Stanford University Press Blog

With the Publication of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Six, SUP and the Zohar Education Project Reach Mid-Point of Monumental Undertaking

Coming soon: next month marks both the publication of  The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Six (Stanford University Press and the Zohar Education Project, Inc., $55.00) and the midpoint of a monumental project: the authoritative new English translation of the masterpiece of the Jewish mystical tradition. The 12-volume Zohar: Pritzker Edition, translation and commentary by Daniel C. Matt, is based on a newly constructed critical text—the only modern text that draws on many variants in the early Aramaic manuscripts—and brings a hidden  treasure of Western Culture to lay readers, spiritual seekers, scholars and the Jewish community. 

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique, lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a fascinating mystical commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.  In it a group of rabbis wander the hills of Galilee, discovering and sharing secrets of Torah, interpreting the actions of biblical figures while encountering various astonishing characters.

This sixth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition completes the Zohar's commentary on the book of Exodus. Some of the volume focuses on the Dwelling (or mishkan) built by Moses and the Israelites in the Sinai Desert. The mishkan symbolizes Shekhinah, the feminine presence of God who "dwells" on earth. The construction of the mishkan is intended to ensure Her intimacy with the people—and especially with Moses, who is actually called Her husband.

The dramatic episode of the Golden Calf receives special treatment. The worship of the calf is seen as a rejection of Shekhinah. Normally, She would have restrained the wrath of God's masculine aspect and prevented Him from striking Israel; but having been rejected, She instead departed, leaving the people vulnerable. Whereupon the blessed Holy One hinted to Moses that it was up to him to defend Israel from divine destruction. By invoking the three patriarchs, Moses pinned God's arms, as it were, and immobilized Him, saving his people.

Translating this keystone of Kabbalah presented enormous challenges for Daniel C. Matt, who is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Jewish mysticism. Not only was there no complete, reliable manuscript of the Zohar in the original Aramaic in existence anywhere in the world, but in all likelihood, none ever existed. Though the precise history of the Zohar is still shrouded in mystery, it is known to have originally circulated in fragments as a series of pamphlets or notebooks. Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon is thought to be the main creative force behind the Zohar, writing much of it himself, perhaps parts in collaboration with other Kabbalists. No complete Zohar existed until the middle of the 16th century, nearly 300 years later, when the booklets were gathered and printed as a single work in Italy. Unfortunately, the editors of the printed versions of the Zohar often rejected or revised original readings in the earlier handwritten manuscripts.

To prepare his translation, Daniel Matt had to pore over surviving Aramaic manuscripts and compare variant readings.  He has sought to restore both the content and lyrical flavor of the original, and has scraped away centuries of scribal errors and editorial doctoring of the text. As the reviews for the first two volumes indicate, Daniel Matt has produced the most authoritative translation we have ever had of the Zohar—a literal yet poetic rendering that is worthy of this mystical masterpiece.

Features that distinguish THE ZOHAR: PRITZKER EDITION:

• The first English translation of the Zohar by a recognized academic scholar.

• The only modern edition that goes directly to the source, unearthing many of the major surviving manuscripts in the original language. Working with these, Daniel Matt was able to produce, in addition to the translation and commentary, the first modern critical, authoritative Aramaic text of the Zohar (available here).

• It restores the sacred passion of the original, much of which was censored out by the genteel prose of the old English translation. A luxuriant garden of holy eros, the Zohar overflows with love between the souls of Israel and Shekhinah (God’s lovely bride), and especially between the male and female aspects of God.

• It is faithful to the literal content of the Zohar yet true to the lush imagery and colorful poetic voice of the original.

• It provides a running commentary side by side with the text that makes the mysteries of the Zohar accessible to the reader. The old English translation composed in the 1930s offers no running commentary, leaving the reader without any help in penetrating the Zohar’s unique terminology, multiple meanings, cryptic connotations, and esoteric symbolism.

• It corrects misunderstandings of the text, restoring terms and even entire sections that were omitted from the old English translation because they were unfamiliar or difficult.

