Globalization Books

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Book SynopsisPeople around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available to the rest of the world. International travel is more frequent. International communication is commonplace. This phenomenon has been titled "globalisation". "The Era of Globalisation" is fast becoming the preferred term for describing the current times. Just as the Depression, the Cold War Era, the Space Age, and the Roaring 20''s are used to describe particular periods of history, globalisation describes the political, economic, and cultural atmosphere of today. While some people think of globalisation as primarily a synonym for global business, it is much more than that. The same forces that allow businesses to operate as if national borders did not exist also allow social activists, labour organisers, journalists, academics, and many others to work on a global stage. This book brings together a wide range of expertise addressing these issues from the perspective of authors from around the world.

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Book SynopsisThe culture of violence has gained a religious colouring in modern days. With a destructive technological impetus, the question arises: Is there abuse of religious teachings? Is their any religious basis for violence and war? Then follow questions about the purpose of religion and the significance of concepts of peace and non-violence. As some find justification for war and violence in their religion, an inquiry must be made about the influence of religious scriptures on peace. Globalisation has had a varied impact on political, social, cultural, and religious behavioural systems. This landmark volume attempts to comprehend the concepts of non-violence and peace within different religious and cultural traditions.

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Book SynopsisThe notion of globalisation and its relation to education is widely being discussed among politicians, philosophers, scholars, educators and students throughout the world. Some fully reject and refuse to accept this phenomenon, others try to understand and accept this notion, still others completely accept the idea of globalisation and associate with it all progressive changes in the new century''s socio-cultural and educational space. Moreover, for a considerable part of the planet''s residents the very spirit of the terms "globalism" and "globalisation" still remains an unknown, enigmatic, almost supernatural entity. The contemporary globalising epoch is characterised by pervasive events making a considerable affect on human development, human consciousness and on various aspects of education and child development. These events include: (1) the unprecedented emergence and dissemination of information and knowledge; (2) the digitisation of information and virtualisation of objective reality; (3) the spreading of the English language as an essential global tool for education and international communication; (4) the dissemination of the ideas of global and multicultural education; (5) the rise of the European Union; (6) the market orientation of Russian and the former entities of the former Socialist block;(7) the spreading of the cultural and educational canons of the Anglo-American or Atlantic civilisation upon other cultures and civilisations; and (9) unparalleled demographic growth, especially in Eastern and Southern cultures.

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Book SynopsisThis book begins, and perhaps should end, with an excerpt from the writings of the late eminent Chinese scholar, Fung Yu-lan (or Feng Youlan) (1895-1990), who wrote: "The ancient Chinese culture is an inherent factor determining the Chinese style.". If the latter enunciation of Fung Yu-lan stirs one''s interest in Chinese culture for the typical reasons, such as, an interest in ancient periods of China; romanticism, which focuses on the exotic and mysterious, for example, Zen Buddhism and Taoism; or simply as the source of exotic objets d''art, then all the better. Because for a typical Westerner bound in Western conventionalism and parochialism, engendering an understanding of the policies and practices of the People''s Republic of China (China) necessitates understanding a modern China in light of Chinese traditional culture (or philosophy), or a China in antiquity. The consequence of Chinese traditional culture affects many political economy concerns of modern China, ranging from socio-economic, political, to international trade and other concerns. Indeed, philosophical antecedents influence modern Chinese policies and practices.

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Book SynopsisThis book represents the manifestation of a long-term effort to explore the multifaceted impact of neo-liberal globalisation on institutional reform in the developing world, with special reference to the transformation trajectory of State Planning Organisation in Turkey. Analytically, it strives to locate the in-depth analysis of Turkish development planning and the changing fortunes of the State Planning Organisation within the broader context of the states versus markets'' debate in the political economy literature in order to assess the technical viability and institutional manifestations of development planning under the profound and ever increasing pressures of globalisation. To this end, a comparative institutional theoretical framework is adopted which engages critically with the neo-classical/neo-liberal approach to macroeconomic policy making, and gauges the potential influence of domestic institutional structures in generating effective responses to changes in global economy.

