This book traces the recent growth in NGO advocacy. Barbara Rugendyke presents empirical findings about the impacts of NGO advocacy activity on the policies and practices of global and regional institutions. The research reveals the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy for addressing the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations. Case studies illustrate the advocacy work of Australian NGOs, of British NGOs policies about engaging with multinationals, of Oxfam Internationala (TM)s advocacy directed at World Bank policies and NGO advocacy in the Mekong Region.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy used by NGOs in attempting to address the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations are examined. This volume is a useful aid to researchers, students and lecturers and to development practitioners interested in advocacy as a development strategy.

Effective management of urban water should be based on a scientific understanding of the impact of human activity on both the urban hydrological cycle - including its processes and interactions - and the environment itself. Such anthropogenic impacts, which vary broadly in time and space, need to be quantified with respect to local climate, urban development, cultural, environmental and religious practices, and other socio-economic factors. Urban Water Cycle Processes and Interactions represents the fruit of a project by UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme on this topic. The volume begins by introducing the urban water cycle concept and the need for integrated or total management. It then explores in detail the manifold hydrological components of the cycle, the diverse elements of urban infrastructure and water services, and the various effects of urbanization on the environment - from the atmosphere and surface waters to wetlands, soils and groundwater, as well as biodiversity. A concluding series of recommendations for effective urban water management summarize the important findings set forth here. Urban Water Series - UNESCO-IHP Volumes Following from the Sixth Phase of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (2002-2007), the Urban Water Series - UNESCO-IHP addresses fundamental issues related to the role of water in cities and the effects of urbanization on the hydrological cycle and water resources. Focusing on the development of integrated approaches to sustainable urban water management, the Series should inform the work of urban water management practitioners, policy-makers and educators throughout the world.

Global Ireland offers a concise synthesis of globalization's dramatic impact on Ireland. In the past fifteen years, Ireland has transformed from a sleepy and depressed European backwater to the 'emerald tiger', a country with a booming economy based on knowledge and high-tech industries. Not long ago it was one of the poorest and most traditional countries in Europe, yet now it is one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan. Using a number of case studies of Ireland's transition, Tom Inglis explains what this means for traditional Irish culture and society, and offers an incisive social portrait of globalizing Ireland.
Concise, descriptive, interdisciplinary and theoretically informed, this volume is an ideal introduction to Ireland.

This book presents a comparative perspective on post-war Caribbean migration to Britain and France. Both migrations were responses to the link between former colonies and colonial powers. However, the movements of labor occurred within separately and differently evolving political contexts, affecting the migration outcomes. Today, Caribbean communities in Europe display complex features of continuity and change. Condon and Byron examine trends in migration patterns, household and family structures, social fields, employment and housing trajectories in detail. This systematic comparison with its innovative focus on gender and life-course, is an excellent addition to the existing literature on the Caribbean diaspora.

This unique book focuses on regional creativity, analysing the different factors that can affect creativity and innovation process within regions in the knowledge economy. Approaching creativity from technological, organizational and regional viewpoints, it attempts to break down the influence of oppositional approaches and take account of multi-level interactions in economy and policy. The variety of papers presented looks at: how regions can be creative and competitive how research and development is outsourced and the scientific knowledge and technology transferred what types of technology based cultural activities can operate the relevant financing and development of knowledge entrepreneurship. Whilst many of these aspects are driven by market forces Creative Regions demonstrates that the regional and national public sectors have a significant role to play and is essential reading on how to generate a competitive advantage for regions in the knowledge economy in the global market.

This book traces the recent growth in NGO advocacy. Barbara Rugendyke presents empirical findings about the impacts of NGO advocacy activity on the policies and practices of global and regional institutions. The research reveals the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy for addressing the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations. Case studies illustrate the advocacy work of Australian NGOs, of British NGOs policies about engaging with multinationals, of Oxfam International's advocacy directed at World Bank policies and NGO advocacy in the Mekong Region.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy used by NGOs in attempting to address the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations are examined. This volume is a useful aid to researchers, students and lecturers and to development practitioners interested in advocacy as a development strategy.

This book describes how people invest migration with hopes for enjoyable experiences of retirement and contrast their lives with a marginality they imagine to be experienced by older people at home. They anticipate freedom from responsibilities through shedding the restrictive shackles of their former selves in a time of life dedicated to fun, friendship, healthy activity and individual fulfilment. However, the book documents a number of contradictions underpinning the pursuits of such a lifestyle and shows the negotiations that individuals undertake to manage the conflicting messages. It shows how they must balance time-use to achieve both freedoms and busy social schedules, their activities, to challenge themselves as well as relax, their relationships, to be able to start afresh yet still trust others in the new context, and their cultural identities, to balance both the security of nationality with the discovery of the new. The first ethnographic study of international retirement migration, this book offers a sometimes surprising picture of the potentials, seductions and limitations of the lifestyles and gives a critical insight into the new ways ageing identities are experienced by a growing number of older people in Western societies today.