 About Daniel C. Matt 

Daniel C. Matt is a leading authority on Jewish mysticism.  For over twenty years, he served as Professor of Jewish Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.  He has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  He has published numerous books, including The Essential Kabbalah; Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment; Zohar: Annotated and Explained; and God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality.  Matt spent the years 1998-2002 in Jerusalem working on this translation and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

THE ZOHAR: PRITZKER EDITION

Translation and Commentary by Daniel C. Matt

Volume One: 536 pages - $49.95 - ISBN 0-8047-4747-4

Volume Two: 496 pages - $49.95 - ISBN: 0-8047-4868-3

Volume Three: 600 pages - $49.95 - ISBN: 0-8047-5210-7

Volume Four: 592 pages - $55.00 – ISBN: 0-8047-5712-7

Volume Five: 656 pages - $55.00 – ISBN: 0-8047-6219-8

Volume Six: 472 pages - $55.00 – ISBN: 0-8047-7663-6

 See also:  A Guide to the Zohar, by Arthur Green, $17.95 – ISBN: 0-8047-4908-6

 

The projected Volumes VII-IX will complete the Zohar's main commentary on the Torah. Volumes X-XII will include the Zohar's commentary on various other books of the Bible (such as Ruth and Song of Songs) as well as several independent compositions.

Stanford Announces Re-Launch of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche!

 
With the publication this September of Dawn: Thought on the Presumptions of Morality (volume 5 in the series; translated by Brittain Smith, afterword by Keith Ansell-Pearson $21.95 paper/$65 cloth), Stanford University Press resumes publication of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, the first complete, critical, and annotated English edition of all of Nietzsche's work. Begun in 1995 and on hiatus for over a decade, the series, organized originally by Ernst Behler and Bernd Magnus, is a translation of the celebrated Kritische Studienausgabe in 15 Bänden (1980) edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari.   

 In addition to corrected editions of all of Nietzsche’s published works, the series will also include his early unpublished writings while a Professor of Philology at the University of Basel; his notebooks for his published works, with preliminary drafts and variants; and the complete notebooks from his final years, much of which material was never reworked by Nietzsche into a published form. Each of the volumes will include the annotations and complete editorial apparatus provided by Colli and Montinari, supplemented by additional notes incorporating the latest findings of Nietzsche research. The translations, by a team of Germanists and Nietzsche scholars, have all been examined by the series editors to assure translation consistency across volumes, and have been carefully cross-referenced and indexed. Once complete, the translations in this series are likely to become the scholarly standard for all subsequent English-language Nietzsche scholarship.

 About the series editors: 

Alan D. Schrift is F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair at Grinnell College.  Duncan Large is Professor of Modern Languages at Swansea University.

 The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche IN NINETEEN VOLUMES: 

I           The Birth of Tragedy/Unpublished Basel Writings 1870–1873

2          Unfashionable Observations I–IV   1995

3          Human, All Too Human I/A Book For Free Spirits, 1997

4          Human, All Too Human II/Unpublished Fragments: Spring 1878–November 1879

5          Dawn: Thoughts on the Presumptions of Morality, 2011

6          The Gay Science/Idylls from Messina/Unpublished Fragments: Spring 1881–Summer 1882

7          Thus Spoke Zarathustra

8          Beyond Good and Evil/On the Genealogy of Morals 

9          The Case of Wagner/Twilight of the Idols/The Antichristian/Ecce Homo/Dionysus-Dithyrambs/Nietzsche ontra Wagner

10        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of The Birth of Tragedy (Fall 1869–Spring 1872)

11        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of Unfashionable Observations (Summer 1872–End 1874), 1999

12        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of Human, All Too Human (Beginning 1875–Winter 1877/78)

13        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of Dawn (Beginning 1880–Spring 1881)

14        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (I: July 1882–Winter 1883/84)

15        Unpublished Fragments: From the Period of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (II: Spring 1884–Winter 1884/85)

16        Unpublished Fragments: April 1885–Spring 1886

17        Unpublished Fragments: Summer 1886–Fall 1887

18        Unpublished Fragments: November 1887–Beginning January 1889

19        Editors’ Afterwords/Chronology of Nietzsche's Life/General Index

 

Big Media has weighed in...what do you think?

