This book explores the process of urbanization and the profound challenges to China's urban governance. Economic productivity continues to rise, with increasingly uneven distribution of prosperity and accumulation of wealth. The emergence of individual autonomy including demands for more freedom and participation in the governing process has asked for a change of the traditional top-down control system. The vertical devolution between the central and local states and horizontal competition among local governments produced an uneasy political dynamics in Chinese cities. Many existing publications analyze the urban transformation in China but few focuses on the governance challenges. It is critical to investigate China's urbanization, paying special attention to its challenges to urban governance. This edited volume fills this gap by organizing ten chapters of distinctive urban development and governance issues.

An island's boundary - where it meets the sea - is self-evident and non-negotiable. But a land boundary is contestable: it can be changed and shifted to suit, reflecting power politics, the outcome of victor and vanquished in warfare, or negotiated compromise. There are today only ten inhabited islands where both these dynamics pan out. This text is the first to focus on the intriguing political economy of these rare, shared island spaces. It examines the fascination, and obsession, with islands as unitary geographies and polities; and explores the tensions in contemporary 'divided islands' - as in the case of formal and informal, legal and illegal 'border crossings' and practices - from both 'island studies' and 'international relations' perspectives.

Topical and up to date, Talons of the Eagle: Latin America, the United States, and the World, Fifth Edition, presents an eminent scholar's perspective on the interaction between global trends and inter-American affairs-a subject that has become crucially important in the current era. Rather than concentrating solely on U.S. policy, Peter H. Smith and Ana Covarrubias uniquely address the structural relationships between the two regions by focusing on international systems, the distribution of power, and the perception and pursuit of national interests. Throughout, this provocative text casts light on such contemporary issues as economic integration, drug trafficking, undocumented migration, and the rise of Latin America's "new left." It also analyzes Latin American reactions and responses to the U.S.-and to the rest of the world-in these complex and troubling times.

This book reviews the character and impacts of 'actually-existing' neoliberalism in Ireland. It examines the property-development boom and its legacy, the impacts of neoliberal urban policy in reshaping the city, public resistance to the new urban policy and highlights salient points to be drawn from the Irish experience of neoliberalism.

The Canadian provinces have evolved quite different ways of responding to the policy problems posed by religious schools. Seeking to understand this peculiar reality, Faith, Rights, and Choice articulates the ways in which the provincial governance regimes developed for religious schools have changed over time. Covering nearly three centuries, the book begins with the founding of schooling systems in New France and continues into a variety of present-day conflicts that emerged over the question of religion in schools. James Farney and Clark Banack employ a method of process-tracing, drawing on 88 semi-structured interviews with key policy insiders. They also reference archival material documenting meetings, political speeches, and legislative debates related to government decisions around issues of religious education. Relying on the theoretical foundations of both historical institutionalism and Canadian political development, Faith, Rights, and Choice presents a new analytic framework to help make sense of the policy divergence witnessed across Canada.

Systemic Islamophobia in Canada presents critical perspectives on systemic Islamophobia in Canadian politics, law, and society, and maps areas for future research and inquiry. The authors consist of both scholars and professionals who encounter in the ordinary course of their work the – sometimes banal, sometimes surprising – operation of systemic Islamophobia. Centring the lived realities of Muslims primarily in Canada, but internationally as well, the contributors identify the limits of democratic accountability in the operation of our shared institutions of government. Intended as a guide, the volume identifies important points of consideration that have systemic implications for whether, how, and under what conditions Islamophobia is enabled and perpetuated, and in some cases even rendered respectable policy or bureaucratic practice in Canada. Ultimately, Systemic Islamophobia in Canada identifies a range of systemically Islamophobic sites in Canada to guide citizens and policymakers in fulfilling the promise of an inclusive democratic Canada.

In recent times, international society has countered a myriad of 'outlaw' threats at sea, including piracy, terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the threat posed by 'rogue states'. Whilst the US has promoted 'coalitions of the willing' and sought to transform international maritime law in response to these 'outlaws', Japanese governments have developed an innovative maritime security strategy centering on the Japan Coast Guard (JCG). Concerned by Japan's international image as a former imperialist power, Tokyo has relied upon the identity of the JCG as a law enforcement and rescue organization to garner support for its maritime security strategy. Japan's non-military efforts have developed the capacities of states and built institutions in the Southeast Asian region and beyond. The JCG's response to maritime 'outlaws' belies characterizations of Japan as a passive state that does not contribute to international order.

This book discusses the issues of inequality and marginalization in India. The first section of the book contextualizes sociological traditions for the scrutiny of subaltern discourse on discrimination. The chapters in the section explore self-identity, 'margins' in sociological traditions, subalternity and exclusion, citizenship issues of de-notified tribes, the role of religion for scheduled tribe Dalits and Ambedkar's ideas on tribes. The second section deals with the political economy of higher education, health and employment. The efforts of BR Ambedkar and the consequences of those efforts, his critique of education policies during British time and its alteration for independent India have been meticulously dealt with. The third section illustrates an application of theoretical understanding through narratives of labour bondage in Varanasi, sanitation workers in Mumbai and rickshaw pullers in Delhi. The last section establishes that unequal access to resources is a consequence of discrimination and marginalization induced by social identities. The book argues for equitable access to resources and opportunities to ensure health equity. The audience for this publication includes academics, researchers, health professionals, policymakers engaged with discrimination, exclusion, marginalization and inequity in health.

