Böcker utgivna av EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

This is the first book-length study of Islamic financial services in the United Kingdom. It describes the ways in which British examples of Islamic financial provision illustrate both the main characteristics of Islamic financial teaching and some key issues in the situation of British Muslims. Coverage of the subject is comprehensive: there are chapters on the history of Islamic finance in the UK and on personal accounts, home purchase finance, the equivalents of personal loans and insurance, investment, commercial funding and the relatively new bond-like instruments of sukuk. The author's approach is broadly sympathetic to the general spirit and aims of the Islamic financial tradition but critical of some of its manifestations in practice. The book is especially topical at present, following the crisis in the UK banking industry and the unprecedented level of public debate about the appropriate aims and techniques of the financial markets. Some commentators have recently expressed disappointment that Islamic finance in the UK has failed to live up to the high expectations surrounding it. This book attempts to give a balanced account of the sector's strengths and weaknesses.

A systematic study of the process of developing Islamic financial products for banks. Islamic banking began in the 1970s with the aim of providing financial services compatible with Islamic law. Driven by market forces it has grown rapidly in Muslim countries and in international financial sectors. It is projected to grow at an annual rate of 15-20% and a key factor determining this future growth is the availability of new products that will satisfy the needs of various segments of society. While other texts discuss the basic principles and contracts used in Islamic banking and finance, few discuss how these can be used to develop financial products. This book fills that gap, starting with the basic principles that form the building blocks of contemporary Islamic financial products and then discussing the more intricate issues relating to product development processes. Key FeaturesDiscusses the different stages of the product development cycle in detailIncludes case studies showing the structures of various productsCritically evaluates the issues related to product development including the types of products used by Islamic banks and the approaches adopted in developing themThe author is well-positioned to write this text, having been an economist at the Islamic Development Bank Group in Saudi Arabia (1999-2007)

A study of how we should read one of America's most important poets. Ben Hickman argues that we must attend to Ashbery's radical conception of reading if we are to understand the originality of his writing. His study focuses on Ashbery's reading of English poets, including Andrew Marvell, John Donne, William Wordsworth, John Clare, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, and examines Ashbery's writing in terms of an 'aesthetic of inattention'. Hickman critiques the Americanisation of Ashbery's work as well as common assumptions about his Romanticism, his avant-garde Modernism and his engagement with the historical present. He demonstrates that Ashbery's generosity as a writer is closely tied to his generosity, inattention and situatedness as a reader.

Defining an institution as a public system of rules that sets out positions, rights and duties, this book uses a philosophical argument to analyse the roles that social, economic and political institutions play in conditioning the justification, scope and content of principles of justice. It critically evaluates a number of positions about the role of institutions in generating requirements of distributive justice and considers their implications for the scope - global or otherwise - of justice. It then develops a novel theory about the role political and economic institutions play in determining the content of requirements of distributive justice and, in a cosmopolitan argument against statist positions, shows how they can affect the scope of application of these requirements.

Scott's startlingly contemporary approach to theories of language and the creative impact of this on his work are explored in this new study. Alison Lumsden examines the linguistic diversity and creative playfulness of Scott's fiction and suggests that an evolving scepticism towards the communicative capacities of language runs throughout his writing. Lumsden re-examines this scepticism in relation to Scottish Enlightenment thought and recent developments in theories of the novel. Structured chronologically, the book covers Scott's output from his early narrative poems until the late, and only recently published, Reliquiae Trotcosienses

Why the international community should have intervened in Rwanda. Kassner contends that the violation of the basic human rights of the Rwandan Tutsis morally obliged the international community to intervene militarily to stop the genocide. This compelling argument, grounded in basic rights, runs counter to the accepted view on the moral nature of humanitarian intervention. It has profound implications for our understanding of the moral nature of humanitarian military intervention, global justice and the role moral principles should play in the practical deliberations of states.