For the past 10 days, the media has been all over Dick Cheney's new memoir, In My Time.  TV and radio talking heads, political and opinion columnists, bloggers and book reviewers: all express points of view ranging somewhere along a wide spectrum between the two extremes perhaps best exemplified by the Washington Post Book World's thrashing and the Wall Street Journal's rave.    

No matter where on the spectrum those points of view fall, each pays substantial attention to Cheney's depiction of his relationship with President G.W. Bush during their eight years in the White House.  Now that both key players in the Bush administration have published their memoirs, the time is right for a more, erm, objective consideration of that partnership. 

We suggest Shirley Anne Warshaw's highly acclaimed The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney.  Pronounced "masterful" by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show," and "provocative and valuable" by Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today, The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney is a critical tool to anyone wishing to form a complete historical picture of what happened during that  critical administration, and what it means of us and the world moving forward. 

 

 

Not a Cinderella Story: The Long Road to a Japanese World Cup Victory

When Japan’s Women’s National soccer team—or “Nadeshiko Japan”—bested the greatly-favored United States team in the World Cup Final on July 17th in Frankfurt, Germany, it was one of several “firsts” achieved by the skillful and inspiring team. In truly timely fashion, it was the first time Japan had ever beaten the Americans in a total of twenty-six meetings stretching back over two decades. Even more historically significant, however, was that this World Cup Championship was the first for an Asian soccer team, women’s or men’s. The level of interest in the match—and, admittedly, Japanese social media habits—were uniquely gauged by a new Twitter record set by fans within seconds of Saki Kumagai’s decisive final kick in the penalty shoot-out—a shot heard ‘round the world in the wee hours of the morning in Tokyo: a flurry of 7,196 Tweets per second easily overwhelmed the previous Twitter record (and exceeded the pace of Twittering at the conclusion of the Brazilian men’s shocking loss to Paraguay in the Copa America just a quarter-of-an-hour later).

 Two-weeks after the Japanese women’s historic victory, “Nadeshiko fever” shows little sign of subsiding. The last two weekends have witnessed record setting attendances at the domestic Nadeshiko League matches, with the latest record this past Sunday of over 21,000, outdistancing earlier records by thousands upon thousands of fans. Many of the players—the majority of them veritable unknowns prior to the quarter-final round of the World Cup three weeks ago—are now being courted to serve as the spokespeople and public faces of a range of products.  The economic windfall the team has already produced—a reported 1 trillion yen ($15 billion)—looks like it may continue to grow, an unexpected positive boost for Japan's still stumbling economy.

 As someone who used to play and coach professionally in Japan’s women’s league in the mid-1990s, and since then dedicated a bulk of her research energies to the study of the intersections between soccer, discourses of national identity, education, and political-economy, I could not be more thrilled for the National Team and the much larger contingent of soccer-loving girls and women in Japan who are the essential driving force behind this team’s success. I would, however, like to reframe one of the more prominent portrayals of the team since their momentous win.

 Journalists from both within and outside of Japan have treated this championship as more of a Cinderella story than is warranted, and, at times, women’s soccer as an anomaly (in a “traditional country like Japan”) that reflects little understanding of the history of the women’s game in that country. When the Japan Ladies’ Soccer League (JLSL) was launched in 1989, wealthy multinational corporations supported the majority of its ten teams; most players were employed part-time by their corporate sponsors, provided with housing and living stipends, and given excellent training facilities and ample time to train. Throughout the 1990s, the League was the destination for top female internationals from the U.S., Europe and East Asia—the only place on the planet where the best in the game could make a living from their soccer talents alone. While the League has experienced many name changes, reorganizations, and the exit and entrance of many corporate sponsors in step with the vicissitudes of the economy, it has stayed afloat. Far fewer players are financially supported like they were in the early days of the League; most struggle to find decent part-time employment that provides the flexibility necessary to practice and attend weekend games, and enough money to cover living expenses—and in the case of several teams, travel expenses too! Despite the financial stresses (and embarrassingly meager support when compared with the men’s game), the League continues to be incredibly well organized, and teams very well coached. It is this foundation—the efforts of hundreds of under- and un-paid players and coaches, and countless loyal volunteers—and an infectious enthusiasm for the game that I’ve witnessed in female players of all ages that proved the bedrock and fertile turf for Nadeshiko Japan. As too few have noted, the Japanese team finished fourth in the Beijing Olympics just three years ago, and they were ranked fourth in the FIFA world rankings prior to the World Cup in Germany. Rather than a wonderful yet anomalous outcome, Japan’s ability to capture a World Cup trophy in just the sixth tournament in the history of the women’s game is more accurately attributable to over two-decades of hard work on the part of dedicated players and their supporters, fits and spurts of corporate funding, and a bit belatedly, significant commitment from the Japan Football Association.

