Regionale studier

"A sweeping yet intimate portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society"--

The pastoral Somali people, with their rich heritage and unique way of life, offer a window into a world where the rhythms of nature and the bonds of community shape every aspect of life. From the birth of a child to the passage into adulthood, from marriage to the wisdom of old age, every stage of life is marked by deep-rooted traditions and practices. This book delves into these life-cycle events, uncovering the meanings, rituals, and customs that define the Somali pastoral experience.Beyond individual milestones, the household stands as the central unit of Somali pastoral society. It is within the walls of their homes that traditions are passed down, decisions are made, and the future of the community is shaped. This book explores the dynamics of these households, shedding light on the roles and relationships that bind them together.Throughout this exploration, we have been guided by a profound respect for the knowledge and insights of the Somali people themselves. Their stories, perspectives, and reflections are the heartbeat of this work, offering an authentic and nuanced understanding of a way of life that has endured through the ages.

This book explains the roles of the industrial location in vitalizing regional economies in various economic environments created due to the progress of globalization. Here, this book elucidates the impact of industrial location and locational factors on regional economies. It clarifies the effects on industrial location of regulations and corporate tax. And the book explains the regional economic influence of the employment and agglomeration that are factors influencing the location. It also focuses on some countries and examines the relationships between the industrial location and the vitalization of regional economy in each country. This analysis covers the automotive and high-tech industries in the northeastern region of China, the impact of urban systems on regional development in the Philippines, and firms in revitalization in the northern region of Sweden. And it reveals achievements and challenges in each region. Finally, the book clarifies that the level of achievement in regional development is related to the educational environment. It also suggests that the industrial composition of a region is influenced by the level of regional cooperation with other regions. The analyses in the book show that a region must select the industries that match its newly emerged regional characteristics for vitalization.

This book delves into the intricate dynamics between economic elites and the political party system in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, particularly during their democratization phases in the twentieth century. It introduces a novel framework for comprehending the diverse political strategies adopted by these countries¿ economic elites during this critical period. The central premise of this book is that the interplay between the cohesion of economic elites and the mobilization of popular sectors at specific historical junctures profoundly influences the nature of elite political involvement.While existing literature has extensively discussed the strategies employed by economic elites to safeguard their interests, this book takes a fresh approach by considering three primary configurations of relationships between economic elites and political parties. It explores cases where economic elites are the primary constituency of parties they have founded, as well as instances where upper-class interests are predominantly defended outside the party system through mechanisms such as the armed forces, pressure groups, and lobbying. Additionally, it examines scenarios where economic elites align themselves with parties boasting a polyclass constituency, exerting limited influence over these parties.This book goes beyond traditional analyses by proposing a theory that elucidates how the interaction between elite cohesion and popular sector mobilization determines the specific forms of elite political involvement. It also charts the historical sequences of this process, emphasizing the evolution of the causal relationship over time.To illustrate this theory, the book employs a comparative historical analysis, scrutinizing the three aforementioned cases to identify factors that account for the different forms of economic elite political participation. It discerns that the level of cohesion among economic elites and the degree of mobilization among popular sectorsare pivotal factors shaping elite-party relationships.

This book summarizes work being undertaken within the School Activates Resources-stitching the lost heritage of the suburbs (ScAR) project, which addressed cultural heritage in a broad sense, as a system of values identified by the populations and in constant evolution. This tangible and intangible heritage fuels the promotion of intergenerational and intercultural dialogue and represents an opportunity for resilient social and territorial development. The book ponders the experience gained and the points of view of the different disciplines involved, examines issues such as children and youth participation in civil life or education in cultural heritage and landscape, and presents real-world experiences of heritage education in everyday landscape in difficult contexts and/or concerning poorly recognized and valued cultural heritage.

This book presents selected papers from the 33rd Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, virtually held in Madrid (Spain) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The theoretical and empirical papers gathered here cover diverse areas of business, economics and finance in various geographic regions, including not only topics from HR, management, finance, marketing but also contributions on public economics, political economy and regional studies.

This monograph assesses the intersections between social tipping points (STP), a relatively understudied social-ecological concept, and various public policy concepts, such as governance, state capacity and resilience of the state and non-state actors, all within the context of the EU Eastern and Southern periphery. This unique approach is subsequently embodied in the newly created conceptual framework of how the STPs are governed and analyzed using three case studies. The goal is to examine how various state and non-state actors (transnational, private, and local) have managed to navigate the STPs triggered by migration, climate change, and geopolitics. The multi-level governance of STPs is studied within the context of the EU periphery, thus spatial and geographical determinants of the resilience are analyzed as well.

This book provides readers with an analysis of econometric methods using statistical information to examine actual aspects of Japan's regional economy. Beginning with ways of ascertaining the economy of a region's production factors, the book describes methods for creating new data using various regional statistical data that link regions within prefectures.The topics addressed here are some of the most pressing issues in Japan's regional economy. These include economic ripple effects due to social capital and public investment, economic evaluation of the environment for sustainable growth, the impacts of overtourism congestion phenomenon, and the measurement of the total fertility rate of female employees in industry.The book provides a way to comprehend the actual conditions of Japan's regions and the level of regional economic sectoral effects and regional externalities¿an analytical method to obtain the information required for policy making. Combining socially related fields on a wide range of issues in Japan¿s regional economy, the detailed studies are aimed especially at researchers and policymakers working on econometric analysis research based on economic theory.

