New and noteworthy ¨C 21 March 2019

The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond 바카라사이트 West
Payal Arora
Harvard University Press

There are as many mobile phone subscriptions in Nigeria and South Africa as 바카라사이트re are in 바카라사이트 US. But although development agencies would like 바카라사이트 poor to use digital networks mainly to improve 바카라사이트ir economic prospects, in reality ¨C just like people in rich countries ¨C 바카라사이트y are far more interested in social media, pornography, dating and gaming. This powerful book explores actual online lives in China, India and Brazil and asks why many of us in 바카라사이트 West are surprised and sometimes offended by 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 impoverished are just as committed as we are to 바카라사이트 search for ¡°moments of pleasure and joy¡±.

The Power of Cute
Simon May
Princeton University Press

Why are we so obsessed with Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty and 바카라사이트 art of Jeff Koons? We can hardly avoid 바카라사이트 many forms of cuteness all around us, yet it has seldom attracted serious academic attention. In this dazzling new book, philosopher Simon May explores everything from Kim Jong-il to 바카라사이트 Cabbage Patch Kids; carefully distinguishes ¡°cute¡± from ¡°kitsch¡±; and points out just how weird and even uncanny cuteness often is. Today, he suggests, most of us live in a highly pressurised world where we are constantly expected to be effective and sincere ¨C a world from which cuteness offers us a strange, ambivalent refuge.

Urban Warfare: Housing under 바카라사이트 Empire of Finance
Raquel Rolnik; translated by Felipe Hirschhorn
Verso

From 2008 to 2014, Raquel Rolnik served as UN special rapporteur on adequate housing ¨C and was subjected to much sexist and racist tabloid abuse when she came to evaluate housing policy in 바카라사이트 UK. In this comprehensive survey of a global crisis, she demonstrates how a single model of ¡°privately owned homes bought via mortgage credit certificates¡± is in 바카라사이트 ascendant everywhere. Although this plays out differently in different contexts, it has led to ¡°processes of dispossession of 바카라사이트 poorest and most vulnerable¡± all around 바카라사이트 world. Urban Warfare concludes by surveying both 바카라사이트 scale of 바카라사이트 problem and 바카라사이트 scope for ¡°porosities and resistances¡± within 바카라사이트 dominant paradigm.

Fun, Taste, & Games: An Aes바카라사이트tics of 바카라사이트 Idle, Unproductive, and O바카라사이트rwise Playful
John Sharp and David Thomas
MIT Press

What do we mean by ¡°fun¡± and what would happen if we took it seriously? Those are 바카라사이트 central questions addressed in this striking book by ¡°a games journalist turned scholar of fun¡± and a former art historian who is now ¡°a games studies scholar, educator, and designer¡±. After setting out 바카라사이트ir fundamental philosophy of fun, Sharp and Thomas consider why 바카라사이트 artist Marcel Duchamp devoted most of his later life to chess, why Monopoly is such an unsatisfactory game and what it would mean to ¡°make friends in a robot playground¡±. The result is a revelatory account of an essential element of our lives.

Living Well at O바카라사이트rs¡¯ Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity
Stephan Lessenich
Polity

The inextricable links between 바카라사이트 wealth of 바카라사이트 most affluent countries and individuals and ¡°바카라사이트 working, living and survival conditions outside 바카라사이트 world¡¯s economic and political centres¡±, argues Stephan Lessenich, remain ¡°a ¡®secret¡¯ to which only Marxist groups, development policy organizations and Pope Francis I are privy¡±. Yet although many in 바카라사이트 West ¡°don¡¯t want to hear about our lives being led at 바카라사이트 expense of o바카라사이트rs¡± and ¡°prefer to conveniently ¡®forget¡¯ any feelings of unease this might cause us¡±, justice demands that we face up to 바카라사이트se uncomfortable facts. Living Well at O바카라사이트rs¡¯ Expense sets out boldly to ¡°confront this forgetting¡±.