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Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion: On Mimesis and Society (CRESC)
by Christian BorchTerrorist attacks seem to mimic other terrorist attacks. Mass shootings appear to mimic previous mass shootings. Financial traders seem to mimic other traders. It is not a novel observation that people often imitate others. Some might even suggest that mimesis is at the core of human interaction. However, understanding such mimesis and its broader implications is no trivial task. Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion sheds important light on the ways in which society is intimately linked to and characterized by mimetic patterns. Taking its starting point in late-nineteenth-century discussions about imitation, contagion, and suggestion, the volume examines a theoretical framework in which mimesis is at the center. The volume investigates some of the key sociological, psychological, and philosophical debates on sociality and individuality that emerged in the wake of the late-nineteenth-century imitation, contagion, and suggestion theorization, and which involved notable thinkers such as Gabriel Tarde, Emile Durkheim, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Furthermore, the volume demonstrates the ways in which important aspects of this theorization have been mobilized throughout the twentieth century and how they may advance present-day analyses of topical issues relating to, e.g. neuroscience, social media, social networks, agent-based modelling, terrorism, virology, financial markets, and affect theory. One of the significant ideas advanced in theories of imitation, contagion, and suggestion is that the individual should be seen not as a sovereign entity, but rather as profoundly externally shaped. In other words, the decisions people make may be unwitting imitations of other people’s decisions. Against this backdrop, the volume presents new avenues for social theory and sociological research that take seriously the suggestion that individuality and the social may be mimetically constituted.
Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History
by Kazuko Furuta Linda GroveThis book focuses on the production of low-quality goods, the rise of markets for imitations and shoddy goods, and dishonest trading practices which developed along with the expansion of global trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in East Asia. Fake, imitation, counterfeit, and adulterated goods have long plagued domestic and international trade. While we are all familiar with contemporary attempts to control the manufacture and sales of such goods, economic historians have given the subject little attention, despite the fact that the growth of international trade and the lengthening of commodity chains played a major role in the spread of such practices. The problem is approached in several ways. Part I of the book examines the ways in which the asymmetry of product-quality information was reduced and mechanisms were developed to bring greater order in the markets, using case studies on cotton fiber, silk pongee, cotton cloth, fertilizer, and tea. Part II of the book focuses on problems associated with imported everyday-use items--which are referred to here as "small things"--and the role played by imitations of such everyday goods as soap, matches, glass bottles, and toys in the development of the modern economies of Japan, China and Taiwan. The project brings together the work of an international team of scholars who offer important historical perspectives on these issues, exploring the ways in which new institutions were created that continue to play a role in contemporary global economic activities.
Immaculate Blue: A Novel
by Paul RussellFrom the award-winning author of The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov comes the brilliantly conceived and precisely rendered novel Immaculate Blue, which explores the lives of four people -- Anatole, Leigh, Chris, and Lydia -- and their intermingled and unwinding desires. Set in upstate New York, the novel follows these characters as they achieve their aims in lives redolent with loss and hope, humor and sadness, union and alienation. Russell picks up the thread of his critically acclaimed novel The Salt Point 20 years later and tracks the lives of these friends, some of whom not only lost touch with each other but have also lost their way. Moving, at times shocking, and always memorable, Immaculate Blue points to where the personal and the political come together and shape our lives in unexpected ways. With this newest novel, Paul Russell reminds us of why he is one of the most important voices on the literary scene.
The Immaculate Conception of Data: Agribusiness, Activists, and Their Shared Politics of the Future
by Kelly BronsonEvery new tractor now contains built-in sensors that collect data and stream it to cloud-based infrastructure. Seed and chemical companies are using these data, and these agribusinesses are a form of big tech alongside firms like Google and Facebook.The Immaculate Conception of Data peeks behind the secretive legal agreements surrounding agricultural big data to trace how it is used and with what consequences. Agribusinesses are among the oldest oligopoly corporations in the world, and their concentration gives them an advantage over other food system actors. Kelly Bronson explores what happens when big data get caught up in pre-existing arrangements of power. Her richly ethnographic account details the work of corporate scientists, farmers using the data, and activist “hackers” building open-source data platforms. Actors working in private and public contexts have divergent views on whom new technology is for, how it should be developed, and what kinds of agriculture it should support. Surprisingly, despite their differences, these groups share a way of speaking about data and its value for the future. Bronson calls this the immaculate conception of data, arguing that this phenomenon is a dangerous framework for imagining big data and what it might do for society.Drawing our attention to agriculture as an important new site for big tech criticism, The Immaculate Conception of Data uniquely bridges science and technology studies, critical data studies, and food studies, bringing to light salient issues related to data justice and a sustainable food system.
Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women's Bodies
by Helen KingThroughout history, religious scholars, medical men and - occasionally - women themselves, have moulded thought on what 'makes' a woman. She has been called the weaker sex, the fairer sex, the purer sex, among many other monikers. Often, she has been defined simply as 'Not A Man'.Today, we are more aware than ever of the complex relationship between our bodies and our identities. But contrary to what some may believe, what makes a woman is a question that has always been open-ended.Immaculate Forms examines all the ways in which medicine and religion have played a gatekeeping role over women's organs. It explores how the womb was seen as both the most miraculous organ in the body and as a sewer; uncovers breasts' legacies as maternal or sexual organs - or both; probes the mystery of the disappearing hymen, and asks, did the clitoris need to be discovered at all?
Immanuel Wallerstein and the Problem of the World: System, Scale, Culture
by David Palumbo-Liu Bruce Robbins Nirvana TanoukhiIn this collection of essays, leading cultural theorists consider the meaning and implications of world-scale humanist scholarship by engaging with Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems analysis. The renowned sociologist developed his influential critical framework to explain the historical and continuing exploitation of the rest of the world by the West. World-systems analysis reflects Wallerstein's conviction that understanding global inequality requires thinking on a global scale. Humanists have often criticized his theory as insufficiently attentive to values and objects of knowledge such as culture, agency, difference, subjectivity, and the local. The editors of this collection do not deny the validity of those criticisms; instead, they offer Wallerstein's world-systems analysis as a well-developed vision of the world scale for humanists to think with and against. Scholars of comparative literature, gender, geography, history, law, race, and sociology consider what thinking on the world scale might mean for particular disciplinary practices, knowledge formations, and objects of study. Several essays offer broader reflections on what is at stake for the study of culture in decisions to adopt or reject world-scale thinking. In a brief essay, Immanuel Wallerstein situates world-systems analysis vis--vis the humanities. Contributors. Gopal Balakrishnan, Tani E. Barlow, Neil Brenner, Richard E. Lee, Franco Moretti, David Palumbo-Liu, Bruce Robbins, Helen Stacy, Nirvana Tanoukhi, Immanuel Wallerstein, Kren Wigen
Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism
by Anna KornbluhWhy speed, flow, and direct expression now dominate cultural styleContemporary cultural style boosts transparency and instantaneity. These are values absorbed from our current economic conditions of "disintermediation": cutting out the middleman. Like Uber, but for art. Immediacy names this style to make sense of what we lose when the contradictions of twenty-first-century capitalism demand that aesthetics negate mediation. Surging realness as an aesthetic program synchs with the economic imperative to intensify circulation when production stagnates. "Flow" is the ultimate twenty-first-century buzzword, but speedy circulation grinds art down to the nub. And the bad news is that political turmoil and social challenges require more mediation. Collective will, inspiring ideas, and deliberate construction are the only way out, but our dominant style forgoes them. Considering original streaming TV, popular literature, artworld trends, and academic theories, Immediacy explains the recent obsession with immersion and today&’s intolerance of representation, and points to alternative forms in photography, TV, novels, and constructive theory that prioritize distance, impersonality, and big ideas instead.
Immediacy and its Limits: A Study in Martin Buber's Thought (Routledge Revivals)
by Nathan RotenstreichOriginally published in 1991, this book focuses on a major problem in the philosophy of Martin Buber. This is the topic of immediacy which is presented in terms of the contact between human beings on the one hand, and man and God on the other. The basic theme throughout is whether the I-Thou relation refers to immediate contact between human beings, as Buber saw it, or whether that relation is something established or aspired to. This is an important study which should be consulted in any future discussion of Martin Buber’s thought. At the same time, it raises critical issues for recent European philosophy. Students of philosophy, and religious and social thought will find its critical exposition extremely helpful.
