A landmark account of our journey from the dawn of human existence to the present - with vital lessons for our future. What are the keys to human progress? In the last two hundred years, stunning advances in health, wealth and lifespan have fundamentally transformed the experience of being human, at least for some. But this was no accident of history. Drawing on a lifetime's investigation, Oded Galor identifies the universal forces behind this change, and so unlocks the mystery of human development. Galor's breakthrough vision upends many assumptions. The game-changing revolution of recent centuries was not industrialisation but mass education; not the era of child labour but the end of it. New technology can enhance living standards - but it has done so only by reducing family size and spurring greater gender equality. Meanwhile, differing levels of diversity, stemming from patterns of human migration tens of thousands of years ago, have been as powerful in determining the fate of nations as colonialism or geography. How did Europe soar ahead of previously more advanced civilisations such as China and the Ottoman Empire? Why have workers' revolutions succeeded in agricultural but not industrialised nations? How have soil types affected gender relations and coast lines entrepreneurialism? Why are Bolivia's challenges the opposite of Ethiopia's? Is continued growth compatible with tackling the climate crisis? Making astounding connections across continents and millennia, The Journey of Humanity answers all these questions and more in a bold and captivating narrative that reframes our understanding of human history. Its transformative and ultimately hopeful vision contains the keys not only to the thriving of our species but to our survival.

'The Ganges: Cultural, Economic, and Environmental Importance' is a geographical, cultural, economic, and environmental interpretation of the Ganga River. The Ganga River originates from Gaumukh- situated in the high Himalaya, flows through the world's biggest fertile alluvial plain, and inlets into the Bay of Bengal at Ganga Sagar. It makes a unique natural and cultural landscape and is believed to be the holiest river of India. The Hindus called it 'Mother Ganga' and worship it. The towns/cities, situated on its bank, are world-famous and are known as the highland and valley pilgrimages. The water of the Ganga is pious, and the Hindus use it on different occasions while performing the rituals and customs. This book is unique because no previous study which presents a complete and comprehensive geographical description of the Ganga has been composed. This book presents the historical and cultural significance of the Ganga and its tributaries. Empirical, archival, and observation methods were applied to conduct this study. There are a total of 10 chapters in this book such as 'Introduction', 'the Ganga Basin', 'Geography of the Ganga Basin', 'the Ganges System: Ganga and its Tributaries', 'Ganga between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi', 'the Major Cultural Towns', 'Major Fairs and Festivals', 'Economic Significance of the Ganga', 'Environmental Issues', and 'Conclusions'. The contents of the book are enriched by 89 figures, 15 tables, and substantial citations and references.

This book highlights the importance of clusters for the competitiveness of companies and is divided into three interrelated parts. The first part focuses on localization economics, cluster theory, the role of innovation, and innovation partnerships in cluster formations. The second part of the volume presents original research carried out from 2018 to 2020 in the field of both natural clusters and organized clusters. In addition to examining the impact of cluster membership, the contributions also focus on additional factors that may affect the financial performance of companies. In the third part, an additional survey and case studies are presented, to examine the specifics of family businesses in selected industrial districts of the textile, glass, and jewelry industries. A broader overview of the development of dominant industries in the selected districts is provided, for an easier understanding of the relationships of competition among companies and locations in the business clusters. The book evaluates implications for microeconomic and macroeconomic policies and provides proposals for corporate inter-organizational behavior. This volume addresses scholars and researchers of economics, business, and management, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of innovation and performance drivers of business clusters.

This book traces the interacting histories of the disciplines of ecology and economics, from their common origin in the ancient Greek concept of oikonomia, through their distinct encounters with energy physics, to the current obstruction of neoliberal economics to responses to the ecological and climate crisis of the so-called Anthropocene. Reconstructing their constitution as separate sciences in the era of fossil-fuelled industrial capitalism, the book offers an explanation of how the ecological sciences have moved from a position of critical collision with mainstream economics in the 1970s, to one of collusion with the project of permanent growth, in and through the thermal crisis of the biosphere.

This book examines the political economy of devolution in Britain from the postwar period to the present. It situates devolution in Britain within an understanding of the partisan recalibration of political, economic and democratic scales (or levels) of the state. The author utilizes various explanatory tools to unpack complex social, economic, spatial and political phenomena across national, regional and local scales. The book further contributes to our conceptual understanding of decentralization as a broader, comparative, phenomenon. Particular emphasis is placed on examining why decentralization and devolution occur at particular points in time, which enables the investigation into how political and fiscal powers are (re)organized at different levels of the state.

