This book explains the concept of education divide in rural India and identifies various factors that shape and sustain such a divide. In doing so, it also discusses a range of attempts undertaken to bridge the education divide. Subsequently, the book has attempted in providing a socio-technical framework towards optimally deploying social technologies for addressing the issue of education divide of marginalized communities. The proposed framework offers a transition from traditional content-centric, teacher-centric and centralized education ecosystem to a connection-centric, learner-centric and decentralized education ecosystem of the socio-digital age. It demonstrates how Internet-enabled digital platforms, based on the principles of sharism and mass collaboration using social technologies, could help to solve one of the greatest problems facing the world: mitigating the extant education divide by delivering quality education to underprivileged sections of society. The book also presents empirical validation of the proposed framework to show how a community-driven blended learning platform can mobilize the dormant knowledge capital of domain experts to teach underprivileged rural Indian children, as well as help form communities of practice to enable lifelong learning for the rural adult population. The book closes by pointing out the challenges involved in building an equitable education ecosystem using social technologies and ultimately the possibility of creating a fair and equitable society. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the domain of education who want to transform education ecosystems by using technological and process-related innovations to improve educational practices for underprivileged sections of society.

High-technology and globalization are arguably the two most important forces driving the US economy today. This book analyzes how they interact and the implications of that interaction. The methodology applies data and statistical analysis to determine the impact of these forces over a broad spectrum of the US economy. Key topics addressed include why the US economy runs a continuing trade deficit in manufactured high-tech goods, why high-tech firms steadily lose manufacturing jobs, while creating professional jobs, and why high-tech industries rely on foreign outsourcing for much of their manufacturing.

The concept of identity has steadily emerged in importance in the field of intercultural communication, especially over the last two decades. In a transnational world marked by complex connectivity as well as enduring differences and power inequities, it is imperative to understand and continuously theorize how we perceive the self in relation to the cultural other. Such understandings play a central role in how we negotiate relationships, build alliances, promote peace, and strive for social justice across cultural differences in various contexts. Identity Research in Intercultural Communication, edited by Nilanjana Bardhan and Mark P. Orbe, is unique in scope because it brings together a vast range of positions on identity scholarship under one umbrella. It tracks the state of identity research in the field and includes cutting-edge theoretical essays (some supported by empirical data), and queries what kinds of theoretical, methodological, praxiological and pedagogical boundaries researchers should be pushing in the future. This collection s primary and qualitative focus is on more recent concepts related to identity that have emerged in scholarship such as power, privilege, intersectionality, critical selfhood, hybridity, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, queer theory, globalization and transnationalism, immigration, gendered and sexual politics, self-reflexivity, positionality, agency, ethics, dialogue and dialectics, and more. The essays are critical/interpretive, postmodern, postcolonial and performative in perspective, and they strike a balance between U.S. and transnational views on identity. This volume is an essential text for scholars, educators, students, and intercultural consultants and trainers."

Globalization and the resulting internationalization of universities is driving change in teaching, learning, and what it means to be educated. This book provides exemplars of how the Communication discipline and curriculum are responding to the demands of globalization and contributing to the internationalization of higher education. Communication as a discipline provides a strong theoretical and methodological framework for exploring the benefits, challenges and meanings of globalization. The goal of this book, therefore, is to facilitate internationalization of the communication discipline in an era of globalization. Section one discusses the theoretical perspectives of globalism, internationalization, and the current state of the Communication discipline and curriculum. Section two offers a comprehensive understanding of the role, ways, and impact of internationalizing teaching, learning, and research in diverse areas of study in Communication, including travel programs and initiatives to bring internationalization to the classroom. The pieces in this section will include research-based articles, case studies, analytical reviews that exam key questions about the field, and themed pieces for dialogue/debate on current and future teaching and learning issues related to internationalizing the Communication discipline/curriculum. Section three provides an extensive sampling of materials and resources for immediate use in internationalization in communication studies; sample syllabi, activities, examples, and readings will be included. In sum, our book is designed to enable communication curriculum and communication courses in other disciplines to be internationalized and to offer different approaches to enable faculty, students, and administrators to incorporate and experience an internationalized curriculum regardless of time and financial limitations. This book is notable as a professional development resource for individuals both inside and outside the communication discipline who wish to incorporate a global perspective into their research and classrooms.