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Book SynopsisGrowing economic globalisation has increased international business competition and international economic interdependence. From this perspective, many firms have formed business partnerships and most nations have had to re-evaluate their economic interdependence. This book explores changes that have occurred or have been proposed in this regard. It provides new insights into business partnerships and international economic interdependence, given growing economic globalisation, and explores the managerial and socio-economic consequences of those ideas. The contributions in this book have been divided into four parts. Those in Part II concentrate on the specification of partnerships and reasons for business partnerships in the context of a globalisation. The idea of global networks in which some "hard" and "soft" forms of partnerships would appear and mix is introduced and discussed according to the partners involved (nations, unions, firms and consumers) and the economic activities (whether tangible or abstract). Globalisation also has a number of consequences for business co-ordination, in particular when they are based on outsourcing strategies in which cost reduction is balanced with knowledge transfers. These are amongst the issues explored in Part III. The difficulty to monitor and predict the effects of global partnerships tends to increase the importance of cultural and psychological variables such as trust and commitment. Therefore the role of attitudes and perceptions is very important. Whatever the agreement and the conjoined management among partner firms, the attitude of the other agents can produce asymmetric affects on these firms and considerably bias their partnership strategy. Such biases are particularly likely from consumers. Their attitude towards globalisation is not the only bias that may occur. Their loyalty is also an important issue in a globalising world, particularly in the service sector where lots of partnerships have been made on a global scale (eg banks, airlines, leisure). These are amongst the relationship marketing issues explored in Part IV. In Part V, the factors introduced in the previous chapters are considered from a regional and cultural perspective, where nations and regions themselves are engaged in global partnership. In this context, discrepancy often develops between the domestic and the international globalisation strategies, as well as between the capital and labour markets. The resulting complexity is particularly problematic for the developing and peripheral economies. Novel insights about partnership emerge, as studied in this concluding part of the book.

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Book SynopsisMultinational Enterprises (MNEs) are key actors within the world economy alongside the states. Is there currently a legal personality for MNEs in international law? Law reflects moral connections and it is not static which means that its content is shaped according to new situations and demands. In many situations MNEs have already been acceded as subjects of international law -- Iran versus US claims tribunal 1981 . There is a tendency to admit MNEs as actors in international law. It could be said that MNEs are not in position to freely decide if they accept their responsibilities according to international law and especially in the human right field. There is a need for more transparency in MNEs actions. MNEs are key actors in globalisation and they have a duty to act in conformity with international law. This author thinks that there is a need in distinguishing between the MNE as an economic entity and so allowing the national law of establishment, the private international law and the international commercial law to deal with the economic matters and the MNE as a whole unit (parent company with all subsidiaries regardless its separate establishment in various states under national laws) an international social policy actor in globalisation whose actions affect the global world.

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Book SynopsisTrade policies and agreements are a powerful weapon in the Era of Globalization. Most countries'' strategy is to pursue multiple market-opening initiatives on a global, regional and bilateral basis, establishing models of success that can be used throughout all negotiations. This book presents some trade policies and agreements of the United States.

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Book SynopsisGlobalisation has forced international issues to a prime consideration of businesses at every level. Formerly arcane topics like exchange rates, risk and international taxation among dozens of other such issues are the focus of this book.

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Book SynopsisGlobalisation can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Looking specifically at economic globalisation; it can be measured in different ways. These centre on the four main economic flows that characterise globalisation: Goods and services, e.g. exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population; Labour/people, e.g. net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population; Capital, e.g. inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population; Technology, e.g. international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially ''factor-neutral'' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband). This volume centres on globalisation and its processes in Africa.