This book presents extensions to current commodity-flow models to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of recent structural changes, such as fragmentation of production and lengthening supply chains. The extensions enable augmented commodity-flow models to analyze the vulnerability of supply chains and regions to climate change and extreme weather events. The models allow the explicit treatment of trade in intermediate goods; the so-called "new economic geography" behavioral foundations for production and inter-industry and interregional trade; endogenous determination of capital investment and employment; and changes in emissions associated with production, consumption and freight movement. Presenting a modeling framework and simulations that are based on a thirty-year, spatial time-series of inter-industry and interstate trade in the US, this unique book is a valuable resource for regional scientists, economic geographers and transportation modelers, as well as environmental and atmospheric scientists.

The authors analyze the ways in which places have been transformed through the changes taking place within them - shifts in the nature and quantity of paid and unpaid work, in social and political mobilization, in cultural and aesthetic experience and in the built environment. Using a locality study of Lancaster, they emphasize place as a decisive point in understanding social and economic changes. They consider how successfully concepts of `restructuring' explain the relation between local and global change. The book will be a major contribution to international debates on restructuring and the impact of global change on the locality. It will also be of interest to all social scientists interested in the sociology, economy and human geography of contemporary Britain.

This volume describes the construction of the territorial identity of the southern end of South America and analyzes the cartographic territorialization of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the "Terra Australis" continent. Different spatial representations and territorial nature coexisted in this process as a result of the spatial interpretation and value modes as well as the projects and strategies of various actors. The book discusses the formal and symbolic incorporation to the Spanish dominion and its inclusion in the imperial design built over a new image of the world. Examining Jesuit cartography it considers both the indigenous territoriality and the dynamics of relations between natural and social components in the continental hinterland. The process of cartographic differentiation for this southern Atlantic region is analyzed in the framework of early Antarctic exploration and competing use of navigation routes and maritime resources. The book emphasizes the role geopolitical and economic interests play in these developments. The formation of territorialities of various origins has particular contents and logic, which are built upon imaginary subordination to political and economic interests. Cartographic language in the 19th century, associated with political and commercial motivations and the (British) imperial ideology, stimulated the territorial expansion. The book argues why in the late 1800's this was an important factor in the integration process of the southern indigenous territories and the national territoriality.

The "European Capital of Culture" initiative offered dazzling programmes at the RUHR.2010 and Marseille-Provence 2013 locations; these programmes also claimed to have cultural-political sustainability. The study examines to what extent the concepts of the two cities contributed to processes of cultural policy transformation at the locations in terms of sustainable governance structures in the cultural sector. It also shows how intrinsic identities affected a culturally shaped transformation of the two sites. The need to reform the ECoC initiative is also discussed.

This book highlights the main features of the economic, commercial, political, fiscal and financial systems of each of the ASEAN countries from a domestic and an international point of view. Moreover, it analyses the most relevant international treaties signed by ASEAN's members. Published after the 50th anniversary of ASEAN to promote the association, the book is a valuable tool for practitioners who are interested in developing economic activities or investments in this area.

This volume addresses renewable energy communities, and in particular renewable energy cooperatives (REScoops), in the context of the revised EU Renewables Directive. It provides a comprehensive account of the history and development of the renewable energy community movement in over six different countries of continental Europe. It addresses their visions, strategy, organisation, agency, and more particularly the challenges they encounter. This is of particular importance to gain more understanding into how renewable energy communities fare in domestic energy markets where they are confronted with regime institutions, structures and incumbents' agency that tend to favour maintaining of the status quo while blocking attempts to empower and institutionalise renewable energy communities as market entrants having a disruptive, radical green and localist agenda. This volume will be an invaluable reference for academics and practitioners with an interest in social innovation in sustainable transitions, the role of community energy in energy markets, their agency, as well as an outlook to the impact that the EU Renewables Directive may have to change national legislation and policy frameworks to create a level playing field that is essentially more fair and beneficial to renewable energy communities.

This book divides the history of China's rural-urban relations into three stages: antagonism, integration and re-antagonism, and demonstrates that the two coupled variables i.e., policy-culture and coast-trade are the most crucial to urbanization and rural-urban governance in China from ancient times till now. From the perspective of a combination of history and geography, this book puts forward a new theory which is mainly based on Adam Smith's theory and other theories about rural-urban relationship and reinterprets the process and driving forces of evolutionary history of rural-urban relationship over 5,000 years in China. It is useful for researchers and scholars specialized in such fields as rural and urban studies, economics, geography, management and planning for reference.

Regional Intelligence is an emerging field that leverages the lessons learned through decades of regional science. By merging spatial analysis with quantitative analytical techniques in the Anthropocene, this book contributes to the multidisciplinary understanding of regional issues. The locational aspects of regional paradigms are explored through various empirical studies that promote a rich and diversified understanding of regional issues concerning policy, governance, land use, and territorial decisions. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars and students of regional and spatial sciences and geography, as well as practitioners and decision makers engaged in regional planning and policymaking, looking for new methodological approaches that offer insights into sustainable development, regional prosperity, and livability. As a unique contribution, this book challenges the status quo on how complex spatial problems at an international level and at multiple scales can be comprehended.

