Innovation is critically important for countries seeking to maintain or improve their competitive advantage in the global economy. This book addresses the major current policy debates in science, technology and innovation focusing mainly on Europe but also including comparisons with other countries around the world.The R&D policies of five European countries - the UK, The Netherlands, France, Finland and Germany - are examined to understand national innovation systems and public policies, the determination of R&D spending priorities, research responsibilities and the allocation of funds. The authors combine interviews with senior civil servants, analyses of government publications and various government statistics on R&D performance. They consider national debates on science, technology and innovation policies within the wider context of the overarching political and administrative culture, and relate actual innovation and research policies to structural and institutional features of national economies. This book will be warmly welcomed by scholars and all those in decision making positions in government and non-governmental institutions on research, innovation and technology.

How much freedom of action does an ambitious reforming party have as it moves from opposition to government? Drawing on original research and first-hand interviews, Andrew Connell analyzes the development of welfare reform policy following New Labour's ascent to power in 1997 to show how ideas, actors, and structures can constrain policy options. He looks at the contrasting ideas of Frank Field, Minister for Welfare Reform in 1997-8, and of Gordon Brown, and shows how Brown's approach eventually came to prevail. The book also includes a unique exposition of Field's political and social philosophy, showing how his consistent Christian socialist beliefs influenced his work as Minister for Welfare Reform. "Welfare Policy under New Labour" will be essential reading for scholars of contemporary politics and social policy and for those interested in New Labour and welfare reform.

This book explores the decline and growth of the private rental sector in Australia delving into the changing dynamics of landlord investment and tenant profile over the course of the twentieth century and into the present period. It explains why over one in four Australian households are now private renters and investigates the contemporary legal and regulatory frameworks governing the sector. The reform discourses in Australia and comparator countries, and debates around key concerns such as Australia's advantageous tax treatment of investors in rental property and the power imbalance between tenants and landlords are highlighted. The book draws on rich data: 600 surveys and close to 100 in-depth interviews with tenants in high, medium and low rent areas in Sydney and Melbourne and regional New South Wales. The book provides in-depth insights into this large and expanding component of Australia's housing market and shows how being a private renter shapes the everyday lives and wellbeing of people and households who rent their housing including short and long-term renters, those on low and higher incomes and older as well as younger people.

This book provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the emerging civil service systems in 9 Central and East European states. Its comparative nature provides a fascinating insight into the emerging patterns of administrative development in the region since the beginning of the transition period. The authors apply the same methodological framework developed by the Civil Service Research Consortium to all the country case studies, which gives the book a high level of coherence and enhances the comparability of the country case studies. This methodological framework provides a solid background for the in-depth analysis of the history of the civil service system, internal labour market, public opinion, relations between politicians and administrators and civil service reform and development. Special attention is given to topical issues such as the influence of the European Union on the emerging civil service systems and possibility of European Union candidature. Civil Service Systems in Central and Eastern Europe will be warmly welcomed by academics and advanced level students in public administration, law, political science and transition studies as well as policymakers and international organizations helping to develop civil services in former communist countries.

This book provides a comprehensive exploration of some of the most critical issues regarding the EU's Energy Union policy. Applied European energy policies face a number of challenges ranging from the geopolitics of energy and energy regulation, to climate change, advancing renewable and gas technologies, and consumer empowerment structures. This book takes a multi-dimensional look into some of these vital issues regarding the European energy sector with a special focus on the effects the Energy Union policy has in two sensitive regional systems, Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Energy, being by definition a multi-disciplinary field, presents a challenge for readers of any specific disciplinary background that need to grasp an overall understanding of the various aspects of this exciting sector. This book's objective is to offer the opportunity for readers to get a quality, hands-on overview of the Energy Union by the professionals and academics that interact with it on a daily basis.

