This one-volume encyclopedia examines key topics, major world players, and imminent problems pertaining to the world's ever-growing population. According to the United Nations, the population of our planet reached 7 billion people in 2011. What areas of the world have the most people? What measures, if any, are in place to control the population? Why is Europe's population shrinking, while the rest of the world is growing? This eye-opening encyclopedia answers questions like these by examining significant issues and topics relating to the population and exploring profiles of the most populated countries and cities of the world. More than 100 alphabetically arranged entries focus on such topics as census, demography, megacity, overpopulation, and urban sprawl. Author Fred M. Shelley, an accomplished academic in the field of environmental sustainability, reveals the steps taken by major cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Mexico City, Seoul, Manila, and New Delhi in handling their population, and what is being done in China and other countries to prevent overcrowding. The text includes a discussion of how factors like migration patterns, war, and disease impact population change. This comprehensive encyclopedia also includes primary document excerpts from court cases, legislation, and political speeches relating to population issues. Provides interesting facts and figures through informative sidebars Reveals the populations of major countries and cities of the world to illustrate where people reside most and least Features maps, charts, and graphs to support visual learning and to compare and contrast factors affecting birth rates, deaths, and overall population profiles Contains excerpts from documents such as legislation and speeches relating to population and critical issues Examines the implications of China's one-child policy on controlling the population

This book provides a concise and comprehensive description of all of the borders of every country in the contemporary world, including physical boundaries, their historical evolution, and border-related conflicts with other countries. Nation Shapes: The Story behind the World's Borders examines the importance of country boundaries, the disconnects between these borders, related factors such as cultures, religions, and economies, and how conflicts over boundaries between neighboring countries are articulated. The book is organized geographically and by region of the world: the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and Australia and Oceania. It provides comprehensive descriptions of the boundaries of each country in the world, the historical evolution of these boundaries, and current and potential future boundary disputes and conflicts. While the work contains an entry for each country, the emphasis is on countries of major importance in the modern global economy.

Engaging Geopolitics provides a comprehensive introduction to the influence of geography, demography and economics on politics and international relations in the world in which we live today. The authors' expressed aim is to make geopolitics more accessible to undergraduate students, with the hope that the book will be an ideal starting pointing for those who will be moving vertically into more advanced courses in political geography or laterally into other concerns of international affairs.

The essays in this collection show how electoral geography has shifted from empiricist activity towards a closer involvement with the wider issues addressed by social scientists. They illustrate the potential contributions that electoral geographers can make towards the understanding of global, national and local societies.

This thematic encyclopedia provides an overview of education as undertaken in the United States and in 70 countries worldwide and links educational organization, philosophy, and practice with important global social, economic, and environmental issues facing the contemporary world. All around the world, young people attend school, be it in the steppes of Mongolia, the tiny island nations of the Pacific, or the urban centers of Mexico. How do countries meet the educational needs of their citizens? This volume is organized into 10 chapters that look at key issues in global education, including literacy, gender, religion, science and technology (STEM), arts and humanities, school violence, multicultural education and diversity, environment and sustainability, education and difference/special needs, and views on education and a country's future. Each chapter contains eight country profiles, one for the United States and one each for seven other countries. Each entry includes a brief overview of the country and its history and geography, a description of its K-12 education system, and more detailed information about that country with respect to the appropriate topic. This book allows readers to compare and contrast education throughout the world. It also analyzes, from both contemporary and historical perspectives, relationships between education and the ways in which different countries address various issues, including development, diversity, gender, and environmental sustainability. Provides readers with an overview of how education is conducted in 70 countries Shows how educational systems in different countries respond differently to major challenges facing the world today, including multiculturalism, diversity, and environmental sustainability Illustrates relationships between the philosophy and practice of education and countries' geographical position and levels of development Includes photographs that help bring the text to life Explains issues through a comprehensive overview, allowing student readers to have a better understanding of the problems facing educational systems around the world today

The essays in this collection show how electoral geography has shifted from empiricist activity towards a closer involvement with the wider issues addressed by social scientists. They illustrate the potential contributions that electoral geographers can make towards the understanding of global, national and local societies.

