Jan Kubik

Not since Mark Twain invaded Europe in Innocents Abroad has travel been so much fun, as we follow The Clean Plate Club through the daily ritual of morning coffee, frequent gelato, pranzo and cena. Punctuated by visits into museums, churches, and countless stores, in search of the Holy Bargain. Filled with humor, love, and an amazing number of incredibly helpful travel tips-- and more than a few cautionary traveler's misadventures. An irreverent, rollicking-and totally accurate-depiction of travel throughout Italy-loving every moment of it.

Adventures of the Clean Plate Club in Italy

Piazzas and Pizzas

Myron J. Aronoff

What can anthropology and political science learn from each other? The authors argue that collaboration, particularly in the area of concepts and methodologies, is tremendously beneficial for both disciplines, though they also deal with some troubling aspects of the relationship. Focusing on the influence of anthropology on political science, the book examines the basic assumptions the practitioners of each discipline make about the nature of social and political reality, compares some of the key concepts each field employs, and provides an extensive review of the basic methods of research that "bridge" both disciplines: ethnography and case study. Through ethnography (participant observation), reliance on extended case studies, and the use of "anthropological" concepts and sensibilities, a greater understanding of some of the most challenging issues of the day can be gained. For example, political anthropology challenges the illusion of the "autonomy of the political" assumed by political science to characterize so-called modern societies. Several chapters include a cross-disciplinary analysis of key concepts and issues: political culture, political ritual, the politics of collective identity, democratization in divided societies, conflict resolution, civil society, and the politics of post-Communist transformations.

A Convergent Approach

Anthropology and Political Science

The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland

Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power

Michael Bernhard

"Remembering the past, especially as collectivity, is a political process, thus the politics of memory and commemoration is an integral part of the establishment of new political regimes, new identities, and new principles of political legitimacy. This volume is about the explosion of the politics of memory triggered by the fall of state socialism in Eastern Europe, particularly about the politics of its commemoration twenty years later. It offers seventeen in-depth case studies, an original theoretical framework, and a comparative study of memory regime types and their origins. Four different kinds of mnemonic actors are identified: mnemonic warriors, mnemonic pluralists, mnemonic abnegators, and mnemonic prospectives. Their combinations render three different types of memory regimes: fractured, pillarized, and unified. Disciplined comparative analysis shows how several different configurations of factors affect the emergence of mnemonic actors and different varieties of memory regimes. There are three groups of causal factors that influence the political form of the memory regime: the range of structural constraints the actors face (e.g., the type of regime transformation), cultural constraints linked to past political conflict (e.g., salient ethnic or religious cleavages), and cultural and strategic choices actors make (e.g. framing post-communist political identities)"--

The Politics of Memory and Commemoration

Twenty Years After Communism

Grzegorz Ekiert

DIVAn analysis of the role of protest movements in Poland after the fall of communism /div

Jan Kubik

Books

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