This chapter focuses on the cosmology within Nāgārjuna’s thought, the foundational philosopher in the Mādhyamaka Buddhist tradition. Nāgārjuna weaves a carefully reasoned path—the ‘Middle Way’—between substantialism and nominalism. Yet his emphasis on Śūnyatā is widely misinterpreted in the West as leading to nihilism when read with little consideration of its twin element, Pratı̄tyasamutpāda. I argue that these two concepts, when unified, can overcome the trappings of both nihilism and of nominalist existence that seem to hold such a fixation in the (...) metaphysical assumptions of many theories of IR. In particular, I show how this dialectic of Emptiness and Interdependent Co-arising provides a unique philosophical expression of the unity of all things within a cosmology of deep relationalism without the need of ontotheology. This alternate foundation offers a far more complex understanding of relations and intersubjectivity and thus provides a reorientation for a genuine cosmopolitan politics. (shrink)

Human population growth and dwindling fragmented natural habitats for elephants in Asia are leading to increasing conflict between humans and wild elephants. Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal layered analysis is applied to understand the human–elephant conflict situation. Gregory Bateson’s “ecology of mind” is also employed to focus on possible implications of metaphor, epistemology, and social–psychological misalignments. The article aims to inform multidisciplinary practitioners on the relevance of applying both CLA and EoM to social–ecological issues in the twenty-first century. CLA and EoM are (...) compatible and complementary multilayered approaches which, as metaphorical approaches, share mixed entailments. Bateson’s “double bind” theory is applied within CLA to explore the implications of possible Asian elephant extinction within the Anthropocene in respect to Indian cosmologies. (shrink)

Knowledge processing is one of the most significant factors contributing to socioeconomic sustainability. It is therefore important to analyse hindrances that slow or even prevent the growth, communication and use of knowledge. This treatise hypothesises that the differences in interpretations of some basic epistemological, ontological and didactic concepts significantly contribute to the ambiguities and other impediments in knowledge processing. Examples of such misconceptions are presented and a mitigation strategy discussed. Interaction between computerised media and humans such as the rise of (...) the open sources of knowledge and the participatory Web uncover new gates for cross-disciplinary sharing and application of knowledge. (shrink)

Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey share a consistent use of theological and metaphysical references in voice-over narration. This paper frames the markedly spiritual and religious connotations of these 2010s films as an expression of a persistent teleological vision of time and history in contemporary settings. It argues that such vision is highly complicated and subverted by the films’ innovative formal and aesthetic elements. The analysis foregrounds the relevance of current scientific and (...) philosophical notions of entanglement in Malick’s films and offers an ecocritical interpretation and application of some of the films’ formal and narrative complexities in contemporary settings. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the work of the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni to articulate a non-empirical, film-philosophical vision that presents important and unexplored potential in contemporary eco-feminist approaches to culture and nature. Taking Blow Up as a case study, this paper maintains that the film operates as a precise statement against the philosophical underpinnings of the capitalist-patriarchal ideology it depicts in its narrative and formal elements. The film uses and frustrates familiar rhetorical frameworks of Humanism and classical Hollywood cinema, such (...) as the appeal of deductive reasoning, appeal to emotions, narrative closures and the use of the female body as object of desire. In this, the film complicates the application of established empirical and rational approaches to nature and the body in modern culture. This paper maintains that Antonioni’s cinematic vision uses mise-en-scène and swinging London as a potential theatre of another historical and philosophical approach to nature and culture in modernity. In this view, Antonioni’s film does not simply oppose or criticize the capitalist and patriarchal aesthetic regime that he portrays; he arguably uses its fetishism in its full figural force. In Blow Up the division between the subject and the object is reconfigured, re-coded and ultimately shown in its temporal, impermanent limits. The film itself, suggests that empirical reality is no sufficient ontological ground for historical processes of perception to occur. This film-philosophical approach to Antonioni’s work opens new and interesting avenues in contemporary eco-feminist discourses. (shrink)

The focus of this chapter is to demonstrate that human wants and desires that direct the flow of development trends today are also directly entangled in creating an unsustainable development trajectory. It is important to consider the key concept of “dependent co-origination” drawn from the Buddha’s discourses, as an essential component in the sphere of sustainable development. This chapter illustrates how ancient Sri Lanka sustained development by creating awareness of dependent co-origination by adhering to a middle path consisting of right (...) view, right action and right effort for right livelihood. It is a socio-economic system that was founded on tolerance, peace and one that also upheld that was of mutual benefit to society and the environment. This ecosystem of exchanges provides applicable methods to arrest the eroding culture of thought-based exchanges that are now overridden by a standpoint of extremewants. (shrink)

The idea for this volume came out of a desire to assess the trajectory of critical thinking in the study of world politics. We saw critical theory as having reached an impasse, after the highly successful period in which its popularity surged – almost to the point of becoming ‘mainstream’ or common sense in some parts of the academic world. We the editors are part of a generation of researchers for whom the word ‘critical’ has become, to a great extent, (...) a household name. The proliferation of ‘critical approaches’ led us to ask a number of questions. Does it still make sense to use the ‘critical’ label to designate an approach or methodology? Is there an emerging ‘critical orthodoxy’? What has the critical literature achieved? Where has it failed or remained silent? What are its limits and challenges? How can critical thinking be pushed forward? Finally, what has happened to ‘traditional’ thinking? We set out to provide a fresh perspective upon the ‘critical turn’ in International Relations and Security Studies – one that would revisit its origins, celebrate its eclecticism, consider its limitations and open doors to future developments. (shrink)

