'Lazuri: An Endangered Language of the Black Sea' is a unique source in terms of presenting a close examination of the Laz language from multiple perspectives. This volume, edited by Züleyha Ünlü, and Brian George Hewitt, examines the current status of the Laz language, Laz speakers’ perceptions of ethnolinguistic vitality, the significance of the Laz language for theoretical research in linguistics, the examination of Laz lexical data from historical documents, the linguistic variation of the Laz language, the use of a Laz alphabet in literary genres, contemporary responses to preserve the Laz language, and reflections from applied linguistics for the future of the Laz language. Focusing on the main features of the Laz language and its present situation in Turkey and in other regions as well as the attempts to revitalize Laz and Laz culture, this book will be the first scholarly publication on Laz as a South Caucasian language in terms of being a road-map for future studies.

'Lazuri: An Endangered Language of the Black Sea' is a unique source in terms of presenting a close examination of the Laz language from multiple perspectives. This volume, edited by Züleyha Ünlü, and Brian George Hewitt, examines the current status of the Laz language, Laz speakers' perceptions of ethnolinguistic vitality, the significance of the Laz language for theoretical research in linguistics, the examination of Laz lexical data from historical documents, the linguistic variation of the Laz language, the use of a Laz alphabet in literary genres, contemporary responses to preserve the Laz language, and reflections from applied linguistics for the future of the Laz language. Focusing on the main features of the Laz language and its present situation in Turkey and in other regions as well as the attempts to revitalize Laz and Laz culture, this book will be the first scholarly publication on Laz as a South Caucasian language in terms of being a road-map for future studies.

While issues of marginalization and participation have engaged scholars across various disciplines and domains, and a range of theoretical perspectives and methodological framings have been deployed in this enterprise, the research presented in this volume aligns itself to alternative traditions by focusing on people’s membership and participation across settings and institutional contexts. The work here, thus, focuses on the constitution of marginalization inside, outside and across a range of settings. It centre-stages marginalization and participation as action in the human world. Going beyond a focus on the marginalized or explanations of marginalization or comparing groups of the marginalized with the non-marginalized, a number of contributions focus on mundane processes inside, outside and across institutional settings in different geopolitical spaces. Other chapters in the book demonstrate the marginalization of specific analytical foci in the research process or hegemonies of national high-stake testing protocols and specific dialects in different geopolitical regions or in domains such as the sporting arena. In contrast to other studies on marginalization and participation, this book takes its point of departure in the complexities that characterize and shape both individuals and societies, past and present. Its chapters challenge demarcated fields of study and conceptions of identity framed marginalization and participation. Drawing attention to the fact that the centre (continues to) define the margins, the work presented here joins research efforts that highlight the need to focus on the constitution of marginalization and participation in a wide range of settings with the explicit aim of going beyond static boundaries that define the human state at different scales of becoming and beyond an understanding of development and progress in terms of a linear trajectory.

Istanbul is home to a multimillion dollar transnational music industry, which every year produces thousands of digital music recordings, including widely distributed film and television show soundtracks. Today, this centralized industry is responding to a growing global demand for Turkish, Kurdish, and other Anatolian ethnic language productions, and every year, many of its top-selling records incorporate elaborately orchestrated arrangements of rural folksongs. What accounts for the continuing demand for traditional music in local and diasporic markets? How is tradition produced in twenty-first century digital recording studios, and is there a "digital aesthetics" to contemporary recordings of traditional music? In Digital Traditions: Arrangement and Labor in Istanbul's Recording Studio Culture, author Eliot Bates answers these questions and more with a case study into the contemporary practices of recording traditional music in Istanbul. Bates provides an ethnography of Turkish recording studios, of arrangers and engineers, studio musicianship and digital audio workstation kinesthetics. Digital Traditions investigates the moments when tradition is arranged, and how arrangement is simultaneously a set of technological capabilities, limitations and choices: a form of musical practice that desocializes the ensemble and generates an extended network of social relations, resulting in aesthetic art objects that come to be associated with a range of affective and symbolic meanings. Rich with visual analysis and drawing on Science & Technology Studies theories and methods, Digital Traditions sets a new standard for the study of recorded music. Scholars and general readers of ethnomusicology, Middle Eastern studies, folklore and science and technology studies are sure to find Digital Traditions an essential addition to their library.

Papers originally presented at the 4th MESEA conference, titled "Ethnic Communities in Democratic Societies," held at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, in May, 2004.

This two-volume set contains 60 talks and posters from the 44th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, held November 7-10, 2019.

This book discusses the political and economic history and geography of Georgia, the problems it has faced, and how it has overcome and is still overcoming them. In most countries, at the end of the 20th century the successful resolution of social-economic, political, demographic and ecological problems was largely dependent on effectively protecting the population and economic assets from natural disasters and on ensuring conditions for their sustainable development. These problems are most acute in mountainous regions like Georgia, where the unplanned development of natural ecosystems has had drastic consequences. It is therefore necessary to understand not only the probability of changing conditions (natural as well as political and demographic), but also the probability of the resulting economic losses. The book is divided into four sections; historical and political geography, geological processes, ecological processes and developmental geography. In the historical and political geography section the authors present a detailed discussion on ancient history, historical and political geography, ethnic groups and religions, demographics and socio-cultural geography. The geological processes section contains information on geology, geodynamical processes, glacial and periglacial processes. The ecological processes section examines a variety of landscapes and ecosystems, aspects of deforestation, reforestation and desertification along with anthropogenic impacts on the environment. The developmental geography section looks at different economies, natural resources, sustainable development and climate change.