Providing a valuable resource for secondary school and college students as well as the general public investigating the process of governance in different countries, this book provides a comprehensive comparative summary of how governments are constituted and operated worldwide. Political systems around the world can be a confusing subject. Why does England have both a monarchy and a prime minister? How does a federal republic differ from a federation and a republic? How is China a communist state without a dictator? And how is the United Nations managed? Governments around the World: From Democracies to Theocracies examines the major types of governments around the world, providing accessible descriptive country examples of each variation that allow readers to understand how governments operate and shape societies and cultures. An excellent resource for high school and college students as well as general readers, this compact one-volume reference work covers forms of government that include democracies, republics, communist states, monarchies, transitional governments, and theocracies as well as transnational organizations. Each chapter begins with an overview of that particular government type, identifying the general philosophies, practices, and ruling structures in addition to making comparisons of several key countries that follow that government type. Additionally, the content includes constitutional excerpts that clarify how human rights are conceptualized and articulated throughout the world. Provides readers with information about different and contrasting systems of governance used throughout the world Highlights the intrinsic links between governance and human rights Describes the purposes, charters, and operation of a broad range of international organizations Includes primary sources such as excerpts from constitutions and charters that are interpreted in the text

This important reference work examines trafficking from a geographic perspective and investigates the driving forces behind it and the powers that are trying to curtail the problem. The worldwide crime of trafficking involves countless people, animals and animal parts, and illicit goods such as drugs and weapons being moved and sold illegally. Often, the trafficking occurs with the local government or law enforcement's knowledge and complicity. This one-volume encyclopedia sheds light on a frightening and major issue, investigating the geography of trafficking and examining a range of examples of illegal human, animal, drug, and weapons movement around the world. After a preface and introduction that provides an exact definition of trafficking, the encyclopedia presents thematic essays that explore the various specific kinds of trafficking. Approximately 30 country profiles describe who and what is trafficked in each country, the motivations of those doing the trafficking, where people and things are being moved to, how the trafficking occurs, and what actions are being taken in an effort to prevent it. An appendix of primary documents, interesting sidebars, a bibliography, and a glossary listing key terms and important organizations round out the work. Provides a comprehensive look at the geography of trafficking as a whole that highlights how different kinds of trafficking are often related Supplies a much-needed reference book on a topic that is of perennial interest and often mentioned in media Includes an appendix of primary documents that includes excerpts from anti-trafficking acts and policies, declarations, human rights campaigns, and other important sources, each with an introduction

The 2020 presidential election was one of the most historic, contested, and contentious in American history. Joe Biden was the oldest person elected President. Kamala Harris was the first female elected Vice President, and the first Vice President of Black and Asian descent. The primaries, campaigns, and elections were held for the first time amid an international and national pandemic. Despite this, voter turnout was the highest in 120 years. Donald Trump was the first president in modern times refusing to concede, leading to numerous lawsuits over the election process and results, although election litigation and state officials found no evidence of large-scale voter fraud. Nevertheless, continued claims of a stolen election led to a riotous mob occupation of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the Electoral College results. The Atlas of the 2020 Elections explains the results of the 2020 elections with a series of unique maps unleashing the illustrative power of cartography and the explanatory power of history and political geography. The contributors—a balanced mix of geographers, political scientists, and historians—provide a comprehensive examination of the election process from the primary campaigns through the general election and post-election events. In addition to the presidential election, the Atlas has full coverage of other important races, including congressional races, state races, and local and state referenda. Illustrated with more than 150 meticulously drawn full-color maps and numerous graphs and tables, the Atlas will be an essential reference and a fascinating resource for scholars, teachers, students, pundits, campaign staff, and political junkies alike, all who care about the American democratic process.

The 2016 presidential election was one of the most dramatic upsets in US political history. Virtually all pre-election polls indicated Democrat Hillary Clinton ahead of Republican Donald Trump in the popular vote and Electoral College. The Atlas of the 2016 Elections explains the surprising Trump victory with a series of unique maps unleashing the illustrative power of cartography and the explanatory power of history and political geography. The contributors-a balanced mix of geographers, political scientists, and historians-provide a comprehensive examination of the election process from the primary campaigns and nominating conventions to the fall campaign and final results. In addition to the presidential election, the Atlas has full coverage of other important races, including congressional races, state races, and local and state referenda. Illustrated with more than one hundred meticulously drawn full-color maps, the Atlas will be an essential reference and a fascinating resource for pundits, voters, campaign staff, and political junkies alike.

This collection takes on the call issued by reviewers of The American Way for a critical application of Carville Earle's framework to more geographical examples of political and economic shifts in America's past. The essays illustrate changes in U.S. settlement, development, and political structure through the lens of the restructuring of the American economy and society over approximately fifty year cycles of crisis and recovery. They demonstrate the extension of American's sphere of influence outside of the United States as a larger scalar shift, and they underscore the utility of geography in answering very local questions concerning questions of poorly documented settlement histories. Focusing on the geographic responses to periodic cycles of crisis and recovery and the more general underlying intertwining of geography and history, Geography, History, and the American Political Economy is an incisive demonstration of how the constant restructuring of American politics and economy occurs within spatial and historical constructs.