The first student guide to American autobiographyThis introduction to the major forms of autobiographical writing in America and important current developments in autobiography studies discusses both 'canonised' texts and those from contemporary writers. Taking a broadly chronological approach, the history of American autobiography is explored including the social and cultural factors that might account for the importance of autobiography in American culture. Then post-1970 autobiographies are examined, taking into account the development in poststructuralism from this time that affected notions of the subject who could write, and conceptions of truth, identity and reference.Key Features* Engages in discussions about the 'Americanness' of autobiography, especially in relation to important contemporary issues such as multiculturalism and transnationalism* Acknowledges the problematic nature of the 'canon' of American autobiography* Explores the most exciting recent developments in relation to the self, writing, and autobiography (e.g. poststructuralist thought, the postmodern, the post-colonial, life-writing and genre)* Considers autobiographies from Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Walt Whitman and Gertrude Stein to Maxine Hong Kingston, Lance Armstrong, Lucy Grealy and Barack Obama* Includes study of the Puritan autobiography, the slave narrative, political texts, photography in autobiography, and illness/ disability memoirs

Looks at moments in world history when cosmopolitanism pervaded Muslim societies.This volume focuses on instances in world history when cosmopolitan ideas and actions pervaded specific Muslim societies and cultures, exploring the tensions between regional cultures, isolated enclaves and modern nation-states. Models from the past are chosen from 4 geographic areas: the Swahili coast, the Ottoman Empire/ Turkey, Iran and Indo-Pakistan. Each region is covered in 2 chapters, proving a basis for the comparison of specific cosmopolitan instances in Muslim contexts.Cosmopolitanism is a key concept in social and political thought, standing in opposition to closed human group ideologies such as tribalism, nationalism and fundamentalism. Much recent discussion of this concept has been situated within Western self-perceptions with little inclusion of information from Muslim contexts; this volume redresses the balance.

This book is the first full-length study of hospitality in the writings of Jacques Derrida. Hospitality is critically important in Derrida's writings, and his insights in this have been influential across a range of disciplines from geography, politics and sociology to literary studies and philosophy. It functions as a way of both thinking about relations between individuals, and analysing the (often inhospitable) reception of outsiders, such as refugees or migrants, by the community or state. Still also follows the thread of sexual difference in Derrida's writing in order to shed light on his exploration of the complex and delicate, strange yet familiar, political and ethical dilemmas of how to be those impossible things, a good host and a good guest. This book sets Derrida's work in a series of contexts including the socio-political history of France, especially in relation to Algeria, and the writing on hospitality of other key thinkers, most importantly Hlne Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Emmanuel Levinas.

What happens when fictional characters acknowledge our 'presence' as film spectators? By virtue of its eccentricity and surprising frequency as a filmic device, direct address enables us to ask some fundamental questions of film theory, history and criticism and tackle, head-on, assumptions about the cinema as a medium. Brown provides a broad understanding of the role of direct address within fiction cinema, with focused analysis of its role in certain strands of avant-garde or experimental cinema, on the one hand, and popular genre traditions (musicals and comedies) on the other.

This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. Alex Ling employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship - namely, 'can cinema be thought?' Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Second, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly 'artistic'. Finally he explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, the author uses well-known films ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy as well as to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.

Living in a saturated media environment, we are crowded from all sides by persuasive messages and information. Advice, promotion and propaganda form a spectrum of persuasion, and everywhere we see it performed in its full theatricality, complete with actors, scripts, props and costumes.Based on enduring rhetorical principles, these persuasive techniques and the psychology behind them have become increasingly sophisticated during the 'age of persuasion', a century of applied research in advertising, advocacy, public relations, mass entertainment and social control. Media, Persuasion and Propaganda guides the reader through the many varieties of persuasion and its performance, exploring the protocols of rhetoric unique to the medium, from orality and print to film and digital images. Using case studies and exercises, this innovative study poses challenging questions, such as: How do individuals and organisations exert influence to build communities and networks? What role do media play in communicating persuasive messages? How do we use recent discoveries in cognitive science to promote a cause, advocate social change or market ideas and products? How do we defend ourselves against manipulation and undue influence, and when does persuasion turn into propaganda?

