Keith Tester

From Amazon.com: “One has the impression, reading The Flâneur, of having fallen into the hands of a highly distractible, somewhat eccentric poet and professor who is determined to show you a Paris you wouldn’t otherwise see…Edmund White tells such a good story that I’m ready to listen to anything he wants to talk about.”—New York Times Book Review A flâneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure and fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history and an evocation of the city’s spirit. The Flâneur leads us to bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, giving us a glimpse into the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette’s life.

"Most of us have watched television or read newspapers and been moved to compassion by the suffering and misery that we see. We know that many people suffer thanks to war, famine or environmental catastrophe. But what do the reports and representations of the suffering and misery of others actually mean to media users? Compassion, Morality and the Media seeks to answer this question and offers an engaging narrative through which it becomes possible to think about the role of journalists as moral agents. The author explores the tensions between the intentions of journalists, the horizons of the audience and the priorities of media institutions. This is a book which deals with important issues that have been relatively neglected in the academic study of the media. It is accessible and relevant and opens up a new terrain for research and teaching on the media as a moral force. Students taking undergraduate courses on the media and others with a wider interest in media morality will find it to be compelling reading."--BOOK JACKET.

In The Inhuman Condition Keith Tester explores whether we are capable of coming to terms with the world we have made. He argues that we are not. We are so confused by the wonders and the sights and sounds around us that we all try to build safe little homes in which we can, for a while, be consoled by love which is doomed to fail as soon as it is thought about and by commodities which leave us unsatisfied. We all try to make sense of our humanity by turning elsewhere: to inhuman things. All of us, that is, with enough money. The book offers a major interpretation of contemporary cultural and social relationships. It is also a major exercise in sociology which encompasses thinkers like Heidegger, Arendt, Benjamin and Simmel. The author opens with Heidegger worrying about photographs of the earth and argues that, contrary to sociological orthodoxy, the world is now more experienced in the finding than the making. Tester then explores aspects of that finding: from the beautiful promises of commodities to the noises and sights of cities, from the search for love to the throbbing gristle painted by Francis Bacon. We can only come to terms with our experiences and our existence if we embrace the inhuman idiot wisdom of kitsch; and perhaps there is no escape from the embrace of stupidity.

"Major and terrible events are happening in the world. They are daily reported in the media and yet most people seem to remain unmoved and uncaring. Are the media themselves responsible for this lack of care? Meanwhile, thanks to the emergence and popularity of cultural studies, the media are being studied as never before. But why is that study so often trivial and lacking in moral seriousness? Is the discipline of cultural studies part of the problem rather than, as it would have us believe, the answer? This book poses these questions and encourages reflection on why, for example, advertisements for coffee inspire more discussion than do famines. The book takes aim at the empty heart of cultural studies and argues that the study of the media can only be culturally valuable and morally worthwhile if it remembers the lessons taught by sociology. This is an accessible and controversial book which is bound to inspire debate amongst students and commentators on the media."--Jacket.

"An examination of humanitarianism in Western society. Argues that humanitarianism has become a staple part of modern media and celebrity culture."--Provided by publisher.

"Zygmunt Bauman is one of the leading figures in contemporary social thought. His work ranges across issues of ethics, culture and politics. It never forgets that social thought ought to help men and women make sense of their lives and aspire towards something different. His books and essays always focus on the here and now: violence and moral indifference, globalization, consumerism, politics, individualization. They cast a sharp eye on the panaceas of 'there is no alternative', the embrace of community and the fads of the 'counseling boom' through which men and women are told that they can achieve biographical solutions to what are, in fact, systemic problems." "In this book, Zygmunt Bauman and Keith Tester engage in five accessible conversations which uncover and explore the assumptions and commitments underpinning Bauman's ground-breaking social thought. The conversations show how those commitments have influenced Bauman's analyses of modernity, postmodernity and 'liquid modernity'. The book ranges widely, from autobiographical reflection through to pointers for the understanding and future of Bauman's social thought. The conversations illustrate the moral substance of Bauman's refusal to accept that the world cannot be made different. They show why social thought is a human necessity." "Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman is a book which will offer fresh insight into Bauman's work for those who are familiar with it, and provide an engaging and helpful entry point for those who are new to it."--Jacket.