A Change in Worlds explores the environmental, economic, and political history of the Sino-Tibetan Songpan region of northern Sichuan from the late imperial Qing Dynasty to the early 21st century. A historically Tibetan region on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, with significant Han and Muslim Chinese populations, Songpan played important roles in the development of western and modern China s ethnic relations policies, forestry sector, grasslands and environmental conservation, and recent developments in eco- and ethnic tourism as part of various Chinese states. However, in spite of close associations with various Tibetan and Chinese regimes, the region also has a rich history of local independence and resilient nomadic, semi-nomadic and agricultural populations and identities. The Sino-Tibetan diversity in Songpan, partly formed by unique ecological conditions, conditioned all attempts to incorporate the region into larger and more centralized state homogenizing structures. This historical study analyzes the social force of markets and nature in the Songpan region in concert with the political and social conflicts and compromise at the heart of changing political regimes and the area s ethnic groups. It presents new perspectives on the social transformation and economies of Tibetans and Han Chinese from the late Qing Dynasty to Mao era and contemporary western China. It not only allows for a new understanding of how the natural environment and landscapes fit into the imagination of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, it also figures in the challenges of negotiating ethnic and market relations among societies. The mix of complicated relations over natural environment, resources, politics and markets was at the heart of the region s social and political infrastructures, with far-reaching implications for both historical and contemporary China."

This visionary book takes stock of the urgent challenges facing food chains globally and provides a critical evaluation of radical new thinking and perspectives on agricultural and food policy. Wyn Grant investigates the principal drivers of change in food and agriculture, including globalization, climate change, the structure of the industry, changing patterns of consumer demand and new technologies. Rethinking Agricultural and Food Policy provides a comprehensive account of the contemporary challenges impacting the food chain. Chapters explore the various barriers towards positive progress, exposing the deficiency of institutional architecture at a domestic and international level and examining how attempts to reform and revitalize it encounter inertia, embedded production structures, defenders of the status quo and vested interests. Proposing that a holistic, interdisciplinary approach is essential in making progress towards revitalizing policy and encouraging innovation in international governance, Wyn Grant calls for a new agenda to deliver real and necessary change and offer hope for the planet and its people. Using critical insights from natural and social science to uphold its calls for a holistic, integrated approach to agricultural and food policy, this timely book will be an essential read for policy makers, as well as students taking undergraduate or postgraduate courses in agriculture, food and the environment.

In 2001, George W. Bush created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The driving force behind the policy was to create a "level playing field" where faith-based organizations could compete on an equal footing with secular organizations for government funding of social aid programs. Given, on the one hand, the continuation of faith-based policy under Barack Obama and, on the other, the continued support by the vast majority of the American people for some form of such policy, the need has emerged to clearly understand what this policy is and the issues that it raises. Why? First, because the policy reveals new paradigms that explode traditional political and religious designations such as conservative-liberal or evangelical-progressive. Secondly, it is a policy which is setting precedents that with time will only become more entrenched in the institutional fabric of American government and the values of the culture. Finally, it does not seem to be a policy that is likely to just go away. And if it won't go away, then, how should responsible policy be conducted? While John Chandler's Faith-Based Policy: A Litmus Test for Understanding Contemporary America responds to this need to understand, it also acknowledges that there is already a substantial amount of documentation available, which, taken together, provides a comprehensive, though sometimes biased, picture of faith-based policy. This book contributes a relatively brief, impartial analysis that draws on and synthesizes the available information. More specifically, in order to dissipate the confusion surrounding the perceptions that many have had concerning the intention and meaning of the policy, this book provides insight into: 1) the theological visions of the faith-based actors behind the policy; 2) how these actors have tried to apply these visions as the program has evolved in the 2000s; 3) the divisiveness and debate that has characterized the faith-based experiment, and; 4) how all of the above may be held up for contemplation by the reader as a mirror of developing American culture.