This book investigates policies for the promotion of housing affordability in the rental sector of attractive cities in Europe. Affordability links the housing situation to the economic situation of households, referring to conditions of access to housing and to the role of housing in determining poverty or wealth. The book examines the current affordability crisis and frames it in the ongoing process of urban restructuring and devolution of welfare. From the perspective of the Foundational Economy, the book calls for a proactive and effective role of public administrations in making the rental sector an affordable and stable alternative to housing financialization and commodification. By intertwining theory construction and real-world data collected through case studies in Milan and Vienna, the book provides an original framework for the analysis of public policies that promote rental affordability in a multi-level setting. Through the analysis, it highlights critical nodes of thedifferent (housing, urban, and social) policy domains at stake in the promotion of rental affordability in attractive cities. The book proposes a shift from the currently dominant supply-side argument to an integrated, intersectoral and multi-scalar policy system for making cities more affordable.

Drawing on field-based data and experiences from the practice of democratic decentralization and local governance over the last three decades in Ghana, this book examines whether and how democratic decentralization and local governance reforms in developing countries have produced the anticipated development outcomes.In seventeen related contributions, the authors present four relevant focal themes, including conceptual and historical trajectories of decentralization and local governance; institutional choice, democratic representation, and poverty reduction; local governance, resource capacity, and service delivery; and non-state actors, local governance and sustainable development. The book blends perspectives of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers to provide a holistic analysis of linkages between decentralization, local governance, and sustainable development efforts, presenting a novel and useful guide for science, policy, and practice of bottom-up governance and development. It provides relevant lessons and experiences for scholars, policy-makers, and development practitioners in Africa in particular and developing countries in general.

This volume represents a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of family business and entrepreneurship issues in countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council.  It provides major theoretical and empirical evidence which depicts the current processes in each GCC country including problems, faced by family business owners and entrepreneurs, such as succession, financial constraints, and conflicts. The chapters offer recommendations to policy makers on how to improve the general business environment and encourage potential investors, researchers, academicians, and professionals to be more involved in the region. The book is an outcome of a long-lasting endeavor and includes contributions from highly reputed authors and experts from the region and abroad.

The dramatic shift of the Indian subcontinent, once highly integrated for a millennium until its Partition in 1947, into one of the world's least integrated regions, raises questions about this swift transformation. The formation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) by the newly partitioned states aimed at fostering collaboration. However, initial efforts proved futile, prompting a comparison with the successful dynamics of the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).Drawing on his experience in the Bangladesh foreign ministry and as a World Bank consultant, Ambassador Tariq Karim's book provides insights into South Asian regional cooperation. It traverses history, analyses cooperation models, examines various dimensions of collaboration, and envisions extending sub-regional cooperation to the broader Bay of Bengal region.Ambassador Karim's narrative highlights contrasts between SAARC's challenges and the achievements of the EU and ASEAN, emphasising key factors that differentiate successful regional initiatives. This book not only serves as a documentation of historical shifts but also envisages a future where the Indian subcontinent and its neighbouring regions embrace enhanced collaboration for mutual benefit.

The Routledge Handbook of Islam in Asia offers both new and established scholarship on Muslim societies and religious practices across Asia, from a variety of interdisciplinary angles, with chapters covering South, Central, East and Southeast Asia, as well as Africa-Asia connections.

This book gathers selected contributions in the field of civil and construction engineering, as presented by international researchers and engineers at the 3rd International Scientific Conference on Socio-Technical Construction and Civil Engineering (STCCE), held in Kazan, Russia on April 21-29 2022. The book covers a wide range of topics including building constructions and structures, bridges, roads and tunnels, building materials and products, energy efficiency and thermal protection of buildings, ventilation, air conditioning, gas supply and lighting in buildings, innovative and smart technologies in construction, transport system development. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

A History of the Modern Middle East examines the profound and often dramatic transformations of the region in the past two centuries, from the Ottoman and Egyptian reforms, through the challenge of Western imperialism, to the impact of US foreign policies.

This handbook is a fundamental contribution to the recent history and contemporary context of feminist, gender, and women's studies in a global perspective.

"Secret police are central actors in dictatorships, yet we know very little about these institutions. Exploring communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, Henry Thomson opens this black box for the first time. This book will appeal to anyone interested in how authoritarian regimes and their secret police forces work"--

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of environmental and construction engineering, as presented by international researchers at the XXV International Scientific Conference "e;Construction: The Formation of Living Environment"e;, held in Moscow, Russia on April 20-22, 2022. It covers highly diverse topics, including sustainable innovative development of the construction industry, building materials, reliability of buildings and constructions and safety in construction, modelling and mechanics of building structures, engineering and smart systems in construction, climate change and urban environment. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

Context plays an important role in entrepreneurship and this is increasingly being acknowledged both in research, practice, and policy considerations. Where, why, and how entrepreneurship occurs can be considered when studying the effects of context. This book focuses on the role of context in entrepreneurship by analyzing different factors, including locational, time-specific, and cultural variables and social conditions. Researchers of entrepreneurship will particularly benefit from the holistic, context-based perspective this book offers.