Complexity, complex systems and complexity theories are becoming increasingly important within a variety disciplines. While these issues are less well known within the discipline of spatial planning, there has been a recent growing awareness and interest. As planners grapple with how to consider the vagaries of the real world when putting together proposals for future development, they question how complexity, complex systems and complexity theories might prove useful with regard to spatial planning and the physical environment. This book provides a readable overview, presenting and relating a range of understandings and characteristics of complexity and complex systems as they are relevant to planning. It recognizes multiple, relational approaches of dynamic complexity which enhance understandings of, and facilitate working with, contingencies of place, time and the various participants' behaviours. In doing so, it should contribute to a better understanding of processes with regard to our physical and social worlds.

Today, in a period of economic crisis, public sector cuts and escalating class struggle, Marxism offers important tools for social workers and service users to understand the structures of oppression they face and devise effective means of resistance. This book uses Marxism's lost insights and reinterprets them in the current context by focussing on one particular section of the international working class - refugees and asylum seekers in Britain. Vickers' analysis demonstrates the general utility of a Marxist approach, enabling an exploration of the interplay between state policies, how these are experienced by their subjects, and how conflicts are mediated. The substantive focus of the book is twofold: to analyse the material basis of the oppression of refugees in Britain by the British state; and to examine the means by which the British state has 'managed' this oppression through the cultivation of a 'refugee relations industry', within a broader narrative of 'social capital building'. These questions demand answers if social workers and other practitioners are to successfully work with refugees and asylum seekers, and this book provides these through a detailed Marxist analysis.

Dr. Goh Keng Swee's extensive career as a public servant was dynamic as well as distinguished, in many ways decisively instrumental in the making of the Republic of Singapore. This distinctive collection of essays attempts an assessment of the long-term influence and significance of Dr. Goh's major contributions.Envisaged as a companion volume to Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered, this volume brings together an exceptional team of Singaporean scholars whose interdisciplinary expertise and cross-generational perspectives offer a balanced analysis and nuanced appraisal of Dr. Goh's lifetime of public service. The book's contributors argue that Dr. Goh's past endeavours bequeathed an enduring legacy, meriting fresh examination and careful evaluation in order to appreciate the heroic scale of such achievement.Particularly instructive are the examples of Dr. Goh's thinking patriotism, fiscal prudence, strategic pragmatism, and creative imagination at work - technocracy at its finest - which could be of immediate, practical benefit to a wider 'nation of technocrats'. Further illumination comes from the insights of those contributors who had worked with the former Deputy Prime Minister and knew him personally. For a half-century that witnessed key turning points and phases of development in Singapore's transformation from colonial port city to independent global city, Dr. Goh played a leading role in the crafting and conduct of public policy, as with the creation of public institutions, which made the difference between survival and success. The organization of this volume reflects both a thematic approach and a chronological arrangement of material, the focus and the order of chapters corresponding to the historical sequence of public offices that Dr. Goh held: social welfare; political and constitutional evolution; development economics and finance; the armed forces and defence industry; the education system, from schools through higher education to the research institutes; Chinese studies, from Confucianism to 'China watching'; and cultural development, with special emphasis on the creation of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service will be read by present and future generations of public servants, by Singaporeans in general, and by all students and laypersons with an interest in the modern history of Singapore - social, economic, political, military, and cultural - to which a characteristically simple and frugal Dr. Goh contributed both decisively and unreservedly.

This important work argues that human rights abuse is not necessarily about distant places and peoples, and it is neither incomprehensible nor inevitable. Despite the appearance of consensus about the importance of human rights protection, abuse with its common core in inequality is expanding at all levels from the petty to the profound. Designed to inform and inspire, this book also provides the analytical and strategic tools needed for the next generation of activists. Jan Knippers Black offers a fundamental reexamination of the basic terms and concepts, legal and institutional foundations, controversies, cleavages, threats and strategies associated with human rights. Black's perspective is holistic, stressing the relevance of human rights issues to all human needs and endeavors and requiring multidisciplinary analysis. Chapters analyzing connections among political, economic, ecological, and cultural impacts on social and individual well-being are accompanied by case studies highlighting lessons learned from success or failure. This empowering book seeks to promote an "each for all" commitment, breaking through barriers of ignorance and apathy, denial and despair, so that advocates and activists can work to prevent future atrocities."

