His father, an Irishman, was on the run from the "Brits". He took refuge in Jersey C.I. where Desmond was born. The family left the island when he was four, but retained strong ties and family to this very day. After the tragic deaths of his two young brothers at 17 and 27 he was reminded that you only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. From humble beginnings as a butcher in Birmingham, he made himself into a relatively small but successful businessman, with a chain of shops and houses to rent. He took life by the scruff of the neck and lived a playboy life of booze, women and fast cars. He has dived the oceans of the world, travelled to all the places he ever wanted to see and ticked all his boxes. Retiring from business at 49, he turned to a new life of songwriting, TV plays and a successful trilogy of Jack Reec novels. Once asked, "Is there anything you haven't done?" Thoughtfully he replied, "Well if there is, it's because I didn't want to do it". Share the ride with him, on an exciting journey to far flung exotic locations in this hugely readable and amusingly written autobiography.

Nature-based tourism (NBT) is a sector where entrepreneurial success is highly knowledge-driven. This insightful book offers a comprehensive evaluation of NBT in a Nordic context, highlighting how long-established Nordic traditions of outdoor recreation practices can reveal lessons for the field more broadly. Featuring contributions from expert scholars, Nordic Perspectives on Nature-Based Tourism examines the links between place-based resources and value-added experiences. It considers the way in which NBT calls for an integrated approach to manage resources for both outdoor recreation and the development of commercial experience products. Chapters explore Nordic and international perspectives, local communities, market dynamics, firms, creativity, innovations and value-added experience products. Undergraduate and graduate students and scholars in tourism and related fields such as geography, planning, hospitality, outdoor recreation and natural resource management will find the knowledge and understanding gained from the book invaluable. It will also prove useful for policymakers, entrepreneurs and volunteers.

From an award-winning science journalist comes Nomad Century, an urgent investigation of environmental migration--the most underreported, seismic consequence of our climate crisis that will force us to change where--and how--we live. "The MOST IMPORTANT BOOK I imagine I'll ever read."--Mary Roach "An IMPORTANT and PROVOCATIVE start to a crucial conversation." --Bill McKibben "We are facing a species emergency. We can survive, but to do so will require a planned and deliberate migration of a kind humanity has never before undertaken. This is the biggest human crisis you've never heard of." Drought-hit regions bleeding those for whom a rural life has become untenable. Coastlines diminishing year on year. Wildfires and hurricanes leaving widening swaths of destruction. The culprit, most of us accept, is climate change, but not enough of us are confronting one of its biggest, and most present, consequences: a total reshaping of the earth's human geography. As Gaia Vince points out early in Nomad Century, global migration has doubled in the past decade, on track to see literal billions displaced in the coming decades. What exactly is happening, Vince asks? And how will this new great migration reshape us all? In this deeply-reported clarion call, Vince draws on a career of environmental reporting and over two years of travel to the front lines of climate migration across the globe, to tell us how the changes already in play will transform our food, our cities, our politics, and much more. Her findings are answers we all need, now more than ever.

The universe of militant groups in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), near the Afghan border, is far more complex and diverse than is commonly understood. While these groups share many ideological and historical characteristics, the militants have very different backgrounds, tribal affiliations, and strategic concepts that are key to understanding the dynamics of this dangerous, war-torn region- the main safe haven of al-Qaeda and the gateway to fighting in Afghanistan. This volume of essays, edited by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann and produced in connection with the New America Foundation, explores the history and current state of the lawless frontier of "Talibanistan," from the groups that occupy its various sub-regions to the effects of counterinsurgency and military intervention (including drone strikes) and the possibility of reconciliation. Contributors include MIT's Sameer Lalwani, NYU's Paul Cruickshank, Afghan journalist Anand Gopal, and Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation.

Being essential to the survival of civilisations, rivers run through mythology - think of ancient Egypt - and religion - think of the Ganges and Hinduism. And they continue to inspire writers and artists - think of Mark Twain's Mississippi and John Steinbeck's Salinas. From the Ganges rising in the Himalayas to the Nile Delta, from the Amazon rainforest to the Bow River flowing out of the Rocky Mountains, from the Rhine to the Rhone, Yangtze to the Mekong, Danube to the Volga to the Ebro, Rivers explores the grandest and most interesting rivers around the world. Arranged by continent, the book reveals the fascinating stories of how rivers have supported and shaped civilisations, the significance that rivers have gained in religion and myth, the battles that have been fought over them, the borders that they have marked, and how rivers have altered their courses, thus changing lives and livelihoods. Illustrated with more than 200 spectacular colour photographs supported by expert captions, Rivers is a fascinating journey from the mountains to the sea.