Canaries in the Data Mine offers an account of the lived experiences and cultural expectations of young people growing up in digital environments increasingly owned by others and designed for profit. At the book's core is a participatory research project that first interviewed New York City teens about their digital habits and then engaged a group of five young people in designing the prototypical platform of their time: a social network. In this engaging book, Gregory T. Donovan penetrates beyond the interface to consider the digital geography of contemporary youth, arguing that understanding what young people are grappling with portends what is, or will soon be, felt by society at large. Drawing from in-depth interviews and design workshops, he shows how informational capitalism is reproduced at an intimate scale as well as how involving young people in digital design can foster capacities for reworking and resisting the conditions of a rising rentier society.

This book provides a long-term perspective on policies regarding intergovernmental grants in the US since the 1970s. This period spans six presidential administrations and encompasses a diverse set of political and economic conditions. Containing original research, this book contributes to critical assessments of intergovernmental grant issues such as: whether state and local government spending responds symmetrically to increases or decreases in federal aid the effects of converting categorical grants to block grants on program spending; and the political economy of federal aid distribution. >The author's empirical analyses are based on a unique data set of US federal intergovernmental grants and cover a range of programs, including transportation, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and community development and welfare. The book is a rich source of material on intergovernmental grants and fiscal relations for scholars and practitioners in public policy, political science, economics and public finance.

Preventing Unemployment in Europe is an interdisciplinary volume offering an effective and authoritative contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the utility of preventive labour market policies. Positive labour market performance is discussed from a European perspective and analysed against the background of transferability in an era of increasing globalisation of markets. Concentrating particularly on the role of corporatist and market processes, the book focuses on the effects of preventive unemployment through the comparison of innovative and flexible policy solutions. Some of the fundamental issues the book tackles include the extent to which the conditional framework for preventive labour market policy is undergoing change, the response mechanisms to these changes which characterise national strategies and the learning processes which can be triggered through the exchange of national experiences within the EU. The discussions within the book benefit from both an economic analysis of the subject matter complemented by a broader social science approach. The editors, themselves distinguished scholars in this field, have produced a comprehensive resource which should prove invaluable reading for both policymakers and academics in the fields of labour market theory and policy.

Baker and his colleagues provide a blend of the theoretical and the empirical evidence in an examination of the nature of bureaucracy under non-democratic, authoritarian forms of government, whether on the right, as in Portugal, or the left, as in Bulgaria. In all these instances, the bureaucracy was constructed to serve the distorted interests of centralized, unaccountable power. Following the remarkable spread of democracy in the seventies in Iberia, the eighties in much of Latin America, parts of Asia and Africa, and the nineties in the former USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries, the main focus was on reforming the economy and the political institutions.

Distinguished scholars concentrate on the inherited bureaucracy--the arm of government with which the people most often have to deal. They highlight the undemocratic, and sometimes antidemocratic, nature of the civil service that is supposed to serve democracy. Others consider the nature of reform as experienced, and as needed, why there is no major policy for real reform of the bureaucracy in many countries, and the similar experience of reforming from the left and the right. Contributors discuss specific experiences as case studies and examine the more general question of what lessons can be learned from this unique perspective into comparative public administration reform. Essential reading for scholars, students, policy makers, and others involved with comparative government and public administration.

Writing of the France of the 1930s, the late Simone Weil declared, The state has morally killed everything smaller than itself. Liebmann asserts that a comparable development has recently taken place in the United States, fostering civic apathy and an inability to address serious social problems, and that, not for the first time, abuse of judicial review has caused the Constitution to be used as a tool of class interests. After a general survey of these consequences, Liebmann discusses the original constitutional debates and understanding. He then assesses First Amendment doctrine, through a discussion of the views of Harry Kalven, the most influential modern commentator on free speech issues, and then discusses the appropriate relationship of constitutional restraints to governmental fostering of public policy, on zoning, education, law enforcement, urban renewal, day care, traffic regulation, and care of the elderly, and illustrates the hopeful developments that are possible if judicial restraint is restored. A significant analysis for all scholars and researchers in the areas of constitutional law and current American public policy and politics.

