This book investigates the potential of the Spanish Sociedades Laborales (SLs) as an instrument of active labour market policy for re-turning the unemployed to the labour market and also the transferability of the scheme to other EU Member States. Spanish Sociedades Laborales (SLs) - mostly small and micro enterprises - are a qualified form of conventional corporation, majority-owned by their permanent employees. Unemployed persons can capitalise their unemployment benefits as a lump sum to start a new SL or to recapitalise an existing SL by joining it. This makes SLs similar to start-up subsidies for the unemployed, an established instrument of active labour market policy across the EU. The new 2015 Law on Worker-Owned and Participatory Companies substantially modernised the concept of SLs 30 years after its inception. The book tackles two currently widely discussed policy issues at both the EU level as well as the national level, i.e., reactivating unemployed in the context of ALMP and encouraging employee co-ownership in the context of the economic reform agenda in particular with regard to corporate governance, regional economic stimuli and distributive justice.

This volume analyses the process and structure of ecotaxes in India to bring forth its rationale, application and incidence on emerging environmental problems on the backdrop of the environmental issues confronted by the Indian economy. Being at infant stage in India, the concept of ecotaxes is plagued with large empirical difficulties. This book provides a holistic understanding of the complexities in the design and implementation of these fiscal instruments at the country level. After elaborating on the theory, history of its applications, the book provides an innovative methodological exercise. It examines the adequacy and relevance of ecotaxation in the Indian context, along with ensuring that the distortions due to the proposed levy are minimised. The incidence of these taxes on the households, the double dividend hypothesis and the effect on competitiveness of the producer are a few of the core themes elaborated upon in this book. This is demonstrated through a linear general equilibrium framework of Environmentally extended Social Accounting Matrix (E-SAM).The book provides material for the researchers and graduate students on the methodological structure of eco-taxes. The proposed methodological intervention could be utilised by the researchers who wish to analyse the macroeconomic impact of any tax through the framework of Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). Additionally, the process as well as the implications and nuances provided in the book will assist the policy makers to design innovative policies for dealing with environmental issues. The volume also has something for the practitioners by helping them comprehend various effects of these instruments on different stake holders of the economy and thus will be useful as a policy prescription. The three policy scenarios analysed in this study could be considered by the policymakers while attempting to design these instruments in the Indian context and thus ending the extensive reliance on the age old and grossly ineffective Command and Control (CAC) Policies.

This book explores the development of state welfare in Taiwan, focusing on the interconnection between capitalist development and state welfare from 1895 to 1990, using an integrated Marxist perspective to which the capitalist world system, state structure, ideology, and social structure are considered simultaneously. It argues that neither citizenship nor welfare needs were the concern of Taiwanese social policies. A decline in legitimacy and risen social movements forced the state to expand welfare, namely the National Health Insurance, in the 1980s.

This book presents a study of the relationship between Cabinet-level Ministers and top civil servants in Ireland. The nature of this relationship can potentially have far-reaching effects on people's lives as it can influence the type of public policy agreed at top levels of government. A total of sixteen interviews were carried out for the research, eight with retired Cabinet-level Ministers and eight with retired Secretaries General of Irish government departments. Anonymity, not just for the participants but also for the government departments in which they had served, was vital to the success of the research. Also vital was the fact that only retirees were interviewed as this removed the fear for participants that their careers might suffer if they spoke too frankly. The result is a collection of interviews containing frank and open views on the relationship between Ministers and their officials and on how this relationship influences public policy development.

This work covers trade policy from 1923 to 1995 taking the history of American tariffs from the Prelude to Trade Wars to the present. It begins during the period of high tariffs and discusses the arguments for and against protectionism. Cordell Hull and the Reciprocal Trade Agreements of the 1930s are discussed along with the increase in trade revenue from these agreements. The major changes in trade policy including GATT, the European Community, and many more are discussed in the work. It is part of an on-going debate among economic historians over the supposed movement of the United States toward protectionism since the 1980s.

This book examines and compares policy making in telecommunications in Britain and France over the last three decades. The book examines questions related to liberalization, regulation and the role of the nation state in an increasingly international economy.

