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Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition
by Katherine FrankeA compelling case for reparations based on powerful, first-person accounts detailing both the horrors of slavery and past promises made to its survivors.Katherine Franke makes a powerful case for reparations for Black Americans by amplifying the stories of formerly enslaved people and calling for repair of the damage caused by the legacy of American slavery. Repair invites readers to explore the historical context for reparations, offering a detailed account of the circumstances that surrounded the emancipation of enslaved Black people in two unique contexts, the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Davis Bend, Mississippi, Jefferson Davis’s former plantation. Through these two critical historical examples, Franke unpacks intergenerational, systemic racism and white privilege at the heart of American society and argues that reparations for slavery are necessary, overdue and possible.Praise for Repair“Essential . . . Franke engages the original debates concerning the conditions upon which newly freed Black people would rebuild their lives after slavery. Franke powerfully illustrates the repercussions of the unfilled promise of land redistribution and other broken promises that consigned African Americans to another one hundred years of second-class citizenship. Franke passionately argues that the continuation of those vast disparities between Black and white people in U.S. society—a product of slavery itself—means that the struggle for reparations remains a relevant demand in the current movements for racial justice.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation“Repair revisits the revolutionary era of Reconstruction . . . when the redistribution of land and wealth as recompense for unrequited toil could have secured genuine freedom for Black people rather than a future of racial inequality, exploitation, marginalization, and precarity . . . . Franke makes a persuasive case for reparations as at least a first step toward creating the conditions for genuine freedom and justice, not only for African Americans but for all of us.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination“Katherine Franke argues for a type of Black freedom that is material and felt—freedom that is more than a poetic nod to claims of American moral comeuppance. Repair . . . is a critical text for our times that demands an honest reckoning with the consequences, and afterlife, of the sin that was chattel enslavement. It is bold call for reparations and costly atonement.” —Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America“Katherine Franke is consistently one of the sharpest, most conscientious thinkers in progressive politics. In a time defined by crisis and conflict, Katherine is among that small number of thinkers whom I find indispensable.” —Jelani Cobb, New Yorker columnist and author of The Substance of Hope
Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough: Ethnographic Responses (Politics of Repair #1)
by Francisco Martínez Patrick LavioletteWhat does it mean to claim that something is broken? What is the connection between tinkering and innovation? And how much tolerance for failure do our societies have? Exploring some of the ways in which repair practices and perceptions of brokenness vary culturally, Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough argues that repair is an attempt to extend the life of things as well as an answer to failures, gaps, wrongdoings and leftovers. The set of contributions illustrates the strong affective power hidden in situations of disrepair and repair; broken objects often bring strong emotions into play, but also energising reactions of creative action.
Repair, Do-It-Yourself and Circular Economy: Alternative Practices for Sustainable Consumption
by Michael Jonas Sebastian Nessel Nina TrögerRepair & Do-It-Yourself activities on the one hand and discussions about the circular economy on the other hand are currently regarded as promising examples of how current modes of consumption and production can be reorganized and redesigned in the sense of a sustainable society. This volume discusses the relevance, the interactions as well as the possibilities and limits of the aforementioned phenomena of repairing, do-it-yourself and longer use on the one hand and the circular economy on the other, from both a scientific and a practical perspective.
Repair Work Ethnographies: Revisiting Breakdown, Relocating Materiality
by Philippe Sormani Ignaz Strebel Alain BovetThis pioneering book homes in on repair as an everyday practice. Bringing together exemplary ethnographies of repair work around the world, it examines the politics of repair, its work settings and intricate networks, in and across a wide range of situations, lay and professional. The book evidences the topical relevance of situated inquiry into breakdown, repair, and maintenance for engaging with the contemporary world more broadly. Airplanes and artworks, bicycles and buildings, cars and computers, medical devices and mobile phones, as virtually any commodity, infrastructure or technical artifact, have in common their occasional breakdown, if not inbuilt obsolescence. Hence the point and purpose of closely examining how and when they are fixed.
Repairing Infrastructures: The Maintenance of Materiality and Power (Infrastructures)
by Christopher R. Henke Benjamin SimsAn investigation of the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasingly central role of infrastructure repair in modern life.Infrastructures--communication, food, transportation, energy, and information--are all around us, and their enduring function and influence depend on the constant work of repair. In this book, Christopher Henke and Benjamin Sims explore the causes and consequences of the strange, ambivalent, and increasingly central role of infrastructure repair in modern life. Henke and Sims offer examples, from local to global, to investigate not only the role of repair in maintaining infrastructures themselves but also the social and political orders that are created and sustained through them.
Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology (Playful Thinking)
by Aaron TrammellA provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play—and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color.Contemporary theorists present play as something wholly constructive and positive. But this broken definition is drawn from a White European philosophical tradition that ignores the fact that play can, and often does, hurt. In fact, this narrow understanding of play has been complicit in the systemic erasure of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from the domain of leisure. In this book, Aaron Trammell proposes a corrective: a radical reconsideration of play that expands its definition to include BIPOC suffering, subjugation, and taboo topics such as torture. As he challenges and decolonizes White European thought, Trammell maps possible ways to reconcile existing theories with the fact that play is often hurtful and toxic.Trammell upends current notions by exploring play&’s function as a tool in the subjugation of BIPOC. As he shows, the phenomenology of play is a power relationship. Even in innocent play, human beings subtly discipline each other to remain within unspoken rules. Going further, Trammell departs from mainstream theory to insist that torture can be play. Approaching it as such reveals play&’s role in subjugating people in general and renders visible the long-ignored experiences of BIPOC. Such an inclusive definition of play becomes a form of intellectual reparation, correcting the notion that play must give pleasure while also recasting play in a form that focuses on the deep, painful, and sometimes traumatic depths of living.
Repairing the Damage: Possibilities and Limits of Transatlantic Consensus (Adelphi series)
by Dana H. Allin Gilles Andréani Gary Samore Philippe ErreraThe damage that has been done to the transatlantic alliance will not be repaired through grand architectural redesigns or radical new agendas. Instead, the transatlantic partners need to restore their consensus and cooperation on key security challenges with a limited agenda that reflects the essential conservatism of the transatlantic partnership during the Cold War and the 1990s. There will inevitably be big challenges, such as the rise of China, where transatlantic disparities in strategic means and commitments preclude any common alliance undertaking. Yet such limits are nothing new. The absence of a common transatlantic commitment to counter-insurgency in Iraq may cause resentments, but so too did the lack of a common commitment to counter-insurgency in Vietnam. This Adelphi Paper suggests ten propositions for future transatlantic consensus – that is to say, ten security challenges for which the allies should be able to agree on common strategies. These run the gamut from an effective strategy to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability to transatlantic leadership for international cooperation against global warming. If pursued with seriousness and a reasonable degree of transatlantic unity, these propositions could constitute the foundations of an effective partnership. They are, in the authors’ view, the basis for a consensus on the most pressing security challenges of the twenty-first century. The time is right for this kind of serious rededication to alliance purposes. There has already been some effort to repair the damage; moreover, new leaders are in place or coming to the countries that were major protagonists of the transatlantic crisis: Germany, France, Britain and, in 2009, the United States. It is possible that these four new leaders will be better able to put the disputes of the recent past behind them. This extended essay is a guide to the possibilities, and also the limits, of a new start.
Reparable Harm: Executive Summary
by Lois M. Davis Dana Schultz M. Rebecca KilburnThe summary discusses some of the greatest disparities for boys and men of color relative to their white counterparts across specific socioeconomic, health, safety, and school readiness indicators in California and provides information about different strategies for reducing the disparities--including effective programs, practices, and policies--that can begin making an important difference in changing the life course of boys and men of color.
Reparable Harm
by Lois M Davis Dana Scultz M. Rebecca KilburnThe Los Angeles area has the most severe traffic congestion in the United States. Trends in many of the underlying causal factors suggest that congestion will continue to worsen in the coming years, absent significant policy intervention. Excessive traffic congestion detracts from quality of life, is economically wasteful and environmentally damaging, and exacerbates social-justice concerns. Finding efficient and equitable strategies for mitigating congestion will therefore serve many social goals. The authors recommend strategies for reducing congestion in Los Angeles County that could be implemented and produce significant improvements within about five years. To manage peak-hour auto travel, raise transportation revenue, improve alternative transportation options, and use existing capacity more efficiently, they recommend 10 primary strategies: improve signal control and timing; restrict curb parking on busy thoroughfares; implement paired one-way streets; promote ride-sharing, telecommuting, and flexible work schedules; develop a high-occupancy toll-lane network; vary curb-parking rates with demand, enforce the current parking cash-out law; promote deep-discount transit passes; expand bus rapid transit and bus-only lanes; and implement a regionally connected bicycle network. In addition, three recommendations may help, depending on the outcome of current events: evaluate arterial incident management, consider cordon congestion tolls, and levy local fuel taxes to raise transit revenue. Given that some of the recommendations may prove controversial, the authors also outline complementary strategies for building political consensus.
