This Handbook is a state-of-the-art analysis of proximity relations, offering insights into its history alongside up-to-date scientific advances and emerging questions. Its broad scope - from industrial and innovation approaches through to society issues of living and working at a distance, territorial development and environmental topics - will ensure an in-depth focus point for researchers in economics as well as geography, organizational studies, planning and sociology. Split into four distinctly thematic parts, the Handbook explores the precise definition of proximity relationships and their diversity, including the role they play in social and economic interactions as well as examining the origins and evolution of such relationships. It further presents a detailed overview of the main methods of analysis, highlighting the link between proximity relationships and exchange of information while explaining how exchanges at a distance rely on links of organized proximity, something that plays an increasing role in our societies. This engaging Handbook will provide an excellent update for scientists and researchers on the recent developments in the analysis of proximity relations as well as students looking for precise and detailed information on the main characteristics of proximity relations, regional and spatial analysis, and the major analytical tools.

"Historians and Nature" considers five cutting-edge questions facing environmental historians today. How can we historicize nature? Is nature a historical actor? How have human beings interacted with nature and what patterns have emerged? How do we understand the ecology of urban spaces? What is the history of environmental diplomacy? Focusing on the United States and Germany, the book takes a comparative approach in examining environmental history. The authors draw on a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, including history, cultural studies, human geography, biology and ecology. Case studies include Native Americans and their relationship to the environment, the California Gold Rush and the Coal Fields of the Ruhr Basin in the nineteenth century, the controversial building of dikes in seventeenth-century Germany, cleaning up modern cities, and the Greenpeace movement and the development of international environmental activism in the 1970s.

With human-induced environmental impacts disrupting human life in deeper ways and at a wider scale than anything previously experienced, this multidisciplinary book looks at the ways that current knowledge bases seem inadequate to help us deal with such realities. It offers a critical appraisal of the current knowledge infrastructure, including science, technology, innovation, education and informal knowledge systems. Contributions from a wide spectrum of social scientists, philosophers, activists and decision-makers tackle the importance of knowledge for the Anthropocene using a mosaic of data, theories, cases, models, methods and experiences. Chapters highlight what relevant knowledge will become critical to dealing with deteriorating environmental conditions, as well as how science, technology, education and innovation can be radically transformed to deal with these challenges. The book further explores the behavioural, economic, social and cultural aspects of the Anthropocene, and how knowledge impacts both these and our possible futures. This will be a critical read for human geography and environmental science scholars, as well as social science scholars more broadly, particularly with its in-depth glossary and digital resource list. It will also aid practitioners in the planning, design, management and evaluation of knowledge systems by providing deeper understandings of the potential circumstances of knowledge in the Anthropocene.

The image of western ranchers making a stand for their "rights"-against developers, the government, "illegal" immigrants-may be commonplace today, but the political power of the cowboy was a long time in the making. In a book steeped in the culture, traditions, and history of western range ranching, Michelle K. Berry takes readers into the Cold War world of cattle ranchers in the American West to show how that power, with its implications for the lands and resources of the mountain states, was built, shaped, and shored up between 1945 and 1965. After long days working the ranch, battling human and nonhuman threats, and wrestling with nature, ranchers got down to business of another sort, which Berry calls "cow talk." Discussing the best new machinery; sharing stories of drought, blizzards, and bugs; talking money and management and strategy: these ranchers were building a community specific to their time, place, and work and creating a language that embodied their culture. Cow Talk explores how this language and its iconography evolved and how it came to provide both a context and a vehicle for political power. Using ranchers' personal papers, publications, and cattle growers association records, the book provides an inside view of how range cattle ranchers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana created a culture and a shared identity that would frame and inform their relationship with their environment and with society at large in an increasingly challenging, modernizing world. A multifaceted analysis of postwar ranch life, labor, and culture, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.