 As the tragedies of Japan’s March 11th disaster continue to unfold, and recovery proves an overwhelmingly daunting task, some commentators have boldly claimed that Nadeshiko Japan’s victory has the power to “heal a nation.” Needless to say, these assertions are unrealistic; exclamations uttered in the immediate glow of victory that, as often happens, attribute a humanitarian power to sport that exaggerates its actual potential. More modest claims that the team has provided a much needed psychological “boost” to its citizens seem more on target but certainly not negligible. Much like Japan’s famed women’s volleyball team that clinched the gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and brought great pride and energy to a country still working its way out of the psychological and physical ravages of war, this group of young women have captured the hearts of many in their nation, and re-energized countless individuals who so desperately needed a boost as they fight to forge new lives out of an unthinkable disaster.

We are thrilled to feature this guest post by Elise Edwards, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Anthropology Department at Butler University. Elise played professional soccer for three seasons in Japan’s L-League and currently serves as the goalkeeping coach for Butler’s women’s soccer team. She is a contributor to Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan (under contract with Stanford University Press) and is working on her own book, tentatively titled Fields for the Future: Soccer, Nation, and Citizens in Japan at the Turn of the 21st Century.

How innovative are Forbes' "Most Innovative Companies?"

Some not so much, argues guest-blogger and SUP author of ENDURING SUCCESS: What We Can Learn from the History of Outstanding Corporations Christian Stadler, in a post written originally for his own blog, Enduring Success: 

 With the entire craze about innovation it was only a matter of time before we get a list of the world’s most innovative companies. Forbes published one based on a new book by Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen. Considering the stature of the three I would have expected a ‘solid’ ranking. By that I mean a ranking based on a method that really captures innovation. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Forbes’ innovation premium is calculated by comparing the Net Present Values of Cash flows (i.e. value of existing business) with the market capitalisation. The assumption is that investors bid up the stock value if they expect future innovation results. For two reasons this does not work. First, investors do not necessarily know what innovations companies work on. Often firms keep this secret to avoid competitors from copying their ideas. Second, investors bid up stocks for many reasons not related to innovation such as brand value, future competition, or economic environment. For example the market cap of an oil firm is going up when investors expect a crisis in the Middle East. For those oil companies having large reserves in politically safe countries the stock price is going to sore even more.

So how does Forbes’ list hold up when using other measures of innovation? Not very well! The most widely used measurement is patents. I ranked Forbes’ ‘Most Innovative Companies’ according to the number of patents they published in 2011 so far. The ranking is fundamentally different (for those into statistics, the correlation is -0.1285). Not much changes if I weigh the patents according to company size (correlation is -0.2043).

Patents are not an ideal measurement either as some innovations are difficult to patent (e.g. process innovation). This means that some industries patent much more than others. But even within a particular industry the Forbes ranking turns out to be flawed. Take Henkel, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. According to the Forbes list, P&G is much more innovative than Unilever and Henkel comes last. Looking at patents P&G is still better than the other two but they are much closer together and Henkel has more patents than Unilever.

While alternative measures of innovation such as the number of new products introduced or patent citations (i.e. how often a patent is cited) might not produce exactly the same results, my crude patent count shows that Forbes’ list simply does not work. This does not undermine the book of Dyer and his colleagues as the companies on the list are probably all pretty innovative, but calling Salesforce.com the world’s most innovative company is a bit of a stretch.