Reparation for Victims of Crimes against Humanity: The healing role of reparation (Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice)
by Jo-Anne M. WemmersEach year, countless people fall victim to crimes against humanity. These include widespread occurrences of systematic murder, torture, rape, disappearances, forced deportation and political persecution. Crimes against humanity constitute an attack on human dignity and as such they violate the human rights of the victim, as well as the laws of humanity. In recent years, following the creation of the International Criminal Court, there has been a growing interest in the prosecution of offenders and, in particular, in reparation following crimes against humanity. While such measures are meant to provide justice for victims, victims are often forgotten or lost in legal debates about what constitutes reparation and who is eligible to receive it. This book reaches beyond the boundaries of law and psychology and takes a multidisciplinary approach to the question of reparation for victims of crimes against humanity. Law does not take place in a vacuum and it is important to consider the impact of the law on the psychology of the victim, as well as the legal principles themselves. Herein lies the originality of this book, which bridges the gaps between psychology, victimology, criminology and law and will be of key interest to academics and students engaged in the study of these areas.
Reparations and Anti-Black Racism: A Criminological Exploration of the Harms of Slavery and Racialized Injustice
by Angus NurseThe Black Lives Matter movement has exposed the state violence and social devaluation that Black populations continue to suffer. Police shootings and incarceration inequalities in the US and UK are just two examples of the legacy of slavery today. This book offers a criminological exploration of the case for slavery and anti-Black racism reparations in the context of the enduring harms and differential treatment of Black citizens. Through critical analysis of legal arguments and reviewing recent court actions, it refutes the policy perspectives that argue against reparations. Highlighting the human rights abuses inherent to and arising from slavery and ongoing racism, this book calls for governments to take responsibility for the impact of ongoing racialized injustice.
Reparations and Reparatory Justice: Past, Present, and Future
by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua Mary Frances Berry V. P. Franklin A. J Davis Ron Daniels Jesse Jackson Sr Danny Glover Earl Ofari Hutchinson Sheila Jackson Lee Kamm Howard Hilary McDonald Beckles National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America New Afrikan Peoples Organization/Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Malcolm X Grassroots Movement National African American Reparations Commission Adom Gretachew James B Stewart Chuck Collins Dedrick Asante-Muhammad Brian Jones Charles P. HenryChanges at the global, federal, state, and municipal level are pushing forward the reparations movement for people of African descent. The distinguished editors of this volume have gathered works that chronicle the historical movement for reparations both in the United States and around the world. Sharing a focus on reparations as an issue of justice, the contributors provide a historical primer of the movement; introduce the philosophical, political, economic, legal and ethical issues surrounding reparations; explain why government, corporations, universities, and other institutions must take steps to rehabilitate, compensate, and commemorate African Americans; call for the restoration of Black people’s human and civil rights and material and psychological well-being; lay out specific ideas about how reparations can and should be paid; and advance cutting-edge interpretations of the complex long-lasting effects that enslavement, police and vigilante actions, economic discrimination, and other behaviors have had on people of African descent. Groundbreaking and innovative, Reparations and Reparatory Justice offers a multifaceted resource to anyone wishing to explore a defining moral issue of our time. Contributors: Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Hilary McDonald Beckles, Mary Frances Berry, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Chuck Collins, Ron Daniels, V. P. Franklin, Danny Glover, Adom Gretachew, Charles Henry, Kamm Howard, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Jesse Jackson, Sr., Brian Jones, Sheila Jackson Lee, James B. Stewart, the Movement 4 Black Lives, the National African American Reparations Commission, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, the New Afrikan Peoples Organization/Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Reparations by Non-State Armed Groups under International Law: From Conflict to Repair in Colombia and Beyond (ISSN)
by Olivia HermanThis book examines whether and how non-state armed groups might be required to provide reparations for the harm caused by their violations of international law committed during situations of non-international armed conflict.Most of today’s armed conflicts are waged between states and non-state armed groups or between such groups. Societies ravaged by these conflicts endure extensive harm resulting from violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This reality prompts a series of pressing questions. Akin to states, should non-state armed groups be held responsible for making reparation when violating international law? And if so, what measures can these groups take to repair the harm they have caused? The book begins by clarifying if there exists, in contemporary international law, a duty for armed groups to provide reparation. It considers whether non-state armed groups have primary international obligations as distinct duty bearers, and whether reparation can be one of the legal consequences when violating these obligations. Subsequently, the book sheds new light on how non-state armed groups’ duty of reparation can be operationalised in international law. This involves elucidating both the conceptualisation and practical application of this duty. Combining this legal analysis with practical perspectives, the book unveils important insights for international law, drawn from an in-depth analysis of Colombia’s experiences with reparations by armed groups in the context of transitional justice.This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the fields of international law related to armed conflict, accountability and redress, and transitional justice more broadly.