Space is a crucial variable in any economic activity. Spatial Economics is the branch of economics that explicitly aims to incorporate the space dimension in the analysis of economic phenomena. From its beginning in the last century, Spatial Economics has contributed to the understanding of the economy by developing plenty of theoretical models as well as econometric techniques having the "space" as a core dimension of the analysis.This edited volume addresses the complex issue of Spatial Economics from an applied point of view. This volume is part of a more complex project including another edited volume (Spatial Economics Volume I: Theory) collecting original papers which address Spatial Economics from a theoretical perspective.

This book approaches the tourism and hospitality industry from a regional science perspective. By analyzing the spatial context of tourist travels, the hospitality sector, and the regional impacts of tourist activities, it demonstrates the value of the regional science paradigm for understanding the dynamics and effects of tourism and hospitality-related phenomena. Written by leading regional science scholars from various countries as well as professionals from organizations such as OECD and AirBnB, the contributions address topics such as migration, new types of accommodation, segmentation of tourism demand, and the potential use of tracking technologies in tourism research. The content is divided into five parts, the first of which analyzes spatial effects on the development of firms in the tourism industry, while the second approaches temporal and spatial variability in tourism through analytical regional science tools. The broader economic and social impacts of tourism are addressed in part three. Part four assesses specific tourism segments and tourist behaviors, while part five discusses environmental aspects and tourism destination policies. The book will appeal to scholars of regional and spatial science and tourism, as well as tourism specialists and policymakers interested in developing science and evidence-based tourism policies.

This handbook presents a collection of high-quality, authoritative scientific contributions on cross-border migration, written by a carefully selected group of recognized migration experts from around the globe. In recent years, cross-border migration has become an important and intriguing issue, from both a scientific and policy perspective. In the 'age of migration', the volume of cross-border movements of people continues to rise, while the nature of migration flows - in terms of the determinants, length of stay, effects on the sending and host countries, and legal status of migrants - is changing dramatically. Based on a detailed economic-geographical analysis, this handbook studies the motives for cross-border migration, the socio-economic implications for sending countries and regions, the locational choice determinants for cross-border migrants, and the manifold economic-geographic consequences for host countries and regions. Given the complexity of migration decisions and their local or regional impacts, a systematic typology of migrants (motives, legal status, level of education, gender, age, singles or families, etc.) is provided, together with an assessment of push factors in the place of origin and pull factors at the destination. On the basis of a solid analytical framework and reliable empirical evidence, it examines the impacts of emigration for sending areas and of immigration for receiving areas, and provides a comprehensive discussion of the policy dimensions of cross-border migration.

This book paints a wide canvas of the immense global economic potential of ten most important cash generating crops spread over Asia, Africa and Latin America, namely, Arecanut, Cashew Nut, Coconut, Cinchona, Cocoa, Coffee, Tea, Oil Palm, Rubber and Wattle. It provides a cross-sectoral, multi-scale assessment of the status of these crops, from seed to dining table, an invaluable treatise on the subject. Structured to be an invaluable tool for the inquisitive researcher, an ardent student, and, an insightful policy maker.

In recent decades, gold mining has moved into increasingly remote corners of the globe. Aside from the expansion of industrial gold mining, many countries have simultaneously witnessed an expansion of labor-intensive and predominantly informal artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Both trends are usually studied in isolation, which contributes to a dominant image of a dual gold mining economy. Counteracting this dominant view, this volume adopts a global perspective, and demonstrates that both industrial gold mining and artisanal and small-scale gold mining are functionally integrated into a global gold production system. It couples an analysis of structural trends in global gold production (expansion, informalization, and technological innovation) to twelve country case studies that detail how global gold production becomes embedded in institutional and ecological structures.

This book examines the evolution and major elements of China's Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI), a trillion-dollar project for the revival and refinement of ancient terrestrial and maritime trade routes. The author analyses the foreign policy and economic strategy behind the initiative as well as the geoeconomic and geopolitical impact on the region. Furthermore, he assesses whether the BRI has to be considered as a challenge to the US-led order, leading to a Sinocentric order in the 21st century. Offering two case studies on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), the book reveals the drivers motivating China and its partners in executing BRI projects, such as security of commodity-shipments, energy supplies, and explores trade volumes as well as the anxiety these trigger among critics. The book juxtaposes these to non-Chinese, specifically multilateral institutional and Western corporate, inputs into Beijing's developmental planning-processes. It also identifies the role of combined Chinese-foreign stimuli in generating the policy priorities precipitating the BRI vision, and the geoeconomic essence of BRI's implementation.

