Providing an indispensable resource for students, educators, businessmen, and officials investigating the transformative experience of modern China, this book provides a comprehensive summary of the culture, institutions, traditions, and international relations that have shaped today's China. In Modern China, author Xiaobing Li offers a resource far beyond a conventional encyclopedia, providing not only comprehensive coverage of Chinese civilization and traditions, but also addressing the values, issues, and critical views of China. As a result, readers will better understand the transformative experience of the most populous country in the world, and will grasp the complexity of the progress and problems behind the rise of China to a world superpower in less than 30 years. Written by an author who lived in China for three decades, this encyclopedia addresses 16 key topics regarding China, such as its geography, government, social classes and ethnicities, gender-based identities, arts, media, and food, each followed by roughly 250 short entries related to each topic. All the entries are placed within a broad sociopolitical and socioeconomic contextual framework. The format and writing consistency through the book reflects a Chinese perspective, and allows students to compare Chinese with Western and American views. Covers contemporary Chinese politics, economy, geography, law, education, culture, and history, providing readers with a breadth of insights into modern China and its people Addresses a variety of current issues such as pollution, corruption, human trafficking, human rights, civil liberties, and the one-child policy Contains accessible information ideal for high school and college-level students, grade school teachers, and any readers interested in the general topics of Asia and China

Transgender, gender variant and intersex people are in every sector of all societies, yet little is known about their relationship to place. Using a trans, feminist and queer geographical framework, this book invites readers to consider the complex relationship between transgender people, spaces and places. This book addresses questions such as, how is place and space transformed by gender variant bodies, and vice versa? Where do some gender variant people feel in and / or out of place? What happens to space when binary gender is unravelled and subverted? Exploring the diverse politics of gender variant embodied experiences through interviews and community action, this book demonstrates that gendered bodies are constructed through different social, cultural and economic networks. Firsthand stories and international examples reveal how transgender people employ practices and strategies to both create and contest different places, such as: bodies; homes; bathrooms; activist spaces; workplaces; urban night spaces; nations and transnational borders. Arguing that bodies, gender, sex and space are inextricably linked, this book brings together contemporary scholarly debates, original empirical material and popular culture to consider bodies and spaces that revolve around, and resist, binary gender. It will be a valuable resource in Geography, Gender and Sexuality studies.

Based on fieldwork largely collected during the CPA interim period by Sudanese and European researchers, this volume sheds light on the dynamics of change and the relationship between microscale and macroscale processes which took place in Sudan between the 1980s and the independence of South Sudan in 2011. Contributors' various disciplinary approaches-socio-anthropological, geographical, political, historical, linguistic-focus on the general issue of "access to resources." The book analyzes major transformations which affected Sudan in the framework of globalization, including land and urban issues; water management; "new" actors and "new conflicts"; and language, identity, and ideology.

This book features research on historical land use and land cover in the Amur River Basin, which are important not only for residents there but also for those affected by its material and water cycles. Land use and land cover are affected by natural and human interactions over long and short timescales. The authors address historical changes in the land cover analysis of the Amur. The Amur region of Russia, land cover change analysis of the Amur, wetland, and flooding of the Amur provide evidence of land cover change. Changes of wetland and floodplain sedimentation processes demonstrate the influences of land cover change on fluvial environment, which are discussed with geomorphology. Water chemistry is showing the physical dimension of the geography of the Amur. The development process of timber harvesting in the Khabarovsk area and land use dynamics in the twentieth century are important evidence of development. The Amur poses an essential question: how can we manage a transboundary watershed without disturbing terrestrial and marine ecosystems for future generations? This book provides essential information for geographers about this relatively unknown region.

This book contains all refereed papers that were accepted to the first edition of the Asia-Pacific conference on " Complex Systems Design & Management " (CSD&M Asia 2014) that took place in Singapore from December 10 to December 12, 2014 (Website: http://www.2014.csdm-asia.net/). These proceedings cover the most recent trends in the emerging field of Complex Systems, both from an academic and a professional perspective. A special focus is put on Designing Smart cities. The CSD&M Asia 2014 conference is organized under the guidance of the Center of Excellence on Systems Architecture, Management, Economy and Strategy, CESAMES, non-profit organization, address: CESAMES, 8 rue de Hanovre, 75002 Paris, France ( Website : http://www.cesames.net/en).

Hardbound. This book is designed to give an overview and critical assessment of the developing field of tourism study in anthropology. It aims to engage the reader with questions that anthropologists have raised about tourist and the ways that they have dealt with them in their research. Basic research from three theoretical perspectives is reviewed and assessed: tourist as a form of development or acculturation, as a personal transition, and as a kind of social super structure. In later chapters, the applied side of the field is examined, including considerations of tourist policy and sustainable tourism development. Most chapters include summary case studies illustrating some of the important points under examination. The book concludes with a discussion of the integration of basic and applied approaches in the anthropological agenda on tourism and suggestions concerning the future course of study in the field.