Reparations to Palestinian Refugees: A Comparative Perspective (Routledge Studies on the Arab-Israeli Conflict)
by Shahira SamyThis book delves into the issue of reparations in relation to Palestinian refugees in their search for a solution to their displacement and dispossession. Highlighting the broad spectrum of reparations available as forms of remedy for a historical injustice, the author probes the reasons behind the failure to reach a reparations agreement till the present day and discusses the significance of issues of apology, recognition and acknowledgement of responsibility. In its approach, the book departs from traditional and modern perceptions of reparations as featuring in international law, history, politics and philosophy. The analysis is focused on a comparative study of two other cases - the German-Jewish reparations agreement of 1952 and the Cypriot conflict - in search of parameters that may constitute a framework to a potential reparations model applicable to the case of Palestinian refugees. When compared to the history of negotiations over reparations in the Israeli-Palestinian case, the findings of the comparison shed light on why reparations are still illusive. The book thus offers an explanation of why reparations to Palestinian refugees have failed, and offers suggestions on how to enhance prospects for reparations to Palestinian displacement and dispossessions. A unique contribution to the study of the Arab-Israeli peace process, this book will be an important reference for scholars of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and for students and scholars of politics, conflict resolution and history.
Reparative Futures and Transformative Learning Spaces
by Melanie Walker Alejandra Boni Diana VelascoThis edited book draws on an international cohort of authors, all working towards sustainable, decolonizing human development for more just futures in a variety of learning spaces. Integrating sustainable human development with ‘reparative futures’, the chapters present diverse examples of how transformative learning spaces can be created through different participatory methodologies and with different stakeholders. The book will be of interest to researchers, graduate students, practitioners and policymakers in the areas of higher education, development studies and transformative innovation.
Reparieren, Selbermachen und Kreislaufwirtschaften: Alternative Praktiken für nachhaltigen Konsum (Kritische Verbraucherforschung)
by Michael Jonas Sebastian Nessel Nina TrögerRepair & Do-It-Yourself Aktivitäten auf der einen Seite und Diskussionen über die Kreislaufwirtschaft auf der anderen Seite gelten aktuell als vielversprechende Beispiele, wie derzeitige Konsumtions- und Produktionsweisen im Sinne einer nachhaltigen Gesellschaft reorganisiert und umgestaltet werden können. Der Band diskutiert sowohl aus wissenschaftlicher als auch aus praxisbezogener Perspektive die Relevanz, die Wechselwirkungen wie auch die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der genannten Phänomene des Reparierens, Selbermachens und Länger Nutzens einerseits und des Kreislaufwirtschaftens andererseits.
Repatriation, Exchange, and Colonial Legacies in the Gulf of Papua: Moving Pictures
by Lara Lamb Christopher LeeThis book explores the people of the Kikori River Delta, in the Gulf of Papua, as established historical agents of intercultural exchange. One hundred years after they were made, Frank Hurley’s colonial-era photographic reproductions are returned to the descendants of the Kerewo and Urama peoples, whom he photographed. The book illuminates how the movement, use, and exchange of objects can produce distinctive and unrecognised forms of value. To understand this exchange, a nuanced history of the conditions of the exchange is necessary, which also allows a reconsideration of the colonial legacies that continue to affect the social and political worlds of people in the twenty-first century.
