|
|
Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies
The events in Seattle and other cities around the world demonstrate
that globalisation and trade liberalisation are currently under
severe pressure. There are also reasons to believe that these
pressures are being translated into measures to increase the
protection of domestic markets. This book addresses what are
arguably the four most important origins of these pressures:
macroeconomic conditions, labour policy, trade and the environment,
and market imperfections.The authors first address the role of
macroeconomic conditions and policies, and demonstrate how these
can have a crucial role in explaining 'slippages' of trade policy.
The second origin of instability is labour policy, in particular
the pressures to introduce universal labour standards. The third
economic origin the book considers is the relationship between
trade and the environment and the attempts to link trade policies
to environmental standards. The fourth origin of protectionist
pressure comes from the presence of various market imperfections
and the extent to which they affect competition. The authors
conclude that multilateral agreements can be extremely helpful in
creating the right environment for equitable trade policies, but
warn that complete success can only be achieved once major hurdles
are overcome in the highly controversial and politically sensitive
areas of labour, environment and competition. Offering a unique
perspective on the threat to globalisation, this book should be
widely read by students, practitioners and policymakers in the
spheres of international trade, transition and development studies,
and competition, labour and environmental economics.
Globalization and the Small Open Economy investigates the specific
role of small open countries in a globalizing economic system and
assesses the unique pressures and opportunities afforded them by
globalization. Traditionally, in contrast to large countries, small
open economies (SOEs) have relied on international economic policy
rather than domestic policy as a means to foster national economic
development. Their firms also have a far greater reliance on host
countries to gain competitive advantage than those of larger
nations. This would suggest that globalization has potentially a
far greater impact on SOEs than on large countries. The
contributors to this volume concur with this view and seek to
outline the challenges and opportunities faced by policymakers and
managers of multinational enterprises from SOEs. They examine the
role of government, environmental policy, inward and outward
foreign direct investment and multinational management and conclude
that, on balance, globalization provides more of an opportunity
than a threat to economic growth in these countries. An innovative
collection with fascinating new insights on the present and future
role of small, open countries in the global economy, this will be
an important new reference source for academics and students,
public policy research institutes, international business scholars
and trade economists.
A unique, revealing look at the history and contemporary culture of
the Philippine Islands and their multicultural and
foreign-influenced facets. Interest in the Philippines has grown
substantially over recent years. The Philippines: A Global Studies
Handbook provides an all-encompassing introduction to the dramatic
history of this intriguing nation as well as the contemporary
social, political, economic, religious, and artistic life, written
for travelers, business people, researchers, students, or general
readers. The author, an award-winning professor of Asian studies,
explores the effects of centuries of change and continuity on this
fascinating, often contradictory land. It is a locals-eye view that
gets straight to the heart of the Filipino experience-a cultural
tour that measures the profound impact of the islands' Japanese,
Spanish, and American conquerors, as well as the influence of
Islam, the Marcos regime, and the People Power revolutions that
ousted Ferdinand Marcos and, 15 years later, Joseph Estrada. An
etiquette section that discusses respect and levels of interaction,
first names and surnames, titles of respect, and core values versus
surface values Twelve photographs of noteworthy figures such as
physician and novelist Jose Rizal, nationalist Andres Bonifacio,
and other Filipino heroes
Examine the everyday lives of ordinary Americans from the 1940s and
1950s and discover how very different the two decades were. World
War II affected Americans and the way they behaved, not only in the
1940s, but also in the years that followed when the depression that
preceded the war was replaced with an economic boom. Explore how
women's roles and lives changed during these two very distinct
decades, how politics and political decisions impacted all walks of
life, and what the advent of growing technology, much of it
developed during the war, meant to the general population. What was
it like to be a woman suddenly earning her own money while men were
off fighting? How did children and teenagers contribute to the war
effort? How did housing change in postwar America? What pastimes
were popular during these two decades and how did they reflect the
times? These questions and others are explored in detail,
encouraging students, teachers, and interested readers to recognize
the tremendous shift in society between the war years and the
atomic age that immediately followed. This text presents the 1940s
as a time of social problems that existed alongside community
commitment to the war, while the 1950s are presented as a time when
exciting social change such as the beginning of the civil rights
movement and the building of Levittowns occurred. After the war
ordinary people began to question long-accepted ideas. The
exploration of these everyday details provides a rich look at two
very important decades in our country's history.
