What would happen if I accepted an invitation to Bible Study from Jehovah's Witnesses? What would attending a Kingdom Hall meeting involve? And if I invited door-knocking Witnesses into my home? This book introduces Jehovah's Witnesses without assuming prior knowledge of the Watch Tower organization. After outlining the Society's origins and history, the book explains their key beliefs and practices by taking the reader through the process of the seeker who makes initial contact with Witnesses, and progresses to take instruction and become a baptized member. The book then explores what is involved in being a Witness - congregational life, lifestyle, rites of passage, their understanding of the Bible and prophetic expectations. It examines the various processes and consequences of leaving the organization, controversies that have arisen in the course of its history, and popular criticisms. Discussion is given to the likelihood of reforms within the organization, such as its stance on blood transfusions, the role of women and new methods of meeting and evangelizing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Large infrastructure projects often face significant cost overruns and stakeholder fragmentation. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) allow governments to procure long-term infrastructure services from private providers, rather than developing, financing and managing infrastructure assets themselves. Aligning public and private interests and institutional logics to create robust, decades-long service contracts subject to shifting economic and political contexts is a significant cross-sectoral governance challenge. This work summarizes over a decade of research conducted by scholars at Stanford s Global Projects Center and multiple US and International collaborators to enhance the governance of both infrastructure projects and institutional investors, whose long term, cash flow obligations align especially well with the kinds of long term inflation-adjusted returns that PPP infrastructure projects can generate. In these pages, multiple theoretical perspectives are integrated and combined with empirical evidence to examine how experiences from more mature PPP jurisdictions can help improve PPP governance approaches worldwide. The information contained here will appeal to engineering, economics, political science, public policy and finance scholars interested in the delivery of high-quality, sustainable infrastructure services to the citizens in countries with established and emerging market economies. Officials in national, state/provincial and local government agencies seeking alternative financing and service provision strategies for their civil and social infrastructure, and legislators and their staff members interested in promoting PPP legislation will find this book invaluable. It will also be of high interest to long-term investment professionals from pension funds, sovereign funds, family offices and university endowments seeking to deploy money into the infrastructure asset class, and practitioners seeking insights into methods for enhancing stakeholder incentive alignment, reducing transaction costs and improving project outcomes in PPPs. Contributors: B.G. Cameron, G. Carollo, C.B. Casady, E.F. Crawley, K. Eriksson, W. Feng, M.J. Garvin, K.E. Gasparro, R.R. Geddes, W.J. Henisz, D.R. Lessard, R.E. Levitt, T. Liu, A.H.B. Monk, D.A. Nguyen, C. Nowacki, W.R. Scott, R. Sharma, A.J. South

One of the most famous writers of all time, George Orwell's life played a huge part in his understanding of the world. A constant critic of power and authority, the roots of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four began to grow in his formative years as a pupil at a strict private school in Eastbourne. His essay Such, Such Were The Joys recounts the ugly realities of the regime to which pupils were subjected in the name of class prejudice, hierarchy and imperial destiny. This graphic novel vividly brings his experiences at school to life. As Orwell earned his place through scholarship rather than wealth, he was picked on by both staff and richer students. The violence of his teachers and the shame he experienced on a daily basis leap from the pages, conjuring up how this harsh world looked through a child's innocent eyes while juxtaposing the mature Orwell's ruminations on what such schooling says about society. Today, as the private school and class system endure, this is a vivid reminder that the world Orwell sought to change is still with us.

Mortality, With Friends is a collection of lyrical essays from Fleda Brown, a writer and caretaker, of her father and sometimes her husband, who lives with the nagging uneasiness that her cancer could return. Memoir in feel, the book muses on the nature of art, of sculpture, of the loss of bees and trees, the end of marriages, and among other things, the loss of hearing and of life itself. Containing twenty-two essays, Mortality, With Friends follows the cascade of loss with the author's imminent joy in opening a path to track her own growing awareness and wisdom. In ""Donna,"" Brown examines a childhood friendship and questions the roles we need to play in each other's lives to shape who we might become. In ""Native Bees,"" Brown expertly weaves together the threads of a difficult family tradition intended to incite happiness with the harsh reality of current events. In ""Fingernails, Toenails,"" she marvels at the attention and suffering that accompanies caring for our aging bodies. In ""Mortality, with Friends,"" Brown dives into the practical and stupefying response to her own cancer and survival. In ""2019: Becoming Mrs. Ramsay,"" she remembers the ghosts of her family and the strident image of herself, positioned in front of her Northern Michigan cottage. Comparable to Lia Purpura's essays in their density and poetics, Brown's intent is to look closely, to stay with the moment and the image. Readers with a fondness for memoir and appreciation for art will be dazzled by the beauty of this collection.

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. City-regions are regeneration economies, or in other words, places that are experiencing on-going processes of recovery, adaptation or transformation. This Research Agenda provides both a state-of-the-art review of existing research on city-regions, and expands on new research approaches. Expert contributors from across the globe explore key areas of research for reading city-regions, including: trade, services and people, regional differentiation, big data, global production networks, governance and policy, and regional development. The book focuses on developing a more integrated and systematic approach to reading city-regions as part of regeneration economics by identifying conceptual and methodological developments in this field of study. Students in geography, urban studies and city and regional planning will greatly benefit from reading this, as it provides a wealth of stimuli for essays and dissertation topics. Advanced business and public policy students will also benefit from the focus on translating research into practice, an approach that this Research Agenda takes in several chapters. Contributors include: L. Andres, J.R. Bryson, J. Clark, G.J.D. Hewings, N. Kreston, M. Nathan, P. Nijkamp, J. Steenbruggen, R.J. Stimson, E. Tranos, A. Weaver, D. Wojcik, G. Yeung

The Mobilities Paradox: A Critical Analysis asks how the mobilities paradigm, arguably one of the most influential theoretical innovations of the 21st century, holds up against the empirical realities of a deeply unequal world. Korstanje's provocative analysis pairs a sweeping overview of the theoretical landscape with specific instances of tourism, terrorism, hospitality, automobility, digital technologies, and non-places to put mobilities theory to the test.' - Jennie Germann Molz, College of the Holy Cross, US The theory of mobilities has gained great recognition and traction over recent decades, illustrating not only the influence of mobilities in daily life but also the rise and expansion of globalization worldwide. But what if this sense of mobilities is in fact an ideological bubble that provides the illusion of freedom whilst limiting our mobility or even keeping us immobile? This book reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the mobilities paradigm and reminds us that today only a small percentage of the world?s population travel internationally. In doing so the author?s insightful analysis constructs a bridge between Marxism and Cultural theory. Offering a critical discussion of the theory of mobilities, the book explores the concept in the context of colonialism, nation states, consumption, globalization, fear and terrorism. This unique book presents an alternative viewpoint that is vital reading for cultural theorists, sociologists, anthropologists and Marxist scholars seeking a different understanding of the theory of mobilities.

'This is a truly refreshing take on the phenomenon of global cities. For far too long we've been seduced by the flows and networks that reproduce global cities without considering the actors, individuals, organisations, institutions, that make and shape the global-local dynamics of such spaces in global society. Throughout this collection of essays, there is a rich empirical narrative which reminds scholars of global city and urban studies that without the agency of actors, whether that be economic, political, cultural or social, any notion of flow and networks would simply wither on the vine. In short, this is a new benchmark on the geography of the global city in contemporary globalisation.' -Jonathan V. Beaverstock, University of Bristol, UK Global City Makers provides an in-depth account of the role of powerful economic actors in making and un-making global cities. Engaging critically and constructively with global urban studies from a relational economic geography perspective, the book outlines a renewed agenda for global cities research. This book conceptualizes global cities as places from where the world economy is managed and controlled, and discusses the significance of economic actors and their practices in the formation of the world city network. Focusing on financial services, management consultancy, real estate, commodity trading and maritime industries, the detailed case studies are located across the globe to incorporate major global cities such as London, New York and Tokyo as well as globalizing cities including Mexico City, Hamburg and Mumbai. This ground-breaking book will appeal to a broad audience including scholars in urban studies, economic geography and international management as well as urban policy-makers and practitioners in globalizing firms. Contributors include: D. Bassens, N. Beerepoot, S. Hall, M. Hesse, M. Hoyler, W. Jacobs, J. Kleibert, B. Lambregts, C. Lizieri, D. Mekic, C. Parnreiter, S. Sassen, D. Scofield, M. van Meeteren, A. Watson, S. Yamamura