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Vietnam’s Creativity Agenda: Reforming and Transforming Higher Education Practice (Global Vietnam: Across Time, Space and Community)
by Catherine EarlThis book gathers a diverse set of empirical research chapters from practitioners in the higher education sector in Vietnam to explore the effects of higher education reform on university learning and teaching from the point of view of the classroom educators. Through action research, reflective practice, and other qualitative methods, the book investigates the transformations of learning and teaching practice from top-down to bottom-up, teacher-centred to student-centred, curriculum-oriented to skills-based, institutionally directed to partner integrated, and co-designed approaches. In doing so, the book challenges a rethinking of Vietnamese higher education. It reveals the ingredients for transformative education and calls for educators to be empowered with support, resources, and trust. Drawing on a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds about Vietnam’s university reforms, it is highly relevant to social anthropologists, educational specialists, and policymakers working in higher education reform, not only in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian contexts, but globally.
The View From the Corner Shop: The Diary of a Yorkshire Shop Assistant in Wartime
by Kathleen HeyKathleen Hey spent the war years helping her sister and brother-in-law run a grocery shop in the Yorkshire town of Dewsbury. From July 1941 to July 1946 she kept a diary for the Mass-Observation project, recording the thoughts and concerns of the people who used the shop. What makes Kathleen's account such a vivid and compelling read is the immediacy of her writing. People were pulling together on the surface ('Bert has painted the V-sign on the shop door…', she writes) but there are plenty of tensions underneath. The shortage of food and the extreme difficulty of obtaining it is a constant thread, which dominates conversation in the town, more so even than the danger of bombardment and the war itself. Sometimes events take a comic turn. A lack of onions provokes outrage among her customers, and Kathleen writes, 'I believe they think we have secret onion orgies at night and use them all up. ' The Brooke Bond tea rep complains that tea need not be rationed at all if supply ships were not filled with 'useless goods' such as Corn Flakes, and there is a long-running saga about the non-arrival of Smedley's peas. Among the chorus of voices she brings us, Kathleen herself shines through as a strong and engaging woman who refuses to give in to doubts or misery and who maintains her keen sense of humour even under the most trying conditions. A vibrant addition to our records of the Second World War, the power of her diary lies in its juxtaposition of the everyday and the extraordinary, the homely and the universal, small town life and the wartime upheavals of a nation.
The View From The Studio Door
by Ted OrlandIn the perennial best-seller Art & Fear, Ted Orland (with David Bayles) examined the obstacles that artists encounter each time they enter their studio and stand before a new blank canvas. Now, in The View From The Studio Door, Orland turns his attention to broader issues that stand to either side of that artistic moment of truth.In a text marked by grace, brevity and humor, Orland argues that when it comes to art making, theory and practice are always intertwined. There are timeless philosophical questions (How do we make sense of the world?) that address the very nature of art making, as well as gritty real-world questions (Is there art after graduation?) that artists encounter the moment they're off the starting blocks and producing work on a regular basis.Simply put, this is a book of practical philosophy. As a teacher and working artist himself, Orland brings authentic insight and encouragement to all those who face the challenge of making art in an uncertain world. The breadth of material covered is reflected in chapters that include Making Sense of the World, Art & Society, The Education of the Artist, Surviving Graduation, Making Art That Matters, The Artistic Community, and more.The View From The Studio Door is the perfect companion piece to Art & Fear, and will appeal to a similar (and already-established) audience of students, working artists, teachers and professionals. For students' benefit, The View is also modestly priced, with wide page margins for easy note-taking and annotation.
The View From The Train
by Patrick Keiller"Robinson believed that, if he looked at it hard enough, he could cause the surface of the city to reveal to him the molecular basis of historical events, and in this way he hoped to see into the future." In his sequence of films, Patrick Keiller retraces the hidden story of the places where we live, the cities and landscapes of our everyday lives. Now, in this brilliant collection of essays, he offers a new perspective on how Britain works and sees itself. He discusses the background to his work and its development - from surrealism to post-2008 economic catastrophe - and expands on what the films reveal. Referencing writers including Benjamin and Lefebvre, the essays follow his career since the late 1970s, exploring themes including the surrealist perception of the city; the relationship of architecture and film; how cities change over time, and how films represent this; as well as accounts of cross-country journeys involving historical figures, unexpected ideas and an urgent portrait of post-crash Britain.From the Hardcover edition.
