Exactly one hundred years have passed since Ruth Hadley, a pretty young Wolverhampton woman with a fiery temper, was killed by a shot to the head. Just three months later, in March 1909, Edward Lawrence - one-time veterinary surgeon and successful businessman - was acquitted of her murder. This was not the kind of thing that was expected in respectable middle-class Victorian neighbourhoods. Yet Mr Lawrence was not quite the perfect gentleman. Though married, Lawrence took several mistresses, of whom Ruth was one of the first. He drank heavily, brawled in the town centre pubs operated by his family brewing business; he litigated frequently and usually unsuccessfully, and took few pains to conceal his actions from polite Wolverhampton society. His antics were often reported in full in the Midlands press. Did Edward pull the trigger? Was it a tragic accident? Lawrence's famous defence lawyer, Edward Marshall Hall, was able to prove reasonable doubt; the judge implied that he was very lucky to be acquitted, and he advised Lawrence to reform his ways. Yet the astonishing thing is that, far from heeding the judge's advice, Lawrence continued in his 'bad ways', dying at the age of 45 just three years after his trial, almost certainly because of his drinking. And despite all of his failings being paraded at the trial and during several later court appearances, and despite being declared bankrupt, he was able to maintain a comfortable standard of living in his final years, still with the outward appearance of the respectability that we usually think of as being so hard won. The trial, the life, the public humiliation, yet the remarkable resilience of the 'respectable' Mr Lawrence provide a fascinating cameo of Victorian life, at the same time illuminating sharply many wider issues including attitudes to class, to gender, to marriage and to women, debt, drinking, bankruptcy, civil as well as criminal law. It is not often that one local case casts such a useful and interesting spotlight on the Victorian society that we think we know so well.

The book is the first attempt to offer a holistic and integrated exploration of the political-economic framework underpinning economic regionalism. In doing so it provides a much-needed contribution to the literature on international political economy, international relations and Asian political economy in relation to economic regionalism. The existing literature provides broad generalizations and limited discussion on economic integration (i.e. free trade agreements, FTA) with most analyses of regionalism generally contained to the field of economics with a focus on the welfare implications of FTAs, both for participating countries and the world as a whole. Readers of this book can view economic regionalism from a variety of perspectives with input from Chinese, Japanese and Korean research institutes, business and industry groups, and government officials. Drawing on the considerable country experience and expertise of the authors, the book attempts to unravel the paradox of the market-driven economic globalization process (regionalism) and address a serious gap in the current literature relating to the political-economic characteristics and strategies of China, Japan and Korea in relation to economic regionalism.

Asia has undergone rapid economic transformation over the past two decades. Despite its constant economic growth, the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the resulting surge in unemployment highlighted the vulnerability of national systems that base development solely on economic growth.

This book fills a major research gap by exploring the nature, dynamics and functioning of Asian labour markets in eight major Asian economies, including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Vietnam, India and Malaysia. It examines the type of labour markets that exist in Asia; how they have responded to globalisation; and how flexible they are to changing social and economic conditions. The book analyses how the current transformation has impacted on the key parties, such as employers, employees, trade unions, governments, organisations and society as a whole, and considers the likely future trends and developments in Asian labour markets.

Explosive economic and social changes in the Asia Pacific region have meant that much of what we know about the area is outdated. This book addresses this and looks at the "human resource period" with detailed analysis, discussion and predictions for the future. Focusing on the areas of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand the book explores the reasons behind changes and whether they indicate movement of convergence or divergence, the key issues for management and the implications for theory development.
This is the latest research available on this subject. A must for managers, researchers and those teaching undergraduate or postgraduate courses, as well as those interested in international business, sociology and employee relations.

Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy, John Benson introduces the fundamentals of environmental ethics by asking whether a concern with human well-being is an adequate basis for environmental ethics. He encourages the reader to explore this question, considering techniques used to value the environment and critically examining 'light green' to 'deep green' environmentalism. Each chapter is linked to a reading from a key thinker such as J.S. Mill and E.O. Wilson.
Key features include activities and exercises, enabling readers to monitor their progress throughout the book, chapter summaries and guides to further reading.