This article aims to reinvigorate the utopian imagination as a vital and necessary component in IR theory. Since the First Great Debate between the Realists and the Utopianists the utopian tradition has been viewed as being both subjective and arbitrary, leading to its dismissal as vain idealism in world politics. This article re-interrogates the arguments of Carr and Morgenthau and finds that they have relevance today only as against closed systems of utopia and have little bearing against the open-dialectical utopianism (...) which is advocated here as a viable alternative to the sterility of realism. The article also examines the historical nexus between realism's dismissal of utopianism and the wider movements in political philosophy via a critical engagement with the works of Popper, Berlin and Arendt. Finally, after exploring the limitations of Booth's idea of Utopian Realism, the article argues that utopianism should no longer be assumed to be a blueprint for a future, perfect society, a tradition fraught with the danger of proto-totalisation, but as a critical imaginary that acts as a heuristic device to reveal the fissures in existing reality and as an ideational motivating force for progressive change in world politics. © 2009 British International Studies Association. (shrink)

In this paper I aim to illustrate how an epistemological three-way manoeuvre I propose may work in qualitative academic research. Epistemology is critical to my research because I live the topic that I research and in this paper I chart a three-way manoeuvre between and through an articulation of my researcher self, theoretical framing and the intent of the research project. This paper is my response to Jackson and Mazzei’s work “Plugging One Text into Another: Thinking with Theory in Qualitative (...) Research.” I have included the paper title here to introduce the reader to Jackson & Mazzei’s work earlier in my paper in which they advocate a “plugging in” of ceaseless variations of ideas and theories. I suggest that a “plugging in” of forthright epistemology in academic research is an important text that can “plug into” theory and data for rich explorations in qualitative research. Articulations of epistemological foundations of research allow researchers to be explicit about their worldview and acknowledge that it is integral to their researcher self and therefore impossible to separate from research practice. In this paper I demonstrate a methodological move through epistemology, drawing on the epistemology section in my own research work which details my researcher positioning and is able to examine how my experiences of sole parenting in higher education has influenced and informed this study. I consider three critical incidents; my initial assumptions and judgement about sole parents, regulatory exchanges I experienced as un-helpful as I transitioned into postgraduate education and the institutional structures of postgraduate timetabling as regulatory and potentially exclusionary. Articulating one’s research positionality infuses research with context and embeds a “thinking with theory” which can open up new meanings in research by foregrounding the epistemological pathway that is fundamental to the research process. © 2015: Genine Hook and Nova Southeastern University. (shrink)

In a world becoming increasingly sensitive to the failings of narrow empiricism this book offers insights into creative and meaningful approaches to research. It explores ontological epistemology of participation as a new pathway of research as well as conceptualization of reality which goes beyond conventional methods such as participant observation and the familiar dualisms between qualitative and the quantitative and epistemology and ontology. Drawing on the editor's wide ranging network of creative scholars at work in the world of academia and (...) beyond Pathways of Creative Research: Towards a Festival of Dialogues brings together twenty-five insightful chapters each rich in insights into the role that creativity and dialogue play in the work researchers do. Drawing on both Western and Eastern approaches as part of a festival of dialogues, the book offers pathways of creative research that strives to understand the work of the non-dual in self, culture, society and the world. Pathways of Creative Research, the first volume in the trilogy of creative research which includes the subsequent volumes, Cultivating Pathways of Creative Research: New Horizons of Transformative Practice and Collaborative Imagination and Research as Realization: Science, Spirituality and Harmony, is not only a pioneering but also a monumental effort in our world of scholarship, thinking, practice and collaborative imagination which raises some of these vital and deeper questions of theory and practice and then overflows to an epochal and epic quest for rethinking and regenerating life, culture, society, polity and our fragile humanity. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Can research contribute to the realization of reality as well as its potential? Can science and spirituality dance together to reveal the hidden and awaiting harmony in life, and manifest it in self, culture, society and the world? Research as Realization: Science, Spirituality and Harmony explores these neglected and repressed questions of modernity and presents trans-modern possibilities and neo-human futures based upon multiple traditions of humanity—European, Indian, Latin American, Islamic, and others. It encourages wholeness in this world of fragmentation and (...) invites the reader to realize the poetic and spiritual dimension of reality where realization is not so much an end but a process. The book brings together a diverse range of creative thinkers and offers a festival of dialogues and co-realizations in the fragile world of the present. Third in the trilogy of Creative Research, together with the earlier two volumes, Pathways of Creative Research: Towards a Festival of Dialogues and Cultivating Pathways of Creative Research: New Horizons of Transformative Practice and Collaborative Imagination, this is not only a pioneering but also a monumental effort in rethinking and regenerating research, life and the human condition. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

If symbolic language, collective learning, and the means by which we use technology are humanity’s “fundamental, non-genetic, adaptive capacity,” then how these are extended and modified in the next few decades will fundamentally define what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. The scale and scope of that determination is, in turn, dependent on how cognitive framings or “gazes,” shaped by shared conceptions of time, are constructed, for these gazes bound conversation, available knowledge, and the contextualizing of decisions. (...) This article argues that the dominant linear orientation with its present-future emphasis has a direct causal relationship with the existential issues contemporary society faces. It postulates their resolution requires going beyond existing constraints in language and learning together with the need to fundamentally rethink many explicit and tacit understandings, including those that inform futures thinking. If this were to occur, then the scope of symbolic language is broadened, thus, allowing a wider range of options to become available. However, it must be recognized at the same time that these same elements must morph to reflect both the inclusion, yet incompleteness, of all knowledge systems into a new ecology of understanding. Such propositions lead to a question: does contemporary society have sufficient awareness of its present situation to put aside what has made it successful thus far, to even consider possibilities that exist beyond the conventions it now accepts as axiomatic? (shrink)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer an exemplar of post-qualitative “fieldwork in philosophy” research. The paper proposes features of such philosophical fieldwork and adumbrates examples of concepts that have emerged in the process of undertaking the research. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is conceptual, drawing on an abductive approach. Post-qualitative understandings that question the validity of methodology and theory as separable entities are operationalised. Findings – The paper provides insights into how post-qualitative research might be undertaken and (...) what might emerge in the process. Originality/value – This paper fulfils a need for an example of research that is post-qualitative. Additionally, the possibilities for doing “fieldwork in philosophy” are extended, as is the work of Jacque Rancière with respect to emancipation. © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (shrink)

This paper argues that leaders of organisations that are especially sensitive to the needs of the natural world require a unique and demanding set of skills and understandings. They need to be tolerant of diversity in people and ideas and at the same time coercive in a struggle to keep the organisation ‘on track’. Eco-Machiavellian leadership is therefore difficult and made more so by the requirement for a relatively sophisticated understanding of organisation theory.