The book outlines the climate change adaptation (CCA) actions in Bangladesh drawing examples and lessons from different projects and programs in the country. The content is based on a selection of available documents, a consultative workshop with the academicians from different universities undertaking higher education on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and the editors' own knowledge and experience in the field. The book has four parts. Part I gives the details of climate change impacts, providing the scenarios, negotiations, and specific impacts on sea-level rise and the health sectors. Part II focuses on climate change strategy and action plans. Part III covers socio-economic impacts in terms of economic and environmental costs. Part IV focuses on adaptive actions for agriculture, livelihoods, and integrated approaches in agriculture and fisheries. Part V deals with climate-change governance issues. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of environment, disaster risk reduction, and climate change studies. The book will provide them with a good idea of the current trend of research in the field and will furnish basic knowledge on this important topic in Bangladesh. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply collective knowledge to policy and decision making.

Hardbound. The study of tourism is, arguably, ready for a thorough theoretical yet empirical analysis of the relationship between tourism and host communities. Pearce, Moscardo and Ross deal with the impacts tourism is having on communities internationally, going beyond a mere review of such impacts to investigate the origins, development and manifestations of community attitudes. A theoretical perspective is developed on how communities come to understand tourism and react to it. In terms of its disciplinary approaches the book combines social-psychological, sociological, economic and media analyses and can properly be termed a study within the new specialism of tourism. A number of yet-to-be-published studies of tourism and communities are reported on, and some large scale existing works on tourism and community reaction are reviewed and revisited.

Planning for a City of Culture gives us a new way to understand how cities use arts and culture in planning, fostering livable communities and creating economic development strategies to build their brand, attract residents and tourists, and distinguish themselves from other urban centers worldwide. While the common thinking on creative cities may coalesce around the idea of one goal--economic development and branding--this book turns this idea on its head. Goldberg-Miller brings a new, fresh perspective to the study of creative cities by using policy theory as an underlying construct to understand what happened in Toronto and New York in the 2000s. She demystifies the processes and outcomes of stakeholder involvement, exogenous and endogenous shocks, and research and strategic planning, as well as warning us about the many pitfalls of neglecting critical community voices in the burgeoning practice of creative placemaking. This book is an essential resource in examining the development and sustainability of the global trend of integrating arts and culture in city planning and urban design that has become an international phenomenon. Perfect for students, scholars, and city-lovers alike, Planning for a City of Culture illuminates the ways that this creative city trend went global, with the two case study cities serving as perfect illustrations of the power and promise of arts and culture in current and future municipal strategies. Please visit Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller's website for more information and research: www.goldberg-miller.com

Throughout the world, governments and intergovernmental organizations, such as the International Organization for Migration are developing new approaches aimed at renewing migration policy-making. This book, now in paperback, critically analyzes the actors, discourses and practices of migration management.

This book is the first to provide an in-depth analysis about the history, urban development, planning, and preservation of the Lhasa city over the last thirteen centuries. It studis the old Lhasa city as part of Tibet's social and historical evolution process, therefore, the book presentes a relatively wide angle of vision and objective understanding. The research draws on an unparalleled amount of archival sources as well as up-to-date findings of original research projects. In the meanwhile, some experiences of other Chinese historical cities are also included for comparison with the preservation of the old Lhasa city. This book also contains many unique first-hand photos and high-quality illustrations. They can be used as a reference for scholars and students who are interested in the field of historical and cultural preservation in Chinese urban planning and construction. The book can also be useful to tourists or the people who are interested in the cultural and religious history of Tibet.

In this book, an interdisciplinary research group of faculty members, researchers, professionals, and planners contributed to an understanding of the dynamics and dimensions of emerging challenges and risks in megacities in the rapidly changing urban environments in Asia and examined emerging resilience themes from the point of view of sustainability and public policy. The world's urban population in 2009 was approximately 3.4 billion and Asia's urban population was about 1.72 billion. Between 2010 and 2020, 411 million people will be added to Asian cities (60 % of the growth in the world's urban population). By 2020, of the world's urban population of 4.2 billion, approximately 2.2 billion will be in Asia. China and India will contribute 31.3 % of the total world urban population by 2025. Developing Asia's projected global share of CO2 emissions for energy consumption will increase from 30 % in 2006 to 43 % by 2030. City regions serve as magnets for people, enterprise, and culture, but with urbanisation , the worst form of visible poverty becomes prominent. The Asian region, with a slum population of an estimated 505.5 million people, remains host to over half of the world's slum population . The book provides information on a comprehensive range of environmental threats faced by the inhabitants of megacities. It also offers a wide and multidisciplinary group of case studies from rapidly growing megacities (with populations of more than 5 million) from developed and developing countries of Asia.

