2012 Books by Title
CCG Books Archive
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
The Arab Revolutions in Context: Civil Society and Democracy in a Changing Middle East
The Edinburgh Companion to the History of Democracy
Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics and Discourse
Julia 2010: The caretaker election
Catholics and Catholicism in Contemporary Australia: Challenges and Achievements
Muslims in the West and the Challenges of Belonging
The Arab Revolutions in Context: Civil Society and Democracy in a Changing Middle East
From late 2010 a series of dramatic and unprecedented events swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), toppling several autocratic regimes that had held power for decades and ushering in a new climate of dissent and democratization. This book seizes a unique opportunity to reflect on these seismic events, their causes and consequences, and the core issues facing the region as it moves forward. However, this volume aims to be so much more than a collection of detailed thematic essays on the Arab Revolutions. The central argument and the key contribution of this book are twofold. Firstly, it aims to situate the Arab Revolutions within their broader contextual background, arguing that a unique set of historical events as well as local, regional and global dynamics have converged to provide the catalyst that triggered the recent revolts. Secondly, this book will attempt to situate the events within a new conceptual framework. The argument here is that the Arab Revolutions pose a very specific challenge to conventional wisdom concerning democracy and democratisation in the Middle East.
Melbourne University Press, Australia.
About the Editors:
Fethi Mansouri is director of the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation and holds a chair in Migration and Intercultural Relations, School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University. He is the author and editor of many books. In 2004, his book Lives in Limbo: Voices of Refugees under Temporary Protection was short-listed for the Human Rights Medals and Awards.
Shahram Akbarzadeh is Professor of Asian Politics (Middle East and Central Asia) and Deputy Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at Melbourne University.
Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Discovery (DECRA) Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia.
The Edinburgh Companion to the History of Democracy
Democracy has never been more popular. It is successfully practiced today in a myriad of different ways by people across virtually every cultural, religious or socio-economic context. The forty-five essays collected in this companion suggest that the global popularity of democracy derives in part from its breadth and depth in the common history of human civilization. The chapters include exceptional accounts of democracy in ancient Greece and Rome, modern Europe and America, among peoples’ movements and national revolutions, and its triumph since the end of the Cold War. However, this book also includes alternative accounts of democracy’s history: its origins in prehistoric societies and early city-states, under-acknowledged contributions from China, Africa and the Islamic world, its familiarity to various Indigenous Australians and Native Americans, the various challenges it faces today in South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the latest democratic developments in light of globalization and new technologies, and potential future pathways to a more democratic world. Understanding where democracy comes from, where its greatest successes and most dismal failures lie, is central to democracy’s project of inventing ways to address the need of people everywhere to live in peace, freedom and with a say in the decisions that affect their lives.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
About the Editors:
Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Discovery (DECRA) Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia.
Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics and Discourse
This book proposes a significant reassessment of the history of Iraq, documenting democratic experiences from ancient Mesopotamia through to the US occupation. Such an analysis takes to task claims that the 'West' has a uniquely democratic history and a responsibility to spread democracy across the world. It also reveals that Iraq has a democratic history all of its own, from ancient Middle Eastern assemblies and classical Islamic theology and philosophy, through to the myriad political parties, newspapers and protest movements of more recent times. This book argues that the democratic history of Iraq could serve as a powerful political and discursive tool where the Iraqi people may come to feel a sense of ownership over democracy and take pride in endorsing it. This could go a long way towards mitigating the current conflicts across the nation and in stabilizing and legitimating its troubled democracy.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach and referring to some of the most influential critical theorists to question ideological assumptions about democracy and its history, this book will be useful to those interested in political and legal history, human rights and democracy.
London: Ashgate.
About the Editors:
Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Discovery (DECRA) Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia.
Julia 2010: The caretaker election
This book provides a comprehensive coverage of one of Australia’s most historic elections, which produced a hung parliament and a carefully crafted minority government that remains a heartbeat away from collapse, as well as Australia’s first elected woman Prime Minister and the Australian Greens’ first lower house Member of Parliament.
The volume considers the key contextual and possibly determining factors, such as: the role of leadership and ideology in the campaign; the importance of state and regional factors (was there evidence of the two or three speed economy at work?); and the role of policy areas and issues, including the environment, immigration, religion, gender and industrial relations. Contributors utilise a wide range of sources and approaches to provide comprehensive insights into the campaign. This volume notably includes the perspectives of the major political groupings, the ALP, the Coalition and the Greens; and the data from the Australian Election Survey. Finally we conclude with a detailed analysis of those 17 days that it took to construct a minority party government.
