A byproduct of the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2008, the essays in this volume address the intersections among the reading, writing, and teaching of science fiction. Part One studies the teaching of SF, placing analytical and pedagogical research next to each other to reveal how SF can be both an object of study as well as a teaching tool for other disciplines. Part Two examines SF as a genre of mediation between the sciences and the humanities, using close readings and analyses of the literary-scientific nexus. Part Three examines SF in the media, using specific television programs, graphic novels, and films as examples of how SF successfully transcends the medium of transmission. Finally, Part Four features close readings of SF texts by women, including Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia Butler.

How can management make a meaningful contribution to the performance of public services? Around the world, public organizations face increasingly complex social issues related to globalization, migration, health crises, national security, and climate change. To meet these challenges, we need a better understanding of what managing for public service performance means, and what it requires from public managers and public servants. This book takes a multidisciplinary, critical, and context-sensitive approach to address such questions. Through a comparative review of public administration research, it examines a variety of management aspects such as leadership behavior, human resource management, performance, diversity, and change management. It also critically reflects on how the context of the public sector affects the management-performance relationship in democratic societies, as well as the influence of numerous stakeholders and their beliefs about the nature and purpose of public service. By clarifying conceptual issues and taking a theoretical and evidence-based approach to the relationships between management and performance, this book offers new directions for research and a framework to help improve public services in practice.

The current climate of fiscal austerity poses significant challenges for the health of populations across Europe, and deteriorating social conditions make some groups of individuals especially vulnerable to illness and have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities in health and in access to healthcare. These challenges are occurring alongside other significant trends: the health system reforms, which are shifting the emphasis of healthcare from public provision towards a public/private mix, the integration of health and social services, nudging as a new approach to health promotion, the redefinition of the service user as a consumer, a growing emphasis on individual responsibility for health and lifestyles and on biological citizenship, the pharmaceuticalisation of everyday life and the increasing deterioration in the mental health of people in contemporary societies. The work of healthcare professionals is also undergoing significant changes, as their work comes under increased surveillance and monitoring, raising implications for the relations with patients, for the kind of care that is provided, and for the experience of patients. In different ways, and based on different cases, this book deals with challenges for health and healthcare in a European context now and in the future. This includes challenges on an individual level, such as individual views and behaviour, and on a societal level, such as inequality. The book applies to students, researchers, healthcare professionals and decision makers within health and healthcare in a national or international context.