A capacity model of mindfulness is adopted to differentiate the cognitive faculty of mindfulness from the metacognitive processes required to cultivate this faculty in mindfulness training. The model provides an explanatory framework incorporating both the developmental progression from focussed attention to open monitoring styles of mindfulness practice, along with the development of equanimity and insight. A standardised technique for activating these processes without the addition of secondary components is then introduced. Mindfulness-based interventions currently available for use in randomised control trials (...) introduce components ancillary to the cognitive processes of mindfulness, limiting their ability to draw clear causative inferences. The standardised technique presented here does not introduce such ancillary factors, rendering it a valuable tool with which to investigate the processes activated in mindfulness practice. (shrink)

The world is becoming strange to itself! This strangeness is the result of 1, the surprise of becoming increasingly self-aware of our human embeddedness in the evolutionary unfolding of the Cosmos and 2, the terror that this new consciousness inspires in many today. Giri's reflections on roots and routes is an important step towards articulating the multiple and rhizomic nature of this strangeness. In the Hebrew story of Adam and Eve and their awakening, they are surprised to find themselves naked. (...) That story points to a similar surprise and terror as Adam and Eve stepped out into a strange world of the 'natural'. To cope with this strangeness and surprise, human beings awoke to culture and so the Western story of the struggle between culture and nature was born. (shrink)

There is limited theory or knowledge regarding dietitians’ practice philosophies and how these philosophies are generated and incorporated into their professional practices. For the purposes of this study, a conceptual framework will explain and define the ‘philosophies’ as three different types of knowledge; episteme, techne, and phronesis. This study aimed to develop an explanatory theory of how dietitians in private practice source, utilise, and integrate practice philosophies. A grounded theory qualitative methodology was used to inform the sampling strategy, data collection, (...) and analytical processes. Semi-structured interviews with dietitians in private practice were undertaken and data were collected and analysed concurrently. The results show that dietitians form collaborative relationships with their clients, in order to nurture change over time. They use intrinsic and intertwined forms of episteme, techne, and phronesis, which allow them to respond both practically and sensitively to their clients’ needs. The learning and integration of these forms of knowledge are situated in their own practice experience. Dietitians adapt through experience, feedback, and reflection. This study highlights that private practice offers a unique context in which dietitians deal with complex issues, by utilising and adapting their philosophies. (shrink)

The article addresses the question: what is the relationship between perceptual experience and its interpretation through drawing? It is proposed that drawing, as knowledge and experience, is a particular way of coming to know the world that is explicated within personal practice. The research examines how drawing, through its expression of the concrete and the imaginary, provides interconnected ways of orientating knowledge that contribute to a multifaceted understanding of the ‘lived experience’. The practice of drawing is utilised as a research (...) methodology in order to consider visualisations that are both descriptive and interpretive. The study draws on philosophy, in particular the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to consider the complexities and interconnections of mind, object and body that are experienced through drawing. By being immersed in the visible, the concrete, through the body, the visible is not appropriated, but is instead revealed by the act of ‘looking’. (shrink)

This chapter endeavors to map the terrain of the narrative landscape. In so doing we use two broad categories, firstly methodological questions, which includes the ontological and epistemological basis of the research, the nature of the relationship between the researcher and researched, and whether the research focuses on the individual or on societal contexts and concerns. Secondly method questions, which includes the nature of the evidence, the analytical processes used, and the representation of the research product. We seek to draw (...) attention to the way the same terms are used by different authors in different ways. We hope this assists narrative researchers in the field further develop ideas in a continued commitment to the scholarship of narrative research. (shrink)

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here (...) a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here (...) a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here (...) a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Insufficient attention has been paid to how concepts of resilience can be operationalised in wicked, contested situations. Within the environmental sciences, the contemporary social-ecological resilience narrative is not geared to examining social dilemmas in ill-defined problem contexts. These conditions require a different resilience narrative, one centred on epistemological and ontological considerations. This paper examines four resilience narratives in order to stimulate an improved awareness of the possibility of more deliberative choices for research and governance in the resilience domain. We argue (...) that the resilience research community needs to be more cognizant of the diversity of resilience narratives in order to empower and learn from the perspectives and local practices of stakeholders, who will often express narratives better aligned to the wicked situation at hand. Ultimately, the resilience narratives of the research community can be little more than toolkits to support greater understanding of the diversity of people, perspectives and ‘performances’ jointly narrating the ‘real’ stories of our wicked and contested realities. (shrink)

This paper will examine the interrelationship between categorising the neo-liberal perspective and the term ‘consumer.’ My explicit concern is the likely intrusion of the neo-liberal mindset onto what is essentially the ‘social nature of identity’. By locating the discourse of consumerism within the broader political framework, I am able to examine the neoliberalist view and its positioning of marginalised groups with the aim of attempting to focus attention to the potentially negative consequences of the consumer label.