The View from the Vysotka
by Anne Nivat Frances E. ForteCompleted shortly before Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, the vysotkii, or "sky houses," still dominate the Moscow skyline today. Seven in all, they were the Soviet answer to the American skyscraper, transforming the Soviet capital from a feudal backwater into the city of the future. With their soaring towers and gothic architectural details, the vysotkas were intended to be enduring monuments to the workers state and to the glories of Communism--though they were built on the backs of slave laborers and, initially, the prerogative only of the Soviet elite. Now these imposing giants lie on the fault line between a world that has vanished and one still emerging from its ruins.When she moved to Moscow several years ago, journalist and Russia expert Anne Nivat settled into one of the vysotkas, the one that happens to overlook the Kremlin. She became fascinated by the building and learned everything she could about its history. As she got to know her neighbors and fellow tenants, Nivat discovered that they included some of the building's original inhabitants or their descendants, hand-chosen by Stalin and his henchman Lavrenti Beria (arrested and executed for high treason shortly after Stalin's death)--KGB operatives, Bolshoi ballerinas, and artists of Soviet agitprop. Living side by side with them were representatives of the "new Russia"--entrepreneurs, foreign investors, and oligarchs; as any Moscow real estate agent will tell you, Stalin-era buildings in today's market are some of the most coveted addresses in the city.By means of this decaying but still elegant Soviet icon, Nivat gives us a way of grasping the complexities of a country struggling to come to terms with its past and define its future. She allows the tenants of her vysotka to speak for themselves, to offer their perspectives on where Russia has been and where it is going. Some are keenly nostalgic for the days when the State dictated life. Others have prospered in the confusion that has reigned since the Evil Empire's fall and look to a market-driven economy to guide Russia to the Promised Land. Still others fall some place between the two, anxious but hopeful, longing for yet also fearful of change. Taken together, the portraits of the vysotka's inhabitants provide a panorama of Russia today. The View from the Vysotka shows us life from the inside, evoking both the forces that have swept through this vast and fascinating nation over the course of the last half-century, as well as a building that has managed to endure them.
Viewing Pleasure and Being a Showgirl: How Do I Look? (Sexualities in Society)
by Alison J. CarrDrawing on interviews with a breadth of different showgirls, from shows in Paris, Las Vegas, Berlin, and Los Angeles, as well as her own artworks and those by other contemporary and historical artists, this book examines the experiences of showgirls and those who watch them, to challenge the narrowness of representations and discussions around what has been termed ‘sexualisation’ and ‘the gaze’. An account of the experience of being ‘looked at’, the book raises questions of how the showgirl is represented, the nature of the pleasure that she elicits and the suspicion that surrounds it, and what this means for feminism and the act of looking. An embodied articulation of a new politics of looking, Viewing Pleasure and Being a Showgirl engages with the idea (reinforced by feminist critique) that images of women are linked to selling and that women’s bodies have been commodified in capitalist culture, raising the question of whether this enables particular bodies – those of glamorous women on display – to become scapegoats for our deeper anxieties about consumerism.
Viewing The World Ecologically
by Marvin E. OlsenDuring the last 20 years, the American public has become increasingly aware of environmental problems and resource scarcities. This study focuses on the rapid emergence of an ecological social paradigm, which appears to be replacing the technological social paradigm that has dominated American culture throughout most of the 20th century.
