Books

  • Protocol: How control exists after decentralization

    How Control Exists after Decentralization

  • The Charmed Circle of Ideology: A Critique of Laclau and Mouffe, Butler and Žižek

    Set against the collapse of social theory into a theory of ideological discourse, Geoff Boucher sets to work a rigorous mapping of the contemporary field, targeting the relativist implications of this new form of philosophical idealism. Offering a detailed and immanent critique Boucher concentrates his critical attention on the 'postmarxism' of Laclau and Mouffe, Butler and Žižek. Combining close reading and careful exposition with polemical intent, Boucher links the relativism exemplified in these contemporary theoretical trends to unresolved philosophical problems of modernity.

  • The natural gas conundrum: transformation of the Central Asian energy security complex after 1991

    The study examines energy security in the Central Asia region, with an emphasis on the natural gas sector. The research presented in the book attempts to answer the question of whether the various state actors in Central Asia are more inclined towards a strategic or market-oriented approach to energy policy formulation. Answering this research question aimed at better understanding the approach of individual state actors towards large infrastructure projects such as the construction of the Central Asia–China Gas Pipeline.

  • Video Games and Comedy

    Video Games and Comedy is the first edited volume to explore the intersections between comedy and video games. This pioneering book collects chapters from a diverse group of scholars, covering a wide range of approaches and examining the relationship between video games, humour, and comedy from many different angles. The first section of the book includes chapters that engage with theories of comedy and humour, adapting them to the specifics of the video game medium.

  • New Mediation. New Pop-culture?

    How does new mediation influence current popular culture? In order to answer this question, collective monograph New Mediation, New Pop-Culture? aims to contribute to the understanding of a new type of mediation, which forms a new popular culture at the beginning of the 21th century. It seeks to define the characteristics of contemporary popular culture, primarily in the East-Central Europe region and particularly in terms of the current mediations, which are significantly shaping “new” digital media as well as the remnants of “older” popular culture.

  • Conspiracy theories in Eastern Europe. Tropes and trends.

    This collection of state-of-the-art essays explores conspiracy cultures in post-socialist Eastern Europe, ranging from the nineteenth century to contemporary manifestations.