Existing models of mindfulness describe the self-regulation of attention as primary, leading to enhanced decentering and ability to access and override automatic cognitive processes. This study compared 23 experienced and 21 non-meditators on tests of mindfulness, attention, decentering, and ability to override automatic cognitive processes to test the cognitive mechanisms proposed to underlie mindfulness practice. Experienced meditators had significantly higher mindfulness and decentering than non-meditators. No significant difference between groups was found on measures of attention or ability to override automatic (...) processes. These findings support the prediction that mindfulness leads to enhanced decentering, but do not support the cognitive mechanisms proposed to underlie such enhancement. Since mindfulness practice primarily involves internally directed attention, it may be the case that cognitive tests requiring externally directed attention and timed responses do not accurately assess mindfulness-induced cognitive changes. Implications for the models of mindfulness and future research are discussed. (shrink)

There is limited theory or knowledge regarding dietitians’ nutrition philosophies and how these philosophies are generated and incorpo- rated into their professional practices. For the purposes of this research project a conceptual framework explains and defines ‘philosophies’ as three different types of knowledge; episteme, techne and phronesis. This study aimed to develop an explanatory theory of how dietitians source, utilise and integrate nutrition and practice philosophies in their private practice. Grounded Theory methodology was used to inform the sampling strategy, data (...) collection and analytical processes. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured inter- views, with ten private practicing dietitians in Australia. Analysis of transcripts occurred concurrently with data collection and informed further sampling. Data analysis was initially inductive; coding concepts, categories, properties and dimensions which were then grouped into central categories or themes. This study highlighted that private practice offers a unique context in which dietitians deal with complex issues as both therapists and business owners. The results how that dietitians form collaborative relationships with their clients to nurture change over time. They use intrinsic and intertwined forms of episteme, techne and phronesis which allows them to respond both practically and sensitively to their clients and their needs. Learning and integrating these forms of knowledge are situated in and enriched by their own practice experience. Dietitians’ philosophies of practice and nutrition adapt through experience, feedback and reflection and become embedded over time. Dietitians in private practice strive to continuously learn, improve and adapt their business and nutrition practice philosophies to better serve their client base. (shrink)

Human Rights Film Festivals have been growing in number across the globe since the late 1980s and have become embroiled in recent cultural shifts towards visual culture without a commensurate exploration of the philosophical and cultural effects of such use. By attending to debates present in the media, visual, and film disciplines in relation to representation, politics, and ethics, this paper garners the work of various scholars, including Gayatri Spivak, bell hooks, and Emmanuel Lévinas, to begin the much-needed exploration and (...) analysis of the use of films for human rights purposes. (shrink)

Einstein declared that imagination is more important than knowledge. Or is it? While it’s true that without imagination we cannot grow our knowledge. Yet without knowledge, we have no base from which to imagine. My research argues that we ignore either one to our detriment; that both knowledge and imagination, science and art, have equal importance. Why is this significant? I propose our greatest wisdom, our greatest contribution to humanity, is gained through an effective combination of both. In addition, I (...) contend that the distinction between knowledge and imagination is a persistent illusion. One often reflected in a perceived dichotomy between science and the arts. My research examines how scientific and philosophical discourses are equally deployed in the multi-billion dollar self-help industry in ways that conflate knowledge and imagination, science and art. I propose that science and art are in fact telling the same story and my research explores this hypothesis through a mixture of practice-based research and discourse analysis. In particular, I investigate the concept that perception creates reality, how this notion is not confined to philosophy and the arts, but is equally prevalent in science, and how a balance of existing discourses are deployed in the self-help industry. My research is a mix of academic and creative practice, as the research provides content for a novel called The Red Pill. The entire project, therefore, is not only an examination of the ways in which discourses in science and art inform each other, and as such are equally important, but also a demonstration of this idea as exemplified in the self-help world. (shrink)

Education is a field sometimes beset by theories-of-the-day and with easy panaceas that overpromise the degree to which they can alleviate pressing educational problems. The two-volume Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy introduces readers to theories that have stood the test of time and those that have provided the historical foundation for the best of contemporary educational theory and practice. Drawing together a team of international scholars, this invaluable reference examines the global landscape of all the key theories and the (...) theorists behind them and presents them in the context needed to understand their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to interpretations of long-established theories, this work offers essays on cutting-edge research and concise, to-the-point definitions of key concepts, ideas, schools, and figures. (shrink)

“When we do not have the words to say something, drawing can define both the real and unreal in visual terms” . The paper addresses the question: what is the relationship between perceptual experience and its interpretation through drawing? It is proposed that drawing, as knowledge and experience, is a particular way of coming to know the world that is explicated within artistic practice. The research examines how drawing, through its expression of the concrete and the imaginary, provides interconnected ways (...) of orientating knowledge that contribute to a multifaceted understanding of the “lived experience” . The study draws on philosophy, in particular the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to consider the complexities and interconnections of mind, object and body that are experienced through drawing. A central tenet of the research is an examination of the role of the body in constituing and explicating experience. In considering how we, as objects, are integral to the world and its phenomena, it is proposed that our “sense experience” furnishes us with the ability to enter into this world as sensate beings; to interact, affect and engage with the world in both time and space. Maurice Merleau-Ponty in an essay entitled “Eye and Mind”, first published in 1961 , contends that it is through contemplating a connection between the “seer and the seen”, in a direct reference to artist and viewer, that our experience of the world is “opened up more fully” . That is, by being immersed in the visible, the concrete, through the body, the visible is not appropriated, but is instead revealed by the act of “looking”. The practice of drawing is a means through which the act of looking is evinced in a tangible form. Investigating practice: Drawing, it will be argued, can make the invisible visible; exploring through sensing, feeling, thinking and doing. It questions and investigates the possibilities of experience, ideas and memory through its ability to retain and articulate traces of the past, the present and imagine the future. In attempting to define and refine conceptions of the foundations, or beginnings, of practice, its development and emergence, philosophical paradigms offer the practitioner ways of thinking: these include historicality, presence and intention. It is this first person’s point of view, subjectivity, and its role that becomes the principal focus of investigations. The outcomes document, as a visualisation and a transcript, a progression, from description of the “lifeworld” or “lived experience”, towards an interpretation of the immersed, subjective experience. (shrink)

This article considers some of the results of an oral history project conducted in Sydney, on the importance of football (soccer) in migrants’ lives. Through the analysis of 32 interviews with Italians who migrated to Australia in the postwar period, and with their children, the article aims to demonstrate the importance of football in the historical study of Italian communities abroad. The article focuses in particular on those themes that are central to the memories and reflections of the interviewees. These (...) include the importance of their football passion, the role played by soccer in processes of adaptation and integration, the construction of complex identities through football fandom and sporting activities, and the proud awareness of the contribution of Italians to the development of football in Australia. (shrink)