Over the past decade, there has been continual development and renewal of strategies and practices surrounding e-governance. Governments around the world have embraced new information and communication technologies to increase the efficiency of internal processes, deliver better and more integrated services to citizens and businesses, invite citizen and stakeholder participation in planning decisions, improve communication, and sometimes even enhance democratic processes. Global Strategy and Practice of E-Governance: Examples from Around the World provides readers with an overview of relevant strategy and policy-level theoretical frameworks and examples, as well as up-to-date implementations from around the world. This book offers valuable insights into best practices, as well as some of the issues and challenges surrounding the governance of and with information and communication technologies in a globalized, knowledge-based world.

This unique book offers a comprehensive survey of the privatization and deregulation of the public sector in a number of important developed and developing economies. The first part examines the privatization and deregulation process in Japan, Korea, India, Latin America, the US and the UK. The authors examine the costs and benefits in each country and describe the private initiatives and ongoing government intervention in the new markets. Wide country coverage allows readers to compare and contrast the different regimes in each country, particularly in the less studied Asian and Indian regions. The authors also describe the regime in the US and UK, the forerunners of privatization initiatives, from which useful policy lessons can be learnt in terms of ownership, price setting, universal service and welfare implications. The second part offers sector surveys from important industries, including telecommunications in Japan, India and Latin America, electricity in the UK and US, and the banking sector in Japan. Privatization, Deregulation and Economic Efficiency will be useful supplementary reading for scholars and students of the theory and practice of public economics, as well as for governments and NGOs interested in the policy implications of the privatization and deregulation process.

How might the entire citizenry of a country make the decisions that affect them? Carson and Martin provide the first accessible and comprehensive overview of random selection as a possible process for transforming our modern political systems. Building on the theoretical work of the likes of John Burnheim and Fred Emery and drawing on their own work with social action groups, they outline a set of methods that go beyond the mere tapping of community opinion to reveal not only preferences but a more active role in creating the community.

Random selection, as Carson and Martin show, has been used in community participation in short-term decision making and long-term planning. It can be a powerful tool in the development of local, federal, and international policy. An important and innovative look at government decision making, this will be of primary interest to scholars and researchers in political theory and electoral systems, as well as political activists and reformers.

This book argues that the relationship between cities and climate change is entering a new and more urgent phase. Thirteen contributions from a range of leading scholars explore the need to rethink and reorient urban life in response to climatic change. Split into four parts it begins by asking 'What is climate urbanism?' and exploring key features from different locations and epistemological traditions. The second section examines the transformative potential of climate urbanism to challenge social and environmental injustices within and between cities. In the third part authors interrogate current knowledge paradigms underpinning climate and urban science and how they shape contemporary urban trajectories. The final section focuses on the future, envisaging climate urbanism as a new communal project, and focuses on the role of citizens and non-state actors in driving transformative action. Consolidating debates on climate urbanism, the book highlights the opportunities and tensions of urban environmental policy, providing a framework for researchers and practitioners to respond to the urban challenges of a radically climate-changed world.

Most American Indian reservations are islands of poverty in a sea of wealth, but they do not have to remain that way. To extract themselves from poverty, Native Americans will have to build on their rich cultural history including familiarity with markets and integrate themselves into modern economies by creating institutions that reward productivity and entrepreneurship and that establish tribal governments that are capable of providing a stable rule of law. The chapters in this volume document the involvement of indigenous people in market economies long before European contact, provide evidence on how the wealth of Indian Nations has been held hostage to bureaucratic red tape, and explains how their wealth can be unlocked through self-determination and sovereignty.