"In lively and unflinching prose, Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman argue
that contemporary thought about the world is disabled by a fatal
flaw: the inability to think "an after" to globalization. After
establishing seven theses (on education, morality, history, future,
capitalism, nation, and common sense) that challenge the false
promises that sustain this time-limit, After Globalization examines
four popular thinkers (Thomas Friedman, Richard Florida, Paul
Krugman and Naomi Klein) and how their work is dulled by these
promises. Cazdyn and Szeman then speak to students from around the
globe who are both unconvinced and uninterested in these promises
and who understand the world very differently than the way it is
popularly represented. After Globalization argues that a true
capacity to think an after to globalization is the very beginning
of politics today"--
This seminal reference tool provides a detailed chronological
account of the development of European integration from the
fragmentation at the end of the Second World War to the launch of
the Euro on 31st December 1998. It offers a descriptive summary of
important events, measures, arrangements, conferences and ideas
that shaped the progress towards integration. Wim Vanthoor's
chronology reveals that the attainment of political unions referred
to by Winston Churchill in 1946 as 'The United States of Europe',
was on the one hand a controversial point in the struggle for
integration while on the other it was always kept in view as the
ultimate objective. The author comes to the conclusion that with
the creation of the economic and monetary union the efforts to
achieve European political unification have reached an interim
phase. Previous experience suggests that, in the long run, the
European Union needs to be deepened in order to create the
supranationality which the founding fathers of the European
Community already had in mind when they signed the Treaty of Rome
in 1957. This reference work will prove invaluable to students,
scholars and professionals interested in the development of the
European Union.
The book provides for a further development of the essential themes
that have been identified by scholars and practitioners working in
the field of peace leadership and/or in publications specifically
related to peace leadership. The book is a comprehensive reader on
peace leadership as it stands now, expanding on themes that need
in-depth explorations as well as introducing important themes so
far barely addressed, such as qualifications of a peace leader,
peace leadership education in conflict zones and refugee camps or
peace leadership and storytelling. The impact on the field of peace
leadership is through the book being a comprehensive reader on
peace leadership representing the discipline as it stands now as
well as providing an agreed upon theoretical framework. It also
develops the discipline by introducing new and further in-depth
explorations of existing themes. Thus, it can be used as a
reference for those interested in researching peace leadership or
applying peace leadership in the field. The book is intended for
scholars, practitioners working in the field of peace leadership as
well as the general public interested in these themes. The book
should serve as a reference for scholars working on peace
leadership themes as well as for practitioners reflecting on their
approaches. The book could serve as a reader in peace leadership to
be used in its entirety or parts of it in school, college and
university programs as well as in training programs for
professionals working in areas requiring peace leadership
knowledge/qualifications such as for the military, peacebuilders
for civil society and community development officers.
From as early as the 1600s, Dutch scholars and scholarship have
displayed a keen interest in the studies of the Islamic world. Over
the centuries, they have collected a wealth of source texts in
various languages, Turkish texts being prominent among them. The
present catalogue is the fourth and final volume in a series that
covers the Turkish manuscripts preserved in public libraries and
museums in the Netherlands. The volume gives a detailed description
of Turkish manuscripts in minor Dutch collections, found in
libraries and museums in Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague, Leiden,
Rotterdam and Utrecht, which hitherto have received little or no
attention.
This collection of essays offers a comprehensive study of the
impact of cultural life and intellectual thought on society in
Medieval India. Doubtless, if the impact of interaction between the
followers of Hindu and Islamic traditions of culture under the Arab
and Ghaznavid rulers remained confined, to Sind and the Panjab from
the eighth to the twelfth centuries AD, the Ghurian conquest of
north India led to far-reaching socio-political changes in the
subcontinent. The scientific instruments and devices that found
their way with the emigrants from the neighbouring countries after
the foundation of the sultanate in the beginning of the thirteenth
century became the accompaniments of civilised life and generated
new components of elite culture. The essays in this volume shift
the focus from the pre-occupation with battles and court politics
that dominate the studies of the period and help us understand the
complex social phenomena. The essays arranged are first concerned
with intellectual life and thought and then come those that deal
with literary works containing historical information of
supplementary and corroborative importance. The works analysed not
only cast light on currents and cross currents resulting from the
role played by the elite but also open new vistas for further
investigation. The discovery of new sources is of methodological
significance as they provide insights into certain aspects not much
known. The contributors are scholars of eminence and belong to
India, England, USA and Australia.
