Although the last two generations have seen an enormous amount of attention paid to advances in electronics, the fact remains that high-income, high-energy societies could thrive without microchips, etc., but, by contrast, could not exist without steel. Because of the importance of this material to comtemporary civilization, a comprehensive resource is needed for metallurgists, non-metallurgists, and anyone with a background in environmental studies, industry, manufacturing, and history, seeking a broader understanding of the history of iron and steel and its current and future impact on society. Given its coverage of the history of iron and steel from its genesis to slow pre-industrial progress, revolutionary advances during the 19th century, magnification of 19th century advances during the past five generations, patterns of modern steel production, the ubiquitous uses of the material, potential substitutions, advances in relative dematerialization, and appraisal of steel's possible futures, Still the Iron Age: Iron and Steel in the Modern World by world-renowned author Vaclav Smil meets that need.

Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously silent and invisible population. She presents powerful stories of the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. The voices and stories captured by Balay-by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and devastating-challenge contemporary understandings of what it means to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence, or rape. Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves, Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay life in America.

Successful Construction Project Management - The Practical Guide, provides useful tips to managing a construction project. It's aimed at construction professionals as well as those studying construction project management. Managing a construction project isn't an easy job and requires a large skill set. Some of these skills are learned by attending courses and colleges (which are often more theoretical than practical). However, others are only learned by experience, and often the hard way - learning from mistakes. This book bridges the gap between the theoretical and practical and includes chapters on planning the project, starting it, scheduling, running the project, completing it, people, materials, equipment, quality, safety, subcontractors, contractual and financial. These chapters are broken into multiple sections providing a step-by-step guide to successfully managing a construction project, and, including what-not-to-do to avoid costly mistakes. Key features of the book are it: is written for construction contractors by a contractor is written in an easy to read, friendly style, and avoids being too 'textbook' in nature has numerous practical examples of situations the author has seen and experienced over twenty-eight years in construction includes many topics essential to successfully managing projects which aren't included in most other project management books (such as; teamwork, delegation, communication, time management and preparing for meetings) has the information clearly set out and easily available so the book can be used as a continuing reference is not specific to a particular country or field of construction includes a large amount of valuable, useful and relevant information dealing with practical everyday issues of managing a project has a summary of the salient points at the end of each chapter Managing a construction project requires Project Managers with an understanding of construction processes, able to develop schedules, procure materials and equipment, aware of safety, environmental and labour legislation, capable of working with different people including the public, their workers, the client and designers, and able to manage subcontractors. They need to develop an appropriate construction methodology which uses the available personnel and equipment efficiently, enabling the project to be built in the shortest possible time, taking into account the client's requirements and the project's location and restraints. In addition, they must ensure the project is carried out safely and meets the required quality standards and complies with all permits, regulations and registrations. They must manage contractual issues with the client in a manner which doesn't jeopardise their company, ensuring the project is financially successful, while always maintaining good client relations. The project must be successfully completed on-time and closed-out correctly. The book discusses all of this, and more, in detail and includes many examples which provide relevance to the subject matter. By reading and using this book Project Managers will avoid some of the many problems encountered everyday on construction projects. The book should prove to be an excellent reference which can continually be referred to so that Project Managers don't forget important steps in the construction management process. The contents should be easily understood by people in the construction industry and those studying construction. A glossary of terms is included since terminologies vary between countries and even companies.

Have you recently hired a contractor to do some home improvements, but after careful inspection, you noticed the work was subpar? You are not alone. According to the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America, home improvement contracting was the top complaint category reported by state and local consumer protection agencies during the last decade.
Randal Winter has met some very distraught homeowners over the years. Some of these people have been without kitchens for over two years and some without bathrooms for up to fourteen months. Others are stuck with leaking roofs after spending tens of thousands of dollars for what they thought was going to be a new roof.

It is widely acknowledged that there is an increasing problem in maintenance of the American civil infrastructure. Highways, bridges, sewers, railroads, harbours, and public buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s are wearing out, while inflation-adjusted federal spending on infrastructure has fallen. The current situation, with respect to highway bridge maintenance, is in fact so severe that many states cannot afford to attend in need of replacement, so they are focusing only on the most severe cases. Recently, rapid assessment, repair, and replacement of damaged highway bridge after extreme events have been given close attention to by government agencies, engineering and construction communities, and the general public. This book presents the complicated undertaking of highway bridge replacement in an easy-to-read format.