Repatriation of Indigenous Cultural Heritage: Experiences of Return in Central Australia (Museums in Focus)
by Jason M. GibsonRepatriation of Indigenous Cultural Heritage examines how returned materials - objects, photographs, audio and manuscripts - are being received and reintegrated into the ongoing social and cultural lives of Aboriginal Australians. Combining a critical examination of the making of these collections with an assessment of their contemporary significance, the book exposes the opportunities and challenges involved in returning cultural heritage for the purposes of maintaining, preserving or reviving cultural practice. Drawing on ethnographic work undertaken with Aboriginal communities and the institutions that hold significant collections, the author reveals important new insights about the impact of return on communities. Technological advances, combined with the push towards decolonising methodologies in Indigenous research, have resulted in considerable interest in ensuring that collections of cultural value are returned to Indigenous communities. Gibson challenges the rhetoric of museum repatriation, arguing that, while it has been tremendously important to advancing Indigenous interest, it is too often over-simplified. Repatriation of Indigenous Cultural Heritage offers a timely, critical perspective on current museum practice and its place within processes of cultural production and transmission. The book is sure to resonate in other international contexts where questions about Indigenous re-engagement and decolonisation strategies are being debated and will be of interest to students and scholars of Museum Studies, Indigenous Studies and Anthropology.
Repatriation of Sacred Indigenous Cultural Heritage and the Law: Lessons from the United States and Canada (Studies in Art, Heritage, Law and the Market #3)
by Vanessa TünsmeyerThis book examines the ways in which law can be used to structure the return of indigenous sacred cultural heritage to indigenous communities, referred to as repatriation in this volume. In particular, it aims at developing legal structures that align repatriation with contemporary international human rights standards. To do so, it gathers the most valuable lessons learned from different repatriation laws and frameworks adopted in the United States and Canada. In both countries, very different ways of approaching repatriation have been used for several decades, highlighting the context-dependent nature of repatriation. The volume is divided into four parts, looking first at international law, then at the national legal landscape in the United States, followed by Canada, before the different repatriation models are evaluated against the backdrop of human rights law standards. Emphasis is placed not only on repatriation-specific legislation but also on the legal context in which it was developed and operates. In turn, the fourth part develops various models on the basis of these experiences that can be aligned with contemporary indigenous and cultural rights. The book ends by considering the models’ suitability for international repatriation and the lessons that can be learned from them. The primary audience includes those addressing the legal hurdles to repatriation, be they researchers, policymakers, communities, or museums.
Repatriation, Science and Identity (Routledge Studies in the Repatriation and Restitution of Human Remains and Cultural Objects)
by Cressida Fforde Hilary Howes Gareth Knapman Lyndon Ormond-ParkerRepatriation, Science, and Identity explores the entanglement of race, history, identity and ethics inherent in the application of scientific techniques to determine the provenance of Indigenous Ancestral Remains in repatriation claims and processes. The book considers how these issues relate to collections of Indigenous Ancestral (bodily) Remains but also their resonance with emerging concerns about the relatively unknown history of scientific interest in Indigenous hair and blood samples. It also explores the more recent practice of sampling for the purposes of DNA analysis and issues concerning the data that has been produced from all of the above types of research. Placing recent interest in applying scientific techniques to repatriation in their historical context, it enables discourses of identity and scientific authority, an assessment of their efficacy and an exploration of ethical and practical challenges and opportunities. In doing so, this book reveals new histories about scientific interest in Indigenous biology and the collections that resulted, as well as providing reflection for all repatriation practitioners considering scientific investigation when faced with the challenges inherent in the repatriation of unprovenanced or poorly provenanced Ancestral Remains. Providing the reader with a means to approach the value, or otherwise, of the scientific information they may encounter, Repatriation, Science, and Identity is an invaluable resource for researchers and professionals working with Indigenous Ancestral Remains.
Repealing the 8th: Reforming Irish abortion law
by Fiona De Londras Mairead EnrightAvailable Open Access under CC-BY licence. Irish law currently permits abortion only where the life of the pregnant woman is at risk. Since 1983, the 8th Amendment to the Constitution has recognised the “unborn” as having a right to life equal to that of the “mother”. Consequently, most people in Ireland who wish to bring their pregnancies to an end either import the abortion pill illegally, travel abroad to access abortion, or continue with the pregnancy against their will. Now, however, there are signs of change. A constitutional referendum will be held in 2018, after which it will be possible to reimagine, redesign, and reform the law on abortion. Written by experts in the field, this book draws on experience from other countries, as well as experiences of maternal medical care in Ireland, to call for a feminist, woman-centered, and rights-based radical new approach to abortion law in Ireland. Directly challenging grounds-based abortion law, this accessible guide brings together feminist analysis, comparative research, human rights law, and political awareness to propose a new constitutional and legislative settlement on reproductive autonomy in Ireland. It offers practical proposals for policymakers and advocates, including model legislation, making it an essential campaigning tool leading up to the referendum.
