Alterity politics

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Anthony P. Cohen

In this book, Matti Hayry shows how philosophers have misunderstood the very nature of utilitarianism since the turn of the nineteenth century and identifies the resulting problems in contemporary utilitarianism. Dr. Hayry argues that when the classical utilitarian principles of happiness, hedonism and impartiality are combined, the ensuing ethical theory may demand that we act immorally or unjustly. This is because the scope of the utilitarian theory has been extended too far. Liberal utilitarianism develops a more limited utilitarian theory which does not imply excessive moral obligations. Matti Hayry works out a system of applied ethics to assist in making moral decisions when liberal utilitarianism cannot be applied because the basic interests of the individuals involved are actually opposed to one another.

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Laura Fair

"The first decades of the twentieth century were years of dramatic change in Zanzibar, a time when the social, economic, and political lives of island residents were in an incredible flux framed by the abolition of slavery, the introduction of colonialism, and a tide of urban migration. Pastimes and Politics explores the era from the perspective of the urban poor, highlighting the numerous and varied ways that recently freed slaves and other immigrants to town struggled to improve their individual and collective lives and to create a sense of community in the new environment. In this study Laura Fair explores a range of cultural and social practices that gave expression to slaves' ideas of emancipation, and describes how such ideas and practices were gendered."--Jacket.

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Hou Hanrue and Gabi Scardi

They cross borders, spanning territories and cultures; wherever they go they gather information and borrow images, styles, and languages. For a variety of reasons, they have left their native soil. They are artists from around the world: from Europe to Southeast Asia, the Middle East to America. What unites them is an intercultural outlook that is not a deliberate choice, but a response to the stimuli and the influences of the different environments in which they have ended up living. Published in conjunction with the exhibition co-organized by the Spazio Oberdan in Milan and the San Francisco Art Institute, Wherever We Go brings together more than fifty works (videos, sculptures, installations, drawings, and photographs) by twenty-three artists from around the world. Challenging any unequivocal or simplistic definition, the works of these artists invite us to reflect on themes of displacement and migration, citizenship and representation. The works convey the complex and stratified character of today's society, and reflect a composite world, with fluid borders and broadened horizons, a world permeated by tensions and anything but at peace in its many components, but one that is culturally rich and fascinating.

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Germano Facetti and Alan Fletcher

"Approach to the complex interaction between the outward identity of the most familiar objects of our environment and some of their underlying symbolic associations. Advertisements, body prints, clothings and cosmetics, food, games, money, marks and signs are not necessarily what they seem ... a remarkable variety of categories--or 'identity kits'--over 280 provocative illustrations expose the ambiguous nature of identity, jog the preconceptions of the mind and eye and hint at the layers of meaning that lie hidden in the visual flotsam of our everyday lives"--Dustjacket.