The rural market in China is not only the venue where 60 per cent of the country's 1.3 billion inhabitants buy their daily necessities and sell agricultural products, but also a key area of conflict between government control and liberalization policies. Previous research on the topic has adopted a purely economic perspective, focusing on macro issues such as price control and grain procurement. This book focuses instead on peasants - the major participants in rural marketing activities. Illustrated by two comparative case studies with a diverse level of development from the Pearl River Delta - one of the most prosperous regions in coastal China - this book investigates the market hierarchy, its change of functions and the interactions between peasants and market outlets. In doing so, it shows how China's rural market district has changed since the Reform, and how these changes affect the marketing activities of peasants.

If civil society is being encouraged to more fully embrace inclusiveness and respect for diversity, then so must the multiplicity of service support organizations with which it interacts. This is the key proposition behind this seminal contribution to public policy. While legislation can ensure minimum standards of behaviour and outcomes, meaningful organizational progression beyond legal imperatives requires authentic dialogue, based on principles of equity, diversity and interdependence. These are essential components for deeper societal transformation. Using the divided society of Northern Ireland as a case study, and its rural governance arena in particular, this book provides an authoritative empirical analysis of, and prescriptive agenda for, collaborative conversations. The insights provided by this book go far beyond this region and have a profound relevance for other societies struggling to emerge from conflict, racism and social separation.

This collection examines the Sahara holistically from the earliest (prehistoric) times through the 'historical' period to the present and with political direction into the future. The contributions cover palaeoclimatology, history, archaeology (cultural heritage), social anthropology, sociology, politics and international affairs. Structured chronologically, the volume can almost be read as a narrative of the Sahara from the earliest times to the present, i.e. from the past climates of the Sahara in prehistoric times to the current 'war on terror' and its implications for the peoples of the Sahara. Importantly, the collection shows how the region must be approached 'holistically', highlighting the importance of each of these subject areas (palaeo-climates, history, politics, etc.) in relation to each other. Indeed, the first contribution is a remarkable (and unique) paper, bringing together the work of some 8-9 internationally recognised scientists to tell the story and show the relevance to the present day of the Sahara's past climates etc. Nearly all the contributions stand in their own right at the cutting edge of research in their respective fields (e.g. archaeology, history, politics, etc.). This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of North African Studies.

For 800 years, Magna Carta has inspired those prepared to face torture, imprisonment and even death in the fight against tyranny. But the belief that the Great Charter gave us such freedoms as democracy, trial by jury and equality beneath the law has its roots in myth. Back in 1215, when King John was forced to issue Magna Carta, it was regarded as little more than a stalling tactic in the bloody conflict between monarch and barons. Here, Derek J. Taylor embarks on a mission to uncover the 'golden thread of truth' that runs through the story of the Great Charter. On a journey through space and time, he takes us from the palaces and villages of medieval England, through the castles and towns of France and the Middle East, to the United States of the twenty-first century. Along the way, the characters who gave birth to the Charter, and those who later fought in its name, are brought to life at the places where they lived, struggled and died. As he discovers, the real history of Magna Carta is far more engaging, exciting and surprising than any simple fairy tale of good defeating evil.

Drawing on recent academic studies in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, this book is the first international text on homelessness in rural areas. Consisting of fifteen specially commissioned chapters, International Perspectives on Rural Homelessness provides comparative material on the cultural, political and policy contexts of rural homelessness, examining the nature and scale of the issue and the complex local geographies of rural homelessness.

Cities and Cultures is a critical account of the relations between contemporary cities and the cultures they produce and which in turn shape them. The book questions received ideas of what constitutes a city's culture through case studies in which different kinds of culture - the arts, cultural institutions and heritage, distinctive ways of life - are seen to be differently used in or affected by the development of particular cities. The book does not mask the complexity of this, but explains it in ways accessible for undergraduates.

The book begins with introductory chapters on the concepts of a city and a culture (the latter in the anthropological sense as well as denoting the arts), citing cases from modern literature. The book then moves from a critical account of cultural production in a metropolitan setting to the idea that a city, too, is produced through the characteristic ways of life of its inhabitants. The cultural industries are scrutinised for their relation to such cultures as well as to city marketing, and attention is given to the European Cities of Culture initiative, and to the hybridity of contemporary urban cultures in a period of globalisation and migration. In its penultimate chapter the book looks at incidental cultural forms and cultural means to identify formation; and in its final chapter, examines the permeability of urban cultures and cultural forms. Sources are introduced, positions clarified and contrasted, and notes given for selective further reading.