Higher education institutions in Sweden are increasingly exposed to international market conditions and rising competition from a more mobile student body. This increases the need for universities to adapt to their social and economic environment and to their clients, including the political trends and financial opportunities in Sweden and EU, if they are to successfully implement sustainability reforms. In this regard, we examine the barriers faced by a ‘post-normal’ education for sustainable development inherent within the structures of a ‘normal’ University. (...) We pose the question whether Integrated Water Resource Management as a post-normal process can contribute to increased capacity of normal higher education institutions to address complex sustainability problems? IWRM is conceptualised as an interactionist process of social learning and adaptive management to reflect on the experiences from one particular case, namely the Master Programme in IWRM at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We illustrate how IWRM can contribute to address conflicts of interests in education arising from competing claims of stakeholders in real life management situations, but also to reconcile the conflicts associated with institutional adaptation under conditions characterised by a new international educational regime and rapidly changing market conditions. The paper brings together the discourse on ESD with lessons from IWRM and contends that the interactionist approach might offer a useful alternative to realist conceptions of ESD in learner-centred and institutional systemic approaches. Contrary to other reports on IWRM education, this paper reflects on this role of IWRM within higher education per se. (shrink)

During an Australian qualitative and empirical study looking at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender client's experiences of counseling, and counselor's experiences of working with minority clients, a large body of unsolicited data emerged related to experiences of religious-based homophobia. Analysis of the data suggests that a lifelong process of posttraumatic recovery for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people follows prior experiences of religious-based homophobia. This paper discusses the sociological debate related to how counselors find themselves at the crossroad between (...) a healthy lifestyle model of homosexuality based in well established contemporary professional ethics versus long standing religious-based attitudes and constraints toward homosexuality. This intersection of conflicting beliefs generates a controversial social and political environment in which counselors must make a basic decision to either support minority clients according to ethical guidelines or to side with socially conservative constructs that, rightly or wrongly, rely largely on Western religious traditions. (shrink)

This paper explores microvita theory and its relevance to information science. There are two parts to this, the first is theoretical and outlines microvita theory as an epistemological product of the Tantric theory of consciousness and mind. The civilizational value of such a theory is contextualized via a consideration of Gilles Deleuze’s concept of transcendental empiricism. Links to information science are made particularly with regard to Bates’ evolutionary reading of information and to Dervin’s sense making epistemological chronology. The second part (...) of the paper explores microvita theory as an emergent possibility by profiling six developments in cultural practice. Each hint at the transformative possibilities before us when considering information from broader epistemological contexts than the given Western rationalfield we generally accept as the context for research. It is suggested that microvita theory invites in a shamanic disposition or temper which is comfortable with paradox and aporia. To navigate such terrain requires an appreciation for the spiritual within the working context of the world. The spiritual is taken as simply another form of data collection in a universe that is as mysterious as it is wonderful. (shrink)

This article explores the use of gender mainstreaming as a strategy of the Pacific Islands Forum in its Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Integration, and the difficulties that this approach presents in terms of meaningful outcomes. Adopting a single strategy of gender mainstreaming has some challenges at a regional level, not the least that of ensuring adequate monitoring and evaluation at country level when budgets are already strained. However it will show that, despite the problematic nature of the (...) gender strategy, there have been a number of positive steps initiated both in the Pacific and from within Australia under the auspices of the Pacific Plan even though identifying overall regional progress is hindered somewhat by the Plans reporting processes. (shrink)

The article presents a discussion of how attempts to create utopias can produce ironically dystopian effects, citing the educational systems of industrialized nations as an example. An argument is presented that the teaching of poetry in school can serve as a countervailing, utopian force. Quotations from poets such as Wallace Stevens, Kevin Hart, and Rabindranath Tagore are presented. It is said that poetry can serve to improve the educational curriculum by suggesting multiple perspectives and the interplay between the specific and (...) the general. (shrink)

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Lesley Hawkes on hope seen in author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and in the election of U.S. President Barack Obama, one by Bill Ashcroft on three contradictions in thinking about utopias and one by Vivienne Muller on body image in women and the change room mirror.

This article questions the use of the term integral. It argues that although the use is well intentioned it draws its energy from the geophilosophical drive of the Western project. This project is imperialist in nature and bases its power on its ability to define. So although IF claims to be inclusive it actually establishes a self-referential dialogical relationship between itself and its interlocutor that privileges its position. This is clearly counter to the integral rhetoric of its most ardent exponents. (...) It is argued that this imbalance is central to the entire Western philosophic project and is rooted in the geophilosophical gaze. Such a gaze is ultimately about assimilation not mutual discourse and should be set aside for more inclusive and less culturally aligned forms of cultural analysis such as Causal Layered Analysis which accounts for the primacy of context and local knowledge and finds agency in the working of those who constitute the multitude. Such work is process oriented and stands in real contrast to the definitional power of the integral gaze. (shrink)

