Books published by Verlag Peter Lang

Drawing from a range of critical perspectives, in particular postcolonial, this book examines the relationship between perceptions of Russia and of Eastern Europe and the making of a ¿Western¿ identity. It explores the ways in which the perception of certain characteristics of Russia and Eastern Europe, whether real or attributed, was shaped by (and used for) the construction of a liberal narrative of the West, which eventually became dominant. The focus of this inquiry is French culture, from the beginning of the debate about Russia among the philosophes (c.1740) to the consolidation of a professional field of Slavic studies (c.1880). A wide range of writing ¿ literature, travel accounts, histories, political tracts, scientific journals, and parliamentary debates ¿ is examined through the work of major authors (from Montesquieu, Diderot and Rousseau to Tocqueville, de Maistre and Guizot, from Mme. de Staël, Hugo and Balzac to Dumas, Michelet and Comte), as well as that of many less well known figures. The book also explores possible continuities between those first academic accounts of Russia and Eastern Europe and present-day scholarship in Europe and the USA, to show that the liberal ideological accounts constructed in the nineteenth century still to a great extent inform contemporary academic studies.

This book is based on papers originally presented at the international conference ¿Activating Human Rights and Diversity¿ held in Australia in 2003. It advances a powerful and convincing affirmation of the importance of human rights in the twenty-first century and explores the vital connections between the theory and practice of human rights. It asks what kind of vision for humanity is necessary, given the harsh realities and challenges of the twenty-first century. Through a range of perspectives ¿ reconciliation, refugees, women, indigenous issues, same-sex sexualities, conflict resolution, environmental degradation, political freedoms and disability ¿ this collection highlights the fact that the survival of humanity depends on our ability to connect a vision with the reality of activating human rights.

This book takes as its starting point the boom femenino or the explosion in publishing by women in Mexico since the 1980s. Powerful changes in women¿s roles in Mexico over the last three decades have resulted in women occupying a position of profound ambivalence with regard to the processes of modernisation. The boom femenino constitutes an integral part of this process of change. By incorporating a variety of critical approaches within a feminist framework, the author argues that Mexican women writers participate in a crucial project of unsettling dominant discourses as they strive for new ways of capturing the ambivalent position of the Mexican women in their texts. The author offers close readings of work by Silvia Molina, Sara Sefchovich, Susana Págano, Brianda Domecq, Guadalupe Loaeza and Rosamaría Roffiel. She also considers the reactions to and reception of best-selling author, Angeles Mastretta, with an assessment of the different vested interests in the world of literature, including those of critics, writers, readers and publishers.

Right across denominational boundaries lay theology is dominated by negatives: the laity simply defined as the non-ordained, the alleged exclusion of the laity from full participation, the sole focus on what they cannot or should not do, and, above all, the total absence of an ecumenical lay theology. In a unique approach, this volume sets out to find ways of overcoming these negatives so predominant in current lay theology. The author explores positions and perspectives put forward in Roman Catholic theology from Vatican II up to the present. These are compared and contrasted with concepts and suggestions of present-day Anglican Theology as well as with those of liberative theologies in Latin America and Asia. Rethinking the content, language, and metaphors of lay theology, in the final part of this volume the author proposes a new image for discussing the Church, a model focusing on the interdependence and collaboration of all the people in the Church. This is then used to sketch out the framework for a new type of lay theology. Imbedded in ecclesiology, in the concept of all believers together being the Church, the author endeavours to suggest a lay theology that is indeed positive, ecumenical and universal.

This volume summarises the academic work accomplished at the 6 International Security Forum (ISF), convened by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces from 4 to 6 October 2004 at the Montreux Convention Centre, Switzerland. It presents a thematic overview of 150 presentations given at the 6 ISF, either as full-length keynote speeches in the two plenary sessions or in the form of summaries of all speeches given in the six topic sessions and the 24 workshops. The topics discussed respond to the complex new challenges of the post Cold War world with an integrated, multilateral and interdisciplinary approach. The experts contributing to the success of the ISF covered, among other issues, the need for UN Reform, EU and NATO enlargement, Human Security and International Humanitarian Law, the global War on Terror, the role of Private Military Companies, Combating Violence against Women and Children and Security Sector Governance.

This book explores the gap that has developed between two sides in linguistics: the formal tradition and the functional tradition. It discusses fundamental issues such as tense, aspect and action by examining and comparing insights from the two traditions with a view to determining whether there are any possibilities of future bridge-building between the two approaches. This study focuses on comparing the actual output of different linguistic approaches and examines their ¿usefulness¿. A major aim is, therefore, to evaluate and identify the most useful approach.