Climate Preservation in Urban Communities Case Studies delivers a firsthand, applied perspective on the challenges and solutions of creating urban communities that are adaptable and resilient to climate change. The book presents valuable insights into the real-life challenges and solutions of designing, planning and constructing urban sustainable communities, providing real world examples of innovative technologies that contribute to the creation of sustainable, healthy and livable cities. Examples of successes, failures and solutions are presented based on a cross disciplinary approach for infrastructural systems, including discussions of drinking water, wastewater, power systems, broadband, Wi-Fi, transportation and green buildings technologies.

With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the 'creative city' became the new hot topic among urban policy makers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and urban environments. The economist Ake E. Andersson and the psychologist Dean Simonton are the other members of this 'creative troika'. In the Handbook of Creative Cities, Florida, Andersson and Simonton appear in the same volume for the first time. The expert contributors in this timely Handbook extend their insights with a varied set of theoretical and empirical tools. The diversity of the contributions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of creative city theorizing, which encompasses urban economics, economic geography, social psychology, urban sociology, and urban planning. The stated policy implications are equally diverse, ranging from libertarian to social democratic visions of our shared creative and urban future. Being truly international in its scope, this major Handbook will be particularly useful for policy makers that are involved in urban development, academics in urban economics, economic geography, urban sociology, social psychology, and urban planning, as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students across the social sciences and in business.

The reign of Alexander I was a pivotal moment in the construction of Russia's national mythology. This work examines this crucial period focusing on the place of the Russian nobility in relation to their ruler, and the accompanying debate between reform and the status quo, between a Russia old and new, and between different visions of what Russia could become. Drawing on extensive archival research and placing a long-neglected emphasis on this aspect of Alexander I's reign, this book is an important work for students and scholars of imperial Russia, as well as the wider Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period in Europe.

No risk. No reward.A new life... With their wretched life in Liverpool behind them, Julie and Ralph Gold head to London for their next big break. Julie's had enough of slumming it, she's ready to quit their life of crime and go legit. The same old game... But it seems their reputation has beaten them to it, and the underworld is already bubbling with news of the their arrival. And as much as Julie tries to go straight, the more people underestimate them and treat them like fools. And there is only so much Julie can take... One last trick. So when they are offered one final big job, Julie knows they should say no. It's risky and could cost them everything they have. But it could also be their last chance to make it big. And when fools rush in, the Golds take the spoils. Read what happens next for Julie and Ralph Gold in another thrilling gangland story by Gillian Godden.

Thorstein Veblen's groundbreaking treatise upon the evolution of the affluent classes of society traces the development of conspicuous consumption from the feudal Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century. Beginning with the end of the Dark Ages, Veblen examines the evolution of the hierarchical social structures. How they incrementally evolved and influenced the overall picture of human society is discussed. Veblen believed that the human social order was immensely unequal and stratified, to the point where vast amounts of merit are consequently ignored and wasted. Veblen draws comparisons between industrialization and the advancement of production and the exploitation and domination of labor, which he considered analogous to a barbarian conquest happening from within society. The heavier and harder labor falls to the lower members of the order, while the light work is accomplished by the owners of capital: the leisure class.