Respectability, Bankruptcy and Bigamy in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Britain explores the vexed question of middle-class respectability in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. It focuses upon the life of London solicitor Hamilton Pawley (1860-1936), who was barred from working by the Law Society, twice declared bankrupt, and in 1919 was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour for bigamously marrying a woman practically forty years his junior. If Pawley did not suffer the revenge of respectable society, it is difficult to think who would. Drawing upon the fact that the disgraced and the disreputable have always tended to attract a disproportionate amount of attention, the book ranges widely, exploring such important issues as middle-class education, career choices, the dynamics of family life, and the workings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century legal system. It shows that Pawley was able to hold on to his professional - and even gentlemanly - status for far longer than seemed likely. This all suggests, the book concludes, that although respectability was as important to the middle class as we have always been told, it was both easier to acquire and easier to retain than we have generally been led to believe. This book will appeal to all those interested in British society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The transformation of China's economy from a centrally planned to a market-oriented system has had a profound impact on management systems and practices at the firm level, particularly changes to the organization of work. One of the consequences of this is increasing social disparity reflected through inequality of employees' income and employment conditions. This book, based on extensive original research including interviews and questionnaire surveys in different regions of China, explores the exact nature of these changes and their effects. It examines state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned enterprises and domestic private enterprises, discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied with their employment conditions and whether they think their employment conditions are fair and outlines how managers and employees in China expect conditions to change in future.

This book throws new light on white-collar crime, criminals and criminality in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. It does so by considering the life of one man, Jesse Varley (1869-1929), who embezzled more than GBP80,000 from Wolverhampton Corporation, and for a decade and more enjoyed an ostentatiously extravagant lifestyle. He was discovered, and despite serving a period of penal servitude, he turned again to white-collar crime (this time in Sheffield). Sentenced again to penal servitude, he died a few years later in Liverpool in what were said to be 'very poor circumstances'.

The transformation of China's economy from a centrally planned to a market-oriented system has had a profound impact on management systems and practices at the firm level, particularly changes to the organization of work. One of the consequences of this is increasing social disparity reflected through inequality of employees' income and employment conditions. This book, based on extensive original research including interviews and questionnaire surveys in different regions of China, explores the exact nature of these changes and their effects. It examines state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned enterprises and domestic private enterprises, discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied with their employment conditions and whether they think their employment conditions are fair and outlines how managers and employees in China expect conditions to change in future.

Dispute Resolution in Islamic Finance addresses how best to handle disputes within Islamic finance. It examines how they can be resolved in a less confrontational manner and ensure such disagreements are settled in a just and fair way. There has been little focus on how disputes within Islamic finance are resolved. As a result, many of these disputes are resolved through litigation, notwithstanding that the various jurisdictions and court systems are generally poorly equipped to handle such matters. This book addresses this gap in our knowledge by focusing on five centres of Islamic finance: the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Malaysia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Before exploring these countries in detail, the book considers the issues of the choice of law within Islamic finance as well the prevailing forms of dispute resolution in this form of finance. The book brings together a group of leading scholars who are all specialists on the subject in the countries they examine. It is a key resource for students and researchers of Islamic finance, and aimed at lawyers, finance professionals, industry practitioners, consultancy firms, and academics.

Gerald Howard-Smith's life is intriguing both in its own right and as a vehicle for exploring the world in which he lived. Tall, boisterous and sometimes rather irascible, he was one of the so-called 'Lost Generation' whose lives were cut short by the First World War. Brought up in London, and educated at Eton and Cambridge, he excelled both at cricket and athletics. After qualifying as a solicitor he moved to Wolverhampton and threw himself into the local sporting scene, making a considerable name for himself in the years before the First World War. Volunteering for military service in 1914, he was decorated for bravery before being killed in action two years later. Reporting his death, the War History of the South Staffordshire Regiment claimed that, 'In his men's eyes he lived as a loose-limbed hero, and in him they lost a very humorous and a very gallant gentleman.' As well as telling the fascinating story of Gerald Howard-Smith for the first time, this important new biography explores such complex and important issues as childhood and adolescence, class relations, sporting achievement, manliness and masculinity, metropolitan-provincial relationships, and forms of commemoration. It will therefore be of interest to educationalists, sports historians, local and regional historians, and those interested in class, gender and civilian-military relations - indeed all those seeking to understand the economic, social, and cultural life of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain.

Asia has undergone rapid transformation over the past several decades as many countries have embraced new technologies and the processes of globalisation. Over this period the inflow of foreign capital into the region, the level of trade amongst these countries, and trade with other parts of the world has increased substantially. The ensuing economic growth has led to some significant changes in labour markets and the demand for skilled employees and their deployment within organisations. Focusing on a number of developed and developing Asian economies, this book explores the dynamics of workforce development and skill formation, and considers questions of both skills shortages and skills gaps. The book assesses the current state of training in the selected Asian economies, the weaknesses and strengths of their various training approaches, and what the present state of training means for the future economic development of these economies.