		Number of patents in 2011	Forbes' ranking
1	Toshiba	3610	94
2	Qualcomm	3586	61
3	Microsoft	1877	86
4	ABB	967	93
5	Procter & Gamble	964	24
6	Apple	888	5
7	L'Oréal	836	26
8	Henkel	744	83
9	Corning	716	69
10	Schlumberger	670	27
11	Boston Scientific	578	91
12	Daikin Industries	532	70
13	Google	475	7
14	Unilever NV	465	74
15	Alstom	463	29
16	Rolls-Royce Holdings	439	76
17	Kao	438	66
18	Syngenta	428	79
19	Halliburton	426	97
20	Air Liquide	393	90
21	Alcon**	372	21
22	Oracle	358	77
23	BAE Systems	350	96
24	Johnson Controls	314	73
25	Colgate-Palmolive	294	33
26	Areva	268	37
27	SAP	256	63
28	Juniper Networks	207	42
29	Monsanto	205	10
30	Terumo	204	14
31	Sandvik	200	58
32	Fresenius SE	194	78
33	Kraft Foods	187	82
34	Essilor International	185	25
35	Synthes	170	41
36	HTC Corp	167	56
37	Fresenius Medical Care	145	51
38	Air Products & Chemicals	140	60
39	Nidec	138	13
40	Adobe Systems	136	54
41	Kone	135	39
42	Altera	132	99
43	Atlas Copco	130	67
44	Automatic Data Processing	124	87
45	Reckitt Benckiser Group	123	11
46	Ecolab	123	28
47	Stryker	108	95
48	Cameron International	107	85
49	LeGrand	106	80
50	Amazon.com	104	2
51	Nintendo	103	20
52	Beiersdorf	88	23
53	NetApp	87	34
54	Hindustan Unilever	86	6
55	Intuitive surgical	84	3
56	Rockwell Automation	78	38
57	Praxair	71	43
58	Fanuc	70	45
59	Celgene	58	12
60	Agilent Technologies	58	55
61	Intuit	58	84
62	Emerson Electric	55	64
63	Citrix Systems	53	36
64	Tencent Holdings	50	4
65	Sany Heavy Industry	47	72
66	Avon Products	46	47
67	SMC Corp	43	49
68	CSL	42	32
69	Hershey	37	46
70	Danone	35	35
71	General Mills	32	31
72	Thermo Fisher Scientific	30	71
73	Natura Cosméticos	23	8
74	Infosys	23	15
75	Richemont (Compagnie Financière)	23	62
76	ASML Holding	21	59
77	ConAgra Foods	19	100
78	Keyence	18	17
79	Salesforce.com	17	1
80	FMC Technologies	15	18
81	Secom	13	52
82	Kellogg	13	57
83	Tenaris	13	92
84	Paccar	12	48
85	Anheuser-Busch InBev	9	53
86	Danaher	7	68
87	Starbucks	6	19
88	Schindler Holding	2	81
89	Campbell Soup	1	65
90	Zoomlion Heavy Industry	1	75
91	Activision Blizzard	0	22
91	Bharat Heavy Electricals	0	9
91	CA	0	98
91	China Oilfield Services	0	40
91	Estée Lauder Cos	0	44
91	ICL-Israel Chemicals	0	30
91	Maroc Telecom	0	88
91	PepsiCo	0	50
91	Pernod Ricard	0	16
91	Precision Castparts	0	89

 

It's always darkest just before dawn....

We know, we know: you waited in line for 37.2 hours to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II" and now that it's over the rest of the summer stretches before you...dull, dry, dusty, without end.  You feel a sense of hopelessness as you ponder "what is the point of it all?"   Well, no longer, my friend.  In just a few days, Stanford University Press will re-launch and resume its series "The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche," with the long-awaited Dawn: Thoughts on the Presumption of Morality, Volume 5.  And you won't even have to wait in line to get your hands on a copy!  Stay tuned for more info...