Immersed in Media: Telepresence in Everyday Life (Routledge Communication Series)
by Cheryl Campanella Bracken"Over the next few decades, immersive media could fundamentally change the ways humans engage in entertainment, communication, and social interaction. The current volume takes a step towards understanding this potential paradigm shift, combining insights from pioneers of the field of ‘presence’ with bright young scholars who bring a new perspective." —Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University, USA "This book provides an indispensable contribution to scholars in communication studies, computer science and psychology interested in the modes of being present in different media, and offers a careful historical and theoretical framework to the state-of-the-art research."—Anna Spagnolli, University of Padova, Italy "Bracken and Skalski have assembled a collection of works from the world’s foremost authorities on telepresence, a topic that has gone understudied for years. Someone has finally assembled a comprehensive volume on the subject. This book is a must not only for those interested in telepresence, but for mass communication scholars of all kinds."—Kenneth A. Lachan, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA Immersed in Media highlights the increasing significance of telepresence in the media field. With contributions representing diverse disciplines, this volume delves into the topic through considerations of popular media types and their effects on users. Chapters in the work explain how the experience of presence can be affected by media technologies, including television, video games, film, and the Internet. They also discuss how presence experience mediates or moderates commonly studied media effects, such as enjoyment, persuasion, and aggression. These discussions are accompanied by overviews of the current state of presence research and its future. Ultimately, this work establishes the crucial role of telepresence in gaining a complete understanding of the uses and effects of popular media technologies.
Immersive Cartography and Post-Qualitative Inquiry: A Speculative Adventure in Research-Creation
by David RousellImmersive Cartography and Post-Qualitative Inquiry introduces immersive cartography as a transdisciplinary approach to social inquiry in an age of climate change and technological transformation. Drawing together innovative theories and practices from the environmental arts, process philosophy, education studies, and posthumanism, the book frames immersive cartography as a speculative adventure that gradually transformed the physical and conceptual architectures of a university environment. The philosophical works of Alfred North Whitehead, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari are touchstones throughout the book, seeding the development of concepts that re-imagine the university through a more-than-human ecology of experience. Illustrated by detailed examples from Rousell’s artistic interventions and pedagogical experiments in university learning environments, the book offers new conceptual and practical tools for navigating the ontological turn across the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Rousell’s wide-ranging and detailed analysis of pedagogical encounters resituates learning as an affective and environmentally distributed process, proposing a "trans-qualitative" ethics and aesthetics of inquiry that is orientated toward processual relations and events. As a foothold for a new generation of scholarship in the social sciences, this book opens new directions for research across the fields of post-qualitative inquiry, art and aesthetics, critical university studies, affect theory, and the posthumanities.
Immersive Communication: The Communication Paradigm of the Third Media Age (China Perspectives)
by Qin LiCommunication, like the atmosphere itself, is ubiquitous and essential for humans and with the development of new technologies, such as wireless internet, 3D printing and virtual reality, it has become almost impossible to live without it. In addition, means of communication have changed immeasurably. This book proposes a new research paradigm that incorporates new features and factors of communication and a new theoretical framework named “immersive communication”. Pointing out that communication today has moved beyond the bi-directional, mass communication of "the second media age" to ubiquitous, immersive communication in "the third media age", the author discusses the definition, characteristics, information structure, and models of immersive communication using various examples including Fitbit, Apple, 4G and other technologies, while envisioning future applications of the immersive communication model. Scholars and students of communication studies, especially those interested in the manifestations of the new media age, will all benefit from this book. It will also appeal to readers interested in new media and communication theories.
The Immersive Enclosure: Virtual Reality in Japan
by Paul RoquetAlthough virtual reality promises to immerse a person in another world, its true power lies in its ability to sever a person’s spatial situatedness in this one. This is especially clear in Japan, where the VR headset has been embraced as a way to block off existing social environments and reroute perception into more malleable virtual platforms. Is immersion just another name for enclosure?In this groundbreaking analysis of virtual reality, Paul Roquet uncovers how the technology is reshaping the politics of labor, gender, home, and nation. He examines how VR in Japan diverged from American militarism and techno-utopian visions and became a tool for renegotiating personal space. Individuals turned to the VR headset to immerse themselves in three-dimensional worlds drawn from manga, video games, and genre literature. The Japanese government promised VR-operated robots would enable a new era of remote work, targeting those who could not otherwise leave home. Middle-aged men and corporate brands used VR to reimagine themselves through the virtual bodies of anime-styled teenage girls. At a time when digital platforms continue to encroach on everyday life, The Immersive Enclosure takes a critical look at these attempts to jettison existing social realities and offers a bold new approach for understanding the media environments to come.