Over the last century, the scale of Canada's domestic disaster response system has grown significantly due to the country's increased capacity for emergency management and the rise in natural hazards. However, there has been no systematic assessment of how effectively this multilevel system, which includes all levels of government and the military, has been integrated, and how efficient this system actually is at responding to high-level disasters. Using in-depth archival analysis and interviews with senior military and civilian officials on the inside, Boots on the Ground provides a detailed examination of Canada's disaster response system. Including policy recommendations focused on the expansion of emergency management networks, the maintenance of Canada's decentralized emergency management system, and disaster response resources for First Nations communities, Boots on the Ground aims to highlight opportunities to improve Canada's urgent disaster response. Boots on the Ground offers helpful lessons for students, policy makers, emergency management practitioners, and military officers, ensuring that readers gain concrete insights into the strategic and efficient implementation of disaster response initiatives.

This book examines public-nonprofit collaborations in the context of federal homeless policy. Communities across the U.S. are expected to create local homeless service networks, known as Continuums of Care (CoCs), in order to respond to their incidence of homelessness. It leverages unique, original and national data and applies collaborative governance theories to develop a systematic understanding of network governance and leadership, health care services for those experiencing homelessness, and measuring impact of collaborative activities. The book offers a connected and comprehensive understanding of public-nonprofit collaboration in a homeless policy field and management strategies to lead and assess cross-sector arrangements.

As politicians debate how to address the estimated eleven million unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States, undocumented youth anxiously await the next policy shift that will determine their futures. From one day to the next, their dreams are as likely to crumble around them as to come within reach. In Shifting Boundaries, Alexis M. Silver sheds light on the currents of exclusion and incorporation that characterize their lives. Silver examines the experiences of immigrant youth growing up in a small town in North Carolina—a state that experienced unprecedented growth in its Latino population in the 1990s and 2000s, and where aggressive anti-immigration policies have been enforced. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interview data, she finds that contradictory policies at the national, state, and local levels interact to create a complex environment through which the youth must navigate. From heritage-based school programs to state-wide bans on attending community college; from the failure of the DREAM Act to the rescinding of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); each layer represents profound implications for undocumented Latino youth. Silver exposes the constantly changing pathways that shape their journeys into early adulthood—and the profound resilience that they develop along the way.

As politicians debate how to address the estimated eleven million unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States, undocumented youth anxiously await the next policy shift that will determine their futures. From one day to the next, their dreams are as likely to crumble around them as to come within reach. In Shifting Boundaries, Alexis M. Silver sheds light on the currents of exclusion and incorporation that characterize their lives. Silver examines the experiences of immigrant youth growing up in a small town in North Carolina-a state that experienced unprecedented growth in its Latino population in the 1990s and 2000s, and where aggressive anti-immigration policies have been enforced. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interview data, she finds that contradictory policies at the national, state, and local levels interact to create a complex environment through which the youth must navigate. From heritage-based school programs to state-wide bans on attending community college; from the failure of the DREAM Act to the rescinding of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); each layer represents profound implications for undocumented Latino youth. Silver exposes the constantly changing pathways that shape their journeys into early adulthood-and the profound resilience that they develop along the way.

Education policy-making has become a 'hot topic' in many industrialized countries today. Through initiatives by international organizations, such as the OECD's PISA study or the consequences of the GATS negotiations for the marketization in education, this policy field has moved up the political agenda. Few studies, however, have actually tackled these changes in a comprehensive way. This volume provides the most detailed overview of current phenomena in education policy-making and fills a major gap in the academic literature.

This book assesses the key factors underlying such Australian-Japanese cooperation and those policy challenges that could impede it. Experts offer critical insights into why their two countries - traditionally the two key 'spokes' in the US bilateral alliance network spanning Asia - are moving toward a security relationship in their own right.

These essays by no means cover all areas of interest in long-term care programs, but they offer new insights (and intriguing questions for future research) about how differently policies in this important area can be carried out in different countries.

This title was first published in 2001. Planning today has to deal with a completely different world from the one in which many of the basic ways of thought of the profession were founded. Many traditional planning approaches often seem less relevant when attention is increasingly being focused on sustainable development, deregulation and competitiveness in a global world. Focusing on the changes that are taking place in the realm of planning practice and spatial planning across Europe, this text examines the driving forces for institutional change. It brings together a team of leading planning academics with experience of planning practice and policies, from the UK, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Norway. Throughout the 12 chapters of the book, they examine and compare new approaches to planning across Europe at local, metropolitan, regional, national and international levels.