Considering "Best Sellers:" Theirs and Ours

We can't put down the Summer Issue of Bookforum, especially their special section on "Best Sellers."      Author commentary by Claire Messud, Patrick McGrath,  Joshua Cohen and others on Rebecca, Love Story, Valley of the Dolls and other blockbusters reminded us of  beach reads, tear-jerkers, and up-all-night books from our past, while longer essays from Mike Dirda, Ruth Franklin, Gerald Howard and Stuart Kelley made us  think about what "best sellers" really say about the publishing business, literary culture, history past and present, and ourselves.  We love Dirda's proposal that "a writer can only be on the best-seller list once," thus freeing up space (and "New York Times Best Seller" naming rights) for newcomers, and his admonishment to "think outside the list" and "break away from reading only the season's most obvious writers and books. " And Ruth Franklin's sobering deconstruction  reminds us that "regardless of what the books contain, a list composed almost entirely of mainstays is a depressing marker of national conservatism and complacency." 

Speaking of "thinking outside the list," a quick look at our own list of top-selling books for the month of June might encourage you to "be brave," as Dirda writes, and try a little something off the beaten path:

1.  Corporate Culture, by Eric G. Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle  

2. Embedded Sustainability, by Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembeyeva

3.  Ordinary Egyptians, by Ziad Fhamy

4.  Homo Sacer, by Giorgia Agamben

5. Gender and Islam in Africa, edited by Margo Badran

6.  Minority Business Success, by Leonard Greenhalgh and James H. Lowry

7.  Bootstrapping Democracy, by Gianpaolo Baicchio, Patrick Heller, and Marcelo K. Silva

8.  Law and Long-Term Economic Change, edited by Deborah Ma and Jan Luiten van Zanden

9.  The Oil Prince's Legacy, by Mary Brown Bullock

10.  Golden Arches East, edited by James L. Watson

 

Pardis Mahdavi and Rhacel Parreñas on Human Trafficking

Across the globe each year there exist an astonishing number of humans who are forced into labor in one way or another. The numbers range from hundreds of thousands to millions upon millions, and yet each year we fail to understand the true process and implications of human trafficking. SUP authors Pardis Mahdavi and Rhacel Salazar Parreñas take us one step further toward understanding this grave phenomenon in their books, which highlight the behind-the-scenes aspect of human trafficking. 

Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo by Rhacel Parreñas has yet to be published and will hit the shelves in September of this year. In the book, Parrenas attempts to unveil the true nature of trafficking in Japan by documenting her experience while working alongside Filipina migrant workers--who accounted for more that 10 percent of the total estimated trafficking victims in 2004.  She addresses both the unknown and the misconceived in the world of trafficking and attempts to uncover the true motives and experiences of the workers themselves. 

Like Parreñas’ forthcoming book, Pardis Mahdavi’s recent Gridlock: Labor, Migration and Human Trafficking in Dubai also addresses the misunderstandings of forced human labor and how they can lead to more harm than good for the workers involved. Gridlock illustrates the true reality and atrocity of the migrant worker’s life in Dubai with an abundance of personal narratives from the workers themselves. 

Mahdavi supplements the workers' stories with exhaustive research into the Western policies for tracking and limiting human trafficking. The US creates a Trafficking in Persons Report each year, categorizing countries into 3 tiers of trafficking conditions. While some believe that the TIP Report is a political tactic for the US, masked in the rosy language of human rights, Mahdavi believes that though the Western policies may be more harmful than helpful in some cases, the TIP is a respectable and viable step to identifying and reducing human trafficking instances around the globe.  You can view the TIP Report as well as the designated 3-Tier chart here. 

In a recent review in Jadaliyya, the relationship between Mahdavi’s research and the TIP Report is examined and excerpts of the compelling worker narratives are explored.  Through these excerpts is a glimpse into how Mahdavi highlights the fact that people enter into forced labor for any number of reasons – force, economic conditions, escape – while still focusing on the fact that Western anti-trafficking policies may serve to make circumstances worse for the trafficked persons and delving into aspects of Western trafficking policy that many may be unfamiliar with.   

To learn more about SUP’s author’s insights into human trafficking, visit the Stanford University Press website for more on Pardis Mahdavi’s Gridlock here and the upcoming Illicit Flirtations by Rhacel Parreñas here.