Views from the Streets: The Transformation of Gangs and Violence on Chicago's South Side (Studies in Transgression)
by Roberto AspholmChicago has long served as a symbol of urban pathology in the public imagination. The city’s staggering levels of violence and entrenched gang culture occupy a central place in the national discourse, yet remain poorly understood and are often stereotyped. Views from the Streets explains the dramatic transformation of black street gangs on Chicago’s South Side during the early twenty-first century, shedding new light on why gang violence persists and what might be done to address it.Drawing on years of community work and in-depth interviews with gang members, Roberto R. Aspholm describes in vivid detail the internal rebellions that shattered the city’s infamous corporate-style African American street gangs. He explores how, in the wake of these uprisings, young gang members have radically refashioned gang culture and organization on Chicago’s South Side, rejecting traditional hierarchies and ideologies and instead embracing a fierce ethos of personal autonomy that has made contemporary gang violence increasingly spontaneous and unregulated. In calling attention to the historical context of these issues and to the elements of resistance embedded in Chicago’s contemporary gang culture, Aspholm challenges conventional views of gang members as inherently pathological. He critically analyzes highly touted “universal” violence prevention strategies, depicting street-level realities to illuminate why they have ultimately failed to reduce levels of bloodshed. An unprecedented analysis of the nature and meaning of gang violence, Views from the Streets proposes an alternative framework for addressing the seemingly intractable issues of inequality, despair, and violence in Chicago.
La vigencia de la filosofía
by Emilio LledóUna defensa acérrima de la utilidad de la filosofía en nuestros días de la mano del gran pensador Emilio Lledó. «[...] la filosofía se nos aparece como una ocupación de algunos hombres, tan real e importante como esas otras ocupaciones que han modificado, técnica o artísticamente, la faz del mundo y las relaciones humanas.» ¿Está la filosofía en crisis o sigue siendo una ocupación necesaria para entender y analizar el mundo? ¿Puede considerarse la filosofía un oficio? ¿Cómo debe dialogar la filosofía con la historia precedente o con la ciencia y la tecnología de nuestro siglo? Bajo estos interrogantes, el gran pensador Emilio Lledó atiende la urgencia de recuperar la filosofía como una materia indispensable para ejercer un pensamiento crítico y teje un texto que ensalza las virtudes inexcusables y atemporales del saber filosófico en la modernidad y la era del consumismo. Galardonado con el Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas 2014 y el Premio Princesa de Asturias 2015, Emilio Lledó ha colocado la filosofía en el centro de todas sus obras y la ha defendido como base de toda educación. El texto aquí presentado pertenece a su obra Sobre la educación (Taurus, 2018). Sobre el autor:«Si hubiera muchos intelectuales como Lledó el nuestro sería un país bien distinto.»Elvira Lindo «Pocos intelectuales se ciñen con tanta justeza al concepto de sabio. Desde la atalaya de sus 94 años, Lledó sigue mirando al futuro».Guillermo Altares, El País «Un diccionario de alertas con el destello de los grandes filósofos detrás para advertir de la gran herencia de la cultura como herramienta de civilización, de progreso, de justicia y de verdad.»Antonio Lucas, El Mundo «Un gran ensayista y divulgador de alto nivel, entre los temas que trata destacan la defensa de la lectura, la felicidad, el silencio, la bellezay la verdad.»Winston Manrique, El País
The Vigilant Citizen: Everyday Policing and Insecurity in Miami
by Thijs JeursenHow the problematic behavior of private citizens—and not just the police force itself—contributes to the perpetuation of police brutality and institutional racism“Warning: Neighborhood Watch Program in Force. If I don’t call the police, my neighbor will!”Signs like this can be found affixed to telephone poles on streets throughout the US, warning trespassers that the community is an active participant in its own policing efforts. Thijs Jeursen calls this phenomenon, in which individuals take on the responsibility of defending themselves and share with the police the duty to mitigate everyday insecurity, “vigilant citizenship.”Drawing on eleven months of fieldwork in Miami and sharing the stories and experiences of police officers, private security guards, neighborhood watch groups, civil society organizations, and a broad range of residents and activists, Jeursen uses the lens of vigilant citizenship to extend the analysis of police brutality beyond police encounters, focusing on the often blurred boundaries between policing actors and policed citizens and highlighting the many ways in which policing produces and perpetuates inequality and injustice. As a central premise in everyday policing, vigilant citizenship frames racist and violent policing as matters of personal blame and individual guilt, ultimately downplaying the realities of how systemically race operates in policing and US society more broadly. The Vigilant Citizen illustrates how a focus on individualized responsibility for security exacerbates and legitimizes existing inequalities, a situation that must be addressed to end institutionalized racism in politics and the justice system.