The development of the welfare state has been accompanied by greater freedom being granted to workers in industrialized capitalist countries. The themes of this probing volume concern how governments, employers, trade unions, and workers have acted to promote economic growth and accountability with active industrial policies and forms of co-determination, worker self-management, and/or employee ownership. The book's essays address the key dimensions of economic, social, and political change in five industrial democracies: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden. A major focus of the volume as a whole is on economic management and workplace reform in a variety of national settings. Managing Modern Capitalism is divided into three sections, covering strategies for industrial renewal, workplace democracy in practice and theory, and future perspectives. In the first section, each of the five countries are compared and contrasted in light of their attempts to stimulate economic growth and reduce unemployment under conditions of international interpendence of capital and markets. Country-by-country profiles highlight the second section, which also examines various forms of employee consultation, participation in managerial decisions, and ownership. The third section and conclusion evaluate prospective economic trends and workplace democracy in the capitalist nations. This book will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, and journalists, as well as to advanced students in political science, economics, history, and sociology.

This book presents a duoethnographic exploration and narrative account of what it means to be a teacher educator today. Adopting a narrative approach, the book presents different personal, political and institutional perspectives to interrogate common challenges facing teacher education and teacher educators today. In addition, the book compares and contrasts the teacher education landscapes in Australia and the UK and addresses a broad range of topics, including the autobiographical nature of teacher educators' work, the value of learning from experience, the importance of collegiality and collaboration in learning to become a teacher educator, and the intersection of the personal, professional and political in the development of teacher educator pedagogies and research agendas. Each chapter combines personal narratives and research-based perspectives on the key dimensions of teacher educators' work that can be found in the literature, including self-study research. Readers will gain a better understanding of the processes, influences and relationships that make being a teacher educator both a challenging and rewarding career. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable asset for university leaders, experienced and beginning teacher educators, and researchers interested in the professional learning and development of teacher educators.

This book explores the contested notion of compassionate migration in its discourse and practice. In the context of today's migration patterns within the Americas, compassionate migration can play a fundamental role in responding to the hardships that many migrants suffer before, during, and after their journeys. This volume explores the boundaries of compassion from legal, political, philosophical, and interdisciplinary perspectives, and supplies examples where state and non-state actors engage in practices of compassion and humanity through formal and informal regimes. Despite the lack of a concise and precise definition of the concept and practice of compassionate migration, all authors in this volume agree on the pressing need for more humane and compassionate treatment for those leaving their home country behind in search of a better life.

This book examines the "oil-tourism interface", the broad range of direct and indirect contact points between offshore oil extraction and nature-based tourism. Offshore oil extraction and nature-based tourism are pursued as development paths across the North Atlantic region. Offshore oil promises economic benefits from employment and royalty payments to host societies, but is based on fossil fuel-intensive resource extraction. Nature-based tourism, instead, is based on experiencing natural environments and encountering wildlife, including whales, seals, or seabirds. They share social-ecological space, such as oceans, coastlines, cities and towns where tourism and offshore oil operations and offices are located. However, they rarely share cultural or political space, in terms of media coverage, public debate, or policy discussion that integrates both modes of development. Through a comparative analysis of Denmark, Iceland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Norway, and Scotland, this book offers important lessons for how coastal societies can better navigate relationships between resource extraction and nature-based tourism in the interests of social-ecological wellbeing.

In the years leading up to the Crash of 2008, Iceland had been triumphed in world business media as an economic miracle. Its new breed of Viking Capitalism had become rock stars of the global finance driven economy, even while it was testing the foundations of Europe's financial system. Eirikur Bergmann applies Postcolonial analysis to explain the paradigmatic case of Iceland's fantastical boom, bust and rapid recovery after the Crash. His critical approach to the claims of the financialization advocates relates the questions of the national economy and globalisation to current trends in Europe and the World.

Sex, Crime, Drugs, and Just Plain Stupid Behaviors: The New Face of Young Adulthood in America is written for students, parents, and practitioners to provide insight into how emerging adulthood impacts the lives and behaviors of young people. Salvatore provides an insightful examination of the evolution of emerging adulthood as a distinct stage of the life course, bridging the gap between macro-level social forces and micro-level life experiences and behavior. Chapters discuss the influence of social institutions such as marriage, the family, religion, and parenting on behavior during emerging adulthood. Exploration and sensation-seeking are examined in relation to the behaviors and identity of emerging adults alongside issues such as criminal offending, substance use, and other risky/dangerous behaviors. Finally, the book concludes with informed policy recommendations for social institutions such as educational establishments and the criminal justice system on how to work with emerging adults.

The collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was relatively quick, peaceful, and unforeseen. In this important new study of Soviet policy in the region, Chafetz provides a fresh analysis of why Moscow redefined Soviet interests in Eastern Europe and an explanation of the decision not to use military force to shore up the disintegrating bloc. Particular attention is devoted to the interaction of domestic and international factors in the policy process; the causes and impact of ideological revision within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the role of GorbacheV's perceptions in his decisions.

Most people will admit that in 1985 they could not imagine that during their lifetime the Soviet Union would permit the Berlin Wall to fall, would allow democratic elections in Eastern Europe, and would withdraw its troops from the region, ending the Cold War. Yet, between 1985 and 1990, the Soviet Union reoriented its foreign policy rapidly, decisively, and peacefully. This book explains why the Soviet Union abandoned its long-term policy toward Eastern Europe: specifically, why the Gorbachev regime abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine.

This study of the decisions that resulted in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe helps us understand the factors and forces behind not only GorbacheV's Eastern European policy but also MoscoW's foreign policy in general, Soviet internal democratization, and the large-scale historical change in the 20th century. This book is important reading for those concerned with contemporary international and military relations and Eastern European studies.

As late as the 1980s, breast cancer was a stigmatized disease, so much so that local reporters avoided using the word "breast" in their stories and early breast cancer organizations steered clear of it in their names. But activists with business backgrounds began to partner with corporations for sponsored runs and cause-marketing products, from which a portion of the proceeds would benefit breast cancer research. Branding breast cancer as "pink"-hopeful, positive, uncontroversial-on the products Americans see every day, these activists and corporations generated a pervasive understanding of breast cancer that is widely shared by the public and embraced by policymakers. Clearly, they have been successful: today, more Americans know that the pink ribbon is the symbol of breast cancer than know the name of the vice president. Hiding Politics in Plain Sight examines the costs of employing market mechanisms-especially cause marketing-as a strategy for change. Patricia Strach suggests that market mechanisms do more than raise awareness of issues or money to support charities: they also affect politics. She shows that market mechanisms, like corporate-sponsored walks or cause-marketing, shift issue definition away from the contentious processes in the political sphere to the market, where advertising campaigns portray complex issues along a single dimension with a simple solution: breast cancer research will find a cure and Americans can participate easily by purchasing specially-marked products. This market competition privileges even more specialized actors with connections to business. As well, cooperative market activism fundamentally alters the public sphere by importing processes, values, and biases of market-based action into politics. Market activism does not just bring social concerns into market transactions, it also brings market biases into public policymaking, which is inherently undemocratic. As a result, industry and key activists work cooperatively rather than contentiously, and they define issues as consensual rather than controversial, essentially hiding politics in plain sight.

This theoretical and empirical study is the first to examine the connection between the image and substance of Spain's democracy and the country's foreign policy in Central America. Rosenberg establishes a linkage between Spain's political model of democratic transition and Spanish foreign policy on the isthmus, while questioning the validity of the model as a foreign policy instrument. This well-documented case study is intended for political scientists and historians, students, scholars, and policymakers dealing with the complex and difficult relationships between Spain, Europe, and Central America and with major questions about the future of democracy. The notion of democracy is explored as a historical and contemporary feature of Central American politics since the nineteenth century. Spain's own democratic successes and failures are measured against the abstraction of the political model that the country uses as a foreign policy instrument. The institutional and operational aspects of Spanish foreign policy in Central America are considered against the backdrop of severe strategic, economic, and social crises there. The rhetoric and actions of the Spanish Socialist government are evaluated and considered in relation to foreign policy and democratic development in Central America.

This book tells the story of the European Movement's mission to create-through education-a European spirit in order to secure the success of European integration. This book draws links between the crisis of solidarity experienced by the European Union today and the difficulties faced throughout European integration to develop a fully-fledged EU education policy. It makes the case that education has not been a stable mechanism for fostering spirit due to its national attachment to identity and nation-building. Without education, it has been difficult to foster the spirit needed to establish a strong citizen-wide sense of European solidarity to overcome the crises the EU faces today. Exploring the connection between education and solidarity through the notion of spirit, the book presents an interdisciplinary study that avoids the compartmentalisation of education studies, philosophy and political science to bring ideas together that shed fresh light on contemporary debates currently under the spotlight.