Economic Policy in the European Union analyses the key issues confronting Europe as we enter the 21st century. It focuses mainly on the transition problems linked with the creation of European Monetary Union as well as more specific issues such as social, labour, environmental and science and technology policy. It addresses major questions, including: * is it true that the disappearance of exchange risks will benefit trade and growth? * can the EMU function if integration is not speeded up in other areas? * will the EMU enhance internal cohesion? * is the creation of a single currency a popularly accepted idea in the member states? The authors also examine some more specific issues including European Work Councils, the possibility of coordinated environmental policy within the European Union, employment rights and technological collaboration. This topical book will be welcomed by those scholars, students and policymakers interested in some of the most important issues currently faced by Europe.

Policy knowledge derived from data, information, and evidence is a powerful tool for contributing to policy discussions and debates, and for understanding and improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of government action. For decades, politicians, advocates, reformers, and researchers have simultaneously espoused this value, while also paradoxically lamenting the lack of impact of policy knowledge on decision making, and the failure of related reforms. This text explores this paradox, identifying the reliance on a proverb of using policy knowledge to supplant politics as a primary culprit for these perceived failures. The evidence in this book suggests that any consideration of the role of policy knowledge in decision making must be considered alongside, rather than in place of, considerations of the ideologies, interests, and institutional factors that shape political decisions. This contextually rich approach offers practical insights to understand the role of policy knowledge, and to better leverage it to support good governance decisions.

Ilan Stavans has amassed a collection of cutting-edge articles that inform readers about how Latinos navigate both the mainstream medical arena and culturally specific healing traditions. This work highlights the myriad problems Latinos face in becoming fully acculturated consumers of health care. Its series of chapters by expert contributors bridges the communication gap between mainstream medical professionals who need to understand the Latino worldview and Latinos that need to adapt to the puzzling complexity of providers and insurers that make up the American health care system. Backed by research using quantitative methods and other techniques, Health Care's seven chapters cover topics ranging from infant care to teenage dating and sexual mores to prescription medication use by older adults. Much of the coverage focuses on problems of access and the ways in which Latinos move between mainstream health care, and the world of traditional remedies provided by botanicas (shops specializing in herbs and other healing items) and curanderos (folk healers). Includes seven chapters on the major issues concerning Latino access to quality health care in the United States 18 contributors-noted scholars providing their insights under the editorial direction of Ilan Stavans

This book asks what it means to live in a higher educational world continuously tempered by catastrophe. Many of the resources for response and resistance to catastrophe have long been identified by thinkers ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James to H. G. Wells and Emanuel Haldeman-Julius. Di Leo posits that hope and resistance are possible if we are willing to resist a form of pessimism that already appears to be drawing us into its arms. Catastrophe and Higher Education argues that the future of the humanities is tied to the fate of theory as a form of resistance to neoliberalism in higher education. It also offers that the fate of the academy may very well be in the hands of humanities scholars who are tasked with either rejecting theory and philosophy in times of catastrophe-or embracing it.

By relying on private enterprise more than any other developed nation, American health care has all the appearances of free-market in action. And for more than a hundred years, attempts to reform this system (including President Obama's Affordable Care Act) have been met with opposition from parties warning against the stifling effect of government intervention. What these warnings about federal overreach overlook is the fact that the federal government has long been an indispensible player in guiding and supporting the current US health care system. Its role is so pervasive and of such longstanding importance that it is easy to overlook, but it actually created American health care as we know it today. Seminal public programs stand behind every segment of America's massive and hugely profitable health care industry. This is not to deny the instrumental roles of private entrepreneurship and innovation, but rather to describe the foundation on which they rest. The industry's underlying driving force is a massive partnership between the public and private spheres. The partnership is complex, and its effects are not always ideal. But for better or worse, it shapes every aspect of what we in the United States know as health care. Mother of Invention traces the government's role in building four key health care sectors into the financial powerhouses they are today: pharmaceuticals, hospitals, the medical profession, and private insurance. It traces their history, surveys their growth, and highlights some of their greatest success stories, which together reveal the indispensible role of public initiatives in contemporary private health care. Only by understanding what actually drives our system can we appreciate possibilities for meaningful reform or comprehend the true context - historically and politically - of the Obama plan.