Vigilante Gender Violence: Social Class, the Gender Bargain, and Mob Attacks on Women Worldwide
by Rebecca ÁlvarezIn recent years, mob attacks on women by men have drawn public attention to an emerging social phenomenon. This book draws upon concepts from critical race theory and sociocultural evolutionary theory to examine this specific form of gender violence, which takes place outside the law and is a vigilante form of enforcing traditional gender norms. The author positions vigilante gender violence as a global issue produced during specific periods of sociocultural change in conditions marked by intensified social stratification. The catalyst for vigilante gender violence is the formal state’s breaching of the "gender bargain," the tacit psychological wage even non-elite men earn by at least not being female. When the state threatens to end the gender bargain by promoting women’s rights, the die is cast for low-status men to enforce this bargain themselves in mob attacks against women who are perceived to be violating the patriarchal order. Seen through independent case studies in different national settings, this book provides empirical evidence that demonstrates the existence of vigilante gender violence in times when societies are shifting from one phase to another and the social hierarchies present within are disrupted. With greater understanding of when and how to predict the occurrence of this phenomenon, the author posits notable ways to prevent it from happening altogether.
Viking-Age Transformations: Trade, Craft and Resources in Western Scandinavia (Culture, Environment and Adaptation in the North)
by Zanette T. Glørstad Kjetil LoftsgardenThe Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cosmological framework and towns were formed. This book examines a central backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia. With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of woodlands and alpine regions and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing standardization of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural areas and central markets. Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and economic practice, as the rural economy and monetary system developed in conjunction with nascent state power and the legal system. Thematically, the book is organized into sections addressing the nature and extent of trade in both marginal and centralized areas; production and the social, legal and economic aspects of exploiting natural resources and distributing products; and the various markets and sites of trade and consumption. A theoretically informed and empirically grounded collection that reveals the manner in which relationships of production and consumption transformed Scandinavian society with their influence on the legal and fiscal division of the landscape, this volume will appeal to scholars of archaeology, the history of trade and Viking studies.
Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too
by George LakeyLiberals worldwide invoke Scandinavia as a promised land of equality, while most conservatives fear it as a hotbed of liberty-threatening socialism. But the left and right can usually agree on one thing: that the Nordic system is impossible to replicate elsewhere. The US and UK are too big, or too individualistic, or too . . . something. In Viking Economics--perhaps the most fun economics book you've ever read--George Lakey dispels these myths. He explores the inner-workings of the Nordic economies that boast the world's happiest, most productive workers, and explains how, if we can enact some of the changes the Scandinavians fought for surprisingly recently, we, too, can embrace equality in our economic policy.
Viking Friendship: The Social Bond in Iceland and Norway, c. 900-1300
by Jon Vidar Sigurdsson"To a faithful friend, straight are the roads and short."—Odin, from the Hávamál (c. 1000) Friendship was the most important social bond in Iceland and Norway during the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages. Far more significantly than kinship ties, it defined relations between chieftains, and between chieftains and householders. In Viking Friendship, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson explores the various ways in which friendship tied Icelandic and Norwegian societies together, its role in power struggles and ending conflicts, and how it shaped religious beliefs and practices both before and after the introduction of Christianity.Drawing on a wide range of Icelandic sagas and other sources, Sigurðsson details how loyalties between friends were established and maintained. The key elements of Viking friendship, he shows, were protection and generosity, which was most often expressed through gift giving and feasting. In a society without institutions that could guarantee support and security, these were crucial means of structuring mutual assistance. As a political force, friendship was essential in the decentralized Free State period in Iceland’s history (from its settlement about 800 until it came under Norwegian control in the years 1262–1264) as local chieftains vied for power and peace. In Norway, where authority was more centralized, kings attempted to use friendship to secure the loyalty of their subjects. The strong reciprocal demands of Viking friendship also informed the relationship that individuals had both with the Old Norse gods and, after 1000, with Christianity’s God and saints. Addressing such other aspects as the possibility of friendship between women and the relationship between friendship and kinship, Sigurðsson concludes by tracing the decline of friendship as the fundamental social bond in Iceland as a consequence of Norwegian rule.