This book provides an outlook into the use of Asbestos containing Materials (ACM) in Ghana, compared with what has been developed in the European Union (EU) and UK in particular. The fatal risks of Asbestos were overlooked in many instances due to ignorance. The background of Asbestos as a widely used material and its related sickness is discussed first, followed by the acceptance by the Western World and EU countries and UK in particular of Asbestos Regulation Car 2006, came into force on November 13, 2006 (Asbestos Regulations - S12006/2739). These regulations bring together the three previous sets of Regulations covering the prohibition of Asbestos, the control of Asbestos at work and Asbestos Licensing. The regulations prohibit the importation, supply and use of all forms of Asbestos. Emphasis is placed on practical approach to the use of ACM in UK and what can be done in Ghana of which other countries in Africa are not exceptions.

Prefabrication of building components could be leveraged to improve reported low productivity trend in construction industry. Despite numerous known benefits of prefabrication, uptake of this technology has been discouragingly low. A nation-wide survey of consultants, contractors, employers and manufacturers was carried out in New Zealand and the received feedback was analysed. The subcomponents of the broad constraint categories and their relative levels of impact on the uptake of the technology were reported. Additionally measures for improving the uptake of the technology in construction industry were suggested. For a methodical evaluation of the marginal value achievable by the use of prefabrication variant over and above that of the traditional stick-built system at the design and life-cycle phases of the procurement process, a decision support model was developed and tested using the modular variant of the prefabrication compared to the traditional stick-built system. Results shows that use of modular variant of the prefabrication delivers superior value to clients compared to the traditional system at the development, operational and life-cycle phases of procurement process.

The first step to performance improvement is performance measurement. This is particularly true when seeking to improve the performance of the construction industry. This book presents an innovative approach to performance measurement based on the use of maturity modelling in conjunction with a set of project performance metrics. The maturity model, referred to as the CIM3, assesses the construction industry's maturity with respect to a set of industry practices. An industry practice leads to achievement of an objective, which in turn, leads to the realization of one of the construction industry's performance goals. Based on this, the CIM3 provides leading indicators of the construction industry's performance. These leading indicators can be used to predict the lagging performance of the construction industry, which is measured by project performance metrics. The use of the CIM3 in conjunction with a set of project performance metrics provides a holistic assessment of the performance of the construction industry. Based on this, policy makers are better informed with respect to performance improvement initiatives.

Building and Construction industry being recognized as the unorganised sector, has vast labour intensity and economic activity after agriculture in India. Though work is temporary and casual natured with lack of basic amenities and inadequate welfare facilities in it, the industry generates demand for both skilled and semi-skilled labour force. The workers face inherent risk to life/vital body parts due to occupational hazards. With an objective of providing adequate working conditions and welfare amenities, the Government of India enacted the legislation namely, Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of employment and conditions of services) Act, 1996. Complacent to the legislation, the Karnataka State Government has framed Rules, constituted Building and Other Construction Workers' Board and planned and promoted the welfare schemes during the year 2006. But yet, the workers are being deprived of the benefits of the Welfare Scheme. The need for the study has been to ascertain the awareness of the welfare scheme, extent of implementation and identify areas of hurdles in implementation, and righteously generate 'Silver Lining' in every workers life.

This thesis is an empirical study of strategic management practices in the construction industry. It examines the dynamic capabilities paradigm within the context of the Indonesian construction industry. The characteristics of asset-capability combinations were found to be significant determinants of the competitive advantage of the Indonesian construction enterprises, and that such advantage sequentially contributes to organizational performance. In doing so, this study fills an important gap in the empirical literature and reinforces the dynamic capabilities framework's recognition as a rigorous theory of strategic management. As the dynamic capabilities framework can work in the context of Indonesia, it suggests that the framework has potential applicability in other emerging and developing countries

One of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, Beard provides a hand-on guide for building a variety of habitable structures in the wilderness and other difficult environments. Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties provides easy-to-follow instructions on building everything from tents to teepees to log cabins.

An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. A project manager is the person who has the overall responsibility for the successful planning and execution of a project. He/she must possess a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect unstated assumptions and resolve interpersonal conflicts as well as more systematic management skills. The aim of the study is to understand/know the Entrepreneurial issues like business development plan, risk with entrepreneurship, project management processes, their competencies, organization structure, project stakeholder for successful of project and his organization.