This well-documented and fascinating book tells how, over the centuries, a series of visionaries, scientists, technologists, and politicians fostered the involvement of Italy in space exploration. The lives of these pioneers was often far from easy, yet they persevered. The fruits of their efforts can today be witnessed in Italy's success within the cutting-edge space sector. Italy's history in space started at the end of the fourteenth century and continued with the development of fireworks. Later, the nineteenth century marked the beginning of research into rockets in a more scientific way. After World War II, rocket technology was advanced with the aid of German scientists, and in the 1960s Luigi Broglio, the father of Italian space exploration, designed the San Marco satellite. In 1979 the first Italian Space Plan was launched, but it was the foundation of the Italian Space Agency in 1988 that kick-started a program of exploration in various fields of cosmic research. The outcome was construction of the Vega launcher and collaboration in the International Space Station. Now the Italian space industry stands ready to play an important role in the Gateway orbital station. All of this history, and more, is explored in this riveting book.

The book relates three years of history of social movements from Asia and Europe who work on social justice, as a rough overview. The work for the book is mainly done on the ground, day after day, working in villages and cities, with people and their organisations, organising resistance and preparing alternatives. It is based on the fact that European and Asian concerns are identical, in spite of divergent levels of development and wealth, and that the existing international initiatives, such as the ILO's social protection floors, or the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are perfectly compatible with neoliberal policies. The book goes beyond and sees social commons as a strategic tool for transforming societies. It is basically a project for the sustainability of life, of humans, of societies, and of nature. The book describes the ideas at the basis of the work in different sectors. It is not about the practice of social policies but about the ideas and discourses that can in the end shape the political practices. In sum, this book, presents a new social paradigm. It concretely shows how social justice and environmental justice do go hand in hand.

This book explores the role of railways in developing sustainable low-carbon mobility by analyzing the intermodal relationship between railways and other transport modes. Focusing on geographical and governance perspectives, and taking China as a case study, it analyzes the competition and cooperation between and integration of railways and other transport modes, in order to provide guidance on future sustainable transport development. Firstly, the book examines the contribution of railways to low carbon emissions in China over recent decades by estimating the carbon dioxide emissions from various transport modes in China at national and regional levels using decomposition analysis. It then discusses the current competition and cooperation between railways and other transport modes, as well as their integration and the impact of their relationship on climate change. It also highlights how the competition between railways and other transport modes may change the passenger flows between city pairs and so alter transport carbon emissions and examines how cooperation and integration could improve passengers' travel experience while at the same time reducing carbon emissions. Lastly, it addresses the implications for future sustainable transport development based on institutional analysis. Presenting multidisciplinary, sustainable transport research on the role of railways in reducing carbon emissions, and also offering policy recommendations for developing low-carbon, integrated transport in the future, this book is a valuable reference resource for graduates, researchers, and government managers responsible for transport development, urban planning and environmental policy.

This book discusses social innovations by cooperatives from the Asia and Pacific region. Social innovations emerge when the state and market in developing countries find it difficult to solve problems such as poverty, hunger, ill health, poor education systems, inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation. These countries also face barriers to economic growth such as climate change, poor governance, unequal opportunities and social exclusion. This volume therefore addresses the following questions. What are the distinctive features of social innovations by cooperatives? How social innovations bring in changes in the process and outcome of development? After presenting theories of social innovation and a critical review of cooperatives and social innovation, the book presents 15 chapters on social innovations by cooperatives in the Asia Pacific region. These social innovations are related to health insurance, community based tourism, disaster response, climate smart agriculture, use of social media for youth empowerment, training for the emergence of second-line leaders in cooperatives, social inclusion through innovative finance, profitable marketing of organic produce to strengthen economic status of small farmers, digital auction and value addition for income security of farmer members, collaboration between cooperative members and workers for the mutual benefit, worker cooperatives, women leadership and participation, building union-cooperative partnership in finance and rating of cooperatives to promote transparency and accountability. A chapter on innovative services of cooperatives during the time of Covid19 is also included. This volume will be quite significant for co-operators, researchers, teachers, practitioners and policy-makers at the global level. The theme is relevant for international development community and national cooperatives with concern for their communities, which is the seventh cooperative principle of International Cooperative Alliance and the Sustainable Development Goal of the UN.