Lean thinking involves more than just eliminating waste; through its five guiding principles-value, value chain, continuous flow, pull production, and perfection-its successful applications are commonly found in the manufacturing sector. Although its application and benefits to companies is no longer contested, it is rare to find works that consolidate applications of lean thinking in sectors that are unconventional, such as healthcare and government. Cases on Lean Thinking Applications in Unconventional Systems allows readers to broaden their view on lean thinking applications and visualize insights for research. It presents case studies and applications of lean thinking within several different industries. Covering topics such as emergency care units, standardized work, and national humanization policy, this case book is an essential resource for engineers, hospital administrators, healthcare professionals, IT managers, government officials, students and faculty of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

Databook of Surface Modification Additives, Second Edition contains data on ten groups of additives, including anti-scratch and mar-preventing additives, additives for surface tension reduction and wetting, hydrophobization additives, gloss enhancement and surface matting additives, additives for the formation of tack-free surface and tackifiers, and stain inhibiting additives. The information on each is divided into five sections, including General Information, Physical-Chemical Properties, Health and Safety, Ecological Properties, and Use and Performance. This data is provided for approximately 360 of the most important surface modification additives produced and used today. This databook will be an extremely useful resource for engineers, researchers and technicians interested in using additives to modify and improve the surface properties of materials.

"The Call of Sedona "speaks to anyone seeking greater fulfillment and deeper meaning in their lives. With practical advice on meditation and profound insights on the healing power of the earth, this book gives you the guidance you need to embark on your own journey of the heart.
If you haven't been to Sedona, this book will urge you to travel to this blessed place. If you have been to Sedona--or even if you live there now-- this book will deepen the love you hold for the wonders of the land. Wherever you are, let this book show you how to experience the spirit of Sedona and make a true connection with your heart.

Exploring how urban professionals plan, manage and govern cities in emerging economies, this insightful book studies the actions and instruments they employ. It highlights how the paradigms of interventions and approaches to urban management are shifting, indicating that urban governance is becoming increasingly important in dealing with wicked issues, like climate change and social and economic inequalities in cities. Urban Planning, Management and Governance in Emerging Economies offers rich international examples looking at housing, public space, water, climate change, the environment and economic development. Chapters showcase the changing role of urban professionals, with a particular focus on the dynamic social, cultural and economic transformations of cities in emerging economies. Exploring contemporary approaches to urban governance, contributors draw attention to the prevalence of smart cities, new forms of partnerships and just transitions in a changing urban landscape. Researchers and students of urban development, planning, management and governance will appreciate the multiple theoretical angles and the key case studies used throughout the book. The examples and theories will be helpful for urban leaders, strategists and advocates working in emerging economies.

Exploring the important role of education in both pursuing and implementing sustainable development, this timely Handbook highlights how teaching methods at schools and universities can impact the future. It looks at ways not only to inform students about matters related to sustainable development, but also to empower them to adopt behaviours and actions that lead to more sustainable lifestyles. Chapters from an international team of contributors present and analyse experiences of different learning processes and methods, showcasing the impact of curriculum-related issues and teacher training. Using different pedagogical approaches, case studies and interdisciplinary initiatives, the Handbook explores a broad range of technological approaches and tools to foster better teaching and learning for sustainable development. It provides key insights into the implementation of teaching initiatives in helping to promote sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This Handbook will be crucial reading for those investigating curriculum policies and issues, and looking to enhance students' understanding of sustainability in schools and universities.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Setting out a new, path-breaking research agenda for global rural development, this timely book offers an innovative and embedded rural social science capable of both understanding and enacting progress towards diverse and sustainable pathways. It relocates rural development at the heart of global trends associated with widespread but uneven urbanisation, climate change and severe resource depletion, rising population growth, density and inequality, and global political, economic and health crises. Chapters collapse traditional binary notions of development as north-south, rural-urban, global-local and traditional modern, embracing a revised conceptualisation of uneven development as a process dependent upon multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks. It offers potential routes for substantive, interlinked research agendas, including new ruralities, governance, land rights, agro-ecology, financialisation, power relations, family farming, and the role of markets. Scholars of geography, planning, rural sociology and rural-urban studies looking for a broader understanding of the topic will find this book essential. It will also be beneficial for those engaged in rural development policy and practice.

Challenging historic assumptions about human relationships with nature, Jan G. Laitos examines how environmental laws have addressed environmental problems in the past, and the reasons for the laws' inability to successfully prevent environmental contamination and alterations of critical environmental systems. This forward-thinking book offers a creative and organic alternative to traditional but ultimately unsuccessful environmental rules, highlighting that established approaches to existential threats impacting our natural environment cannot be relied upon. Calling for a rethinking of how science is best used in environmental law, it explains the need for a new generation of environmental laws grounded in the universal laws of nature which might succeed where past and current approaches have largely failed. Proposing a new algorithm for the formulation of workable environmental laws, Laitos explores the ways in which these should be linked to the laws of connection, simplicity, economy, and symmetry. This innovative book illustrates examples of this new class of laws, based not on regulations and rules, but on rights and duties. Rethinking Environmental Law will be an illuminating read for students and scholars of environmental law and policy. Suggesting an alternative role for science in developing environmental policy, it will also be of value to environmental policy makers.