With topics ranging from armed robbery in L.A. to murder in Miami, this atlas provides a unique collection of maps and essays, presenting a comprehensive and multi-faceted picture of crime in the United States. Blending current trends with history, "Atlas of Crime" stands out for its coverage of critical topics such as school violence, hate crimes, domestic terrorism, rape, capital punishment, and more. This outstanding resource includes approximately 170 graphics (maps, charts, and tables), and at least 30 original essays from 32 contributors.

This volume provides an accessible scientific introduction to the historical geography of Tropical Pacific Islands, assessing the environmental and cultural changes they have undergone and how they are affected currently by these shifts and alterations. The book emphasizes the roles of plants, animals, people, and the environment in shaping the tropical Pacific through a cross-disciplinary approach involving history, geography, biology, environmental science, and anthropology. With these diverse scientific perspectives, the eight chapters of the book provide a comprehensive overview of Tropical Pacific Islands from their initial colonization by native peoples to their occupation by colonial powers, and the contemporary changes that have affected the natural history and social fabric of these islands. The Tropical Pacific Islands are introduced by a description of their geological formation, development, and geography. From there, the book details the origins of the island's original peoples and the dawn of the political economy of these islands, including the domestication and trade of plants, animals, and other natural resources. Next, readers will learn about the impact of missionaries on Pacific Islands, and the affects of Wold War II and nuclear testing on natural resources and the health of its people. The final chapter discusses the islands in the context of natural resource extraction, population increases, and global climate change. Working together these factors are shown to affect rainfall and limited water resources, as well as the ability to sustain traditional crops, and the capacity of the islands to accomodate its residents.

Exploring the social implications of dense and compact cities, this enlightening book looks at micro-scale segregation through several lenses. These include the ways that the housing market constantly reconfigures social mix, how the structure of the housing stock shapes it, and the ways that policies are deployed to manage these effects. Taking a deep dive into micro-segregation in the socially mixed and dense centres of compact cities, the authors investigate the form and content of social and ethno-racial hierarchies at the micro-scale of different cities around the world and the ways these have evolved over time. Vertical Cities considers the ways the materiality of such hierarchies affects the reproduction of social inequalities in today's large cities. Academics and researchers of urban sociology, housing, urban regeneration, urban studies and urban geography will find the original approach taken to this under-researched topic to be a vital resource. Practitioners and policy makers will find the innovative use of a common theoretical frame to analyse micro-scale social mix in vertical/compact cities informative when dealing with the management of neighbourhoods in inner cities.

The term cosmopolitan is increasingly used within different social, cultural and political settings, including academia, popular media and national politics. However those who invoke the cosmopolitan project rarely ask whose experience, understanding, or vision of cosmopolitanism is being described and for whose purposes? In response, this volume assembles contributors from different disciplines and theoretical backgrounds to examine cosmopolitanism's possibilities, aspirations and applications-as well as its tensions, contradictions, and discontents-so as to offer a critical commentary on the vital but often neglected question: whose cosmopolitanism? The book investigates when, where, and how cosmopolitanism emerges as a contemporary social process, global aspiration or emancipatory political project and asks whether it can serve as a political or methodological framework for action in a world of conflict and difference.

This book makes a significant contribution to the history of placemaking, presenting grassroots to top-down practices and socially engaged, situated artistic practices and artsled spatial inquiry that go beyond instrumentalising the arts for development. The book brings together a range of scholars to critique and deconstruct the notion of creative placemaking, presenting diverse case studies from researcher, practitioner, funder and policymaker perspectives from across the globe. It opens with the creators of the 2010 White Paper that named and defined creative placemaking, Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, who offer a cortically reflexive narrative on the founding of the sector and its development. This book looks at vernacular creativity in place, a topic continued through the book with its focus on the practitioner and community-placed projects. It closes with a consideration of aesthetics, metrics and, from the editors, a consideration of the next ten years for the sector. If creative placemaking is to contribute to places-in-the-making and encourage citizenled agency, new conceptual frameworks and practical methodologies are required. This book joins theorists and practitioners in dialogue, advocating for transdisciplinary, resilient processes.

By empirically assessing the competitiveness of 505 cities around the world from regional, national and other perspectives, this book not only ranks these cities but also presents a treasure trove of information with regard to each city's relative strengths and weaknesses. This unique resource draws on a wealth of data sources, all of which are described and assessed, and involve urban economics, geography, regional economics and many other fields. Using a concise indexing system, sophisticated methodology, and extensive figures and tables, it provides a comprehensive analysis of global urban competitiveness in 2015. Given the scope of its coverage, the book will be of great interest to readers such as local authorities, decision-makers and economic planners in cities throughout the world.