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here (...) a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Neohumanist Educational Futures breaks new ground by linking neohumanism (the expansion of humanism to include nature and deep spirituality) with pedagogy and futures thinking. Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, all educators, theorize the ethics of inclusion and exclusion; situate neohumanism in Tantric and transcultural futures; map out issues in neohumanist pedagogy (including, education for world futures; from information to wisdom; social cohesion in South Africa; speciesism and vegetarian pedagogy in Sweden; alternative indicators for neohumanism; integrated intelligence, peace and non-violence, partnership education; (...) and the politics of historiography) and provide case studies of neohumanist educational practice. Along with Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, contributing authors include Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta, Tobin Hart, Marcus Anthony, Riana Eisler, Marlene de Beer, Helena Pederson, Vachel Miller, Peter Hayward, Joseph Voros and Mahajyoti Glassman. The authors argue that the current paradigms of uni and multiculturalism have reached their limits (and the tensions between them) – a new approach, as in neohumanism or transcultural and transcendental sustainability, is required for humanity to move forward, and while doing so include those it has pushed aside. To create this alternative future, a new educational philosophy and practice is required; one that inspires but does not become yet another method to be tamed and imitated. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Who benefits from the interconnected processes often referred to as globalization? Is it a relatively few people, with most others either being harmed or at least not helped? Are the good things that globalization produces, whatever they are, widely shared? What processes lead us in one direction or another? This book examines a key dimension of globalization: its fairness. It investigates the meaning of and role fairness plays when public institutions are faced with the challenges and opportunities of globalization. Here (...) a distinguished group of contributors, including both academics and practitioners, focuses on East and Southeast Asia, but the relevance of the issues discussed extends well beyond these regions. They present a broad-ranging examination of the intersections between fairness, globalization, and public institutions. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Leading up to the Australia Davos Future Summit, some of Australia's best and brightest convened at Melbourne Business School for a two day workshop (February 14-15, 2006) on the futures of Australian identity. Organized by Paul Hameister of the Future Summit, hosted by Dr. Robert Burke of Mt Eliza Centre for Executive Education and facilitated by Professor Sohail Inayatullah, the workshop explored and developed scenarios of the futures of Australian identity. Globalization, demographic changes, perceptions of loss of safety because of (...) world terrorism, challenges to multiculturalism, demographic shifts, the possibility of pandemics, and dramatic new genomic, nano-technology, energy, surveillance, brain/mind technologies – all portend a disturbed world, a world in flux. What will happen to Australian identity? Can it transform, will new identities emerge, asked participants? (shrink)

This paper takes the case of the proposed building of the Traveston dam on the Mary River in Australia to examine the ways postcolonial power relations are played out in city/regional relationships to further the interests of the city. Postcolonialism is concerned with unravelling multiple histories of colonialism, and identifying the reproduction, contestation, ambivalence and transformation of modes of domination and subordination in colonial relations. Political contingencies and contestations by residents, farmers, traditional Indigenous owners and environmentalists seeking to protect endangered (...) species are examined to highlight the dominance of Western anthropocentric, technocentric, and eurocentric epistemologies in political, ecological, environmental, biotheical debates. (shrink)

Neohumanist Educational Futures breaks new ground by linking neohumanism (the expansion of humanism to include nature and deep spirituality) with pedagogy and futures thinking. Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, all educators, theorize the ethics of inclusion and exclusion; situate neohumanism in Tantric and transcultural futures; map out issues in neohumanist pedagogy (including, education for world futures; from information to wisdom; social cohesion in South Africa; speciesism and vegetarian pedagogy in Sweden; alternative indicators for neohumanism; integrated intelligence, peace and non-violence, partnership education; (...) and the politics of historiography) and provide case studies of neohumanist educational practice. Along with Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, contributing authors include Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta, Tobin Hart, Marcus Anthony, Riana Eisler, Marlene de Beer, Helena Pederson, Vachel Miller, Peter Hayward, Joseph Voros and Mahajyoti Glassman. The authors argue that the current paradigms of uni and multiculturalism have reached their limits (and the tensions between them) – a new approach, as in neohumanism or transcultural and transcendental sustainability, is required for humanity to move forward, and while doing so include those it has pushed aside. To create this alternative future, a new educational philosophy and practice is required; one that inspires but does not become yet another method to be tamed and imitated. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

The human dynamism implied by the concept of Thrival is of particular concern to futurists engaged in exploring our human potential. This potential is not simply a matter of being able to chart a course and realise it; it is the ability to engage the multidimensional facets of out humanness in order to create maps to preferable futures that retain their promise and their openness. Such futures resist definition, challenging us as both individuals and societies to be our best, do (...) our best and dream our best. The utopian nature of any such future cannot be denied, it is a future in potential only. Much critical humanism has focussed on our current world - with its structures and illusions, its iniquities and inequities, its promises and false prophets - and developed thorough critiques of the social order. Critical futures is rooted in this tradition, it is a rebellious humanism, which at its best offers a host of heterodox and paradoxical visions rooted in the critique of those forces that seek the closure of human potential. (shrink)

Purpose – This paper offers six shamanic futures concepts to augment Inayatullah's six pillars, questions and concepts of futures studies. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on Ashis Nandy's use of the shaman as a futures category that posits alterity and the unknowable as the dissenting component of futures studies, six concepts from poststructural thinking are proposed to offer an account of the agency-structure interface that is of practical value to futures practice. Findings – Futures praxis is pragmatic and goal driven, seeking preferred (...) futures outcomes for those in context. The six shamanic futures concepts further this end by outlining conceptual processes that deepen understanding of context as a co-creative and living space. Research limitations/implications – Futures studies is becoming increasingly sophisticated; the six shamanic concepts push practitioner's understanding of how to facilitate deep organizational change. Practical implications – This paper provides six concepts that enable futures practitioners to better understand the nature of their own practice. Originality/value – This paper extends Inayatullah's mapping of the futures field by suggesting six concepts that facilitate an understanding and harnessing of the potential of context. (shrink)

This paper offers a deep futures analysis of "race" and the many racisms that compete to colonize the future. Using poststructuralism it challenges the frames that shape our thinking on race and the "Other". Cultural narrative and boundary drawing are explored as sources of racist frames. Three distinct possible scenarios along with their defining myths and metaphors are also examined. The hidden economy of racism is also addressed as it underpins economic affluence and cultural hegemony. Finally, questions of integrity and (...) identity are considered from the transformative logic of neohumanism. (shrink)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to the study of the future. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes six foundational concepts, six questions and six pillars, giving examples and case studies where appropriate. Findings – In an increasingly complex and heterogeneous world, futures studies can help people to recover their agency, and help them to create the world in which they wish to live. Originality/value – The paper integrates and builds on a variety of (...) futures studies' concepts, ways of thinking and techniques and integrates them into a new approach. (shrink)