This unique book provides a platform for resilience research, combining knowledge from various domains, such as genetics, primatology, archeology, geography, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, medicine, ecology, psychology, risk management and systems science, in order to examine specific concepts. The term "resilience" was originally used in psychology, but in current-day usage, it mainly refers to the "ability to recover from disaster"; however, the concept of resilience is still ambiguous. This book challenges readers to reconsider the concept of resilience comprehensively from diverse perspectives and to re-conceptualize it as an important framework applicable in various research fields. The book explores resilience by expanding the time and space scales to the maximum. On the time axis, it traces back to our human ancestors (and even to anthropoid apes) and follows the evolution of humans, the origin of agriculture, the rise and fall of ancient civilizations, and the present day. On the space axis, it discusses levels ranging from genetic; bacterial flora; individual, indigenous communities; and modern societies; to the global level. As such it expands the base for considering the problems facing modern society and selecting a future direction. In the long history of evolution, we Homo sapiens have faced, and overcome, various kinds of risks. By acquiring resilience, we have surpassed other animals and become apparent rulers of the earth; but, at the same time, we are also facing more serious risks than ever before. This book provides insights into addressing the challenges of a sustainable future.

Concerns about European prospects for competitiveness, jobs and growth are high on the European Union agenda and regulatory reform, both at national and EU levels, is widely recognised as a crucial tool for improving the performance of European companies. Despite the single market, selective sectoral regulatory reform and certain reforms at the national level, regulation in Europe still tends to discourage new entrants, impede new production methods and inhibit the exit of existing competitors. It often increases costs without providing compensatory benefits, reduces operational flexibility and distorts capital expenditure, creating obstacles to innovation. The authors in this book argue that regulatory reform can, more often than not, help improve the competitiveness of companies while generating net growth effects for the European Union as a whole.In this book, the authors discuss the horizontal issues involved in regulatory reform. Following an extended introduction by the editors, two general chapters address regulation and growth, and the regulatory burdens and failures in Europe. Other chapters deal with national competition policy, state aid, EU environmental policy, reforms in product markets, labour market reforms, the regulatory environment of small and new firms, and the current, insufficient EU reforms to improve regulatory quality. Throughout the book the authors aim to demonstrate how the market can function more efficiently and offer policy recommendations to show how regulatory reform can improve competitiveness at the firm level as well as performance at the industry, national and EU levels.

Flying into the Future explores the organization of air transport in the European Union. It analyses the nature of the industries supplying air transport services, the institutional structure of air transport services, and impediments to increased efficiency in the provision of air transport. The reduction in institutional barriers and regulations has led to a more efficient provision of air transport services in the EU. This book assesses the improvements in the efficiency of air transport services, and highlights institutional and physical problems impeding further efficiency gains. The authors examine airline operations, and the ability of two or more transport systems to operate effectively in tandem. They also consider how to make the boundaries between different transport networks invisible, as well as discussing issues of national organization and the juridical structures which impede operations. The analysis examines both the internal European Union market for air transport services and the links between it and the rest of the world. Other key issues discussed include: * EU air transport developments in the context of global markets * comparisons of recent developments in aviation policy between the EU and the United States * the problems of congestion in the air transport industry in Europe * the growth and significance of airline alliances. The authors not only consider the economics of European air transport but also legal, political, technical and geographical issues. They explore the problems of providing air transport in the context of inadequate information, institutional constraints, inherent market imperfections and imprecise objectives. Flying into the Future will be essential reading for industrialists, policymakers and academics interested in transport economics and transport policy.

This book is an up-to-date analysis of the issues facing the future of the social work profession in the face of rising political authoritarianism, economic inequality and insecurity, class and racial conflicts, fiscal pressure and the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an account of how these factors interact, and what their consequences are for policy and practice. Reflecting the author's experiences in Europe and Commonwealth countries, the book is international in its scope and analysis. It is suitable for professionals and students alike, and will also be relevant for social policy academics and researchers.