Vikings Across Boundaries: Viking-Age Transformations – Volume II (Culture, Environment and Adaptation in the North)
by Hanne Lovise AannestadThis volume explores the changes that occurred during the Viking Age, as Scandinavian societies fell in line with the larger forces that dominated the Insular world and Continental Europe, absorbing the powerful symbiosis of Christianity and monarchy, adapting to the idea of royal lineage and supremacy, and developing a buzzing urbanism coupled with large-scale trade networks. Presenting research on the grand context of the Viking Age alongside localised studies, it contributes to the furthering of collaborations between local and ‘outsider’ research on the Viking Age. Through a diversity of approaches on the Viking homelands and the wider world of the Vikings, it offers studies of a range of phenomena, including urban and rural settlements; continuity in the use of places as well as new types of places specific to the Viking Age; the social significance of change; the construction and maintenance of social identity both within the ‘homelands’ and across large territories; ethnicity; and ideas of identity and the creation and recreation of identity both at home and abroad. As such, it will appeal to historians and archaeologists with interests in Viking-Age studies, as well as scholars of Scandinavian studies.
Viktimologie des Menschenhandels im Kontext von Migration und Flucht (BestMasters)
by Tobias HinzMenschenhandel findet auch außerhalb des Kontextes von Migration und Flucht statt. Dennoch bergen das Vorhandensein fluchtrelevanter Gründe oder migrationsspezifische Prozesse besondere Risiken, die tatbegehenden Personen durch Ausnutzung der Migrationsmotive potenzieller Opfer in die Karten spielen. Tobias Hinz wirft daher einen Blick auf die Viktimisierungsprozesse und versucht der Problematik unter Hinzuziehung verschiedener Perspektiven und Aspekte nachzugehen. Hierzu führt er in den ersten Kapiteln zunächst in die Thematik "Menschenhandel" ein und erklärt dessen Definition und Phänomenologie. Im weiteren Verlauf erfolgt eine Darstellung relevanter aufenthalts- und asylrechtlicher Grundlagen, ergänzt durch daraus resultierende migrations- und fluchtspezifische Einflussfaktoren. Nach einer Erläuterung etablierter viktimologischer Grundlagen und Theorien stellt der Autor seine eigene Theorie zur Erklärung des Opferverhaltens dar.
Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning
by Timothy PytellFirst published in 1946, Viktor Frankl's memoir Man's Search for Meaning remains one of the most influential books of the last century, selling over ten million copies worldwide and having been embraced by successive generations of readers captivated by its author's philosophical journey in the wake of the Holocaust. This long-overdue reappraisal examines Frankl's life and intellectual evolution anew, from his early immersion in Freudian and Adlerian theory to his development of the "third Viennese school" amid the National Socialist domination of professional psychotherapy. It teases out the fascinating contradictions and ambiguities surrounding his years in Nazi Europe, including the experimental medical procedures he oversaw in occupied Austria and a stopover at the Auschwitz concentration camp far briefer than has commonly been assumed. Throughout, author Timothy Pytell gives a penetrating but fair-minded account of a man whose paradoxical embodiment of asceticism, celebrity, tradition, and self-reinvention drew together the complex strands of twentieth-century intellectual life.
Vilfredo Pareto: Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries
by Joseph V. Femia Alasdair J. MarshallThis collection examines the work of the Italian economist and social theorist Vilfredo Pareto, highlighting the extraordinary scope of his thought, which covers a vast range of academic disciplines. The volume underlines the enduring and contemporary relevance of Pareto's ideas on a bewildering variety of topics; while illuminating his attempt to unite different disciplines, such as history and sociology, in his quest for a 'holistic' understanding of society. Bringing together the world's leading experts on Pareto, this collection will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of sociology and social psychology, monetary theory and risk analysis, philosophy and intellectual history, and political science and rhetoric.
Vilfredo Pareto’s Contributions to Modern Social Theory: A Centennial Appraisal (Classical and Contemporary Social Theory)
by Christopher Adair-ToteffThis volume seeks to restore Vilfredo Pareto to his rightful place in the history of social and economic thought, bringing together studies by leading scholars to mark the centenary of his death in 1923. Assessing Pareto’s many contributions to the social sciences and his unique integration of the disciplines of sociology, politics, and economics, it addresses the relative neglect of Pareto’s work and explores both his continuing relevance to social research and the influence of his thought on subsequent developments in sociology and social theory. As such it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in the history of sociology and the importance of Pareto’s thought.