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Book SynopsisGlobalisation can be described as the combined influences of trade liberalisation, market integration, international finance and investment, technological change, the increasing distribution of production across national boundaries and the emergence of new structures of global governance. The global market place equipped with the application of global communications has become the focus of the global business arena that makes the world markets remain open and involved in the fair competitive practices. Supporters of globalisation concepts also argue that allowing free trade and capital movement would also favour workers to move from one country to another, partly to find better employment opportunities. New growth-trade theories have emphasised the contribution of international trade to economic growth through its effect on capital accumulation. Free trade leaders to specialisation, contributes to the total factor productivity and offers comparative advantages for the other countries. However, free trade generates neck-to-neck competition among countries for economic sustainability and to equip essentially for competing against the best trade in the world. This book delineates economic and political factors along with the technological perspectives thereof towards the export growth and competitiveness among developing countries and analyses trade competitiveness in view of the economic reforms and trade liberalisation.

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Book SynopsisThere are two major aims for this book: first, to make a contribution to the academic debates; and second, to urge frontline INGO practitioners to reflect critically on their practices. Referring to the practices of CEP in reforming the system of higher education in Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, this book seeks to engage in two major debates: one, over the role of INGO in social development; and two, over the relationship between INGO and Imperialism. In the discussion, the author highlighted the elements that are usually overlooked in the existing literature, namely, contradiction and contingency. Data is in the form of my first-hand experience of working as a university lecturer teaching in several universities in Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, and as a CEP visiting fellow actively involved in its activities. The data poses challenges to the development logic of INGO and the logic of Imperialism; this provides an interesting basis for a provocative discussion. Since data also offers an interesting evaluation of CEP, they reveal not only difficulties facing CEP in bringing changes to the former-Soviet countries but also common problems of the system of higher education in this region.

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Book SynopsisIn recent years, the economic policy of privatisation, which is defined as the transfer of property or responsibility from public sector to private sector, is one of the global phenomenon that increases use of markets to allocate resources. One important motivation for privatisation is to help develop factor and product markets, as well as security markets. Progress in privatisation is correlated with improvements in perceived political and investment risk. Many emerging countries have gradually reduced their political risks during the course of sustained privatisation. In fact, most risk resolution seems to take place as privatisation proceeds to its later stage. Alternative benefits of privatisation are improved risk sharing and increased liquidity and activity of the market. One of the main methods to develop privatisation is entering a new stock to the markets for arising competition. This book provides leading edge research on this field from around the globe.

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Book SynopsisFinancial globalisation refers to the ongoing integration of once poorly connected national financial markets. A key aspect of globalisation is a decline in financial home bias -- the tendency for domestic saving to be invested predominantly at home, with domestic portfolios tilted heavily toward home-country assets. Recent years have in fact seen a pronounced decline in home bias, with a record fraction of global saving going to cross-border investments. Indeed, in 2005 and 2006, the share of global saving invested abroad climbed past 50 percent for the first time. The trend toward greater cross-border investment has been world-wide, with the United States, other advanced economies, and emerging economies all investing a markedly higher fraction of saving abroad. Significantly, U.S. external investment as a share of saving has risen less dramatically than the share for other countries. Comparing the mid-1990s with the middle of the current decade, we see that U.S. outflows as a share of domestic saving have risen by roughly 20 percentage points; the increase abroad has been close to 35 percentage points. As a result, the United States now lags the rest of the world by a considerable margin in the share of national saving invested abroad. It is instructive to consider the smaller scale of outflows from the United States in light of the current account balance of payments accounting identity described earlier. In particular, had outflows from the United States risen in line with the global trend, the country would have required that much more inward investment to finance an unchanged sequence of current account deficits. In turn, more robust U.S. demand for foreign assets, and the consequent need to attract additional inflows, would have placed downward pressure on the dollar, leading to at least somewhat smaller deficits. This scenario illustrates a more general point: developments that lead to shifts in gross capital flows have important feedback effects on net flows.

