; it would also include works in the traditions of original institutionalist economics, ecological economics, Neo-Schumpeterian thinking, evolutionary economics, and game theory. Social economics and social policy analysis, behavioral economics, complex modeling, system dynamics, and agent-based computational economics would be embraced as well. Such lists, however, can never be exhaustive. Last not least, institutional and socio-economics deals with the epistemology and substance of values, norms and ethics, value warrants of economic behavior as well as the normative foundations of economics. This series, thus, stands in the best traditions of plural economic research areas and pluralistic theoretical perspectives. It may be called ’heterodox’, but it shall always be cutting-edge and of high quality. Enjoy exploring the works of this book series. May 2012 The Editors: Wolfram Elsner Editor-in-Chief University of Bremen Torsten Heinrich Managing Editor University of Bremen Wilfred Dolfsma Co-Editor University of Groningen Arne Heise Co-Editor University of Hamburg Helge Peukert Co-Editor University of Erfurt Werner Schönig Co-Editor Catholic University of Applied Sciences Cologne Homepage der Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Elsner (Editor-in-Chief) Dr. rer. pol. Torsten Heinrich (Managing Editor) " "In the "Institutional and Socio-Economics" book series, the economy is studied as a genuinely social system of heterogeneous agents in an institutional context. The series includes a broad range of different methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives and subjects of study. Interdependencies among agents in complex social systems can be studied using evolutionary economic models, as well as institutional economic and simulation studies. Hence, the focus is being laid on approaches that are more explorative than the standard equilibrium analysis; on approaches that allow for complexity; on approaches that consider development, history, institutions, and values. Thus, we may conclude that institutions are more than just devices for the reduction of transaction costs. From an institutionalist perspective, institutions are the common and collective solutions to social decision problems, particularly social dilemma problems, coordination problems, and collective-good problems. Such solutions require ‘recognized interdependence’ and learned coordination and cooperation, thus a learned culture of a long-run perspective – emerging as the result of a process of interactions. Institutions often are transitory only, part of the ongoing dynamics, adequately modeled possibly as an evolutionary process. Also, they may be instrumental solutions to a social decision problem at first and may degenerate into ceremonial power-and-status-based phenomena later, thus limiting the possibility of further innovation and development. In a genealogy of economics, the thematic and methodological spectrum of this book series would embrace the history of thought beginning with the classics including great names such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx but also the late classics who already have struggled with issues like complexity, process, historical time, and evolution. In newer times, the spectrum continues with Veblenian, Keynesian, and Post-Keynesian thinking; it would also include works in the traditions of original institutionalist economics, ecological economics, Neo-Schumpeterian thinking, evolutionary economics, and game theory. Social economics and social policy analysis, behavioral economics, complex modeling, system dynamics, and agent-based computational economics would be embraced as well. Such lists, however, can never be exhaustive. Last not least, institutional and socio-economics deals with the epistemology and substance of values, norms and ethics, value warrants of economic behavior as well as the normative foundations of economics. This series, thus, stands in the best traditions of plural economic research areas and pluralistic theoretical perspectives. It may be called ’heterodox’, but it shall always be cutting-edge and of high quality. Enjoy exploring the works of this book series. The Editors: Wolfram Elsner Editor-in-Chief University of Bremen Torsten Heinrich Managing Editor University of Bremen Wilfred Dolfsma Co-Editor University of Groningen Arne Heise Co-Editor University of Hamburg Helge Peukert Co-Editor University of Erfurt Werner Schönig Co-Editor Catholic University of Applied Sciences Cologne Homepage der Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Elsner (Editor-in-Chief) Dr. rer. pol. Torsten Heinrich (Managing Editor) "

11 publications

Kurdish People, History and Politics

ISSN: 2701-3030

Kurdish People, History and Politics is envisioned as a series to create new knowledge about the Kurds. The social basis of Kurdish Studies began to widen in the latter part of the twentieth century, growing in the context of major political and cultural changes on the global and regional levels including the coming to power of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the wake of the 1991 U.S. war against Iraq, the process of peace negotiation between the Turkish State and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since the 1990s, and in more recent years, the struggle of the Syrian Kurds in Rojava (Northern Syria) for self-determination. In the last three decades, an expanded network of Kurdish Studies scholars have borrowed theoretical and methodological approaches from feminist studies, cultural studies, anti-colonial and anti-racist epistemology. This series pushes the boundaries of existing scholarship through a robust engagement with critiques of nationalism, patriarchy, class, colonialism, and orientalism, with the aim of contributing to the renewal of Kurdish Studies in two distinctive ways: First, it aims to prevail over the limitations imposed on knowledge production and dissemination on the Kurds and their homeland of Kurdistan, in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq. Second, it strives to broaden the social base of Kurdish Studies, which until the mid-twentieth century was primarily conducted by Western academics specializing in the anthropological study of the Kurdish people, languages and culture. The series encourages authors to engage with theoretical frameworks that allow a radical break with the colonial, orientalist, and nationalist traditions of knowledge production, exploring social media, democratization, border studies, and geographies of resistance in the context of Kurdish diaspora through this critical lens. We welcome proposals for monographs, oral history projects, anthologies, edited collections, and projects interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature.