This book is available online.
About the Editors:
John Wanna is the ANZSOG Foundation Professor for the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration based at The Australian National University. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government-business relations. He also writes on state politics and has been a regular state political commentator for the ABC, The Courier-Mail, The Australian, other media outlets and commercial TV. John is also Professor of Public Policy at Griffith University and honorary Professor at the China University of Political Science and Law.
Marian Simms is currently on a leave of absence from Deakin as Executive Director Social Behavioural and Economic Sciences and as Co-ordinator of the Discovery Projects and DECRA Schemes at the Australian Research Council in Canberra and currently retains links with Deakin such as HDR supervision, publishing and journal editing
Catholics and Catholicism in Contemporary Australia: Challenges and Achievements
Over the last 60 years, the Catholic community in Australia has undergone dramatic changes. The outcome of these changes in society and the Church is that today’s Catholic community looks very different from that of the 1950s. Mass attendance rates have fallen; the number of priests, sisters and brothers is declining and their average age is increasing. The relationship between clergy and people has changed. Old forms of devotion like the Rosary have nearly disappeared but there has been a growth of interest in alternative forms of prayer borrowed from a variety of cultures and traditions. An array of leadership roles has been filled by lay people, and lay people (by no means all Catholics) comprise virtually the entire staff at Catholic schools and the majority of students at Catholic theological colleges. Researcher Robert Dixon comments: 'Some Catholics see these changes as a tragedy but most regard them as welcome evidence of a Church prepared to adapt to meet changing circumstances. Yet the changes that have taken place have primarily been changes in rules and practices. The Church's teachings have been re-interpreted in the light of modern understandings of history sociology the sciences and other fields of human endeavour, and then re-expressed in language more suitable for the times.' This project brings together scholarly perspectives from around the country and internationally and across disciplines whereby the authors explore how a stream of spiritualties and identities express themselves. The authors show ways in which the Church and others are engaged in efforts to restructure institutions, beliefs and practices to effect social change.
This is a book for all who are interested in the present status and the possible future direction of the Catholic Church in Australia.
About the Editor:
Abe Ata was born in Bethlehem of Palestinian-Lebanese Christian parents. He graduated in psychology at the American University and was nominated as a delegate to the United Nation's World Youth Assembly in New York. He immigrated to Australia in 1972 and shortly afterwards was employed at Melbourne University where he completed his doctorate in 1980. Since then he has taught in several Australian, American, Jordanian, West Bank and Danish universities and he was an Honorary Fellow at the Australian Catholic University. His publications span 15 books and 95 refereed articles, including The West Bank Palestinian Family (1986), Bereavement and Heath in Australia (1996), Australia's Christian-Muslim intermarriages (2003); Catholic and other Christian Intermarriages in Australia (2005) and Us and Them: Christian Muslim Relations in Australia (2009). Dr Ata is currently a Visiting Research Fellow within the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation.
Muslims in the West and the Challenges of Belonging
Sensational reporting by the media has led to attitudes that racialise Muslims and frame them as potential threats to national security, placing them outside the circle of trustworthy citizenship. Muslims in the West are increasingly confronted with the pressure of conforming to dominant core values and accepting ‘mere tolerance’ from society, or else risk exclusion and even hostility when exercising their rights to maintain diverse cultural norms and religious practices.
Muslims in the West and the Challenges of Belonging offers not only rigourous accounts of current difficulties, but also new thinking and deeper understanding about race relations and intercultural engagement in multicultural societies. It explores the increasing visibility of Muslim migrants in the West and the implications this has for multicultural co-existence, cultural representations, belonging and inclusive citizenship.
Melbourne University Press, Australia.
About the Editors
Fethi Mansouri is director of the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation and holds a chair in Migration and Intercultural Relations, School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University. He is the author and editor of many books. In 2004, his book Lives in Limbo: Voices of Refugees under Temporary Protection was short-listed for the Human Rights Medals and Awards.
Vince Marotta is a senior lecturer in sociology at Deakin University, the managing editor of the Journal of Intercultural Studies and co-convener of the Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism thematic group within the Australian Sociological Association. In 2011 he edited a special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies on virtual ethnicities and co-edited the book Intercultural Relations in a Global World.
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