Michael Savage predicted the chaos that is Obama's legacy. Now he tells us whether the destruction can be stopped! The prophetic author of the bestselling Government Zero, Dr. Michael Savage is back with his most urgent and powerful work. Listeners to Dr. Savage's top-rated radio talk show, The Savage Nation, know him to be an articulate and engaged spokesman for traditional American values of borders, language, and culture. Now, after eight divisive years of Barack Obama, Dr. Savage lays out an irrefutable case for how our nation has been undermined by terrorists from without, by anarchists from within, by a president and politicians with contempt for the Constitution and the law, and by a complicit liberal media. With words and topics that are as insightful as they are timely, he makes an ironclad case for the dangers we face from Hillary Clinton and her fellow travelers in the progressive movement. He also explains why Donald Trump may be one of the two best hopes for America's future as we try to regain control of our government, our country, and our national soul. The other hope? As Dr. Savage explains in some of his most heartfelt and passionate words, it is we, the people: the ordinary "Eddies," as he calls them-motivated, roused, and engaged. This book is about much more than an election. It is a veteran commentator and celebrated raconteur providing a blueprint for how to regain our cherished freedoms and our national identity . . . before they are lost forever.

In light of the novel corona virus outbreak in December 2019 and its subsequent impact on entire world as a global pandemic, the book attempts to provide integrated risk assessment on Covid -19 like pandemics, as well as to understand the societal, environment and economic impact of the outbreak in various sectors of development. It covers fundamental factors of global disease outbreaks and its coverage as major disaster through the complexity and severity of consequences, illustrating the dimensions of low frequency high intensity disasters. It brings together broad range of topics including basic concepts, isolation measure, role of governance and key technical advancements for containing the diseases. In addition, it also covers resilience analysis towards the impacts such outbreaks have on bio-diversity, ecosystem services and agricultural food production. It defines key exit strategies from the lessons learned and success stories of historical disease outbreaks. The book is presented in four parts, where part 1 familiarizes with fundamentals; part 2 focuses on integrated risk assessments; part 3 focuses on various measures and strategies of resilience; and part 4 suggests key lessons and recommendations. The book is a useful reading reference for scientific community, policy makers and professionals across the domains of health, environment, disasters and sustainable development. Book is specifically beneficial for postgraduate students, researchers, planners and field professionals.

This book provides an overview of factors fostering well-being in Latin America and discusses many threats to well-being in the region. The book assesses the current well-being situation in Latin American countries and offers an explanation based on its many drivers, such as family arrangements, kindness and affection of interpersonal relations, economic situation, education regimes, political institutions, poverty, income inequality, crime and violence, and the weakness of political institutions. The book provides a framework to fully understand the drivers behind high well-being, including the challenges and opportunities that public policy faces in the procurement of people's well-being. The book provides relevant material for policymakers and social scientist interested in the procurement of well-being.

This book provides an all-round analysis and exploration of the course, status quo and future of the Chinese Government's governance reform under the framework of government governance modernization. The authors bring their decades of experience in crafting policy in China to explain the relationship between China's government and market, between government and society, between the central government and local governments, functional transformation, organizational structure optimization, reform of public institutions, allocation of fiscally supported personnel, the building of a law-based government and other major issues, while also laying out a case for structural changes in the years to come.