 

Stanford University Press Authors Gather with Other Middle East Experts for Conference on "Democratic Transition in Egypt" at Stanford

The recent democratic uprisings and their reverberations throughout the Arab world changed the perceptions of many in the West that this region was immune to social activism and change from within.  Stanford University Press is pleased to announce two new titles, Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by Joel Beinin and Frédéric Vairel, and Autumn of Dictatorship: Fiscal Crisis and Political Change under Mubarek, by Samer Soliman, that will contribute to and inform our understanding of the nature and history of social movements in Egypt.  What’s more, the authors of these important books are just two of several distinguished scholars who will gather at Stanford on Friday, April 29 in the Bechtel Conference Center for a one-day conference entitled "Democratic Transition in Egypt,"  sponsored by the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.   This event, co-sponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, will focus on Egypt's current revolutionary period, and brings to Stanford leading Egypt academics from American, European, and Egyptian universities and think tanks. 

Too frequently written off as culturally defined by Islam, strongly anti-Western, and uniquely susceptible to irrational political radicalism, authoritarianism, and terrorism—the Middle East and North Africa (specifically Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey) are rarely considered as sites of social and political mobilization.  However, in Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, Joel Beinin and Frédéric Vairel reveal a rich array of mobilizations that neither lead inexorably toward democratization nor degenerate into violence. 

In Autumn of Dictatorship: Fiscal Crisis and Political Change under Mubarek, Samer Soliman argues that protest is nothing new to Egypt, and labor activism and political activism, most notably the Kifaya (Enough) movement, have increased dramatically over recent years. In hindsight, it is the durability of the Mubarak regime, not its sudden loss of legitimacy that should be more surprising. Though many have turned to social media for explanation of the events, in this book, Samer Soliman follows the age-old adage—follow the money. 

Over the last thirty years, the Egyptian state has increasingly given its citizens less money and fewer social benefits while simultaneously demanding more taxes and resources. This has lead to a weakened state—deteriorating public services, low levels of law enforcement, poor opportunities for employment and economic development—while simultaneously inflated the security machine that sustains the authoritarian regime. Studying the regime from the point of view of its deeds rather than its discourse, this book tackles the relationship between fiscal crisis and political change in Egypt.

 About the Authors:

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University, and a past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Frédéric Vairel is Assistant Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

 Samer Soliman is Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Political Science at the American University in Cairo. An activist for human rights and democratic politics, he is also a frequent columnist in the Egyptian media and a founder and editor of Al-Bosla a radical democratic publication.

Beyond Earth Day

It's wonderful that, for over 40 years now, we've made a point of remembering "Mother Earth" each April and, perhaps, renewing our commitment to doing what we can to reduce our costly footprint on the planet.  Recent programs and initiatives have greatly increased public awareness of the necessity to "reduce, reuse, and recycle," but it's becoming clear that we need to be doing more, and not just in our personal lives.  What can businesses, for example, do to make a difference?   

Plenty, show authors Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva in their new book, Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage.  As they point out in a recent article in the European Financial Review, "The linear throw-away economy, in which products and services follow a one-way trajectory from extraction to use and disposal, can no longer be supported, as we are simply running out of things to unearth and place to landfill.  Consumers, employees, and investors are beginning to demand socially and environmentally-savvy products without compromise, while radical transparency is putting every company under a microscope."  Embedded Sustainability, the incorporation of environmental, health, and social value into the core business with no trade-off in price or quality – in other words, with no social or green premium - is the answer.

Embedded Sustainability helps readers to comprehend—and act on—the notion of embedded sustainability, explaining why it is now a requisite in every sector, how smart companies are creating even higher value for their customers and investors, and what new management competencies are needed to compete in today's marketplace. 

About the Authors:

Chris Laszlo, Ph.D., is the author of Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good (2008) and The Sustainable Company(2003, paperback 2005). He is an Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, where he is the Faculty Research Director at the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value. Chris is also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Sustainable Value Partners, LLC, an advisory services firm specialized in sustainability for business advantage.

 Nadya Zhexembayeva, Ph.D., is the Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development at IEDC-Bled School of Management, the European business school based in Slovenia, where she teaches leadership, organizational design, and sustainability strategy. Nadya currently serves as Vice-President of Challenge:Future, a global youth think tank. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at the Weatherhead School of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. Nadya is also an Associate Partner of Sustainable Value Partners, LLC.