Theoretically grounded examination of how to improve diversity and inclusion efforts undertaken by public relations leadership. Timely topic that addresses one of the most salient and urgent issues facing the public relations industry.

The Oxford Handbook of Offshoring and Global Employment deals with a key issue of our time - How do globalization, economic growth and technological developments interact to impact employment? The book brings together eminent authors from a wide range of countries around the world, drawing on their diverse academic and policymaking backgrounds, and specific national or regional settings to assess how global economic changes have affected employment opportunities. The book is unique in a number of ways - It has a global reach, presenting analyses and viewpoints from both developed and developing countries, from all continents; its timing and context is particularly instructive, since most papers are located in the aftermath of the global financial crisis; and it addresses a wide range of questions-How do different types of offshoring and global linkages impact employment? How is the skill mix of the labor force impacted by globalization? How do institutional structures and regulations influence the outcome of globalization in developed and developing countries? Individual chapters analyze how the impact of global linkages on national economies is mediated through a number of structural aspects of the economy - its institutional and industrial structure, its resource base, its predominant firm type, its comparative advantage, and its regulatory practices. The chapters in the book cover both manufacturing and services sectors, and many chapters also address policy issues regarding innovation and job creation.

The concept of identity has steadily emerged in importance in the field of intercultural communication, especially over the last two decades. In a transnational world marked by complex connectivity as well as enduring differences and power inequities, it is imperative to understand and continuously theorize how we perceive the self in relation to the cultural other. Such understandings play a central role in how we negotiate relationships, build alliances, promote peace, and strive for social justice across cultural differences in various contexts. Identity Research in Intercultural Communication, edited by Nilanjana Bardhan and Mark P. Orbe, is unique in scope because it brings together a vast range of positions on identity scholarship under one umbrella. It tracks the state of identity research in the field and includes cutting-edge theoretical essays (some supported by empirical data), and queries what kinds of theoretical, methodological, praxiological and pedagogical boundaries researchers should be pushing in the future. This collection's primary and qualitative focus is on more recent concepts related to identity that have emerged in scholarship such as power, privilege, intersectionality, critical selfhood, hybridity, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, queer theory, globalization and transnationalism, immigration, gendered and sexual politics, self-reflexivity, positionality, agency, ethics, dialogue and dialectics, and more. The essays are critical/interpretive, postmodern, postcolonial and performative in perspective, and they strike a balance between U.S. and transnational views on identity. This volume is an essential text for scholars, educators, students, and intercultural consultants and trainers.

Globalization and the resulting internationalization of universities is driving change in teaching, learning, and what it means to be educated. This book provides exemplars of how the Communication discipline and curriculum are responding to the demands of globalization and contributing to the internationalization of higher education. Communication as a discipline provides a strong theoretical and methodological framework for exploring the benefits, challenges and meanings of globalization. The goal of this book, therefore, is to facilitate internationalization of the communication discipline in an era of globalization. Section one discusses the theoretical perspectives of globalism, internationalization, and the current state of the Communication discipline and curriculum. Section two offers a comprehensive understanding of the role, ways, and impact of internationalizing teaching, learning, and research in diverse areas of study in Communication, including travel programs and initiatives to bring internationalization to the classroom. The pieces in this section will include research-based articles, case studies, analytical reviews that exam key questions about the field, and themed pieces for dialogue/debate on current and future teaching and learning issues related to internationalizing the Communication discipline/curriculum. Section three provides an extensive sampling of materials and resources for immediate use in internationalization in communication studies; sample syllabi, activities, examples, and readings will be included. In sum, our book is designed to enable communication curriculum and communication courses in other disciplines to be internationalized and to offer different approaches to enable faculty, students, and administrators to incorporate and experience an internationalized curriculum regardless of time and financial limitations. This book is notable as a professional development resource for individuals both inside and outside the communication discipline who wish to incorporate a global perspective into their research and classrooms.

A global look at the reasons behind the recent economic collapse, and the responses to it

The speculative bubble in the housing market began to burst in the United States in 2007, and has been followed by ruptures in virtually every asset market in almost every country in the world. Each country proposed a range of policy initiatives to deal with its crisis. Policies that focused upon stabilizing the housing market formed the cornerstone of many of these proposals. This internationally focused book evaluates the genesis of the housing market bubble, the global viral contagion of the crisis, and the policy initiatives undertaken in some of the major economies of the world to counteract its disastrous affects.