Immersive Journalism as Storytelling: Ethics, Production, and Design
by Sarah Uskali Turo Gynnild Astrid Jones Esa SirkkunenThis book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry. Aside from generating deeper emotional reactions and global perspectives, the book demonstrates how it can also diversify and upskill the news industry. Further contributions address the challenges, examining how immersive storytelling calls for reassessing issues of journalism ethics and truthfulness, transparency, privacy, manipulation, and surveillance, and questioning what it means to cover reality when a story is told in virtual reality. Chapters are grounded in empirical data such as content analyses and expert interviews alongside insightful case studies that discuss Euronews, Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria, and The New York Times’ VR application NYTVR. This book is written for journalism teachers, educators, and students as well as scholars, politicians, lawmakers, and citizens with an interest in emerging technologies for media practice.
Immersive Longform Storytelling: Media, Technology, Audience
by David DowlingA deep dive into the world of online and multimedia longform storytelling, this book charts the renaissance in deep reading, viewing and listening associated with the literary mind, and the resulting implications of its rise in popularity. David O. Dowling argues that although developments in media technology have enabled the ascendance of nonfictional storytelling to new heights through new forms, it has done so at the peril of these intensely persuasive designs becoming deployed for commercial and political purposes. He shows how traditional boundaries separating genres and dividing editorial from advertising content have fallen with the rise of media hybridity, drawing attention to how the principle of an independent press can be reformulated for the digital ecosystem. Immersive Longform Storytelling is a compelling examination of storytelling, covering multimedia features, on-demand documentary television, branded digital documentaries, interactive online documentaries, and podcasting. This book’s focus on both form and effect makes it a fascinating read for scholars and academics interested in storytelling and the rise of new media.
Immersive Systemic Knowing: Advancing Systems Thinking Beyond Rational Analysis (Contemporary Systems Thinking)
by Raghav RajagopalanThis book advances systems thinking by introducing a new philosophy of systemic knowing. It argues that there are inescapable limits to rational understanding. Humankind has always depended on extended ways of knowing to complement the rational-analytic approach. The book establishes that the application of such methods is fundamental to systemic practice. The author advocates embracing two modes of consciousness: intentionality, which Western philosophy has long recognized, and non-intentional awareness, which Eastern philosophy additionally highlights. The simultaneity of these two modes of consciousness, and the variety of knowings they spawn are harnessed for a more holistic, systemic knowing. Four practices from fields related to systems thinking are examined: two contemporary action research methodologies from the US and the UK; the Sumedhian (Indian) approach to inquiry about processes within groups; and a technique of group psychotherapy originating in Eastern Europe. Each of these systematically harnesses knowing using both modes of consciousness. Therefore, the author insists, such approaches must be included in systemic practice, in purposeful and methodical juxtaposition to rational-analytic ways. The book provides examples and guidelines for deployment.“All researchers and practitioners of systems thinking and action research must read this book...Raghav has craftfully blended Eastern and Western wisdom. He uses his immersion into Eastern ways of knowing practically, to elaborate the systems philosophy in rich detail. He has incorporated, from cooperative inquiry as action research, the idea of four ways of knowing: practical, propositional, presentational and experiential, to bolster the foundations of systems thinking”―SHANKAR SANKARAN, Professor, University of Technology Sydney, Australia; President International Society of Systems Sciences (ISSS) 2019-2020“This is a book with the potential to stimulate the emergence of a new paradigm. Raghav shows that systems thinking can transcend rational analysis and incorporate other ways of knowing, such as arts-based methods… also, rather than be overly preoccupied with striving for change, there is value in simply abiding, which comes with a deep appreciation of the ecological relationships we are part of. It’s not that rational analysis is wrong – it’s that it is only part of a genuinely transformative practice”. ―GERALD MIDGLEY, Co-Director, Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull; former President, ISSS (2013-14)“Raghav Rajagopalan’s writing on generating deep appreciation for the social and ecological interdependencies ties in closely with my own work. The philosophical ideas he develops contain the tracings and essential tones of Gregory Bateson’s idea of "Mind" as a process of living complexities reaching well beyond the notion of the body. This book demonstrates outstanding erudition and deep compassion at the same time. It should delight the adventurous reader unafraid of big questions”.―NORA BATESON, President of the International Bateson Institute