Published in 1967, 'Voice and Phenomenon' marked a crucial turning point in Derrida's thinking: the culmination of a 15-year-long engagement with the phenomenological tradition. It also introduced the concepts and themes that would become deconstruction. 'Voice and Phenomenon' is a short book, but it can be an overwhelming text, particularly for inexperienced readers of Derrida's work. This is the first guide to clearly explain the structure of his argument, step by step.

This book examines the phenomenon of the post-civil war Anglophone Lebanese fictional narrative. The texts chosen for study have been produced in, and are substantially about, life in exile. They therefore deal not only with the brutal civil strife in Lebanon (1975-1990) but with one of its crucial and long-standing by-products: expatriation. Syrine Hout shows how these texts characterise a distinctly new literary and cultural trend and have founded an Anglophone Lebanese diasporic literature. The authors discussed in the book are Rabih Alameddine, Tony Hanania, Rawi Hage, Nada Awar Jarrar, Patricia Sarrafian Ward and Nathalie Abi-Ezzi. In her exploration of their writings Hout teases out the different meanings and reformulations of home, be it Lebanon as a nation, a house, a host country, an irretrievable pre-war childhood, a state of in-between dwelling, a portable state of mind, and/or a utopian ideal.

Gathers 20 of Smith's new and classic essays into one volume for the first time. Combining his most important pieces over the last 15 years along with two completely new essays, 'On the Becoming of Concepts' and 'The Idea of the Open', this volume is Smith's definitive treatise on Deleuze. The four sections cover Deleuze's use of the history of philosophy, his philosophical system, several Deleuzian concepts and his position within contemporary philosophy. Smith's essays are frequent references for students and scholars working on Deleuze, and Dan Smith is widely regarded as the world's leading commentator on Deleuze. Several of the articles have already become touchstones in the field, notably those on Alain Badiou and Jacques Derrida. For anyone interested in Deleuze's philosophy, this book is not to be missed.

Over the last 40 years, autobiography in Arab societies has moved away from exemplary life narratives and toward more unorthodox techniques such as erotic memoir writing, postmodernist self-fragmentation, cinematographic self-projection and blogging. Valerie Anishchenkova argues that the Arabic autobiographical genre has evolved into a mobile, unrestricted category arming authors with narrative tools to articulate their selfhood. Reading works from Arab nations such as Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon, Anishchenkova connects the century's rapid political and ideological developments to increasing autobiographical experimentation in Arabic works. The immense scope of her study also forces consideration of film and online forms of self-representation and offers a novel theoretical framework to these various modes of autobiographical cultural production.

Despite Victor Hugo's 19th-century proclamation that torture no longer exists, we still find it even now, even in those nations that claim to be paradigms of civility. Why is it that torture still exists in a world where it is routinely regarded as immoral? Is it possible to eliminate torture, and if so, how? What exactly does it mean to call something 'torture', and is it always morally reprehensible? Arguments in favour of torture abound, but in this important new book, J. Jeremy Wisnewski examines and explains the moral dimensions of this perennial practice, paying careful attention to what lessons torture can teach us about our own moral psychology. By systematically exposing the weaknesses of the dominant arguments for torture, drawing on resources in both analytic and continental philosophy and relevant empirical literature in psychology, Wisnewski aims to provide an over-arching account of torture: what it is, why it's wrong, and why even the most civilized people can nevertheless engage in it.

This book provides a critical assessment of dramatic literature since 1995, situating texts, companies and writers in a cultural, political and social context. It examines the shifting role of the playwright, the dominant genres and emerging styles of the past decade and how they are related.Beginning with an examination of how dramatic literature and the writer are placed in the contemporary theatre, the book then provides detailed analyses of the texts, companies and writing processes involved in six different professional contexts: new writing, verbatim theatre, writing and devising, Black and Asian theatre, writing for young people and adaptation and transposition. The chapters cover contemporary practitioners, including Simon Stephens, Gregory Burke, Robin Soans, Alecky Blythe, Kneehigh Theatre, Punchdrunk, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Edward Bond, Filter Theatre and Headlong, and offers detailed case-studies and examples of their work.