Unlike other books on the global crisis, this guide deals with the housing sector in addition to the financial sector of individual economies. Countries in many parts of the world were players in either the financial bubble or the housing bubble, or both, but the degree of impact, outcome, and responses varied widely. This is an appropriate time to pull together the lessons from these various experiences.Reveals the housing crisis in the United States as the core of the meltdownDescribes the evolution of housing markets and policies in the run-up to the crisis, their impacts, and the responses in European and Asian countriesCompares experiences and linkages across countries and points to policy implications and research lessons drawn from these experiences

Filled with the insights of well-known contributors with strong contacts in practice and academia, this timely guide discusses the history and evolution of the recent crisis as local to each contributor's part of the world, and examines its distinctive and common features with that of the U.S., the trajectory of its evolution, and the similarities and differences in policy response.

While public relations practice has become increasingly globalized, scholars are still behind in theorizing about the intersections of culture, communication, and power at this level of practice. This volume emphasizes theories and concepts that highlight global interconnectedness through a range of interpretative and critical approaches to understanding the global significance and impacts of public relations. Providing a critical examination of public relations' contribution to globalization and international power relations, the chapters included here explore alternative paradigms, most notably interpretive and critical perspectives informed by qualitative research. The volume encourages alternative 'ways of knowing' that overcome the shortcomings of positivist epistemologies. The editors include multiple paradigmatic approaches for a more complex understanding of the subject matter, making a valuable contribution toward widening the philosophical scope of public relations scholarship. This book will serve well as a core text in classes in international public relations, global public relations, and advanced strategic public relations. Students as well as practitioners of public relations will benefit from reading the perspectives included here.

An all-new, illustrated chapter book adventure about girl power, self-expression, and friendship, based on the Netflix series Princess Power and inspired by the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book Princesses Wear Pants (from TODAY show coanchor Savannah Guthrie and educator Alli Oppenheim) Return to the four fruitdoms with Penny Pineapple, Kira Kiwi, Rita Raspberry, and Bea Blueberry! This original tale, illustrated in full-color, features beloved characters and explores the world of Princess Power, a new children's Netflix series inspired by the instant #1 bestselling picture books Princesses Wear Pants and Princesses Save the World. These curious, kindhearted, can-do princesses learn that as long as they stay true to themselves and work together, there's no challenge they can't face--and there's nothing sweeter than friendship!

The third edition of this authoritative handbook provides the structural designer with comprehensive guidance on prestressed concrete and its effective use, covering materials, behaviour, analysis and design of prestressed elements. It includes numerous examples, design charts and details of post-tensioning systems.

"Let's get ready to cruuuuumble!" Join Cake and Pie in this fun-loving, laugh-out-loud picture book about the ultimate friendship rivalry and overcoming jealousy to realize being together is the Sweetest Thing. There can only be one favorite dessert... Will it be Cake, the friend who rises to every occasion? Or will Pie's surprisingly sweet center be the most irresistible? There's only one way to settle this battle, once and for all: FOOD FIGHT! Perfect for fans of The Bad Seed and Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast.

The third edition of this authoritative handbook provides the structural designer with comprehensive guidance on prestressed concrete and its effective use, covering materials, behaviour, analysis and design of prestressed elements. It includes numerous examples, design charts and details of post-tensioning systems.

An ambitious account of the corrosion of liberal democracy in rich and poor countries alike, arguing that antidemocratic sentiment reflects fear of material and cultural loss, not a critique of liberalism's failure to deliver equality, and suggesting possible ways out. The retreat of liberal democracy in the twenty-first century has been impossible to ignore. From Wisconsin to Warsaw, Budapest to Bangalore, the public is turning against pluralism and liberal institutions and instead professing unapologetic nationalism and majoritarianism. Critics of inequality argue that this is a predictable response to failures of capitalism and liberalism, but Pranab Bardhan, a development economist, sees things differently. The problem is not inequality but insecurity-financial and cultural. Bardhan notes that antidemocratic movements have taken root globally in a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic groups. In the United States, older, less-educated, rural populations have withdrawn from democracy. But in India, the prevailing Hindu Nationalists enjoy the support of educated, aspirational urban youth. And in Europe, antidemocratic populists firmly back the welfare state (but for nonimmigrants). What is consistent among antidemocrats is fear of losing what they have. That could be money but is most often national pride and culture and the comfort of tradition. A World of Insecurity argues for context-sensitive responses. Some, like universal basic income schemes, are better suited to poor countries. Others, like worker empowerment and international coordination, have broader appeal. But improving material security won't be enough to sustain democracy. Nor, Bardhan writes, should we be tempted by the ultimately hollow lure of China's authoritarian model. He urges liberals to adopt at least a grudging respect for fellow citizens' local attachments. By affirming civic forms of community pride, we might hope to temper cultural anxieties before they become pathological.