Playing on the two meanings of culture, Miles takes an unique approach by relating arguments around these meanings to specific cases of urban development today. The book includes both criticalcomment on a range of literatures - being a truly inter-disciplinary study - and the outcome of the author's field research into urban cultures.

Cities and Cultures is a critical account of the relations between contemporary cities and the cultures they produce and which in turn shape them. The book questions received ideas of what constitutes a city's culture through case studies in which different kinds of culture - the arts, cultural institutions and heritage, distinctive ways of life - are seen to be differently used in or affected by the development of particular cities. The book does not mask the complexity of this, but explains it in ways accessible for undergraduates.

The book begins with introductory chapters on the concepts of a city and a culture (the latter in the anthropological sense as well as denoting the arts), citing cases from modern literature. The book then moves from a critical account of cultural production in a metropolitan setting to the idea that a city, too, is produced through the characteristic ways of life of its inhabitants. The cultural industries are scrutinised for their relation to such cultures as well as to city marketing, and attention is given to the European Cities of Culture initiative, and to the hybridity of contemporary urban cultures in a period of globalisation and migration. In its penultimate chapter the book looks at incidental cultural forms and cultural means to identify formation; and in its final chapter, examines the permeability of urban cultures and cultural forms. Sources are introduced, positions clarified and contrasted, and notes given for selective further reading.

Playing on the two meanings of culture, Miles takes an unique approach by relating arguments around these meanings to specific cases of urban development today. The book includes both criticalcomment on a range of literatures - being a truly inter-disciplinary study - and the outcome of the author's field research into urban cultures.

Moderne Wahrnehmungsweisen von Landschaft setzen ein spezifisches gesellschaftliches Naturverhältnis voraus, das sich erst in den letzten zwei, drei Jahrhunderten herausbildete. Der Autor untersucht diesen Prozeß kultur- und diskursgeschichtlich am Beispiel einer besonderen Landschaftsformation, jener des westlichsten Steppensees Europas. Der Neusiedler See erweist sich dabei als eine «Grenzlandschaft» auf mehreren Ebenen: Er war im Laufe der Geschichte politischen Grenzverschiebungen und extremen Wasserschwankungen zwischen Überflutung und Austrocknung ausgesetzt. Auch in den ästhetischen Bewertungen und kulturellen Praktiken, mit denen man dieser Landschaft bis in die jüngere Vergangenheit begegnete, läßt sich eine außergewöhnlich starke Ambivalenz feststellen.

This open access book will contribute to a more nuanced debate around seed system resilience that goes beyond the dominant dichotomous conceptualization of seed governance often characterized as traditional vs modern, subsistence vs commercial, or local vs global. While reflecting on the expanding oligopoly in the current seed system, the authors argue that such classifications limit our ability to critically reflect on and acknowledge the diverse approaches through which seed governance is practiced around the world, at various scales, creating a mosaic of dynamic complementarities and autonomies. The authors also highlight the importance of this much needed dialogue through case studies of seed governance approaches and practices found in and around Japan.

This anthology of essays by a group of distinguished scholars investigates post-1945 city planning in Britain; not from a technical viewpoint, but as a polemical, visual and educational phenomenon, shifting the focus of scholarly interest towards the often-neglected emotional and aesthetic aspects of post-war planning. Each essay is grounded in original archival research and sheds new light on this critical era in the development of modern town planning. This collection is a valuable resource for architectural, social and urban historians, as well as students and researchers offering new insights into the development of the mid-twentieth century city.

Written in an engaging and accessible manner by one of the leading scholars in his field, Environment and Social Theory, completed revised and updated with two new chapters, is an indispensable guide to the way in which the environment and social theory relate to one another. This popular text outlines the complex interlinking of the environment, nature and social theory from ancient and pre-modern thinking to contemporary social theorizing. John Barry: examines the ways major religions such as Judaeo-Christianity have and continue to conceptualize the environment analyzes the way the non-human environment features in Western thinking from Marx and Darwin, to Freud and Horkheimer explores the relationship between gender and the environment, postmodernism and risk society schools of thought, and the contemporary ideology of orthodox economic thinking in social theorising about the environment. How humans value, use and think about the environment, is an increasingly central and important aspect of recent social theory. It has become clear that the present generation is faced with a series of unique environmental dilemmas, largely unprecedented in human history. With summary points, illustrative examples, glossary and further reading sections this invaluable resource will benefit anyone with an interest in environmentalism, politics, sociology, geography, development studies and environmental and ecological economics.