Neohumanist Educational Futures breaks new ground by linking neohumanism (the expansion of humanism to include nature and deep spirituality) with pedagogy and futures thinking. Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, all educators, theorize the ethics of inclusion and exclusion; situate neohumanism in Tantric and transcultural futures; map out issues in neohumanist pedagogy (including, education for world futures; from information to wisdom; social cohesion in South Africa; speciesism and vegetarian pedagogy in Sweden; alternative indicators for neohumanism; integrated intelligence, peace and non-violence, partnership education; (...) and the politics of historiography) and provide case studies of neohumanist educational practice. Along with Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, contributing authors include Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta, Tobin Hart, Marcus Anthony, Riana Eisler, Marlene de Beer, Helena Pederson, Vachel Miller, Peter Hayward, Joseph Voros and Mahajyoti Glassman. The authors argue that the current paradigms of uni and multiculturalism have reached their limits (and the tensions between them) – a new approach, as in neohumanism or transcultural and transcendental sustainability, is required for humanity to move forward, and while doing so include those it has pushed aside. To create this alternative future, a new educational philosophy and practice is required; one that inspires but does not become yet another method to be tamed and imitated. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

The rise of peace education both in scholarship and in practice has yielded numerous documents, websites, and publications with often divergent perspectives on what the field is, does, and means. The Encyclopedia of Peace Education provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly developments in the field to date as well as new insights from across the globe from the various actors involved in advancing peace education internationally. Thus, this online resource serves as a living reference guide that traces the history (...) and emergence of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators. From core conceptual perspectives to the moral and spiritual foundations of the field to the role of the United Nations, the Encyclopedia grounds peace education in a solid theoretical and practical framework through the writings of the field’s most renowned scholars. This online resource targets undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars and practitioners working in international and non-governmental organizations in the field of peace education. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

The rise of peace education both in scholarship and in practice has yielded numerous documents, websites, and publications with often divergent perspectives on what the field is, does, and means. The Encyclopedia of Peace Education provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly developments in the field to date, so as to provide a common denominator for the various actors involved in advancing peace education internationally. Thus, this edited volume serves as an essential reference guide that traces the history and emergence (...) of the field, highlights foundational concepts, contextualizes peace education practice across international and disciplinary borders, and suggests new directions for peace educators. From core conceptual perspectives to the moral and spiritual foundations of the field to the role of the United Nations, the Encyclopedia grounds peace education in a solid theoretical and practical framework through the writings of the field’s most renowned scholars. This volume will target undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars and practitioners working in international and non-governmental organizations in the field of peace education. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Neohumanist Educational Futures breaks new ground by linking neohumanism with pedagogy and futures thinking. Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, all educators, theorize the ethics of inclusion and exclusion; situate neohumanism in Tantric and transcultural futures; map out issues in neohumanist pedagogy and provide case studies of neohumanist educational practice. Along with Inayatullah, Bussey and Milojevic, contributing authors include Vedaprajinananda Avadhuta, Tobin Hart, Marcus Anthony, Riana Eisler, Marlene de Beer, Helena Pederson, Vachel Miller, Peter Hayward, Joseph Voros and Mahajyoti Glassman. The authors (...) argue that the current paradigms of uni and multiculturalism have reached their limits – a new approach, as in neohumanism or transcultural and transcendental sustainability, is required for humanity to move forward, and while doing so include those it has pushed aside. To create this alternative future, a new educational philosophy and practice is required; one that inspires but does not become yet another method to be tamed and imitated. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

There are two Australias today. It is not easy to pinpoint when this all started but everyone saw the writing on the wall for the federal government when the water crisis of 2012 hit. This was an issue they had bungled from the beginning and if not for the energy and skill of local communities and indigenous-green groups the crisis could have been an absolute disaster. It was this issue that catalysed the awakening of local, communal, indigenous and green consciousness (...) not as separate strands competing for airspace but as a coalescent counterpoint to what these groups jokingly called "Howard Central", or simply HC. (shrink)

This paper explores how an ideal relational ethic based on Zygmunt Bauman’s (1995) notion of forms of togetherness is needed to underpin university-community engagement processes and practices. We focus on the notion of being-for, and suggest that it can be used as an ‘engagement bridge’ between higher education institutions, the creation of human capital and communities, and can be a means to achieve ethical outcomes to local concerns. Much of Bauman’s (1995; 2001; 2007) theoretical development has focussed on the liquidity (...) of modernity, to give the impression that community - in the spatially, physically located and fixed sense of the term - no longer exists. This paper proposes that spatial dimensions, particularly in the context of developing relational ethics, are important. This is particularly so for paying adequate attention to context-specific values, principles and issues in communities, for developing enterprising human capital via engagement, and for addressing matters of socio-political importance such as the environment. Contemporary neo-liberal times require ethical and moral leadership from universities. This paper suggests that such leadership can be developed from focussing attention on the forms of togetherness fostered by university-community engagement. (shrink)

The Green Man is an artistic and iconic representation, part human, part plant. History is filled with Green Man images in architecture, stained glass, sculpture, painting, mythology, literature and folklore. It is a recurrent visual phenomenon in Western art practice, appearing and disappearing consistently across numerous time periods, cultures and geographic locations. Evidence shows that these emergences are often linked to times of upheaval, change or environmental crisis. Currently, the image is reappearing in a wide range of artistic and cultural (...) manifestations. This article analyses the meanings and messages, along with the futures potential, underlying this contemporary explosion of the Green Man phenomenon. (shrink)

In this essay, I outline five futures for Pakistan: (1) the Pendulum continues forever, (2) Collapse, (3) joining Chindia, (4) the Great Game, and (5) a South Asian Confederation. The most familiar and likely are based on the pendulum of rule by the military and rule by landlord/politicians. However, what is needed is to move from the more likely and less desirable futures to a process of anticipatory democracy where the citizens of Pakistan consider, create and commit to building their (...) preferred future. (shrink)

This paper presents a reflective account of my teaching practice with health practitioners who work as school nurses in the secondary education system in regional Victoria, Australia. It highlights some of the issues and dilemmas that emerged during my experiences, as a social work educator, facilitating workshops about critically reflective learning as a cross-disciplinary enterprise. Using critical reflection, this paper also raises questions regarding how we might respond to some of the challenges to improve future approaches to teaching critical reflection.