In an attempt to strengthen the legitimacy of European Union (EU) policy-making, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of parliamentary control in EU affairs. This pertains to parliaments at all levels ranging from the regional to the supranational level. This book analyses the potential of regional parliaments - the parliaments closest to the citizens - to engage in EU affairs and to fill the perceived legitimacy gap. Eight member states have a total of 73 regional parliaments with legislative powers, and there are further trends towards decentralization in Europe. On its quest to understand the role that regional parliaments can plan in the EU multi-level parliamentary system, the book addresses key questions: What are the formal powers and functions of regional parliaments in EU policy-making? How do they use their powers in practice? How active are they in EU politics, and what do they try to achieve? What factors can explain their degree of (in-)activity? The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.

Austerity has left local government struggling to meet the demands for local services. In this context, this book asks `what are the fundamental principles that should guide decision-making by local councillors and officers?' It seeks to move the agenda from `what works?' to `what should local government do?' and `how will its policies impact on social justice and local democracy?'. Reclaiming local democracy examines the politics of human need and argues that local government should provide a voice for those that lack power. It avoids the dry, familiar debate about what structures and powers local government should have, instead seeking to energise all concerned to re-engage with a political and ethical approach. Written in a persuasive and accessible way, the book examines how local government can develop active citizens and make a difference to the well-being of those in disadvantaged areas - truly 'reclaiming local democracy'. Combining theory and international practice, it will be relevant for councillors, policy officers and activists in the third sector, as well as academics and students in politics and social policy.

In Environmental Federalism, Luke Fowler helps to refocus much-needed attention on the role of state governments in environmental policy creation and implementation in the United States. While the national government receives most of the attention when it comes to environmental policy, state governments play a vital role in protecting our natural resources. Legacy problems, like air, water, and land pollution, present one set of challenges for environmental federalism, but new problems emerging as a result of climate change further test the bounds of federal institutions. Examining patterns of pollution and case studies from the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, Fowler explores two questions: has environmental federalism worked in managing legacy environmental problems, and can it work to manage climate change? In order to answer these questions, Fowler extends James Lester's typology using political incentives and administrative capacities to identify four types of states (progressive, delayers, strugglers, and regressives) and assesses how they are linked to the success of federal environmental programs and conf licts in intergovernmental relations. He then considers what lessons we can learn from these programs and whether those lessons can help us better understand climate policy and multi-level institutions for environmental governance. This timely read will be a valuable contribution to students, researchers, and scholars of political science, public policy, public administration, and environmental studies.

Since the reform and opening-up policy was implemented in China, consultations have been increasingly carried out during the policy-making process. This often involves experts, many of whom are based in think-tanks or similar institutions. The degree of access to the policy-making process varies, and consequently some experts influence the policy-making process significantly and others not. This book explores how experts in China engage with the policy-making process and the circumstances, which affect how far they are able to influence policy-making.

This book argues that policy-making is values-driven rather than, as is traditionally argued, the result of interest-driven politics or the consequences of path-dependent/institutionalist perspectives. Stewart devotes chapters to major values which drive public policy across developed nations such as fairness, efficiency and economic growth.

On the 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed a tower block in West London, seventy-two people lost their lives and hundreds of others were left displaced and traumatised. The Grenfell Tower fire is the epicentre of a long history of violence enacted by government and corporations. On its second anniversary activists, artists and academics come together to respond, remember and recover the disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire illustrates Britain's symbolic order; the continued logic of colonialism, the disposability of working class lives, the marketisation of social provision and global austerity politics, and the negligence and malfeasance of multinational contractors. Exploring these topics and more, the contributors construct critical analysis from legal, cultural, media, community and government responses to the fire, asking whether, without remedy for multifaceted power and violence, we will ever really be 'after' Grenfell? With poetry by Ben Okri and Tony Walsh, and photographs by Parveen Ali, Sam Boal and Yolanthe Fawehinmi. With contributions from Phil Scraton, Daniel Renwick, Nadine El-Enany, Sarah Keenan, Gracie Mae Bradley and The Radical Housing Network.

"Freedom and Justice for all" is a phrase that can have a hollow ring for many members of the disability community in the United States. Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer gives us a comprehensive introduction to and overview of U.S. disability policy in all facets of society, including education, the workplace, and social integration. Disabled Rights provides an interdisciplinary approach to the history and politics of the disability rights movement and assesses the creation and implementation, successes and failures of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by federal, state and local governments. Disabled Rights explains how people with disabilities have been treated from a social, legal, and political perspective in the United States. With an objective and straightforward approach, Switzer identifies the programs and laws that have been enacted in the past fifty years and how they have affected the lives of people with disabilities. She raises questions about Congressional intent in passing the ADA, the evolution and fragmentation of the disability rights movement, and the current status of disabled people in the U.S. Illustrating the shift of disability issues from a medical focus to civil rights, the author clearly defines the contemporary role of persons with disabilities in American culture, and comprehensively outlines the public and private programs designed to integrate disabled persons into society. She covers the law's provisions as they apply to private organizations and businesses and concludes with the most up-to-date coverage of recent Supreme Court decisions-especially since the 2000-2002 terms-that have profoundly influenced the implementation of the ADA and other disability policies. For activists as well as scholars, students, and practitioners in public policy and public administration, Switzer has written a compassionate, yet powerful book that demands attention from everyone interested in the battle for disability rights and equality in the United States.