During the past 30 years, China has undergone extensive economic reform, replacing the government's administration of enterprises with increasing levels of market-oriented enterprise autonomy. At the heart of the reform are changes in the employment relationship, where state control has been superceded by market relationships. These reforms have had far-reaching implications for many aspects of everyday life in Chinese society. This book appraises the impact of the economic reforms on the employment relationship and, in turn, examines the effects on individual workers and their families, including salaries, working conditions and satisfaction, job security and disparities based on location, gender, age, skill, position and migrant status. In particular, it focuses on how changes in the employment relationship have affected the livelihood strategies of households. It explores the changing human resource management practices and employment relations in different types of enterprises: including State-Owned Enterprises, Foreign-Owned Enterprises and Domestic Private Enterprises; throughout different industries, focusing especially on textiles, clothing and footwear and the electronics industry; and in different regions and cities within China (Beijing, Haerbin, Lanzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Kunming). Overall, this book provides a detailed account of the everyday implications of economic reform for individuals and families in China.

Asia has undergone rapid transformation over the past several decades as many countries have embraced new technologies and the processes of globalisation. Over this period the inflow of foreign capital into the region, the level of trade amongst these countries, and trade with other parts of the world has increased substantially. The ensuing economic growth has led to some significant changes in labour markets and the demand for skilled employees and their deployment within organisations. Focusing on a number of developed and developing Asian economies, this book explores the dynamics of workforce development and skill formation, and considers questions of both skills shortages and skills gaps. The book assesses the current state of training in the selected Asian economies, the weaknesses and strengths of their various training approaches, and what the present state of training means for the future economic development of these economies.

The rate of economic change in East Asia over the past two decades has been astounding. High levels of growth have been experienced by a number of the region's developing economies, centralized systems have developed large market sectors, Japan has suffered a prolonged downturn and the 1997 crisis plunged the region into economic turmoil. This volume presents an in-depth analysis of the effects of these changes on employment in the region. Chapters are devoted to market restructuring in China and Vietnam, the Asian crisis and recovery, and Japan's business doldrums. The unique case of Malaysia - one regional economy that needs to import workers - is also brought into play, as is the example of high-tech Taiwan. Underpinning these case studies is a common theoretical framework and a strong structure for understanding. With its solid research the book focuses on a relatively unexplored aspect of one of the world's most dynamic economic regions.

The book is the first attempt to offer a holistic and integrated exploration of the political-economic framework underpinning economic regionalism. In doing so it provides a much-needed contribution to the literature on international political economy, international relations and Asian political economy in relation to economic regionalism. The existing literature provides broad generalizations and limited discussion on economic integration (i.e. free trade agreements, FTA) with most analyses of regionalism generally contained to the field of economics with a focus on the welfare implications of FTAs, both for participating countries and the world as a whole. Readers of this book can view economic regionalism from a variety of perspectives with input from Chinese, Japanese and Korean research institutes, business and industry groups, and government officials. Drawing on the considerable country experience and expertise of the authors, the book attempts to unravel the paradox of the market-driven economic globalization process (regionalism) and address a serious gap in the current literature relating to the political-economic characteristics and strategies of China, Japan and Korea in relation to economic regionalism.

During the past 30 years, China has undergone extensive economic reform, replacing the government's administration of enterprises with increasing levels of market-oriented enterprise autonomy. At the heart of the reform are changes in the employment relationship, where state control has been superceded by market relationships. These reforms have had far-reaching implications for many aspects of everyday life in Chinese society. This book appraises the impact of the economic reforms on the employment relationship and, in turn, examines the effects on individual workers and their families, including salaries, working conditions and satisfaction, job security and disparities based on location, gender, age, skill, position and migrant status. In particular, it focuses on how changes in the employment relationship have affected the livelihood strategies of households. It explores the changing human resource management practices and employment relations in different types of enterprises: including State-Owned Enterprises, Foreign-Owned Enterprises and Domestic Private Enterprises; throughout different industries, focusing especially on textiles, clothing and footwear and the electronics industry; and in different regions and cities within China (Beijing, Haerbin, Lanzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Kunming). Overall, this book provides a detailed account of the everyday implications of economic reform for individuals and families in China.

According to a recent study by the ILO (2001), women's share of the labour force is increasing worldwide. Today, women's participation rate in the labour force is over 40 per cent of the global workforce. Higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to this increased participation. There is also some evidence that women in some Asian countries may be less marginalised in their advancement into top managerial positions than their counterparts elsewhere. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. This book examines the opportunities and barriers for women managers in Asia and presents an update on their progress in management. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asian Pacific Business Review.

