At the heart of 21st century discourses are questions of whose lives may matter more than others. While the debates themselves are not new, the #hashtags they are linked to and the media through which concerns around moralities of living together are expressed allow for debates to reach large numbers of people in accelerated, individualised and accessible ways. The new media have been powerful in (re)igniting debates and (re)activating demands for social change. Yet, the focus of ubiquitous #hashtags on binary positions may render it easy to neglect their nuances and facets. In recognition of grey-zones, contradictions and ambiguities, this ethnography focuses on a suburb of Cape Town, Observatory, and its recently revived Neighbourhood Watch as an urban renewal project and attempt to decrease notions of vulnerability to crime and violence. In Observatory – considered to be liberal and bohemian by its inhabitants – the framing of topics within the Neighbourhood Watch group often take on an abstract, intellectualised form. Nevertheless, the group with its rather clashing ideals is grounded in and fuelled by recycled crime stories as well as snapshots of suspected criminals that continue to reappear via various social media channels. Individual experiences, stories and inner conflicts of local Neighbourhood Watch members are at the centre of this exploratory engagement with how fear becomes embodied, everyday practice and the ways in which desires for relationality and spatial exclusivity become entangled in a place where every life matters only in principle.

This inter-disciplinary edited volume critically examines the dynamics of the War on Terror, focusing on the theme of the politics of response. The book explores both how responses to terrorism - by politicians, authorities and the media - legitimise particular forms of sovereign politics, and how terrorism can be understood as a response to global inequalities, colonial and imperial legacies, and the dominant idioms of modern politics. The investigation is made against the backdrop of the 7 July 2005 bombings in London and their aftermath, which have gone largely unexamined in the academic literature to date. The case offers a provocative site for analysing the diverse logics implicated in the broader context of the War on Terror, for examining how terrorist events are framed, and how such framings serve to legitimise particular policies and political practices.

Egypt came to govern Gaza as a result of a war, a failed effort to maintain Arab Palestine. Throughout the twenty years of its administration (1948–1967), Egyptian policing of Gaza concerned itself not only with crime and politics, but also with control of social and moral order. Through surveillance, interrogation, and a network of local informants, the police extended their reach across the public domain and into private life, seeing Palestinians as both security threats and vulnerable subjects who needed protection. Security practices produced suspicion and safety simultaneously. Police Encounters explores the paradox of Egyptian rule. Drawing on a rich and detailed archive of daily police records, the book describes an extensive security apparatus guided by intersecting concerns about national interest, social propriety, and everyday illegality. In pursuit of security, Egyptian policing established a relatively safe society, but also one that blocked independent political activity. The repressive aspects of the security society that developed in Gaza under Egyptian rule are beyond dispute. But repression does not tell the entire story about its impact on Gaza. Policing also provided opportunities for people to make claims of government, influence their neighbors, and protect their families.

We're made for relationships of trust, but today's cultural insanities fuel suspicions and relational insecurities. We love the fun of our screens, but their images are poisoning our perceptions and loves in the real world. Using case studies from the author's counseling practice, combined with the latest media research, How Did Love Become A Reality Show? provides psychological and cultural keys to understand our social disintegration. What role does our environment of powerful brain stimulation by electronic screens play as it interacts with human vulnerabilities? How do we get back to reality? "It's analysis of the problems in marital (and other) relationships today is based on a truly profound Christian understanding of human psychology combined with a fascinating analysis of how our mass media culture exacerbates age-old problems, it's Paul Tournier meets Marshall McLuhan." Harold Fickett CEO of Scenes Media, LLC This book is a cultural and relationship survival guide for the 21st century.

Come Again to the Circle features the wisdom and reflections of forty diverse Christian leaders from around the US. These leaders are working to faithfully facilitate the conversations that broke open during the pandemic and to leverage the learnings from the era of COVID for what lies ahead. Their stories, perspectives, and actions will provide reference points and first steps for congregations discerning the commitments and contours of their own futures. COVID-19 pulled the curtain back on the realities in the church and the broader society. Grief and massive uncertainty of recent years especially have created a pervasive, albeit misguided, nostalgia that has sent many congregations scurrying to return to the congregational life of pre-March 2020. At the same time, many people are evaluating the value added by their church participation and whether and how they will resume their religious activities. Come Again to the Circle focuses on the church transcending COVID, on being the church beyond COVID rather than a church defined by it. These leaders name themes, opportunities, and strategies to show us the way.

Literacy Teacher Educators: Preparing Teachers for a Changing World brings together the perspectives of 26 literacy/English teacher educators from four countries: Canada, U.S., UK, and Australia. In this unique text the contributors, of whom many are renowned experts in critical literacy and multiliteracies, provide readers with an overview of trends in literacy/English teacher education. The chapters begin with authors’ personal stories and current research, giving readers insight into the personal and professional worlds of the contributors. Included in each chapter is a rich description of approaches to literacy instruction in teacher education. These exemplary teacher educators show in concrete detail how they are addressing our evolving understanding of literacy . This timely text, written in a highly engaging style, will be of value to teacher educators throughout the world. I have never read anything quite like this book. It contains explicit representations of the conceptual frames and work of distinguished literacy teacher educators at various stages in their careers, accounts that provide a strong counter-narrative to the mainstream discourse in policy and education, that fully embrace the uncertainties and complexities of practice." From the Forward by Susan L. Lytle, Professor Emerita of Education in the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania