Most Popular Books by Milena

This book examines Nigerian women’s experiences of migration, work and mobility across European borders through a unique problematisation of the boundary between madams and victims. Rizzotti brings together the voices of women positioned by humanitarian categories on both sides of the trafficking divide to show how their trajectories are shaped by similar dynamics of debt, kinship and constrained mobility. The book reframes trafficking as a field of negotiation, where agency and constraint coexist within women’s strategies of survival. It stands as an essential reference for anyone seeking to understand and rethink the gendered and racialised dynamics of trafficking, migration, and border control. Dr Nicola Mai, Professor of Criminology, University of Leicester, UK Despite the extensive research on trafficking from Nigeria to Europe, much of the existing knowledge remains victim-centred and rooted in the field of social assistance. This focus has been crucial in shaping our understanding of the anti-trafficking landscape—particularly in highlighting which aspects of victims’ experiences are prioritised by institutions when assessing claims for humanitarian protection. However, it has also resulted in a narrow perspective, largely limited to the narratives of individuals who have been officially recognised as victims. Rizzotti’s book reconfigures established understandings of trafficking by incorporating the voices of convicted women, alongside those of identified victims and key stakeholders. Her fieldwork illuminates the ways in which Nigerian women resist and navigate the constraints placed on their social and geographical mobility—constraints often reinforced by institutional labels such as “trafficker” and “victim”—in order to pursue individual and collective migration goals. Rizzotti demonstrates that both convicted women and identified victims frequently share similar experiences and aspirations, particularly in their efforts to overcome restrictive migration regimes and gendered expectations imposed on them as racialised migrants from the Global South.

Interest in the World War II Luftwaffe remains high, but much of the literature emphasizes aircraft technology, high-scoring "Experten" fighter pilots, and battle accounts. The basic theoretical ideas that underpinned the Luftwaffe''s evolution, and account for both its remarkable early success and later catastrophic failure, remain poorly understood. This important work examines traditional German military thinking and how it helped shape the air service after the First World War. It sheds new light on the often-misunderstood concept of "operational air warfare," and how the Luftwaffe attempted to create an independent role for itself while still addressing the demands of the Army for support of fast moving land campaigns through deep interdiction, close air support, and operational paralysis of the enemy. Instead of viewing the Luftwaffe as falling short of the Anglo-American ideal, the work shows how it evolved as a force structurally and intellectually embedded in a joint concept of war. What we might today describe as cross-domain integration was central to its self-image, limited by the technological and institutional conditions of the time. The book offers fresh interpretations of the air force''s role in the Spanish Civil War, the Polish and French campaigns, and Operation Barbarossa. It makes a significant contribution to our broader understanding of airpower, joint warfare, and the enduring tension between operational brilliance and strategic sustainability.

An introduction to issues of sexual consent, covering key strands of feminist thought, how sexual consent is negotiated in practice, the influence of popular culture, and more. The #MeToo movement has focused public attention on the issue of sexual consent. People of all genders, from all walks of life, have stepped forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment and violation. In a predictable backlash, others have taken to mass media to inquire plaintively if “flirting” is now forbidden. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a nuanced introduction to sexual consent by a writer who is both a scholar and an activist on this issue. It has become clear from discussions of the recent high-profile cases of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and others that there is no clear agreement over what constitutes consent or non-consent and how they are expressed and perceived in sexual situations. This book presents key strands of feminist thought on the subject of sexual consent from across academic and activist communities and covers the history of research on consent in such fields as psychology and feminist legal studies. It discusses how sexual consent is negotiated in practice, from “No means no” to “Yes means yes,” and describes what factors might limit individual agency in such negotiations. It examines how popular culture, including pornography, romance fiction, and sex advice manuals, shapes our ideas of consent; explores the communities at the forefront of consent activism; and considers what meaningful social change in this area might look like. Going beyond the conventional cisgender, heterosexual norm, the book lists additional resources for those seeking to improve their practice of consent, survivors of sexual violence, and readers who want to understand contemporary debates on this issue in more depth.

Flying Officer Wayne Luthie of the RAF recounts his training and action in World War II. Shot down over Dunkirk, he is captured, tortured, but manages to escape. A first novel.

This paper examines the implementation of monetary policy in Fiji, with a focus on liquidity dynamics and their implications for monetary transmission. It documents how persistent surplus liquidity—shaped by foreign exchange inflows and fiscal cash-management practices—has influenced the transmission of the policy rate and short-term money-market conditions. It also assesses how liquidity conditions have interacted with the existing operational framework and discusses options to strengthen monetary implementation and transmission.

The Little Girl and the Rain is a sweet, poetic tale that brings to life the magic of a rainy day! On a spring day with no one around to play, a little girl sets off for a walk and feels the first gentle raindrops on her face. As the rain begins to fall harder, she runs for cover, unaware that the rain is chasing after her, eager to find her. Before long, the rain finally catches up with the girl, and together they splash and play in the puddles, laughing under the gray sky. And just when the girl least expects it, a surprise awaits--one that will brighten her day in the most magical way. With its whimsical prose and beautiful vintage illustrations, this story celebrates the wonders of nature and the unexpected joys of friendship. Perfect for reading aloud, children and parents will delight in its message of finding the beauty in every season.

Originating from the observation of the protean meaning of ratio in Eriugena''s Periphyseon, the book has the purpose to trace and outline the dynamics of the word used in different philosophical texts from John Scottus Eriugena to Thomas Aquinas. Nine philosophers are taken into consideration: Anselm of Canterbury, Alan of Lille, Gilbert of Poitiers, Peter Abelard, Albertus Magnus, Bernard of Clairvaux, Honorius Augustodunensis, Anselm of Laon, Nicolaus Ambianensis. The meanings of ratio are analyzed according to the broader senses directly related to the kind of philosophy each author represents. The examination of the authors is completed with the crystallization of the notion in its Thomistic articulation. Some meanings absent from the available dictionaries are taken into account.

How can immersive virtual environments reshape the way Generation Z shops? Discover how virtual stores in the metaverse could revolutionize shopping for Gen Z. This study investigates the customer experience in virtual stores, its sensory, emotional, cognitive, social and immersive dimensions and their influence on Gen Z''s behavioral intention to use virtual stores as a new shopping channel in the future. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of 95 virtual stores and survey data from over 300 online shoppers, the findings reveal unexpected consumer patterns: introverts, individuals with no VR experience, and non-gamers exhibit a notably high openness toward virtual shopping environments. The study further identifies Gen Z''s preference for virtual stores that seamlessly integrate the strengths of both physical and e-commerce shopping. This book offers a data-driven roadmap for designing engaging, future-ready virtual shopping experiences that resonate with the next generation of digital consumers. Dive into the future of immersive online shopping and learn how to engage and retain the next generation of consumers.

"This study of East German fantasies of material abundance across the border, both before and after the fall of communism, shows the close and intricate relation between ideology and fantasy in upholding social life. In 1989, news broadcasts all over the world were dominated for weeks by images of East Germans crossing the Berlin Wall to West Germany. The images, representing the fall of communism and the democratic will of the people, also showed East Germans'' excitement at finally being able to enter the western consumer paradise. But what exactly had they expected to find on the other side of the Wall? Why did they shed tears of joy when for the first time in their lives, they stepped inside West German shops? And why were they prepared to pay more than 10 percent of their average monthly wage for a pineapple? Drawing on fifteen months of research in the fast-changing post-communist East Germany, Veenis unravels the perennial truths about the interrelationships of fantasies of material wealth, personal fulfillment and social cohesion. She argues persuasively that the far-fetched socialist and capitalist promises of consumption as the road to ultimate well-being, the partial realization and partial corruption thereof, the implicit social and psychological interests underlying the politicized promises in both countries form the breeding ground for the development of materialist, cargo-cult-like fantasies, in which material well-being came to be seen as the place of "fulfillment and ultimate arrival"."--Publisher''s website.

How the treatment of sexual consent in erotic fanfiction functions as a form of cultural activism. Sexual consent is--at best--a contested topic in Western societies and cultures. The #MeToo movement has brought public attention to issues of sexual consent, revealing the endemic nature of sexual violence. Feminist academic approaches to sexual violence and consent are diverse and multidisciplinary--and yet consent itself is significantly undertheorized. In Dubcon, Milena Popova points to a community that has been considering issues of sex, power, and consent for many years: writers and readers of fanfiction. Their nuanced engagement with sexual consent, Popova argues, can shed light on these issues in ways not available to either academia or journalism. Popova explains that the term "dubcon" (short for "dubious consent") was coined by the fanfiction community to make visible the gray areas between rape and consent--for example, in situations where the distribution of power may limit an individual''s ability to give meaningful consent to sex. Popova offers a close reading of three fanfiction stories in the Omegaverse genre, examines the "arranged marriage" trope, and discusses the fanfiction community''s response when a sports star who was a leading character in RPF (real person fiction) was accused of rape. Proposing that fanfiction offers a powerful discursive resistance on issues of rape and consent that challenges dominant discourses about gender, romance, sexuality, and consent, Popova shows that fanfiction functions as a form of cultural activism.

The life of Omar Khayyam, the 11th Century Persian poet who wrote The Rubaiyaat, chronicling his adventures and romances. The novel is in two parts, the second describing the manner in which the manuscript reached the West.