The book offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on various aspects of precariousness in contemporary culture and society, concentrating on the topographical aspects of sources and causes of uncertainty and anxiety. Precariousness and precarity are themselves provisional and uncertain categories, though ones inviting to rethinking the scopes of precarity and precariousness from the perspective of locality and of places involved in their otherwise global range. The recent years have shown some ways in which precarity has changed its status and has become a strongly debated area not only in economic and political disputes, but also in philosophical debates and various fields of research related to cultural studies. The articles included in the volume address the spatial scope of anxieties and uncertainties involving numerous men and women affected by the several decades of the neoliberal insistence on various kinds of flexibility which, in turn, has put in motion numerous new mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization. Apart from this, a historical view on the making of precarious places is also offered in the pages of the book.

This book explores relationships between war, displacement and city-making. Focusing on people seeking refuge in Somali cities after being forced to migrate by violence, environmental shocks or economic pressures, it highlights how these populations are actively transforming urban space. Using first-hand testimonies and participatory photography by urban in-migrants, the book documents and analyses the micropolitics of urban camp management, evictions and gentrification, and the networked labour of displaced populations that underpins growing urban economies. Central throughout is a critical analysis of how the discursive figure of the ‘internally displaced person’ is co-produced by various actors. The book argues that this label exerts significant power in structuring socio-economic inequalities and the politics of group belonging within different Somali cities connected through protracted histories of conflict-related migration.

Using rich ethnographic detail, Precarious Modernities offers an immersive account of the multiple scales and entangled actors involved in the objectification and instrumentalization of Casablanca's margins as part of ongoing and contingent processes of 'modernization'. Focusing on the everyday lives and spaces of a mythicized community, and its interaction with heritage activists, international development agendas and technocratic planning regimes, the book documents how the depoliticization of the urban margins aids the consolidation of deeply unequal social, spatial, and economic orders. The result is a unique account of the political continuities, security logics, economic ideologies and competing forces that shape the possibilities open to precarious communities in a storied and sprawling metropolis. As marginalized inhabitants develop pragmatic ways of appropriating or resisting powerful agendas, unanticipated and novel forms of political engagement emerge. These signal the revival and reconfiguration of notions of class and open up creative and alternative spatial avenues for participation in an era of increasing authoritarianisms.

These landmark essays on the prophet Jeremiah allow us to hear the prophet's voice as an urgent message in our own day. The contents include: Listening for the Prophetic Word Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet The Book of Jeremiah: Meditation upon the Abyss Recent Scholarship: Intense Criticism, Thin Interpretation Jeremiah's Use of Rhetorical Questions An Ending That Does Not End Theology in Jeremiah: Creatio in extremis Next Steps in Jeremiah Studies Hearing the Word in Exile The Prophetic Word of God and History A Second Reading of Jeremiah after the Dismantling A Shattered Transcendence: Exile and Restoration A "Characteristic" Reflection on What Comes Next Haunting Book--Haunted People Carrying Forward the Prophetic Task Prophetic Ministry A World Available for Peace God's Relentless "If" When Jerusalem Gloats over Shiloh Why Prophets Won't Leave Well Enough Alone.

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the eleventh century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthralls with its lively gossip, witty observations, and subtle impressions. Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji, fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature, conversation, poetry, and many other subjects, The Pillow Book is an intimate look at the experiences and outlook of the Heian upper class, further enriched by Ivan Morris's extensive notes and critical contextualization.

"Faith or Gullibility?" was originally written in answer to the author's many friends who asked why he was no longer attending church but, as time passed and his studies revealed more and more anomalies in religious beliefs around the world, it became very obvious that religious deception was rampant in all doctrines. This was nowhere more obvious that in the political environments in which those doctrines were originally conceived where necessity demanded some sort of unified stance by different groups of people. Much more than today, where technology can provide answers, in past centuries, naturally gifted leaders needed convincing stories to persuade the masses to act in harmony to achieve the best outcomes and so those people were, in that environment, lauded as "prophets" and even credited with what became known as "divine inspiration" although, in actual fact, their leading was nothing more than intelligent use of their own intellects. Nowhere was this more evident than in cases where their prophesies directly contradicted the laws of physics under the name of "miracles." A principal problem with this was that, when those so-called prophets expounded their ideas, scientific knowledge was almost non-existent so that rank-and-file people readily accepted them and passed them down from generation to generation - often by word-of-mouth because illiteracy was far more prevalent that it is in modern developed countries. However, with increased knowledge, human wisdom (the sagacious application of knowledge) has increased exponentially beyond all reckoning amongst open-minded people of all religions to the point where it is no longer possible to justify those outdated beliefs when they are rationalised against the immutable laws of physics. This is particularly so when one considers that the entire universe (and, in fact, many universes) were all "made" without a single physical law being broken. As studies become more and more logical, it become more and more apparent that the main reason for religious beliefs (whatever they may be) is insecurity where human nature cannot accept that life is a finite thing. People cling tenaciously to any doctrine that promises any sort of immortality whether it makes any sense or not and so the purpose of this book increasingly became changed from a mere answer to personal questions to an in-depth study of religious mythology and deception.

In post-industrial societies more and more people earn an income in creative knowledge work, a highly flexible labour market segment that demands a geographically mobile workforce. Creative knowledge work is based on an understanding of language, culture and symbolic meanings. This can best be obtained through local and national embeddedness. Yet, this necessity for embeddedness stands in contrast to the demand in geographical mobility. How is this contradiction solved by individuals? What new forms of place attachment does this bring about? This book introduces a showcase of 25 multilocal creative knowledge workers, who live in different countries at the same time. It investigates how continuous mobility becomes part of their lifeworld, and how it changes their feelings of belonging and practices of place attachment. Applying an innovative methodological mix of social phenomenology, hermeneutics and mental mapping, this book takes a detailed look at biographies and the role of places in mobile lifeworlds. Plug&Play Places brings forth the idea that places have to be understood as individual items, which are configured and then plugged into the ‘system’ of the own lifeworld. They can be ‘played’ without great effort once an individual needs to make use of them. This new type of place attachment is a form of subjective standardization of place, which complements the well-known models of objective standardization of places. Plug&Play Places is relevant for scientists who deal with mobility and its impact on individual lifeworlds, with transnational multilocality and with flexibilized labour markets. Furthermore, the book provides a detailed qualitative perspective which can enrich the explanations of quantitative research in the same field. It is an interesting reading also for practitioners engaged in urban planning, housing and real estate development. Robert Nadler holds a doctoral degree in Urban and Local European Studies from the University of Milan-Bicocca. He is a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography and published on creative industries, multilocality and labour mobility.