Offering a comprehensive account of the role of trade unions in Asia today, this book, put together by two editors who have published extensively in the areas of business and economics in Asia, covers all the important Asian economies: both developed and developing.

Making a vital contribution to the very small amount of literature that has been published on this topic, this book focuses, in particular on how trade unions have organized to represent workers and the strategies they have adopted. It discusses the issues surrounding wages and working conditions, health and safety, women's employment opportunities and human resource development, in the context of the major regional economies, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

This is an essential read for both professional and postgraduate students, studying or working in the areas of Asian business.

This book throws new light on white-collar crime, criminals and criminality in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. It does so by considering the life of one man, Jesse Varley (1869-1929), who embezzled more than GBP80,000 from Wolverhampton Corporation, and for a decade and more enjoyed an ostentatiously extravagant lifestyle. He was discovered, and despite serving a period of penal servitude, he turned again to white-collar crime (this time in Sheffield). Sentenced again to penal servitude, he died a few years later in Liverpool in what were said to be 'very poor circumstances'.

The study of consumption and its relationship to cultural and social values has become a vibrant and important field in recent years. Hitherto however, relatively few detailed and full length works on this topic have been published. In what will become a seminal volume, this book examines retail selling in various historical contexts and locations, as both an activity at once 'mundane' and almost universal. The book introduces the reader to the existing literature relevant to the subject; and explores the widespread perceptions of moral ambiguity surrounding the practice of selling consumer goods - ranging from concerns about the adulteration of goods, to fears about sharp practice on the part of retailers - and places such concerns in the context of wider societal values and ideas. The ambivalence towards retail selling and sellers is also a central focus of the collection, focussing on the attempts by retailers to develop selling techniques and successful practices of salesmanship, and at the same time establish widely-shared understandings of 'good' retailing. The book also delves into the more dubious practices of retail selling, including practices on the margin of legality, the issue of credit and changing attitudes towards debt. Uniquely the book examines how sales techniques relate to the wider context of a whole shopping 'experience' or shopping environment. Taken as a whole, this volume will provide a first port of call for students, researchers and others interested in exploring consumer cultures, and the cultural norms and practices involved in the sale of consumer goods in various historical periods and geographical contexts.

According to a recent study by the ILO (2001), women's share of the labour force is increasing worldwide. Today, women's participation rate in the labour force is over 40 per cent of the global workforce.

Higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to this increased participation. There is also some evidence that women in some Asian countries may be less marginalised in their advancement into top managerial positions than their counterparts elsewhere.

As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. This book examines the opportunities and barriers for women managers in Asia and presents an update on their progress in management.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asian Pacific Business Review.

The rate of economic change in East Asia over the past two decades has been astounding. High levels of growth have been experienced by a number of the region's developing economies, centralized systems have developed large market sectors, Japan has suffered a prolonged downturn and the 1997 crisis plunged there region into economic turmoil.
This edited volume is the first work to comprehensively examine the effects of these changes on employment in the region. Chapters are devoted to market restructuring in China and Vietnam, the Asian crisis and recovery and Japan's business doldrums. The unique case of Malaysia-one regional economy that needs to import workers-is also brought into play, as is the example of high-tech Taiwan. Underpinning these case studies is a common theoretical framework and a strong structure for understanding.
With its solid research and focus on a relatively unexplored aspect of one of the world's most dynamic economic regions, "Unemployment in Asia" will interest students, academics, trade unionists, research bodies, government departments and international organizations.

Education has long been highly valued in China, and continues to be highly valued, both by the state, which appreciates the value of education for maintaining China's economic rise, and by parents, who, affected by the One Child Policy, devote a large proportion of their incomes to their one child's education. This book explores current systems of teacher management in China and assesses their effectiveness. It charts the development of China's education system, outlines present day human resource management methods in Chinese schools, including practices for recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewards, both pay and non-financial rewards, and describes recent changes and innovations. The book concludes that a high performance work system, enhanced by traditional paternalistic humanised management and by pragmatism, predominates, with important consequences for teachers' jobs and performance, and for the quality of students' school life.

This wide-ranging accessible and up-to-date interpretation of Japanese history between 1868 and 1945 provides both a narrative and analysis.

This is a history of Imperial Japan, from the Meiji Restoration through to defeat and occupation at the end of the Second World War. It challenges widely held views about the uniqueness of Japanese history and the homogeneity of Japanese society.