Public transport in low-income Asian (LIA) cities fails to meet people's mobility needs, generates high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and worsens social exclusion. Following successful Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in Bogota and Curitiba, LIA countries promoted BRT in their large to medium-sized cities. However, the political and institutional structure distinctive to LIA cities makes their implementation difficult. This book investigates policy tensions by examining the planning and attempted implementation of BRT projects, taking Bandung and Surabaya in Indonesia as case studies. It analyses BRT to understand how power and communication gaps in institutional relationships between different actors at multiple levels of governance create conflict, and concludes that top-down policies and funding mechanisms cause tension in intergovernmental relationships. It also found that BRT solutions generated socio-political tension arising from the socio-economic realities and local political dynamics that shaped city structure, mobility patterns and capacity in resolving conflicts. The superimposed BRT solution generated discursive tension because conflicting discourses were not aligned with local economic, social, and environmental issues. The book highlights the need to take into consideration the vital role of local social and political actors, institutions and planning processes as they respond to and shape policies that are imposed by higher levels.

This edited volume has been compiled to present the latest developments in the field of social dilemma research. Social dilemmas are situations when there is a conflict between self-interest and collective interest. Research in this area has gained interest in the last twenty years in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and economics. It also has wide applications to numerous real-world issues such as environmental degradation, organizational management, and societal public good. The main aim of this work was to investigate under what circumstances people make decisions that are inline with the collective interest as well as investigating what can increase the likelihood of cooperation. There will be three man sections mirroring the different levels of analysis: individual, group, and societal.

Americans rank crime among the most urgent of social concerns. Overflowing prisons and public outcry have led many to propose that the criminal justice system could control crime more effectively by focusing on dangerous offenders.

Recent social studies have suggested that serious criminality is highly concentrated and that high-rate offenders can be distinguished from others on the basis of prior criminal conduct, drug abuse, and employment record. Such studies urge judges to shift from rehabilitative sentencing to selective incapacitation, with longer prison sentences for convicted criminals who are deemed unusually dangerous. In response to these recommendations, some prosecutors' offices have established career criminal units designed to assure that repeat offenders will be prosecuted to the full measure of the law. Some police departments are experimenting with "perpetrator-oriented patrols" targeted on suspected high-rate offenders.

The authors of this major book in criminal jurisprudence describe and analyze the intellectual and social challenge posed to public officials by this new thrust in criminal justice policy. They develop a framework for evaluating policies that focus on dangerous offenders. They first examine the general issues that arise as society considers the benefits and risks of concentrating on a particular category of criminals. They then outline how that approach might work at each stage of the criminal justice system--sentencing, pretrial detention, prosecution, and investigation.

This cogently argued book provides much needed guidance on the crucial questions of whether sharpened attention to dangerous offenders is just, whether such a policy can be effective in managing the problem of crime, which applications seem particularly valuable, what the long-term risks to social institutions are, and what uncertainties must be monitored and resolved as the policy evolves.

A qualified expert provides leaders in government and business a much-needed primer for accomplishing their most vital task: transforming a purpose into policy through the appropriate acquisition and use of power. At a time when corporations are reeling from mismanagement, a large proportion of homeowners are being forced to default on mortgages and the federal government is rapidly extending its formidable reach into the private sector, it is understandable that many Americans no longer trust big business and government institutions. To get the United States back on track and to preclude the same kinds of disasters in the future, it is imperative for corporate and government leaders as well as private citizens to understand the commonality in all of these events-the use and abuse of power. This text examines these critical events within a framework of power to explain what motivated our leaders in business and government to make the policies that resulted in these outcomes, providing valuable insights on the nature and use of power. It then draws lessons today's leaders can use to improve their use of power. Examples from current affairs and modern business are discussed in a lively, compelling way. Cites examples and case studies from current affairs, modern business, and recent history Explains how and why some corporate leaders abused their power and erased the wealth of their companies and the savings of private individuals Provides tables, charts, and other figures for supporting documentation

Additive manufacturing or '3D printing' has emerged into the mainstream in the last few years, with much hype about its revolutionary potential as the latest 'disruptive technology' to destroy existing business models, empower individuals and evade any kind of government control. This book examines the trajectory of 3D printing in practice and how it interacts with various areas of law, including intellectual property, product liability, gun laws, data privacy and fundamental/constitutional rights. A particular comparison is made between 3D printing and the Internet as this has been, legally-speaking, another 'disruptive technology' and also one on which 3D printing is partially dependent. This book is the first expert analysis of 3D printing from a legal perspective and provides a critical assessment of the extent to which existing legal regimes can be successfully applied to, and enforced vis-a-vis, 3D printing.