Scholars from several countries discuss alternatives to traditional juvenile justice, detailing theory and practice in methods such as non-intervention, reintegrative shaming, and victim-offender mediation, and looking at criminological, ethical, and legal aspects of such alternatives. Of interest t

This volume of essays explores the varied, but distinctive, experiences of disabled children. The authors start from the premise that the care, and control, of such individuals was historically governed by factors that differentiated their experiences from those of 'normal' children and 'disabled' adults.

Socialist Literature studies the relationship between the development of socialist literary theory and the process of cultural transformation in modern society by tracing the outline of the theory in the works of Marx, Lenin, and Mao, and examining its reflection in actual works of literature. This analysis is set alongside a detailed examination of the literary part of the cultural superstructure in China and in the Soviet Union. Among the major literary and theoretical works discussed are The communist Manifesto, Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, Gorky's Mother, and the poetry of Mayakovsky. Key issues, like the position of the writer in society, the relationship of the old and the new in literature, and the much discussed relationship between the "creator" and the "audience," are examined and explained in a different light by regarding them as more than purely theoretical issues or abstract cultural problems and, instead, considering them as social issues that can only be settled at the level of practice. Abdulla Al-Dabbagh amplifies the area of research by discussing some of the major opposing positions to the theory outlined and, by examining at length the portrayal of proletarian heroism, one of its key concepts, in the literary works of the same epoch. The result of the close textual analysis of a large number of major works of poetry, drama, and fiction reveals the course of the artistic development to be complementary to that of the theoretical advance.

The first case-based comprehensive textbook to address the unique health care needs of transgender and gender diverse adults Demand for state-of-the-art health care services for transgender and gender diverse communities is rapidly increasing. Transgender and Gender Diverse Health Care: The Fenway Guide offers a roadmap for clinicians to provide culturally responsive care that meets the primary, preventive, and specialty health needs of transgender and gender diverse adult patients. With the most up-to-date scientific and clinical information, this practical guide reviews new data on terminology, demographics, and epidemiology; highlights key aspects of gender identity emergence across the lifespan; and provides guidance on both hormonal and surgical gender affirmation. Applying a health-equity model of care, this invaluable resource offers a foundation for clinicians when addressing health needs of transgender and gender diverse communities. Transgender and Gender Diverse Health Care: The Fenway Guide features essential information that includes the following topics and more: The history and epidemiology of transgender and gender diverse health care Primary, preventive, and specialty care considerations for transgender and gender diverse patients Hormonal, surgical and non-medical gender affirmation Trauma-informed and gender-affirming care Behavior health, eating disorders and body positivity Reproductive health, obstetrical care, and family building Treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections Community building, advocacy and partnership

Focuses on values and the historical impact of socio-economic structures Understanding Social Welfare: A Search for Social Justice is presented in an organized, comprehensive, and scholarly manner, including social policy concepts. It is accessible to students and helps them acquire the basic tools for understanding, analyzing, and evaluating social welfare policies and programs. This text focuses on the impact of social structure on people's lives, emphasizing the current concerns of diverse client populations and the search for social justice. It places U.S. welfare in philosophical, political, economic, and international contexts, and includes the latest discussion of policy issues related to gay men and lesbians. A better teaching and learning experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. Here's how: Improve Critical Thinking - Challenges readers to make their own decisions as they encounter policies and programs with enhanced knowledge and analytic skills. Engage Students - Presents the historical evolution of social welfare and focuses on issues, trends, and conflicts in the context of influential societal developments and values. Explore Current Issues - Includes the latest discussion of policy issues related to gay men and lesbians. Support Instructors - An Instructor's Manual and Test Bank, Computerized Test Bank (MyTest), Blackboard Test Item File, and PowerPoint presentations are included in the outstanding supplements package.

This book investigates the relationship between the dominant ideologies of British public life in the second half of the twentieth century and the quality of the social housing built during this period. The author compares award-winning housing projects from the 1960s and the 1980s, projects that represent two major milestones in the development of state-provided housing in Britain. Her detailed analysis looks beyond the superficial appearance of housing policy in these two contrasting periods and provides fascinating insights into the substance of the changes that took place. The book examines the influence of universalist and selectivist approaches to social housing and asks important questions about the connection between social values and government policy.