This book aims to identify the impact of tourism on social and economic development in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, and to predict the development of the tourism industry and identify any limiting factors for the development of the tourism industry in the Republic as a whole. The impacts of tourism on the region have been poorly understood since the country gained independence in 1991, and so improved methods for identifying and increasing the contribution of the tourism industry to the economic and social development of the region are needed. The book assesses the impact of tourism on the socio-economic situation in the Issyk-Kul region is assessed on the basis of statistical modelling and GIS mapping, provides a comparative analysis of the categories and types of tourism in the regions of the Republic, in particular in the Issyk-Kul region, and identifies factors that have a negative impact on the country's tourism potential, as well as the shortcomings and prospects for future development. The book's primary audience will be scholars and researchers whose research focuses on the socio-economic impacts of tourism, as well as students and planners. It is expected that it will become a source of information and inspiration for all readers who feel responsible for initiating sustainable development and sustainable use of tourism resources in Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

This book offers a spatial insights on the social mediasphere in the context of digital shutdowns and reflects the dimensions of political economy and of social media in general. Internet shutdowns have been found to be more prevalent in developing countries than in developed countries, with India leading in Internet shutdowns in the world. Internet shutdowns have occurred in India for several reasons, mainly to hinder the spreading of information through social media - this is discussed in detail along with political motives behind this and how this can conflict with government policies, such as the flagship program "Digital India" which is ostensibly meant to improve the infrastructure and expansion of digital information throughout the country. This book suggests new dimensions in the digital spatiality. Furthermore, the digital space is defined and discussed, including its role and how this might be reflected in concepts around spatiality and spaces. More concretely, the book considers the following questions: How is social media reflected in spatial sciences? How does the space differ from more tangible spaces, such as the hydrosphere or atmosphere? How do (computer/mobile phone) screens behave as a space/place in the context of behavioural sciences? How is this reflected in what is shaping and reshaping the spatiality of digital gadgets? Do digital gadgets change the socialization process that's often considered a path towards how we develop in society? How do internet shutdowns affect the political economy and what patterns can be seen in how individuals, companies and the internet industry in particular react to these shutdowns in India?

This book acquaints readers with a range of techniques to help them effectively identify, record, map, analyze and report on patterns in various dimensions of human development (HD) with spatial scales down to the village level. It is impossible to capture HD at the local and global scale with only a single index, because differences in HD at the international scale are caused by 'general' factors, whereas local-scale differences are influenced by 'specific' factors. This book offers a variety of methods for scientifically mapping HD at any spatial scale. It covers how to rationally select variables; how to test the models; how to validate the results, and how to analyze them. For this purpose, it employs a case study on an Indian district. The socio-economic factors regulating the patterns of HD are now more complex than they were only a few decades ago, making it essential to incorporate newer models in order to successfully 'replicate' the real-world situation. Accordingly, the book offers essential methodological tools & techniques for mapping HD. It sheds new light on a handful of statistical multivariate analysis and machine learning algorithms that are rarely used in the social sciences when dealing with HD, yet have sound mathematical and statistical bases. These techniques can be successfully used for predictive analysis in the earth & natural sciences, decision sciences and management disciplines, and are equally effective in terms of capturing, predicting and projecting the composite HD 'landscape.' This book will especially benefit two groups of readers: firstly, HD practitioners who want to find out 'why some areas are doing better than others' by exploring the complex interactions of spatially linked variables with different HD parameters. And secondly, practitioners in other branches of the social sciences who are not concerned with HD but are looking for 'hands-on training' with techniques they can apply in their respective field of spatial investigations.

This book investigates how actors organize in order to solve a water quality problem. Research on the use of environmental resources has mainly focused on the circumstances needed for users to self-organize or to maintain an already sustainable way of resource use. Few studies have investigated the reasons why actors start to cooperate when they are faced with an environmental problem. Actor networks in three regions of the Rhine catchment area are scrutinized regarding a) actors' cooperation pattern when managing an environmental problem; and b) the factors that trigger actors in a common-pool resource situation to initiate cooperation. Water quality policy is analysed in two European countries - Germany and Luxembourg - and one non-European country - Switzerland -, providing an overview of the distinctive measures applied in these regions aiming to tackle the water quality problem of micro-pollutants in river surface water. Applying the social-ecological system framework (SESF) devised by E. Ostrom and her colleagues and Social Network Analysis (SNA), the current book combines qualitative and quantitative methods to answer the question of why actors cooperate in the management process of an environmental problem like water pollution.

Space is a crucial variable in any economic activity. Spatial Economics is the branch of economics that explicitly aims to incorporate the space dimension in the analysis of economic phenomena. From its beginning in the last century, Spatial Economics has contributed to the understanding of the economy by developing plenty of theoretical models as well as econometric techniques having the "space" as a core dimension of the analysis. This edited volume addresses the complex issue of Spatial Economics from a theoretical point of view. This volume is part of a more complex project including another edited volume (Spatial Economics Volume II: Applications) collecting original papers which address Spatial Economics from an applied perspective.