Through the use of a historical-institutional perspective and with particular reference to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia; this study explores the state of family policies in Post-Communist Europe. It analyzes how these policies have developed and examines their impact on gender relations for the countries mentioned.

Nine out of ten infant deaths occur unnecessarily. India has a rate of imprisonment of only one twentieth of the USA. Nevertheless it manages to have a lower homicide rate. In 2010 Honduras had proprtionately one thousand five hundred times as many deaths from firearms compared to the UK and Norway. If men had the same incarceration rate as women then over nine out of ten prisons could close. In 2010 Chad had a maternal mortality rate, which has over a hundred times that of France and Australia. Worldwide two in five adults are overweight and yet 13% are undernourished. Due to pollution more than five million pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes are floating in the world's oceans damaging the food chain. About 12 billion bullets are produced every year, which is almost enough to kill every person on the planet twice. Worldwide two thirds of illiterate adults are women. Unsafe abortion led to 47,000 deaths in 2008. These were nearly all in the poor countries.

In the 1980s, China established its first systems of environmental management collectively known as the three magic weapons: environmental impact assessment, pollutant discharge fees, and the three synchronizations. The authors explore the successes and failures of these systems through actual investigation of individual factories. They also examine the key agencies that implement environmental policy and their responsibilities to both leaders of local government and China's National Environmental Protection Agency. Their findings provide intriguing insights into the broader issues of environmental goals and priorities in developing countries, and the roles of both government agencies and entrepreneurs in policy implementation.

This book analyses the trilemma between growth, energy security and climate change mitigation and, breaking from scholarly orthodoxy, challenges the imperative that growth must always come first. It sets forth the argument that a steady-state approach is a more appropriate conceptual mindset to enable energy transition, sets out a steady-state energy policy, and assesses the projected outcomes of its implementation in the realms of energy security, geopolitics and development. By exploring in depth the implications of such a shift, the book aims to demonstrate its positive effects on sustainability, supply security and affordability; to showcase the more favorable geopolitics of renewable energy; and to unpack new pathways towards development. By bringing together ecological economics and mainstream energy politics, fresh insight to energy and climate policy is provided, alongside their broader geopolitical and developmental ramifications.

Social work leaders constantly strive to incorporate cutting-edge research and promote international collaboration in a dynamic contemporary environment. To address these ongoing concerns, this unique book focuses specifically on strategic leadership, asking critical questions about change-making, political strategy, and the opportunities that present themselves to lead new directions in social work education. Among the topics covered: Disruptive agendas and research dialogues in social work education Diversity leadership and perspectives beyond the mainstream The role of international bodies in advancing social work education Intellectual leadership and anticipating future advances in teaching strategies Democratising social work education Collaborative leadership models Strategic Leadership in Social Work Education examines the ability of social work to shape futures through education, training, and effective leadership, and suggests strategies for advancing responsible social work education in order to best meet tomorrow's needs and aspirations.

This book studies Australia, a country characterized by the highest concentration of domestic photovoltaic systems. In addition, the high level of solar energy that Australia receives makes these systems a significant part of its energy mix. International electricity system managers take note; your systems are heading this way. The energy transition is an emerging field, and few texts have been published that can help energy planners as this book does. The research presented is sociotechnical in nature, and reveals that the main challenge in the energy transition is its emerging social role. Very few works combine the social and technical fields of energy. Given its scope, the book will appeal to readers interested in policy, regulation, and energy systems, including government employees involved in energy system management all around the world.

This book explores family economic decision-making in the United States from the nineteenth century through present day, specifically looking at the relationship between family resource allocation decisions and government policy. It examines how families have responded to incentives and constraints established by diverse federal and state policies and laws, including the regulation of marriage and of female labor force participation, child labor and education policies-including segregation-social welfare programs, and more. The goal of this book is to present family economic decisions throughout US history in a way that contextualizes where the US economy and the families that drive it have been. It goes on to discuss the role public policies have played in that journey, where we need to go from here, and how public policies can help us get there. At a time when American families are more complex than ever before, this volume will educate readers on the often unrecognized role that government policies have on our family lives, and the uncelebrated role that family economic decision-making has on the future of the US economy.