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Book SynopsisThe explosion of new themes and working areas in social sciences in the aftermath of the Cold-War stimulated the ''cultural turn'' of the previous decades and strengthened the position of the notion of ''civilisation'' as a unit of analysis and locus of academic debate in the fields of history, philosophy, sociology, political science, and international relations. Given the fabricated and standardised nature of recent literature on political, economic and socio-cultural aspects of globalisation, it is crystal clear that historically and philosophically enlightened works written from the perspective of civilisational transformation will provide the much needed sophistication to conventional social science analyses trying to elucidate the organising principles of the global order. This novel collection represents a path-breaking work in the field of global/civilisational studies by constituting an interdisciplinary and theoretically-informed platform on which complex debates on the political, economic, socio-cultural, philosophical and ecological aspects of the global order could be conducted. The editors, Sadýk Ünay and Muzaffer þenel, managed to gather a truly original collection of articles from some of the leading authorities and promising academics on the theme of global orders with special reference to a civilisation transformation covering a wide spectrum in time and space from Antique Greece to the Islamic World, from Europe to the US and from East Asian history to current globalisations. Contributions rooted in the disciplines of history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science and global political economy are craftsmanly combined to give the reader a holistic vision towards the possibility of multiple civilisational experiments and global orders. This book which boldly endeavours to transcend narrow boundaries of conventional academic approaches and Western-centric prejudices in various branches of social sciences will be a must-read for students of globalisation, cultural studies and macro-history.

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Book SynopsisAmerican International Group, Inc. (AIG) (NYSE: AIG) is an American insurance corporation. According to the 2008 Forbes Global 2000 list, AIG was once the 18th-largest public company in the world. It was listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average from April 8, 2004 to September 22, 2008. AIG suffered from a liquidity crisis when its credit ratings were downgraded below "AA" levels in September 2008. The United States Federal Reserve Bank on September 16, 2008, created an $85 billion credit facility to enable the company to meet increased collateral obligations consequent to the credit rating downgrade, in exchange for the issuance of a stock warrant to the Federal Reserve Bank for 79.9% of the equity of AIG. The Federal Reserve Bank and the United States Treasury by May 2009 had increased the potential financial support to AIG, with the support of an investment of as much as $70 billion, a $60 billion credit line and $52.5 billion to buy mortgage-based assets owned or guaranteed by AIG, increasing the total amount available to as much as $182.5 billion. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

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Book SynopsisShadow banking refers to bank-like financial activities that are conducted outside the traditional commercial banking system, many of which are unregulated or lightly regulated. Many of the activities performed within the shadow banking system take funds from savers and investors and ultimately provide them to borrowers. Within this broad definition are investment banks, finance companies, money market funds, hedge funds, special purpose entities, and other vehicles that aggregate and hold financial assets. These entities are critical players in the markets for securitised products, structured products, commercial paper, asset-backed commercial paper, repurchase agreements, and derivatives. The activities of these firms financed substantial economic activity, albeit indirectly. This book examines the nature and scope of the shadowing banking system and its role in the financial crisis.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, the authors gather and present research from across the globe in the study of the political, economic and social issues of developing countries. Topics discussed include food security in Yemen; urban housing and social development in Nigeria; beef production in Southern Africa; NGOs partnering with universities to overcome evaluation challenges; colorectal cancer in relation to country development; social health protection and maternal health and the Millennium Development Goals; improving economic growth in South Africa; disparity in trauma burden between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries; energy system transition research for developing countries; and skills and business cycle in Uruguay.

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Book SynopsisThis book forecasts the world of 2030, which predictions estimate, will be radically transformed from our world today. By 2030, no country, whether the U.S., China, or any other large country, will be a hegemonic power. The empowerment of individuals and diffusion of power among states and from states to informal networks will have a dramatic impact, largely reversing the historic rise of the West since 1750, restoring Asia''s weight in the global economy, and ushering in a new era of "democratisation" at the international and domestic level. In addition to individual empowerment and the diffusion of state power, two other megatrends will shape our world out to 2030: demographic patterns, especially rapid ageing; and growing resource demands which, in the cases of food and water, might lead to scarcities. These trends, which are virtually certain, exist today, but during the next 1520 years will gain much greater momentum. Underpinning the megatrends are tectonic shifts (ie: critical changes to key features of our global environment that will affect how the world "works").