The construction industry is one of the most booming industries in the world. In particular, in the United Arab Emirates this industry has experienced a constant growth over the course of the last few years. Driven by the UAE's oil wealth, the country has witnessed an unmatched development and transformation. Oil revenues have lead to a driving construction boom and completely change the face of the state. The construction industry is still one of the engines of economic growth in the UAE. One of the highest concentrations of cranes in the world speaks volumes about the incredible pace of construction taking place, particularly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also in the other emirates. The fact that about 30,000, or 24 percent of the world's 125,000 construction cranes are currently operating in the region speaks for itself. The UAE's construction projects stands out clearly from building projects in other parts of the world, due to the fact that there is no constraint on constructional imagination and there is no place in the world where construction moves as fast as in the UAE. With some of the most innovative mega projects such as "Burj Khalifa" (the tallest building in the world), or "The Palm Jumeirah," "The Palm Jebel Ali" and "The Palm Deira" (the world's largest man-made islands) with epithets of world's biggest, best, and tallest the UAE construction industry remains unbeaten. The construction industry is a complex environment in which each organization is faced with numerous opportunities and threats. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the fast growing construction industry in the UAE, while scanning the construction business for opportunities and threats. This book implements the PESTEL analysis that will be used to analyze the UAE's construction industry. The main objective of the research reported in this book is to identify the factors in the macro-environment that might affect an organization. Having the PESTEL context, this output is used to e

King Copper is the first full treatment of the impact of the copper industry upon society and environment in south Wales. For the whole of the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth a belt of coastal smelters using local coals and ores from Cornwall, Cuba and Chile produced virtually all of Britain's copper and much of the worlds. It was a remarkable industrial concentration that brought wealth to Swansea, the centre of the industry, and to neighbouring towns. But there was a price for prosperity. Copper ores are notoriously impure and the many roastings and meltings required to drive out the impurities and separate the metal from the ore produced mountains of slag and furnace ash and billowing clouds of toxic, foul-smelling smoke. Laced with sulphur and arsenic, the smoke killed all but the hardiest plants, ruining crops and killing and disabling grazing animals. This continual chafing of a farmed and settled countryside set farmers against townsmen, the Welsh-speaking Cymry Cymraeg against their Anglo-Welsh cousins in the towns. The conflict culminated in a series of dramatic 'smoke' trials in which farmers and landowners sued the copper companies for damage to crops, grazing and stock. Seldom has the rural-urban dichotomy been so exposed. The smoke disputes centred on damage to property but they also raised questions about public health and the loss of attractive and loved landscapes.

Bangladesh is a developing country with a per capita GDP of approximately US$500 per annum. The country's economy is mainly based on agriculture. However, this scenario has gradually been changing since 1990. A construction boom started in the country after 1990 owing to the necessity for industrial buildings, corporate offices, housing units, roads and other types of infrastructure. Bangladesh has made major progress in recent years, with sustained macroeconomic stability. The Government of Bangladesh has been pursuing a policy of promoting a competitive market-based economy through financial and industrial policy reforms, as well as trade liberalization.Major challenges faced by the Bangladesh construction sector in this context relate to how to improve the local technological capacity through technology transfer, enhance competition in the domestic market and improve the competitiveness of domestic enterprises through efficiency gains. In this book the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Bangladesh construction industry are identified. The business process for local and foreign firms are included with an emphasis on methods of tendering and taxation process.

The Russian market is considered to be a huge opportunity for Multinational Enterprises from Western Europe. The focus of this book is the analysis of the choice of entry modes of Austrian construction companies into the Russian market, their motivations, their activities, their success factors and strategies for further expansion in the CIS region. Four Austrian construction companies which have been expanded to Russia and CIS were selected for analysis. When entering the Russian market, there are comprehensive bureaucratic procedures to be met which derive from legislation or simply habit. Trust and long-standing collaboration are sometimes more important than purely economic criteria. The local business environment has decisive impact on the operational activities of the companies. The policies of the host countries affect operational activities (strict regulations). Other objectives are the comparison of the companies and the examination of future strategies and expansion plans of those companies in Russia and CIS (further expansion or withdrawal).