Improving wellbeing and sustainability are central goals of government, but are they in conflict? This engaging new book reviews that question and its implications for public policy through a focus on indicators. It highlights tensions on the one hand between various constructs of wellbeing and sustainable development, and on the other between current individual and societal notions of wellbeing. It recommends a clearer conceptual framework for policy makers regarding different wellbeing constructs which would facilitate more transparent discussions. Arguing against a win-win scenario of wellbeing and sustainability, it advocates an approach based on recognising and valuing conflicting views where notions of participation and power are central to discussions. Measuring Wellbeing is divided into two parts. The first part provides a critical review of the field, drawing widely on international research but contextualised within recent UK wellbeing policy discourses. The second part embeds the theory in a case study based on the author's own experience of trying to develop quality of life indicators within a local authority, against the backdrop of increasing national policy interest in measuring 'happiness'. This accessible and informative book, covering uniquely both practice and theory, will be of great appeal to students, academics and policy makers interested in wellbeing, sustainable development, indicators, public policy, community participation, power and discourse.

Improving wellbeing and sustainability are central goals of government, but are they in conflict? This engaging new book reviews that question and its implications for public policy through a focus on indicators. It highlights tensions on the one hand between various constructs of wellbeing and sustainable development, and on the other between current individual and societal notions of wellbeing. It recommends a clearer conceptual framework for policy makers regarding different wellbeing constructs which would facilitate more transparent discussions. Arguing against a win-win scenario of wellbeing and sustainability, it advocates an approach based on recognising and valuing conflicting views where notions of participation and power are central to discussions. Measuring Wellbeing is divided into two parts. The first part provides a critical review of the field, drawing widely on international research but contextualised within recent UK wellbeing policy discourses. The second part embeds the theory in a case study based on the author's own experience of trying to develop quality of life indicators within a local authority, against the backdrop of increasing national policy interest in measuring 'happiness'. This accessible and informative book, covering uniquely both practice and theory, will be of great appeal to students, academics and policy makers interested in wellbeing, sustainable development, indicators, public policy, community participation, power and discourse.

Care work, both paid and unpaid, contributes to well-being, social development and economic growth. But the costs of providing care are unequally borne across gender and social class. Feminist scholarship on the gendered construction of welfare provisioning and welfare regimes has produced a conceptually strong and empirically grounded analysis of care, reinforcing the necessity of rethinking the distinctions between "the public" and "the private" as well as the links between them. Yet this analysis, premised on post-industrial contexts, does not travel easily to other parts of the world. Many of its core assumptions - about family structures, labor markets, state capacities, and public social provisioning - do not hold for a wider range of countries. Drawing on original research on the care economy in three developing regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America), this volume addresses a major empirical lacuna while facilitating a conversation across the North-South divide.

Research into social stratification and social divisions has always been a central component of sociological study. This volume brings together a range of thematically organised case-studies comprising empirical and methodological analyses addressing the challenges of studying trends and processes in social stratification. This collection has four themes. The first concerns the measurement of social stratification, since the problem of relating concepts, measurements and operationalizations continues to cause difficulties for sociological analysis. This book clarifies the appropriate deployment of existing measurement options, and presents new empirical strategies of measurement and interpretation. The conception of the life course and individual social biography is very popular in modern sociology. The second theme of this volume exploits the contemporary expansion of micro-level longitudinal data and the analytical approaches available to researchers to exploit such records. It comprises chapters which exemplify innovative empirical analysis of life-course processes in a longitudinal context, thus offering an advance on previous sociological accounts concerned with longitudinal trends and processes. The third theme of the book concerns the interrelationship between contemporary demographic, institutional and socioeconomic transformations and structures of social inequality. Although the role of wider social changes is rarely neglected in sociological reviews, such changes continue to raise analytical challenges for any assessment of empirical differences and trends. The fourth theme of the book discusses selected features of policy and political responses to social stratification. This volume will be of interest to students, academics and policy experts working in the field of social stratification.