The Repeater Book of Heroism
by Tariq Goddard & Alex NivenIn these impactful first-person essays, a selection of Repeater authors come together to write about what heroism means to them, trying to imagine a new kind of hero figure for the twenty-first century."I don&’t have any heroes, they&’re all useless", opined John Lydon in 1976. As a spokesperson of sorts for the punk generation, Lydon was giving voice to a nihilistic, deconstructive impulse which, for better or worse, would go on to dominate the next half-century or so of intellectual, cultural and political life. But isn&’t one of the problems with the modern world that we no longer have any real sense of what heroism is? What if we recovered heroism from the hands of the fascists and the neoliberal ideologues, and proclaimed that – despite everything – a hero can and should be something to be? In these personal, provocative essays, the authors behind the uncompromising project that is Repeater Books come together to redefine the idea of the hero for a twenty-first-century public which desperately needs something to believe in. From Eric Cantona to Wile E Coyote, Bruno Latour to Paula Rego, forgotten legends and anonymous family members, this compendium of extraordinary human behaviour is essential reading for anyone who has ever thought that, despite what Jean-Paul Sartre said, heaven is other people.
The Repeating Body: Slavery's Visual Resonance in the Contemporary
by Kimberly Juanita BrownHaunted by representations of black women that resist the reality of the body's vulnerability, Kimberly Juanita Brown traces slavery's afterlife in black women's literary and visual cultural productions. Brown draws on black feminist theory, visual culture studies, literary criticism, and critical race theory to explore contemporary visual and literary representations of black women's bodies that embrace and foreground the body's vulnerability and slavery's inherent violence. She shows how writers such as Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and Jamaica Kincaid, along with visual artists Carrie Mae Weems and María Magdalena Campos-Pons, highlight the scarred and broken bodies of black women by repeating, passing down, and making visible the residues of slavery's existence and cruelty. Their work not only provides a corrective to those who refuse to acknowledge that vulnerability, but empowers black women to create their own subjectivities. In The Repeating Body, Brown returns black women to the center of discourses of slavery, thereby providing the means with which to more fully understand slavery's history and its penetrating reach into modern American life.
The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective Second Edition
by Antonio Benítez-RojoIn this second edition of The Repeating Island, Antonio Bentez-Rojo, a master of the historical novel, short story, and critical essay, continues to confront the legacy and myths of colonialism. This co-winner of the 1993 MLA Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize has been expanded to include three entirely new chapters that add a Lacanian perspective and a view of the carnivalesque to an already brilliant interpretive study of Caribbean culture. As he did in the first edition, Bentez-Rojo redefines the Caribbean by drawing on history, economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary theory, and nonlinear mathematics. His point of departure is chaos theory, which holds that order and disorder are not the antithesis of each other in nature but function as mutually generative phenomena. Bentez-Rojo argues that within the apparent disorder of the Caribbean--the area's discontinuous landmasses, its different colonial histories, ethnic groups, languages, traditions, and politics--there emerges an "island" of paradoxes that repeats itself and gives shape to an unexpected and complex sociocultural archipelago. Bentez-Rojo illustrates this unique form of identity with powerful readings of texts by Las Casas, Guilln, Carpentier, Garca Mrquez, Walcott, Harris, Buitrago, and Rodrguez Juli.
Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice
by Robert FinkWhere did musical minimalism come from―and what does it mean? In this significant revisionist account of minimalist music, Robert Fink connects repetitive music to the postwar evolution of an American mass consumer society. Abandoning the ingrained formalism of minimalist aesthetics, Repeating Ourselves considers the cultural significance of American repetitive music exemplified by composers such as Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. Fink juxtaposes repetitive minimal music with 1970s disco; assesses it in relation to the selling structure of mass-media advertising campaigns; traces it back to the innovations in hi-fi technology that turned baroque concertos into ambient "easy listening"; and appraises its meditative kinship to the spiritual path of musical mastery offered by Japan's Suzuki Method of Talent Education.