This book explores the various ways in which different communities and peoples in Oceania respond to and engage with recent environmental challenges and concurrent socio-political reconfigurations. Based on empirical research, the book discusses topics such as belonging, emotional attachment to land, and new forms of environmental knowledge. The theoretical framework of the book is inspired by current debates among diverse conceptualisations of the environment and thus, of various ways of knowing, making sense of, and interacting with worlds. With this focus in mind, the book provides new insights into recent socio-cultural and environmental dynamics in the Pacific.

What does it mean to talk about everyday racism, and why should we do so? Racism and Everyday Life brings together the sociologies of racism and everyday life in a new way in order to reflect on these questions. Smith argues that racism and everyday life are not just 'act' and 'context' respectively, but rather they are part of the making of each other. Using a variety of historical and contemporary examples, this book draws on the pioneering insights of W.E.B. Du Bois and other writers in order to explore the interwoven relationship between racism and the everyday.

This book offers a conceptual framework for the critical understanding of the present socio-environmental conflicts. It reflects on the evolution of subject and thought, a shift in environmental thinking triggered by the development of eco-territorial conflicts and the social responses given to the environmental question. Bringing together 40 years of the authors writing and research, the book explores the transition from ecological economics and historical materialism to ecological Marxism. It unpacks the forging of political ecology from value theory in political economy, to ecological distribution and ecologies of difference; a transition to an environmental rationality grounded in the ontology of diversity, a politics of difference and an ethics of otherness. This evolution in thinking gives consistency to a theoretical discourse able to respond to the territorial conflicts generated by the radicalization of the environmental question as a key social issue of our times. The book is a call to respond to the urgent challenge of reversing the tendency towards the entropic death of the planet and to building a sustainable world order.

This book presents studies on Chinese intellectuals in Southeast Asia and how they understand China and Chineseness in the 21st century. It posits, through analyses of works and oral histories of a number of Chinese scholars in the region, that the dominant but distinctive approaches adopted by them are those that are rooted in humanism and pragmatism. In doing so, the book explores the significant population, local conditions and strategy of survival among the Southeast Asian Chinese as factors that influence their views and perspectives. Studies presented in the book simultaneously implicate subjectivity, where authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. It highlights that while national-level identity necessarily involves dangerous self-interrogation and, at times, politics that is often suppressive and confrontational, intellectual writings on China that stick to the ethnic and civilizational levels provide more sensible exits. With that, the book then goes on to make the argument that in Southeast Asian Chinese studies, the humanities usually prevail over the social sciences at these two alternative levels. Lastly, the book also shows how the humanities can be instrumental to Southeast Asian Chinese scholars' choice of identity strategy which makes pragmatism an important theme. The book will be of interest to students and researchers involved in Southeast Asian and Chinese studies.

This book analyses the evidence for global change, and suggests that the Earth is going through a profound transformation, caused in large part by human action. Land, oceans, polar regions and the atmosphere are all being deeply affected by the human population's lifestyle: what should the educational response be to these various aspects of global change? To answer this, the values of an ecological response are developed, leading to the notion of an 'Ecological Social Imaginary', which looks at how humans can change their way of living to one that is more in harmony with the planet that they live on and depend upon. To enable this, an ecological form of education, Connective Education, is proposed. This focuses on how the human and natural world can be connected for the benefit of humankind and all living and non-living entities, joining head, hand, heart and spirit to the web of life. It is argued that through Connective Education, a particular type of person is formed: one who is able to take their place in the human and natural world, and in this way truly connect with their planet. The book will be essential reading for those working in the fields of Education and Environmental Studies.