4 publications

Fem-Mobilities: Feminismos y Movilidades

Contemporary migrations take place within the framework of varied geographical, social and symbolic mobilities with strong implications in terms of inequality and global stratification. Throughout history, women have always migrated, but their presence has been invisible or shown in a selective, partial and biased way (Morokvasic, 2011), which presents them more as dependents, sufferers and victims, than as protagonists of the migration. After decades of struggle for the development and implantation of feminist and gender studies in academia and the impact of the broad women's movement at a global level, today we are witnessing the consolidation of a "field" of studies, that of "gender and gender. migrations ». Feminist approaches have provided a set of concepts and categories of analysis that have contributed to restoring the agency of women in general, and in particular, the agency of migrant women. The diverse feminist perspectives allow us to understand how migrations politically, historically and contextually produce gender, the factors of production of political, economic and socio-cultural inequalities that affect the lives of migrant women, as well as the variety of their experiences, their positions and their identities. The FEM-MOBILITIES series is a space for the publication of works that focus on these feminist themes, approaches and perspectives on migration and refuge, with the aim of constituting a place for dialogue and debate, but also for constructive controversy around to the main axes of production of inequality and the ways to combat them. Las migraciones contemporáneas tienen lugar en el marco de movilidades geográficas, sociales y simbólicas variadas con fuertes implicaciones en términos de desigualdad y de estratificación global. A lo largo de la historia, las mujeres siempre han migrado, pero su presencia ha sido invisibilizada o mostrada de manera selectiva, parcial y sesgada (Morokvasic, 2011), lo que las presentan más como dependientes, sufrientes y víctimas, que como protagonistas de la migración. Tras décadas de lucha para el desarrollo e implantación de los estudios feministas y de género en la academia y de la incidencia del movimiento amplio de mujeres a nivel global, hoy asistimos a la consolidación de un «campo» de estudios, el de «género y migraciones». Los enfoques feministas han proporcionado un conjunto de conceptos y categorías de análisis que han contribuido a restituir en general la agencia de las mujeres, y en particular, la agencia de las mujeres migrantes. Las diversas perspectivas feministas nos permitan entender cómo las migraciones producen de manera política, histórica y contextual el género, los factores de producción de desigualdades políticas, económicas y socioculturales que inciden en la vida de las mujeres migrantes, así como la variedad de sus experiencias, sus posiciones y sus identidades. La serie FEM-MOBILITIES es un espacio para la publicación de obras que se centren en estos temas, enfoques y perspectivas feministas de las migraciones y el refugio con el objetivo de constituir un lugar de diálogo y de debate, pero también de controversia constructiva en torno a los principales ejes de producción de desigualdad y las formas de combatirlos.

1 publications

Queering Paradigms

ISSN: 2235-5367

Queering Paradigms is a series of peer-reviewed edited volumes and monographs presenting challenging and innovative developments in Queer Theory and Queer Studies from across a variety of academic disciplines and political spheres. Queer in this context is understood as a critical disposition towards the predominantly binarist and essentialising social, intellectual, political, and cultural paradigms through which we understand gender, sexuality, and identity. Queering denotes challenging and transforming not just heteronormativity, but homonormativity as well, and pushing past the binary axes of homo- and hetero-sexuality. In line with the broad inter- and trans-disciplinary ethos of queer projects generally, the series welcomes contributions from both established and aspiring researchers in diverse fields of studies including political and social science, philosophy, history, religious studies, literary criticism, media studies, education, psychology, health studies, criminology, and legal studies. The series is committed to advancing perspectives from outside of the ‘Global North’. Further, it will publish research that explicitly links queer insights to specific and local political struggles, which might serve to encourage the uptake of queer insights in similar contexts. By cutting across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries in this way, the series provides a unique contribution to queer theory. The Series Editor: Professor B. Scherer is Chair of Comparative Religion, Gender and Sexuality at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, and an executive editor of the journal Religion and Gender. Read more about Queering Paradigms at the Canterbury Christ Church University's Queering Paradigms website.

11 publications

Adolescent Cultures, School, and Society

"As schools struggle to redefine and restructure themselves, they need to be aware of the new realities of adolescents. This series is committed to depicting the wide variety of adolescent cultures that exist in today’s troubled world. It is primarily a qualitative research, practice, and policy series devoted to contextual interpretation and analysis that encompasses a broad range of interdisciplinary critique. The series addresses such issues as curriculum theory and practice; multicultural education; adolescent literacy; aggression, bullying, and violence; media and the arts; school dropouts; homeless and runaway youth; gangs and other alienated youth; at-risk populations; peers, family structures, and parental involvement; identity formation; race, ethnicity, class, and gender/LGBTQ studies; and overall social, biological, psychological, and spiritual development. "

84 publications

A Critical Introduction to Media and Communication Theory

The study of the media has led scholars to apply a humbling array of theories in their efforts to analyze messages, media systems, audiences and media themselves. One of the strengths of media studies has been its flexibility as it incorporates humanist and social scientific ideas in our work. This series is focused on theories, methods, schools of thought, domains of intellectual struggle, and individual thinkers whose importance to the study of the media can be reconfigured, reinvented, and refocused. Each of the specially commissioned books in the series shares a concern for the heritage of thought in the field of communication. These books provide sophisticated discussions of the relevance of particular theorists or theories, with an emphasis on reinventing communication and media studies, whether by incorporating ideas thought by some to be 'outside' the field, or by providing fresh analyses of ideas that have long been considered　central to media studies. Though theoretical in focus, the books are at all times concerned with the applicability of theory to empirical research and experience, and are designed to be accessible, yet critical, for students - undergraduates and postgraduates - and scholars.　

16 publications