Allied propaganda and Eire censorship were a vital part of the conflict over Irish neutrality in the Second World War. Based upon original research in archives in Ireland, Great Britain, the United States and Canada, this study opens a new page in the history of wartime propaganda and censorship. It examines the channels of propaganda , including the press and other print media, broadcasting and film, employed in Eire and the agencies which operated them, and the structure and operations of the Eire censorship bureau which sought to repress them . It also looks at the role played by Irish-Americans in the conflict, some of whom supported, while others opposed, Irish neutrality. Which side could win this "e;war of words"e;? Could British and American propaganda overcome Eire neutrality, or would re censorship guarantee that it could not? In this detailed and wide-ranging examination of the "e;war of words"e; over Eire neutrality, the author addresses such subjects as public opinion, government policies, propaganda planning, objectives, content and channels of dissemination, and the purpose and tactics of censorship.

This book gathers essays written by Geoffrey Bennington since the death of his friend Jacques Derrida in 2004. All continue the ongoing work of elucidating difficult and complex thought, often enough with reference to Derrida's persistent interrogation of the concepts of life and death, mourning and melancholia, and what he sometimes calls 'half-mourning'. Not Half No End relates this 'ethical' interruption of mourning to the persistent but still ill-understood motif of interrupted teleology, which, it is argued here, is definitive of deconstruction in general. This suspension or interruption of the end (which is none other than differance 'itself') has all manner of consequences for our thinking, and for how we attempt to categorize that thinking (as epistemological, ethical, political or aesthetic, for example). Not Half No End moves through all these domains, and the whole of Derrida's rich and varied corpus, in a weave of styles - from the expository and analytic to the autobiographical and confessional - in the ongoing process of deconstruction. Key Features* New collection of essays by major theorist* Expanded readings of late texts by Derrida* Research monograph on mourning and melancholy* First consideration of the legacy of Derrida by a co-author

A vital rethinking of memory and the moving image for the digital age, Isabelle McNeill investigates the role of the moving image in cultural memory, considering the impact of digital technologies on visual culture. Drawing on an interdisciplinary range of theoretical resources and an unusual body of films and moving image works, the author examines the ways in which recent French filmmaking conceptualises both the past and the workings of memory. Ultimately the author argues that memory is an intersubjective process, in which filmic forms continue to play a crucial role even as new media come to dominate our contemporary experience.Memory and the Moving Image:*Introduces new ways of thinking about the relation between film and memory, arising from a compelling, interdisciplinary study of theories and films*Subtly explores the French context while drawing theoretical conclusions with wider implications and applicability*Provides detailed and illuminating close readings of varied moving image works to aid theoretical explorations*Moves away from auteurist approaches, examining work by canonical directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and AgnA*s Varda alongside that of less well-known filmmakers such as Claire Simon and Yamina Benguigui*Brings together thinkers such as Bergson, Deleuze, Bazin and Barthes with, for example, Rodowick and Mulvey, in an engaging interweaving of theories.Works considered include Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du CinA(c)ma (1989-98), Yamina Benguigui's MA(c)moires d'ImmigrA(c)s (1997), Chris Marker's CD-ROM Immemory (1998), Claire Simon's Mimi (2003), Michael Haneke's CachA(c) (2005) and AgnA*s Varda's multi-media exhibition, L'Ale et Elle (2006).

