That public services exhibit unpredictability, novelty and, on occasion, chaos, is an observation with which even a casual observer would agree. Existing theoretical frameworks in public management fail to address these features, relying more heavily on attempts to eliminate unpredictability through increased reliance on measurable performance objectives, improved financial and human resource management techniques, decentralisation of authority and accountability and resolving principal-agent behaviour pathologies. Essentially, these are all attempts to improve the 'steering' capacity of public sector managers and policy makers. By adopting a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) approach to public services, this book shifts the focus from developing steering techniques to identifying patterns of behaviour of the participants with the ultimate objective of increasing policy-makers' and practitioners' understanding of the factors that may enable more effective public service decision-making and provision. The authors apply a CAS framework to a series of case studies in public sector management to generate new insights into the issues, processes and participants in public service domains.

That public services exhibit unpredictability, novelty and, on occasion, chaos, is an observation with which even a casual observer would agree. Existing theoretical frameworks in public management fail to address these features, relying more heavily on attempts to eliminate unpredictability through increased reliance on measurable performance objectives, improved financial and human resource management techniques, decentralisation of authority and accountability and resolving principal-agent behaviour pathologies. Essentially, these are all attempts to improve the 'steering' capacity of public sector managers and policy makers.

By adopting a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) approach to public services, this book shifts the focus from developing steering techniques to identifying patterns of behaviour of the participants with the ultimate objective of increasing policy-makers' and practitioners' understanding of the factors that may enable more effective public service decision-making and provision. The authors apply a CAS framework to a series of case studies in public sector management to generate new insights into the issues, processes and participants in public service domains.

"The spell of Alaska," Ella Higginson wrote in 1908, "falls upon every lover of beauty who has voyaged along those far northern snow-pearled shores...or who has drifted down the mighty rivers of the interior which flow, bell-toned and lonely, to the sea....No writer has ever described Alaska; no one writer ever will; but each must do his share, according to the spell that the country casts upon him."
In A Republic of Rivers, John Murray offers the first comprehensive anthology of nature writing in Alaska and the Yukon, ranging from 1741 to the present. Many of the writers found here are major figures--John Muir, Jack London, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, and Edward Abbey--but we also discover the voices of missionaries, explorers, mountain-climbers, Native Americans, miners, scientists, backpackers, and fishermen, each trying to capture something of the beauty of this still pristine land, to render in their own words the spell that the country casts upon them. The range of viewpoints is remarkable. With Annie Dillard we look out at ice floes near the remote Barter Island and see "what newborn babies must see: nothing but senseless variations of light on the retinas." With Frederick Litke we mourn the senseless slaughter of sea mammals. We join scientist Adolph Murie, the father of wolf ecology, as he probes the daily life of an East Fork wolf pack. And we listen as Tlingit Indian Johnny Jack relates the difficulty of maintaining a dignified life close to nature at a time of cultural upheaval for his people. Most of these selections have never appeared in any anthology and some entries--particularly those written by early American and Russian explorers--have never been available to general readers.
There is laughter here and there is sorrow, but finally there is communion and liberation as generation after generation encounter the unsurpassed beauty and wildness of the Arctic. Taken together, these forty-nine men and women provide a unique portrait of America's final frontier.

A story of personal, professional & business hardship, also suffered by millions of others throughout the 2008 - 2013 Recession, this book details how the author applied many of the '13 Steps To Riches' in 'Think & Grow Rich' to defeat the prospect of bankruptcy & move from a 6.50 ($10) per hour job to a UK tax-paid equivalent annual income of 250,000 ($400,000). This book explains how the author Conceived, Believed & Achieved this. For those ready to Take ACTION & R.S.V.P. - Read, Study, Visualise & Perform for success, this book is for you John A Murray is a Napoleon Hill Foundation Student working towards Leadership Certification. All royalties go to charity, at least 50% of which will always go to the Napoleon Hill Foundation."

The Lyons Press is proud to announce the third book in its series of nature anthologies in partnership with The Nature Conservancy - the renowned conservation organization over 900,000 members strong, whose protection efforts span the globe. In this volume we celebrate the mountains of the world with twenty-two literary works that range over three continents and two hundred years, including: John Muir on crossing the Cumberland Mountains; Henry David Thoreau on Maine's Ktaadn; Rob Schultheis on the Colorado Plateau: Isabella Byrd's bold ascent in the Rocky Mountains in the 1870s; David Rains Wallace on the Central American mountain ranges; a Denali rescue mission recounted by Jonathan Waterman; and Jon Krakauer on climbing Devil's Thumb.The mystical powers of mountains inspire writers to heights of clarity and insight. Share the experiences of William Bartram, Aldo Leopold, Barbara Kingsolver, William O. Douglas, Rick Bass, Dave Petersen, A. B. Guthrie Jr., and a host of the finest nature writers past and present. For anyone who loves the mountains, for appreciators of fine natural history as well as those who love climbing literature, The Mountain Reader will be an exhilarating experience. (61/4 x 91/4, 316 pages)