Vilfredo Pareto’s Sociology: A Framework for Political Psychology (Rethinking Classical Sociology Ser.)
by Alasdair J. MarshallVilfredo Pareto is a key figure in the history of economics and sociology. His sociological works attempted to merge these two disciplines through a psychologistic analysis of society, economy and politics. This is the first book to rethink Pareto's contribution to classical sociology by focusing upon its psychological underpinning. The author locates the origins of Pareto's psychologistic approach both within the history of Italian thought and within Pareto's own experiences of business and politics. He evaluates Pareto's sociology through the lens of contemporary social science, examining whether its explanatory power is growing rather than diminishing as levels of social and epistemological complexity rise. The volume also explores Pareto's assumptions about personality through the lens of contemporary psychology. It concludes with a psychometric study of Westminster MPs which clarifies and attests to Pareto's contemporary relevance, and indicates that even practitioners of politics may gain much from reading Pareto.
Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio
by Mario Luis SmallFor decades now, scholars and politicians alike have argued that the concentration of poverty in city housing projects would produce distrust, alienation, apathy, and social isolation--the disappearance of what sociologists call social capital. But relatively few have examined precisely how such poverty affects social capital or have considered for what reasons living in a poor neighborhood results in such undesirable effects. This book examines a neglected Puerto Rican enclave in Boston to consider the pros and cons of social scientific thinking about the true nature of ghettos in America. Mario Luis Small dismantles the theory that poor urban neighborhoods are inevitably deprived of social capital. He shows that the conditions specified in this theory are vaguely defined and variable among poor communities. According to Small, structural conditions such as unemployment or a failed system of familial relations must be acknowledged as affecting the urban poor, but individual motivations and the importance of timing must be considered as well. Brimming with fresh theoretical insights, Villa Victoria is an elegant work of sociology that will be essential to students of urban poverty.
The Village in India
by Vandana MadanThe village has epitomized Indian civilization and been the subject of much study and contemplation. The essays clearly demonstrate that every Indian village, although similar in many ways, is also characterized by regional variations.
Village, Market and Well-Being (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology and Culture)
by Tamara PerkinsFirst published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Village That Died for England: Tyneham and the Legend of Churchill's Pledge
by Patrick WrightA reissue of Patrick Wright's 1995 classic about the military takeover of the village of Tyneham, with a new introduction taking in Brexit and a new wave of British nationalism.Shortly before Christmas in 1943, the British military announced they were taking over a remote valley on the Dorset coast and turning it into a firing range for tanks in preparation for D-Day. The residents of the village of Tyneham loyally packed up their things and filed out of their homes into temporary accommodation, yet Tyneham refused to die. Although it was never returned to its pre-war occupants and owners, Tyneham would persist through a long and extraordinary afterlife in the English imagination. It was said that Churchill himself had promised that the villagers would be able to return once the war was over, and that the post-war Labour government was responsible for the betrayal of that pledge. Both the accusation and the sense of grievance would reverberate through many decades after that.Back in print and with a brand new introduction, this book explores how Tyneham came to be converted into a symbol of posthumous England, a patriotic community betrayed by the alleged humiliations of post-war national history. Both celebrated and reviled at the time of its first publication in 1995, The Village that Died for England is indispensable reading for anyone trying to understand where Brexit came from — and where it might be leading us.
Village Ties: Women, NGOs, and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh
by Nayma QayumAcross the global South, poor women’s lives are embedded in their social relationships and governed not just by formal institutions – rules that exist on paper – but by informal norms and practices. Village Ties takes the reader to Bangladesh, a country that has risen from the ashes of war, natural disaster, and decades of resource drain to become a development miracle. The book argues that grassroots women’s mobilization programs can empower women to challenge informal institutions when such programs are anti-oppression, deliberative, and embedded in their communities. Qayum dives into the work of Polli Shomaj (PS), a program of the development organization BRAC to show how the women of PS negotiate with state and society to alter the rules of the game, changing how poor people access resources including safety nets, the law, and governing spaces. These women create a complex and rapidly transforming world where multiple overlapping institutions exist – formal and informal, old and new, desirable and undesirable. In actively challenging power structures around them, these women defy stereotypes of poor Muslim women as backward, subservient, oppressed, and in need of saving.