Focusing on the contributions of civic reformers and political
architects who arrived in New York in the early decades of the 20th
century, this book explores the wide array of sweeping social
reforms and radical racial demands first conceived of and planned
in Harlem that transformed African Americans into self-aware U.S.
citizens for the first time in history. When the first slave
escaped bondage in the American South and migrated to the Northeast
region of the United States, this act of an individual started what
became known as the "great migration" of African Americans fleeing
the feudal South for New York and other Northern cities. This
migration fueled an intellectual, social, and personal pursuit-the
long-standing quest for identity by a lost tribe of African
Americans-by every black man, woman, and child in America. In
Harlem, that quest was anchored by a wide array of civic, business,
and prominent leaders who succeeded in establishing what we now
know as modern African American culture. In Harlem: The Crucible of
Modern African American Culture, author Lionel C. Bascom examines
the accuracy of the established image of Harlem during the
Renaissance period-roughly between 1917 and the 1960s-as "heaven"
for migrating African Americans. He establishes how mingled among
the former tenant farmers, cotton pickers, maids, and farmhands
were college-educated intellectuals, progressive ministers,
writers, and lecturers who formed various organizations aimed at
banishing images of Negroes as bumbling, ignorant, second-class
citizens. The book also challenges unfounded claims that political
and social movements during the Harlem Renaissance period failed
and dramatizes numerous attempts by government authorities to
silence black progressives who spearheaded movements that
eventually ended segregation in the armed forces, drafted plans
that led to the first sweeping civil rights legislation, and
resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that finally made racial
segregation in schools a federal crime. Documents the Harlem
Renaissance period's important role in one of the greatest
transformations of American citizens in the history of the United
States-from slavery to a migration of millions to parity of
achievement in all fields Extends the definition of one of the most
progressive periods in African American history for students,
academics, and general readers Provides an intriguing reexamination
of the Harlem Renaissance period that posits that it began earlier
than most general histories of the period suggest and lasted well
into the 1960s
Technology for Facilitating Humanity and Combating Social
Deviations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives provides a
state-of-the-art compendium of research and development on
socio-technical approaches to support the prevention, mitigation,
and elimination of social deviations with the help of computer
science and technology. This book provides historical backgrounds,
experimental studies, and future perspectives on the use of
computing tools to prevent and deal with physical, psychological
and social problems that impact society as a whole.
This book is the result of a comparative investigation that
contrasts micro-systems of innovation in several regions of China
and Australia - two vastly different countries in terms of
traditions, industry structures, political systems and economic
organisation. Six regional studies comprehensively document the
experiences of firms engaged in product or process innovation. The
book also examines the institutions that support research and
development and the impact of government policies on innovation in
each of the regions studied. The case-studies present original and
informative insights into the different ways in which local,
national and transnational interests interact and influence
regional development. These findings support the view that local
innovation systems are emerging with quite different structural
characteristics. The authors conclude that local, national and
transnational dimensions are continually redefining and aligning
themselves in novel and interesting ways. They highlight the
importance of identifying these structural relationships in order
to encourage dynamic innovation to occur. This, they argue, has
important implications for policymakers concerned with the
promotion of innovation in regional areas. Innovation, Technology
Policy and Regional Development will be of great interest to those
involved in research and policy in the fields of economic growth
and employment, industrial economics and innovation.
Many hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted by well
meaning philanthropists, aid agencies and governments in projects
to deploy ICT solutions in developing contexts. The very long list
of public Internet access facilities (telecenters, internet cafes,
multi-purpose community centers) that were either closed down, or
that never got off the ground in the first place, is very
troublesome. Yet, there are some cases that seem to be very
effective. ICTs for Global Development and Sustainability: Practice
and Applications unites the theoretical underpinnings and
scientific methodology of an approach of deploying ICT in
marginalized communities to bridge the so-called digital divide.
This book contains case studies of Asia, Africa, Latin America and
the Caribbean that demonstrate which approaches work and which do
not in deploying public access to information sources.
This forward-looking volume offers insights into the globalization
of the Chinese economy and its accession to the WTO. The
contributors provide updated accounts of recent developments in the
Chinese economy and examines the implications of China's accession
for the rest of the world. Firstly, the volume offers an overview
of possible changes in industrial policies and analyzes new
developments in some important sectors, including agriculture,
telecommunications and automobiles. It addresses the key concerns
in China regarding its entry into the WTO, such as whether the WTO
membership will cause massive unemployment and/or exacerbate
inequalities among regions. Finally, it evaluates the implications
of increased trade and financial ties with China for the rest of
the world, investigating the conditions facilitating foreign direct
investment in China and assessing potential trade disputes as trade
between China and the rest of the world grows. The Globalization of
the Chinese Economy provides a comprehensive picture of the
political, economic and social environment in China as a whole. It
will be of particular interest to academics of Asian studies and
international relations as well as policymakers in the US, China
and other Western economies.