In this timely book, leading scholar Oran Young reflects on the future of the global order. Developing new lenses through which to consider needs for governance arising on a global scale, Young investigates the grand challenges of the 21st century requiring the most urgent and sustained planetary responses: protecting the Earth's climate system; controlling the eruption of pandemics; suppressing disruptive uses of cyberspace; and guiding the biotechnology revolution. Exploring how developments such as globalization, the rise of increasingly influential non-state actors, and the onset of the cyber age are eroding the institutional foundations of international society, this book considers the prospects for new forms of global order that differ in important ways from the familiar but increasingly problematic states system. Offering critical insights into the pressing need for institutional change to meet 21st century challenges, this book will prove beneficial to scholars working on matters involving governance on a global scale. Practitioners looking to connect their actions to broader analytic concerns will also find the book insightful.

Using a geographic lens to examine the adoption and dissemination of, and attention to 'fake news', this timely and important book explores how misinformation in the digital age calls attention to the multiple geographic dimensions of online fictions, conspiracy theories and political disinformation. Chapters delve into how social and digital media have rescaled and disrupted relations of trust and authority in the (mis)information age. The book draws on quantitative data and qualitative cases to shed light on the geographies of misinformation, covering urban legends, political rumors, information weaponization, and Climategate, as well as trade and financial fictions. The book explores in depth climate change misinformation, conspiracy theories and other critical contemporary events such as Pizzagate, Russian-led overseas political interference campaigns, and Cambridge Analytica. Geography and environmental studies scholars will benefit from the analysis of the denial of global climate change and geographic lens the book uses. It will also be an important read for practitioners and policy makers looking for a helpful reference summarizing interdisciplinary work on misinformation in accessible prose.

The transition to a circular economy requires innovation at all levels of society. This insightful Research Handbook is the first comprehensive edited work examining how innovation can contribute to a more circular economy. Illustrating the critical part played by individuals, organisations and system-level actors in the development of circular innovations, this Research Handbook demonstrates that while many firms are working towards a circular economy, most of the innovations are incremental. Hence, the loop is far from closed, and much more radical work remains to be done by both academics and practitioners. The content and structure reflect a multi-level understanding of innovation for a circular economy, with conceptual chapters and strong empirical research with both quantitative and qualitative research designs. Highlighting the urgent need for a circular economy, authors call for more comprehensive and radical innovation efforts to achieve it. This Research Handbook will be an invaluable resource for academics and students of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as those more broadly interested in the circular economy. Practitioners and policymakers will also find this useful for providing practical examples of how to understand innovation processes and frameworks that contribute to a circular economy.

This timely book offers a critical account of key governance challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Illustrating China's efforts to expand its idea of a sustainable eco-civilization, thereby 'greening' the BRI, it explores the disputes that have emerged from this process and subsequent complications resulting from geopolitical competition. R. James Ferguson presents a critical analysis of China's Green BRI, discussing the environmental impact of BRI corridors and its overall importance in harmonising the twin policy agendas of human development and environmental preservation. The author evaluates security and geopolitical challenges for the BRI in the context of China's new globalism and emerging asymmetric co-governance. Demonstrating the need for improved governance of the BRI for a sustainability transition in global affairs, Ferguson suggests a range of strategies to compete with, complement or transform the BRI into a more multilaterized Green BRI. This cutting-edge book is crucial reading for academics and researchers in political science and international relations focusing on contemporary Chinese governance and the significance of sustainable development for the BRI. Its unique practical insights and policy recommendations will also benefit policy advisors and environmental organizations that are engaging with green governance issues.