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Book SynopsisCareer and Technical Education (CTE), often referred to as vocational education, provides occupational and non-occupational preparation at the secondary, post-secondary, and adult education levels. CTE is an element of the nation''s workforce development system. As such, CTE plays a role in reducing unemployment and the associated economic and social ills. This book provides a primer on CTE to support congressional discussion of initiatives designed to rationalise the workforce development system.

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Book SynopsisThe number of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students has more than doubled since the 1980s and has recently grown significantly at North American universities; Chinese ESL students from the People''s Republic of China represent the single largest group of ESL students. These Chinese ESL students have generally received their K-12 education and many of them have received their undergraduate degrees in China. Research has started to show that they experience considerable challenges in their academic studies at North American universities, e.g., their unfamiliarity with North American culture, their inadequate English proficiency, their social and emotional challenges, their financial difficulties, etc. These challenges may have negative effects on their academic studies. However, given their generally high rate of success in academic studies and contributions to North American society, with the assistance of their North American professors these Chinese ESL students do develop effective coping strategies to meet these challenges. The purpose of this book is three-fold: a) to understand Chinese ESL students'' learning approaches, academic anxiety, confidence levels of English skills, and learning challenges and coping strategies; b) to explore the impact of various factors (e.g., cultural differences) on their academic learning; and c) to examine the effects of North American professors'' teaching and assessment practices as well as their social supports on Chinese ESL students'' academic learning at North American universities.

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Book SynopsisThis series addresses new developments, issues and U.S. relations with countries around the world. Topics discussed in this compilation include the crisis in Mali; current issues in Algeria; recent developments and U.S. relations with Malawi; Australia and the U.S. rebalancing to Asia strategy; current conditions and Congressional concerns relating to Haiti under President Martelly; background and U.S. relations with Jamaica; current issues and U.S. policy in Kosovo; and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

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Book SynopsisThe science and education talent and knowledge produced by academic research form crucial building blocks to innovation that improve the quality of life for our Nation''s citizens, create jobs and in some cases even new industries, and are vital to maintaining U.S. global leadership in science and education. The focus of this book is public research universities, which are subject to greater financial and legislative pressure than their private counterparts. Nevertheless, the health of the research university system and the overall higher education system relies on the strength of all of its component parts. This book highlights the importance of these universities to states and the Nation and describes the challenges posed by recent trends in student population growth and university revenue and costs.

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Book SynopsisU.S.-India engagement on shared security interests is a topic of interest to the U.S. Congress, where there is considerable support for a deepened U.S. partnership with the world''s largest democracy. Congressional advocacy of closer relations with India is generally bipartisan and widespread; House and Senate caucuses on India and Indian-Americans are the largest of their kind. Caucus leaders have encouraged the Obama Administration to work toward improving the compatibility of the U.S. and Indian defence acquisitions systems, as well as to seek potential opportunities for co-development or co-production of military weapons systems with India. A deepened strategic partnership with India will be critical to the promotion of core mutual national interests in the 21st century. This book reviews the major facets of U.S.-India security relations with a focus on military-to-military contracts, counter-terrorism and intelligence co-operation, and defence trade.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an overview of select programs relating to federal agricultural assistance. Topics discussed include the status and issues concerning the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP); technical assistance for agriculture conservation; emergency assistance for agricultural land rehabilitation; agricultural disaster assistance; the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP); and trade adjustment assistance for farmers.

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Book SynopsisGlobalisation is the phenomenon of improved integration of the world economy as evidenced by the growth of international trade and factor mobility. Globalisation involves primarily liberalisation of trade in goods and services, and a free movement of direct and portfolio capital. Nowadays, globalisation is distinguished in part because of the major role of information technology and cyberspace. Cyberspace includes a range of places connected to real space in many different ways. A communications network changes the character of existing space. Thus, changes in the ways that information is experienced and the ways that economic, political, and personal dealings are structured, change the nature of real space. There is a shift from international law to law and globalisation providing a new incentive for erasing the artificial boundary between public and private international law. Despite the fact that international financial institutions and MNEs are the engines of economic globalisation, powerful states remain the vital drivers. Global governance is defined as the amount of laws, norms, policies, and institutions that identify, constitute, and mediate trans-border relations between states, cultures, citizens, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, and the market. Corporate governance focuses wholly on protecting the interests of equity claimants in a company, expanding its focus to deal with the problems of "stakeholders" or non shareholder constituencies. New communication and circulation technologies together with the elimination of trade and investment barriers have shaped global markets with global competition for corporate control, commodities, services and capital. MNEs taking up a transnational strategy seek to achieve concurrently global effectiveness and local responsiveness with the assets and activities dispersed but specialised.

