Backpackers have shifted from the margins of the travel industry into the global spotlight. This volume explores the international backpacker phenomenon, drawing together different disciplinary perspectives on its meaning, impact and significance. Links are drawn between theory and practice, setting backpacking in its wider social, cultural and economic context.

Nation, Culture, Text is the first collection of work in cultural studies from Australia, selected and introduced for an international readership. Participating in the `de-centering' of cultural studies–considering what perspectives non-Europeans or Americans have to offer–the contributors raise important issues about the role of a national tradition of critical theory, and about the cultural specificity of theory itself.
Contributors: Tony Bennett, Stuart Cunningham, Ross Gibson, Pam Gilbert, Helen Grace, Ian Hunter, Elizabeth Jacka, Eric Michaels, Meaghan Morris, Virginia Nightingale, Tom O'Regan, Noel Sanders, John and Marian Tulloch.

In this monograph the narrow topology on random probability measures on Polish spaces is investigated in a thorough and comprehensive way. As a special feature, no additional assumptions on the probability space in the background, such as completeness or a countable generated algebra, are made. One of the main results is a direct proof of the random analog of the Prohorov theorem, which is obtained without invoking an embedding of the Polish space into a compact space. Further, the narrow topology is examined and other natural topologies on random measures are compared. In addition, it is shown that the topology of convergence in law - which relates to the 'statistical equilibrium' - and the narrow topology are incompatible. A brief section on random sets on Polish spaces provides the fundamentals of this theory. In a final section, the results are applied to random dynamical systems to obtain existence results for invariant measures on compact random sets as well as uniformity results in the individual ergodic theorem.

'A valuable contribution to the study of dress and identity and … a thought-provoking and interesting read.' Contemporary Sociology '(This book) is well worth dipping into since it raises some important questions and seeks to examine areas that are rarely discussed in academic texts.' Costume 'An excellent resource for students interested in issues surrounding clothing and identity. Its accessibility and the inclusion of wide-ranging topics are likely to ensure a broader readership.' Feminism and Psychology

'Very impressive. Every paper is well written, refreshing, and interesting These authors are doing something new and worthwhile Any sociologist with an interest in either embodiment or fashion will find more than enough of interest here.' American Journal of Sociology –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"It is hard for me to praise this book sufficiently… It is a major contribution to the field of Oaxacan/Mexican studies, as well as economic anthropology and the study of tourism and crafts." Arthur Murphy, Georgia State University, coauthor of Social Inequality in Oaxaca: A History of Resistance and Change

'This book should find its way not only into introductory courses .. but into the libraries of journalists, critics, and theologians.' – Journal of Contemporary Religion
'This book should find its way not only into introductory courses in sociology or anthropology, but into the libraries of journalists, critics, and theologians who wish to find out who is living what Durkheim called 'la vie serieuse'. To examine the sacred, it is always a good idea to begin with the vestments.' Journal of Contemporary Religion

This text should enable Westerners to establish more productive and rewarding relationships with Chinese people, both inside and outside the People's Republic. It provides a practical cross-cultural analysis of Chinese culture along with insights into how best to interact with the Chinese.

'[Home Possessions] presents a series of themes indicative of a key shift in the study of material culture and the home, placing the material agency of the home firmly on the agenda for futre empirical and theoretical work on the home. It should be popular amongst undergraduates and is important reading for any researcher working in this area.' Anthropological Theory

How does culture shape notions of sexuality and gender? Why are transvestites in the West so often seen as "deviant" or "perverse," while they are accepted in other societies? Is transvestism motivated primarily by sex or gender? What are the implications for the categories of "male" and "female" when considering transvestism? Unzipping Gender compares transvestism across cultures and considers how emotion, mythology, imagery, and beliefs influence ideas about sex and gender. Suthrell challenges the straightforward binary divide that dominates Western theories of gender. She argues that sex and gender are really so closely connected that we need a more sophisticated response to the complex practice of transvestism. In order to gain a deeper understanding of sex and gender issues, it is imperative to examine underlying social and symbolic structures. This unique study across cultures leads the way.

Anyone who assumes that a car is simply a means to get from point A to point B, or who even thinks that they know what a car is, should read this book. Profoundly shaped by culture, the car gives rise to a wide range of emotions, from guilt about the environment in the UK to aboriginal concerns with car "corpses," to struggles to keep the creatures "alive" with everything but the proper spare parts in West Africa. Cars and their landscapes prove central to human life from its most intimate to the widest sense of global crisis, and are capable of inspiring epic passions.
From road rage in Western Europe to the struggles of cab driving in Africa to the emergence of Black identity in the US, this book examines the essential humanity of the car, which includes the jealousies, gender differences, fears and moralities that cars give rise to. Firmly grounded in detailed ethnographic and historical scholarship, this is the first book to provide an informed sense of cars as one of the most ubiquitous and significant forms of material culture.

In a knowledge-driven economy, those without at least a high school diploma will be far more limited in their work prospects than those with one. But scholars and educators disagree on the rate of graduation in U.S. high schools. Some new statistics seriously understate minority graduation rates and fail to reflect the tremendous progress in the last few decades in closing the black-white and the Hispanic-white graduation gaps. Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends analyzes the current sources of available data on high school completion and dropout rates and finds that, while graduation rates need much improvement, they are higher, and getting better.

”Offers a new framework to examine selfhood and self identity in the context of immigration.”
- India New England
”Effectively blends identity theory and ethnography to examine the immigrant experience of first-generation, professional Indians. Provoking reflection on the racial dynamics and identity politics of American society, this work goes a long way towards humanizing what it means to be an immigrant in the United States.”
- Cynthia Lightfoot, Penn State University, Delaware County

Prior to 1735, South America was largely terra incognita to many Europeans. But that year, the Paris Academy of Sciences sent a joint French and Spanish mission to the Spanish American province of Quito (in present-day Ecuador) to study the curvature of the Earth at the Equator—an expedition that would put South America on the map and in the minds of Europeans for centuries to come. Equipped with quadrants and telescopes, the mission’s participants referred to the transfer of scientific knowledge from Europe to the Andes as a “sacred fire” passing mysteriously through European astronomical instruments to curious observers in South America.
By looking at the social and material traces of this expedition, Measuring the New World examines the transatlantic flow of knowledge in reverse—from West to East. Through ephemeral monuments and geographical maps, from the Andes to the Amazon River, the book explores how the social and cultural worlds of South America contributed to the production of European scientific knowledge during the Enlightenment. Neil Safier uses the notebooks of traveling philosophers, including Charles-Marie de La Condamine and others, as well as maps and specimens from the expedition, to place this particular scientific endeavor in the larger context of early modern print culture and the emerging intellectual category of scientist as author.