Immersive Technology and Experiences: Implications for Business and Society
by Githa S. Heggde Santosh Kumar Patra Rasananda PandaThis book provides a comprehensive overview of the role of immersive technology with multiple sectoral perspectives, such as entertainment, education, health care, and more. It covers a detailed analysis of the latest trends and developments in the field. It encompasses practical insights on using immersive technology effectively through industry expert chapters, case studies, and real-world examples that demonstrate how immersive technology is being used in different industries. Chapters in this book are from academicians and industry professionals to create a fine balance of knowledge and practice perspective of today’s immersive technology. It is written in accessible language that is easy for non-experts to understand. It focuses on the future of immersive technology, exploring its potential impact on society and the economy. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and offers predictions on how immersive technology will continue to evolve in the years to come. It is a valuable resource for anyone learning more about immersive technology.
Immersive Virtuelle Realität: Grundlagen, Technologien, Anwendungen
by Matthias WölfelVollständig realistische Erfahrungen in einer virtuellen Welt anbieten: Darum geht es bei Immersiver Virtueller Realität. Das ausführliche Lehrbuch bietet Studierenden der Informatik, Medien-, Ingenieur- oder Sozialwissenschaften sowie Medienschaffenden und Anwendern immersiver Umgebungen ein anschauliches Nachschlagewerk zu einschlägigen Lehrveranstaltungen oder zum Selbststudium. Dabei adressiert das Buch alle Aspekte immersiver Medien, die für ein ganzheitliches Verständnis relevant sind: Die ersten Kapitel führen in die theoretischen Grundlagen ein. Diese behandeln die verschiedenen Ausprägungender Realität sowie das Metaversum als Zukunftsvision des Internets, geben einen historischen Überblick, beschreiben relevante Sinne und setzen sich mit Interaktion, Interface und Fortbewegung auseinander. Die darauffolgenden Kapitel veranschaulichen die zugrundeliegenden Technologien wie Sensorik, Tracking und Ausgabetechniken einschließlich Stereoskopie und kopfbezogener Übertragungsfunktion. Der letzte Teil des Buches gibt praxisnahe Einblicke in die unterschiedlichen Anwendungsbereiche: Unterhaltung, soziale Interaktion, Lehren und Lernen, Entwicklung sowie soziologische und medientheoretische Forschung.
Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics
by Lisa LoweIn Immigrant Acts, Lisa Lowe argues that understanding Asian immigration to the United States is fundamental to understanding the racialized economic and political foundations of the nation. Lowe discusses the contradictions whereby Asians have been included in the workplaces and markets of the U.S. nation-state, yet, through exclusion laws and bars from citizenship, have been distanced from the terrain of national culture.Lowe argues that a national memory haunts the conception of Asian American, persisting beyond the repeal of individual laws and sustained by U.S. wars in Asia, in which the Asian is seen as the perpetual immigrant, as the "foreigner-within." In Immigrant Acts, she argues that rather than attesting to the absorption of cultural difference into the universality of the national political sphere, the Asian immigrant--at odds with the cultural, racial, and linguistic forms of the nation--displaces the temporality of assimilation. Distance from the American national culture constitutes Asian American culture as an alternative site that produces cultural forms materially and aesthetically in contradiction with the institutions of citizenship and national identity. Rather than a sign of a "failed" integration of Asians into the American cultural sphere, this critique preserves and opens up different possibilities for political practice and coalition across racial and national borders.In this uniquely interdisciplinary study, Lowe examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of immigration in relation to Asian Americans. Extending the range of Asian American critique, Immigrant Acts will interest readers concerned with race and ethnicity in the United States, American cultures, immigration, and transnationalism.
