The Linguistic Carnival of Thought: Comparative Philosophy and the Dynamics of Language argues that the practice of philosophizing is significantly influenced by linguistic structures. Against the widespread view that all languages are reducible to the same matrix on a deep-structural level, Rein Raud presents ample evidence to the contrary, demonstrating how different strategies of predication, postulation, negation, individuation, and so on vary greatly and present incompatible ...

The effect of Japan on the challenges and complexities of the modernisation process that globalisation has brought to the fore in Asia are the subject of this interdisciplinary volume by leading scholars in the field. Using fascinating examples drawn from current business and organisational practice in Asia, it focuses on the impact that Japanese modernity has made in Asia as a model to be imitated because of its apparent success in adopting western technologies while retaining its own cul...

In this spaghetti western, a mysterious man arrives in a corrupt town seeking revenge for his "sister" and upends everything.

From Estonia's most celebrated children's author Eno Raud, comes a spirited tale of the wise, turned utterly foolish Gothamites, on a journey to capture light, solve riddles, and make sense of the world without a "grain of wisdom." Through Pritt Parn's brilliant and overflowing illustrations, the world of Gotham bounds beyond each page.In a faraway land live a bright, industrious people called the Gothamites. They are known for being model citizens, so much so that...

Semiotics provides key analytical tools to understand the creation and reproduction of meaning in social life. Although some fields have productively incorporated semiotic models, sociology still needs to engage with semiotic mediation.Written by a diverse group of authors in interpretive sociology, this ambitious volume asks what the relationship between meaning systems and action is, how we can describe culture and which roles we assign to language, social processes and cognition...

A touching and profound tale of friendship, differences, and acceptance from renowned Estonian children’s author and illustrator Piret Raud.On the sandy shore of a big sea lived a bird named Ellie who had no voice.“Everything else has a voice,” Ellie thought sadly. “The trees rustle. The waves crash. Even the rain sings when it falls.”“I’m the only one who can’t make a sound.”Ellie felt tears well up in her eyes? That’s how sad she was to be voiceless.

This thoughtful spy novel cum love story is set mainly in Estonia during the dying days of the Soviet Union, but also in Russia, Finland and Sweden. A group of young pro-independence dissidents devise an elaborate scheme for smuggling copies of KGB files out of the country, and their fates become entangled, through family and romantic ties, with the security services never far behind them. Through multiple viewpoints the author evokes the curious minutiae of everyday life, offers wry obser...

Japan is arguably today's most successful industrial economy, combining almost unprecedented affluence with social stability and apparent harmony. Japanese goods and cultural products are consumed all over the world, ranging from animated movies and computer games all the way through to cars, semiconductors, and management techniques. In many ways, Japan is an icon of the modern world, and yet it remains something of an enigma to many, who see it as a confusing montage of the alien and the...

In this first issue of The Vampire Mysteries, Cassandra Dubois, a young vampire, recounts the things that led to the death of her parents, revealing a terrible plot that threatens to destroy both the vampire and human worlds. But just as she finds some of the answers in her father's journal, she is set upon by an unknown assailant whom she, and her toad companion, pursue to places unknown.

This fascinating study examines the discourse of science in Japan from the 1920s to the 1940s in relation to nationalism and imperialism. How did Japan, with Shinto creation mythology at the absolute core of its national identity, come to promote the advancement of science and technology? Using what logic did wartime Japanese embrace both the rationality that denied and the nationalism that promoted this mythology?Focusing on three groups of science promoters—technocrats, Marxists,...

Rethinking Democracy is an insightful and reflective monograph on democracy in general and Indian democracy in particular. In this work, Rajni Kothari revisits the core arguments he has laid down in his various writings in the past four decadesPolitics in India, State Against Democracy, Communalism in India, etc. While revisiting his writings, Kothari reflects, interrogates and even contests some of his earlier formulations on democracy, state and civil society, developing a new paradigm on t...