This work offers a unique contribution to gender and Scottish history breaking new ground on several fronts: there is no history of inter-war women in Scotland, very little labour or popular political history and virtually nothing published on women, the home and family. This book is a history of women in the period which integrates class and gender history as well as linking the public and private spheres. Using a gendered approach to history it transforms and shifts our knowledge of the Scottish past, unearthing the previously unexplored role which women played in inter-war socialist politics, the General Strike and popular political protest. It re-evaluates these areas and demonstrates the ways in which gender shaped the experience of class and class struggle. Importantly, the book also explores the links between the public and private spheres and addresses the concept of masculinity as well as femininity and pays particular reference to domestic violence. The strength of the book is the ways in which it illuminates the complex interconnections of culture and economic and social structure. Although the research is based on Scottish evidence, it also uses material to address key debates in gender history and labour history which have wider relevance and will appeal to gender historians, labour historians and social and cultural historians as well as social scientists.

The interchange between Muslims and Europe has a long and complicated history, dating back to before the idea of 'Europe' was born, and the earliest years of Islam. There has been a Muslim presence on the European continent before, but never has it been so significant, particularly in Western Europe. With more Muslims in Europe than in many countries of the Muslim world, they have found themselves in the position of challenging what it means to be a European in a secular society of the 21st century. At the same time, the European context has caused many Muslims to re-think what is essential to them in religious terms in their new reality.In this work, H.A. Hellyer analyses the prospects for a European future where pluralism is accepted within unified societies, and the presence of a Muslim community that is of Europe, not simply in it.

This book examines the nature of 'liberal peace': the common aim of the international community's approach to post-conflict statebuilding. Adopting a particularly critical stance on this one-size-fits-all paradigm, it explores the process by breaking down liberal peace theory into its constituent parts: democratisation, free market reform and development, human rights, civil society, and the rule of law.Readers are provided with critically and theoretically informed empirical access to the 'technology' of the liberal peacebuilding process, particularly in regard to Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and the Middle East.Key Features*critically interrogates the theory, experience, and current outcomes of liberal peacebuilding*includes five empirically-informed case studies: Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and the Middle East*focuses on the key institutional aspects of liberal peacebuilding and key international actors*assesses the local outcomes of liberal peacebuilding

A gentle introduction to programming for students and researchers interested in conducting computer-based analysis in linguistics, this book is an ideal starting point for linguists approaching programming for the first time. Assuming no background knowledge of programming, the author introduces basic notions and techniques needed for linguistics programming and helps readers to develop their understanding of electronic texts.The book includes many examples based on diverse topics in linguistics in order to demonstrate the applicability of the concepts at the heart of programming. Practical examples are designed to help the reader to:*Identify basic issues in handling language data, including Unicode processing*Conduct simple analyses in morphology/morphosyntax, and phonotactics*Understanding techniques for matching linguistic patterns*Learn to convert data into formats and data structures suitable for linguistic analysis*Create frequency lists from corpus materials to gather basic descriptive statistics on texts*Understand, obtain and 'clean up' web-based data*Design graphical user interfaces for writing more efficient and easy-to-use analysis tools.Two different types of exercise help readers to either learn to interpret and understand illustrative sample code, or to develop algorithmic thinking and solution strategies through turning a series of instructions into sample programs. Readers will be equipped with the necessary tools for designing their own extended projects.Key Features:*Ideal introduction for students of linguistics attempting to process corpus materials or literary texts for dissertations, theses or advanced research work*Linguistic examples throughout the text clearly demonstrate the application of programming theory and techniques*Coverage ranging from basic to more complex topics and methodologies enables the reader to progress at their own pace*Two chapters on the advantages of modularity and associated issues provid

This illuminating guide to discovering your Scottish family history has been fully revised and updated to take account of changes to resources and methods for researching your Scottish ancestry over the last few years. Accessible in style and comprehensive in coverage, this new edition stresses the importance of traditional methods of family history research while also embracing the exciting possibilities afforded by new technologies, sources and developments in genetic science.Indispensable to both the fledgling researcher and the more experienced family history specialist in Scotland or elsewhere, this book provides a guide to the very latest resources available to assist with research. Covering Scottish primary and secondary sources in full detail, this book also provides illustrative case studies of family history research, lists of useful websites and archives, and family history organisations and societies.Highlights of this new edition:*An updated chapter dedicated to aspects of recording, scanning and storing information*New insight into accessing English, Irish, emigrant and immigrant records*An update on developments in DNA genetics of relevance to the genealogist*A substantial and broad-ranging bibliography essential for those who want to take their research even further.