This article deals with feminist engagement with the futures studies (and vice versa) and analyses the uneasy relationship that exists between the two. More specifically, it investigates the feminist theorizing of ‘patriarchal time’ and efforts to both decolonise and ‘reconstruct’ time based on feminist epistemological frameworks. Feminism is here understood as a social movement, ideology, theory, philosophy, worldview and a way of life. As such this term overlaps with, yet represents a distinct category from terms such as ‘women’, ‘gender’, ‘femininity’ (...) and ‘women's movements’. Thus, feminism itself is historicized and spatially contextualised as is the notion of non-patriarchal ‘women's/feminist time’ developed by feminists. (shrink)

This paper will be of interest to experienced and novice facilitators. It explores group facilitation and hermeneutic processes and presents a framework for the interpretation of behaviour in groups. The framework, which the authors have called the Group Interpretive Framework (GIF) is based on the concepts of the philosophers Martin Heidegger (1962) and Hans Georg Gadamer (1975). It aims to assist facilitators to develop skills in interpreting meaning in the group context. Such interpretation is necessary in order to understand group (...) behaviours and intervene when necessary to improve the effectiveness of the group in meeting its goals. This paper takes as its premise that while there are frameworks that provide direction to facilitators in what to interpret (such as behaviour in groups including body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and levels of interaction), there are few which assist with “how” to interpret these behaviours. While the examples of the use of GIF in this paper are from healthcare settings, the framework is potentially applicable to any setting where group facilitation takes place. (shrink)

Sport and religion are two of the central currents of global culture and society. This collection examines in detail the intersection of sport and religion from an international, religiously pluralistic perspective. The book offers a series of cutting-edge contemporary historical case-studies, broad ranging in their geographical coverage and in their social and religious contexts. 'Sport' and 'religion' are cultural institutions with a global reach. Each is characterised by ritualised performance and by the ecstatic devotion of its followers, whether in the (...) sports arena or the cathedral of worship. This fascinating collection is the first to examine, in detail, the relationship between these two cultural institutions from an international, religiously pluralistic perspective. It illuminates the role of sport and religion in the social formation of collective groups, and explores how sport might operate in the service of a religious community. The book offers a series of cutting-edge contemporary historical case-studies, wide-ranging in their social and religious contexts. It presents important new work on the following fascinating topics: * sport and Catholicism in Northern Ireland * Shinto and sumo in Japan * women, sport and the American Jewish identity * religion, race and rugby in South Africa * sport and Islam in France and North Africa * sport and Christian fundamentalism in the US * Muhammad Ali and the Nation of Islam. With God on their Side is vital reading for all students of the history, sociology and culture of sport. It also presents important new research material that will be of interest to religious studies students, historians and anthropologists. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)

Futures studies is the systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures including the worldviews and myths that underlie each future. Futures studies has moved from external forces influencing the future–astrology and prophesy–to structure (historical patterns of change, of the rise and fall of nations and systems) and agency (the study and creation of preferred images of the future). Futures studies have been eagerly adopted by planning departments in organisations and nations. Yet there are clear differences between planning and futures (...) framework. Planning seeks to control and close the future, while futures studies seek to open up the future, moving from the 'likely' future to alternative futures. This book is divided into two main sections: 1. The first section explores futures studies–approaches, methodology, epistemology, trends as well as case studies in the field. 2. The second section focuses on futures studies and action learning, developing a new focus that that combines futures studies and action learning, anticipatory action learning. The ways in which the future can be used to transform organisations is articulated in this section. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to determine the range of research paradigms employed in a smaller subset of Information Systems literature, namely Enterprise Resource Planning systems. A systematic literature review based on papers that mentioned ERPs was drawn from eight of the most highly ranked journals according to their h-index. The findings indicate that the majority of the ERP research papers were conducted within a positivist research paradigm, which is a far higher proportion than is suggested by other research (...) in the general IS literature. This paper suggests that there is a strong case for ERP researchers to look at existing paradigm selection and how effectively their research relates to the ERP body of knowledge, especially in respect to the issues of importance to managers within organizations. This research also identified areas where existing paradigm evaluation methods could be enhanced and refined in respect to non-positivist classifications. (shrink)

Sohail Inayatullah takes us on a journey through Indian philosophy, grand theory and macrohistory. We understand and appreciate Indian theories of history, specifically cyclical and spiral theories of time. From other civilizations, we learn how seminal thinkers understood the stages and mechanisms of transformation.

Sport and religion are two of the central currents of global culture and society. This collection examines in detail the intersection of sport and religion from an international, religiously pluralistic perspective. The book offers a series of cutting-edge contemporary historical case-studies, broad ranging in their geographical coverage and in their social and religious contexts. 'Sport' and 'religion' are cultural institutions with a global reach. Each is characterised by ritualised performance and by the ecstatic devotion of its followers, whether in the (...) sports arena or the cathedral of worship. This fascinating collection is the first to examine, in detail, the relationship between these two cultural institutions from an international, religiously pluralistic perspective. It illuminates the role of sport and religion in the social formation of collective groups, and explores how sport might operate in the service of a religious community. The book offers a series of cutting-edge contemporary historical case-studies, wide-ranging in their social and religious contexts. It presents important new work on the following fascinating topics: * sport and Catholicism in Northern Ireland * Shinto and sumo in Japan * women, sport and the American Jewish identity * religion, race and rugby in South Africa * sport and Islam in France and North Africa * sport and Christian fundamentalism in the US * Muhammad Ali and the Nation of Islam. With God on their Side is vital reading for all students of the history, sociology and culture of sport. It also presents important new research material that will be of interest to religious studies students, historians and anthropologists. [Book Synopsis]. (shrink)