In this book, retired banking CEO Bruce VonCannon considers the past, present and future of Hong Kong, the dynamic finance-driven autonomous city that is beset by global issues- US-China tension, income inequality, housing scarcity, climate change- within the microcosm of a small island archipelago and a hyper-specific local culture. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is today one of the world's foremost economic and financial hubs and a repository for 18% of the world's stored wealth, home to the region's most vibrant stock market, a major free trade port city and traditional gateway to mainland China, the world's 2nd largest economy. The recent street protests which broke out in June 2019 have been described as a pro-democracy movement. However, other analysts disagree and argue that the street protests have more in common with the populist movements springing up in other parts of the world as the result of a growing divide between rich and poor. This book delves into financial realities, Hong Kong's position within the new global competition between China and the United States, and as a model for the urbanization of the future.

Clements provides a detailed study of religious beliefs in British society, using a broad range of opinion poll and social survey data. Examining public opinion on religious-secular issues, this book provides a rich analysis of the belief and attitudes of social groups over time.

This book explores AIDS from a relatively macro perspective rather than concrete operational methods and focuses on the social construction of AIDS issues instead of its transmission level in the context of China. First, it begins with the theoretical analysis and the social significance of AIDS, which is different from the simple conflict between different schools of thought. Second, it analyses the contest of various social powers in the process of AIDS construction and conclusion, rather than making different explanations of policies. Last but not least, it elaborates on the central proposition, i.e., the "AIDS issue" is a symbol of China's social restructuring process. Only in an effort to advance such a process can we be more likely to find the best problem-solving mode, rather than clamouring repeatedly or giving countermeasures alone.

This book presents key issues in the teaching of Chinese as a second or foreign language (TCSL or TCFL). It investigates how multimedia can help to assist TCSL/TCFL and explores practical effects of multimedia-assisted teaching at secondary schools in the Philippines. It addresses the psychology of TCSL/TCFL and discusses various recurring foreign graduate students concerns when learning academic Chinese in graduate institutes in Taiwan. It examines issues of educational assessment and testing, analyzing the validity of a self-made placement test for an immigrant Chinese program, as well as the psychological characteristics of adult learners and their implications for immigrant Chinese curriculum design. As foreign learners of Chinese grow exponentially, this cutting edge read conceptualizes the educational philosophy of TCSL/TCFL as a distinctive discipline.

This book investigates how constructed representations of the child have and continue to restrict children's opportunities to engage in moral discourses, and the implications this has on children's everyday experiences. By considering a moral dimension to both structure and agency, the author focuses on the nature of the images that are used to represent the child and how these sit in contrast to the active and meaning-driven way in which children negotiate their everyday lives. The book therefore argues that 'morality' provides a filter to understand the backdrop for interaction, as well as offering a focus for engaging with the individual as a social agent, acting and reacting in the world around them. Negotiating Childhoods will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, childhood studies, criminology, social work, culture and media studies and philosophy.

This book analyzes Armenian civil society in the context of post-communist democratization. It explores persistent challenges to civic engagement under Armenia's semi-authoritarian regime, and also highlights success stories of public mobilization and social impact. Drawing on a broad range of methods and empirical sources, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the re-emerging diversity of Armenian civil society: from formal organizations to spontaneous activism. It combines a country-level analysis of broad patterns in the country's political culture with the life stories of individual agents of change, contrasting public apathy with young activists' enthusiasm. By exploring mobilization strategies and narratives in Armenian civil society, the book provides valuable new insights into the roots of the mass public uprising in spring 2018.

The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans asks two basic questions: Was an extra measure of loyalty and patriotism required of Italian immigrants because the country of their birth was a declared enemy of their adopted country; and, does their WW II experience offer meaningful insights as to how we should treat other immigrant groups in future conflicts? While the answer to both questions is in the affirmative, the long, arduous, road traveled by the ethnic group has not received the attention it deserves. Their quest for acceptance amidst a path paved with sacrifice, bitter poverty, discrimination, and, for many, the devastating indignity of being designated as "enemy aliens," is worthy of scholarly study.

