The African Film Industry
The African Film Industry

Author: UNESCO

Publisher: UNESCO Publishing

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 9231004700

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The production and distribution of film and audiovisual works is one of the most dynamic growth sectors in the world. Thanks to digital technologies, production has been growing rapidly in Africa in recent years. For the first time, a complete mapping of the film and audiovisual industry in 54 States of the African continent is available, including quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses at the continental and regional levels.The report proposes strategic recommendations for the development of the film and audiovisual sectors in Africa and invites policymakers, professional organizations, firms, filmmakers and artists to implement them in a concerted manner.

The Arabic Script in Africa
The Arabic Script in Africa

Author: Meikal Mumin

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-01-30

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9004256806

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The Arabic script in Africa contains sixteen papers on the past and present use of Arabic script to write African languages. These writing traditions, which are sometimes collectively referred to as Ajami, are discussed for single or multiple languages, with examples from all major linguistic phyla of Africa but one (Khoisan), and from all geographic areas of Africa (North, West, Central, East, and South Africa), as well as a paper on the Ajami heritage in the Americas. The papers analyze (ethno-) historical, literary, (socio-) linguistic, and in particular grammatological aspects of these previously understudied writing traditions and exemplify their range and scope, providing new data for the comparative study of writing systems, literacy in Africa, and the history of (Islam in) Africa.

Alur Society
Alur Society

Author: Aidan Southall

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9783825861193

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Alur Society became a classic for a number of reasons. Being much more than a descriptive account of an African society, it was the first intensive ethnography to adopt the ideas of Max Weber. It pioneered the idea that religion and ritual could be the basis of political action. It also showed how state systems could evolve not just on the basis of conquest but as a result of societies without kings inviting those with kings to govern them. Author Aidan Southall's theory of the segmentary state was adopted by political anthropologists throughout the subject and also by political scientists, being applied not just to Africa but also to India and other parts of the world. The book was able to arrive at such long-lasting and imaginative conclusions through the use of ethnographic material of a quality rarely surpassed. It is moreover arguably the best book in social anthropology of a Nilotic-speaking people. Southall's own command of their language and his overall scholarly knowledge of Nilotes is also unsurpassed.

Social Media in Industrial China
Social Media in Industrial China

Author: Xinyuan Wang

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 191063462X

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Life outside the mobile phone is unbearable.’ Lily, 19, factory worker. Described as the biggest migration in human history, an estimated 250 million Chinese people have left their villages in recent decades to live and work in urban areas. Xinyuan Wang spent 15 months living among a community of these migrants in a small factory town in southeast China to track their use of social media. It was here she witnessed a second migration taking place: a movement from offline to online. As Wang argues, this is not simply a convenient analogy but represents the convergence of two phenomena as profound and consequential as each other, where the online world now provides a home for the migrant workers who feel otherwise ‘homeless’. Wang’s fascinating study explores the full range of preconceptions commonly held about Chinese people – their relationship with education, with family, with politics, with ‘home’ – and argues why, for this vast population, it is time to reassess what we think we know about contemporary China and the evolving role of social media.

How to Rig an Election
How to Rig an Election

Author: Nic Cheeseman

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2024-07-23

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0300280831

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An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.

Global Wikipedia
Global Wikipedia

Author: Pnina Fichman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-05-15

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 0810891026

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Dozens of books about Wikipedia are available, but they all focus on the English Wikipedia and assume an Anglo-Saxon perspective, while disregarding cultural and language variability or multi-cultural collaborative efforts. They address the impact of Wikipedia on society, processes of mass knowledge production, and the dynamics of the Wikipedia community. However, none of them focus on Wikipedia’s global features. This lack of attention presents a serious problem because more than 80% of Wikipedia articles are written in languages other than English---in fact, Wikipedia includes articles in 285 languages. Global Wikipedia: International and Cross-Cultural Issues in Online Collaboration is the first book to address this gap by focusing attention on the global, multilingual, and multicultural aspects of Wikipedia. The editors showcase research on Wikipedia, exploring a wide range of international and cross-cultural issues. Online global collaboration, coordination, and conflict management are examined in this rich socio technical environment. Special emphases include International and cross-cultural collaboration; Intercultural synergy on Wikimedia; Conflict and collaboration in editing international entries; Case studies of Chinese, Finnish, French, and Greek Wikipedias; and, Cross-cultural studies that compare more than one Wikipedia, focusing on content, structures, policies, contributions, interactions, processes, motivations, and challenges.

Smaller, Quicker, Cheaper
Smaller, Quicker, Cheaper

Author: Daniel A. Wagner

Publisher: United Nations Education, Scientific & Cultural Organization

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

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The effective use of educational assessments is fundamental to improving learning. However, effective use does not refer only to the technical parameters or statistical methodologies. Learning assessments in use todaywhether large-scale or household surveys or hybrid (smaller, quicker, cheaper or SQC)have varied uses and purposes. The present volume provides a review of learning assessments, their status in terms of the empirical knowledge base, and some new ideas for improving their effectiveness, particularly for those children most in need. It is argued here that SQC learning assessments have the potential to enhance educational accountability, increase transparency, and support a greater engagement of stakeholders with an interest in improving learning. In addition, countries need a sustained policy to guide assessment choices, including a focus on poor and marginalized populations.

The Wikipedia Revolution
The Wikipedia Revolution

Author: Andrew Lih

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 2009-03-17

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1401395856

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"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." --Jimmy Wales With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer contributors, Wikipedia is the #8 site on the World Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with access to a computer, this impressive assemblage of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now for the first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how it all happened -- from the first glimmer of an idea to the global phenomenon it's become. Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted user who is granted access to technical features) at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site's inception in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. Wikipedia is not just a website; it's a global community of contributors who have banded together out of a shared passion for making knowledge free. Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia creation.