Immigrant Adaptation in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Canada, Taiwan, and the United States (Routledge Advances in Sociology #78)
by Nancy Denton Eric Fong Lan-Hung Nora ChiangAs a result of international immigration, ethnic diversity has increased rapidly in many countries, not only in major cities, but also in smaller cities. This trend is not limited to the traditional immigrant receiving countries, such as the United States and Canada, but occurs also in many other countries where doors are gradually opening to immigration, especially in Asia. This combination of a growing immigrant population and ethnic diversity has fostered a more complex immigrant integration process. This book addresses the subject at the city ecological level, inter-group level, and individual level. It contributes to the understanding of immigrant adaptation in a multi-ethnic context, brings Asian perspectives into the discussion of immigration and race and ethnic relations, and will serve as a basis for future study of immigrant adaptation in a multi-ethnic context.
The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness and Hope
by Claudia KolkerDo you have a relative or friend who would gladly wait on you, hand and foot, for a full month after you had a baby? How about someone to deliver a delicious, piping hot home-cooked meal, just like your mother's, right to your front door after work? Do you know people you'd trust enough to give several hundred dollars a month to, with no receipt, on the simple promise that the accumulated wealth will come back to you a year later? Not many of us can answer "yes" to these questions. But as award-winning journalist Claudia Kolker has discovered, each of these is one of a wide variety of cherished customs brought to the United States by immigrant groups, often adapted to American life by the second generation in a distinctive blending of old and new. Taken together, these extraordinary traditions may well contribute to what's known as "the immigrant paradox," the growing evidence that immigrants, even those from poor or violence-wracked countries, tend to be both physically and mentally healthier than most native-born Americans. These customs are unfamiliar to most Americans, but they shouldn't be. Honed over centuries, they provide ingenious solutions to daily challenges most of us face and provide both social support and comfort. They range from Vietnamese money clubs that help people save and Mexican cuarentenas--a forty-day period of rest for new mothers--to Korean afterschools that offer highly effective tutoring at low cost and Jamaican multigenerational households that help younger family members pay for college and, eventually, their own homes. Fascinated by the success of immigrant friends, Claudia Kolker embarked on a journey to uncover how these customs are being carried on and adapted by the second and third generations, and how they can enrich all of our lives. In a beautifully written narrative, she takes readers into the living rooms, kitchens, and restaurants of immigrant families and neighborhoods all across the country, exploring the sociable street life of Chicago's "Little Village," a Mexican enclave with extraordinarily low rates of asthma and heart disease; the focused quiet of Korean afterschool tutoring centers; and the loving, controlled chaos of a Jamaican extended-family home. She chronicles the quests of young Indian Americans to find spouses with the close guidance of their parents, revealing the benefits of "assisted marriage," an American adaptation of arranged marriage. And she dives with gusto into some of the customs herself, experimenting to see how we might all fit them into our lives. She shows us the joy, and excitement, of savoring Vietnamese "monthly rice" meals delivered to her front door, hiring a tutor for her two young girls, and finding a powerful sense of community in a money-lending club she started with friends. The Immigrant Advantage is an adventurous exploration of little-known traditional wisdom, and how in this nation of immigrants our lives can be enriched by the gifts of our newest arrivals.
