As migration is described as a problem, mobility is seen as a goal. In a 'Europe without Borders', a place that prides itself on multiculturalism while struggling with racism, two opposing paradigms characterise contemporary discussions surrounding migrants. Breaching Borders: Art, Migrants and the Metaphor of Waste aims to interrogate the familiar debates, evolving new textual and interdisciplinary approaches to European cultural policies and unmasking the assumptions of the essentialist identity politics that go undeclared at the borders of cultural discourse. Twelve leading figures in post-colonial and translation studies, political philosophy, art, radical aesthetics, policy-making and sociology, reflect on the political and cultural meanings of migration; their arguments framed by artworks that provide glimpses of cross-cultural encounters. Essays - including a meditation on "wasted lives" by internationally renowned academic Zygmunt Bauman - explore the challenges of migration, history and integration and attempt to develop radical new figurations of migrant identity, underlining the necessity of an imaginative reach towards "The Other". This book brings together the roles of translation and of art in the central metaphor of waste - the trail of rubbish left behind by mechanisms of mobility; the excised narratives of wasted identities and people.

Through fascinating vignettes and case studies, this unique text illustrates how Yucatecan migrants actively maintain social ties across borders. It also paints a vivid picture of the people and their lives. It places them in the context of current U.S. immigration policy and mesmerizes students by bringing them up to speed on one of the most crucial issues facing the U.S. today.

Florida without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and Global highlights the problems facing women around the world by featuring papers that explore women’s activism across borders regarding gender and human rights, issues regarding women and poverty, globalization, economic value of immigrant labor, militarism and human trafficking. Also discussed are the opportunities and obstacles women face when they act to counter the negative impact of these forces. This anthology is a collection of essays by feminist scholars and students who examine discourses on border crossings, political and cultural censorship, gendered codes of conduct, prescribed behavior for women and the activism that emerges to address identity formation, to advance contested meanings and to build coalitions. Throughout the essays, the authors investigate the concepts of the gendered body in the context of global activism, the uses of women’s bodies in domestic, military, and sexual service, and the breaching of the body’s borders and boundaries in the project of feminist social change.

This collection focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of current biblical studies, especially the interpretation of the Bible through the arts. Its aim is to illustrate how the crossing of boundaries enriches our understanding of the text itself. Contributors include Robert Carroll, Mary Douglas, Wendy Porter, Edward Kessler, Larry Kreitzer, John Hull and Martin O'Kane. The themes embrace literature (Kipling), music (Bach) and art (Holbein). The editor contributes an introduction and an illustrated essay on the Flight into Egypt as an icon of refuge.>

The studies in this volume reveal the personal complexities and ambiguities of crossing borders and boundaries, with a focus on modern East Asia. The authors transcend geography-bound border and migration studies by moving beyond the barriers of national borders.

This book analyses the European border at Lampedusa as a metaphor for visible and invisible powers that impinge on relations between Europe and Africa/Asia. Taking an interdisciplinary approach (political, social, cultural, economic and artistic), it explores the island as a place where social relations based around race, gender, sex, age and class are being reproduced and/or subverted. The authors argue that Lampedusa should be understood as a synecdoche for European borders and boundaries. Widening the classical definition of the term ‘border’, the authors examine the different meanings assigned to the term by migrants, the local population, seafarers and associative actors based on their subjective and embodied experiences. They reveal how migration policies, international relations with African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries, and the perpetuation of new forms of colonization and imperialism entail heavy consequences for the European Union. This work will appeal to a wide readership, from scholars of migration, anthropology and sociology, to students of political science, Italian, African and cultural studies.

Contemporary society has seen an unprecedented rise in both the demand and the desire to be creative, to bring something new into the world. Once the reserve of artistic subcultures, creativity has now become a universal model for culture and an imperative in many parts of society. In this new book, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz investigates how the ideal of creativity has grown into a major social force, from the art of the avant-garde and postmodernism to the ‘creative industries’ and the innovation economy, the psychology of creativity and self-growth, the media representation of creative stars, and the urban design of ‘creative cities’. Where creativity is often assumed to be a force for good, Reckwitz looks critically at how this imperative has developed from the 1970s to the present day. Though we may well perceive creativity as the realization of some natural and innate potential within us, it has rather to be understood within the structures of a very specific culture of the new in late modern society. The Invention of Creativity is a bold and refreshing counter to conventional wisdom that shows how our age is defined by radical and restrictive processes of social aestheticization. It will be of great interest to those working in a variety of disciplines, from cultural and social theory to art history and aesthetics.