This authoritative Handbook provides a comprehensive account of
migration and economic development throughout the world, in both
developed and developing countries. Some of the world's most
experienced researchers in this field look at how population
redistribution patterns have impacted on urban development in a
wide selection of advanced and developing countries in all the
major regions of the world over the past half century. The study
results show that, despite local differences there are signs of
remarkable similarities in the underlying forces that drive the
migration process and urban development across the development
spectrum. The International Handbook of Urban Systems is a must for
social and economic geographers, urban and regional planners,
regional scientists, urban, regional and development economists and
sociologists.
Decision-makers increasingly seek to design environmental and
development policies that will support sustainable development.
Thus, practical tools to help formulate sustainable development
policies and clear methods to assess their acceptability and
effectiveness are urgently needed. This book contributes to meeting
these needs by presenting both analytical and empirical aspects of
decision-making processes. The authors explore the methods for
integrating environmental and social sciences to support
participatory policy design, implementation and assessment of
sustainable development policies. These methods are applied, richly
illustrated and discussed with reference to several case studies
from various regions of the world. Although each chapter has a
distinct focus, they all contribute to a clearer understanding of
how sustainable development is perceived and assessed by society.
The book is interdisciplinary, emphasising how the integration of a
wide set of disciplines and stakeholder perspectives into the
policy-making process can help to improve the perception of
sustainable development policies. The authors argue that there
should be greater transparency in the processes of modelling and
integrated assessment in order to increase the meaningful
participation of all stakeholders involved in the decision-making
process. By deliberately avoiding technical jargon, this book will
appeal to a broad audience including environmental, resource and
development economists. It will also be of interest to anyone with
a scientific or policy perspective in the measurement and
assessment of sustainable development.
This one-volume reference provides a comprehensive overview of
gambling in the Americas, examining the history, morality, market
growth, and economics of the gaming industry. This is the most
complete encyclopedia of gambling, covering the industry in great
detail including the players, the games, the venues, and the
surrounding social issues. Updates in this second edition reveal
the impact of technological advances on the games, the growing
legislation regulating the industry, and the expanding global
footprint of gambling across the world-from Manitoba to Montana.
Author William N. Thompson postulates on the impact of gambling on
local communities and shows how the U.S. gaming industry is tied to
the global market, most notably gaming expansion in Macau and
Singapore. The book addresses the various forms of gaming, such as
casino-based and online gambling, sports betting, and lotteries.
Additional content examines the social issue of problem and
pathological gambling and addresses the rehabilitation programs
available for the mitigation and treatment of gambling problems.
Includes documents from prominent court cases Profiles leading
persons and organizations dealing with gambling operations Features
a detailed chronology of events including legalization and laws on
Internet gaming Offers an expanded bibliography that provides
additional resources for further study
The development of a European Port Policy is widely recognised as a
critical component of the Common EU Transport Policy, and has been
the focus of attention since the early 1990s. A coherent common EU
wide port policy has not yet been achieved, but the authors of this
book argue that it has a major role to play in European integration
and that its significance in this context is set to increase.
European Union Port Policy assesses the progress that has been made
towards a comprehensive policy framework, reviewing the impact of
both historical and contemporary policy initiatives - such as the
recent 'port package' - before forecasting expected developments in
policy making and the prospects of successfully achieving a single
port policy. This book offers a unique review of port policy in the
EU and will appeal to all those in academic and policy circles with
an interest in both transport and European integration.
Contemporary philosophers frequently assume that Kant never
seriously engaged with Spinoza or Spinozism-certainly not before
the break of Der Pantheismusstreit, or within the Critique of Pure
Reason. Offering an alternative reading of key pre-critical texts
and to some of the Critique's most central chapters, Omri Boehm
challenges this common assumption. He argues that Kant not only is
committed to Spinozism in early essays such as "The One Possible
Basis" and "New Elucidation," but also takes up Spinozist
metaphysics as Transcendental Realism's most consistent form in the
Critique of Pure Reason. The success -- or failure -- of Kant's
critical projects must be evaluated in this light. Boehm here
examines The Antinomies alongside Spinoza's Substance Monism and
his theory of freedom. Similarly, he analyzes the refutation of the
Ontological Argument in parallel with Spinoza's Causa-sui. More
generally, Boehm places the Critique of Pure Reason's separation of
Thought from Being and Is from Ought in dialogue with the Ethics'
collapse of Being, Is and Ought into Thought.
|
|