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Book SynopsisSociology is the systematic study of the taken-for-granted assumptions that people make about everyday life. This book explores a triumvirate of important concepts in sociology: power, trust and globalisation. These concepts and examples need to be studied so assumptions masquerading as "fact" can be debunked by critical sociological questioning. We explore domains such as politics and government, health and community care as well as global financial issues, which are all centrally relevant issues in modern Sociology.

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Book SynopsisParallel to the unprecedented growth of the economy in the past 30 years, China has experienced the fastest development of its education system in its history. Despite the remarkable development and achievement in many areas, China still faces challenges in redefining its education priorities, improving the quality of education systems and education practices, and achieving education equality across its diverse population and vast geography. A group of 38 leading and emerging scholars from mainland China, Hong Kong, the United States, and Canada provided comprehensive reviews or empirical data to address a variety of core issues and key challenges in many important areas of formal and informal education in China from historical, social, cultural and global perspectives. The authors come from various academic backgrounds including economics, education, history, law, mass media, policy study, psychology, public affair administration, social work, and sociology. The topics covered by the 22 chapters in this book include early childhood education, special education, rights of children with disabilities, music education, physical education, higher education, high education equity, non-state higher education, academic capitalism, higher vocational education, rural compulsory education, compulsory education for migrant children, instructional technology, distance learning, media literacy education, teacher professional development, Chinese language education, quality education, family education, moral education, and sex education.

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Book SynopsisThe malaise of today''s "Cultural Studies" is perhaps best summarized by Picasso (paraphrased) "success can lead to copying from oneself, and copying from oneself, and that is worse than copying from others". This book is both a response and an independent configuration of the dominant, current trend: that is "cultural studies" known as the Birmingham/U.S. School (B/USS). Contemporary Cultural Studies leapfrogs the Birmingham/U.S. School of "future self-clarification." The fundamental conceptual, mythological and philosophical problematics have been worked over the last 40-plus years in the United States in advance of the current self-clarificaion exercises. Surprisingly, the genesis of U.S. Contemporary Cultural Studies is in Continental philosophy, not unlike the genesis of the Birmingham/U.S. School. This book discusses some procedural questions and practical features relevant to theory and research practice in social science and humanities from the standpoint of phenomenology.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, the authors present topical research in the study of the policies, economic impacts and global perspectives of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Topics discussed include Chinese and Italian investment in Africa''s extractive industries; a case study in Mexico of productivity spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment; evidence from the EU at the regional level of FDI and economic growth; outward FDI to China and the parent firm''s ability to create value added per worker; Foreign Direct Investment on ASEAN''s income inequality revisited; global trends in R&D-intensive FDI; the impact of corruption on the timing and mode of entry by U.S. firms in China; the proliferation of Free Trade Agreements and their impact on FDI; Union structure and inward FDI; inward FDI performance and determinants of FDI regional disparity in China; trade, FDI, exchange rate, and the effect of corporate tax reduction policy; evidence from plant-level data of FDI and productivity spillovers; and regional FDI spillovers in the Swiss service/construction industry.

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Book SynopsisThis series addresses new developments, issues and U.S. relations with countries around the world. Topics discussed in this compilation include The United Kingdom and U.S.-UK Relations; U.S. security co-operation with New Zealand and U.S. rebalancing to Asia strategy; an overview and policy issues of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship; the political overview and economic conditions in Chile; the political, security, and socio-economic conditions and U.S. relations with Guatemala; background and U.S. policy issues with Moldova; and political developments and bilateral relations between the U.S. and Nepal.

