In The Small Nation Solution, eminent anthropologist John H. Bodley argues that the contemporary global problems of poverty, conflict, and environmental degradation are problems of scale and power. Bodley’s solution involves keeping nations small so as to limit the power of elite directors. It is a simple idea with profound implications. He spotlights successful small nations around the world as the best working models of sustainable sociocultural systems and shows how these diverse small nations can be the building blocks of a transformed global system that could save the world.
What is a small country? Is a country small because of the size of its territory or its population? Can smallness be relative, based on the subjective perception of a country's inhabitants or in comparison with one's neighbors? How does smallness, however it is defined, shape a country and its relations with other countries? Answers to these questions, among others, can be found in Small Countries, the first and only anthropological study of smallness as a defining variable. In terms of population size, some two thirds of the countries of the world can now be considered small countries, and they can be found in all world regions except North America and East Asia. They exhibit great diversity with regard to culture, history, and institutional arrangements, so there can be no model of any "typical" small country. Yet the essays collected by Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich identify a range of family resemblances in such areas as internal connectivity and sensibilities of identity. Contributors describe a number of similar problems with which small countries must cope, on domestic levels as well as in their transnational and global encounters. For some small countries, challenges such as media organization and branding have a negative impact on real or perceived vulnerability, while for others, the same challenges facilitate success stories. Comparative case studies cover a diverse set of regions, including the Caribbean, Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and employ diverse anthropological approaches. Tacit assumptions about scale, identities, and networks in everyday social life are best revealed through close, interpretive effort. At times a sense of shared belonging comes to the fore with particular events, such as a national crisis or an unexpected success in international sports, offering scope for situational analyses. In showing how small countries confront globalization, Small Countries reveals how the sense of scale intensifies when the world as a whole shrinks. Contributors: Regina F. Bendix, Aleksandar Bošković, Virginia R. Dominguez, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Andre Gingrich, Beng-Lan Goh, Ulf Hannerz, Sulayman N. Khalaf, Eva-Maria Knoll, Jacqueline Knörr, Orvar Löfgren, João de Pina-Cabral, Don Robotham, Cris Shore, Richard Wilk, Helena Wulff.
Within cinema studies there has emerged a significant body of scholarship on the idea of 'National Cinema' but there has been a tendency to focus on the major national cinemas. Less developed within this field is the analysis of what we might term minor or small national cinemas, despite the increasing significance of these small entities with the international domain of moving image production, distribution and consumption. The Cinema of Small Nations is the first major analysis of small national cinemas, comprising twelve case studies of small national--and sub national--cinemas from around the world, including Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Written by an array of distinguished and emerging scholars, each of the case studies provides a detailed analysis of the particular cinema in question, with an emphasis on the last decade, considering both institutional and textual issues relevant to the national dimension of each cinema. While each chapter contains an in-depth analysis of the particular cinema in question, the book as a whole provides the basis for a broader and more properly comparative understanding of small or minor national cinemas, particularly with regard to structural constraints and possibilities, the impact of globalization and internationalisation, and the role played by economic and cultural factors in small-nation contexts.
This introductory text introduces basic concepts in cultural anthropology by comparing cultures of increasing scale and focusing on specific universal issues throughout human history. Cultural materials are presented in integrated ethnographic case studies organized by cultural and geographic areas to show how ideological, social organization, and material features fit together in specific sociocultural systems. Bodley explicitly seeks a balance between ecological-materialist and cultural-ideological explanations of sociocultural systems, while stressing the importance of individual power-seeking and human agency. Part One examines domestic-scale, autonomous tribal cultures. Part Two presents politically organized, class-based civilizations and ancient empires in the imperial world. Part Three surveys global, industrial, market-based civilizations in the contemporary commercial world. Cultural Anthropology uniquely challenges students to consider the big questions about the nature of cultural systems.
In Asia, we are witnessing an era where the pendulum of power seems to be swaying towards the East with the rising strength of China and India and Singapore is at the 'crossroads' between these populous nations. Although Singapore may appear to be the most westernized country in Asia, she is nevertheless a multi-cultural Asian society. Having the most open economy in the world, Singapore is plugged into the global marketplace of education and learning. The development of human capital is used as a strategic economic driver to internationalize and transform education for sustainable competitive advantage. Singapore's education system, regarded as one of the consistently best performing in the world, offers a unique opportunity to explore issues where eastern and western culture, values, beliefs, learning and knowledge systems converge, clash, and at times diverge.This book is meant to extend our knowledge on the role of ‘learning’, often overlooked and taken for granted as the air that we breathe but which constantly transforms our lives and reshapes societies. It is the first book that deals with the dichotomy of ‘east’ and ‘west’ going beyond the traditional learning and education framework to other areas such as economic, socio-cultural, political, and technological dimensions that impact Singapore. It puts together key topical issues and explores the underbelly of how a small 'resourceless' independent city-state like Singapore stays ahead of the learning curve, even while facing increasingly intense global competition where the discovery and emergence of new systems for empowerment and independence and the resulting creation of new knowledge and modes of communication are challenging traditional boundaries between the virtual and real world.
We can win the fight against global poverty. Combining penetrating economic analysis with insightful theological reflection, this book sketches a comprehensive plan for increasing wealth and protecting stability at a national level.
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.
Why contemporary Islam is able to support austerely traditional and conservative regimes as well as revolutionary ones is the subject of this collection of essays. Professor Gellner's position is supported by a series of case studies and critical evaluations of rival interpretations.