This edited volume analyses the concepts of territory as conceived of and developed in Islamic history. In legal terms the world is divided into two parts, the "dar al-Islam" governed by the Islamic "shari'a" and the "dar al-harb" which is beyond the border of "dar al-Islam." The work explores the central question of what the concepts of territory and border were like for those Muslims who were driven by their will to expand the "dar al-Islam," those who experienced vicissitudes in the course of history, or who were inspired with mystical feelings.

Using a cutting-edge structure, where a current description of the service sector and up-to-date case studies are compared and contrasted with innovative activity in manufacturing, this book contributes towards a better theoretical understanding of innovation in the U.S. service sector. The U.S. service sector is the largest sector in the U.S. economy and accounts for an increasingly significant share of U.S. gross domestic product, currently 68 percent. Both in the United States, as well as in other industrialized nations, the service sector is a dynamic component of economic activity and growth. As pervasive and economically important as the service sector is, innovative activity in service-sector firms remains somewhat of an enigma; it is not well understood and not well defined because it differs dramatically from the traditional model of innovation in manufacturing. Innovation in the U.S. Service Sector fills this void, placing emphasis on the United States, but with global relevance. It is essential reading for all students of business and management, economics and political science.

Threads of Labour presents new empirical research by a network of garment workers' support organizations and makes sense of global supply chains from the bottom up.* Presents new empirical research by a network of garment workers' support organizations in ten different locations in Asia, Europe and Mexico.* Creates a blueprint for conducting worker-orientated action research in order to better understand and resist the negative impact of globalization on labour.* Ensures that workers' voices reach those who are already trying to reconfigure global capitalism in more humane directions.* Explores the ways in which workers might begin to develop new forms of organization that are more suited to securing gains in the global garment industry.* Bridges the gap between activist and academic research, improving the conversation between these two groups.

In this pioneering study of contemporary Chinese urban form, Duanfang Lu provides an analysis of how Chinese society constructed itself through the making and remaking of its built environment. She shows that as China's quest for modernity created a perpetual scarcity as both a social reality and a national imagination, the realization of planning ideals was postponed. The work unit - the socialist enterprise or institute - gradually developed from workplace to social institution which integrated work, housing and social services. The Chinese city achieved a unique geography made up in large part of self-contained work units. Remaking Chinese Urban Form provides an important reference for academics and students conducting research on China. It will be a key source for courses on Asia in architecture, urban planning, geography, sociology and anthropology, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The insightful yet accessible introduction to urban China will also be of interest to architects, urban designers and planners - as well as general audience who wish to learn about contemporary Chinese society.

Landscape and Race in the United States is the definitive volume on racialized landscapes in the United States. Edited by Richard Schein, each essay is grounded in a particular location but all of the essays are informed by the theoretical vision that the cultural landscapes of America are infused with race and America's racial divide. While featuring the black/white divide, the book also investigates other social landscapes including Chinatowns, Latino landscapes in the Southwest and white suburban landscapes. The essays are accessible and readable providing historical and contemporary coverage.

Over the past two decades there have been many major new developments in the field of urban sound environment. Jian Kang introduces and examines these key developments, including:

• the development of prediction methods for urban sound propagation
• establishment and application of noise-mapping software
• new noise control measures and design methods.

Also covered is the new EU directive on noise and the substantial actions it has brought about across Europe.

As the importance of soundscape, acoustic comfort and sound environment design have become widely recognized, Urban Sound Environments is a thoroughly useful book for students and practitioners in a wide range of fields, from urban planning and landscape through to architecture and acoustics.

The Urban Politics Reader draws together classic and contemporary writings that best illuminate the basic questions of urban politics - how interests contend for power over the distribution of resources and why some win while others lose. Contributions from Martin Shefter, Clarence Stone, Rufus P. Browning and Saskia Sassen are included among the thirty-two generous selections. The Reader juxtaposes the main theoretical approaches to urban power with vivid accounts of actual political experiences on such key themes as the urban crisis, the politics of race, ethnicity and gender, national urban policy, suburbanization and globalization. Strom and Mollenkopf illustrate how thinking about cities is central to our understanding of democracy and citizenship, and how although the parties to urban politics may change over time, the struggle of new groups to gain access and representation is a constant theme. The Editors' introductions suggest topics and questions for class discussion, demonstrate the significance of urban politics, and suggest directions for further reading and thinking, while the associated bibliography enables deeper investigations. By drawing together important but widely dispersed writings, The Urban Politics Reader provides an essential resource for students of urban politics. The volume will also have widespread appeal for students of urban sociology, urban affairs, urban planning and public policy.