The embedding of energy efficiency in the management of individual housing organisations is crucial for the realization of current ambitious energy efficiency policies. This issue is examined for the first time in this book through an analysis of selected case studies in new 'green' buildings, as well as in the retrofitting of existing housing, maintenance and budgeting. The links between policy ambitions, practice and housing management institutions are given particular attention. Thus the book is primarily concerned with how ambitions about energy efficiency are carried forward in investment decisions at the housing estate level. Technical and financial issues relevant for this are also addressed. The editors combine a wealth of experience in comparative research on housing policy and housing management with a strong academic background in housing studies and economics. The book aims to be internationally comparative including a range of countries. A chapter will be devoted to each of the following countries:- Sweden; Denmark; Germany; the Netherlands; England; France; Switzerland; Austria; Czech Republic; Slovenia; Canada. The book will appeal to a large audience of students and academics who are concerned with housing issues, urban policy and politics as well as to those engaged in research in energy efficiency policies in the built environment.

This work looks into how, why, and when people pursue things in life that they desire, those that make their existence attractive and worth living. Robert A. Stebbins calls this "Positive Sociology," the study of what people do to organize their lives such that they become substantially rewarding, satisfying, and fulfilling. Western society has many challenges: crime, drug addiction, urban pollution, daily stress, domestic violence, and overpopulation. Significant levels of success in avoiding these problems brings a noticeable measure of tranquility, but it does not necessarily generate a positive life.

Personal Decisions in the Public Square draws upon, in large part, the sociology of leisure, a "happy science." Among the basic concepts in the sociology of leisure are activity and human agency. The centrality of positive activity is one of its hallmarks and separates it from other social science specialties. Stebbins's positive sociology centers on conceptual roots found in the "serious leisure" perspective. This theoretical framework synthesizes three main forms of leisure (serious, casual, and project-based) while showing their distinctive features, similarities, and interrelationships. Positive sociology also considers two other domains of life: work and non-work obligations.

This new approach focuses on the pursuit of "that which makes life worth living." Stebbins explores goals that are important to all people, such as negotiating the right work/family or obligation/leisure balance and the tricky relationship between money and happiness. Research scientists or the general public may find the ideas presented in this volume help them better understand and negotiate situations, by showing how to approach them in a positive way rather than as "problems" that need to be solved.

Since publication of the previous edition of this successful book, there have been many advances in the field of food science and metal analysis and these have been taken into account of in compiling this new edition. Data on metal levels in foods and diets have been updated with information gathered from recent international literature. More than 800f the text has been completely rewritten and, as the addition of a new subtitle suggests, greater account is taken than in earlier editions of the importance of the nutritional properties of many of the metals that we consume.

In the compilation of this cutting-edge new edition, full account has been taken of the significant advances in the ready availability of multi-element analysis, improved sample preparation procedures and a growing interest in the content of chemical species in foods. Details of several metals, not considered in depth in previous editions but now widely used in the electronic and chemical industries, have also been included.

The third edition of "Metal Contamination of Food" is an essential reference book for food industry personnel, including those working in food processing, formation and ingredients, packaging, quality control and food safety. Nutritionists, public analysts and chemists will also find much of great use within the covers of this book. Libraries and laboratories worldwide in all universities and research establishments where food science and technology, nutrition and chemistry are studied and taught should have copies of this important new edition on their shelves.

Originally published in 1984, this book discusses the rapid growth of regional development planning, as both an academic specialism and a focus of policy and practice. Books and articles on the subject have proliferated, and all across the Third World governments have become commited to it, setting up large new departments and even ministries. Charles Gore argues that this growing popularity of regional planning in developing countries is profoundly paradoxical.

Signs exist as fundamental markers of the urban landscape. Whether in the form of street signs offering directions, the airbrushed promises of advertising media or the vandalized detournements of street art, signs pervade urban spaces and provide a tangible 'text' upon which the logics of both cities and ourselves are written. Cities of Signs charts the way that signs exist as key elements of contemporary urban space, and explores what it means to live within these spaces, amongst cities of signs. This refreshing take on the way that urban space is lived and experienced is a timely contribution to the literature in urban studies, sociology and education alike. In decoding the cultural production at play in urban environments, Cities of Signs presents a dynamic approach to understanding how culture is produced and consumed within the cityscape.