In this timely Handbook, people emerge at the centre of city and regional development debates from the perspective of leadership. It explores individuals and communities, not only as units that underpin aggregate measures or elements within systems, but as deliberative actors with ambitions, desires, strategies and objectives Deepening the scholarly debate on leadership in cities and regions, the Handbook combines theoretical discussion and empirical evidence within methodological development to present a state-of-the-art view of a rapidly emerging field of study, highlighting paths for future research. Chapters explore power, politics, policy-making, social corporate responsibility and international city diplomacy through the lens of leadership, covering leadership in different countries from a broad range of theoretical perspectives. This Handbook is a valuable resource for academics and students of regional studies, human and economic geography, and policy studies. The conceptual discussion and case studies from different parts of the world will provide valuable examples for scholars, policy-makers and practitioners seeking a better understanding of what it takes to mobilise and co-ordinate complex multi-actor constellations for improvement of their respective places.

Drawing on the concept of the 'politics of compassion', this Handbook interrogates the political, geopolitical, social and anthropological processes which produce and govern borders and give rise to contemporary border violence. Chapters map different aspects of structural violence and mobilities in some of the world's most contentious border zones, highlighting the forms and practices that connect with labour exploitation, legal exclusion and a severe absence of human rights. International interdisciplinary contributors, including renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen, draw attention to the forms and spaces of resistance available to migrants and activists, contemplating how advocates attempt to provide protection and human security to those subjected to border violence. Offering empirical analyses of critical border spaces, the book covers extensively the US-Mexico border region and border zones around the Mediterranean. Border issues in South, Central and North America, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, the Middle East, Central Africa and East and Central Asia are also discussed. The Handbook thus provides a truly transnational approach to borders and migration, demonstrating the dynamic but asymmetric relationship between the social structure of border enforcement and the human agency of migrants and global activists. Combining theoretical insights into structural violence and human rights with key case studies of border zones, this comprehensive Handbook is crucial reading for scholars and researchers of social and political science investigating human migration, the humanitarian, border control and human rights. Its practical insights will also benefit policy-makers involved in borders and migration, as well as advocates and NGOs working with migrants and refugees to create secure environments.

This book asks why socially innovative initiatives, including attempts to rejuvenate democracy by introducing new modes of participation, are not leading to a democratization of the State or overcoming the gap between political leaders and people. It offers a vivid and thought-provoking conversation on why we are at such an impasse and explores concrete possibilities for change. Offering insights on the failures of modern democracies from three leading voices of contemporary social science, the book interrogates the possibilities of progressive socio-political agendas, strategies, and movements seeking to overcome these failures. It highlights examples of bottom-linked forms of governance that provide signs of positive change and focuses on the essential role that progressive institutions play in enabling socio-political transformation. It also analyses how processes of self-emancipation driven by social innovation and political mobilization movements represent the most promising form of political engagement today. Students and scholars of social innovation and governance will find this to be an invigorating read. It will also be helpful to politicians and government officials seeking to understand, respond to, and explore efforts towards democratizing political change.

Featuring an international, multidisciplinary set of contributors, this thought-provoking book reimagines established narratives of the Anthropocene to allow differences in regions and contexts to be taken seriously, emphasising the importance of localised and situated knowledge. Envisaging a narrative of change that renders visible the complex transformations taking place across the globe, this book outlines new and radical ways to address the current environmental crisis in a more sustainable and context-specific manner. It presents empirical studies from various contexts, highlighting the potentiality of non-Western knowledge, concepts and categories as well as recognising the entanglement of humans with other beings and ecosystems. In particular, it offers critical engagement with the debates around the Anthropocene by challenging the dominant techno-rational agenda that often prevails in socio-political and academic discussions. This book will be crucial reading for researchers and post-graduate students working in fields from human geography and tourism studies to law, public policy and administration, philosophy, politics and organisation studies who are dealing with intersecting issues of environment, sustainability, indigenous rights, space and ethics. It will also be helpful for policy makers and research consultants in leveraging localised solutions to the current ecological crisis.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Offering a new theoretical framework for understanding gentrification and displacement, this timely Research Agenda focuses on resistance as the central research area in this subject field. Arguing that the future of gentrification research should focus on accomplishing the end of gentrification, chapters provide practical organizing and policy strategies using international case studies which are rooted in community-based research. Encouraging researchers to find inspiration in new methods, sites and questions for exploring resistance, this Research Agenda seeks to empower communities and cities to reclaim urban life and city space for people by examining key issues such as housing insecurity and lived reality versus policy and practice. Graduate students and researchers of geography, urban planning and urban sociology will find the use of case studies informative and thought-provoking. The suggested practical strategies will also be beneficial for urban planners and policymakers to fight displacement and slow gentrification.