Theoretically grounded examination of how to improve diversity and inclusion efforts undertaken by public relations leadership. Timely topic that addresses one of the most salient and urgent issues facing the public relations industry.

This book explains the concept of education divide in rural India and identifies various factors that shape and sustain such a divide. In doing so, it also discusses a range of attempts undertaken to bridge the education divide. Subsequently, the book has attempted in providing a socio-technical framework towards optimally deploying social technologies for addressing the issue of education divide of marginalized communities. The proposed framework offers a transition from traditional content-centric, teacher-centric and centralized education ecosystem to a connection-centric, learner-centric and decentralized education ecosystem of the socio-digital age. It demonstrates how Internet-enabled digital platforms, based on the principles of sharism and mass collaboration using social technologies, could help to solve one of the greatest problems facing the world: mitigating the extant education divide by delivering quality education to underprivileged sections of society. The book also presents empirical validation of the proposed framework to show how a community-driven blended learning platform can mobilize the dormant knowledge capital of domain experts to teach underprivileged rural Indian children, as well as help form communities of practice to enable lifelong learning for the rural adult population. The book closes by pointing out the challenges involved in building an equitable education ecosystem using social technologies and ultimately the possibility of creating a fair and equitable society. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the domain of education who want to transform education ecosystems by using technological and process-related innovations to improve educational practices for underprivileged sections of society.

This lecture notes in physics volume mainly focuses on the semi classical and qu- tum aspects of percolation and breakdown in disordered, composite or granular s- tems. The main reason for this undertaking has been the fact that, of late, there have been a lot of (theoretical) work on quantum percolation, but there is not even a (single) published review on the topic (and, of course, no book). Also, there are many theoretical and experimental studies on the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics both away from, as well as one approaches, an electrical breakdown in composite materials. Some of the results are quite intriguing and may broadly be explained utilising a semi classical (if not, fully quantum mechanical) tunnelling between - cron or nano-sized metallic islands dispersed separated by thin insulating layers, or in other words, between the dangling ends of small percolation clusters. There have also been several (theoretical) studies of Zener breakdown in Mott or Anderson in- lators. Again, there is no review available, connecting them in any coherent fashion. A compendium volume connecting these experimental and theoretical studies should be unique and very timely, and hence this volume. The book is organised as follows. For completeness, we have started with a short and concise introduction on classical percolation. In the ?rst chapter, D. Stauffer reviews the scaling theory of classical percolation emphasizing (biased) diffusion, without any quantum effects. The next chapter by A. K.

There have been considerable advances in recent times in understanding many common material processes that are of practical importance, such as nonlinear response, fracture, breakdown, earthquakes, packing, and granular flow, that are of immense practical importance. This has been mainly due to new applications of statistical physics, including percolation theory, fractal concepts and self-organized criticality. This collection of articles brings together research in those closely allied fields. It deals with problems in material science involving random geometries and nonlinearity at a mesoscopic scale, where local disorder and nonlinearity influence the global behaviour of cracks, for example, and problems where randomness in time evolution is as crucial as the geometry itself.