In "An Other's Mind" you get a firsthand look at the yet  unaddressed core issue that has rendered the United States a more sharply divided nation than ever. Fact is, we may all share the same longing that ours be a society that is fair, just, free, equal and democratic, but these themes, fundamental as they are, have markedly different contexts for those of us flourishing in the mainstream than for those of us struggling at the margins. An impaired person might for example perceive that it is only fair that at the expense of the rest of us public places be rendered handicapped-accessible so that he or she might have entree to what the rest of us take as a given. Yet a post 60's populace, weaned on New Order, think tank, paradigms, seems to more and more agree that true fairness demands that we all, crippled and able-bodied alike, surmount the same flight of stairs on our own. More so than race, class, culture, politics, language, and so forth, it is this divergence of perception that buries even the most basic and well-intended initiatives of social policy in a maelstrom of heated, discordant ambiance and which constitutes the newest frontier in the battle for social progress and a truly united nation.Recognizing this and the urgent interest that we might yet come to understand one another and thereby reach greater accord as human beings, Luis Quiros delivers, in this unique volume, a first call to arms, by offering you a rich, vivid, personal and visionary look at the inner workings and arcs of critical thought that percolate inside an other's mind.= -Lee Stringer, award-winning author of "Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street"; "Like shaking Hands With God," and "Sleepaway"" School"," Stories From a Boy's Life."

Referencing key contemporary debates on issues like surveillance, identity, the global financial crisis, the digital divide and Internet politics, Andrew White provides a critical intervention in discussions on the impact of the proliferation of digital media technologies on politics, the economy and social practices.

WikiLeaks poses a unique challenge to state and commercial institutions. This book considers the whistleblower platform's ongoing importance, focusing on the informational and communicative paradoxes it faces, and the shifting strategies it has adopted over time. Attention to these matters provides insight into the nature of the contemporary networked, post-truth media environment, and the types of factors likely to affect the success of activist groups today. Chapter 1 introduces WikiLeaks' significance as a novel expression of counterpower, outlining the disclosures marking its career. Chapters 2 through 4 address the dilemmas confronting WikiLeaks in its attempts to engage the public with and without the cooperation of mainstream news organizations. Chapter 5 appraises how WikiLeaks has adjusted its strategies to take better advantage of a densely populated and globally networked media environment within the larger context of an ongoing political legitimation crisis. Chapter 6 extends this analysis to the case of Russiagate.

This book shows how research in linguistic pragmatics, philosophy of language, and rhetoric can be connected through argumentation to analyze a recognizably common strategy used in political and everyday conversation, namely the distortion of another's words in an argumentative exchange. Straw man argumentation refers to the modification of a position by misquoting, misreporting or wrenching the original speaker's statements from their context in order to attack them more easily or more effectively. Through 63 examples taken from different contexts (including political and forensic discourses and dialogs) and 20 legal cases, the book analyzes the explicit and implicit types of straw man, shows how to assess the correctness of a quote or a report, and illustrates the arguments that can be used for supporting an interpretation and defending against a distortion. The tools of argumentation theory, a discipline aimed at investigating the uses of arguments by combining insights from pragmatics, logic, and communication, are applied to provide an original account of interpretation and reporting, and to describe and illustrate tactics and procedures that can be used and implemented for practical purposes.. This book will appeal to scholars in the fields of political communication, communication in general, argumentation theory, rhetoric and pragmatics, as well as to people working in public speech, speech writing, and discourse analysis.

This book shows how suburban sprawl is at least partially a consequence of government spending and regulation, and suggests anti-sprawl policies that can make government smaller and/or less intrusive. Thus, the book responds to the widely held view that automobile-dependent suburban development (also known as "suburban sprawl") is a natural result of the free market and of affluence, and accordingly cannot be altered without massive government regulation.

Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. This book establishes these "idea systems" as an academic concept. Through three intense episodes of manipulation and mayhem connected to idea systems-Europe's witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era "revolutions," and the early campaign of the U.S. War on Terror-this book charts the cognitive and informational matrices that seize control of people's mentalities and behaviors across societies. Through these, the author reaches two conclusions. The first, that we are all vulnerable to the dominating influence of our own matrices of ideas and to those woven by others in the social system. The second, that even the most masterful manipulators of idea programs may lose control of the outcomes of programmatic manipulation. Amongst this analysis, sixty-plus central conceptual terminologies are provided for readers to analyze multiform idea systems that exist across space, time, and cultural contexts.This is an open access book.

Rethinking familiar frameworks and exploring new perspectives, this book provides a much-needed analysis of European culture, society and politics in a global context. With contributors from across the social sciences and thehumanities, this book highlights key topics and assesses the open ended question of Europe's place in a global age.