The important yet contradictory role of innovation in society calls for a philosophy of innovation. Critically exploring innovation in relation to values, the economy and social change, Rafael Ziegler proposes a collaborative theory and practice of innovation that aims to liberate possibilities for our common futures. Following cues from the arts and drawing on the innovation literature across the social sciences, this book exposes pro-innovation bias and the gospel of disruptive change. Not only entrepreneurs but also civic networks and tinkerers are discussed as sources of innovation, and social change as a balancing act of innovation, exnovation and restoration. The discussion of capabilitarian, communitarian, liberal, republican and socialist ideas of justice and innovation leads Ziegler to a transformative proposal: 'enough innovation' based on enough for all and with respect for all. This is a thought-provoking read for scholars working on sustainability-transformation, democratic, responsible and social innovation, and philosophy of economics.

Our beautiful planet is in danger: the warning signs are there, year after year – from vast forest fires across Australia to coral bleaching in the Pacific and the rapid break up of polar ice and the consequent rise in sea levels, threatening low-lying coastal communities everywhere. Arranged by continent, Endangered Places introduces the reader to many of the most stunning natural locations from the around the world that are currently under threat. Learn about the magnificent Bornean rainforest, home to threatened species such as orangutans, probiscis monkeys and the Sumatran rhinoceros; marvel at the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, stretching 2,300 kilometres along Australia’s east coast and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps; explore the Aral Sea, formerly the fourth largest lake in the world and today less than 10 per cent of it’s original size after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects; and understand the process of desertification, which has led to the huge expansion of the Sahara Desert and the dramatic shrinkage of Lake Chad. Illustrated with more than 180 photographs of more than 100 threatened locations, Endangered Places celebrates the beauty of our planet while reminding us of how easily this can be lost through human behaviour and climate change.

From Angkor Wat to Agent Orange, Southeast Asia An Environmental History tells the story of some of the most dramatic effects humans have had on the natural and developed environment anywhere in the world and examines the ways in which environmental factors have helped shape the culture, politics, and societies of the region. Ever since the first humanlike creatures arrived some 80,000 years ago, Southeast Asia's varied and challenging environment has helped shape the course of human destiny. From the importance of its spices to 17th-century Europeans to the jungle canopies that sheltered Communist insurgents throughout much of the 20th century, the region's environment has often proven decisive in human affairs. Packed with key facts and analysis, Southeast Asia provides an expert guide to the complex interplay between human societies and the environment from Burma to the Philippines and from Vietnam to Indonesia. How has the environment helped shape politics, trade, and religion? What are the likely consequences of ongoing deforestation for Southeast Asia's people and animals? Part of ABC-CLIO's Nature and Human Societies series, this work charts the region's environmental history from prehistory to modern times and is essential reading for students and experts alike.

Challenging current attitudes to governance and regulation in business, this timely book ascertains how regulatory approaches can innovate to ensure sustainable business that contributes to social justice for current and future generations within ecological limits. Combining a research-based approach with a gendered perspective of how sustainability goals are shaped and how businesses should engage with them, this pioneering book creates a comprehensive and contemporary understanding of what sustainability means for business. Identifying the limitations of current approaches to gender and equality alongside the weaknesses of current regulatory and theoretical approaches in business, chapters seek to enhance the practical understanding and embeddedness of sustainability into business within legal and regulatory landscapes. Insights from an international collection of expert scholars in fields ranging from sustainability science to law offer meaningful alternatives to the sustainable business status quo on both conceptual and concrete levels. Providing a regulatory analysis of business positioned in a systems-based sustainability research framework, this book will prove an invaluable resource for students and scholars of sustainability science, business and management, and law and regulation. With practical insights, it will also prove essential for policymakers working in business regulation and sustainability in business.

Exploring the emerging and vibrant field of critical agrarian studies, this comprehensive Handbook offers interdisciplinary insights from both leading scholars and activists to understand agrarian life, livelihoods, formations and processes of change. It highlights the development of the field, which is characterized by theoretical and methodological pluralism and innovation. The Handbook presents critical analyses of, and examines controversies about, historical and contemporary social structures and processes in agrarian and rural settings from a wide range of perspectives. Chapters explore the origins of critical agrarian studies, the concepts underpinning the diverse theoretical approaches to the field, and the strengths and weaknesses of different methodologies used within the field. Finally, it illuminates debates around the topic and trajectories for future research and development. This will be a vital resource for graduate students, scholars and activists interested in critical agrarian studies. The analytical and empirical insights will also be helpful to students of environmental and development studies as well as agricultural and development economics, human geography and socio-cultural anthropology.