The Immigrant Advantage
by Claudia KolkerDo you have a relative or friend who would gladly wait on you, hand and foot, for a full month after you had a baby? How about someone to deliver a delicious, piping hot home-cooked meal, just like your mother's, right to your front door after work? Do you know people you'd trust enough to give several hundred dollars a month to, with no receipt, on the simple promise that the accumulated wealth will come back to you a year later? Not many of us can answer "yes" to these questions. But as award-winning journalist Claudia Kolker has discovered, each of these is one of a wide variety of cherished customs brought to the United States by immigrant groups, often adapted to American life by the second generation in a distinctive blending of old and new. Taken together, these extraordinary traditions may well contribute to what's known as "the immigrant paradox," the growing evidence that immigrants, even those from poor or violence-wracked countries, tend to be both physically and mentally healthier than most native-born Americans. These customs are unfamiliar to most Americans, but they shouldn't be. Honed over centuries, they provide ingenious solutions to daily challenges most of us face and provide both social support and comfort. They range from Vietnamese money clubs that help people save and Mexican cuarentenas--a forty-day period of rest for new mothers--to Korean afterschools that offer highly effective tutoring at low cost and Jamaican multigenerational households that help younger family members pay for college and, eventually, their own homes. Fascinated by the success of immigrant friends, Claudia Kolker embarked on a journey to uncover how these customs are being carried on and adapted by the second and third generations, and how they can enrich all of our lives. In a beautifully written narrative, she takes readers into the living rooms, kitchens, and restaurants of immigrant families and neighborhoods all across the country, exploring the sociable street life of Chicago's "Little Village," a Mexican enclave with extraordinarily low rates of asthma and heart disease; the focused quiet of Korean afterschool tutoring centers; and the loving, controlled chaos of a Jamaican extended-family home. She chronicles the quests of young Indian Americans to find spouses with the close guidance of their parents, revealing the benefits of "assisted marriage," an American adaptation of arranged marriage. And she dives with gusto into some of the customs herself, experimenting to see how we might all fit them into our lives. She shows us the joy, and excitement, of savoring Vietnamese "monthly rice" meals delivered to her front door, hiring a tutor for her two young girls, and finding a powerful sense of community in a money-lending club she started with friends. The Immigrant Advantage is an adventurous exploration of little-known traditional wisdom, and how in this nation of immigrants our lives can be enriched by the gifts of our newest arrivals.
Immigrant Agency: Hmong American Movements and the Politics of Racialized Incorporation
by Yang Sao XiongThrough a sociological analysis of Hmong former refugees’ grassroots movements in the United States between the 1990s and 2000s, Immigrant Agency shows how Hmong, despite being one of America’s most economically impoverished ethnic groups, were able to make sustained claims on and have their interests represented in public policies. The author, Yang Sao Xiong argues that the key to understanding how immigrants incorporate themselves politically is to understand how they mobilize collective action and make choices in circumstances far from racially neutral. Immigrant groups, in response to political threats or opportunities or both, mobilize collective action and make strategic choices about how to position themselves vis-à-vis other minority groups, how to construct group identities, and how to deploy various tactics in order to engage with the U.S. political system and influence policy. In response to immigrants’ collective claims, the racial state engages in racialization which undermines immigrants’ political standing and perpetuates their marginalization.
Immigrant Ambassadors: Citizenship and Belonging in the Tibetan Diaspora
by Julia Meredith HessHess (anthropology, U. of New Mexico) examines articulations of Tibetanness among stateless Tibetans in India and among Tibetans resettled in the United States and in the process of becoming US citizens. She describes a transformation of diaspora consciousness among the Tibetans giving up their stateless status and adopting US citizenship through an examination of Tibetan responses to the bureaucratic processes required to procure identity documents, travel documents, visas, asylum applications, citizenship ceremonies, and passports. She finds that the Tibetans involved in the Tibetan US Resettlement Project invest citizenship with multiple meanings and that many are adopting US citizenship in an effort to become more effective transnational political actors in the cause of an independent Tibet. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Immigrant America: A Portrait
by Alejandro Portes Rubén G. RumbautThis third edition of the widely acclaimed classic has been thoroughly expanded and updated to reflect current demographic, economic, and political realities. Drawing on recent census data and other primary sources, Portes and Rumbaut have infused the entire text with new information and added a vivid array of new vignettes and illustrations.Recognized for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States, this book probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how immigrants incorporate themselves into the American economy, and examine the trajectories of their children from adolescence to early adulthood. With a vital new chapter on religion—and fresh analyses of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation and the unintended consequences of public policies—this updated edition is indispensable for framing and informing issues that promise to be even more hotly and urgently contested as the subject moves to the center of national debate..
Immigrant America: A Portrait
by Prof. Alejandro Portes Prof. Rubén G. RumbautThis revised and updated fifth edition of Immigrant America: A Portrait provides a comprehensive and current overview of immigration to the United States, including its history, the principal theories seeking to account for its diverse origins, the main types of immigrants, and the various forms of immigrants' incorporation within American society. With the latest available data, Immigrant America further explores the economic, political, regional, linguistic, and religious aspects of immigration. It offers detailed analyses of the adaptation process experienced by adult children of immigrants and adds an updated and expanded concluding chapter on changing immigration policy regimes both past and present.