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Book SynopsisActive and collaborative learning provide a powerful mechanism to enhance depth of learning, increase material retention, and get students involved with the material instead of passively listening to a lecture. Active learning is a learning style with students involved in the learning process as active partners: meaning they are "doing", "observing" and "communicating" instead of just "listening" as in the traditional (lecture-driven) learning style. In active learning, students are much more actively engaged in their own learning while educators take a more guiding role. Collaborative learning is a learning style in which a group of learners (two or more) study together in a collaborative environment. Collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetric roles. Active and collaborative learning approaches are thought to promote the processing of skills/knowledge at a much deeper level than passive and individual learning. This book covers a wide range of interesting topics related to active and collaborative learning. The first chapter covers the background and a comprehensive survey of active and collaborative learning. Chapters two, three, four, and five cover the use of active and collaborative learning in programming, web analysis, and social settings, respectively. Chapters six, seven, and eight cover the applications of active and collaborative learning in mobile and cloud computing related topics. The rest of the book (chapters nine, ten, and eleven) covers a wide range of the modern applications of active and collaborative learning in several medical and health related areas.

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Book SynopsisDuring the 1980''s, grade retention increased as school districts instituted policies that linked standardised test scores to student promotion and placement decisions. However, research has found grade retention does not improve student learning. Enforcement of promotional standards at every grade level is expected to ensure the competency of high school graduates and lower student dropout rates. Despite such belief, studies show "flunking" students are traumatic and increases student dropout. Researchers found a relationship between grade retention and high school dropout rates. Dropouts are five times more likely to have repeated a grade than high school graduates. In three studies involving 20,000 to 80,000 students, retained students were 20 to 30 percent more likely to dropout of school. Moreover, African American males with below average achievement had a 45% chance of dropping out of school; while retained African American males with identical achievement scores have a 75% chance of dropping out of school. While retention may serve as a "stick" for students to perform better; usually retained students frustratingly repeat the previous year''s instruction, and ultimately disengage from school. To address student grade retention, more funding is needed to support schools implement alternative programs to address students'' academic needs and decrease the pernicious practice of student retention. Despite such research, student grade retention continues as a common practice within our nation''s schools. However, student grade retention from the perspectives of parents have been hushed; and practical recommendations and programs to decrease student grade retention while increasing student achievement are still needed. In this book, the voices of parents and their children experiences are presented. Hearing their voices provides unique insight on action steps we (all educational stakeholders) can take to better educate all students. Additionally, innovative practical programs that work and could be replicated in schools are discussed. This book is a must read for administrators, educators, parents and related practitioners who seek "out of the box" ideas to better educate our students, particularly those in urban schools.

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Book SynopsisThe Treaty on the European Union provides for a Member State to leave the EU, either on the basis of a negotiated withdrawal agreement or without one. If the UK were to leave the EU following a referendum, it is likely that the Government would negotiate an agreement with the EU, which would probably contain transitional arrangements as well as provide for the UK''s long-term future relations with the EU. There is no precedent for such an agreement, but it would in all likelihood come at the end of complex and lengthy negotiations. The full impact of a UK withdrawal is impossible to predict, but from an assessment of the current EU role in a range of policy areas, it is possible to identify issues and estimate some of the impacts of removing the EU role in these areas. The implications would be greater in areas such as agriculture, trade and employment than they would in, say, education or culture. As to whether UK citizens would benefit from leaving the EU, this would depend on how the UK Government of the day filled the policy gaps left by withdrawal from the EU. In some areas, the environment, for example, where the UK is bound by other international agreements, much of the content of EU law would probably remain. In others, it might be expedient for the UK to retain the substance of EU law, or for the Government to remove EU obligations from UK statutes. Much would depend on whether the UK sought to remain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and therefore continue to have access to the single market, or preferred to go it alone and negotiate bilateral agreements with the EU.

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