University of Chicago Press: New Titles from 'Campus Verlag'

Chasing Warsaw

Monika Grubbauer; Joanna Kusiak — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Warsaw is one of the most dynamically developing cities in Europe, and its rich history has marked it as an epicenter of many modes of urbanism: Tzarist, modernist, socialist, and—in the past two decades—aggressively neoliberal. Focusing on Warsaw after 1990, this volume explores the interplay between Warsaw’s past urban identities and the intense urban change of the ’90s and ’00s. Chasing Warsaw departs from the typical narratives of post-socialist cities in Eastern Europe by contextualizing Warsaw’s unique transformation in terms of both global change and the shifting geographies of centrality and marginality in contemporary Poland.

Travelling Goods, Travelling Moods

Christian Huck; Stefan Bauernschmidt — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Looking at cultural appropriation from around the world, this volume uses the field of cultural studies—heavily influenced by both economics and sociology—as a lens through which to view the paradigm of transcultural consumption. The editors present a variety of consumptive phenomena including: the introduction of Chinese foods to the United States, Ford cars in Germany, and American schoolbooks in the Philippines. Rejecting the idea that these interactions were simply forms of “Americanization,” Travelling Goods, Travelling Moods fills a gap in consumer studies and enriches the debate about cultural transfer.

Normality of Civil War

Teresa Koloma Beck — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

In The Normality of Civil War, Teresa Koloma Beck uses theories of the everyday to analyze the social processes of civil war, specifically the type of conflict that is characterized by the expansion of violence into so-called normal life. She looks beyond simplistic notions of victims and perpetrators to reveal the complex shifting interdependencies that emerge during wartime. She also explores how the process of normalization affects both armed groups and the civilian population. A brief but smart analysis, The Normality of Civil War gets at the root of the social dynamics of war and what lies ahead for the participants after its end.

Methods for Transdisciplinary Research

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

To solve real-world issues, the model of transdisciplinary research, which approaches from both the hard and social sciences, has recently come to the forefront. By integrating multiple disciplines as well as the expertise of partners from the societal practice, researchers are able to look at a problem from many angles, with the goal of making both societal and scientific advances. Methods for Transdisciplinary Research provides scholars with a model for conceptualizing and executing this type of work, while offering a systematic description of methods for knowledge integration that can be applied to any field, making it an indispensible guide for every transdisciplinary researcher and teacher.

Welcome Home, Boys!

Sebastian Jobs — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

During the first half of the twentieth century military victory parades in New York became an iconic part of the American cultural memory—ticker tape and soldiers returning to their sweethearts symbolized the joy of a nation at peace. In this incisive new study, Sebastian Jobs approaches these events as political street theater. Focusing on organizers, spectators, and soldiers, Jobs explores each group’s participation in the action, as well as the ways in which they interacted with each another. This book also demonstrates how abstract concepts, like the nation-state, were embodied in these events, and how these political performances made an impact on American culture and society.

Studying Social Networks

Marina Hennig; Ulrik Brandes; Jürgen Pfeffer; Ines Mergel — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Studying Social Networks provides a concise, comprehensive introduction to the process of empirical network research. Students and practitioners new to social research will find easily understandable learning goals, numerous examples, and helpful exercises all in one compact volume. The authors have integrated different disciplinary perspectives, while stressing the importance of substance-specific orientation while studying networks. Scholars will find Studying Social Networks a helpful tool not only for teaching, but also as a guide for their own empirical research.

Gender, Work and Property

Nancy Konvalinka — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Why do young men born in many small villages in Spain tend, at the end of the twentieth century, to stay there to live, often remaining unmarried, while young women from the same villages tend to leave? In Gender, Work, and Property, Nancy Konvalinka explores this phenomenon using the case of one small village in northwestern Spain, and she extrapolates her findings there to understand similar processes elsewhere in Europe.

The changes in this village are analyzed and documented through long-term ethnographic research, participant observation, interviews, kinship diagrams, life-course models, and archive study in order to help bring the village alive for the reader.