Urban refugees now account for over half the total number of refugees worldwide. Yet to date, far more research has been done on refugees living in camps and settlements set up expressly for them. This book provides crucial insights into the worldwide phenomenon of refugee flows into urban settings, repercussions for those seeking protection, and the agencies and organizations tasked to assist them. It provides a comparative exploration of refugees and asylum seekers in nine urban areas in Africa, Asia and Europe to examine issues such as status recognition, international and national actors, housing, education and integration. The book explores the relationship between refugee policies of international organisations and national governments and on the ground realities and demonstrates both the diverse of circumstances in which refugees live, and their struggle for recognition, protection and livelihoods.

This encyclopedia provides detailed information about the historical, cultural, social, religious, economic, and scientific significance of gold, across the globe and throughout history. Gold has been an intrinsic part of human culture and society throughout the world, both in ancient times and in the modern era. This precious metal has also played a central role in economics and politics throughout history. In fact, the value of gold remains a topic of debate amid the current upheavals of economic conditions and attendant reevaluations of modern financial principles. Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia consists of more than 130 entries that encompass every aspect of gold, ranging from the ancient metallurgical arts to contemporary economies. The connections between these interdisciplinary subjects are explored and analyzed to highlight the many ways humankind's fascination with gold reflects historical, cultural, economic, and geographic developments. While the majority of the works related to gold focus on economic theory, this text goes beyond that to take a more sociocultural approach to the subject. Contains more than 130 A-Z entries on the significance of gold worldwide, from antiquity to the present, from an interdisciplinary perspective, as well as sidebar entries Provides unique details and remarkable scope of facts in each entry along with direct references to and examples of primary source materials Photographs and illustrations of the use and significance of gold as varied as Ca' d'Oro in Venice, royal crowns, filigree, Italian florin coin, Hatshepsut, Rumpelstiltskin, Wat Traimit, and modern "bling" Extensive bibliography including monographs, scholarly articles, newspaper and magazine articles, primary source documents, and online resources Detailed subject index as well as list of entries and guide to related topics

The aim of this book is to inject more intercultural understanding and education into people's lives. This is achieved by focusing on key aspects such as geography and culture, geography and citizenship, pedagogic implications and future directions for inter-cultural learning, understanding, and education. This publication demonstrates how the study of geography can assist people in different social and cultural groups to sustain their lifeworlds, and improve them for future generations of citizens.

The movement of people from small towns and villages of India to places outside the country raises a number of questions- about the networks that enable their mobility, the aspirations that motivate them, what they give back to their home regions, and how their provincial home worlds engage with and absorb the consequent transnational flows of money, ideas, influence and care. This book analyzes the social consequences of the transmission of migrant resources to provincial places in India. Bringing together case studies from four regions, it demonstrates that these flows are very diverse, are inflected by regional histories of mobility and development, and may reinforce local power structures or instigate social change in unexpected ways. The chapters collected in this volume examine conflicts over migrant-funded education or rural development projects, how migrants from Dalit, Muslim and other marginalized groups use their new wealth to promote social progress or equality in their home regions, and why migrants invest in property in provincial India or return regularly to their ancestral homes to revitalize ritual traditions. These studies also demonstrate that diaspora philanthropy is routed largely through social networks based on caste, community or kinship ties, thereby extending them spatially, and illustrate how migrant efforts to 'develop' their home regions may become entangled in local politics or influence state policies. This collection of eight original ethnographic field studies develops new theoretical insights into the diverse outcomes of international migration and the influences of regional diasporas within India. These collected studies illustrate the various ways in which migrants remain socially, economical and politically influential in their home regions. The book develops a fresh perspective on the connections between transnational migration and processes of development, revealing how provincial India has become deeply globalized. It will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of anthropology, geography, transnational and diaspora studies, and South Asian studies.

That children need nature for health and well-being is widely accepted, but what type of nature? Specifically, what type of nature is not only necessary but realistically available in the complex and rapidly changing worlds that children currently live in? This book examines child-nature definitions through two related concepts: the need for connecting to nature and the processes by which opportunities for such contact can be enhanced. It analyses the available nature from a scientific perspective of habitats, species and environments, together with the role of planning, to identify how children in cities can and do connect with nature. This book challenges the notion of a universal child and childhood by recognizing children's diverse life worlds and experiences which guide them into different and complex ways of interacting with the natural world. Unfortunately not all children have the freedom to access the nature that is present in the cities where they live. This book addresses the challenge of designing biodiverse cities in which nature is readily accessible to children.