This book engages the notion of cosmopolitanism as it applies to intercultural communication, which itself is undergoing a turn in its focus from post-positivistic research towards critical/interpretive and postcolonial perspectives, particularly as globalization informs more of the current and future research in the area. It emphasizes the postcolonial perspective in order to raise critical consciousness about the complexities of intercultural communication in a globalizing world, situating cosmopolitanism-the notion of global citizenship-as a multilayered lens for research. Cosmopolitanism as a theoretical repertoire provides nuanced descriptions of what it means to be and communicate as a global citizen, how to critically study interconnectedness within and across cultures, and how to embrace differences without glossing over them. Moving intercultural communication studies towards the global in complex and nuanced ways, this book highlights crucial links between globalization, transnationalism, postcolonialism, cosmopolitanism, social injustice and intercultural communication, and will help in the creation of classroom spaces devoted to exploring these links. It also engages the links between theory and praxis in order to move towards intercultural communication pedagogy and research that simultaneously celebrates and interrogates issues of cultural difference with the aim of creating continuity rather than chasms. In sum, this book orients intercultural communication scholarship firmly towards the critical and postcolonial, while still allowing the incorporation of traditional intercultural communication concepts, thereby preparing students, scholars, educators and interculturalists to communicate ethically in a world that is simultaneously global and local.

Winner of the National Communication Association's International and Intercultural Communication Division's 2014 Outstanding Authored Book of the Year award This book engages the notion of cosmopolitanism as it applies to intercultural communication, which itself is undergoing a turn in its focus from post-positivistic research towards critical/interpretive and postcolonial perspectives, particularly as globalization informs more of the current and future research in the area. It emphasizes the postcolonial perspective in order to raise critical consciousness about the complexities of intercultural communication in a globalizing world, situating cosmopolitanism-the notion of global citizenship-as a multilayered lens for research. Cosmopolitanism as a theoretical repertoire provides nuanced descriptions of what it means to be and communicate as a global citizen, how to critically study interconnectedness within and across cultures, and how to embrace differences without glossing over them. Moving intercultural communication studies towards the global in complex and nuanced ways, this book highlights crucial links between globalization, transnationalism, postcolonialism, cosmopolitanism, social injustice and intercultural communication, and will help in the creation of classroom spaces devoted to exploring these links. It also engages the links between theory and praxis in order to move towards intercultural communication pedagogy and research that simultaneously celebrates and interrogates issues of cultural difference with the aim of creating continuity rather than chasms. In sum, this book orients intercultural communication scholarship firmly towards the critical and postcolonial, while still allowing the incorporation of traditional intercultural communication concepts, thereby preparing students, scholars, educators and interculturalists to communicate ethically in a world that is simultaneously global and local.

This lecture notes in physics volume mainly focuses on the semi classical and qu- tum aspects of percolation and breakdown in disordered, composite or granular s- tems. The main reason for this undertaking has been the fact that, of late, there have been a lot of (theoretical) work on quantum percolation, but there is not even a (single) published review on the topic (and, of course, no book). Also, there are many theoretical and experimental studies on the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics both away from, as well as one approaches, an electrical breakdown in composite materials. Some of the results are quite intriguing and may broadly be explained utilising a semi classical (if not, fully quantum mechanical) tunnelling between - cron or nano-sized metallic islands dispersed separated by thin insulating layers, or in other words, between the dangling ends of small percolation clusters. There have also been several (theoretical) studies of Zener breakdown in Mott or Anderson in- lators. Again, there is no review available, connecting them in any coherent fashion. A compendium volume connecting these experimental and theoretical studies should be unique and very timely, and hence this volume. The book is organised as follows. For completeness, we have started with a short and concise introduction on classical percolation. In the ?rst chapter, D. Stauffer reviews the scaling theory of classical percolation emphasizing (biased) diffusion, without any quantum effects. The next chapter by A. K.

While public relations practice has become increasingly globalized, scholars are still behind in theorizing about the intersections of culture, communication, and power at this level of practice. This volume emphasizes theories and concepts that highlight global interconnectedness through a range of interpretative and critical approaches to understanding the global significance and impacts of public relations. Providing a critical examination of public relations' contribution to globalization and international power relations, the chapters included here explore alternative paradigms, most notably interpretive and critical perspectives informed by qualitative research. The volume encourages alternative 'ways of knowing' that overcome the shortcomings of positivist epistemologies. The editors include multiple paradigmatic approaches for a more complex understanding of the subject matter, making a valuable contribution toward widening the philosophical scope of public relations scholarship. This book will serve well as a core text in classes in international public relations, global public relations, and advanced strategic public relations. Students as well as practitioners of public relations will benefit from reading the perspectives included here.