From the time he began his life as a "throwaway child," clearly, some crucial pieces of Ron Huber's life had been missing: Parents. Love. Self-esteem. A helping hand. Cruelly abandoned at an early age by his alcoholic parents, Ron and his brother, Vic, were left to rot in a poisoned, rat-infested slum with no food, heat, or electricity. For the next long decade, Ron and Vic suffered unbearably as they were shipped from one brutal foster care home to another. Not soon enough it was time for Ron to break loose from the chains of the mental and physical restraints of the welfare and foster care system and strike out on his own with newfound and well-deserved hope to halt the runaway turbulence of his young life. From a throwaway child to a top federal government executive, this is Ron Huber's remarkable true story of bravery, gallantry and recovery from a system which today poses a national crisis. Foster care provides for half a million "nowhere to go" children and, of that half a million, a shocking 80 percent of the children end up in prisons. This account of Ron's life sends a powerful message to those unfortunate victims of a foster home care existence today of unswerving hope and optimism that one day you will find a world WITH unquestionable love to wipe away all the tears of your saddened, inhumane, hurt, your torturous loneliness, your savage abuse, and the tears from your humiliating defeats. It will come.

This book presents various multi-criteria analysis methods for sustainability-oriented analysis and decision-making for energy systems, under various different conditions and scenarios. It presents methodologies to answer the questions relating to which of the options are the most sustainable among the alternatives, and how multi-criteria decision analysis methods can be used to select the most sustainable energy systems. A systematic innovative methodological framework is presented, which enables the most appropriate energy system to be selected under different conditions including: Scientific decision support tools for sustainable energy system selection; Fuzzy, grey, and rough sets based multi-criteria decision analysis; Decision-making models under uncertainties; and The combination of life cycle thinking and multi-criteria decision analysis This book is of interest to researchers, engineers, decision makers, and postgraduate students within the field of energy systems, sustainability, and multi-criteria decision analysis.

The health care system remains in crisis, and it's hurting the overall economy. Join an insider as he examines the problem and offers solutions.

Everyone knows that there are severe challenges when it comes to health care delivery and financing these days. Even so, not many people are offering viable solutions. Author Roger H. Strube, MD, spent thirty-six years in medical education, training, practice, and health care administration, and he's not satisfied with the status quo. He shares his personal experiences along with a vision of how to fix the problems associated with a broken system.

If you have been frustrated by excessive paperwork, high expenses, and poor treatment in the current health care system, Strube can help you understand the root causes behind the troubles. You'll discover
ways that the medical-industrial complex cripples the economy; a plan to get control of skyrocketing medical expenses while improving the quality of care; strategies to develop the right decision-making tools and protocols; a vision to bring the practice and administration of medicine into the electronic age.

All Americans must understand our core problems and realize what real reforms can be made to control costs and improve our health care system. Learn an insider's perspective on "Discovering the Cause and the Cure for American's Health Care Crisis."

How do we incorporate analytical thinking into public policy decisions? Stuart Shapiro confronts this issue in Analysis and Public Policy by looking at various types of analysis, and discussing how they are used in regulatory policy-making in the US. By looking at the successes and failures of incorporating cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, and environmental impact assessment, he draws broader lessons on its use, focusing on the interactions between analysis and political factors, legal structures and bureaucratic organizations as possible areas for reform.Utilizing empirical and qualitative research, Shapiro analyzes four different forms of analysis: cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, and impact analysis. After interviewing nearly fifty individuals who have served in high levels of government, and who have made countless regulatory policy decisions in their careers, Shapiro argues that advocates must become less ambitious and should craft requirements for simpler and clearer analysis. Such analysis, particularly if informed by public participation, can do a great deal to improve government decisions. As this book details the relationship between analysis and institutional factors such as politics, bureaucracy, and law, it is appropriate for a variety of readers, such as scholars of policy, students, scholars of regulation, and congressional and state legislative staff looking to create new analytical requirements.