This is the first book to look at the ties between European modernism and democracy in a cross-cultural manner. Focusing on the continental avant-gardes of the nineteen-tens and twenties, Sascha Bru's original and provocative book fundamentally revises our understanding of modernism's cultural and political history. Bru brings together a wide range of European experimental writers and provides detailed analyses of Italian futurist F.T. Marinetti, German Dadaist Richard Huelsenbeck and Belgian expressionist Paul van Ostaijen. Bru locates these writers within their exceptional democratic context and demonstrates how the modernist avant-garde, during the First World War and the upheavals that followed, found itself caught up in a series of 'states of exception'. In such states legal democratic institutions were bracketed and set aside, and 'literature' as an autonomous realm was temporarily suspended. Faced with extreme forms of politicisation, avant-gardists throughout Europe tried to safeguard literature's autonomy in a variety of ways. These included turning politics and law into genuinely artistic materials and producing a repertoire of alternatives to existent frameworks of democracy.Against assertions that anti-art avant-garde gestures were meant to overcome art's autonomy and approximate the condition of politics, Bru shows that European avant-gardists may well have been one of the staunchest defenders of art's sovereignty in modern times.Key Features* Facilitates dialogue between Anglo-American and European modernist studies* Presents new interpretations of Berlin Dada, futurism and expressionism, and brings an innovative historical framework with which to analyse continental modernism* Provides an original perspective on modernist writing and theory during the first decades of the foregoing century* Offers, in the introductory chapter, a survey of ways in which to relate experimental writing to politics

Culture and Power in Cultural Studies is a collection of John Storey's best and most significant contributions to the field of cultural studies, spanning 25 years. Covering a variety of topics, all chapters share a common focus on culture and power and the politics of signification: the struggle to define social reality; to give the world and its contents meaning in particular ways to generate desired effects of power. Chapters are informed by history and organised by theory, and have been revised and rewritten to create an engaging volume.Twelve chapters expand and elaborate certain key ideas, themes and issues to be found in the author's cultural studies textbooks, providing an essential reference for those looking for further exemplification of these key areas of study. Each with a different subject matter and method of argument, the chapters demonstrate how signification and the struggle over meaning is fundamental to the processes of hegemony. The collection fixes its critical gaze on how particular meanings acquire their authority and legitimacy, knowing that dominant modes of making the world meaningful are a fundamental aspect of the processes of hegemony.

Considers the 'strong readings' that Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze imposed on the texts they read. Why do philosophers read literature? How do they read it? Does their philosophy derive from their reading of literature? If so, to what extent? Anyone who reads contemporary European philosophers has to ask such questions. Lecercle demonstrates that philosophers need literature, as much as literary critics need philosophy: it is an exercise not in the philosophy of literature, where literature is a mere object of analysis, but in philosophy and literature, a heady and unusual mix.

A revised and updated new edition of this best-selling introduction to the study of contemporary popular culture. The book presents an accessible introduction to the range of theories and methods which have been used to study contemporary popular culture. Doing this, it also provides a map of the development of cultural studies through discussion of its most influential approaches. Organised around a series of case studies, each chapter focuses on a different media form and presents a critical overview of the methodology for the actual study of popular culture. Individual chapters cover topics such as television, fiction, film, newspapers and magazines, popular music, consumption (television, fan culture and shopping), and the culture of globalisation.For students new to the field, the book provides instantly usable theories and methods; for those more familiar with the procedures and politics of cultural studies, the book provides a succinct and accessible overview.The third edition has been revised, rewritten and expanded throughout, including a revised and updated Bibliography. More specifically, the book now includes new sections on print media and celebrity, communities in cyberspace, and a Postscript on the circuit of culture.