Signs exist as fundamental markers of the urban landscape. Whether in the form of street signs offering directions, the airbrushed promises of advertising media or the vandalized detournements of street art, signs pervade urban spaces and provide a tangible 'text' upon which the logics of both cities and ourselves are written. Cities of Signs charts the way that signs exist as key elements of contemporary urban space, and explores what it means to live within these spaces, amongst cities of signs. This refreshing take on the way that urban space is lived and experienced is a timely contribution to the literature in urban studies, sociology and education alike. In decoding the cultural production at play in urban environments, Cities of Signs presents a dynamic approach to understanding how culture is produced and consumed within the cityscape.

Westchester County, New York, is thought of as suburban and affluent, but welfare reform hit hard here, too. The radical 1996 legislation created a temporary assistance program for poor families with harsher provisions than the program it replaced. It mandates "workfare," meaning that recipients must work as a condition of benefit receipt. But the work parents obtain in the so-called flexible labor market--jobs like home health care aide--are inflexible for them. One sick child can mean the loss of a job.
In contrast to accounts of inner-city poor families, these suburban parents' stories reveal a broad array of precipitating circumstances leading to their downward economic slide and to welfare. They also provide insight into the bureaucratic machinations, rigid rules and mandates, disciplining techniques, and catch-22s that create an insecure environment for many families today. Many of these stories show that the need for welfare over time extends well beyond the federal government's five-year lifetime limit on welfare. Policies emphasizing work first also restrict access to education and further hinder parents' ability to gain a toehold in the economy.
In this tale of people and policies, the author shows how the interests of governments are often at variance with those of vulnerable families, and how some government actions place more pressure on lives replete with stress.

Bringing Human Rights Back: Embracing Human Rights as a Mechanism for Addressing Gaps in United States Law examines well-documented policy failures in the United States and makes an argument for how a human rights approach to these issues can lead to meaningful change. Specifically, the authors articulate a human rights approach to online harassment of women, child poverty, and access to safe drinking water. These issue areas all involve human rights concerns and gross shortcomings within current law, policy, and practice in the United States. The authors analyze recent events, such as Gamergate, contention over social programs such as TANF and CHIP, and the water crises in Flint and Detroit to demonstrate the ways in which current laws do not fully respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. A human rights approach decenters assigning blame or liability, and instead emphasizes human dignity, redress, and remedy for the rights violations. Daniel Tagliarina and Corinne Tagliarina not only highlight the need for change in these areas, but outline a practical way forward rooted in human rights scholarship and practice.

Health care support workers (HSWs) play a fundamental role in international health care systems, and yet they remain largely invisible. Despite this, the number of HSWs is growing fast as governments strive to combat illness and address social care issues in a world of finite resources. This original collection analyses the global experience of HSWs in the UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Sweden and The Netherlands. Leading academics examine issues including the interface of HSWs with the health professions, regulatory practice risks, employment challenges and the dilemmas of an ageing population. Crucial future policy recommendations are also made for a world becoming increasingly dependent on HSWs.

Provisioning for basic human needs is done in three main kind of institutions: the familial household; the commercial enterprise selling goods and services; the institutions of the Welfare State that provide education, medical care and other goods and personal services to all or to some specific groups of citizens in need. The purpose of this book is to study the interplay of these institutions and their impact on well-being, and to analyze key policies and measures that have been implemented in European countries. Institutions determine labour demand (men and women are hired by the institutions of the Welfare State or by market providers of care), the possibilities of consumption (wages earned can be used to buy goods and services only if such goods and services are provided by the market) and allocate people's time, in particular women's time, between paid work and unpaid domestic production and provision of care, shaping both the gender relations and time use of people of both sexes. The proper balance of these institutions is a prerequisite of well-being both of the care givers and of the care receivers, and also for satisfactory gender relations. The chapters in this book focus on the following sub-topics: gender and welfare regimes; gender, well-being and the provision of care in the family and the household; and gender and well-being in the labour market. They emphasise the interdependence of social and labour market policies in the context of fundamental changes in both working patterns (the increase in female labour-force participation rates) and social needs (including population ageing) and demonstrate that we need a more integrated approach to welfare policy which takes account not only of basic welfare entitlements, but also the need for supportive forms of service provision and employment regulation.