• ISBN13: 9789697340149
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Sociology and Anthropology
• Publisher: Oxford UP
• Publisher Imprint: Oxford UP
• Publication Date: June 7, 2021
• Pages: 312
• Original Price: INR 1150.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 470 grams

This book identifies and analyzes the impact of the various ways in which local people are responding, taking stands, recapturing their culture, and saying 'stop' to the violent extremism that has manifested over the past decade (even longer) in Pakistan. Local groups throughout Pakistan are
engaging in various kinds of social negotiations and actions to lessen the violence that has plagued the country since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which let loose a barrage of violence that overflowed into its borders. In so many ways, Pakistanis are engaging in powerful actions that
transform how people think about their own society, impeding extremists' rants while acting on 'envisioning alternative futures'. This book, hence, focuses on finding the sparks of hope that local people are creating to counter violent extremism based on close ethnographic study of ground realities
about not only what people are doing but why they are selecting these kinds of actions, how they are creating alternative narratives about culture and identity, and their vision of a future without violence. This book is also designed to celebrate what is flourishing in cultural performances, music,
social activism, and the like in Pakistan today because of people's commitment to take stands against extremism.

Anita M. Weiss

Anita M. Weiss received her doctorate in sociology from UC Berkeley and is professor of International Studies at the University of Oregon, where she has taught since 1988. She has published extensively on social development, gender issues, and political Islam in Pakistan. Professor Weiss is a member
of the editorial board of Globalizations, has been a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Pakistan National Commission on the Status of Women, has been Treasurer and Vice President of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS), and is on the Executive Committee of the Religion and
International Relations as well as the IDSS sections of the International Studies Association. She recently stepped down, after seven years, from being Department Head of International Studies at the University of Oregon.